Sampangi Tank, centre of Karaga festivities, to be spruced up

Accepting a suggestion by the Shri Dharmarayaswamy Temple committee to develop Sampangi Tank, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has decided to provide Rs 4 crore for the project.

Sampangi Tank is an integral part of the Karaga, the city’s oldest religious event, which is organised each year by the temple committee. In fact, the 11-day annual festival begins with rituals at the tank in Central Bengaluru.

“We will decide the kind of interventions to be made around the tank after consulting the temple committee,” BDA Commissioner Rajesh Gowda said. The agency is preparing a detailed project report on the tank development.

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Once an important water source for the city, the Sampangi Lake was reduced to a rectangular tank after it made way for the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in 1946. But the tank continues to be a site of celebration visited by thousands of devotees, thanks to Karaga.

The Shri Dharmarayaswamy Temple in Thigalarpet is the starting point of the jatre (procession). The priest, dressed as a woman in a sari, carries the karaga, an earthen pot decorated with flowers.

Much of the Karaga festival centres around the tradition of passing through the kote area (old Bengaluru), immersing the karaga in the lake, and celebrating the arrival of spring.

Although a tradition practised by the Thigala community, Bengaluru Karaga nonetheless lures people of all communities.

During the 11-day festival, which culminates on April 18 this year, the Karaga-bearer embarks on a procession, passing through the Muneshwara Temple on Lalbagh Road, Corporation Circle temple, Jalakandeshwara temple in Guttahalli, Ganesh Temple in KR Market, and Nagaradevata Anamma Devi temple in Majestic before returning to the Shri Dharmarayaswamy Temple.

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