Maa Chandraghanta | Day 3 of Navaratri
The Devi Kavacham moves to a third name after Shailaputri and Brahmacharini, and this one belongs to Chandraghanta.
पिण्डजप्रवरारूढा चण्डकोपास्त्रकैर्युता।
प्रसादं तनुते मह्यं चन्द्रघण्टेति विश्रुता॥
Pindaja pravaraarudhaa chandakopaastrakairyutaa,
Prasaadam tanute mahyam Chandraghanteti vishrutaa.
I bow to the widely renowned Chandraghanta, seated on her mount, armed with fierce weapons, who grants her grace to me.
Her name comes from chandra, moon, and ghanta, bell, describing the half-moon marking on her forehead shaped like a temple bell. Chandraghanta is Parvati again, the same goddess honoured through Shailaputri and Brahmacharini, now in the days following her marriage to Shiva. Where Day 1 showed her as the mountain's daughter and Day 2 as the ascetic seeking her husband, Day 3 shows what came after devotion was answered.
Her arrival in this form carries a memorable story. On the day of the wedding, Shiva arrived not as a graceful god but leading a procession of ghosts and ascetics, covered in ash, which frightened Parvati's own family. To calm the moment and protect those around her, Parvati took on the form of Chandraghanta, radiant and armed, and it was this form that persuaded Shiva to appear instead as Chandrashekhara, gentle and composed, for the marriage itself.
She is shown with ten arms, carrying a trident, a mace, a sword, a bow and arrow, a lotus, a rosary and a water pot, with two hands held open in gestures of blessing and reassurance. She rides a tiger, unlike Shailaputri's bull or the lion ridden by some of the other Navadurga forms, and a third eye rests permanently on her forehead, always open, watching for anything that threatens her devotees.
Her golden complexion is read as radiance drawn from deep inner strength, and despite the weapons in her many hands, tradition holds her as a protector rather than a figure of alarm, someone who fights so that peace can return quickly.
Bells rung during puja are believed to clear a space of negative energy before worship begins, and Chandraghanta wears one permanently on her forehead, meaning her very presence carries out that same purification wherever she turns her gaze.
Worship on this day is said to move the seeker's energy into the Manipura, the solar plexus chakra, the seat of courage and personal will, continuing the same rise that began at the root on Day 1 and moved through the sacral centre on Day 2. Where the earlier days built ground and patience, Day 3 asks for the courage to act on both.
Her mantra is easy to carry through the day:
ॐ देवी चन्द्रघण्टायै नमः
Om Devi Chandraghantayai Namah
Milk and milk-based sweets, such as kheer, are offered to her, and jasmine remains her favoured flower, carried over from her earlier form as Brahmacharini.
— Shanker N C
Sources referenced: Devi Kavacham (Durga Saptashati, Markandeya Purana) · Navadurga Stotram · Devi Bhagavata Purana · Yogic tradition on the Manipura Chakra
