Jagaddhatri Puja

What is Jagaddhatri Puja?

Jagaddhatri Puja is kept mainly in Bengal, where Mother Durga is worshipped in different forms at different times of the year. Jagaddhatri is one of her many names. In 2026 the festival falls on Wednesday, 18 November.

Significance

Durga has hundreds of names, each connected with one of her pastimes. She is called Durga because she killed the demon Durg, and she is also known as Kali and Jagaddhatri. The Brahma-samhita, in which Lord Brahma offers his prayers, explains who she is: Maya, the Lord's external potency, is worshipped by people as Durga, the power that creates, preserves and destroys this material world.

Durga does not act on her own, and Vaishnavas keep this festival with that understanding. Lord Brahma prays to Lord Govinda, Krishna Himself:

I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.

Brahma-samhita 5.44

How to observe it

Devotees use the day to remember that the whole material world runs by the Lord's arrangement. They chant the holy names of Krishna with extra attention and read or hear a little from the Bhagavad-gita or the Srimad-Bhagavatam. With Utthana Ekadashi coming on 21 November, it is also a good day to prepare for that fast.

This holy day falls in Kartik, the month of Lord Damodara, when devotees offer Him a lamp each evening and sing Damodarashtakam. Read about Kartik (Damodara) Month, and offer your own lamp from wherever you are through our Kartik Deep Daan Seva.