Old Mysore · Deccan Inland Plateau
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Mysuru Dasara | Ten days in Ashwina, usually late September or October | The state festival, observed by the Wadiyars since the early seventeenth century in continuation of the Vijayanagara Mahanavami and now run as a public event. The palace is illuminated for nine nights; the tenth, Vijayadashami, brings the Jamboo Savari — a procession from the palace to Bannimantap in which a 750-kilogram howdah faced with about 85 kilograms of gold is carried on an elephant trained for years for the job. Since the abolition of the privy purses the howdah has carried an image of Chamundeshwari rather than the king. A torchlight parade closes the night. |
| Bengaluru Karaga | The full moon of Chaitra, March or April | An eleven-day observance of the Thigala community at the Dharmaraya Swamy temple in the old pete. A priest dressed as a woman carries a tall flower-decked pot on his head without touching it, through the old city at night, escorted by hundreds of initiated veerakumaras with drawn swords. The procession stops at the Hazrat Tawakkal Mastan dargah, a courtesy that is older than anyone's memory of why. |
| Vairamudi at Melukote | Phalguna, March or April | The diamond crown is brought out under guard from the treasury for one night and placed on the processional image, which is taken through the town before dawn. The crown is not displayed at any other time. |
| Mahamastakabhisheka at Shravanabelagola | Once in twelve years; last held in 2018, next due in 2030 | Scaffolding is built around the 57-foot Bahubali and the statue is anointed from the head down with water, milk, saffron, sandal paste, turmeric and finally powdered gold and silver, before crowds in the lakhs. |
| Kadalekai Parishe | The last Monday of Karthika, late November or December | The groundnut fair at the Bull Temple in Basavanagudi, where farmers bring the season's first crop to be offered to the Nandi before it is sold. It has run for centuries, occupies several streets, and is the one day of the year that neighbourhood smells of roasting groundnut. |
| Makara Sankranti and kichchu haayisodu | 14 or 15 January | Cattle are washed, painted, horns dressed, and driven over a low fire in the village street — kichchu haayisodu — while households exchange a mix of sesame, groundnut, jaggery and copra with the formula ellu bella thindu olle maathadi, eat this and speak well of others. |
| Ugadi | Chaitra new moon, March or April | The Kannada new year, marked by the bevu-bella — a mouthful of bitter neem flower with jaggery, eaten together to state plainly that the year will contain both. Obbattu is made in every house. |
| Male Mahadeshwara jaatre | Ugadi and Deepavali, with the largest gathering in Chaitra | A hill pilgrimage from the forest districts and from across the southern border, with all-night Kamsale recitation, thousands of devotees walking the ghat road, and cooked offerings distributed at the temple. |
| Avarekai Mela | Six days in January | A Bengaluru neighbourhood fair devoted entirely to the hyacinth bean, at which the bean is served in several dozen forms including as dosa, idli, payasa and — a modern indignity it survives well — ice cream. |
The festival calendar of Old Mysore — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (9)