ವಿಜಯದಶಮಿ | Vijayadashami

Vijayadashami is the tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashwina and the day that closes Navaratri. It is the day of victory, and by extension the day on which anything is begun: a child’s first letters, a new course of study, a new instrument, a journey, a shop, a campaign. North India calls it Dussehra, from dashahara.

Where the traditions part

This is one of the few observances on which two traditions use different reference moments.

Most almanacs take Dashami in aparahna, the fourth of the five equal parts of the daytime. The day on which Dashami runs during that part of the afternoon carries Vijayadashami. The reasoning is that the acts the day is for, the shami puja, the crossing of the boundary, the taking up of arms, belong to the late afternoon, so the tithi must be current then.

The Sringeri sampradaya takes Dashami at sunrise, by the ordinary rule that a day carries the tithi running when it begins. Households following the Sringeri Math therefore keep Vijayadashami on the sunrise Dashami, and in years where Dashami begins in the morning or ends before the afternoon, that is a different date from the one most printed calendars give.

Anudina follows the aparahna rule by default and the sunrise rule in its Surya Siddhanta mode, which is the reckoning the Sringeri panchangam is computed on, so the two modes give different dates for this festival in some years. It is worth seeing what is and is not happening there. The two reckonings do disagree about where the moon is, by up to a couple of hours in a tithi boundary, but that is not what is moving Vijayadashami. What moves it is a difference in ritual convention, about which moment of the day the tithi must be running at, and that question has no astronomical answer. Two families with identical tithi tables can keep the day differently, and both are right within their own sampradaya. See Drik and Surya Siddhanta.

Some authorities add that Dashami combined with Shravana nakshatra is the strongest form of the day, and a few almanacs weigh it. Anudina applies the tithi rule alone and prints the nakshatra, so a reader can see for themselves.

What is done

In Karnataka the day’s central act is the banni, the shami tree. Its leaves are gathered, offered and then exchanged: people give one another a sprig with the words that turn the leaf into gold, and elders are touched at the feet and given banni. In Mysore the Jamboo Savari carries Chamundeshwari to the Bannimantap, the shami ground at the edge of the old city, where a king setting out on campaign crossed his boundary.

The books and tools set before the goddess on Mahanavami are taken up again this morning. A child of about three or four is given vidyarambha or aksharabhyasa, the first letters traced in rice with the child’s finger guided by an elder. Musicians and dancers resume practice, and a great many people who intend to start something wait for this day.

North India keeps the day as the burning of Ravana. Effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghanada are raised in a field, the Ramlila that has run through the nine nights reaches the battle, and the effigies are shot with a fire arrow at dusk. Kullu holds its own Dussehra, which begins on this day rather than ending on it.

The two stories

Two victories are remembered on one day. In the Ramayana it is the day Rama killed Ravana. In the Devi Mahatmya it is the day after the goddess killed Mahishasura, the victory celebrated rather than fought. The Mahabharata supplies a third: the day the Pandavas took their weapons back from the shami tree and Arjuna fought the Kaurava army alone. All three are told, and no tradition insists on choosing.