Why Kullu Dussehra Is a Different Festival Entirely
Dhalpur Maidan empties out the surrounding valleys. That is the first thing to understand. When the rest of India burns the Ravana effigy and calls it done, the Kullu valley begins a seven-day mela that draws more than two hundred village deities, called devtas, carried on palanquins called raths down from settlements that have no road access and sometimes no name on a map. The festival is not a celebration of Ram's victory in any conventional sense. It is a royal summons: the Kullu king, through his presiding deity Raghunath ji, calls every devta in the valley to court. They come.
