Jawara: Sprouted Grain and the Goddessजवारे - अंकुरित अन्न और देवी की आराधना

What jawara are

Jawara (जवारे) are shoots of grain grown in a pot or basket during Navratri. They are sown at Ghatasthapana, the first day, beside the kalash, the water pot that stands for the Goddess. A 2026 Navbharat Live explainer describes barley (jau) set in clean soil in a clay or metal pot, with the kalash placed in the middle, then watered lightly through the nine days [1]. When the shoots are green and tall they can be offered at the goddess’s feet [1].

Belief and meaning

Tradition. Many households read the shoots as a sign. Fast, healthy growth is taken as the Goddess’s blessing and a promise of prosperity at home; thin or discoloured growth is read as a warning [1][5]. A popular explanation says barley was the first crop on earth and that sowing it on day one honours food as sacred, Anna Brahma [5]. These are devotional explanations, and we have not traced them to a particular text. Practices also differ by family, community and region.

Jawara in Jabalpur

The clearest Jabalpur evidence comes from the Badi Khermai temple (see our Badi Khermai page). For Chaitra Navratri 2026, The Hitavada reported that the temple arranged about 1,100 jawara, with a visarjan procession leaving the temple on the evening of 29 March after Navami [2]. The same paper’s preview of Sharad Navratri 2023 said the jawara visarjan would take place on 26 October and end at Hanumantal [4]. So the custom is reported in both the autumn and the spring Navratri, not only in Chaitra.

The 2023 report also calls the temple’s jawara procession a continuous tradition since 1652, in its 371st year [4]. That is the temple’s own account as printed in the paper, and we have found no register or older source to confirm it.

Nearby processions

Jabalpur’s neighbours show how large the custom can grow. In April 2023 in Narsinghpur, 751 ghat kalash with jawara were carried mostly by women and girls on their heads, led by akhada performers, with a Matarani image and tableaux in the procession [3]. The route inside the town ran about 4 km and took around nine hours, after which the pots were taken to the Narmada at Barman for immersion [3]. The report also mentions that some devotees took vows that involved piercing the body. We mention it only as reported there; we have no evidence that it occurs in Jabalpur.

In Bundelkhand, a regional folk-culture site describes jawara pots kept in a room set aside for the goddess and worshipped for nine days with night bhajans. On the ninth evening women carry the pots on their heads in procession while men sing Devigeet ahead of them, and the pots are immersed in a river or pond [6]. This is a neighbouring region’s description, so use it as context, not as a record of Jabalpur practice.

The end of the nine days

Across these accounts the pattern is similar: the pots are tended for nine days, brought out in a procession after Navami, and returned to water, a river or a clean pond [3][5][6]. In Jabalpur the reported end point for the Badi Khermai procession is Hanumantal [4]. A household explainer says the home pot is likewise immersed in a river or clean water body [5]; if you do so, check local rules about where immersion is allowed, since the city has designated kunds for idol immersion (see Visarjan and Dussehra).

What is still unknown

The grain and songs used in Jabalpur homes, the other temples that hold jawara processions and the older history of the custom are not yet documented. If you keep this tradition, a recording of the sowing songs from an elder would be a valuable addition to this page.

Further reading

• Why is Navratri nine nights long?
• Jabalpur ki Navratri