Kalash Sthapana Samagri for Navratri

The list

Kalash Sthapana (also Ghatasthapana) is the installing of a water pot on the first day of Navratri. Families differ in the details, so follow your family's way or your priest's.

• A wide, shallow clay pot or tray for the sprouts, and clean soil.
• Barley (jau or jow) seeds. Some families sow seven grains (sapta dhanya), including barley.
• A kalash (= water pot) of copper, brass or clay, with a lid or small bowl to cover it.
• Clean water, with Gangajal if you have it. Inside the kalash go a coin, a betel nut, unbroken rice (akshat), turmeric and a few flowers.
• Five mango or ashoka leaves, and sometimes seven.
• A whole coconut with its husk, wrapped in red cloth (chunri) and tied with red thread (mauli).
• A red cloth for the platform, a picture or murti of Durga, flowers, fruit and sweets.
• A ghee lamp, cotton wicks, camphor and incense. Some families keep one lamp burning for the nine days (akhand jyoti).

Preparation

Soak the seeds in water for six to eight hours before sowing. Do the sthapana on the first morning, after a bath, in the window the site shows for your city. Spread the red cloth on a clean platform. Put soil in the clay pot, scatter the seeds, cover them thinly with soil, and sprinkle a little water.

Fill the kalash with water and the small items, place the leaves around its mouth, and set the wrapped coconut on top. Place the kalash on the soil in the pot, light the lamp and invoke Durga.

Over the nine days, keep the soil moist with a light daily sprinkle from a spray bottle rather than pouring water on the sprouts. Sprouts usually appear in three or four days, and a bright spot near a window helps. By the ninth day the shoots are often two to three inches tall. Many families then offer them as a blessing and return them to the garden or soil.

Substitutes

• Clay pot: a new terracotta plant saucer or shallow pot from a garden store.
• Barley: whole, hulled barley. Pearl barley is polished and usually will not sprout. Some families use wheat if barley is not available.
• Soil: any clean soil, including new potting soil.
• Mango leaves: betel or ashoka leaves.
• Kalash: many families use a clean steel pot if that is all they have. Ask your priest.
• Akhand jyoti: do not leave an open flame unattended in a rental home. Light the lamp while you are home, or use an LED lamp.

Where to buy in the USA

• Indian grocery: barley as jau or jow, mauli, betel nuts and leaves, coconut, and sometimes fresh mango leaves in season.
• Temples: many sell small kits for Navratri.
• Garden store: soil, a shallow clay pot and a spray bottle.
• Ordinary supermarket: coconut, flowers, fruit, and a length of red fabric from a craft store.
• Online: brass or copper kalash and lamps from Indian shops.