Navratri 2026: Ghatasthapana Muhurat and the Nine-Night Calendar

Sharad Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, 11 October, with Ghatasthapana on the first day, and closes on Tuesday, 20 October with Vijayadashami. The day-one window our engine verifies for Delhi is the Abhijit Muhurat, 11:45 AM – 12:31 PM IST — the universally auspicious midday window, and the right anchor for the kalash sthapana if you want an engine-computed time.

The nine nights of Navratri 2026

The festival runs from the Shukla Pratipada of Ashwin to the Dashami, and 2026 lays the sequence out cleanly — one tithi per day, with no skipped or doubled tithi in between. Day 1, Ashtami, Navami and Dashami below are computed directly by Bela’s engine for Delhi; the intermediate days follow by the same tithi-at-sunset rule:

Day	Date (2026)	Tithi	Observance
1	Sunday, 11 October	Pratipada	Ghatasthapana — kalash sthapana, first day
2	Monday, 12 October	Dwitiya	Brahmacharini puja
3	Tuesday, 13 October	Tritiya	Chandraghanta puja
4	Wednesday, 14 October	Chaturthi	Kushmanda puja
5	Thursday, 15 October	Panchami	Skandamata puja
6	Friday, 16 October	Shashthi	Katyayani puja
7	Saturday, 17 October	Saptami	Kalaratri puja
8	Sunday, 18 October	Ashtami	Durga Ashtami (Maha Ashtami) — Sandhi puja, Kanya puja
9	Monday, 19 October	Navami	Maha Navami — Ayudha puja, Navami homa
10	Tuesday, 20 October	Dashami	Vijayadashami (Dussehra) — visarjan, victory day

The full sequence with its basis is on the Sharad Navratri page, and the closing day has its own entry on the Dussehra page.

The Ghatasthapana muhurat, precisely

The classical rule fixes the day, not just the hour: Ghatasthapana is performed on the day the Shukla Pratipada (the first tithi of the bright fortnight) prevails — in 2026, Sunday, 11 October for North India. For the hour, the shastras prefer the morning, while the Pratipada holds, and traditions variously avoid certain choghadiyas and the midday Rahu Kaal overlap for the sthapana itself.

Here we are careful about what we claim. Festival-specific puja windows — the classical ghatasthapana rules with their own tithi-fraction cutoffs — are not yet modelled in our public data, and we will not invent a clock time. What the engine does compute for 11 October is the day’s Abhijit Muhurat, 11:45 AM – 12:31 PM IST in Delhi: the window the tradition holds to be free of every classical affliction and shubh for all beginnings, which we covered in its own guide. For a household kalash sthapana that wants a computed, defensible time, that is the window we print. The Sharad Navratri festival page carries the same basis, and the Bela app applies the full rule stack — choghadiya, Rahu Kaal and your own Tara Bala — to your exact location.

Two more day-level windows the engine verifies for the festival’s high days:

Day	Abhijit Muhurat (Delhi, IST)
Ghatasthapana — Sunday, 11 October	11:45 AM – 12:31 PM
Durga Ashtami — Sunday, 18 October	11:43 AM – 12:29 PM
Maha Navami — Monday, 19 October	11:43 AM – 12:29 PM
Vijayadashami — Tuesday, 20 October	11:43 AM – 12:28 PM

Why Navratri start dates sometimes differ by a day

If another calendar opens Navratri on 10 or 12 October, the divergence is almost always the prevailing-tithi rule: our engine takes the day the Pratipada prevails at sunset in Delhi, while a table computed for a different city, or keyed on tithi-at-sunrise, can shift by a day. The tithi itself is the same; the convention for attaching it to a civil day differs. We wrote up the general mechanics — ayanamsa, sunrise definitions, prevailing moments — in why panchang sites show different dates.

Using the nine days well

Do the sthapana on the 11th, in a clean window. The day is fixed by the Pratipada; the Abhijit window above is the computed shubh choice for Delhi. If your family follows a specific parampara timing, your pandit’s rule takes precedence — the date is what matters most.
Recompute the clock time for your city. These windows are for Delhi. Abhijit Muhurat is anchored to local sunrise and sunset, so Mumbai runs later and Kolkata earlier. Your city’s panchang will carry the festival days as the rolling window reaches October — or let the Bela app place every window on your exact location.
Plan Ashtami and Navami as the working peaks. Sandhi puja sits at the Ashtami–Navami junction, and Kanya puja on Ashtami or Navami by family tradition. In 2026 these fall on Sunday and Monday — a convenient pair — with Vijayadashami on the Tuesday.

All ten days, with their engine basis, are on the festivals calendar; the daily panchang for your city will print the exact windows as the data rolls forward, and the Bela app computes the full ghatasthapana rule stack — choghadiya, Rahu Kaal and personal Tara Bala — for wherever your kalash will actually stand.

Frequently asked questions

When does Navratri start in 2026? Sharad Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, 11 October, the day the Shukla Pratipada of Ashwin prevails at sunset in Delhi. Ghatasthapana is performed on this first day, and the festival runs through Vijayadashami on Tuesday, 20 October.

What is the Ghatasthapana muhurat on 11 October 2026? The engine-verified shubh window for Delhi is the Abhijit Muhurat, 11:45 AM – 12:31 PM IST — the classical universally auspicious window, free of Rahu Kaal-type afflictions. Festival-specific ghatasthapana rules are not yet modelled in our public data, so we publish this computed window rather than an invented one; the Bela app applies the full rule stack for your city.

When are Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami in 2026? Durga Ashtami (Maha Ashtami) falls on Sunday, 18 October 2026, and Maha Navami on Monday, 19 October 2026 — the days the Ashtami and Navami tithis prevail at sunset. Both dates are computed by Bela’s engine for Delhi.

Is the Navratri date the same across India? The tithi sequence is the same, but the civil date a calendar prints depends on the prevailing-moment rule and the reference city. A tithi that prevails at sunset in Delhi may not at sunset in another longitude, so a one-day shift between almanacs is normal and not an error in either source.