Dasara Festival
Mysore(Mysooru) is synonymous with Dasara celebrations. Several
religious, cultural and other programmes mark the 10-day-long
celebrations, which fall generally in the months of September-October,
depending on the auspicious days of the Hindu calendar.
Though the nine-day Navaratri and the 10th day celebration
of Vijaya Dasami have lost their original royal grandeur,
the celebrations still draw huge crowds. Tourists from
India and abroad come to Mysore(Mysooru) to see the various tourist
attractions and witness the special programmes arranged
during the 10-day festival and in particular the last
day's Dasara procession.
On all the ten days, the Mysore(Mysooru) Palace is illuminated
and renowned musicians of the State and outside give performances
in front of the Palace. The Palace is also thrown open
to the visitors and the royal throne is displayed. During
the nine days, the State Government arranges music, dance,
folk dance, doll shows, wrestling and sports competitions.
A nearly two-month-long Dasara Exhibition is conducted
at the Doddakere Maidan, where several business and industrial
houses take part, apart from Government departments and
boards and corporations setting up pavilions highlighting
progress in various fields. The celebrations conclude
with a colourful State-organized procession. Floats, police
and their band units, mounted guards, armed police, and
some traditional items of the royal family are taken out
in the procession. An idol of Goddess Chamundeswari kept
in the golden howdah atop a decorated elephant is the
main attraction. Several elephants of the Forest Department
also take part in the procession from the Palace to the
Banni Mantap grounds, a distance of about 2.5 miles. Besides
these programmes, special worship and religious ceremonies
are conducted at several temples, the chief being the
Chamundeswari Temple atop the Chamundi Hills.
Dasara fesitval has both mythological and historical background.
It has its origin in the great epic of 'Mahabharata'.
The legendary Pandava brothers celebrated the festival
to mark the triumph of good over evil. Coming out of their
hiding in exile, they took out their hidden weapons and
worshipped them, now celebrated as 'Ayudha Puja'. The
Navaratri is also associated with the Devi Purana and
celebrated according to the rituals laid down in it, to
mark the destruction of evil. Historically, the celebrations
can be traced to the Vijayanagar rulers. The rulers of
the glorious medieval Vijayanagar Empire celebrated it
on a grand scale. The then visitors to the Vijayanagar
Empire like Domingoes Paes, Fernao Nuniz and Robert Sewell
have recorded in their works on the forgotten empire the
majestic style in which the Vijayanagar rulers were celebrating.
The Mahanavami Dibba remnant in Hampi stands as a monument
to the famous celebrations. Though the celebration suffered
after the destruction of Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagar
Empire, the Mysore(Mysooru) ruler, Raja Wodeyar, revived the tradition
in 1610. He also prescribed the tradition in which the
future rulers should celebrate the Navaratri.
Kannada poets of the period of Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar
and Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar have recorded in their classics
the majestic Dasara celebrations. Even during the period
of Hyder Ali Khan, the Mysore(Mysooru) Wodeyars celebrated Dasara
in the then capital of Mysore(Mysooru) kingdom, Srirangapatna.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar III and the subsequent rulers till
Jayachamaraja Wodeyar revived the glory of the festival.
With the abolition of princely rule, Dasara began to suffer
and had been even stopped for a brief period. However,
the State Government as 'Nada Habba' revived it. The scion
of Mysore(Mysooru) royal family, Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wodeyar,
continues to celebrate the 10-day festival in the traditional
form in his wing of the Palace. He holds a private Durbar
and procession also.
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Yugadi
The Kannadiga new year day of Yugadi that falls on the
second half of March or early April is celebrated with
devotion and delight.Mysore(Mysooru) also celebrates the national
festivals of Independence Day, the republic day and
the birthday of Gandhiji. Religious festivals like Makara
Samkramana, Sri Ramanavami, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi,
Deepavali, Christmas, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha etc.
are celebrated in harmony
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