6. Divali

The Festival of Lights

om lata bahadur

91

This essay was previously published as “Diwali,” The Book of Hindu Festivals and Ceremonies
(New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors, 1994), 208–19.

Divali marks one of the biggest and grandest celebrations in India. Divali is also
known as the Festival of Lights. On this day, Lord Ram (the incarnation of Lord
Vishnu in the Treta Yug) returned to his capital Ayodhya after the exile of fourteen
years thrust upon him by his stepmother Kaikeyi in jealousy, because Ram would
become the king and not her own son Bharat. Thousands of years have passed, and
yet so ideal is the kingdom of Ram (ram rajya)that it is remembered to this day.
Divali comes exactly twenty days after Dussehra on Amavas (new moon), dur-
ing the dark fortnight of Kartik some time in October or November. The exact date
is taken from the Hindu calendar, and since that calculation is different from the Eu-
ropean calendar, we cannot give the exact date according to the Western system.
By Dussehra the evildoer Ravan has been eliminated—along with most of his
rakshasas(demons)—by Lord Ram and his brother Lakshman, and their army of
monkeys. Sita has been returned to her husband Ram, and they now make their way
to Ayodhya in triumph and glory. Kaikeyi, meanwhile, has done enough penance for
the misery caused to the family and the kingdom. Bharat had refused to sit on the
throne and has kept vigil as a regent and had told Ram that if he did not return on
the last day of the fourteen years’ exile, he would immolate himself. Consequently,
to commemorate the return of Ram, Sita, and Lakshman to Ayodhya people cele-