Dussehra

(variant of Dashahara, “ten days”)
Festival celebrated on the tenth day of
the bright (waxing) half of the lunar
month of Ashvin (September–October),
and one of the most important celebrations in the year. The festival celebrates
the victory of good over evil, and is also
known as Vijaya Dashami (“Victory
Tenth”). The festival has two charter
myths, both of which mark the ultimate
triumph of good over evil. One charter
comes from the mythology of the
Goddess, and marks this as the day on
which Durga (form of the Hindu Mother
Goddess) slays the buffalo-demon
Mahishasura. This episode comes from
the Devimahatmya, and is the central
theme of the text—the goddess is born
to destroy Mahishasura when the gods
cannot, and the struggle between the
two is the climax of the text. Since the
nine days preceding Dussehra are the
fall Navaratri, the “nine nights” spent in
worship of the Goddess, it seems reasonable that the tenth and concluding
day would be marked by the climactic
moment in the Devimahatmya, the
most important source of mythology for
the Goddess.
The other charter myth for this festival comes from an entirely different
source, the mythology of Rama (the seventh incarnation of Vishnu). This is celebrated as the day on which Rama slays
Ravana (demon-king of Lanka) and
regains Sita (wife of Rama) from captivity.
This victory is symbolized by burning
huge effigies of Ravana and his son
212
Dussehra
In Kulu, people celebrating the festival of Dussehra carry temple images in procession through the streets.
Meghanada (an epithet of Indrajit) on
the night of Dussehra, and these effigies
often contain fireworks to enhance their
pyrotechnic capacity. This time of year is
often celebrated with dramatic enactments of the Ramayana (the Sanskrit
epic), known as the Ram Lila. In some
cases this lasts for ten days, ending on
Dussehra; in other cases (as in the Ram
Lila in Benares, the sacred city on the
banks of the Ganges River) it will last an
entire month, with Dussehra marking
the death of Ravana.
Dussehra is a highly auspicious day,
and popular tradition holds that anything begun on this day will succeed.
Dussehra is thus a favored occasion for
initiating any important projects, beginning endeavors, or forming organizations, even if it is only a token beginning.
Dussehra also marks the beginning of
the cool season, when the end of the hot
weather and the monsoon rains bring
better conditions for military action.
Both charter myths have connections
with battle and conquest, and in earlier
times Dussehra was particularly celebrated by the royal and martial classes.
On Dussehra it was customary for soldiers to worship their weapons. Given
the festival’s martial associations and
the guarantee that all things initiated on
that day would be successful, it was also
the day of choice for rulers to send out
their armies to invade neighboring territories. Even today one of the most spectacular celebrations is in Mysore, where
the ruler presides over this festival in his
ritual position as king, even though he
no longer rules. The other great celebration is in Kulu, where all the deities in
the region journey to Kulu to celebrate
this festival (along with hordes of their
human retainers).