The nine nights of Navratri are celebrated across the length and breadth of India - each region bringing its own language, music, dance form and devotional flavour. What unites them all is the goddess at the centre and the devotion in the heart.
Garba & Dandiya Raas
The home of Garba - the largest and most elaborate Navratri celebrations in the world happen in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and across Gujarat. The Vadodara Garba is particularly famous - a single venue can have 50,000+ dancers moving in concentric circles around a central Garbo. The nine-night colour tradition, the chaniya choli, and the Jay Adhyashakti aarti opening are all quintessentially Gujarati.
Dhunuchi Naach
Bengal's Navratri is Durga Puja - and its distinctive devotional dance is the Dhunuchi Naach, performed with a large clay incense burner (dhunuchi) filled with burning coconut husks and camphor. Dancers balance the smoking burner in their hands or even mouths while dancing before the goddess. The smoke is an offering; the dance is an act of ecstatic devotion.
Jaago Ceremony
In Punjab and Haryana, Navratri nights feature the Jaago (literally "wake up!") - a night procession in which women carry a decorated pot with a lamp on their head and move through the streets singing devotional songs, waking the neighbourhood to join in worship. The Jaago is accompanied by dhol, and neighbours come out of their homes to join the procession as it passes.
Kullu Dussehra Procession
Kullu's Dussehra - held at the end of Navratri - is one of the largest and most spectacular folk festivals in Asia. Hundreds of local deities (devatas) are brought out of their temples on decorated palanquins (raths) and carried in procession to the Dhalpur maidan. Local folk dances including the Nati - a graceful, slow-stepping circle dance of the hills - are performed for days.
Bhondla / Hadga
Bhondla (also called Hadga in some regions) is Maharashtra's traditional Navratri women's dance - very similar in spirit to Garba. Women form circles around a picture of the goddess or an earthen lamp and sing traditional songs called Bhondla songs, which often narrate folk stories and seasonal observations. It is particularly popular in rural Maharashtra.
Bommai Kolu / Golu
South India celebrates Navratri through the Golu (or Bommai Kolu) - an elaborate display of figurines and dolls arranged on stepped platforms in homes. Each home becomes a small museum of mythological characters. Women visit each other's homes, exchange gifts and sing traditional songs (Kummi and Kolattam dances). The Kolattam - a stick dance very similar to Dandiya - is performed by women at Golu gatherings.
Mysore Dasara Procession
Mysore's Dasara - ending Navratri - is one of the grandest royal festivals in India, dating back to the Vijayanagara Empire. The Mysore Palace is illuminated with 100,000 lights; Maa Chamundeshwari is carried in a golden howdah atop an elephant in a grand procession. Folk dance troupes perform Veeragase (a vigorous warrior dance dedicated to Shiva) alongside the procession.
Bastar Dussehra
The Bastar Dussehra is the world's longest Dussehra celebration - spanning 75 days, beginning before Navratri and ending after Diwali. It centres on the tribal goddess Danteshwari Mata and involves dozens of tribal communities performing their traditional dances, including the Karma and Sua dances, in elaborate processions and gatherings at the Bastar palace.
One Goddess, A Hundred Voices
From the snow-capped Himalayas to the beaches of Tamil Nadu, from the deserts of Rajasthan to the rainforests of Bengal - the nine nights of Navratri are observed in every corner of India. The forms are different - the language, the dance, the music, the dress - but the devotion is one. Every tradition, in its own way, circles the same flame at the centre: the goddess who sustains the universe.
भारत में नवरात्रि - एक देवी, अनेक परम्पराएँ
नवरात्रि पूरे भारत में मनाई जाती है - हर प्रदेश की अपनी विशेष परम्परा है। गुजरात में गरबा-डांडिया, बंगाल में धुनूची नाच, पंजाब में जागो, हिमाचल में नाटी, महाराष्ट्र में भोंडला, तमिलनाडु में गोलू - ये सब अलग-अलग रूप हैं एक ही देवी की उपासना के।
मैसूर का दशहरा, बस्तर का 75 दिन का दशहरा, मैसूर के महल की 1 लाख बल्बों की रोशनी - नवरात्रि और दशहरे की यह विविधता ही भारत की सांस्कृतिक एकता का प्रमाण है।