A festival celebrated for centuries is about to get a little more rewarding for the people who keep it alive. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, that the state will raise honoraria for traditional musicians and deity offerings ahead of International Kullu Dussehra 2026 — a direct acknowledgement that the festival's soul rests with its performers and priests, not just its spectacle.

What the state is putting on the table

The increases are specific and deliberate. Honoraria for bajantaris — the hereditary wind and percussion musicians whose sound defines every deity procession — will rise by 10%. The nazrana (ritual offerings) extended to deities will increase by 5%. And for the first time, the mukhya gur — the principal oracle or medium of each deity — will receive a dedicated honour amount of ₹1,100.

In the CM's own words: 'bajantariyom ke maandey mein 10% aur devi-devataon ke nazrane mein 5% ki badhotari ki jaayegi' — the honorarium for musicians will rise 10% and the ritual tribute to deities 5%. The ₹1,100 samman rashi for the gur is a new formal recognition of a role that has existed at the heart of Kullu's religious life for generations.

Why the bajantari and the gur matter so much

Kullu Dussehra is not a conventional ten-day Dussehra. Unlike most of India, where the festival culminates on the tenth day, Kullu's version begins on Vijayadashami — when hundreds of local deities descend from villages across the valley to pay homage to the presiding deity Raghunath Ji in the town of Kullu. The bajantaris lead each deity's palanquin with distinct instrumental signatures; the gur speaks on behalf of the deity at key ceremonial moments. These are not decorative roles — they are structurally essential to the ritual architecture of the festival.

Himachal Pradesh has periodically revised financial support for Kullu Dussehra to sustain the participation of these traditional functionaries, recognising that low or stagnant honoraria are one of the main reasons younger members of hereditary musician families drift away from the tradition. The broader concern is the erosion of intangible cultural heritage — a category UNESCO has flagged as among the most fragile globally.

Culture, tourism, and the state's balancing act

The announcement sits at the intersection of two policy concerns that the Himachal government regularly navigates together: cultural preservation and hill-district tourism. International Kullu Dussehra draws visitors from across India and abroad, generating significant economic activity for the Kullu valley. Sustaining the authenticity of the festival — its living traditions, not just its visual spectacle — is therefore both a heritage imperative and a long-term tourism strategy.

Incremental financial revisions of this kind rarely make headlines on their own, but they carry cumulative weight. For a bajantari whose family has played the same instrument at the same festival for five generations, a 10% increase in recognition is more than arithmetic — it is the state signalling that the tradition is worth passing on.

The question now is whether these increases will be followed by the structural budget allocations and logistical planning that a festival of international scale demands — and whether the 2026 edition will raise Kullu Dussehra's global profile as sharply as its local standing.