Jagaddhatri Puja 2026 Date
Jagaddhatri Puja 2026 is on Wednesday, 18 November 2026, on Navami tithi.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Jagaddhatri Puja page.
About Jagaddhatri Puja
Held on Shukla Navami of Kartika, a month after Durga Puja, this Bengali festival began in 18th-century Krishnanagar when King Krishnachandra Roy worshipped the goddess as Jagaddhatri to atone for missing the autumn Durga Puja rites. The deity rides a lion whose paw pins Karindrasura — a demon in elephant form, standing for human pride.
The Karindrasura story is what sets this puja apart. In one telling, Indra's white elephant Airavata was cursed and turned into the demon Karindrasura. Drunk on his own strength, he tried to seize Ganga by force. She prayed to Adi Shakti, who appeared as Jagaddhatri and killed him — earning the title Karindrasura-Nishudini, slayer of Karindrasura. Once defeated, Airavata was freed from the curse. Tantric texts like the Shakti Sangama Tantra and Bhavishya Purana describe this form as the triumph of sattva (clarity) over tamas (inertia and ego). Sri Ramakrishna treated her worship as a cleansing of inner pride. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee gave the image a political afterlife in Anandamath (1882), where Jagaddhatri stands for India's lost glory — one of three faces of Bharat Mata.
