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Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 96

Imagine a pandal in Kolkata, packed with people, and suddenly the whole crowd goes quiet. The priest is watching the clock. In front of the Goddess, one hundred and eight earthen lamps stand in rows, ready to be lit. Beside them, one hundred and eight lotuses, counted and counted again. The drummers hold their sticks above their drums and wait. Because in a moment, one lunar day will end and another will begin. And the forty-eight minutes that straddle that moment are, for many families in Bengal, the holiest of the whole year.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 93 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. The Sandhi Puja is living Bengali tradition, and its rites vary between households and pandals. The definition of the junction as the last twenty-four minutes of Ashtami and the first twenty-four of Navami, two ghatis, and the belief that Chamunda appeared at this time to kill Chanda and Munda, follow drikpanchang.com. The 2026 time of about 10:27 to 11:15 a.m. on Monday, October 19, is drikpanchang's for New Delhi; a Bengali almanac schedule published on kolkatadurgotsav.com gives an earlier time; listeners should follow their own almanac. The 108 lamps and 108 lotuses, the drums, and the substitution of ash gourd, sugarcane or banana for animal sacrifice are widely described customs. The reflections are my own.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.