Dasara: Gajaswagatha brings Mysuru alive

Mysuru: The first batch of six caparisoned Dasara elephants received a traditional welcome on Monday at the Jayamarthanda gate of the Mysuru palace, where they will stay until the end of the 10-day celebrations in the city.

Elephants Arjuna, Abhimanyu, Dananjaya, Eeshwara, Vijaya and Varalakshmi were received by teams of priests performing poojas and district minister, V Somanna, who fed them jaggery, sugarcane, fruits and other treats.

Hundreds of Mysureans and tourists had gathered to watch the  welcome accorded to the jumbos, which had earlier in the day marched through streets lined with people, from the Aranya Bhavan to the palace. Raising their trunks in response to the guard of honour presented as part of their welcome, the jumbos later walked towards their shelters in the palace courtyard in a mini procession of women carrying poorna kumbas, men wearing darbar suits and folk troupes to the accompaniment of percussion instruments.

Speaking to reporters on the occasion, minister Somanna said the Dasara sub-committees would be set up by the end of the month and the Dasara programmes finalised.

On the inclusion of the photographs of the late Mysuru maharajas,  Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and  Jayachamaraja Wadiyar in the Dasara invitations, he said it was done on the directions of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa as they were responsible for perpetuating the tradition of the grand Mysuru Dasara celebrations.  

Asked what portfolio he expected,  minister V Somanna told reporters in Mysuru that he did not particularly care as he had become minister for the sixth time.  On the absence of KR constituency MLA, S A Ramadas at both the Dasara executive committee meeting on Saturday, and the event to weclome the Dasara elephants at the palace , he said he had tried to contact him to invite him to it. "We all belong to same house and will sit together and sort out things," he added.