Mohani or Dashain Festival

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

During the Dashain festival we worship Durga Bhawani. The word Durga is derived from the word Durgay means the relief from sufferings. Hence, Durga means the goddess that relieves us from our sufferings. For relieving the deities and humans from the suffering caused by the monster's misdeeds in the Hindu world, She killed Mahi-sha-shur: the most notorious demon. Our ancestors had depicted ego, jealousy and contempt as the evils or demons or monsters gave the name of Mahi-sha-shur to all these evils. Later on they called those bad things demons. They set the tradition of reminding the killing of those bad habits once a year. To kill Mahi-sha-shur means to destroy all bad habits of humans. Hence, Vijaya Dashain means victory over our own mind, speech and body, and the most demonic things such as anger, contempt, and jealousy. Therefore, celebrating the Dashain festival spiritually means controlling our mind, body and speech and suppressing the demonic evils such as anger, contempt and jealousy.
Mythological Goddess Durga Bhawani is a beautiful woman came out of a beam of the light projected from the God Rudra's third eye. She has eighteen limbs, as She is nine-Goddesses in one. God Himal gave Her a tiger to ride on. Lord Shiva gave Her a Trishul; Lord Vishnu gave Her his spinning disc, and Lord Indra gave Her his Vajra. Thus, different gods gave her different weapons to empower Her to kill demon Mahi-sha-shur.
Goddess Durga Bhawani also is the combined form of nine goddesses called Nava Durga means nine Goddesses. We believe that Goddess Durga Bhawani created one goddess after another to empower herself to fight against the demon army. She went on creating the goddesses, and their number reached nine.  It symbolizes a complete set of nine numbers forming the universe; there is no other independent number after nine. They together fought against the demon army and finished the demons off.
In the course of our cultural and religious development, our ancestors had made us believe that evil spirits of demons went in hiding in animals and birds to escape the killing from the goddesses and convinced us to kill as many animals and birds as possible to benefit because we believe that we are killing the demons not the innocent animals and birds. We kill so many animals in public and give the impression of a real war. Probably, time has come to understand the hidden meaning of Goddess Durga Bhawani and gradually improve the festival celebration method rather than blindly following the tradition.
The activities of Dashain start with the beginning of making offerings to ancestors on the first day of the dark fortnight in Aswin (September-October). We perform offerings called Sradha (ancestor worship) to our ancestors on any one of those days starting on the first day and ending on the last day of the dark fortnight in Aswin. We believe that our religious or social undertakings will not be fruitful if the ancestors are not satisfied. Hence, our forefathers set the tradition of first making offerings to the ancestors before celebrating any significant festival or performing any important ceremonies. Hence, souls of our ancestors celebrate the Dashain festival before their progeny on earth. In other words ancestors participate in the Dashain festival a few days before their offspring celebrate on earth.
During the Dashain festival, we worship nine goddesses starting on the first day of the bright fortnight and ending on the ninth day in Aswin believing every day one goddess appeared to fight against the demons. On the first day, the main goddess called Brahmayani emerged and began fighting against the demon army. On this day we install a holy water jar in our special prayer room to summon the goddess. We call this day Ghata-sthapna literally meaning ceremonial installation of a holy water jar. We also sow seeds of barley in a specially prepared sand bed around the holy water jar. However, our people of different origin have slightly different ways of venerating the goddess.
On the second day Goddess Maheswori emerged; both Goddess Maheswori and Goddess Brahmayani fight against the demon, hence, we worship Goddess Maheswori on the second of the Dashain. Thus, on the third day Goddess Kaumari, on the fourth day Goddess Bhadrakali, on the fifth day Goddess Barahi, on the sixth day Goddess Indrayani, on the seventh day Goddess Mahakali, on the eighth day Goddess Maha-laxmi and on the ninth day Goddess Tripureswori showed up and together with all goddesses fought against the demon army and won victory over them. The period of the nine days is called Nawaratri. On the ninth day we worship Goddess Tripureswori, and then all nine goddess together.
We Nepalis celebrate Dashain festival revering Goddess Durga Bhawani sometimes called Taleju Bhawani, and the manifestation of the Living Goddess Kumari twice a year. We celebrate this festival with great fanfare for two weeks during the bright fortnight of Aswin [1] and for one day in the bright fortnight of Chaitra [2] following the Vikram calendar. We call the one-day festival in Chaitra, Chaitra Dashain: name derived from the month itself. During the Dashain festival, our Hindu and Newar Buddhist Tantric priests perform various Tantric rituals to Goddess Durga Bhawani, and the Living Goddess Kumari.
Our ancestors have set the tradition of worshiping female deities since Tantrism took roots in the Shakta Sect of Shaivinism, and in the Vajrayan sect of Mahayan Buddhism. So, Tantriks of the both sects give a great importance to the worship of a female deity even today.
In the initial period of development of these sects, Nepalese believers in the Shakta sect performed various Tantric rituals to merge with the Goddess to be free from rebirth in the human world while Nepalese Vajrayanis performed various Tantric rituals to achieve enlightenment. During the Dashain festival, priests of the both sects perform various Tantric rituals to Goddess Taleju Bhavani, and the Living Goddess Kumari.
In Nepal, our ancestors have begun worshipping female deities at least since the fifth century.  Licchavi King Gunakamdev built a city-state called Ye setting up eight Goddesses on the periphery of it, to protect its residents from enemies and evil spirits about one millennium and a half century ago. Since then, we have attached even more importance to female deities. During the Dashain festival, we revere these eight Goddesses and, the main Goddess Durga Bhawani. Later on Ye became Kantipur ultimately it became Kathmandu.
There was a time in our religious history that Tantriks used to sacrifice humans and themselves to these Goddesses for setting them free from the worldly lives. Believers in the Shakta sect and Vajrayan sect developed offerings of self-sacrifices, which meant the sacrifices of ego, anger, cravings, lust and contempt. Later on, they designated male buffalo for ego, male goat for lust, and male sheep for anger; they set a tradition of making offerings of these animals instead of self-sacrifices to the Goddesses to earn merits or favor from the Goddesses. So, animal sacrifices had deep meanings but, later on, the priests distorted the meanings. The meanings of offerings to Goddesses had undergone a sea change since the last millennium.
Originally, our ancestors had celebrated the Dashain festival for the purification of mind, speech and body offering self-sacrifices to the Goddesses Durga Bhawani and the Living Goddess Kumari twice a year or four times a year depending upon the tradition.  Later on, the Tantriks relegated the festival to Tantric rituals of animal sacrifices only. With the passing of time, our people have forgotten the deep meanings of the Dashain festival, and have resorted to merry makings and feasting in the name of revering these Goddesses of Supreme Power.
We Hindus and Newar Hindus and Buddhists, too celebrate numerous festivals together in Nepal. Among them, the most important festival is the Mohani or Dashain festival celebrated throughout Nepal twice a year. The Newar community calls this festival Mohani whereas Nepalis in general call it Dashain. We celebrate this festival worshipping nine different Goddesses during the nine days called Nawarat. The nine Goddesses are the different forms of the same Goddess of warrior, war, victory and the symbol of the source of Supreme Power called Goddess Durga Bhawani: manifestation of the Living Goddess Kumari.
Following the Shakta doctrines, we have four Nawarat occasions: one each in Aswin, Magh, Chaitra and Ashad months. We believe that the Nawarat days are the most auspicious days for revering Goddess Durga Bhawani. Some of our Tantric devotees of Durga Bhawani use all these four Nawarat occasions for revering Goddess Durga Bhawani, and visit nine different Durga on those nine days. All Nepalese Hindus and Newar Buddhists celebrate the Nawarat in Chaitra and Aswin months. Nawarat literally means nine nights. We called it so, as devotees visit and make offerings to nine-different Goddess before dawn during Nawarat.
We revere the most powerful Goddess Durga Bhawani and the Living Goddess Kumari together during Dashain. The Shakta and the Vajrayan sect independently developed female deities as the sources of power when Tantra became a part of these sects. The Shakta sect gave the name of Goddess Durga Bhavani called Taleju Bhavani to the source of supreme power, and the Vajrayan Sect gave it the name of Living Goddess Kumari.
Both the Living Goddesses Kumari and Taleju are the names in code. Tantriks believe that they can control deities pleasing them through Tantric means. These deities are the sources of power, fame and wealth. Hence, they gave them names in codes so that outsiders would not know them. For outsiders, these names do not suggest any specific deities. In addition, we do not keep these Goddesses in any form or images in the field shrines rather we worship them in pebbles for confusing outsiders. Such things we do for denying outsiders’ access to these powerful Goddesses.
During the Malla rule in Nepal, one of the Malla kings found both Living Goddess Kumari and Goddess Taleju Bhavani or Durga Bhavani were the same and the one. Hence, our ancestors depicted the image of Goddess Durga Bhavani in other words Taleju Bhawani in an eighteen-limb Goddess on the Torana above the main entrance to the Kumari House in Kathmandu. Thus, Goddess Durga Bhawani is one of the manifestations of the Living Goddess Kumari; we depict the main Goddess residing in any temple on the Torana above the main entrance to the temple.
Some of us make the offerings of animal sacrifices to Goddess Durga Bhawani in their prayer rooms and Goddess Kumari at their field shrines during the Dashain festival. We feast on the meat of such sacrificial animals as blessings from the Goddesses. The State also makes the offering of 54 male buffaloes to Goddess Taleju Bhavani at the square called Layaku within the old palace complexes of the ancient kingdoms in various parts of Nepal.
Our fifteen-day-Dashain festival begins with Ghata-sthapana: the first day of nine-night festival called Nawarat when we revere one Goddess on each night. We call all nine Goddesses together Nava Durga Bhawani and they are all in one is called Goddess Durga Bhavani.  It symbolizes a complete set of nine numbers forming the universe; there is no other independent number after nine.
We celebrate Dashain festivals twice a year: one in Chaitra and another in Aswin following the Vikram calendar, in honor of Goddess Durga Bhavani: manifestation of the Living Goddess Kumari for Her victory over the demon called Mahi-sa-shur that wanted to eliminate the divine system, and impose his own rule. Goddess Durga Bhavani as an omnipotent and super power appeared in Chaitra, so we celebrate the day of Her appearance in Chaitra. The Goddess won a victory over the demon after six months on the tenth day of the bright fortnight in Aswin; so, we celebrate this day as the victory day. We call this Vijaya Dashain: tenth day of victory.
Hence, celebration of the Dashain festival reaches a climax on the tenth day called Vijaya Dashain when all of us wear a red Tika as a victory symbol on our forehead. We continue to celebrate the victory day until the fourteenth day going to senior relatives and friends for receiving blessings from them. On the fourteenth day, we celebrate Ko-Jagrat holding a nightlong vigil at homes keeping bright lights on for the Goddess of Wealth called Laxmi to visit us. On the fifteenth day, we dispose of the remains of the offerings made to Goddess Durga Bhavani. Newar Buddhists perform worship called Buddha Puja to Lord Buddha believing in the appearance of Swoyambhu Jyoti means self-appearing light on this day. Thus, we end the Dashain festival.
Ghata-sthapana is the first day of our Dashain festival. We perform Ghata-sthapana on the first day of the waxing moon in Aswin. On this day, every household installs Goddess Durga Bhawani sowing barley seeds in a clay pot and clay bowls or in a special holy place. For this purpose we buy a new clay pot with a lid on it, and some clay bowls.  Recently, some of us have started using brass pots and bowls instead of clay pots and bowls for this purpose. We bring sand from a holy riverbank. Ceremoniously, we put the sand in a clay pots and clay bowls and sow barley seeds and installs Goddess Durga Bhawani in our private prayer room. Once this is done, we worship it in the morning and in the evening until the tenth day of the Dashain festival.
Ghata-sthapana (Nala- sanegu means sowing the seeds of holy shoots in the Newar language called Nepal Bhasa) literally means installation of a holy water jar. Every one of our households following the tradition performs Ghata-sthapana offerings on the first day of the bright lunar forthright in the month called Aswin in the Vikram calendar. The Newar community performs Tantric rituals to summon omnipotent Goddess Durga Bhavani: manifestation of all nine Goddesses, in the family prayer room called Agam. We set two clay pots, one pot on another, and in them we put clay bowls with sand collected from a holy river bank; we sow barely seeds (some of us add corn seeds to the barley seeds to make the shoots beautiful) in the sand to germinate holy shoots during the nine days period, and then to harvest them on the tenth day as the blessing from Goddess Durga Bhavani. We make offerings to the Goddess every morning and evening until the tenth day. Other communities other than Newars install Ghata-sthapana in a slightly different way. They spread the sand collected from a riverbank at one corner of their prayer room in a square form, and sow barely seeds in it. On this square sand bed, they install a jar called Kalash filled with holy water, and summon Goddess Durga Bhavani to reside in it. They offer it holy water in the morning and a mustard-seeds oil lamp in the evening for nine days as reverence to Goddess Durga Bhavani.
The Ghata-sthapna day is also the beginning of the nine-night festival called Nawarat.  We celebrate Nawarat visiting one Goddess twice a day: in the morning and in the evening. This festival is so called because from that day on we go to nine different holy places to bathe in the water of the nearby stream before dawn and worship one Goddess at a time for nine nights visiting a different site each night. We go to a riverbank dedicated to each Goddess in the morning, take a dip in the holy river water or simply put water on our faces, and then, we revere the Goddess in Her field shrine. In the evening we visit the same Goddess at Her town shrine dedicated to that day for worship. This goes on until the ninth day of Dashain.
On the fifth day, some of our people celebrate a special festive at Pachali just to the south of old Kathmandu. They place a large gold-gilded copper Jar about one and a half meter high and about a half meter in diameter embossed with God Bhairab’s image in front of the stone image of Bhairab at the Pachali shrine before dawn. Local people from the surrounding areas perform worship to God Bhairab on the Jar, some people offer animal or bird sacrifices.  That goes on for that whole day. At the night, two of them carry the large jar on a shoulder pole led by a procession to various parts of old Kathmandu, and then to Hanuman Dhoka for making traditional State offerings to the God Bhairab on it. At that night, local people in the Pachali area close even key holes before going to bed as they believe that Betal: an attendant to God Bhairab, comes in search of God Bhairab; and if Betal happens to see humans causes instant death. That gold-gilded large copper vessel with embossed God Bhairab remains with the caretaker after the Dashain festival.
On the seventh day the official holidays begin and festive mood starts all over the country, the State officials celebrate the transfer of Phulpati from Gorkha to Kathmandu. [3] Phulpati comprises various auspicious items such as a fresh sugarcane plant, a marigold plant, a banana plant and a bel-patra plant for making offerings to Goddess Durga Bhavani. After the unification of small states into a large kingdom called Nepal, King Prithvi Narayan Shah set this tradition of bringing Phulpati from Gorkha to Kathmandu.
All ministers and high ranking State officials gather at Nasalchowk (Hanuman Dhoka) in the afternoon to bring Phulpati from Jamal where priests had stored the Phulpati brought from Gorkha one day before. A team of priests and a heavily decorated attendant lady walk along with a large holy cloth bag covered with decorated red cloth sheet and hanged on a bamboo pole carried by two porters on a shoulder pole to Isankoon (Jamal). A musical band and a traditional platoon lead the holy bag. Ministers and high ranking civil, police and military officials follow it to Jamal to collect Phulpati and bring it to Nasalchowk to offer Goddess Taleju Bhavani: another popular name of Goddess Durga Bhawani.
We call the eighth day as Maha-Astami meaning the great eighth day of the Dashain festival. We believe that on this day Goddess Durga Bhavani revealed Her nine different forms to finish off demon Mahi-sa-shur. On this day of the festival, we make offerings of animal and bird sacrifices to the deity. In the early morning, we visit shrines to various Goddesses and offer sacrifices of different animals and fowls such as goats, chicken, ducks, buffaloes, and sheep to the Goddesses. In the night, the Newar community holds a family feast called Kuchhi Voya (a unit of Kuchhi is used to measure flattened rice for the feast and put on a banana leaf for every family member; voya means feast). Before starting Kuchhi Voya, the head of a household offers a feast to nine Goddesses allocating one each to nine Goddesses on a banana leaf cut into small pieces. In this feast, we eat varieties of meat dishes, beans and drink home-brewed rice-beer.
We call the night between the eight and ninth day Kal-ratri literally meaning black night, as we believe in Goddesses Durga Bhavani killed the deadly demon called Mahi-sa-shur on this night, thus ending the evil. We also believe that the demons took shelter in buffalo, duck, goat, chicken and so on; the Goddess killed all demons in those animals and birds. So, our people believe that is why we sacrifice those animals and fowls. On this night, the State also makes the special offerings of 54 male buffaloes and 54 male goats to Goddess Taleju Bhavani in the two-tiered temple at Mulchowk within the ancient palace complex in Kathmandu. The State priests make offerings to the Goddess on the ninth day and the fourteenth day, thereafter, the Goddess returns to the three-tiered high temple.
We call the ninth day Maha-Nawami means the great ninth day; we call it so as the battle between Goddess Durga Bhavani and demon Mahi-sha-shur reaches the climax and decisive moment. This day is the last day of Nawarat; ceremonies and rituals reach the peak. Artisans, craftsmen, traders, mechanics and so on perform worship and offer animal or bird blood to their tools, implements, equipment, and vehicles; this we do to keep our means of work happy and safe. We believe that by doing so the efficiency of those equipment, vehicles, machines and tools increases at the same time avoid accidents for a year.
The State performs worship called Kot Puja within the palace complex of all past city-states in the Kathmandu valley and outside the valley. On this occasion, the State offers the sacrifices of water buffaloes in the area called Kot under the gunfire salutes. We also call this day the demon-hunting day, as members of the defeated demon army tried to save themselves hiding in the bodies of animals and birds. Hence, we sacrifice as many animals and fowls as possible believing they are possessed by demonic spirits. The State keeps the temples to Goddess Taleju Bhavani open to the public in all past city-states in the Kathmandu Valley once a year on this day. In Kathmandu, the State keeps the temple to Taleju Bhavani open to all visitors for a whole day on this day once a year.  Men, women and children line up to pay their annual homage to Goddess Taleju Bhawani on this day.
In Bhaktapur in the afternoon on the ninth day, local people take out a buffalo fed with home-brewed rice-beer from the town shrine to Nava Durga to the field shrine to Brhamayani: one of the members of the nine Goddess troupe called Nava Durga, and local youths chase the buffalo to Brahmayani shrine where the Tantric priests installed nine Goddesses at the night. Craftsmen of the newly made mask of nine Goddesses (Nava Durga) and other attendant Gods display the masks in another part of Bhaktapur at that night. After a religious ceremony, actors of Nava Durga troupe take those masks to Brahmayani where Tantric priests along with the craftsmen who made those masks, ceremoniously give life to each mask at night. The Tantric priests perform a Tantric worship to sacrifice the buffalo fed with rice-beer believed-to-be possessed by a demon called Mahi-sa-shur to all nine goddesses at the field shrine to Brahmayani. All men actors of nine Goddesses receive a fountain of blood in their mouth directly from the vein of the buffalo at that night.
The tenth day is the most important day of the Dashain festival. This day is called Vijaya Dashain means the victory day. We perform concluding religious rituals, and make offerings to Goddess Durga Bhawani: combined form of the nine goddesses. Then, we begin offering the blessings of the almighty goddess first to the family members starting from the senior most among the family members. We reserve this day generally for offering the blessings of the goddesses to the family members only. From the next day on until the eve of the full moon day in Aswin, juniors begin visiting senior relatives, friends and colleagues for receiving the blessings of the deity as well as of theirs, too.
On the tenth day, the Newar community celebrates a victory day because on this day, Goddess Durga Bhawani defeated demon Mahi-sa-shur. Every Newar celebrating Dashain performs a final worship to Goddess Durga Bhawani in a prayer room and then take out clay bowls with plants of barley sown on the first day of Dashain from a clay pot as the blessing from Goddess Durga Bhawani. Every household of the Newar community makes offerings to young girls as the Living Goddess Kumari at home.
On this day after the worship to Goddess Durga Bhawani, we visit our senior relatives to receive Tika (red mark made of the mixture of vermillion, rice and yogurt) as the blessings from them and from the Goddess. Tika is a blessing from Goddess Durga Bhawani. It is usually made of rice mixed with vermillion and yogurt to paste on forehead as a victory symbol. After giving Tika, they offer plants of barley as the blessings from the Goddess. During Tika blessing, daughters and sons-in-law receive a blessing fee (Dakshina), and refreshments. Most of us move from one relative to another to receive Tika. Normally, we cannot reach all the relatives on the tenth day; so, we continue to do so on the following days until the full moon day.
The Newar community makes offering to the virgin girls on the ninth day. We believe that the most powerful goddess called Kumari possesses the virgin girls. Hence, we revere the young girls on this day. Goddess Kumari is the source of the power, prestige and status in the society. Every Newar except for a few households keeps Goddess Kumari in one non-living form or another, and makes offerings to her every day.
In Bhaktapur, on the tenth day early in the morning, local people go to Brahmayani, and bathe in the water of the nearby stream and worship nine Goddesses called Nava Durga. Some people determined to earn merits reach Brahmayani prostrating each time to measure the body length on the way. Some other people light small oil lamps in clay bowls set on one-inch-thick-layer of fresh cow dung spread over their bodies covered with blanket lying on their back on the ground nearby the shrine. A lady attendant serves to keep all wick lamps on. Such show might last several hours in the morning on the tenth day of the Dashain festival. Locals visit Brahmayani throughout that day. In the evening, actors of nine Goddesses Nava Durga wearing masks dancing on the way to the tune of music played by a drum and small cymbals walk to Layaku (Durbar square) in Bhaktapur. Devotees make offerings to Goddesses Nava Durga on the way, so it takes about five hours to travel about five Kilometers distance from Brahmayani to Durbar Square. Goddesses Nava Durga. At Layaku, Goddesses Nava Durga pays homage to Supreme Goddess Taleju: another name for Durga Bhavani and mother of Goddesses Nava Durga.
At the night on the tenth day, the local State officials held a victory parade called Payo Jatra taking Goddesses Taleju Bhawani out in towns of the Kathmandu Valley. This day is so auspicious that we don’t need to consult an astrologer to perform social rituals such as marriage, adulthood ceremony for boys hence young women tend to elope on this day.
On the fourteenth day, we perform worship to the Goddess of wealth called Laxmi in the evening, and keep awake the whole night turning lights on anticipating Goddess Laxmi would visit us. This is called Ko-Jagrat. Next day, early in the morning, we dispose of the remains of the offerings in a river. Newar Buddhists believe that Swoyambhu appeared on this full moon day. So, they clean Chaityas and stupas, and perform worship to Buddha called Buddha Puja on this day.  Thus ends the festival.
Dashain is a festival for celebrating a victory of good over evil, the defeat of mythological demon called Mahi-sa-shur at the hands of the almighty Goddess Durga Bhawani. During the Dashain festival days, we perform worship to Goddesses Durga Bhawani in nine different forms of Goddesses together called Goddesses Nava Durga Bhawani in different parts of towns in the Kathmandu Valley. This festival starts on the first day of the waxing moon and last until the full moon day in the Vikram calendar. We believe that no matter whom we offer worship it goes to Durga Bhawani during the fifteen-day period of Dashain.
On the full moon day we dispose of all the remains of the offerings made to the goddesses in the nearest river and end the Dashain festival. Thus, Dashain is the longest festival Nepalis observe starting on the first day of the bright fortnight and ending on the full moon day in Aswin.
Dashain is a great festival to most of the Nepalis. Our children and we need to wear new clothes for Dashain. Every family sacrifices one animal or a fowl depending upon their financial capacity to the Goddess. Some of us working away from home come back to celebrate Dashain with our family.


Footnotes

[1] It starts in the mid-September and ends in the mid-October.
[2] It starts in the mid-March and ends in the mid-April.
[3] The government has stopped this tradition since 2008.