Ahmedabad

Hello there!

Before we dive in let me mention that "nav" means nine and "ratri" means nights. Essentially Navratri translates to nine nights. A little bit about why I chose Gujarat of all places is because when many people think of Navratri, they also think of garba. The origins of garba are rooted in Gujarat. Garba is a typical devotional folk dance performed by men, women, and children during Navratri. It is essentially a circle dance.

I am finally here in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat! Ahmedabad is the fifth largest city in India, so there are hundreds of people gathered at the Akshardham Temple to celebrate Ma Durga.

Around the temple you can see walkways made from stone around along the edge of the green grass. The temple lies at the intersection of the walkway. It is amazing how well in sync everybody is here while dancing on the grass with bare feet. They don’t even practice and yet they all move with grace. They even have grace when playing with dandiyas. Dandiyas are wooden sticks that people hold in their hands and make gestures with. The sight of everyone moving in their respective directions is truly amazing and the sound of the dandiyas hitting against each other creates such a loud “CRACK” sound. Dandiya raas originates from the sword battle between Ma Durga and Mahishasura. In the battle Ma Durga had defeated Mahishasura, a buffalo demon known for deception and evil.

Mahisha was the king of Asuras, who chose to wage war against their cousins, the Devas. To gain the blessings and strength to win the battle Mahisha went to the mountains and meditated to please Brahma, the creator of all. Brahma became pleased and soon offered a boon to Mahisha for all of his prayers. Mahisha’s request for immortality was denied by Brahma and instead he chose that his death shall only be at the hands of a woman. For Mahisha perceived women as weak and powerless. Brahma granted him the boon, but not before reminding Mahisha that he could not escape fate for long and eventually his death will come.

After receiving the boon, Mahisha headed back to his kingdom and amassed an army to start attacking neighboring kingdoms. Mahisha’s next target was Amravati, home of Indra, where he hoped to avenge the injustices they had faced at the hands of the Devas. The private council summoned by Indra voted to meet Mahisha in the battlefield rather than become his servants. The guru of the Devas, Brihaspati, told Yama, Vayu, Varuna, and Agni that the winner of the war shall be those whom the Devas side with. He advised them to seek the blessing of Brahma to win the war.

At the battlefield on the side of Mahisha, great rakshasas like Tamra fought against the Devas. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Indra fought against Mahisha to bring victory to the good. God after god soon realized that they couldn’t win the battle against the Asuras. Indra was left with a handful of the fighting members of the Devas and yet fled after the Asura had assumed the form of a giant buffalo. Mahisha installed himself as the King of Heaven, while the Devas wandered aimlessly in mountains and forests until finally they gathered the courage to visit Brahma.

Brahma advised the Devas of the boon that Mahisha had and Vishnu told everyone that a woman shall be created by combining the powers of each of the Devas. This woman will be born with the best parts of the gods and bear their best weapons. She is known today as Ma Durga. After Durga promised to destroy Mahisha she set out on her lion for Amravati where Mahisha had established his court. One by one Mahisha’s men were returning to him with the news that this woman is like no other. In the battlefield the men of Mahisha were dying at the hands of Durga. Any attempt to attack resulted in a bloody beheading or a rain of arrows. The patience of Mahisha was thinning and in haste he entered the battlefield thinking he would divert the attention of Durga with his gentlemanly words. His words were of no avail as the only thing Durga could think of was to end Mahisha.

Sword after sword and weapon after weapon were being used by Mahisha and Durga to no avail. Ultimately Mahisha took the form of a lion to gore the lion of the goddess. Angered by the outrageous actions of Mahisha, Durga eventually beheaded him and ended the battle between the Devas and the Asuras. With that the Devas were back in charge of the heavens and Mahisha rested in peace.

The final battle between Durga and Mahisha is what Dandiya Raas signifies. While people are not actually fighting the dance movements with the dandiya (the wooden sticks) are representing good versus evil. Legend holds that the sound resonating from when the Dandiyas hit one another is pushing the evil forces away from them.

Our next stop is Udaipur, Rajasthan, India!

Frequent Flyer,

Traveling MansPants

Author's Note: So this story was written based on the information I got from my parents. Back in their college years it was the trend to travel to the big cities nearby to pray at the temples there. Ahmedabad is in fact the fifth largest city in India, making the temples very crowded during festivals. The story of the origin of dandiya raas is based around the battle of Durga and Mahisha. I wanted to not only describe the battle, but also the events leading up the battle because many of the battles flow the same way. The people on the side of the evil are dying at the hands of the major player from the good team. I kept the story fairly similar to the original found in the Devi Bhagwat Gita, which is about the different goddesses in the Hindu religion. In the original story it goes in much further detail regarding where each of the features of Ma Durga originate as well as the death sequence in the last battle, which I chose to leave out since they were all just leading to the fight between Durga and Mahisha. I attempted to keep this post a combination of a traveler’s blog and a storybook that will help people learn about the different aspects of Navratri!