Navami (Avidhava Navami) Shraddha

About Navami (Avidhava Navami) Shraddha

Significance

Navami Shraddha, known as Avidhava Navami (‘the Navami of the unwidowed’) and in North India also as Matri Navami, is the day for mothers and other women of the family who died as sumangali, that is, while their husbands were living. It is also the day for anyone who died on a Navami.

The custom is widely followed in Smarta and Madhva practice. Dharma Sindhu supplies the classical background: its yearly list of ninety-six Shraddha occasions counts the Krishna Navami of Bhadrapada among the Anvashtaka days, and in Anvashtaka rites the mother’s Shraddha is offered separately. The Mahabharata’s tithi list (Anushasana Parva, Section 87) links the ninth day with single-hoofed animals, and the Brahma Purana’s list with a good wife.

How and where it is observed

The Shraddha is usually performed by the son, or by the husband if there is no son; in many North Indian families the daughter-in-law takes the lead in preparing and offering the meal, and married women are fed and given bangles, sindoor and other marks of married life. Customs differ on how long it continues: some traditions, including Madhva practice, keep the Avidhava Navami only while the husband is living and afterwards remember the woman only on her own death tithi, while other families continue it. Follow your family custom or purohit.

Rituals

Besides the usual brahmana-bhojana, pinda-dana and tarpana, the offerings on this day often include items associated with a married woman, and in some families a brahmana couple is fed in her memory. A woman who died as a sumangali on some other tithi may be remembered both on her own death tithi and on this Navami, as family custom decides.

How the date is fixed

The date is Bhadrapada Krishna Navami (Amanta), called Ashvina Krishna Navami in Purnimanta calendars, on the day Navami holds the afternoon Aparahna. Because the Aparahna depends on local sunrise and sunset, a family living far from where the death occurred performs the rite by the date at its own place; the calendar here computes it for the place you have selected.

Sources

• Dharma Sindhu, Dwitiya Pariccheda, Bhadrapada: Mahalaya Paksha, Proshthapadi, Bharani, Magha-Trayodashi, Shastrahata Chaturdashi and Kapila Shashthi (English condensation: V.D.N. Rao, Essence of Dharma Sindhu, ch. 7)
• Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva, Section 87 (K.M. Ganguli translation): Bhishma on Shraddha and the result of each lunar day
• Brahma Purana, Shraddha-kalpa: tithi-wise list for the fortnight when the Sun is in Kanya (as summarised in Essence of Dharma Sindhu, ch. 7)
• Madhva Mahalaya-paksha observances: Avidhava Navami (Madhwa Festivals)

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.