Varanasi to Kullu: A Dussehra Festival Route

If you want to understand India’s festival season in a single journey, follow Rama’s story north. Start on the Ganga at Varanasi, where the Ramlila has been performed for centuries; pass through Delhi on Dussehra night, when giant effigies of Ravana go up in flames on grounds across the city; and finish in the Kullu valley, where Dussehra does not end on Vijayadashami but begins, and where hundreds of village gods come down from the hills to pay their respects to Raghunath. It is a route of roughly a thousand kilometres, and it shows you, in the space of a week or ten days, how one festival can be a theatre, a public bonfire and a gathering of deities all at once.

Before anything else, a 2021 caveat. Festival arrangements this year depend on state and district guidelines, and some events have been scaled down, restricted in attendance or changed at short notice. Treat the plan below as a framework and confirm the current situation with local authorities, your hotel or the event organisers before you book.

Stage one: Varanasi and the Ramlila

Ramlila, the dramatic retelling of the Ramayana, is staged all over north India in the weeks leading up to Dussehra. In Varanasi and its surroundings, it is part of the fabric of the city in autumn. The most famous is the Ramnagar Ramlila, across the river from the main ghats, associated with the former royal family of Benares. It is known for being performed over about a month, with different episodes staged in different parts of the town, so that the audience walks with the story from one setting to the next. It is lit traditionally and performed largely by local people, many of whom have taken part for generations.

Do not expect a polished stage show. The appeal of Ramlila is closer to a village fair than a theatre: families on mats, children perched on walls, sadhus chanting along, snack sellers working the edges of the crowd. You may follow very little of the dialogue, which is often recited from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, but you will understand a great deal about how the story lives in people’s lives.

Spend at least two days here. Mornings belong to the ghats: a boat ride at dawn, the cremation ground at Manikarnika seen respectfully from a distance, the lanes behind Dashashwamedh. Evenings belong to the Ganga aarti and, in this season, to whichever Ramlila stage is nearest. Ask your guesthouse which local performances are on; there are many smaller ones in neighbourhoods across the city, and they can be easier to attend than the famous ones.

Stage two: the road or rail to Delhi

Varanasi and Delhi are well connected by overnight trains, which is the most atmospheric way to travel this stretch. Festival weeks are busy, so book early, and remember that the waiting list moves slowly at this time of year. Flights are faster but fill up just as quickly.

Stage three: Dussehra night in Delhi

On Vijayadashami, the tenth day after Navaratri, Delhi’s Ramlila grounds reach their climax. Towering effigies of Ravana, often accompanied by his brother Kumbhakarna and his son Meghnad, are filled with fireworks and set alight after dark, as the actor playing Rama fires a burning arrow. The largest gatherings have traditionally been at grounds in the old city and central Delhi, but neighbourhoods across the city hold their own, and a local ground can be a far more comfortable experience than the most famous ones.

Go early, stand well back from the effigies, keep your belongings close, and plan how you will get home: roads around the big grounds are congested for hours afterwards. If crowds worry you, the days before Dussehra are worth exploring too. Effigy makers set up along roadsides in west Delhi in the run-up to the festival, and seeing the bamboo frames and painted faces of Ravana lined up in their hundreds is a festival sight in its own right.

Stage four: north to the Kullu valley

From Delhi, overnight buses run to Manali via Kullu, and there are flights to Bhuntar, the airport for the Kullu valley, though these are small and weather-dependent. The road climbs through Punjab and the lower hills of Himachal, then follows the Beas river up into the valley. Leave Delhi on the night of Dussehra or the morning after; you will arrive while the Kullu festival is still in its first days.

Stage five: Kullu Dussehra

Kullu Dussehra starts on Vijayadashami and continues for about a week. Its focus is the Dhalpur ground in Kullu town, where the deity Raghunath, a form of Rama, is brought out in a decorated chariot. Over the following days, local deities from villages across the valley arrive in palanquins, carried on the shoulders of devotees with drums, horns and trumpets, and camp around the ground. The tradition is linked to the Kullu royal family and is believed to date back several centuries.

What makes Kullu different is that the festival is less about defeating Ravana than about relationships: between villages and the valley, between local gods and the deity at the centre, between the hills and the town. The mela that grows around Dhalpur is also a market, with woollens, shawls, local produce and food, and there are cultural programmes in the evenings. On the last day, the procession goes down to the banks of the Beas, where rituals mark the end of the festival.

Stay in Kullu or nearby rather than in Manali if you want to be close to the action. Mornings are cool by October, and nights can be cold, so pack layers. If you have extra days, the villages of the valley, Naggar with its castle and old temples, and the slopes above the Beas make for gentle walks once the crowds have gone.

Why this route works

The three stops make a single argument. In Varanasi, Dussehra is a story told slowly, scene by scene, over weeks. In Delhi it becomes a public spectacle, a city-wide release of noise and fire. In Kullu it turns into something older and more local, in which the gods themselves travel. Seeing all three in one trip shows you how Indian festivals absorb and reshape the same story to fit each place.

Practical notes

Timing is everything. Dussehra falls on a different date every year because it follows the lunar calendar, so check the date for your year before planning. Book trains and rooms well ahead, keep a buffer day for delays, and carry cash for smaller towns. Be patient with road closures and crowds, dress modestly at temples and processions, and ask before photographing people at worship, particularly the deities’ bearers in Kullu, for whom this is a religious duty, not a performance.

Above all, slow down. The best moments on this route are rarely the headline events. They are the conversations in a Varanasi lane while you wait for the actors to arrive, the effigy maker in Delhi explaining how he builds Ravana’s ten heads, and the drummer in Kullu who stops to share his tea on a cold morning in the valley.