3 October 2024
Rajasthan Regional holiday | Thursday |
Ghatasthapana is the most important ritual of the nine-day festival of Navratri in India. Navratri is celebrated four times a year in India with great enthusiasm and vigour, the second Navratri falling in the months of September-October also witnesses Durga Puja, an important festival of Bengalis and eastern India. This Navratri is called Shardiya Navratri as it occurs during Sharad or the autumn season. Shardiya Navratri is the most important of the four Navratris in a year observed by Hindu devotees. The first day of Navratri is known as Pratipada. Ahead of the day most Hindus who observe Navratri, clean their houses and decorate it with flowers and rangoli.
The most important ritual on Pratipada is Ghatasthapana or the Kalash Sthapana. This can be described as the seat where the idol Goddess Durga is welcomed during Durga Puja or Navratri. The Kalash or pitcher stays for nine days, and on Vijaya Dashami, it is immersed with the Durga idol in a water body. According to scriptures, Ghatasthapana is described as the invocation of Godess Durga.
The rituals of Ghatasthapana include sowing seven kinds of grains in wet earth in the clay pot. The Kalash is kept on this clay pot and a piece of red thread is tied around the neck of the Kalash and filled with water. The betel nut, flowers, durba and the coin are put in the Kalash along with Mango leaves and a coconut is placed on Mango leaves in the Kalash, After these rituals, goddess Durga is welcomed into homes and big pandals for nine days. On the tenth day, the Kalash, the clay pot along with the idol of Durga is immersed in a water body.