No other person can describe this festival better than a MYSOReIAN himself. Well, the city of mysore has a tradition of celebrating this festival with grandeur. It is a 10 day festival, starting with navarathri and the last day being vijayadashami.

It was the day when goddess Chamundeshwari killed Mahishasura. Mahishasura is the demon whose slaying by the goddess gave this city its name ‘MYSORE’. The books says the festivities were observed by the vijayanagar kings in the 15th century.

This festival is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. Every year thousands of tourists visit this historical city to take part in the festivities of Dasara. This festivities included a special durbar (royal assembly), it was during the reign of krishnaraja Wadeyar III the tradition of special durbar was started. After the passing of Srikanta Wadeyar, this tradition has been continued by placing the royal sword.

The main attraction of the ten day dasara is that the whole city of Mysore is illuminated including the all famous Mysore Palace with as many as 100,000 light bulbs. Another major attraction during Dasara is the Dasara exhibition which is held in the exhibition grounds opposite to the Mysore Palace .Various religious and cultural programs are performed in the palace premises. In fact on all 10 days various music and dance concerts, sports and other cultural activities are held in the city. Special event targeted at the youth is the Yuva Dasara which hosts the concerts of popular celebrities. Visit Mysore Dasara website for more.

On the last day, the traditional Dasara procession (locally known as Jumboo Savari) is held on the streets of Mysore city, starting at 2.45 p.m from the Mysore Palace and ending in Bannimantap. The main attraction of this procession is the idol of the Goddess Chamundeshwari which is placed on a golden mantapa (which is around 750 kilograms of gold) on the top of a decorated elephant which is accompanied by colourful floats and cultural troupes. This idol is worshiped by the royal couple and other invitees before it is taken around in the procession. Check out the Dasara procession of 2019.

Later at night, there will be a torch light parade in the grounds of Bannimantap. Laser show, motorbike stunts, fireworks are some highlights of the show. The link to Torch Light parade of 2019 is available here.

Sightseeing Tours

• You can get the breathtaking aerial view of mysore by taking a short 10 minutes helicopter ride from the Lalith Mahal Palace between 9 a.m to 5 p.m. It costs around 2000/- per person.
• You can also try out the open air bus tour covering most of the top attractions of Mysore which was started recently last year.
• If you want to roam around the city on your own, you can try the public bicycle share system called Trin Trin .
• You can also check out Gully Tours for daily tours around Mysore.