Dussehra
Vijaydashmi, which is more popularly known as Dussehra, is an important and major Indian festival celebrated on the tenth day of Ashwin month according to the Hindu calendar. The day is celebrated to commemorate the killing of Ravana by Lord Rama. The day also celebrates the killing of demon Mahisasur by Goddess Durga. Dussehra celebration thus spreads the message of the victory of good over evil. Besides its religious importance, the Dussehra festival is also a ritual idiom of kingship symbolically representing the consecration and legitimisation of royal and political power. It assumes various local forms, depending on the various former kingdoms in which it is performed.
The history of Dussehra dates back to the 17th century, when local King Jagat Singh installed an idol of Raghunath on his throne as a mark of penance. After this, Lord Raghunath was declared as the ruling deity of the valley .He also provided village deities with land rights, requiring them to pay an annual tribute to Raghunath and to participate in the festival. In the pre –colonial period the villagers and their deities had to visit the capital, to take part in the rath yatra and to attend a darbar, a royal assembly held by the king during Dussehra. Participation by the village deities was compulsory, and defaulting deities had to pay an annual tribute to Raghunathji (nazrana). Dussehra in Kullu is a weeklong international fair held every year. Kullu which is well known as Valley of living Gods , marks the commencement of this festival on the tenth day itself which is celebrated for the next seven days .On the first day of Dussehra Goddess Hadimba of Manali comes down to Kullu to bless the members of the royal family. .She is the Goddess of the royal family of Kullu and is considered grandmother of king of Kullu. .
The proceedings of the Kullu Dussehra start in her presence. However Raghunathji is the chief deity who presides over Dussehra festival, interestingly it is mandatory for all the village deities brought to the capital by villagers to attend the Dussehra celebrations at Kullu in order to pay homage to the King and to the Royal God .Some of them enter the festival square rocking frenziedly and the devotees holding them rejoice, singing and dancing in trance. The palanquin of Raghunathji is brought out to the festival square and put in the ratha. The celebration includes a dazzling decorated chariot carrying the idol of Raghunathji (Rama) which is pulled from its place in Dhalpur Maidan to another spot across the Maidan by big ropes. The pulling of ropes which forms a huge procession is considered as sacred by local people. On the last day the chariot is taken to the banks of River Beas where a pile of wood and grass are burnt symbolizing the burning of Lanka.
The festival of Dussehra in Kullu Valley is unique in two ways –firstly because elsewhere in other parts of our country ,Gods and deities are worshipped and are permanently fixed to the temples , however in Kullu, the idol of the deities are not fixed to the temples but instead on special occasions like Dussehra come out in ornately decorated palanquins . In the procession there is a fixed hierarchy of what place the local deity will occupy .The palanquin of Lord Raghunathji is on the ‘ratha’ who is obviously in the centre-but there are often skirmishes as to which deity gets to occupy the immediate left and right position of lord Raghunath .In Kullu, village deities represent a very important element in the perception people have of their history and of their regional and territorial identity. What is perceived here as being specific to the area is the strong attachment of the population to their village deities (Devi/Devta). They are indeed considered to be local kings exercising their authority and justice over all those villagers who, independent of their caste, live inside their territorial jurisdictions –a village or a wider territory.
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