Nine as a set in Hindu tradition
Hindu tradition groups many things in nines. This article describes the main sets and what each tradition teaches about them. They are beliefs and conventions of religious and artistic life, not claims that the number nine has an effect on events. Buddhist ninefold lists are a separate matter, since they come from different texts and doctrines.
Because “Hindu” covers a wide range of regional and sectarian practice, none of what follows is universal. Emphasis changes between regions, sects and periods, and the same set may be explained differently in different communities.
The Navagraha: nine celestial bodies
The Navagraha, “nine grahas”, are a standard set in Indian astronomy and astrology and in temple worship. The word graha means something like “seizer” or “that which grasps”. The nine are:
- Surya (the Sun)
- Chandra (the Moon)
- Mangala (Mars)
- Budha (Mercury)
- Brihaspati (Jupiter)
- Shukra (Venus)
- Shani (Saturn)
- Rahu
- Ketu
The first seven correspond to the visible bodies that also gave the days of the week their names, an arrangement that connects to the origins of the seven-day week. Rahu and Ketu are different: they are associated with the points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s apparent path, the lunar nodes, which are connected with eclipses. In myth they are a demon’s head and tail. Many South Indian temples have a shrine to the nine as a group, and worshippers make offerings to them.
Astrology in the Indian tradition uses the Navagraha in its charts. As elsewhere, that is a belief system, and astrology has not been shown to predict anything. The astronomical side, the movements of bodies across the sky, can be observed and calculated independently.
Navaratri and the nine forms of Durga
Navaratri, “nine nights”, is a major festival honouring the goddess in her many forms, held in the autumn and, in some traditions, also in spring. Its nine nights are traditionally assigned to nine forms of Durga, the Navadurga:
- Shailaputri
- Brahmacharini
- Chandraghanta
- Kushmanda
- Skandamata
- Katyayani
- Kalaratri
- Mahagauri
- Siddhidatri
Each night has its own colour, prayers and themes in common practice, although regional customs differ, and the story told about the festival changes between regions. In some places the tenth day, Vijayadashami or Dussehra, is celebrated as a victory day. In other traditions, a similar nine-night structure appears in other settings; the nine nights of Norse myth are an unrelated tradition, and any resemblance is a coincidence of a convenient number.
The nine rasas
Indian classical aesthetics developed a theory of rasa, the emotional flavour that a work of drama, dance or poetry aims to evoke in an audience. The foundational treatise, the Natyashastra, attributed to Bharata, lists eight rasas: love or beauty (shringara), laughter (hasya), compassion (karuna), anger (raudra), heroism (vira), fear (bhayanaka), disgust (bibhatsa) and wonder (adbhuta). A ninth, peace or tranquillity (shanta), was added in later tradition and is widely accepted today, giving the “nine rasas” familiar from dance and music.
The number here describes a classification of moods in art. It is not a numerological claim, and the debate about whether shanta really belongs among the rasas was a scholarly argument in its own right.
Other ninefold sets
Several more groups of nine recur in Hindu practice:
- Navaratna: a set of nine gems associated with the nine grahas in jewellery and astrology.
- Nine forms of devotion: the Bhagavata Purana lists nine ways of practising devotion to Vishnu, including hearing, chanting, remembering and surrender.
- Nine openings of the body: a phrase used in some texts, such as in discussions of the body as a “city of nine gates”.
These do not all share one origin, and each has to be read in its own text.
Why nine?
Nine is the largest single digit and, in Indian place-value notation, the last before the digits start over with a new place. Some writers have connected this with nine as a symbol of completeness, and with the idea of cycles. That is a plausible modern reading, but the traditions above mostly present their nines as given facts of their lists: there are nine planets because that is how the grahas are counted, not because nine was selected for its symbolism.
Nine is also prominent in other cultures, from the nine Muses of Greece to the Egyptian Ennead, a company of nine gods. Those traditions are covered under nine in world traditions, and each should be understood in its own cultural context. In Thailand, for example, nine has a separate set of auspicious associations, discussed under Thai auspicious nine.
Reading the evidence
The safest summary is that nine functions in Hindu tradition as a convenient grouping, with sets that vary in origin from astronomy to ritual to aesthetics. Their meaning comes from the stories, texts and practices attached to each set, and any broader claim that nine “means” something universal goes beyond what the sources say.