Devi Kaatyayani

ÅWa dkR;k;uh nsO;S ue%

Today is the fifth day of Navraatri, the nine days of Devi. This day is dedicated to the Devi Kaatyayani. She was born in the house of Sage Kaatyayan. That’s why the name was accorded to her. My Kul Gotra dqy xks= is Katyayan dkR;k;u and Devi Katyani is the Kul Devi dqy nsoh.

The devi is said to be vf/k’Bk=h aadhisdhatri devi of brijmandal. The devi is associated with the two planets-Jupitor and Venus. The Gopis or Gopikas wishing to have Krishna, first have to please and seek blessings of Devi Katyayani. Those who wish to marry have to seek blessings of Devi Katyayani. Since she is associated with Brihaspati(Jupitor), the planet of knowledge\wisdom, thus those who wish to have bright career or those who seek knowledge always seek blessings of Devi Katyayani.

Yellow is the colour associated with Devi Katyayani. Thus yellow cloths to be adorned and to be gifted, yellow flowers are to be offered to her. The best Prasad is of Honey-that is said to have magical powers.  

The nine devi names are -

“kSyiq+=h Shailputri, czg~epkfj.kh Brahmcharini, pUnz?k.Vk ChandraGhanta, dw’ek.Mk Kushmanda, Ldnaekrk Skandmata, dkR;k;uh Katyayani, dkyjk=h KaalRaatri, egkxkSjh MahaGauri, fln~/khnk=h Siddhidatri.

Few names we can understand. Shailputri means the daughter of “shail” here this word is used for either for stone or the mountain (since it is considered made up of stones) and it is used for “Himalaya” the mountain.  These names I found in the devi kavach in the book called ShriDurga Saptshati. Sapt means 7 and shati 100 i.e. it has 700 shlokas- rhymes.

Such knowledge about our own Indian scriptures now days, is not passed on to younger generation. Therefore many things which were known to earlier generation by default, is being lost day by day. The ritualistic things are fading away. I mean rituals in the households which were carried out earlier are not being performed anymore. Therefore new generation do not know anything about these things. There were many. When ladies of household woke up in morning they did perform few rituals. Later when head of household wakes up and starts his rituals, that include pooja, singing of bhajan, aarti, shlokas etc. If all rituals are performed by the householders then the youngsters get to see and if they are told the actual meaning of such rituals then they will try to understand its value in our society. Many things which are still relevant today were found written in Indian scriptures many centuries back.

These scriptures were written in Sanskrit. That is the saddest part, as new generation do not want to read Sanskrit. I think in past few years some kind of deliberated attempts were made to make our Indian think bad about our rich old literature- that was all written in Sanskrit. In school also we see that not many students want to study Sanskrit seriously. It is most unfortunate for our nation that we citizens do not think or respect our old literature. But I am optimistic, as few universities in Europe (Germany Belgium) or US have taken the studies in Sanskrit all through 70-90 years. Now few people are taking Sanskrit seriously. Still there is need to rekindle the interest in Sanskrit.