Katyayani is the sixth form of Goddess Durga. Katyayani means the one who brings anger and revolt against a particular way of wrong being. Katyayani took over the devil Mahishasura after a pursuit of 9 days and finally killed him. Hence she is also called the Goddess of Anger and is worshipped as Mahishasurmardini. Generally, Goddess Katyayani is worshipped for gaining a good husband. This was started by Radha, Sita, and Rukmini. Katyayani is also called Adishakti Parashakti or Uma Katyayani Gauri Kali Haimvati Ishwari. She is referred close to the other war Goddess Bhadrakali and Chandika, who also are forms of Goddess Parvati, an incarnation of Goddess Durga.

When the demon Mahishasura made life difficult for the Gods and tried captivating them as his hostage to take over the world, the Gods went to Lord Shiva for help. Lord Shiva combined the energies of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva and gave birth to Durga Shakti. She incarnated as Katyayani when Rishi Katyayana worshipped her to take birth as War Goddess. Vamana Purana says Katyayani was born to reflect the light of the Sun through her three eyes and finish the bad on Earth using her fierce look of long, curly, black hair and 18 hands. She holds a trident, Sudarshan Chakra, Shankha, Conch Shell, dart, bow, arrow, thunderbolt, mace, Rosary, water pot, shield, sword, battle-ax, and 4 other fighting weapons from Shiva, Vishnu, Varuna, Vayu, Agni, Surya, Indra, Kubera, Brahma, Kala, and Vishwakarma respectively. She collected all these and marched towards the Mysore hill when an aide of Mahishasura saw her and went on to pass the word to Mahishasura. Mahishasura got attracted to Katyayani and offered her his love and attraction towards her. Katyayani kept a condition that she needs to fight a fair fight with him, and only if he can defeat Katyayani, Mahishasura can have her as his love interest. This raged Mahishasura and he took shape of a Mahisha (Bull), thereby the name, and started fiercely attacking Katyayani. But Katyayani knew how to evade all attacks thrown at her. She was waiting for the right moment to attack and the moment Mahishasura slipped a little from his stance, Katyayani jumped from her lion fiercely with a javelin in her hands and threw down Mahishasura. She then cut off his head with the trident and waved it in the air as a sign of victory. This is why she is called Mahishasurmardini, or the one who killed Mahishasura. This made her a war Goddess and she was worshipped on the sixth day of Navratri to commemorate her victory over the evil.

Benefits of Katyayani Pooja:

1. To gain fierce confidence in anything you take up to perform
2. To make calculated and informed decisions at the right time
3. To learn to strike once but with complete preparation
4. To gain the confidence to have an uninterrupted stand in the decision-making process
5. To get a good husband for marriage
6. To give up on worldly materialistic pleasure (Moh Maya) and attain Salvation