Tradition · royal Navaratri festival
Mysore Dasara
Also known as Mysuru Dasara, Mysore Dussehra, Jamboo Savari, Jumbo Savari, Mahanavami
Mysore Dasara is Karnataka's state festival, ten days of Navaratri ending on Vijayadashami, when the image of the goddess Chamundeshwari rides through Mysuru on an elephant in a golden mantapa from the palace to the Bannimantap. The Wadiyars began it at Srirangapatna in 1610 under Raja Wodeyar I, continuing the Mahanavami of the Vijayanagara kings, and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III added the palace durbar in 1805. Each evening the Mysore Palace is lit with nearly 100,000 bulbs.
- Date
- 1610–None
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Patron dynasty
- Wadiyar
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
The procession's name, Jumbo Savari, is a British-era twist on Jambi Savari, 'going to the shami (banni) tree', which kings worshipped before war because the Pandavas were said to have hidden their weapons in one.
The exact origin of the festival is unknown; the Wadiyar celebration is dated from 1610.
Connections (4)
- Located atMysore Palace
The Mysore Palace is the stage of Mysore Dasara. Krishnaraja Wodeyar III held the first Dasara durbar in the restored palace in 1805, and the durbar is still held there; the palace is lit with nearly 100,000 bulbs each evening of the festival while music and dance are performed before it. On Vijayadashami the procession sets out from the palace for the Bannimantap, and the Dasara exhibition, begun in 1880, fills the grounds opposite.
- Associated withChamundeshvari, Mysuru
Mysore Dasara celebrates the goddess Chamundeshwari, a form of Durga, whose slaying of the demon Mahishasura is held to have given Mysuru its name, and whose temple crowns Chamundi Hill above the city. On Vijayadashami her image, placed on a golden mantapa of about 750 kilograms, is worshipped by the royal couple and carried through the city on a decorated elephant. The festival honours her in her warrior form, alongside the state sword, weapons, elephants and horses.
- Historical linkSrirangapatna / Srirangapattana
The Wadiyar Dasara began not at Mysuru but at Srirangapatna. Raja Wodeyar I (1578–1617), whose kingdom formed in the southern part of the fallen Vijayanagara Empire, started the Mahanavami celebration there in mid-September 1610, continuing the Vijayanagara kings' festival. The festival counted its 409th anniversary in 2019 from that first celebration, and later moved with the court to Mysuru, where Krishnaraja Wodeyar III held the first palace durbar in 1805.
- PrecursorMahanavami Dibba, Hampi
Mysore Dasara descends from the Mahanavami of the Vijayanagara Empire, celebrated in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with royal support, athletic contests, music and dance, fireworks, a military parade and public charity, as Niccolò de' Conti described. Its festivities appear in the reliefs of the Hazara Rama temple at Hampi, and the great Mahanavami platform in the city's royal enclosure takes its name from the festival. After Vijayanagara fell to the Deccan Sultanates, the Wodeyars of Mysore took up the celebration in 1610.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Mysore Dasara", "Mysore Palace".
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