Vijayadashami: The Day of Setting Out

Ask anyone what Vijayadashami celebrates and you will hear the same answer: the day Rama killed Ravana. It is a beautiful story. But open the Valmiki Ramayana and you will find something surprising. Valmiki never tells us the date of Ravana's death.

So what are we really celebrating?

The answer is older, simpler and more personal than the fireworks suggest. In our dharmashastra texts, Vijayadashami is not mainly about an ending. It is about a beginning. It is the day you set out.

This post walks through what the scriptures actually say: why the day is called "Vijaya", the stories behind it, the myths that have grown around it, and four simple rites you can still do today, even in a city flat.

Why is it called "Vijaya"?

Vijaya means victory. But the texts use the word in a precise way: it names a moment in time.

Sage Kashyapa, quoted in the medieval digests of Hemadri and the Nirnaya Sindhu, says that the Dashami touched by Shravana nakshatra in the afternoon is called Vijaya. The reason he gives is simple: Rama set out for Lanka under Shravana. So on this day, he says, people should cross the boundary of their village.

There is also a special time on this day called the Vijaya kala. The Jyotirnibandha, as quoted in the Vrata-paricaya, puts it like this:

आश्विनस्य सिते पक्षे दशम्यां तारकोदये ।
स कालो विजयो ज्ञेयः सर्वकार्यार्थसिद्धये ॥

āśvinasya site pakṣe daśamyāṃ tārakodaye |
sa kālo vijayo jñeyaḥ sarvakāryārthasiddhaye ||

"On the tenth of the bright half of Ashvina, when the stars rise: that time is known as Vijaya, for success in every undertaking."

Even Valmiki uses the word. When Rama is ready to march, he tells Sugriva that the sun has reached midday and the fitting moment, the vijaya muhurta, has come (Yuddha Kanda 4.3).

That is why this is one of the three most auspicious days of the year, alongside Chaitra Shukla Pratipada and Kartika Shukla Pratipada. It is the traditional day to begin something new.

Three stories behind the day

1. Rama sets out

In the dharmashastra tradition, this is the day Rama began his march to Lanka. Kashyapa's verse is quoted for Ashvina Shukla Dashami, under Shravana nakshatra.

Valmiki himself is quieter about dates. He names no month for the march. He tells us that the rains were over and autumn had arrived (Kishkindha Kanda 30), and that Rama left at midday. He names the nakshatra Uttara Phalguni, not Shravana. So the epic and the later tradition do not fully agree. What both agree on is the spirit: the waiting is over, and it is time to move.

2. Nine nights of the Devi

In the Devi Bhagavatam (3.30), the sage Narada comes to Rama before the war with Ravana. He tells Rama to keep the Navaratri vrata, the nine nights of worship of the Devi, and Rama does so. Vijayadashami is the tenth day: the day those nine nights come to completion.

Navaratri also celebrates the Devi's victory over Mahishasura. Vijayadashami follows that festival naturally, though, as we will see, it is not the anniversary of that battle.

3. The tree that hid Arjuna's bow

In the Mahabharata's Virata Parva, the Pandavas begin their year in disguise. Before entering King Virata's city, they hide their weapons, Arjuna's Gandiva bow among them, on a tall Shami tree near a cremation ground. They even tie a corpse to the tree so that people will keep away. At the end of the year, the weapons are taken down again.

This is why the Shami tree stands at the heart of Vijayadashami worship. Its very name comes from shamana, calming or appeasing. An old Vedic prayer from the Taittiriya Aranyaka (VI.9.2) says: "O Shami, remove our sins and enmities."

Four things we got wrong

Customs grow over centuries, and many are beautiful. But it helps to know which ones come from the texts and which do not.

Myth 1: Burning Ravana is a scriptural rite. No dharmashastra digest prescribes it. The historian of dharmashastra P. V. Kane records the burning of effigies as a Ramlila custom of parts of North India. The texts do describe something related, but different. In the king's rite, he pictures his enemy, keeps an image of him in view, and pierces its heart with a golden arrow. The Vratotsava calls this act "Ravana-vadha". There is no burning.

So where did Ravana-dahan come from?

Start with Valmiki himself. After the battle, Rama does not celebrate over Ravana's body. He tells Vibhishana to give his brother a proper funeral:

मरणान्तानि वैराणि निर्वृत्तं नः प्रयोजनम् ।
क्रियतामस्य संस्कारो ममाप्येष यथा तव ॥

maraṇāntāni vairāṇi nirvṛttaṃ naḥ prayojanam |
kriyatām asya saṃskāro mamāpy eṣa yathā tava ||

"Enmity ends with death. Our purpose is fulfilled. Let his last rites be performed; he is as much mine as yours." (Yuddha Kanda 6.109.25)

The effigy belongs to a different tradition: the Ramlila, the folk theatre of Rama's story.

•      The Ramlila takes shape. Most North Indian Ramlilas follow Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas (16th century). Tradition credits his disciple Megha Bhagat with starting the first Ramlila based on it, though that date is not documented.

•      Early eyewitnesses. The orientalist James Prinsep described the Varanasi Ramlila in 1825. The famous month-long Ramlila at Ramnagar grew under Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh from about 1830.

•      The earliest effigy we found. In 1829 the traveller Fanny Parkes watched a Ram Leela staged by sepoys on the parade-ground at Allahabad. A figure of Ravana, in her words "as large as a windmill", was filled with fireworks, and at the end it was blown up by the actor playing Rama. At Cawnpore she saw cavalrymen worship their regimental colours and ride round the giant figure.

•      Delhi. Several writers link large effigies in Delhi to the reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar (1837–1857). These accounts are second-hand, and we could not trace a primary record.

•      The modern spectacle. Today's giant effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghanada, burnt in public grounds across India, grew mostly in the twentieth century. This later spread is less well documented.

You may see a popular claim online that Ravana-dahan began only in 1948, in Ranchi, after Partition. The 1829 account shows the custom is at least a century older.

So Ravana-dahan is a folk custom with a recorded history of nearly two hundred years. It is joyful, and it carries a good message. But it comes from theatre, not from the dharmashastra, and it is not one of the rites the texts prescribe for this day.

Myth 2: The Devi killed Mahishasura on Dashami. The Devi Mahatmya, the main text for that story, does not appear to name a tithi for the battle. Navaratri celebrates the Devi's victory, and Dashami follows it. It is the completion of the festival, not the anniversary of the battle.

Myth 3: You should break Shami branches and bring them home. The Dharmasindhu says plainly that cutting Shami twigs to take home has no basis in the shastras. What the texts describe is gentler. You bring home a little soil from the tree's root, or a few leaves tied in a cloth. Distributing apta leaves as "gold", common in Maharashtra, is a lovely local custom, not a scriptural rule.

Myth 4: "Dussehra" means burning ten vices. Kane derives Dasara from dasha (ten) and ahan (day): ten days. It names the festival period, not ten vices. Likewise, the Mahabharata gives no date for the day the Pandavas took back their weapons from the Shami.

None of this takes away from the day. If anything, the real meaning is richer.

How to celebrate: four simple rites

The Dharmasindhu and the older digests describe four acts, all done in the afternoon:

1.     Worship of Aparajita, the Unconquered Devi

2.     Worship of the Shami tree

3.     Crossing the boundary (simollanghana)

4.     Coming home victorious

They were first written with a king in mind, marching out to war. But each has a meaning for every home.

1. Aparajita: the Devi no obstacle can defeat

Aparajita is the Devi as the power that is never conquered. She is worshipped with two companions: Jaya on her right and Vijaya on her left.

You do not need an elaborate setup. The texts give two ways:

•      The Dharmasindhu way: draw an eight-petal lotus on the ground and invoke the Devi into its centre. The drawing itself is her seat.

•      The Nirnayamrita way (quoted in the Vrata-paricaya): place a small clay image on a lotus made of rice grains (akshata).

Step by step

1.     In the afternoon, clean a spot in the north-east of your home, or on your terrace.

2.     Draw an eight-petal lotus in rice flour or sandal paste, or arrange akshata in a lotus and place a clay image on it.

3.     Make a sankalpa for your family's protection and victory.

4.     Invoke the three goddesses with these names:

o      Aparajita (centre): ॐ अपराजितायै नमः · oṃ aparājitāyai namaḥ

o      Jaya (right): ॐ क्रियाशक्त्यै नमः · oṃ kriyāśaktyai namaḥ

o      Vijaya (left): ॐ उमायै नमः · oṃ umāyai namaḥ

5.     Offer flowers, akshata, a lamp and naivedya.

6.     Pray for victory:

हारेण सुविचित्रेण भास्वत्कनकमेखला ।
अपराजिता रुद्ररता करोतु विजयं मम ॥

hāreṇa suvicitreṇa bhāsvatkanakamekhalā |
aparājitā rudraratā karotu vijayaṃ mama ||

"May Aparajita, with her wondrous necklace and shining golden girdle, devoted to Rudra, grant me victory."

7.     Bid her farewell with a prayer for protection. Then tie a thread dyed in turmeric, with a little durva and mustard in it, on your right arm.

2. Shami: the tree that calms

After Aparajita, go to a Shami tree. It may be in a temple, a park, or a pot on your balcony. The texts allow the ashmantaka tree (kovidara or kachnar) too, and the Vrata-paricaya worships the two together.

Step by step

1.     Sprinkle the ground at the root with water. Sit facing east or north.

2.     Offer water, kumkum, akshata, flowers and a lamp.

3.     Recite the Shami prayer:

शमी शमय मे पापं शमी लोहितकण्टका ।
धारिण्यर्जुनबाणानां रामस्य प्रियवादिनी ॥

करिष्यमाणयात्रायां यथाकालं सुखं मम ।
तत्र निर्विघ्नकर्त्री त्वं भव श्रीरामपूजिते ॥

śamī śamaya me pāpaṃ śamī lohitakaṇṭakā |
dhāriṇy arjunabāṇānāṃ rāmasya priyavādinī ||

kariṣyamāṇayātrāyāṃ yathākālaṃ sukhaṃ mama |
tatra nirvighnakartrī tvaṃ bhava śrīrāmapūjite ||

"O Shami, calm my sin. Shami of red thorns, who held Arjuna's arrows and spoke kindly to Rama: on the journey I am about to make, may all go well for me at the right time. O Shami, worshipped by Shri Rama, remove every obstacle on that path."

4.     If there is an ashmantaka nearby, worship it too:

अश्मन्तक महावृक्ष महादोषनिवारक ।
इष्टानां दर्शनं देहि शत्रूणां च विनाशनम् ॥

aśmantaka mahāvṛkṣa mahādoṣanivāraka |
iṣṭānāṃ darśanaṃ dehi śatrūṇāṃ ca vināśanam ||

"O ashmantaka, great tree, remover of great faults: let me see those dear to me, and let my enemies be destroyed."

5.     Walk around the tree. This is a general practice of worship rather than a specific rule in these texts.

6.     Take a pinch of soil from the root, or a few leaves (never branches). Tie them in a cloth with some rice and a betel nut, and keep it with you for success.

3. Crossing the boundary

This is the heart of the day. The texts say everyone should go out past the boundary of their village, towards the Shami in the north-east. Kings marched out of their capitals on this day to open their campaigns, as Rama did.

Step by step

1.     In the afternoon, walk past the limit of your colony, your lane or your village.

2.     Do the Shami puja there, before or after crossing.

3.     Decide the one thing you will begin today.

4.     Return home carrying your bundle of soil or leaves.

4. Coming home victorious

You return the way a king returned from victory: welcomed, renewed and ready to begin.

Step by step

1.     Come home with a song or bhajan.

2.     The women of the house wave lamps (aarti) at the door.

3.     The family wears new clothes.

4.     Children begin their studies (Vidyarambha) with Sarasvati puja.

5.     Adults begin new work, ideally at dusk when the first stars appear: the Vijaya kala.

What about Ayudha puja? The Vrata-paricaya gives a full rite in which the king worships his weapons, horses, elephants and royal insignia on this day, each with its own mantra. For most of us today, the closest equivalent is honouring the tools of our own work: books, instruments, vehicles, computers.

Your own boundary

Rama did not win on the day he set out. The war was still ahead. What he did that day was stop waiting. The rains were over, the nine nights of the Devi were complete, and the right moment had come.

Most of us have a boundary we have not crossed: a habit we keep meaning to change, a study we keep postponing, a work we have not had the courage to begin. Vijayadashami asks a simple question: what will you set out on today?

Worship the Unconquered One. Take a little of the Shami's calm home with you. Step past your gate. Then come home and begin.

Sources

•      P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, Vol. V Part 1, ch. X, pp. 188–194 (page images). Kane draws on Hemadri's Caturvarga-cintāmaṇi, the Nirṇayasindhu, the Dharmasindhu and the Puruṣārtha-cintāmaṇi.

•      Vrata-paricaya, "Āśvina ke vrata", pp. 134–148. It quotes the Jyotirnibandha, the Nirṇayāmṛta and the Vratotsava.

•      Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa: Yuddha Kāṇḍa 4.3–4.6 (valmikiramayan.net), Yuddha Kāṇḍa 6.109.25 (valmikiramayan.net) and Kiṣkindhā Kāṇḍa 30 (valmikiramayan.net).

•      Devī Bhāgavatam 3.30 (sacred-texts translation).

•      Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, ch. 5 (sacred-texts translation).

•      Fanny Parkes, Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque, Vol. 1, ch. XII, "Sketches at Allahabad", 1829 (Project Gutenberg).

•      Ramlila history (Tulsidas, Megha Bhagat, Prinsep 1825, Ramnagar c. 1830): Wikipedia, "Ramlila", citing Norvin Hein and Philip Lutgendorf.

•      Delhi and Bahadur Shah Zafar: Oaklores, "A Brief History of Ramlila in Delhi", citing Rana Safvi and Pamela Lothspeich. These are second-hand accounts.

•      For the full prayers with translations, see Vijayadaśamī: How to Celebrate.