Brahmacharini Ji

Brahmacharini is the second of the Navadurga, Parvati in the form of a female ascetic who undertook a punishing penance to win Shiva as her husband. She represents unwavering tapasya, discipline and devotion.

Her name joins Brahma (here, the Absolute, the sacred knowledge) and charini, "one who follows or practises," giving "she who pursues sacred religious knowledge," a sense already present in Vedic usage.

She is shown dressed in white as a female ascetic, holding a japamala (prayer beads) in her right hand and a kamandalu (water pot) in her left.

Parvati resolved to marry Shiva despite her parents' objections and undertook a penance said to have lasted 5,000 years, living on bael leaves and river water alone. To distract Shiva from his meditation, the gods sent Kamadeva, god of desire, to strike him with an arrow of longing; enraged, Shiva burned Kamadeva to ash with his third eye, yet Parvati's resolve did not waver. During her weakest hour, the asura Prakandasura attacked her with a vast army; Lakshmi and Saraswati came to her aid but were outnumbered, until her fallen kamandalu released a flood that swept the asuras away, and Parvati herself burned Prakandasura to ash. Shiva, impressed, approached her disguised as a wandering brahmachari and tested her resolve with riddles before revealing his true form and consenting to marry her.

Consort Shiva, won through this penance. Her story is carried in the Devi Bhagavata Purana and the Devi Gita.

Her day is kept as an occasion for strengthening willpower, endurance and devotion, echoing the discipline of her own long tapasya.

A named shrine is the Maa Brahmacharini Devi Durga Mandir at Hanuman Ganj, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh; beyond this, her worship follows the general pattern of Navratri's second-day observance rather than a distinct regional cult.