Anjali, Kumari Puja and Sandhi Puja: the biggest day of the puja, in photos.
Tiers of lamps are lit for Sandhi Puja at a Kolkata community puja. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
People stand in rows with flowers and bel leaves, repeat the Sanskrit mantras after the priest, usually in three rounds, and offer the flowers at the goddess's feet.
Devotees raise flowers for pushpanjali on Maha Ashtami at a Kolkata pandal. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
In many pujas a young girl is bathed, dressed in a red sari and worshipped as a living form of Durga. The best known is at Belur Math.
A young girl is worshipped as the goddess in Kumari Puja. Photo: Shutterpixs, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Where Ashtami meets Navami: 108 lotuses, 108 lamps and the dhak at its most intense. It can fall at any hour, so check your panjika.
Tiers of lamps are lit for Sandhi Puja at a Kolkata community puja. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Ashtami is the day for the finest outfit of the puja: a silk or handloom sari, a dhoti or panjabi, and shoes you can slip off at the altar.
A woman in a red-bordered white sari walks past a giant Durga face in Kolkata. Photo: Surajits photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
After the evening aarti, many pujas break into dhunuchi naach, the dance with smoking clay incense burners.
Dhunuchi dance: clay burners of smoking coconut husk and incense, held aloft to the dhak. Photo: Bhuppigraphy, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Ashtami and Navami bring the biggest crowds: long anjali queues in the morning and packed pandals until well past midnight.
Night crowds on the pandal trail in Behala. Photo: Snehangshu36, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Maha Ashtami 2026 is Monday 19 October: the morning pushpanjali, Kumari Puja, Sandhi Puja with 108 lotuses and lamps, fasting until anjali and what people wear.
Maha Ashtami → Next story: Bijoya Dashami: the farewell All photo storiesMusic: Rhythm of Dhak a huge membranophone instrument from Bengal and Assam, used in Hindu religious festivals, especially Durga Puja, Sumita Roy Dutta, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.