Dawn darshan is the calm one

at almost every shrine on this circuit. By nine the queues have formed, and on weekends, Tuesdays and Fridays — the goddess''s days — they are heavy all day.

Vaishno Devi has its own rhythm, and it is nocturnal

Most pilgrims start the climb from Katra in the late evening and walk through the night, arriving at the cave around dawn. The path is lit, lined with tea stalls, and busy the whole way, and the walk in the cool dark with thousands of people calling out to the goddess is the experience — far more than the few seconds inside the cave itself. Allow six to eight hours up at a walking pace, plus queueing at the top.

Aarti happens morning and evening

and is where the feeling is. At Kalighat and Kamakhya the evening aarti is loud, close and intense. Get there early and find a place to stand.

Afternoons

many shrines close for a few hours. Plan around it.

Navratri changes everything

Nine nights, twice a year — around March–April and September–October — when every Devi shrine in India runs at capacity. In Bengal the autumn one becomes Durga Puja and the whole of Kolkata turns into an open-air gallery of pandals. In Gujarat it becomes garba, danced nightly until very late. It is the best time to see goddess worship and the worst time to try to move quickly.

Ambubachi at Kamakhya

, in June, closes the temple for three days and then reopens it to a vast gathering of pilgrims and ascetics. Extraordinary, and not a comfortable visit.

Himachal — four in three days

Jwalamukhi, Chintpurni, Naina Devi and Bajreshwari at Kangra sit within a few hours of each other in the Kangra and Bilaspur hills. Fly to Dharamshala or Chandigarh, hire a car, and do the loop. Add Kangra fort and the Dhauladhar views and it is one of the pleasantest short pilgrimages in India.

Jammu — Vaishno Devi

Katra is the base town, about fifty kilometres from Jammu, which has an airport and a railway station; Katra now has its own station too. From Katra it is roughly twelve kilometres of paved, well-lit, continuously busy path up to the cave shrine at around 1,580 metres. Ponies, palanquins, battery cars on part of the route and helicopter services to Sanjhichhat all operate. Most pilgrims walk it through the night.

Kolkata and Bengal

Kalighat is in the middle of the city and reachable by metro. Tarapith is about four and a half hours north-west, Bakreshwar nearby, and Dakshineswar and Belur Math — not Shakti Peethas but essential to Bengali goddess worship — are on the Hooghly on the northern edge of Kolkata. Four days does the lot.

Assam — Kamakhya

On Nilachal hill overlooking Guwahati, about twenty minutes from the city and the airport. Easy to reach, and combines with Kaziranga and Majuli into a proper Assam trip.

Maharashtra

Tulja Bhavani at Tuljapur and Mahalakshmi at Kolhapur are roughly five hours apart in the south of the state, with Saptashrungi near Nashik further north.

The far south

Kanyakumari at the tip, three hours from Thiruvananthapuram, where the sunrise and sunset over three seas are the reason half the visitors come.

If you have one week,

take Himachal for the scenery or Bengal and Assam for the intensity. They are very different trips.

Go in the cool season, and consider Navratri deliberately

October to March is comfortable everywhere on this circuit. Navratri, in spring and autumn, is when these shrines are at their most alive and their most crowded. Both are legitimate choices; make it on purpose rather than by accident.

For Vaishno Devi, prepare for a night walk

Twelve kilometres uphill, paved the whole way, but it is still twelve kilometres and a climb of over a thousand metres. Walk regularly for a few weeks beforehand. The yatra requires a registration slip issued at Katra before you start the climb, and RFID cards are issued to pilgrims — carry your photo ID. Ponies, palanquins and helicopter services are available for those who cannot walk.

Know that some shrines practise animal sacrifice

At Kalighat, Kamakhya, Tarapith and a number of other Shakti Peethas, goats are still sacrificed as offerings. This is legal, it is ancient, and it is done in a designated area that you can generally avoid — but you may encounter it, and travellers who are unprepared find it distressing. If it would upset you, ask on arrival where the sacrifice area is and stay away from it. Do not photograph it, and do not lecture anyone about it.

Expect crowds that press

Devi shrine queues are among the most physically compressed in India. Keep your bag in front of you, keep children close, and understand that the pushing is not aggression. If you are claustrophobic, go at opening time or not at all.

Dress modestly and in something you can move in

Red is traditional and welcome if you want to.

Carry an offering, or buy one at the gate

Red cloth, a coconut, flowers, bangles, sindoor — the standard tray is sold outside every shrine.

For the Himachal circuit, be ready for hill roads and cold mornings

, and note that Jwalamukhi''s flames are the deity — there is no image in the sanctum, which surprises visitors who are looking for one.

Read a little about Sati and Daksha before you go

The whole circuit is one story told in fifty-one places, and without it the shrines are just crowded temples.

Modest clothing you can move and queue in

Shoulders and knees covered, nothing loose enough to catch in a crowd. Red is traditional at Devi shrines and always appropriate.

Comfortable slip-on shoes

, plus proper walking shoes for Vaishno Devi and the hill shrines. Socks for cold stone at the Himachal temples in winter.

A small cross-body bag kept in front of you

These are the most compressed queues in Indian pilgrimage and pickpockets work them.

A scarf

— for covering your head, for the cold, for the dust.

For Vaishno Devi specifically

a light warm layer for the night walk (it gets cold above Ardhkuwari even in summer), a torch though the path is lit, water, and your photo ID for the yatra registration slip. Cloakrooms at the base take bags; carry as little as possible up.

For the Himachal circuit in winter

a proper jacket, warm hat and gloves. Naina Devi and Bajreshwari are cold in the mornings.

Sun protection

for the southern and Maharashtra shrines.

Water bottle, rehydration salts and a basic medical kit

with your own prescriptions. Blister care if you are walking to Vaishno Devi.

Small notes

for offerings and the shoe stand.

Leave behind

leather where you can, anything valuable, and any expectation of moving quickly through a queue.

Expect the darshan to be very brief and quite physical

At Vaishno Devi, Kalighat and Kamakhya you will be moved past the sanctum in seconds by attendants whose job it is to keep several thousand people an hour flowing. This is not rudeness. Say what you came to say before you reach the front.

Offerings are handed to the priest

, not placed by you. Red cloth, coconut, flowers, sindoor — hand the tray over, and it will be offered and partly returned to you as prasad.

Take sindoor with your right hand

if it is offered, and apply it to your forehead. Refusing prasad is discourteous; taking it and discarding it visibly is worse.

Do not photograph inside the sanctum

, and at several shrines phones must be deposited at the entrance — there are counters. At Vaishno Devi, cameras and phones are not permitted in the cave and the cloakroom system at the base is the practical answer.

On animal sacrifice: do not photograph it, do not film it, and do not express an opinion about it on the premises

It takes place at a designated spot at a small number of these shrines. If you would rather not see it, ask and avoid that corner. If you do see it, treat it as you would any religious practice you did not grow up with.

At Tarapith, the cremation ground behind the temple is an active tantric site

, not an attraction. Sadhus live and practise there. You may walk through respectfully; do not photograph the practitioners, do not touch anything, and do not go at night.

At Kamakhya, the sanctum is a natural cleft in the rock reached by a steep dark stairway

, and there is no image — the goddess is the stone and the spring. It is close, hot and crowded. Keep moving.

Menstruating women are traditionally asked not to enter

many Hindu temples — with the notable and pointed exception of Kamakhya, where the goddess''s own menstruation is the central celebration. Practice varies; nobody will interrogate you.

Be careful and kind about the emotional register

People come to Devi shrines to ask for children, for health, for a marriage, for a life to change. You will see people weeping and shouting. Give them room and do not make them a photograph.

Vaishno Devi is a walk, not a temple visit, and the walk is the point

Twelve kilometres uphill through the night, with tea stalls and shrines and thousands of people calling "Jai Mata Di" the whole way. The cave at the top gives you a few seconds. Everyone who comes back talking about Vaishno Devi is talking about the path. Set out in the evening, take it slowly, stop for tea, and do not rush to the top.

Do not go to Kamakhya expecting a statue

The sanctum is a cleft in the rock with a spring in it, down a steep stone stairway in the dark, and pilgrims touch the water. Visitors looking for an image are confused; visitors who know what they are looking at find it one of the most powerful places in India.

Jwalamukhi has no idol either

Natural flames burn from fissures in the rock and those flames are the goddess. Akbar is said to have tried to extinguish them and failed. Knowing that before you walk in changes the visit entirely.

Choose Navratri or avoid it, but decide

During the nine nights these shrines are the most alive religious spaces in India and also the most crowded. In Kolkata the autumn Navratri becomes Durga Puja, which is a city-wide art festival as much as a religious one and is genuinely one of the great festivals on earth.

Prepare yourself for the sacrifice question before you arrive

It is practised at some of these shrines. Deciding how you feel about it in advance is better than deciding in the moment.

Do Kalighat and Dakshineswar on the same day

Kalighat is the ancient Shakti Peetha in the middle of Kolkata; Dakshineswar, on the river, is where Ramakrishna served the goddess in the nineteenth century and where modern Bengali spirituality largely begins. Belur Math is across the water. Together they are the whole story of Bengali goddess worship in one day.

Do not skip the Himachal group because it is "minor"

Four goddess shrines in three days in the Kangra valley, with the Dhauladhar range behind them, is one of the most enjoyable short pilgrimages in the country and nothing like as crowded as the famous ones.

And let it be strange

This is the part of Indian religion least like anything in a textbook — red powder, tantric ascetics, a temple that closes for the goddess''s period, flames worshipped as a deity, nine million people a year climbing a hill in the dark. Do not try to tidy it into something familiar. Just watch.