History of Dusshera

Dusshera and Vijayadashami celebrate the victory of good over evil.  The epic Ramayana tells the story of Lord Rama and goddess Sita and how he won over goddess Sita to become his wife only to have her carried off by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. Ravana’s sister known as Shoorpanakha fell in love with Lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana then Ravana wanted his sister wanted to marry one of them. Lakshmana refused to marry her and Rama could not Marry her as he was already married to Sita. Shoorpanakha then threatened to kill Sita, so that she can marry Lord Rama. This made Lakshmana very angry and he decided to cut off Surpanakha's nose and ears. Ravana was very angry on Lakshmana's behavior so he kidnapped Sita to avenge his sister's injuries. Rama and Lakshmana along with the god Hanuman and huge army of monkeys helped them to fight the battle and brought Sita back from Demon Ravana. Dusshera is celebrated by burning huge effigies of the demon Ravana before setting off fireworks to celebrate the destruction of evil or demon Ravana. Vijayadashami is celebrated over the goddess Durga’s victory over the buffalo demon called Mahishasura. He was named Mahishasura because he was a combination of buffalo and human and then he wanted to wage a war against all the devas. Once the war started with the Devas, led by Lord Indra were defeated. During this time, Devas approached Lord Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu to seek help in the war. These three gods combined their divine powers and created a woman who was called as Goddess Durga. Goddess Durga led a battle against the demon Mahishasura and killed him. Thus the prophecy that he would meet his death at the hands of a woman was fulfilled.