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Navratri (“nava” i.e. 9 + “ratri” i.e. nights) means “nine nights”. This ritual is observed twice a year, in spring and in autumn. During Navratri, Hindus undertake nine days of fasting and worshipping. The Divine Mother or Devi is worshipped by her own command for nine days and in different forms. This festival is celebrated with various rites and rituals as believed by the devotees and hence, the commencement of all the rituals makes it more auspicious. Here is a list of some popular rituals undertaken for Navratri. 

Ritual 1 – Worshipping the 9 forms of Goddess Durga

It is believed that Goddess Durga has 9 forms. All these nine manifestations of the goddess are worshipped during the Navratri and each manifestation has its own significance. Each day of Navratri is dedicated to one goddess each and the devotees worship accordingly. These 9 forms of the goddess are as follows-

1. Shailputri Mata
2. Brahmacharini Mata
3. Chandraghanta Mata
4. Kushmanda Mata
5. Skanda Mata
6. Katyayani Mata
7. Kalratri Mata
8. Mahagauri Mata
9. Siddhatri Mata

Ritual 2 – Ghatsthapana

During this religious festival, instalment of a pot in one’s pooja room is meant to be auspicious. This installation of a pot is termed as “Ghatsthapana”. This pot symbolises the universe and is filled with a mixture of seven kinds of grains and covered with coconut.

Ritual 3 – Lightening of Akhand Jyoti

As the name suggests “Akhand” means uninterrupted and “Jyoti” means light. During this festival, a lamp is lit for nine days continuously and taken care so that it doesn’t go off. Burning of it for all nine days non-stop is said to put an end to negative energies and make the devotees aware of their consciousness. It is also believed that this Akhand Jyoti is the medium through which one worships “Adi Shakti” i.e. Goddess Durga.

Ritual 4 – Sowing of Barley

In a pot of sand or copper, barley seeds are sown. Barley is the symbol of first fruit and signifies growth, affluence and abundance. Hence, it is worshipped as well as taken care of all nine days. It is believed that the length of the barley shoots determines the quantum of income and prosperity that a family will have.

Ritual 5 – Offerings to Goddess Durga

Different kinds of offerings are made to Goddess during 9 days of Navratri as a token of thanksgiving from the devotees for listening to their prayers and keeping them away from ill happenings. The offerings are in the form of fruits, food, clothes, jewellery, etc.

Ritual 6 – Enchanting of Durga Sapshatti Paath

Reciting of the Durga Sapshatti Paath during Navratri is considered to be extremely auspicious. If not completely one can choose to recite particular Adhyayas as each adhyaya has its own significance. Enchanting the same sanctions the devotee with peace, tranquillity, wealth and prosperity in life.

Ritual 7 – 9 Colours for 9 Days

All the nine days of Navratri have a colour in their name. All these colours hold certain significance and devotees prefer wearing those nine colours accordingly or as per the day. Those nine colours are as follows – Green, Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Indigo, Violet, Pink and clothes with hues of golden.

Ritual 8 – Singing and Dancing

Singing and dancing during Navratri is now a part of festivity and fun and also a reason to dress up and catch up with your friends. But generations back it was believed and is still believed that singing and dancing in front of the idols of Goddess is auspicious and brings good luck. When goddess observes you to be happy and praising her in this form bestows you with more joy and happiness in life.

Ritual 9 – Kanya Bhoj

In Hindu Religion girls from the age group of 1-12 are termed to be as the little goddesses. Hence, on the ninth day, small girls are called over to various people’s houses and then first worshipped and later served with food. Further, they are offered with sweet beetle leaves, chunari, gifts, etc as we offer the goddesses.

Follow all these rituals and your Navratri will be all the more fun, perfect and filled with happiness and prosperity.

According to Hindu mythology, the demons have the same status as humans and Gods. Gods, demons, and humans are considered as the children of Brahma who is the creator of the Universe. The only difference between them is the way of thinking and understanding the teachings of the scholars in a different way. Some of the demons were considered as strong and intelligent while others were weak and stupid. 

List of Top 10 Hindu Demons

1. Ravana

Ravana was a powerful king of demons with twenty hands and ten heads. He was considered as the most dreadful creature of the universe who can even change the planetary alignments. Ravana was one of the very intellectual demons who mastered all the holy scripts of Hindu mythology. He was killed by Rama as Ravana abducted Rama’s wife Sita to marry her. When Lord Rama killed Ravana, he was more than 12,00,000 years old.

Ravana was also the first astrologer of the whole world with immense knowledge of Spirituality, Warfare, Arts, Science, and Music. It is also believed that once he made Veena (classical music instrument) and tied his own intestine as strings to praise the Lord. He has the power to clone anyone and had 1 lakh sons out of which 99998 songs were cloned by him. Ravana was also never a teenager, when he was 8 years old his mother convinced his father to grow Ravana as an adult through a technique in which his father had expertise.

2. Putana 

Lord Krishna appeared as a Supreme personality on earth to kill all the demons and protect all his devotees. Putna was the demoness who knew the art of killing infants through black magic. Putna dressed herself as a beautiful girl and entered the infant Krishna’s house to kill him.

All the women in the village thought that the beautiful girl had come to meet baby Krishna. When Putna entered the room, she saw Krishna lying on the small bed and took him to her lap. The wicked demoness has smeared poison on her breasts and pushed her nipple within his mouth. While she breastfed him, infant Krishna sucked the life out of her. She died of screaming and her body extended up to 12 miles which smashed all the trees and houses.

3. Mahabali 

Mahabali was one of the very generous demon kings and everybody was very happy in his kingdom. He was a great worshipper of the Lord and wanted people to be happy in his kingdom.

Once Vamana came to his kingdom and asked for a piece of land that could be covered by his footsteps. Lord Vishnu has disguised himself as Vamana and when Mahabali promised to do so, Vamana increased his size. His footsteps covered the entire world and hence Mahabali asked Vamana to put his third step on his forehead and Mahabali eventually died. This day is celebrated as Onam in many parts of the world.

4. Shurpanakha 

Shurpanakha was a wicked demoness and was the sister of the demon king Ravana. She was very ugly and married to Dushtabudhi. Dushtabudhi was a very greedy person and wanted Ravana’s kingdom. Finally, he was killed by Ravana and windowed Surpanakha stayed with her brother Ravana.

Some years later she saw Rama and Lakshman in the forest and wanted to marry them. But both denied the proposal and she really got very angry. She even tried to attack Sita who was the sister in law of Lakshman, Lakshman got very angry and chopped her nose. There was an epic battle fought between them and Ram eventually won the battle. After few years Surpanakha died but the cause of her death is still unknown.

5. Tarakasura 

Tarakasura was an evil king who was a very powerful demon who defeated all his challengers and employed them as his servants. He praised the creator and obtained my boons. Tarakasura killed all the kings and innocent people.

According to his boon, he can only be defeated by Shiva’s son and Shiva had no child. Eventually, Shiva married Parvati and was blessed with a son Kartikeya. Kartikeya fought with Tarakasura and killed him and also killed both his brothers. Kartikeya is also known as Murugan and is worshipped in many parts of the world.

6. Kumbhakarna 

Kumbhakarna was a sleeping giant who could sleep constantly for six months. He had an enormous body size who could even eat the whole world. He was also a great philosopher and was never interested in committing any sin. Waking Kumbhakarna was considered as a tremendous task and no one dared to go near him.

His brother Ravana who was a powerful demon had kidnapped Ram’s wife to marry her. To woke him up for the war, one thousand elephants walked over him and finally Kumbhakarna was awake for the battle. He knew that his brother was wrong but fought for his brother. He even tried to convince Ravana that what he was doing was wrong. He destroyed the army in the battle but was finally killed by Ram.

7. Narakasura 

Narakasura was a powerful demon who ruled Pradyoshapuram and even tortured the people of his kingdom. He kidnapped 16000 women and took pleasure in torturing them. He mercilessly killed sages and innocent people, unable to bear this torture, people approached Krishna.

Krishna wowed to fight for the people. Narakasura was cursed that only a woman can kill him. Hence Krishna along with his wife fought the battle and Krishna’s wife killed him in the battle. Naraka Chaturdashi is celebrated amongst the people from different parts of the world even today.

8. Raktabija 

Raktabija was a demon with great strength and also had a very strange boon. According to his boon, whenever a drop of his blood fell on the ground then a duplicate Raktabija would be born. So it was very difficult to defeat him, no one ever dared to challenge him. Also, his power was increased to a thousand times whenever a drop of his blood fell on the ground. But Raktabija was challenged by Durga.

During the battle, his blood spilled everywhere and thousands of Raktabija were born. Finally, Kali Mata pierced the demon Raktabija and drank the flowing blood with her tongue. She drank every drop of blood before the army of Raktabija emerged.

9. Hiranyakashipu 

Hiranyakashipu was the demon king who was very egoistic and wanted all the people to praise and worship him like the almighty God. The demon king thought that he was the creator of the universe and there was no supreme power to control him. The whole kingdom worships him but his own son refused to worship his father.

Hiranyakashipu even tried to kill his son but all his efforts failed. So he asked his sister Holika to set his own son on fire. But again his son came out of the fire unharmed. Hiranyakashipu was killed by Lord Narsingh and thus the evil got defeated. Hiranyakashipu who symbolized immortality and hatred came to an end and his son was the symbol of strong assurance and believer of God.

10. Mahishasura 

Mahishasura was a king who inherited the genes of both a demon and a buffalo. His father was the king of demons who were attracted to the beauty of a buffalo and eventually married her. They were blessed with a boy and named him Mahishasura (Mahisha means buffalo and Asura means a demon in Hindi). He was given a boon by Lord Brahma that no man on this planet could kill him, he can only be killed by a woman.

Mahishasura was very powerful and was confident that he is immortal. He thought that it is impossible for a woman to kill a man with so much strength. Due to this he started a war with the people and defeated them. Durga led a battle against him in order to stop Mahishasura. He met his death at the hands of a woman that fulfilled the prophecy.

Horanadu Temple Timings goes on from 6:30 am in the morning to 9:30 pm in the evening with breaks in between. Find out exact timings now.

Here are the Horanadu Annapoorneshwari Temple timings:

Rituals	Timings
Morning Darshan	6:30 am to 9:00 am
Afternoon Darshan	11:00 am to 2:00 pm
Evening Darshan	7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Annadanam	12:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Maha Mangalarti	9:00 am to 9:30 am

• The dress code is that male devotees have to remove their shirts and vests before entering the Horanadu Annapoorneshwari Temple complex. Prefer to wear a towel or shawl that covers their shoulders. There is no particular dress code for women but we recommend everyone to wear decent apparel.
• The Horanadu Annapoorneshwari Temple provides Annadanam to the pilgrims every day in the afternoon and the evening where devotees can eat. The meal is vegetarian with a desert too. Besides this, a few small hotels are present  outside the Temple Complex that one can visit for more food options.
• If one wishes to explore Horanadu along with visiting the temple, the best time to visit is during winters. This is because the cool atmosphere allows one to visit more places without the scorching heat of the summers.