Kullu Dussehra: An Introduction

Imagine a Dussehra where nobody tries to prove “my Ravan is bigger than yours”. There’s no staging of the Ramlila; children do not play with swords, maces, bows and arrows, and the victory of good over evil does not translate into noise and smoke.

You can see this Dussehra in Kullu.

The Kullu Dussehra is deservedly famous, but few know that it is nothing like the festival most of us celebrate. For one, it does not end on Vijay Dashami, but only starts on that day to go on for a week.

It is certainly connected to the legend of Lord Ram’s victory over Ravan, but that event is not central to it. Rather, local lore has shaped the celebration of Dussehra in the Kullu Valley for the last few centuries.

*

The Kullu valley’s history goes back thousands of years. In ancient times this region was called Kulanta, which means the end of the habitable world. Of course, it was not the end of the habitable world. Lahaul-Spiti lies beyond it, and after that there’s Tibet. But the people of the plains thought Kullu was too inaccessible and their kings didn’t bother to invade and annex it.

And so, as is the case across most of Himachal Pradesh, the tribes and villages had their own local devtas or gods.

(Watch this video to see more Kullu Dussehra photos)

*

Even a thousand years ago, the organised Hindu religion had not made much of an impression in Kullu. But things started changing slowly as Muslim invaders uprooted the Rajput kings in the plains. The Rajputs then tried to win new kingdoms in the hills and so brought the Hinduism of the plains to them.

One of these conquering princes came from the Haridwar region. His name was Behangmani Pal, and he founded the dynasty that ruled Kullu till the Independence of India.

Now, Behangmani did not start the Kullu Dussehra. That honour goes to one of his successors named Raja Jagat Singh, a contemporary of the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Aurangzeb.

*

Behangmani Pal used to worship the goddess Kali, and she is the family deity of the Kullu royals to this day. But since he was an outsider in the hills, Behangmani needed to win over the people, for which the best strategy was to win over their gods to his side. And Behangmani did this with a clever story.

If you’ve been to Manali, you would have seen the Hidimba temple there. Now this goddess was widely revered in the hills, and legend says she approached Behangmani in the guise of an old woman while he was walking to attend a fair. She requested him to carry her to the fair, and the young prince agreed to do so happily. He even promised to carry her back from the fair.

Pleased with his kindness, Hidimba assumed her giant form, and told Behangmani to climb on to her back. Then she said all the land as far as he could see from her back was his to rule. This legend sounds like just another myth, but it gave legitimacy to Behangmani’s rule, and his descendants have always revered Hidimba as Dadi or grandmother.

When the raja of Kullu sends out invitations to the village gods on Dussehra, Hidimba’s is worded as a request while the others are like polite royal orders. When Hidimba reaches Kullu from Manali, the raja himself or one of his family representatives receives her on the river bank. After that she goes straight to the palace that the royal family vacates for her stay.

*

Coming to Raja Jagat Singh, who started Kullu Dussehra, he ruled during the years 1637 to 1672. This (2022) is the 350th year of his passing.

When Jagat Singh became king, Vaishnavism or the worship of Vishnu and his avatars Ram and Krishna was not common in the hills. The king himself worshipped Kali while his people had their own multitude of gods. But then something happened that deeply impacted the state religion of Kullu.

There are two versions of this story. In one, the raja coveted a string of rare pearls belonging to a Brahmin. In the other, he coveted the Brahmin’s daughter. In both stories the Brahmin kills himself after cursing the raja that every time he sat down to eat, he would see worms in his food and blood in his drink.

The raja was leading a tortured existence because of the curse when a Vaishnav saint named Bairagi Krishnadas Payahari, arrived in Naggar, which used to be Kullu’s old capital. He told Raja Jagat Singh he would be cured if he could arrange to bring idols of Ram and Sita from Ayodhya’s Tretanath Temple to Kullu.

The Raja sent off Pandit Damodardas Gosain on this mission, and after waiting for a year the Pandit was able to steal the idols. When the idols arrived in the Kullu hills, the raja washed their feet and drank the water or charnamrit, and he was cured.

After this miracle, Raja Jagat Singh became a Vaishnavite, and declared Vaishnavism would be the state religion. He declared that Lord Ram or Raghunathji would be the king of Kullu from then on while he would serve the god as wazir or minister.

Twelve years before his death, Jagat Singh built the Raghunathji Temple in Kullu. And shortly thereafter he started the annual Dussehra festival in Lord Ram’s honour.

*

Just like the Hidimba legend had been Behangmani Pal’s masterstroke, the Raghunathji legend enabled Raja Jagat Singh to tighten his grip over Kullu.

We know that the hill people lived far away from each other in small, independent communities. They honoured nobody more than their local gods. When Jagat Singh declared Lord Ram would be the state god, the position of the village devtas became secondary. It became their duty to come to Kullu and pay homage to Raghunathji on Dussehra. And when the gods bowed before Lord Ram in Kullu, the people who carried them automatically had to bow before Lord Ram’s chief servant, the raja.

So, the Dussehra of Kullu is not just about religion and culture but also politics. It is a stroke of political genius. People of a more independent spirit, such as the natives of Malana, did not want to bow to the king, so their god, Jamlu Devta, refuses to accept the Dussehra invitation to this day.

*

When Raja Jagat Singh built the Raghunathji Temple at its present site, Kullu town was called Sultanpur. It had been important since ancient times as a market. The Dhalpur Maidan, where the Dussehra rath yatra is held, was a meeting ground for traders from Tibet and the plains.

Later, the rajas shifted the capital from Naggar to Sultanpur and built their palace beside the temple. A day before Dussehra, when north India celebrates Ram Navami, the village gods start arriving in Kullu, and head straight for Dhalpur Maidan where they have their allotted camps.

But the day’s most important event takes place at the Raghunathji Temple in Sultanpur. Late in the evening, the idols of Lord Ram and Sita are taken out of the sanctum and placed in a swing for devotees to worship.

*

The next day, Dussehra, begins with the devtas making a beeline for the Raghunathji Temple. While the temple is their first stop, they spend more time at the Rupi Palace nearby, where they are greeted by members of the royal family. The reception at the palace goes on for hours and it is very loud and colourful.

In the afternoon, the idols of Lord Ram and Sita are carried in a palanquin to Dhalpur Maidan for the rath yatra. Not only the ground but also the buildings around it are covered with people eager to catch a glimpse of the event.

But though the wooden chariot in the ground seems ready to move any minute, the rituals and the unruly devtas ensure that the yatra does not begin till almost 5 pm. But when it does, it’s over in the twinkling of an eye.

The police cordon falls apart as the devtas make a mad dash after the chariot, and suddenly the quiet ground becomes a sea of bobbing heads. This is an adrenaline moment, which explains why it has become the abiding image of Kullu Dussehra.

*

For the next four days, there isn’t much to see, unless you care for the cultural events organised every evening in the fairground. The fair itself is mainly an opportunity for the villagers to buy whatever they need, from bangles to automobiles, but it’s unlikely to enthuse big-city dwellers.

The sixth day is again important because that’s when the devtas have their annual meeting with Lord Ram. And on the seventh and last day, the chariot is drawn to the banks of the Beas river, where dry bushes are set ablaze to signify the burning of Ravan’s Lanka. Then the chariot is brought back to Dhalpur Maidan, and Lord Ram and Sita are taken back to their temple in Sultanpur.

The Devtas disperse and the villagers follow in their wake.

Kullu’s week of glory is over.

***

The American nurse who became maharani of Indore

Indore was a quiet little city in the Raj days. But on March 28, 1939, its young king gave it a surprise. His highness, the Maharajadhiraj Raj Rajeshwar Sawai Shree Yeshwant Rao Holkar Bahadur, told an assembly of his nobles, officials and subjects that he had remarried.

Yeshwant’s wife Sanyogita had fallen ill in Honolulu and died in Switzerland two years earlier, leaving behind their only child, princess Usha. So, Yeshwant’s marriage should have been joyful news, but there was more than one hitch in it.

For one, he had married an American woman. An ordinary American woman who had been his nurse at a Los Angeles hospital a year earlier.

Now, Yeshwant wasn’t the first Indore royal to marry a foreigner. Ten years earlier his father Tukoji had done the same. But Tukoji had already given up the crown to Yeshwant before tying the knot with his American bride, Nancy Ann Miller. And Nancy had at least made a show of converting to Hinduism. Her marriage to Tukoji had been solemnised the Hindu way in the presence of his subjects.

But Yeshwant had married away from home. He said he had married in Europe, but the truth was his marriage to Marguerite Lawler Branyen had taken place at Taxco city in Mexico six months earlier – in September 1938.

Why wasn’t he being truthful? What did he have to hide?

The truth was that Marguerite had been married before. Her double surname was a giveaway, but the Indore state’s publicity office insisted Branyen was her maiden name. She had been Ms Branyen before her marriage to Yeshwant, it said. And that was a lie. Her name was Marguerite Lawler. She had been a stewardess on the Union Pacific Railroad before she did a nursing course and married John Paul Branyen, a jeweller.

Marguerite was working at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles when Yeshwant suffered a severe attack of asthma and was admitted there in 1938. Marguerite nursed him to health and won his heart in the bargain. It was enough for him to describe her as “the lady I love from the heart”.

When he announced his marriage in March 1939 Yeshwant said he had married Marguerite for mental peace. In his own words: “Without mental peace I cannot properly discharge my duties as ruler.”

So Yeshwant left the hospital with love in his heart, and Marguerite on his arm. He hired her to be princess Usha’s nurse and they travelled together to Europe and India. Reports said she used to call him ‘Junior’, and the Oxford-educated maharaja of Indore was cool with that.

But the British government was not cool about Marguerite’s status. They weren’t sure whether she was legally divorced, and to avoid a scandal they refused to address her as Her Highness. At first, they even opposed her presence at official functions.

But Yeshwant and Marguerite got along well enough. Unlike Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala and Nina Grosup, whose wide age gap led to tragedy, Yeshwant and Marguerite were the same age. She arrived in Indore and forgot her American working class life for a while.

There was not a quiet moment in their life. There were daily parties, and they seldom went to bed before 2am. The day started at noon with breakfast at 2pm, followed by more parties and games. Yeshwant, who was known as ‘Indore Sport’, was an avid hunter and bridge player. He once boasted about shooting 154 tigers. Marguerite also notched up 30 tigers, 8 panthers and 1 bear in the three years she spent in India

But eventually, this aimless life got on her nerves. By some accounts the strain in their married life arose from her inability to produce an heir. Whatever the cause, Marguerite flew back to the US in 1942, never to return.

In California, she lived in a mansion that Yeshwant had built at Laguna Beach just before the second World War started. It was more fortress than home, and it was said he had built it as a shelter against the war for his family. The house had thick walls, windows barred with iron grilles, double doors and burglar alarms. It’s a heritage property now.

Yeshwant stayed on in India for about a year, during which he managed to lose his heart to another American married woman named Euphemia Watts Crane, also known as Fay Stevenson. Her husband Frank Arthur Crane worked as an American aviation employee in India. But Yeshwant was smitten and decided to marry Euphemia. However, he could not do that without divorcing Marguerite, so he flew to Nevada in May 1943.

Why Nevada? To obtain the infamous Reno divorce, of course. In Reno, Nevada, getting a divorce was as easy as ordering fries. All you needed was proof of residence in the state, and that was easy too. A six weeks’ stay in Nevada made you a bona fide resident for the purpose of divorce. Special resorts called dude ranches provided accommodation for this purpose, and Yeshwant stayed at the Palomino Ranch.

He checked in on May 23 and had to kill time till July 4 when his six weeks got over. The Detroit Evening Times of July 11, 1943 said Yeshwant rode around on a horse wearing Levis jeans and a chef’s cap but no shirt. He carried a fishing rod with him all the time and often fished catfish in the ranch’s private lake.

The 4th of July was a Sunday in 1943 so the Monday after was a national holiday. Poor Yeshwant had to wait two extra days to file his divorce suit. He alleged extreme cruelty by Marguerite and became a free man in the morning of July 6.

But he wasn’t the only one seeking a divorce that morning. Euphemia also ended her marriage with Frank Arthur Crane in the same court, and 10 hours later they were married and off on their honeymoon in Yeshwant’s car. They had planned to drive from Reno to South California but the car broke down one hour later in Carson City, forcing the newlywed royal couple to spend the night in the honeymoon cottage of a motel. Not quite a drive into the sunset.

It’s funny they had started on a long drive in the middle of petrol rationing due to the world war. Yeshwant had a gas quota for driving in Los Angeles city only. So, two weeks later when he made another trip from Hollywood to Las Vegas, the office of price administration suspended his gas ration for 6 months.

What became of Marguerite after the divorce? Although Yeshwant had accused her of cruelty, he left princess Usha in her care, along with the fortress mansion. Usha and Marguerite had become very fond of each other and Marguerite, although childless, was a good mother.

Marguerite lived in the mansion for some time but felt lonely. She said she wanted to become a part of America again. It wasn’t long before she met Charles Masters, six years younger than her, and a member of the US coast guard. Marguerite fell in love with him and decided to do her bit for her country. She volunteered for the navy’s emergency services training at Hunter College in New York, where she had to be up by 5.45am every day, have breakfast by 6.15, wash her own clothes and live with 10 others in a barracks

She had found the simple life she missed and was enjoying it. But Usha had to be sent back to Indore. Marguerite had brought a picture of Usha with her to Hunter College, and she told the press: “I was lonely, so I knew Usha would be too. But I am going to bring her back after the war.”

That didn’t happen but she married Masters to start the plain ordinary family she had always wanted. “I have never been so happy before,” Marguerite told reporters in 1945, adding: “We just want the same right to privacy and the same right to happiness that is the privilege of every other American couple.”

***

Sultan Ghari: The oldest Muslim tomb in India

The Qutub Minar is Delhi’s most famous monument. About 6 km away from it, and not very far from the Delhi airport at Palam is another monument built by the same king who completed Qutub Minar. It’s called Sultan Ghari. Not ‘garhi’, which means a fort, but ‘ghari’ – a cave.

Before we talk about this monument, let’s quickly recap some Delhi history. Muslim rule started in north India in the year 1192, when Muhammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan. But Ghori did not rule India directly. He left it in the care of his general Qutubuddin Aibak.

Aibak started building the Qutub Minar, which is named after him. But he died early. Then his general, Iltutmish or Altamash, became king in the year 1210. He ruled till his death in the year 1236. This is his tomb in the Qutub Minar grounds.

*

Okay, back to Sultan Ghari in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area. This little-known monument is important because it is the first Muslim tomb in India. I find this hard to believe because Islam had arrived in India in the 7th century. So, a few small or big tombs must have existed before Sultan Ghari.

But experts insist Sultan Ghari is the first. Perhaps they mean this is the first ROYAL Muslim tomb in India. On that point, we can agree with them because Qutubuddin Aibak died in Lahore and was buried there. So his tomb is now in Pakistan

*

Now we know that Qutubuddin Aibak’s successor Iltutmish lived till the year 1236. But one of his sons, a  capable young man named Abul Fath Mahmüd, or Nasiruddin Mahmud, who was the governor of Bengal, died in the year 1229. 

Sultan Ghari is the tomb of this prince – Nasiruddin Mahmud – and it was built by Iltutmish himself. It was completed in the year 1231 – well before Iltutmish’s tomb – which indeed makes it the first royal Muslim tomb in India.

*

We know that Mehrauli, where the Qutub Minar stands, was the real city of Delhi in the 13 century. So why did Iltutmish build his son’s tomb so far out of town?

Well, the area where Sultan Ghari stands was not such a barren and lifeless place in those days. About 250 years earlier, the Tomar king Mahipal had built a small dam nearby, due to which there was water and the place had become a large settlement. In fact Mahipal’s name lives on in the nearby Mahipalpur village to this day.

But we don’t know the original name of the Sultan Ghari tomb. The current name, Sultan Ghari, simply means ‘cave king’, and it was coined by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan – founder of Aligarh Muslim University – in 1846. I found this information in a scholarly paper published by an Archaeological Survey of India officer named S.A.A.  Naqvi in January 1947.

So why did Sir Syed call it a cave? Well, that’s because the prince’s body is buried in an underground chamber or crypt.

*

When Iltutmish died, he was succeeded by a son named Ruknuddin Firoz Shah. He was a weak king and his nobles killed him after a few months. Then Iltutmish’s famous daughter, Sultana Razia, became the ruler for a couple of years, until she was killed by her brother Mu‘izuddin Bahram Shah, who became the next king, only to be murdered soon after.

So, Iltutmish’s line came to a bloody end. 

I am telling you all these names because the small tombs of both Ruknuddin Firoz Shah and Mu‘izuddin Bahram Shah are just outside the wall of Sultan Ghari, but ASI officer Naqvi wrote it was not clear which prince was buried under which canopy. As for Sultana Razia, her grave is in the Shahjahanabad area of Delhi, far from her father and three brothers. 

Only one of the small tombs has survived, and it has a proper dome over it, which means it was built much later. How do we know that? You see, in the 1200s, when Muslim rule had newly started in India, Indian artisans did not know how to make a proper arch and domes. So the domes that were built at that time turned out to be weak, and collapsed. That’s the reason why Sultan Iltutmish’s tomb does not have a roof.

*

So then, who built the smaller tomb with a dome?

Well, who else but the Shahjahan of the 14th century, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq. He repaired the Qutub Minar, and the Qutub’s top two stories that you see now are his work. He also built many buildings and repaired many old ones. In Firoz Shah’s time Sultan Ghari had become dilapidated, so he repaired and restored it, and also made it prettier. 

We know that Prince Nasiruddin Mahmud is buried in the white underground chamber, so what was the purpose of the fort-like building around his tomb?

Well, it was a madrasa or college. And by Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s time this college had been destroyed. Firoz Shah claims he rebuilt it and fitted it with sandalwood doors. He replaced the old pillars with stronger ones and plastered the court of the monument. The staircase at the entrance is also his addition.

*

When you visit Sultan Ghari, you will see ruins of many buildings around it. These are the remains of the village that existed around it in the late Mughal period. They are not architecturally important, but a reminder nonetheless that the first royal Muslim tomb had a ‘subject’ population around it.

***

Watch on YouTube: