Dev Deepawali

Dev Deepawali—the Diwali of the Gods—falls fifteen days after the mortal celebration, on the full moon of Kartika. According to tradition, on this night the gods themselves descend from their heavenly abodes to the sacred city of Varanasi (Kashi), the eternal city of Shiva, to celebrate the defeat of the three demon cities called Tripura.

Three demon brothers—Tarakaksha, Vidyunmali, and Kamalaksha—obtained from Brahma three fortified cities of gold, silver, and iron that floated through the sky. After a thousand years, these three cities would align in a single line only once, and only at that single moment could they all be destroyed by a single arrow. Shiva waited. When the alignment came, the gods themselves became his chariot—Brahma the charioteer, mountains the wheels, Sun and Moon the wheel-rims, Vishnu the arrow—and Shiva fired. All three cities were reduced to ash in a single cosmic instant.

To celebrate this victory, all the gods lit lamps across the heavens. In Varanasi, where Shiva has resided since before creation itself, the 84 ghats that line miles of the Ganga are illuminated by thousands of earthen lamps placed row by row on every stone step—their flames reflecting into the sacred river below. It is considered the single most spiritually overwhelming sight in all of India.