Dussehara (Dhurga Festival) in Varanasi

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Dussehara or Durga Pooja is a festival celebrated in varying forms across Nepal and India. It is celebrated on the tenth day of the bright fortnight (Shukla Paksha) of the Hindu autumn month of Ashvin or Ashwayuja, and is the grand culmination of the 10-day annual Navaratri ('nine nights') festival. In 2010 this is October 14 to 17.

It is also known as Vijayadashami, Dasara, Dashahara, Navaratri, and Durgotsav and of course Dhurga (Dhurga Devi is the Goddess).

In India, the harvest season begins at this time; and as mother earth is the source of all food, the Mother Goddess is invoked to start the new harvest season and to reactivate the vigor and fertility of the soil. This is done through religious performances and rituals which invoke cosmic forces that are believed to rejuvenate the soil.

I decided to spend my Dussehara in Varanasi, where statues of the Goddess Dhurga (after being displayed in specially built areas with often palatial edifice entries) are submerged in the waters of the Ganges river (Oct 17 and 18). These statues are made with clay, and the pooja (prayer and offereings invoking holy blessings) is performed with turmeric and other pooja items, which are powerful disinfectants and mixed in the river waters. This is believed to make the water useful for the farmers and to yield better crops.

This was not my first time in Varanasi - it is a favourite and special place for me - I looked up some old friends. (Note: I have a blog about Varanasi in my “Why I love India” series).

I noted in the local paper that there is a big push on this year to get people to stop using toxic materials in the creation of the statues. Thousands of statues are thrown into the Ganges - so you can imagine the effect on the river if they are using toxic chemicals in the paint etc..

On my first night - I decide to go back to a good local Darba (restaurant) for dinner - I just walk in and get guided upstairs - not noticing that I have just pushed ahead of a long line of men in the street waiting to enter!! I start to notice that the place has changed! No-one is taking my order - they are simply serving up a standard Tali (this is a meal all over India which is usually batched - served in temples and eating halls and available in many Darbas - rice and dahl and vegetable and chapatti - and you get to top-up as much as you like). OK - meal was not great but passable. I am sitting with some pretty simply guys who speak no English - the place is full. The guy serving the food up reminds me that I should not waste any food (which is peculiar and makes me wonders even more about the place). I finish up - do down to pay and get told “no money”. What? Hm…… THEN it is explained to me that I have wondered into a special FREE feed event put of for poor and destitute people as a special seva (service) for Dussehara!!! (I make a contributory donation at the temple next door and skive away with my tail between my legs - so to speak!!!).

This year (note Pakistan floods and Leh Cloudburst) has experienced a very unusually high volume monsoon. The Ganges recently peaked at Varanasi as a result - with tons of silt/mud being deposited all over the ghats (steps leading to the river). For the days I was there, men were hosing the mud off by pumping water from the river. The river itself was dirty brown (not that this stopped me from having my usual bath in the holy river! One has to no? - actually the river is none-the-less at it’s cleanest at this time - fast flowing water from the mountains).

Dussehara is the festival of Victory of Good over Evil. Buses, trucks and machines in factories are all decorated. It is also treated as the National Labor Day of India. I’d like to explore this some more because there is a very big issue in India around salaries being set at adequate levels of ‘a living wage’ (in Australia, Labor Day includes a recognition and celebration of hard won conditions for workers including decent remuneration).

It was also on Dussehara that Shri Ram (7th incarnation of Vishnu), killed the great demon Ravana who had abducted Ram's wife Sita to his kingdom of Lanka (Sri Lanka). The war against Ravana lasted for ten days. The entire narrative can be read in the epic Ramayana, a Hindu scripture of immense significance.
I was lucky (I think!) to be invited by my friend Kahianya (a Varanasi boat wallah) to come one night across the river to the Maharaja Fort with about 10 other locals (they had booked him for a month of doing this - each night up to full moon in October another chapter of the Ramayana is enacted in the open with great aplomb). So off I went - we left at 3.30pm. That particular night was the night of the killing of Ravana. We traveled to an open field where thousands had gathered around the stage - next to which was a 6 storey high effigy of Ravana made of bamboo and covered with painted paper. (Unfortunately it was dusk when we arrived and photographs were just not possible on my cheapie).

The play was laboriously slow - with directors reading the Ramayana as they went so as to tell the actors what to do. Ravana keeps laughing at the early attempts to destroy him - and this involved half a dozen brave (if not stupid!) men perched up on the effigy’s shoulders manipulating his movable mouth to laugh. These guys were playing with death it seemed - it was a long way down! Then when Hunuman (the Monkey god) climbs up and starts bashing Ravana - down comes first his nose (with red liquid poured from the remaining nose to show blood effect); then his arms. Finally his head is sawn off (by the brave/stupid guys!) and finally his torso. But all these things are dropping on the ground - the crowd has kinda moved away but …….. The torso drops and rolls about 5 meters (into the crowd). Don’t know if anyone was hurt ……!!!!

During all this the local Maharaja (now a figure head only but with a large palace and guards etc. etc.) sits on one of four elephants with his family and entourage watching the event.

There was one incident worthy of note (for me anyway) on the way over in the boat. There is this substance called Kohl which is an ancient eye cosmetic. It was made by grinding galena (lead sulfide) and other ingredients. Today the trend is to make it without poisonous ingredients. It is widely used in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and South Asia to darken the eyelids and as mascara for the eyelashes. It is used mostly by women, but also some men and children - definitely by the local men in Varanasi! So one of the guys (after everyone has been passed the container and applied the stuff to their eyes) leans over to put some in mine. OK - in for a pound, in for a penny!

Oh F#$K! This stuff is like putting tiger balm into your eyes - and I think he put in more than usual! It STANG - and I could not open my eyes for 30 minutes. It made my nose run - good clean out of the sinuses. When I could open my eyes and see again - there was a cooling sensation (definitely like tiger balm). So a week later I STILL have some traces of black eyelashes! Been there done that - never again methinks!
Of course while in Varanasi - I consume my daily Lassi (sweet yoghurt drink - see blog on Lassis - Varanasi get’s my vote for the best Lassi in India).

Dhurga was apparently not the only thing being thrown into the river on my last day in Varanasi. A body went floating by. Bodies - and this one was a light skinned person dressed in modern gear - are not supposed to normally be floating by like that (except babies and holy men and some other categories). They (if dead!) are burnt at the burning ghats beside the river and their ashes thrown into the river. So amidst all the mayhem going on down at the river, along floats this body - and no-one giving a dam as it floated past. A little disturbing - and I just thought some foul play taken place someplace upstream. This is India!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayadashami

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Photos

Dhurga Edifice
While this one is in Bhubaneswar (my home town) - these edifices are built all over Varanasi to house the special displays of Dhurga killing Ravana.

Dhurga factory!
Dhurga statues are ordered at these special workshops weeks ahead of the festival - then carried to each neighbourhood display across Varanasi.

Dhurga parade
One of the many street parades to mark Dhurga in Varanasi

Dhurga display
A typical display - each one is kinda the same but all slightly different. The characters are the same - Ravana being slain by Dhurga

Clearing the mud
A huge enterprise to clear the ghats of all the mud left by the unusually high river from the big monsoon season

The Kohl look!
This is about 20 minutes AFTER I was able to open my eyes again. That's my friend Kahianya the boat wallah next to me

Local baba on way to Ramayana play
This is one of the guys in the boat I was invited to get on to take us to see the killing of Ravana chapter of the Ramayana play.

One the way to the Ramayana play
This was a subsequent day (I only went one night) where Kahianya is ferrying the same locals to another chapter of the play across the river.

On the way to the Ganga
One of thousands of street parades to carry Dhurga to the river for her emerging (dumping)

In she goes
One of the many thousand Dhurga statues ceremonially dumped into the Ganga as a 'gift' back to Mother Ganga

The Burning Ghats
This is one of two special areas for funeral rites - the other (further upstream) also has an electric crematorium as wood is scarce, polluting, and expensive for poor people.

Comments

[Sandi]

I enjoy your blog Paul - who is the other person!!

[Marguerite]

Fabulous Varanasi
Great account of Durga Paul - remind me to tell you how I almost got killed during Durga in Khagrachari. Oh, should I send you some mascara to keep up the smouldering eye look. Glad they took care of you at the 'destitute dining'........very amusing. And a BIG call, best lassis in Varanasi.......now that's worth going back to Benares. Hugs Marguerite