Navratri 2026 runs from Sunday 11 October to Tuesday 20 October, with Ghatasthapana on the first morning, Durga Ashtami on 18 October, Maha Navami on 19 October and Vijayadashami on 20 October. Nine nights, one lamp, and the same question in most households on the first evening: which aarti do we actually sing, and in what order?
This is a practical guide to that — what gets sung, when, and why the sequence is the way it is.
The order of an evening aarti during Navratri
A home puja during Navratri usually moves through three stages, and the aartis follow them.
- The deity-specific aarti. During Navratri this is the Devi aarti — Jai Ambe Gauri. It is sung while the lamp is circled in front of the goddess.
- The universal closing aarti. Om Jai Jagdish Hare follows, whichever deity the puja was for. It names god only by title — Jagdish, Parabrahma, Parameshwar — so it closes any ceremony without contradiction.
- The final surrender verses. In Maharashtrian homes the sequence ends with Ghalin Lotangan, the Sanskrit shlokas of surrender followed by the mahamantra.
Households vary, and the variation is not a mistake. Some sing the Devi aarti twice, morning and evening. Some add a Ganesh aarti first, because Ganesha is invoked before any undertaking. Some skip step three entirely.
Why Jai Ambe Gauri belongs to these nine nights specifically
Most aartis are portraits. They describe a crown, a mount, a garland. Jai Ambe Gauri does that for four verses — vermilion in the parting of her hair, red cloth, the lion, a pearl at the tip of her nose — and then it does something else.
Verses five and six stop describing and start listing. Shumbha and Nishumbha, torn apart. Mahishasura, killed. Dhumralochana. Chanda and Munda. Raktabija. Madhu and Kaitabha.
That is the Devi Mahatmya in compressed form: the same victories the nine nights of Navratri exist to retell. A family singing this aarti each evening is walking the whole cycle in four minutes. It is why the aarti fits the festival rather than merely being available during it.
The refrain is worth noticing too. It calls her Gauri and Shyama in one breath — the fair one and the dark one. Devi worship holds both together instead of choosing between them. The mother who grants and the one who destroys are not two different gods.
The nine nights, and what changes each day
The broad shape most households follow:
- Days 1–3 (11–13 Oct) — the goddess as Durga, the force that removes obstacles and fear.
- Days 4–6 (14–16 Oct) — the goddess as Lakshmi, invoked for sustenance and steadiness.
- Days 7–9 (17–19 Oct) — the goddess as Saraswati, invoked for knowledge and skill.
- Day 10 (20 Oct), Vijayadashami — the victory itself.
The aarti does not change across the nine nights; the intention behind it does. Many families also mark Ashtami and Navami with kanya pujan, and in eastern India the Durga Puja calendar overlays its own rhythm — Sashthi through Dashami — on the same days.
Because the middle three days belong to Lakshmi, some households sing Om Jai Lakshmi Mata on those evenings and return to the Devi aarti afterwards. That aarti comes back in a month for Diwali, on 8 November.
Getting the words right
Two practical notes, because both come up every year.
Variants are normal. Households sing "bhairav" where the printed text has "bhairon", split "Shivri" into two words, or order the middle verses differently. These are inherited readings, not errors. Sing the version your family sings.
The refrain marks are not lyrics. Printed aarti books abbreviate the repeated line as "जय अम्बे०" after each verse. It means return to the refrain — it is not a word.
Every aarti text on this site is reproduced from a cited printed source, with the variants noted on the page rather than silently smoothed over, because these are prayers people recite rather than songs people stream.
Where to find the full texts
All of them sit together on the aarti page, each with the Devanagari, a singable romanisation for anyone who reads the sound but not the script, and a plain-English explanation of what each verse is actually saying.
If you want something to play while the house is being cleaned before the first night, the devotional songs from our own catalogue are there too — original compositions rather than aartis, but written for the same weeks of the year.
