Varanasi Dons a Festive Look in the Navratras

Navratri or Navratra is an important festival that is celebrated by the Hindus in Varanasi with great fervour and devotion. The period of nine days(hence the name 'navratra') is marked by fasting by the people especially the women folk and visits to the temples of goddess Shakti or Durga in the city of Varanasi. The fasting during the Navratri or the 'nine nights' is to propitiate the mother goddess Shakti as she is endowed with the power to grant any wish and to remove the obstacles from the road to success. Most of the Hindus abstain from eating non-vegetarian food, drinking liquor, indulging in sexual intercourse during this period. Some believers continue to fast over the entire nine days period surviving only on fruits and other items that are considered 'satvik' or pure.

In Varanasi, devotees throng to the temples of the many avatars of the mother goddess Shakti during the entire nine days period. The Durga Temple at Durgakund is considered to be the oldest of the Shakti temples in the city and is highly renowned and revered. Queues of devotees extending for more than a mile can be seen at the temple on the first and the last day of the Navratri festival.

Vindhyachal, a temple of the goddess shakti in the nearby district of Mirzapur is around 75 kms from Varanasi.It is a 'Shakti Peeth' - one the most revered and sacred spots of worship devoted to the mother goddess Shakti, who is believed to have chosen to stay at the spot after killing the demon king - Mahisashura. The temple is visited by millions of devotees from around the country during the navratri festival. Vindhyanchal is an important pilgrimage center and is also known as Vindhyavasini Devi. The other two temples at Vindhyanchal, the Ashtabhuja temple and the Kali Khoh temple are situated closeby and they form the 'sacred triangulation' or the 'Trikon Parikrama' which means that the devotees visit each of these three temples to complete a triangular journey on foot.

For the nine days of Navratri, Varanasi reverberates with devotional songs dedicated to the mother goddess Durga and the city dons a festive look as the end of the navratri period draws near. On the eight or the ninth day of the navratri festival in Varanasi, large fairs are held close to some of the Shakti tamples and families throng to these fairs.Virtually, the entire Varanasi city congregates at these fairs which come alive the hundred of small shops, hawkers selling a variety of popular merchandise and then of course, there are the joy rides and toy trains for the kids.

"Jai Mata Di' (meaning 'Praise be to the Mother goddess') reverberates in the air in Varanasi and the atmosphere radiates with the collective devotion of the people of Varanasi.
Jai Mata Di!