Navaratri Night 6 — Katyayani, Born in a Sage's Hermitage
The gods' anger becomes a goddess in the hermitage of the sage Katyayana, and she rides out against Mahishasura. Centuries later, the young women of Braj keep a month-long vow in her name.
The sixth night honours Katyayani, and with her the nine nights turn towards battle. She is the warrior Durga in her most familiar form: four-armed, on a lion, holding a sword and a lotus, with her other hands in the gestures of protection and blessing.
The hermitage
The demon [Mahishasura](/gods/mahishasura) had driven the gods out of heaven. The Vamana Purana tells what happened next. The gods gathered and their anger poured out of them as light — from Vishnu, from Shiva, from Brahma, from every god in turn. All that light came together in the hermitage of the sage Katyayana, and there it took the form of a goddess.
Katyayana was the first to worship her, and so she was called Katyayani — "she of Katyayana". The gods armed her, and she rode out to meet the buffalo demon. (That battle is told in full in its own story: [Durga and Mahishasura](/learn/all/durga-and-mahishasura).)
A popular Navaratri retelling softens this into something more personal: Katyayana had long prayed that the Goddess would be born as his daughter, and she chose his home. That is a later devotional version; the Purana's goddess comes from the gods' anger, and the sage is her first devotee.
A very old name
Katyayani is one of the oldest names of the Goddess on record. The Taittiriya Aranyaka, a late Vedic text, already contains a Gayatri verse that calls on Katyayana and Kanyakumari and asks Durgi to inspire — long before the Navaratri tradition gave each night a name.
The vow of the gopis
The most loved story about Katyayani has nothing to do with war. The Bhagavata Purana tells how, in the month of Margashirsha, the young unmarried women of Braj kept a vow to Katyayani. Every morning for a month they bathed in the Yamuna before dawn, made an image of the Goddess from sand on the riverbank, worshipped her with flowers and incense, and prayed together:
"O Katyayani, great Maya, great yogini, ruler of all — make the son of Nanda the cowherd my husband. I bow to you."
They wanted Krishna, and at the end of the month he came to them. The Katyayani vrata is still kept in Braj today, and in many places unmarried girls pray to her during Navaratri in the same spirit.
To carry from the sixth night: The same goddess is the anger of all the gods against injustice, and the quiet prayer of a girl on a riverbank. The tradition sees no contradiction. Both are the heart refusing to settle for less than what is right.
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Related teachings
Navaratri Night 1 — Shailaputri, Daughter of the Mountain
Sati walks uninvited into her father's sacrifice and gives up her body there. She is born again as the daughter of the Himalaya — and the nine nights begin.
Navaratri Night 2 — Brahmacharini, the Austerity That Moved Shiva
When beauty failed to reach Shiva, Parvati went into the forest and did not come back until he came to her. The second night honours the young woman who gave up even leaves.
Navaratri Night 3 — Chandraghanta, the Bell and the Wedding
Shiva arrives for his wedding with ghosts and goblins, and the bride's mother faints. The third night honours the bride who stood her ground — a story the devotional tradition reads into a name.
Navaratri Night 4 — Kushmanda, the Smile That Lit the Dark
Before there was anything, there was darkness — and then a goddess smiled. The fourth night's story is a creation story built entirely out of a name, and it says so.
Navaratri Night 5 — Skandamata, Mother of the War God
A demon who could be killed only by Shiva's son, a child carried by fire and river and raised by six star-mothers — and the goddess who holds him on her lap.