The Dasara buzz began in Mysuru with a grand event to welcome the first batch of eight elephants, which would form the major attraction of this year's Vijayadashami procession, to Mysuru Palace premises on Tuesday.
Mysuru District in-charge Minister H C Mahadevappa received the elephants by offering pooja and floral tributes at 12.26 pm, the auspicious 'Abhijin Lagna', at Jayamarthanda Gate of Mysuru Palace amid the tunes of 'Mangala Vaadya' (percussion instruments).
He fed the elephants sugarcane, jaggery, bananas and eatables like Kajjaaya and Sajjappa.
Mysuru city police along with Mysuru police band, offered a guard of honour to the elephants.
Led by Abhimanyu, elephants Dhananjaya, Bheema, Mahendra, Gopi, Kanjan, Vijaya and Varalakshmi marched towards the Palace while Arjuna did not participate in the event as he was part of an operation to capture a tiger which claimed the life of a boy in H D Kote taluk.
Five women, carrying 'Kalasha', also welcomed the elephants. Men dressed in traditional attire of the Urs family and the erstwhile Wadiyar royal family of Mysuru also joined the welcome ceremony.
Elephants marched to the tunes of the police band and 'Naadaswara'.
Rich rhythmic music and dance performances of folk cultural performances, including 'Dollu Kunitha' by eight women, 'Pooja Kunitha', 'Gaarudi Gombe' and 'Kombu Kahale' in a mini procession, set the mood for Dasara in Mysuru.
MLA K Harish Gowda, Mayor Shivakumar, Deputy Mayor Roopa, Mysuru Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, MLAs T S Srivatsa, officers including Mysuru DC Dr K V Rajendra, Mysuru Palace Board Deputy Director T S Subramanya joined the minister to welcome them.
Chief Conservator of Forests Mysuru circle M Malathi Priya; Deputy Conservator of Forest, wildlife division, Mysuru Saurabh Kumar; DCF, Mysuru division (territory) K N Basavaraj and ACF Lakshmikanth led the elephants.Saurab informed that the acclimatisation exercise for the pachyderms would begin from Wednesday morning.
The mahouts and 'kaavaadis' were honoured and kits were given to them. Each kit comprised a gas stove, gas pipe, regulator and lighter to cook, saree and blouse, shirt and lungi/panche and towel, mat, 'jamkaana', bed sheet, bucket and jug. The families of caretakers also joined the celebration.
They will reside in the temporary tents/sheds built at Mysuru Palace premises and will stay there with the elephants till October 26, the end of Dasara. Mysore City Police Commissioner, Ramesh Banoth, SP Seema Latkar, Palace Board ACP Chandrashekar manned the security arrangements.
All the nine elephants had arrived in lorries to Aranaya Bhavan premises in Mysuru on Friday evening. They were resting there after the 'Gajapayana' event at Veeranahosalli in Hunsur taluk, Mysuru district.
After a small pooja by forest officials at Aranya Bhavan premises in Mysuru at 10.40 am, all eight Dasara elephants marched towards Jayamarthanda Gate of Mysuru Palace for the grand event.
They passed via Ballal Circle, RTO Circle, Ramaswamy Circle, Sanskritha Patashala Circle to reach the Jayamarthanda Gate of Mysuru Palace.
As the elephants marched majestically, people lined up on both sides to have a glimpse of them.
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