ದುರ್ಗಾ ಷಷ್ಠಿ, ಬೋಧನ | Durga Shashthi, Bodhon

Durga Shashthi is the first of the main days of Durga Puja as Bengal keeps it. It is the sixth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashwayuja, and its evening rite is Bodhon, the awakening of the goddess, from which the worship of the next four days follows. It is kept in West Bengal and Bangladesh, in Assam, Tripura and Odisha, and wherever Bengali families have settled. In the nine-day Navaratri of the rest of India the same tithi is simply the sixth day.

The untimely awakening

The gods are held to sleep through the autumn, so a worship of the goddess in Ashwayuja calls her out of her season. That is why the rite is called akal bodhon, the untimely awakening. Bengal’s spring worship of Durga in Chaitra, Basanti Puja, is the one that keeps to her season.

The story that explains the autumn worship comes from the Bengali Ramayana of Krittivasa, composed in the fifteenth century. Before his last battle with Ravana, Rama worships Durga with one hundred and eight lotuses. One is missing when he comes to offer them, and he is about to offer one of his own eyes in its place when the goddess appears, says she had hidden the flower to test him, and blesses him. Most other Ramayanas have Rama pray to Surya before that battle; the worship of Durga is the Bengali telling.

The rites of the day

Drik Panchang sets out the day in four parts. Kalparambha is done in the morning: a pot filled with water is installed, the goddess is worshipped, and the sankalpa is taken for the three days to come. Bodhon follows in the evening, at the foot of a bel (bilva) tree, where a water-filled kalash is set and the goddess is awakened. Adhivas installs her in the bel after she has been invoked, and Amantran invites her to accept the Navapatrika worship the next morning. In pandals the face of the image, kept covered until now, is unveiled on this evening.

The bel rite is properly done in the evening while Shashthi is running. When Shashthi has ended before the evening of the day it holds at sunrise, almanacs move the Bilva Nimantran to the evening before. Drik Panchang notes that most people perform these rites on the Shashthi day itself whether or not the tithi lasts into the evening.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina gives Durga Shashthi on the day on which the Shashthi of Ashwayuja shukla paksha is running at sunrise. When Shashthi is long enough to be running at two sunrises, the app takes the later day, the one on which Shashthi passes into Saptami. The nirnaya texts count Shashthi and Saptami among the pairs of tithis that are best joined, and the later day keeps the two together.

The date is worked out for the reader’s own place, and in some years that matters. In 2026 Shashthi is running at sunrise on both 16 and 17 October at Kolkata, so Anudina gives 17 October there, which is the day Drik Panchang’s Kolkata calendar gives for Bodhon, with the Bilva Nimantran on the evening of the 16th. Farther west and south, at Udupi for instance, Shashthi has ended before sunrise on the 17th, and the app gives 16 October. Lists made for the whole of India therefore often print the 16th.

The day is a Bengal observance. Anudina shows it under the North Indian custom, which lists the Bengal days, and under the South Indian custom only when “Show festivals of other regions too” is turned on.

The days that follow

Bodhon opens the sequence. The Navapatrika is bathed and the goddess installed on Maha Saptami, Durgashtami carries the Sandhi Puja, and the worship closes on Mahanavami and Vijayadashami. The fortnight itself opens with Navaratri.