ಕೇದಾರ ನವಮಿ | Kedara Navami

Kedara Navami is the ninth tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada, decided by the tithi running at sunrise. It is not in itself a large day. Its importance is that it is a starting line: households that keep the Kedara Gauri Vrata begin it here, and the vrata runs for twenty one days and is completed at Deepavali.

What the vrata is

The vrata is addressed to Shiva as Kedareshwara, the form worshipped at Kedarnath, together with Gauri. The story behind it is the one that produced the Ardhanarishwara form. Gauri, refused her place beside Shiva, performed this vrata with its twenty one days, its twenty one knots and its twenty one of everything, and at its end was given not a boon beside him but half of his body.

The number twenty one governs the whole observance. A thread of twenty one knots is worshipped and tied on the wrist, and it is worn until the vrata is completed. Twenty one durva, twenty one flowers, twenty one leaves, twenty one lamps, twenty one of whatever the family offers. On the concluding day the thread of the previous year is taken off and the new one tied, the puja is done in full, and a dana is given.

It is kept by both men and women, which distinguishes it from the Gauri vrata of the tritiya. In Karnataka it is strongest in the old Mysore and southern districts, and it is widely kept in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as Kedareshwara Vrata.

Where the twenty one days begin

Households do not agree on this, and a reader comparing almanacs will meet both answers. Anudina panchanga marks the navami of Bhadrapada, the day this page is about. Those who fix the observance by its ending instead, counting twenty one days back from the Deepavali amavasya, arrive at the navami of the following month, Ashwayuja, which is the Maha Navami of Dasara, and several almanacs print Kedara Gauri Vrata against that day for exactly that reason. Both traditions exist and both call the starting day a navami. If your family keeps the vrata, the day to follow is the one the family has always used; the concluding day at Deepavali is the same in either case.

Which navami this is not

The word navami attaches to several unrelated days and the confusion is common enough to be worth naming. This is not Maha Navami, the ninth of Ashwayuja shukla paksha, the Dasara day of Ayudha Puja. It is not Rama Navami, the ninth of Chaitra shukla paksha. It is not a Durga observance of any kind. It belongs to Shiva and Gauri, it falls in Bhadrapada, and its only connection to Dasara is the accident that one reckoning of its starting day lands on Maha Navami.