Chandi Path, Navchandi and Shatchandi: What Is the Difference?

All of these are the same act — recitation of the Durga Saptashati — performed a different number of times. Chandi is a name of the Devi and of the text; the prefix is the count.

In many traditions the nine nights are kept in three parts — the first three for Durga, the middle three for Lakshmi, the last three for Saraswati. For families who want a puja performed in their name this Navratri, Maa Lakshmi Puja is a private puja: performed for your family alone, with the sankalp in your name and gotra, on the date you choose.

A single complete reading of the seven hundred verses with its preliminaries. It is what a household does, or has done, in Navratri, on an Ashtami, or before an undertaking. It can be followed by a short havan. For most ordinary purposes this is enough, and nothing larger should be pressed on a family that asked for this.

Nine complete recitations, followed by the Navchandi havan, in which the verses of the text are offered into the fire as ahutis, then kanya pujan and purnahuti. Nine readings cannot be done by one pandit in a day, so several pandits recite together — five of them complete it in about 6–7 hours, on a single day. It is the anushthan traditionally commissioned when a matter is serious and has lasted — prolonged opposition or litigation, repeated failure despite effort, a household under strain for years — or as a family’s major Devi offering in Navratri.

A hundred recitations with a proportionate havan is a community-scale yagya: a large team of pandits, a constructed yagyashala, about a week or more. It is undertaken for a town, an institution or a very large family occasion rather than for one person’s difficulty. Sahasrachandi and Lakshachandi are larger still, and are public events.

An honest rule of thumb:

• For Navratri worship, thanksgiving, or a new beginning — a Chandi Path.
• For a grave and long-running difficulty, when smaller remedies have been tried — Navchandi.
• For opponents, negative energy or graha dosh, a far larger sankalp — 1,100 Chandi Paths.
• For a community — Shatchandi.

A larger count is not a stronger guarantee; no anushthan is a guarantee of an outcome. It is a larger offering, and its cost follows from the number of pandits and days it honestly requires. If your kundali is the reason you are considering it, ask first whether it is called for: Find Your Puja.

Navratri is the classical time for Navchandi, though it may be performed in any month. Five of our pandits perform it in Ujjain as a one-day puja of about 6–7 hours: the sankalp in the family’s name, the nine recitations, the havan, kanya pujan and purnahuti. Details and booking: Navchandi Durga Puja.