A puja that lives in the kitchen
Annapurna is worshipped where food is made. Her image, if you have one, belongs in or near the kitchen, and the simplest form of her puja happens every day without a separate puja room at all: the first portion of cooked food is offered to her before anyone eats. The fuller puja below is for special days. Read more about her on the Maa Annapurna page.
When to do it
- Every day: the short kitchen offering, before the first meal.
- Annapurna Jayanti: Margashirsha Purnima.
- Annapurna Puja in Bengal: Chaitra Shukla Ashtami.
- Moving into a new house, setting up a new kitchen, or the first cooking with a new harvest's grain.
- Fridays and Purnima days, for those who keep a regular practice.
The daily offering
- After cooking, before anyone eats, set aside a small portion of rice or roti and whatever has been cooked on a clean plate or leaf.
- Place it before her image, or simply near the stove, and say the Annapurne Sadapurne verse once.
- Afterwards, give that portion to a cow, a bird, a dog, or a person in need, or mix it back into the family's food as prasad.
The full puja: what you will need
- An image of Annapurna (traditionally brass, holding a ladle and a bowl), or a picture.
- A clean red or yellow cloth on a small chowki in the kitchen.
- A ghee lamp, incense, roli, haldi, akshat, red flowers.
- A bowl of uncooked rice and a new ladle or spoon.
- Kheer or another sweet dish cooked fresh that day, and fruit.
- A kalash of water.
Step by step
- Clean the kitchen thoroughly, including the stove and the grain store. This is part of the puja, not a preparation for it.
- Set up the chowki and place her image on the cloth, with the bowl of rice and the ladle before her.
- Sankalp. Hold water, rice and a flower, state your name and the purpose (for example, "that our home never lacks food and that we share what we have"), and release it.
- Remember Ganesh with a flower and akshat.
- Worship Annapurna. Offer water, tilak of roli and haldi, akshat, red flowers and incense. Light the lamp.
- Mantra. Recite Annapurne Sadapurne 11 or 108 times.
- Stotram and chalisa. Recite the Annapurna Stotram or the Annapurna Chalisa, or both.
- Bhog. Offer the kheer and fruit.
- Aarti. Sing Barambar Pranam.
- Feed someone. Before the family eats, feed a guest, a neighbour, a worker in the house, or a needy person. This is the step that completes an Annapurna puja.
Things to keep in mind
- Don't waste food on her day, or ideally any day. Throwing away cooked food is the one thing her worship asks you not to do.
- Keep the grain store clean and never leave it empty; many families add a handful of new grain on Annapurna Jayanti.
- The rice from the puja can be cooked and eaten as prasad, or kept in the grain store for the year.
Frequently asked questions
Where should Annapurna's idol be kept?
In or near the kitchen is traditional, in a clean, raised spot. If that is not possible, keep her in the puja room and offer food there.
When is Annapurna Jayanti?
On Margashirsha Purnima, the full moon of the month that usually falls in December. In Bengal, Annapurna Puja is on Chaitra Shukla Ashtami.
What bhog does Annapurna like?
Rice and kheer (payasa) are traditional, since her image holds a vessel of rice. Any fresh, sattvik home-cooked food is welcome.
Can I do Annapurna puja every day?
Yes, and the short daily offering is the most important form of it. The full puja is for special days.
Which mantra is chanted for Annapurna?
"Annapurne sadapurne shankarapranavallabhe, jnanavairagyasiddhyartham bhiksham dehi cha Parvati", from the Annapurna Stotram.
Why is feeding someone part of the puja?
Because she is the goddess who feeds the world. Sharing food is how her blessing is passed on, and tradition treats an Annapurna puja without feeding anyone as incomplete.
Is Annapurna a form of Parvati or Durga?
She is Parvati, Shiva's consort, in her form as the giver of food. Since Parvati is also worshipped as Durga, the Durga Chalisa too names Annapurna among her forms.
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