Colourful end to Dussehra festivities with jumbo savari

Celebrated as naada habba’ (state festival), the event showcased Karnataka’s cultural heritage resplendent with folk art forms, as Arjuna led the other richly embellished elephants through the more than 5-km route from Mysuru Palace to Bannimantapa. The procession of the 406th edition of ‘Mysuru Dasara’ commenced with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah performing puja to ‘Nandi Dhwaja’ around 2.16 pm during the auspicious ‘Makara langa’. 

This was followed by a roll out of tableaux from different districts and departments, and police contingents marching to the band tune. Thousands of people from the city and tourists from outside the state lined up the streets as ‘Arjuna’, carrying the idol of goddess Chamundeshwari in a 750-kg golden howdah, found its way majestically from the grand Mysuru Palace to the terminating point. The ‘jumbo savari’ observed in the royal style since the days of the erstwhile Mysuru Maharajas, began with Siddaramaiah showering petals on Goddess Chamundeshwari, the presiding deity of the historical city, amidst the gun salute.