Devotees across Nepal are worshipping Goddess Skandamata on the fifth day of Sharadiya Navaratri, observing the occasion on Ashwin Shukla Panchami with traditional rituals in Dashain ghar and puja rooms. The day is dedicated to Skandamata, the fifth of the Navadurga, and worshippers are reciting religious texts including the Durga Saptashati, also known as Chandi, and the Shrimad Devi Bhagavat. She is remembered as the goddess who grants new consciousness to all living beings while seated in the mountains.
Worship on Ashwin Shukla Panchami
The fifth day of Navaratri is being marked in homes and places of worship across the country through devotion to Skandamata. The observance takes place in Dashain ghar and puja rooms, where worshippers carry out traditional rituals and recite sacred texts. Ashwin Shukla Panchami is the lunar date associated with this day of the festival.
The recitations include the Durga Saptashati, or Chandi, and the Shrimad Devi Bhagavat. These texts form part of the worship observed during the day, as devotees focus their prayers on Skandamata. The practices described for the occasion bring together ritual worship and the reading or recitation of religious works in the spaces set aside for puja.
The observance is part of Sharadiya Navaratri, the sequence of worship dedicated to the Navadurga. Skandamata is honoured on its fifth day as the fifth goddess in that group. The progression of the festival gives each day a distinct focus, and the Panchami observance places Skandamata at the centre of worship across Nepal.
Skandamata and the Navadurga tradition
Skandamata is remembered as a goddess who grants new consciousness to all living beings. Her association with this quality gives the day a focus on the awakening of consciousness, alongside the traditional rituals and scripture recitations carried out by devotees. She is also remembered as seated in the mountains, an image connected in the observance to the goddess being honoured on this day.
The worship therefore combines attention to Skandamata’s place among the Navadurga with the qualities attributed to her. Devotees turn to her through established rituals in Dashain ghar and puja rooms, while reciting texts that include the Chandi and the Shrimad Devi Bhagavat. These elements are central to the day’s observance as described across Nepal.
The fifth-day worship continues the wider Navaratri observance, with the focus moving to Skandamata on Ashwin Shukla Panchami. Across the country, devotees are marking the occasion through prayer, ritual and recitation. The day’s practices honour the goddess as a source of new consciousness for living beings and as the fifth of the Navadurga.
