Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The ‘eighteenth Navratri Mahajabhai’ has begun at the Pashupatinath area, the holy religious site on the occasion of Bada Dashain festival. The festival organized by Shree Ma Durga Bhawani Puja and Hindu Culture Council will continue till October 1.

Devi Bhagwat discourse will be held at the festival. Inaugurating the festival, Council Chairman Ramshobhit Nayak said the festival aims to promote religious tourism in the Pashupati area through religious pilgrimages. He expressed the belief that the festival would be useful in promoting religious tolerance.

Prior to this, the Kalash Yatra was organized from Guheshwori to Bagmati. A special Maha Aarti was performed on the occasion of the inauguration. Every day, discourses and hymns of Goddess Durga will be sung. Similarly, with the beginning of Ghatasthapana, the temples of Goddess Nawadurga across the country are being painted and made shimmering. At present, the work of painting houses and cleaning the temple area in the city, market and village for Dashain has been intensified.

In this connection, the Maitidevi Temple in Kathmandu has been decorated with various twinkling lamps on the occasion of Ghatasthapana. The temple and the area have been renovated. Every year on the occasion of Mahanawami festival, special worship of Goddess Nawadurga is performed here.

As mentioned in the Markandeya Purana scripture, the Goddess Chamunda had slain the demon Raktabij on the day of Mahanawami.

On the last day of Navratri, devotees throng the Shakti Peeths across the country to worship and pay obeisance. On the day of Ashwin Shukla Pratipada, Siddhidatri, the ninth goddess of the nine goddesses, is worshiped in the puja room or Dashain house where the jamara is kept.