ceremonially worshipping young unmarried girls as manifestations of the Divine Mother — is widely attested across India and suggests that the Kanya-worship tradition is of considerable antiquity. References to reverence for young maidens and the ritual feeding and honoring of girls occur in folk customs and in later Puranic and tantric texts, indicating that the roots of the practice probably reach back many centuries, perhaps linked to ancient Shakti cults. Local village observances and temple rituals that formally celebrate Kanya Poojan most often appear around Navaratri (especially on Ashtami or Navami), but the precise form and rites vary regionally. It is therefore possible that a simple form of Kanya reverence existed from very early times, while the fully elaborated ceremonial procedures, temple associations and written prescriptions were standardized later — for example during the early medieval period — with continuing local adaptations thereafter.