Mysuru Dasara

Visiting Mysuru during Dasara time was one of my dream from childhood. Though I visited Mysuru many times, could not visit during Dasara time. My wish to visit Mysuru during Dasara time was fulfilled when one of my friend from Mysuru, invited me to his home during Dasara.

Every year during Dasara time, Mysuru will be decorated very beautifully. Especially with lights, during night time walking across the roads is festival for eyes. When Vinay asked me to join him, he told about the plan of capturing the beauty in our cameras. We went for the ride across the each corners of the city and captured the pics in our camera. Vinay’s other friends also joined us for the photo shoot.

Vinay has a bunch of amazing people in his friend circle, though I met them for the first time didn’t felt I am interacting for the first time with these guys.

We didn’t had any specific plan, we just took out our bikes and started visiting the different famous monuments around and capturing those in our cameras.

The Mysore Palace is lit with 100,000 light bulbs and looks splendid on all the 10 days.

This ride was most memorable part of my life, though we could not click many pics because of crowd.

The time spent was awesome. Sitting at the top of Chamundi Hills and watching the Mysuru under lights is another super experience and beautiful moment of this visit.  

For the next day we planned to witness world famous Jambu Savari.

About Mysuru Dasara and Jambu Savari:

The festivities were first started by the Wadiyar king in the year 1610. The Wadiyar royal couple performs a special puja to Goddess Chamundeshwari in the Chamundi Temple, which marks the beginning of the celebrations. This is then followed by a royal assembly in the Mysuru palace and is attended by the royal family members and special guests amongst other people. The successors of Wadiyar king have religiously followed the tradition and do it with the same fervor till today.

The ninth day of Dasara, called as ‘Mahanavami’ is considered to be very auspicious and special worship for the royal sword is done on that day, which is taken on a procession with elephants, camels and royal horses.

On the 10th day i.e. Vijayadashami, the ‘Jambu Savari’ or the procession is taken to the streets of the city and people come in thousands to see the same. The highlight of the procession is the idol of Goddess Chamundeshwari, worshipped by the royal couple, which is placed in a golden Ambari over a magnificent elephant. The procession starts from the royal palace and stops at the ‘Bannimantap’ where the famous ‘Banni’ tree is worshipped. It is believed that the tree gives power and victory and the warriors of the old times used to worship this tree before going for war to pray for their victory.

It’s very difficult to get a proper place, so we went early morning to get a proper place for the photo shoot and waited almost 5 hours Jambu Savari. Even after Jambu Savari there are lot of other events take place but I could not attend those due to time constrains.

Missed to attend ‘Panjina Kavayithu’ (Torch-light parade). The program includes some dare-devil acts and stunts by trained and respected men of the Indian Army, laser show and some marvelous fireworks that light up the night.

I am very much thankful to Vinay for inviting me to his home and giving me an opportunity to witness world famous Mysuru Dasara.