Mysuru: Wearing singoti on his tusks, chaamara on his ears, hanepatti on his forehead, and dibba on his legs, 57- year- old elephant, Arjuna, carried the 750 kg golden howdah with ease as he made his way majestically through the streets of Mysuru, accompanied by 14 other caprisoned and painted elephants, drawing applause and cheers from the over three lakh spectators, who had gathered to watch the spectacular Jamboo Savari that brought down the curtains on the 10- day Dasara festivities in the city on Saturday.
The procession of the elephants, cultural troupes and tableaux that stretched for over a kilometre kept people spellbound for the two hours and 50 minutes that it took to traverse the 5km stretch from the Mysuru palace to the Bannimantap grounds.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who first offered pooja to the “Nandi Dhwaja” at the Balarama gate of the palace, later offered a floral tribute to goddess Chamundeswari ensconced in the golden howdah carried by Arjuna at 5.02pm in the presence of the 27th scion of the Mysuru royal family, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and others.
CM Siddaramaiah with his grandchildren. (Photo: DC)
Raising his trunk during the national salute to the firing of 21 cannon shots , Arjuna left the palace at 5.10 pm and reached Bannimantap at around 7 pm with veteran of many Dasaras, elephant Balarama leading the procession, which featured cultural troupes performing folk dances and 40 tableaux.
While one tableau displayed the Indira Canteens, some highlighted the state government’s major programmes like Annabhagya, Ksheerabhagya ,and Rajiv Arogya Yojana. Davanagere devoted its tableau to its success story with the Swatchh Bharath mission. One of the most impressive was the tableau featuring the Mahamasthakabhisheka of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola.
Eight police platoons led by parade commander, Shivaraju on horseback and a 250 -member English band, and a Carnatic band marched alongside as martial artists did karate and carts carrying over 150 –year- old- brass cannon barrels traversed the length of the route, watched by a sea of people, including tourists from the USA, England, France and Denmark.
A no-man zone was created all along the procession route to stop people from entering the procession area and disturbing the elephants.
Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visited the Suttur Math near the Chamundi hills and planting a Banni plant , did a pooja to mark the Vijayadashmi day.
