Whose goddess is it, anyway?

Structured as a collection of 15 essays that look at Navaratri through the ages and across the social spectrum, it traces the emergence of the festival in early Sanskrit texts

Nine Nights Of The Goddess: The Navaratri Festival in South Asia

Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen and 

Hillary Rodrigues (Editors)

Aleph

Rs 799, 374 pages

The age-old annual autumnal worship of the Devi (Durga, Amba and other forms) has grown from strength to strength and in recent years, even turned into a colour-coordinated celebration of ethnic wear in workplaces, housing societies, puja pandals and other public spaces with each of the nine days of the festival assigned a unique and auspicious colour. 

The Navaratra/Navaratri festival is riding the highs of a popularity wave. And while such forms of celebration and worship are far removed from