History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.721

v6.c81.721

There are varying views about the word 'navarātra'. Some hold that navarātra means 'nine days and nights'; it signifies only the time for a vrata (i. e. it is a guṇavidhi), not the name of a rite (*karma*), while others contend that navarātra is the name of a rite or vrata, which may last for eight days (if there is *tithikṣaya*) or ten days (if there is vṛddhi of a tithi from the first tithi to the 9th). The first view is held by works like the Kālatattvavivecana (pp. 270-272), while the 2nd is held by the Nirṇayasindhu⁴⁶¹ (p. 165), the Puruṣārthacintāmaṇi (p. 61) and others. As the discussion is scholastic and hardly of any practical importance it is passed over here.