Deepavali is an important festival for Hindus throughout the land, celebrating the ushering in of light over darkness. Hence the symbolism of lighting lamps in the evening.
The demon king Narakasura, as the lore goes, took over the world and unleashed a period of tyranny for eons resulting in a long period of literal darkness and gloom upon the people.
He had won a boon that God could not kill him – so it was a Goddess who did. Lord Krishna’s wife, Satyabhama. They are often depicted together, with Satyabhama in front of Krishna, killing the demon king who had proved undefeatable till that point.
Celebrations
Not only the people of earth but the devas of heaven, it is said, celebrated his death with applause and sweets, as he had been reaching to destroy heaven too, after destroying earth.
In its most simplistic form, it is the story of celebration of unchecked evil being defeated by Godly good. And to throw in gender equality millennia ahead of its time, the Gods were powerless, so a Goddess had to step in.
Hindu mythology is full of such tales; demons who sought boons that made them invincible from man and God alike, forgetting in their innate chauvinism that women and Goddesses exist too – some of them fierce warriors in the battlefield – and so being brought down by divine shakthi (God in feminine power) regularly.
A lot of Hindus will be joyfully visiting temples today decked in their best, calling on friends and relatives with sweets and savoury dishes, and lighting lamps in the evening to symbolically epitomise the era of ushering in light over darkness.
Traditionally, Sri Lankan Hindus did not light lamps in the evenings along thoroughfares – that is mostly an Indian phenomenon, but it is catching on now in Sri Lanka. Hindus are a diverse population and celebrate the festival differently, even across the length and breadth of India. And likewise in Sri Lanka.
Origins
Even the origin myth of which demon it is they are celebrating the vanquishing of, differs from place to place. Most of Sri Lanka and South India go with the story of Narakasura. In the North of India, however, they claim it to be the vanquishing of the ‘demon king’ Ravana by Lord Rama.
If feathers tend to bristle here over the depiction of Ravana, keep in mind that this is how folklores come to be. There may or may not be kernels of truth in such stories of ancient feuds between kingdoms and kings, but the victors in their stories always glorify their own. Narakasura too is said to have been a tribal chieftain from the Assam region, and his death is deeply mourned by his people, even as it is widely celebrated in the rest of India.
Whatever the truth or not of such stories, now lost to time and firmly rooted in mythology rather than history, the idea of the celebration, the ushering in of the period of lightness over darkness is still a powerful beacon, uniting Hindus across the world. Many other communities have similar traditions; stories of long hardship under evil dictatorship and ultimate deliverance from powerful but benign leadership, dispelling the dark era in their lives with light and prosperity.
Wherever and whoever we are across the globe, we can all relate to that. May this celebration of light, usher in light into all your lives.
As the ancient Hindu prayer goes: “Loka samastha Sukino Bavanthu” – may all the beings in all the worlds be happy.
