After having lived in Karnataka for quite some years now, I had heard a lot about the Dasara festival of Mysore but never got a chance to see it live. Nevertheless, this time, when I luckily have to spare a few days from work just during the time of this festival, I quickly booked a cab from Bangalore to Mysore.
About Mysore
Mysore is a popular city in Karnataka and holds an important place in the historical tales. Apart from the Dasara festival, there are a lot of other things and places as well that make the city special and popular amongst the tourists.
History
Since I was already aware of the grandeur of the Mysore Dasara festival, I preferred to stay with a friend so that she guides me with the history as well as the reasons behind the occurrence of this festival. The Dasara festival is celebrated continuously for 10 days and is concluded on dussera also known as Vijaydashami, the day when lord ram killed ravana. I was told that this festival is being celebrated here for ages, was started by the kings of Vijaynagar kingdom and it completed its 400th anniversary in 2010. Although there were like lakh of people participating in this festival, the joy was clearly visible. The Mysore palace looked breathtaking beautiful and I almost thanked good for being able to witness an event that holds such reputation.
Since I did not get to spend all ten days there, I was told that the festivity begins when the goddess chamundeshwari is worshipped. There is this hill named Chamundi hill in Mysore. On the top of the hill, this temple of Chamundeshwari Devi is located. Since the place was very crowded, I could not spend a lot of time there and definitely plan to come back specifically to visit this temple. Many activities take place all over Mysore during this festival. I was surprised to see the huge number of foreigners as well participating in the festivities. When I got a chance to talk to one of them, they told that after having heard so much about the festival, trying to visit it once was the only thought.
The way the Mysore Palace was lit simply looked captivating and according to me, it is the main point of attraction of the entire Dasara festival. Another thing that I simply loved about the Dasara festival was the procession. I was lucky to witness this procession and see millions of people dancing and singing and celebrating the victory of the good over the evil. After the idol of chamundeshwari Devi is worshipped, it is kept on the elephant at Mysore palace from where the procession begins. There is this place known as bannimantap where the procession ends.
I got a chance to do a lot of shopping from the exhibition that was help on the grounds of Mysore palace. Play areas, food zones, etc are also here and this makes the Dasara festival a complete trip for all the people visiting Mysore for this festival. It will be very wonderful if we plan and rent a car according to Holiday Packages so that we go with many sparkling memories of this festival and many stories to narrate.
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