50 Fun Facts About Dussehra

Vijayadashami, the formal name of Dussehra, joins the Sanskrit words vijaya and dashami, which together mean what?

Victory on the tenth day is the literal sense, and the shorter name Dussehra comes from dashahara, a second compound meaning simply 'tenth day'. Both names point to the date, not to any one story.

The giant Ravana effigies set alight on Dussehra evening are stuffed with what, so that they burst as the flames climb?

Firecrackers packed inside the bamboo-and-paper figures turn Ravan Dahan into a controlled explosion, and the tallest fairground effigies now top the height of a six-storey building. The biggest burnings draw crowds of many thousands.

In 1956 B. R. Ambedkar chose Vijayadashami to lead 600,000 followers at Nagpur into which religion?

Buddhism gained roughly 600,000 converts in a single day, and Ambedkar had the crowd recite 22 vows renouncing caste. Ambedkarites still mark the date each year as Dhammachakra Pravartan Din.

Besides Ravana himself, which two members of his family are burned as effigies at Dussehra's Ravan Dahan?

Kumbhakarna and Meghnad, Ravana's giant brother and his warrior son, go up on the same bonfire, so three figures burn rather than one. Vibhishana, the brother who defected to Rama, is spared.

Which festival, Nepal's longest, has elders press a tika of vermilion onto the foreheads of younger relatives?

Dashain is Nepal's counterpart to Dussehra, and the tika blessing is handed out in workplaces and even the presidential palace on the main day. Families travel across the country for it.

Mysore Dasara, a ten-day royal spectacle first held at Srirangapatna, is the state festival of which Indian state?

Karnataka calls it Nada Habba, the state festival, and the celebration passed its 400th anniversary in 2010. Its roots lie in the Mahanavami feasts of the Vijayanagara emperors.

Dussehra is fixed by the lunar month of Ashvin, so in which pair of Gregorian months does it always fall?

September or October is when the waxing-moon count reaches day ten in Ashvin, the seventh month of the Hindu lunisolar year. The date drifts by weeks from one year to the next.

The Navaratri that ends at Dussehra is called Sharada Navaratri, a name that refers to which season?

Autumn is what Sharada means, and this post-monsoon Navaratri is the most celebrated of the seasonal ones. A spring Navaratri in the month of Chaitra ends with Ram Navami instead.

Nepal's biggest Hindu festival, which ends on the full moon of Kojagrat Purnima, runs for how many days?

Fifteen days makes it the longest festival in Nepal's calendar, though only the first, seventh-to-eleventh and last days see the big rituals. Demand for meat soars across the fortnight of feasting.

Durga Puja ends on Vijayadashami with a procession in which the clay images of the goddess are finally what?

Immersed in water, the unfired clay dissolves, and the goddess is understood to have gone home to Shiva. In one city the idol has been carried out on boats for more than 150 years.

Which observance late in Navratri has South Indians clean, garland and worship their tools, vehicles and books?

Ayudha Puja means 'worship of tools', and everything from a soldier's weapons to a student's pens gets a smear of sandalwood paste and vermilion after a polish. Vehicles are painted or polished first.

Durga Puja opens with Mahalaya, when Bengali Hindus perform tarpana by offering water and food to whom?

Their ancestors receive the offerings, and only after the dead are honoured is the goddess invited down for the ten days that follow. Mahalaya is also when Bengal wakes before dawn for a famous two-hour recital.

Telangana's Bathukamma, ending on Durgashtami, stacks what in concentric layers shaped like a temple gopuram?

Flowers from the wild plains, many with medicinal uses, are built into a cone by the women of a household and finally floated on a lake. A record stack rose more than 63 feet.

South Indians venerate books, pens and musical instruments at the close of Navratri chiefly in honour of which goddess?

Saraswati, goddess of learning, is the reason textbooks are set aside untouched for a day and reopened on Vijayadashami. Lakshmi and Parvati share the altar but not the top billing.

In the Mahabharata, Vijayadashami is the day Arjuna dropped his disguise at Virata to rout which army?

The Kauravas attacked Virata in the Pandavas' last year of hiding, and Arjuna beat the entire force after retrieving his weapons from their hiding place. Dussehra thus carries a Mahabharata story as well as a Ramayana one.

Durga Puja's sandhi puja, at the turn of Ashtami into Navami, offers how many lotuses and lights as many lamps?

108 lotuses recall the legend that Rama, finding only 107, offered one of his own eyes before Durga stopped him. The rite falls at the exact junction of the two days, so its clock time shifts every year.

Because the Pandavas ended their exile on Vijayadashami, Hindus hold the day auspicious for doing what?

Starting a new venture on the day needs no astrologer, which is why first lessons are given and new businesses are opened on it across India. It is one of the few dates treated as auspicious all day long.

Which tree's leaves, nicknamed sonpatta, do families in Maharashtra hand out on Dussehra as a token of gold?

Apta leaves, from Bauhinia racemosa, are exchanged as symbolic gold, and even the Warli and Kokna tribal communities keep the custom. Sonpatta simply means 'leaves of gold'.

The golden howdah that carries the goddess's idol on Mysore Dasara's lead elephant weighs roughly how much?

750 kg is the weight of the howdah, a gilded wooden frame that rides on one tusker's back for the whole procession, a job one elephant held for 13 years straight. The idol inside is the festival's real guest of honour.

Mysore Dasara marks the slaying of the buffalo demon by which goddess, a form of Durga carried on the lead elephant?

Chamundeshwari's idol is the only passenger in the golden howdah, and the royal festival has revered her as the warrior goddess since its founding in 1610. Some texts simply call her Durga.

Which royal house of Mysore began its Dasara in 1610 and still has a Maharaja preside over a palace durbar?

The Wodeyars inherited the festival from the Vijayanagara emperors they once served, and in 2014, between reigns, the royal sword was placed on the golden throne instead. The durbar tradition dates from 1805.

Mysore Dasara's procession ends at Bannimantap, where the evening of Vijayadashami brings which closing spectacle?

A torchlight parade, the Panjina Kavayatthu, closes the festival on the grounds where the sacred banni tree is worshipped. Bike parades now share the same arena.

Kullu Dussehra at Dhalpur maidan in Himachal Pradesh begins on Vijayadashami, when others end, and lasts how long?

Seven days of fair and procession draw an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 visitors into the valley, and the state government has branded it an international festival. Its origins go back to the 1600s.

Kullu Dussehra centres on which god, whose idol Raja Jagat Singh placed on his own throne as an act of penance?

Raghunath, a form of Rama, was declared ruling deity of the valley after the king, cursed by a man he had hounded to his death, made himself merely the god's regent. Village gods are still carried in to pay him homage.

Bastar Dussehra in Chhattisgarh, honouring a local goddess rather than Rama's win over Ravana, runs how many days?

75 days makes it the longest Dussehra anywhere, and its climax has a huge wooden chariot hauled through Jagdalpur by up to 400 people. Rites run from the dark fortnight of Shravan to the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight of Ashvin.

Most North Indian Ramlila plays follow which 16th-century verse retelling of the Ramayana by the poet Tulsidas?

Ramcharitmanas was written in Awadhi rather than Sanskrit, which is why villagers could act it out, and tradition says Tulsidas's pupil Megha Bhagat staged the first such play in 1625. Fiji and Mauritius still perform it.

Delhi's Ramlila Maidan was a pond until the 1930s; the Ramlila moved there from the riverbank behind which monument?

The Red Fort's sandy riverbank hosted Delhi's first Ramlila, staged in the 1800s by Hindu soldiers of the Mughal army. A small pond survives inside the ground as a reminder of the old lake.

Indentured labourers carried Ramlila abroad; it is still staged in Fiji, Mauritius and which Caribbean nation?

Trinidad and Tobago stages open-air Ramlilas every year, a legacy of indentured workers shipped from India under colonial rule. Guyana and Suriname inherited the same tradition.

Bengali families wake at 4 a.m. on Mahalaya for the Mahishasuramardini programme, broadcast since the 1950s by whom?

All India Radio's two-hour recital of chants by Birendra Krishna Bhadra and Pankaj Kumar Mullick has opened Durga Puja since the 1950s, and a pre-dawn wake-up to hear it is a ritual in itself. The text is the Devi Mahatmyam.

The dhunuchi naach danced before Durga's idol during Durga Puja is performed while holding what?

An incense burner, smouldering with dried coconut and incense, is swung to the beat of the dhak drums, and at home pujas married women balance the burners on head and hands. The smoke is itself an offering.

At Kerala's Vidyarambham rite on Vijayadashami, a child's first letters are written in what?

Grains of rice piled on a leaf take the first alphabet, written by a parent or teacher, and music and dance lessons in Kerala begin the same way. Temples at Thrissur and Panachikkad are famous for it.

Tamil Nadu's Navaratri golu sets its dolls on stepped shelves whose count is traditionally what?

An odd number of tiers, usually three to eleven, is the rule, with gods on the top step and everyday scenes below. On the last evening one doll is symbolically put to sleep to close the display.

In Rajasthan's Mewar, honouring both Durga and Rama, Vijayadashami was a major festival for which warrior community?

Rajputs of Mewar have honoured both the goddess and the hero on the day, where elsewhere in the north Rama alone takes the stage, with the effigy burning as the climax. Mewar's rulers kept both in the rites.

During Nepal's biggest festival, seeds sown in a kalash on day one sprout into a yellow grass called what?

Jamara grows five or six inches tall by the main day and is given to younger relatives along with the tika as a blessing of abundance. Barley is the usual seed.

Why, by tradition, do Nepalis fly kites from their rooftops in the run-up to their biggest festival?

Asking the gods to stop rain is the folk reason, since the festival marks the monsoon's end, and a cut kite string draws shouts of 'changa chet'. The sky over Kathmandu fills with them.

Which Rajasthan city's Dussehra fair, begun in 1723 under Maharao Durjanshal Singh Hada, burns towering effigies?

Kota's fair now runs for more than two weeks, and the effigies it burns have climbed past 20 metres in recent years. The Hadoti region treats it as its signature event.

Telangana's Bathukamma stack is crowned with Gauramma, a small idol of the goddess Gowri made from what?

Turmeric is lifted off the stack before it is floated away, and married women then rub a paste of it on their mangalsutra as protection for their husbands. Nothing of the idol is wasted.

Hindu texts count how many seasonal Navaratris a year, of which the Sharada one ending at Dussehra is most celebrated?

Four Navaratris exist on paper, one per season, but only the spring one in Chaitra, ending at Ram Navami, draws crowds like its post-monsoon sibling. The Magha and Ashadha ones are far less observed.

Which elephant carried Mysore Dasara's golden howdah for 13 years before Arjuna took over the 2012 procession?

Balarama inherited the howdah in 1998 after his predecessor Drona was electrocuted in Nagarahole forest, and the two between them carried the goddess for 30 years. His successor Arjuna died in 2023 fighting a wild tusker.

Mahanavami reliefs on the Hazara Rama temple and a 'Mahanavami Dibba' platform survive in which ruined capital?

Hampi's Great Platform, at one of the highest points of the royal centre, is also known simply as the 'Dasara' monument, and Mysore's royal festival descends directly from Vijayanagara's. Nearby excavations found a stepped tank.

Bastar Dussehra pays homage to which goddess, whose chariot is hauled through Jagdalpur by as many as 400 people?

Danteshwari is the tribal region's presiding deity, and the festival's worship sessions treat the arms of her idol as divine elements, with no Ravana effigy anywhere in sight. Maharaja Purushottam Deo began the rites in the 1400s.

At Bengal's Sindur Khela on Vijayadashami, women dab vermilion on each other's shankha, pala and noa; what are those?

Bangles of conch shell, coral and iron mark a married Bengali Hindu woman, so reddening them is a prayer for each other's long married life. The goddess gets her own sindoor first, on forehead and feet.

The Nabapatrika at Durga Puja, a bundle of nine plants draped as a bride, is popularly mistaken for a lone what?

Banana tree is the popular reading because the plantain trunk dominates the bundle, which is why Bengalis call the figure 'Kolabou', the banana bride. Each of the nine plants stands for a form of divine energy.

Nepal's national Phulpati bundle reaches Kathmandu after a three-day walk of about 169 km from which town?

Gorkha was the seat of the Shah kings who unified Nepal, and until the monarchy fell in 2008 the bundle was received at the royal palace; it now goes to the president's residence instead. The walk is a two-century-old tradition.

Kathmandu's Taleju Temple opens its gates to the public only once a year, on which day of Nepal's biggest festival?

The ninth day, Maha Navami, is when thousands file into the temple to honour the goddess, and it is also the day artisans and drivers bless their tools and vehicles. The night before is called Kal Ratri.

At Madikeri Dasara in Kodagu, on which part of the body is the Karaga, a vessel of nine kinds of grain, carried?

The shaved head of the bearer takes the Karaga from the first night of Navaratri, and the town's Mariamma temples each send one, so the festival opens with a set of them. Ten decorated floats then depict gods slaying demons.

The Ramlila at Ramnagar, across the Ganges from Varanasi and sponsored by its Maharaja, runs for how many days?

31 days lets the whole epic be recited rather than the usual ten-day digest, on stages scattered around the town and named for places in the story. The Kashi Naresh opens it in silk and brocade.

In Patna, Bihar's capital, crowds gather to watch a huge Ravana effigy burn at which historic ground?

Gandhi Maidan, Patna's historic open ground, hosts the city's biggest effigy burning of the year, with Ravana going up in flames before a vast crowd. The city's Ramlila troupes perform in the run-up.

Nepal's biggest festival closes on Kojagrat Purnima, a full-moon night whose name literally asks what?

Who is awake is the question Lakshmi is said to ask as she tours the earth that night, so families sit up late, often playing cards, in the hope of her blessing. It is also called Sharad Purnima.

Kerala's name for the day when tools and books are set aside for worship until Vijayadashami is what?

Pujaveppu means 'keeping implements for veneration', and the books and tools stay untouched until they are taken up again. The same pause is observed in offices and workshops.