Notes on the Geography of Northern India: Varanasi Dussehra

The last few days of the ten-day Durgapuja are huge in Varanasi. Dramatic billboards are posted, and temporary theaters erected--marvels of trompe l'oeil. In the evening of the last day, the flamboyant statues of Durga and other divinities are paraded to the river, where they are set afloat and discarded.

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One of many outdoor displays.

The audience is transfixed.

A temporary theater.

Looks solid, but it's just cloth stretched over bamboo.

Inside.

Looks solid.

The display is static but spellbinding.

Behind the scenes: bamboo and cloth, plus plywood flooring.  It all comes down the next day.

Escorting an image of the goddess to the river.

Another Durga, this time on the back of a flatbed truck.

A body-building demon.

Observers line the rooftops.

A Ganesh is offloaded near the river.

A Durga takes her last ride.

Loudspeakers pump a heart-shaking volume of sound.