Vijayadaśamī

The tenth day

Drawing on the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and the Devī Māhātmya, the two victories the tenth day carries.

Vijaya-daśamī means "the victory of the tenth day," and it closes Navarātri. It carries two triumphs at once, north and south, and they say the same thing.

In the Rāmāyaṇa's telling, this is the day Rāma killed Rāvaṇa. The war at Laṅkā had gone on long; the demon-king, ten-headed and near-invincible, had every advantage of power. Before the final battle Rāma is said to have invoked the Goddess — the akāla-bodhana, the "untimely awakening" of Durgā out of her season — and only then, with that power behind him, did the arrow find the one mortal point. Rāvaṇa fell. Sītā was free. This is why, across the north, towering effigies of Rāvaṇa are burned at dusk on Daśamī: the Rāma-līlā of the preceding nine days reaches its end as the demon goes up in flame.

In the Devī Māhātmya's telling — kept across Bengal and the east as the climax of Durgā Pūjā — this is the day Durgā slew Mahiṣāsura, the tenth day on which the nine nights' war was won, after which the Goddess is carried in procession and immersed.

Both are the same festival of vijaya: the long-resisted evil, armoured by boons and power, finally meets the one force it could not account for and falls. The number is not incidental — nine nights of gathering, and on the tenth, the decisive stroke.

What is done, and why

Daśamī is the day of beginnings undertaken under the sign of victory — children are traditionally started on their letters (vidyārambha), tools and instruments and weapons are honoured (āyudha-pūjā), the śamī tree is venerated (the Pāṇḍavas recovered their hidden weapons from it on this day). The effigy-burning and the immersion of the Goddess close the cycle. There is feasting, not fasting.

How it is kept — afternoon

Vijayadaśamī falls on Āśvina Śukla Daśamī, the day after Mahānavamī. Its decisive observances are reckoned in the aparāhna, the afternoon — the hour of the victory.

Why it is kept

The tenth day is the tradition's pure festival of the good winning. Both stories teach patience before the stroke: nine nights of preparation, the invoking of a power greater than oneself, and only then the arrow, the trident, the end. Victory is on the tenth day — never the first.

Source: Rāma's victory over Rāvaṇa is from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa; Durgā's over Mahiṣāsura from the Devī Māhātmya. Both available at wisdomlib.org.