Dashera Vijayadashmi
About Vijaya Dashami
India is said to be the country of festivals. Throughout the world love and spirit of Indians for the celebration is unique and most famous. Indians are famous for giving shape of celebration even to a little achievement. In India you are sure to find celebrations more than the days of a year, but there are some celebrations/ festivals which attract most of the people and a huge scale of celebration, one such festival is Dashera / Dusehara/ Dasara [pronounce with many spellings], in most parts of north India this festival is celebrated as Vijaya Dashami. Dashara is one of the most famous festivals of India because
[1] It is celebrated at the end of rainy season. India is said to be country of the formers and by the end of rainy season these people have the leisure time before the harvesting of the crop. This is also the first festival of the season hence the enthusiasm is on the higher side.
[2] The most important reason is that this festival is related to God Rama. Lord Ram is the most worshiped God and is called as Mariyada Purshotam.
[3] The day is being celebrated as the memory of win of Godley powers over the evil strength.
You can imagine what importance Ram holds in our life from the factual history that it was Ram Rath Yatra of Shri L. K. Advani, which has opened the doors of power for B. J. P. at the centre.
Why Dashera is celebrated?
According to history Lord Ram has to go for Vanvas [living away from the cities in the forest] for fourteen years to fulfil the promise of his father King Dashrath, at that time his wife Sita and younger brother Laxman also went with him. During this period one-day Mata Sita was kidnapped by the King Ravana.
It is said that King Ravana was among the most knowledgeable and powerful men, ever born on earth. It is also said that he was so powerful that he was able to tied up Yam [God of Death] with the feet of his bed. God Ram has to fight such powerful person to rescue his wife Sita. The war between them went on for several days and was ended when Ravana was killed by Shri Ram. The news of this war and of the win spread in the Ayodhya, the capital of the kingdom of Lord Ram. The citizen starts to celebrate and since that time it becomes tradition to celebrate Dashara on this day every year.
How this festival got this name? For this there are many stories, in my view the perfect one is:
Ravan was one the most knowledgeable persons. It is said that his wisdom was equal to wisdom of ten most wise persons, hence in history he is also known as Dashanan [person with ten heads]. You can imagine about the depth of his knowledge from the fact that, when he was on death bed Lord Ram ask Laxman to go and get a world of knowledge from him.
In Hindi Das means Ten and Hara means lost. As on this day a person with ten heads has loosed the beetle hence this day is known as the Dashara. Mysore Dashara festival and elephant procession taken out on the occasion are famous all over the world and attracts some thousands of foreigner tourists also.
How the day is celebrated?
Usually during these days Ram Katha [recitation and drama presentation of Ramayana] is organized in the various cities and on this day, Ram Katha reaches to end. In the evening a procession of God Ram and Laxman is taken out in a specially decorated chariot. The procession goes to open ground, where statues of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhkaran are erected, as the symbol of evil power and Lord Ram mark the end of celebrations with Ravan Dahan.