I felt that the festival of Deep Deepawali deserved an entry entirely to itself as it’s one of the things that makes Varanasi, Varanasi. The entire festival of Deep Deepawali is based around the slaying of the great demon Tripurasura by an incarnation of Lord Shiva Tr. Tripurasura, it is said was the collective name of three demons, Vidyunmali, Tarakaksha and Viryavana, according to Hindu mythology.

It is said that Tripurasura had conquered the entire world and defeated the gods, when an incarnation of Lord Shiva, Tripurataka managed to slay the mighty demon the gods were overjoyed and declared the day as a festival of illuminations. Hence, the festival is also known as Dev-Diwali, the Diwali of gods.

We realized that during our trip to Varanasi, we would be fortunate enough to witness the celebration of this particular festival that brings an entire city, especially one as busy as Varanasi to a complete stand still. When we visited the ghats on the day of the festival it was a sight to see. I’ve never seen so many people in one place at one time in my life, despite the fact that I’ve lived in one of the crowded cities in India for close to fourteen years. The crowd was enormous and the beauty of it all was that the entire night was lit up by the amount of tiny lamps that decorated the steps of the ghats, close to every inch of the steps were carpeted in tiny lamps. In one particular stretch of the ghats, there were massive bowls of coal with fires burning in them. Fun fact, Deep Deepawali always happens at the time of Kartik Poornima, which is fifteen days after Diwali and occurs on the full moon in the month of Kartik.

It more than interesting to see how so many people can gather in what is simply a thin stretch of land that separates the streets from the river. What I found most unusual was that in all these celebrations the pyres of Varanasi continued to burn. Perhaps what surprised me was that through out all the merry-making, there were still a couple of morose faces. Quite understandable, considering a couple of the people at the ghats where they burn bodies were in mourning. It comes as quite a shock to see people having fun right next to a place where they burn the bodies of the dead. Perhaps it can be called insensitivity, that being said, the ritual of burning bodies is close to  four thousand years old in Varanasi and I think it is only natural for the people here to have become used to.

There are very specific parts of the ghats where movement is heavily restricted thanks to the design of that particular ghat. For example, near one of the ghats, the path becomes really narrow. The thing is, this particular place is actually a key area, and leads to some of the larger and more important ghats. As we were trying to get through I noticed that there were close to eight people in a single line trying to push their way through in the opposite direction, note that there are close to a hundred and fifty people trying to move in one direction on a platform that is quite literally only 3 meters across, at the most.

The ghats tend to get really really crowded during this particular festival. Not a single ghat stays empty during this time. You’ll see many people in some of the ghats that have more space selling chat or selling cheap toys. In other ghats you’ll see people playing cricket along a tiny strip of the ghats.  At this time of the year, on the full moon night, it feels like daytime.

The beauty of this festival is seeing how everyone in the city comes together to celebrate this festival. Overall, the point of being in such a place is not to try and explain the reason behind it all but to rather soak it in and become immersed in it, take in the pI felt that the festival of Deep Deepawali deserved a blog post entirely to itself as it’s one of the things that makes Varanasi, Varanasi. The entire festival of Deep Deepawali is based around the slaying of the great demon Tripurasura by an incarnation of Lord Shiva Tr. Tripurasura, it is said was the collective name of three demons, Vidyunmali, Tarakaksha and Viryavana, according to Hindu mythology.

It is said that Tripurasura had conquered the entire world and defeated the gods, when an incarnation of Lord Shiva, Tripurataka managed to slay the mighty demon the gods were overjoyed and declared the day as a festival of illuminations. Hence, the festival is also known as Dev-Diwali, the Diwali of gods.

We realized that during our trip to Varanasi, we would be fortunate enough to witness the celebration of this particular festival that brings an entire city, especially one as busy as Varanasi to a complete stand still. When we visited the ghats on the day of the festival it was a sight to see. I’ve never seen so many people in one place at one time in my life, despite the fact that I’ve lived in one of the crowded cities in India for close to fourteen years. The crowd was enormous and the beauty of it all was that the entire night was lit up by the amount of tiny lamps that decorated the steps of the ghats, close to every inch of the steps were carpeted in tiny lamps. In one particular stretch of the ghats, there were massive bowls of coal with fires burning in them. Fun fact, Deep Deepawali always happens at the time of Kartik Poornima, which is fifteen days after Diwali and occurs on the full moon in the month of Kartik.

It more than interesting to see how so many people can gather in what is simply a thin stretch of land that separates the streets from the river. What I found most unusual was that in all these celebrations the pyres of Varanasi continued to burn. Perhaps what surprised me was that through out all the merry-making, there were still a couple of morose faces. Quite understandable, considering a couple of the people at the ghats where they burn bodies were in mourning. It comes as quite a shock to see people having fun right next to a place where they burn the bodies of the dead. Perhaps it can be called insensitivity, that being said, the ritual of burning bodies is close to  four thousand years old in Varanasi and I think it is only natural for the people here to have become used to.

There are very specific parts of the ghats where movement is heavily restricted thanks to the design of that particular ghat. For example, near one of the ghats, the path becomes really narrow. The thing is, this particular place is actually a key area, and leads to some of the larger and more important ghats. As we were trying to get through I noticed that there were close to eight people in a single line trying to push their way through in the opposite direction, note that there are close to a hundred and fifty people trying to move in one direction on a platform that is quite literally only 3 meters across, at the most.

The ghats tend to get really really crowded during this particular festival. Not a single ghat stays empty during this time. You’ll see many people in some of the ghats that have more space selling chat or selling cheap toys. In other ghats you’ll see people playing cricket along a tiny strip of the ghats.  At this time of the year, on the full moon night, it feels like daytime.

The beauty of this festival is seeing how everyone in the city comes together to celebrate this festival. Overall, the point of being in such a place is not to try and explain the reason behind it all but to rather soak it in and become immersed in it, take in the place, live it and breathe it.