सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

Diwali's oldest northern story is Ayodhya's own: after fourteen years of exile and the defeat of Ravana, Shri Rama returned with Sita and Lakshmana, and the people of Ayodhya lit rows of lamps so that no darkness would touch the path of their returning king. Deepotsav — literally "the festival of lamps" — stages that homecoming in the city where the story is set. As a formally organised celebration it is recent, begun by the Uttar Pradesh government in 2017, but it draws directly on the living memory of the Ramayana and on Ayodhya's centuries of Kartika bathing and lamp traditions on the Sarayu. Each year volunteers lay out lakhs of earthen diyas along Ram ki Paidi and the ghats, and the count has grown edition by edition, repeatedly entering the Guinness World Records for the largest display of oil lamps. With the consecration of the Ram Mandir in 2024, the festival's scale and prominence have only increased.

The celebration falls on the eve of Diwali. Through the day, shobha yatras and Ramlila tableaux from many states move through the city, and artists enact episodes of the epic. Towards evening a ceremonial tableau of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana arrives — in recent years by helicopter standing in for the pushpak vimana — and is received with aarti as the returning royal party. At dusk comes the sight the festival is famous for: volunteers, largely students, light the sea of diyas laid out in patterns along Ram ki Paidi, and the ghats become an unbroken field of flame mirrored in the Sarayu. A grand Sarayu aarti follows, with laser and light-and-sound shows telling the Ramayana on the riverfront facades, and fireworks close the night. The lamps are lit with mustard oil in the traditional way, and the whole city — temples, homes, lanes — joins in the illumination.

Deepotsav happens in Ayodhya, but it is made for watching: the lighting and Sarayu aarti are broadcast and streamed widely, and many Ottawa families make the telecast part of their Diwali eve — the time difference means the spectacle reaches Canada in the morning, a lovely start to Chhoti Diwali preparations. The observance it embodies travels perfectly. On Diwali eve and Diwali night, line the doorstep, windowsills and pooja space with earthen diyas in mustard oil or ghee (battery tealights where flame is unsafe), read or retell the story of Rama's return, and sing an aarti as the lamps are lit — every row of diyas in a Canadian window repeats exactly what Ayodhya does on its ghats. Families planning an India trip increasingly time it to see Deepotsav and the Ram Mandir together; the site's calendar gives each year's Diwali dates for Ottawa.