Mysuru: A day ahead of the Dasara Gajapayana or the journey of elephants to Mysuru for this year’s Dasara jumbo savari, elephants from different camps converged on the Nagapura haadi, a tribal hamlet in Nagarahole, Hunsur taluk, where they will be given a traditional send-off to the city of palaces on Saturday.
While the state government has approved participation of 15 elephants, including three new ones, Bheema, Krishna and Drona in Dasara this year, only the first batch of eight caparisoned elephants will begin their formal march to Mysuru at 11 am Saturday. Dasara executive chairman and District in-charge Minister, H C Mahadevappa will perform the traditional poojas on the occasion.
Once they have taken a few symbolic steps, the elephants will be herded into lorries that will take them to Mysuru. On reaching there, they will rest in the Aloka palace grounds in Ilwala and be given a traditional welcome at 12.05pm on August 17 in the courtyard of the Mysuru palace, where they will remain along with their mahouts till the end of the Dasara.
In the first batch of eight elephants are 57 –year- old veteran, Arjuna from the Balle elephant camp, 59- year- old Balarama, 51- year –old Abhimanyu, 17- year- old Bheema and 61 -year -old Varalakshmi from the Maththigodu camp, 62 –year-old Gajendra from the K Gudi camp, Biligiriranga tiger reserve, Chamarajnagar, and 39- year- old Cauvery and 60- year -old Vijaya from the Dubare elephant camp.
The second batch will see seven elephants, Gopalswamy, Vikrama, Gopi, Harsha, Prashantha, Krishna and Drona make their way to Mysuru for the festivities.
The Royal Tradition
The tradition of Gajapayana is said to have begun during the reign of Sri Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar.
The royal family reportedly offered pooja at the Maasthi gudi or Maasthamma temple near Antharsanthe in H D Kote taluk before bringing the elephants to the royal city for the Dasara festivities.
Gajayapayana was discontinued for several years before the then Mysuru MP A.H. Vishwanath resumed it in 2002.
World Elephants’ Day
As this year’s Gajapayana coincides with World Elephants’ day, the forest department has come out with a short movie on Dasara elephants, which will be released in Nagapura haadi on Saturday.
One of the new additions to the Dasara elephants, Bheema was rescued from the Aanechaukur wildlife zone in Bheemanakatte, where it was found abandoned. The other new addition, Drona was captured by the forest department and has been helping chase wild animals back to the forests. The third addition, Krishna, was captured in the Kallahalla forest zone in a Kedda operation when he was nine years old.
