Bengaluru: Festivities for the Mysuru Dasara were kicked off Saturday with a special prayer to Goddess Chamundeshwari, the deity primarily worshipped during the festival, to ‘guide’ the world to find a Covid-19 vaccine soon.
Usually marked by grand celebrations, the 10-day Mysuru Dasara is being observed with muted festivities this year in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The celebrations were inaugurated by Dr C.N. Manjunath, chairman of Jayadeva Hospitals and member of the Karnataka Covid task force, who said his prayers were aimed at the early development of a successful Covid-19 vaccine.
“It is an honour for me to have been given the opportunity to inaugurate the Mysuru Dasara, a festival that I have always witnessed with awe since my childhood,” Dr Manjunath told ThePrint.
“I have prayed we come out with a vaccine that will treat the virus. I pray to Goddess Chamundeshwari to guide us through to find a vaccine to treat the virus. We should be united and help each other during this fight against the pandemic,” he said. “We should not let our guard down. One mistake could prove costly for many.”
As an acknowledgment of their work during the pandemic, many Covid-19 warriors were felicitated at the inauguration event.
They are pourakarmika (civic staffer) Maragamma, ASHA worker Noor Jahan, social worker Ayub Ahmed, health officer T.R. Naveen, staff nurse Rukmini, and police constable Kumar P.
Manjunath was felicitated by Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa too.
“I appeal to the government to declare Covid warriors (who died) martyrs as they too have been fighting a war against an invisible enemy. Many have given up lives trying to save others and they are like our soldiers who defend our nation for us,” Manjunath said at the inaugural ceremony Saturday.
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Attendance restricted
The Mysuru Dasara is also called ‘Nada Habba’ or the Festival of the Land, and is celebrated with much fervour each year. It begins with a special puja for Goddess Chamundeshwari, who is also the family goddess of the Wodeyars, the erstwhile rulers of Mysore. Started in Mysuru by Raja Wodeyar I in 1610, the festivities have been among the highlights of Dussehra celebrations across the country.
One of the biggest draws of the Mysuru Dasara is the ‘Jumbo Sabari’, a procession of elephants on the premises of the Wodeyar palace at Chamrajpura. The elephant leading the procession carries a 750kg ‘howrah (palanquin)’ made of gold with an idol of Goddess Chamundeshwari inside.
The erstwhile Wodeyar royals host these celebrations in collaboration with the state government. This year, they have decided to keep the rituals simple and restrict the number of attendees. Usually, the Mysuru Palace grounds are equipped to seat close to 1 lakh attendees, but the attendance has been restricted to 28,000 this year.
The Dasara celebrations this year come amid a spurt in Covid-19 cases in Mysuru.
As on 17 October, Mysuru had recorded 44,638 Covid cases, with 501 fresh infections reported Saturday. A total of 922 people have died of Covid-19 in the district, and the number of active cases stands at 7,246.
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