What Goes Inside the Navratri Kalash — Metal, Colour, Size, Contents and Visarjan

The speaker says that what metal the Kalash is made of is itself a subject, and so is how big it should be; this subject should never be brushed aside. Ordinarily a clay kalash is kept, and that is fine. Among metals, a kalash of brass and copper is kept, and a kalash of bronze is kept. An iron kalash should never be kept, he says. He asks listeners to take particular care here: very often an iron kalash is sold with yellow or red colour applied over it. So one must make sure that an iron kalash is never installed.

The speaker says the measure of the Kalash, meaning its length, is reckoned from the fingers of the head of the household, the chief head: eight to twelve fingers. The length is taken from the bottom all the way up, above the neck to the mouth of the kalash, and twelve fingers is the accepted measure there. It should not be bigger than that, and it should not be smaller than eight fingers. That is the length of the kalash, and a kalash only that long should be kept. The kalash itself, he adds, may be decorated as much as one wishes.

Asked how Ghatasthapana is done, the speaker says he is explaining it in the ordinary way: no vidhi-vidhan, no mantras and so on, so that an ordinary person can do it at home, with devotion, as far as the seva-puja can be done there. To install the Kalash, first take the barley seed that is to be sown, the Jaware, and mix it comfortably into the soil. Then level the soil and on top of it draw an ashtadal kamal or the like, using gulal, haldi and similar things. On top of that, he says, the kalash is installed.

The speaker says the first thing put into the Kalash is ChandanSandalwood paste, offered and applied in worship for its cooling, purifying quality. wood; but even before that, if one knows how to make a SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit., one takes SupariAreca nut, used as a stand-in for the deity in sankalpa and offered in pujan., a little rice, AkshatUnbroken raw rice grains, held in hand along with water and flowers while taking a Sankalpa. (rice that is not broken) and some coins, makes the sankalp and puts them into the kalash. After that the kalash is filled with water. Only then is the chandan wood put in: a small piece, whether the red or the yellow kind, but it must be real chandan. After that goes what is called haritaki, and then supari. Then coins of three metals: gold, silver, copper, brass, or the ordinary current coin, according to one's means; he says to put in a silver one and a copper one, so that three kinds of coin go into the kalash. Then panchratna, five kinds of gems. Then sarvaushadhi, which is available in the shop; a good-quality sarvaushadhi should be put in. After that madhu is put inside the kalash; madhu must certainly go in. Then a little, just a small amount, of well-washed Durva GrassA sacred grass offered to deities — especially Ganesha — and included among the items used to formally invite a deity before moving to a new location. grass. Once all these initial items have gone in, he says, the panch Pallav or mango leaves are placed on top of the kalash.

Panchratna, five kinds of gems, goes into the Kalash. But the speaker says that what is sold at the puja shop for five rupees, or ten to fifteen rupees, is a matter of great doubt: whether it is panchratna at all. Since one has to do Navratri puja every year, he says, get upratna of a sava ratti each made up from a jeweller's shop. It is done easily for fifty to a hundred rupees each, meaning that for five to six hundred rupees one has panchratna for good, for one's whole life. At a sava ratti each the stones will look bigger too, he says, and beautiful, and there will be great contentment in one's mind that one is doing such a fine puja. That is the panchratna to put into the kalash.

The sapta mrittika that comes with the puja items is very often put inside the Kalash, the speaker says. But this should be looked at region by region. In a great many places it is said that it goes inside the kalash. In a great many other places one also gets to read, hear and see that it is put where the barley, the Jaware, is sown. So one may put it inside or outside according to one's own tradition. In his view, he says, it should be put outside; that is more appropriate.

After all the initial items have been put into the Kalash, the speaker says, place panch Pallav on top of it, or put mango leaves. Mango can also serve as the five pallav. Panch pallav, he explains, is the pallav of five different kinds of tree. Or else the pallav of the mango tree, with at least five leaves and at most eleven. These are decorated well with SindoorVermilion powder, used here to draw the inverted triangle Mandala for a Bhairava offering, in place of the Roli-and-Ashtagandha triangle drawn for a Goddess., given what is called the sindoor tika, and after that they are placed on the kalash.

The speaker says he hopes listeners will put the items into the Kalash the right way. Putting them in with mantras is a separate subject, he says; here he is describing the ordinary method, so that anyone who hears it can do it comfortably and with devotion. If no mantra is known, take the name of Jagdamba, or recite the mantra "Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu Shakti Rupena Samsthita", or recite the mantra "Sarva Mangal Mangalye", and put in each item while reciting it. Jagdamba, he says, will certainly accept it.

A second matter connected with the Kalash, the speaker says, is its Visarjan. When the kalash is taken to the river for visarjan, keep the mouth of the kalash pressed shut and hold it. The coconut on top will be released first. Then the panchratna, all the coins and the ChandanSandalwood paste, offered and applied in worship for its cooling, purifying quality. wood inside are to be taken out: the chandan wood, the three coins and the panchratna. Everything else is left in the kalash, and the kalash is released. These items are tied up in a red cloth and kept. Next time the very same things, the same chandan wood and all the rest, can certainly be used in the kalash again. Keep them in a good place in the house, in the puja sthan, worship them, and use them again; there is no dosh in this, and they can be used again and again. If one likes, he says, the chandan wood can be replaced. But if one is using a gold coin and a genuine panchratna, those can certainly be used again.