History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.624

v6.c81.624

If a person is unable to celebrate the festival³⁹² for nine days, he should do so for three days beginning from the 7th tithi of Āśvina-śukla In fact, the Tithitattva³⁹³ puts forward several alternative periods for Durgāpūjā as follows: (1) from the 9th tithi of the preceding dark half of Pūrṇimānta Āśvina to the 9th tithi of Āśvina-śukla; (2) from the first tithi of Āśvina śukla to 9th; (3) from the 6th to the 9th; (4) from the 7th to the 9th; (5) from the Mahāṣṭamī to the 9th, (6) only on the Mahāṣṭamī; (7) only on the Mahānavamī. Most of these alternatives find support in the Kālikā and other Purāṇas There is a voluminous literature on Durgotsava. Every digest on vratas, tithis and pūjā devotes considerable space to this subject. Moreover, there are special treatises on Durgotsava or Navarātra, such as the Durgotsavaviveka of Śūlapāni, the Durgāpūjā-prayogatattva (published by the Sanskrit Sāhity Parishad, 1924) of which the Durgārcanapaddhati of Raghunandana (published by Jivananda, vol. II) is a part, Durgābhaktitaraṅgiṇī of Vidyāpati,³⁹⁴ the Navarātra-pradīpa of Vināyaka *alias* Nanda-paṇḍita, the Durgotsavapaddhati by Udayasiṁha (2nd half of 15th century A. D.).³⁹⁵ Besides these, the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa (chapters 78–90 in Veṅk. Press ed. and 81–93 in Banerji's) contains what is called Devīmāhātmya³⁹⁶ (or Saptaśatī or Caṇḍī) in which are described the appearance of Devī from the accumulated *tejas* of Viṣṇu, Śaṅkara, Agni and other gods, her getting different weapons from the several gods such as the trident from Śiva, discus from Viṣṇu, Vajra from Indra, her victory over and slaughter of the great demon Mahiṣāsura, and of the demons Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa, Śumbha and Niśumbha The Kālikāpurāṇa, the Bṛhan-nandikeśvara-purāṇa³⁹⁷ and the Devīpurāṇa also devote considerable space to Durgā and her pūjā I have used, though not much, the English work on Durgā-pūjā by Pratapachandra Ghosh published so far back as 1871. My endeavour will be to give as briefly as possible an account of all the salient features of this great religious worship and festival from the Sanskrit texts themselves.