Naina Mata Festival, Nainital, Uttarakhand

Naina Mata Festival: The word Naina is synonymous with Sati’s eyes. The temple of Naina Devi is situated on the top of a hill of Nainital named Naina hill. The Naina Devi Temple is an important pilgrimage and attracts thousands of devotees from far and near every year. There is a myth behind this beautiful place about goddess Sati or Parvati. There is a beautiful lake too known as Naina Lake. It’s said this lake this is the two blue eyes of goddess Naina.

Mata Naina Devi is a town and a municipal council in Bilaspur district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Naina Mata Festival: Date

• 2024: 05/08/2024 (Monday) – 14/08/2024 (Wednesday)

During the time period of August or September a large fair is organized to celebrate the importance of goddess Naina and so the Naina Mata Festival. During the time of fair people of this place adorn their houses and shops to celebrate this festival. In this Naina Devi Fair folk cultural programs are organized. People perform folk music and folk dances. The fair lasts fort eight days and all the days and nights during it are celebrated with joy and delight along with the religious sentiments.

Once the devotee reaches the hill top, they buy offerings from various shops located just outside the temple. After crossing the main gate, there is a huge Banyan tree. On the right side of the temple there are idols of Lord Hanuman and Lord Ganesha. After reaching the main entrance of the temple, there are two statues of lions. Inside there is the idol of Naina Devi having two large eyes. The Naina Devi Temple has a legend behind it. Sati, the daughter of Raja Daksh was a great devotee of Shiva. She performed extreme prayers and rituals and got married to Shiva. Daksh always envied Shiva and he insulted the latter by not inviting him to the ceremony where all other deities were invited.

To avenge this insult to her husband Sati jumped into sacrificial bonfire. Mourning the death of his beloved wife, furious Shiva picked he corpse and gyrated his horrified dance. Lord Vishnu had to unleash his Chakra and cut Sati s body into fifty one pieces to save the earth from Shiva’s wrath. All the fifty one places – where parts of Sati’s body fell, became known as Shakti Peeth. It is believed that Sati s eyes fell at the place where this temple is situated. Therefore, this temple is called Naina Devi.

Related Legends:

Naina Mata Festival is one of the most important Hindu festivals celebrated in the northern parts of India, especially in Himachal Pradesh. The temple of Naina Mata is one among the famous fifty one Sakthi Peeths in Asia. This temple is located on the top of the Naina hill of Siwalik Range and is on the northern shores of Lake Naini in Nainital. In fact the city of Nainital is named after Mata Naina Devi.

It is a well known pilgrim center and attracts devotees in large numbers from all over the world. The festival of Mata Naina is mostly celebrated in the month of September or October every year. It’s a nine-day festival, also popularly known as Navratri.

During Navratri, Goddess Naina Devi is decorated in various forms. People fast on these nine days and worship Maa Naina. The temple and its surroundings look colorful with a variety of floral patterns. Puja is done five times a day followed by five different aarties including Mangal Aarti. Different type of Bhog is offered to Maa Naina. Devotees can offer Bhog which can be brought from home or bought from outside the temple. Along with these, a coconut and a red silk stole are being offered to Goddess Naina by devotees.

During this festival a large fair is organized. At this time people of Nainital adorn their houses and shops in various ways. Many religious activities, folk dances and cultural programs also become an important part of these celebrations.

Apart from Navratri, the other festivals celebrated are Shravani Mela and Chaitra Mela during the months of July-August and March-April respectively.

The devotees will have the darshan of three deities in the temple. Mata Kali is seen on the extreme left and Lord Ganesha is on the extreme right. In the center two large eyes are seen and they represent the Goddess Naina Devi.

The origin of Maa Naina Devi is associated with an interesting story. Sati Devi, the daughter of Daksha Prajapati married Lord Shiva. Once Daksha Prajapati decided to perform a Yagna. He didn’t invite Lord Shiva to take part in it. Unable to bear the deeds of her father, Sati went to his place to request him not to insult Lord Shiva and tried to reveal his importance to Daksha. In turn, Daksha humiliated her.

After this, Sati couldn t return to Shiva and killed herself by jumping in the sacrificial bonfire. Heard of her demise, Lord Shiva became furious and destroyed the Daksh Yagna. He carried half burnt sati’s body on his shoulders and roamed around the universe. Then Lord Vishnu decided to bring back Lord Shiva to normal life, destroyed Sati’s body using his Chakra. Her body was cut into pieces which fell at different places. These places became the powerful Shakti Peeth. Naina Devi’s temple is one among them and was built on the spot where Sati Devi’s eyes fell. The word Naina in fact means Netra or Eyes.

There is another story related to this temple. There was a boy called Naina. One day when he was grazing his cattle, he was astonished to see a cow showering milk from her udder on a stone. This got repeated for many days. One night while sleeping, he saw Goddess Durga in his dream. She told him that the stone on which the cow showered the milk is her Pindi. Then this boy narrated the whole thing to Raja Bir Chand. When Raja witnessed this event, he believed the boy and built a temple on that spot and named the temple after Naina’s name.