Mysuru Dasara: A peep into documentation of a living heritage 

Visitors to Mysuru palace get to view a series of paintings in the Kalyana Mantapa section where the oil paintings depict the Dasara procession and has captured the grandeur of the event as celebrated during the period of the maharajas

The vibrant hues of Mysuru Dasara unfolding to a sea of humanity since October 3 seem to reflect the grandeur of the living tradition whose essence has been captured in a series of paintings in the Kalyana Mantapa of the Amba Vilas Palace.

A reminder of the cultural richness that has come to define Mysuru, Dasara is also among the most documented of this living tradition, which has been written about by medieval travellers and captured on canvas by artists.

Visitors to Mysuru palace get to view a series of paintings in the Kalyana Mantapa section where the oil paintings depict the Dasara procession and has captured the grandeur of the event as celebrated during the period of the maharajas.

According to the Mysuru Palace Board, which has published a visitors’ guide, these paintings depict celebrations of Dasara festival between 1934 and 1945, and are based on actual photographs. The artists who came up with the paintings are K. Keshavaiah, S.N. Swamy, Y. Nagaraju, S. Shankararaju, S.R. Iyengar and Y. Subramanya Raju.

The Dasara paintings have a slice of history embedded in them as some of them have depicted illustrious personalities of the age of whom veena exponent S. Subbanna, C. Venkatagiriyappa and Vainika Shikhamani Veene Seshanna have been identified.

One of the paintings has depicted Dr. R. Shamasastry who discovered Kautilya’s Arthashastra at the Oriental Research Institute in Mysuru in 1905, published the Sanskrit edition in 1909 while the first English version was released in 1915.

Till its publication, the existence of Arthashastra was known only by references made to it by other scholars of ancient India. Dr. R. Shamasastry’s discovery opened up new vistas in the study of ancient Indian polity and administration.

Other famous personalities of the age identified in the paintings include musician and composer Bidaram Krishnappa while one of the panels have depicted king’s personal bodyguards, reckoned to be commandos vested with the responsibility of protecting the king.

Among the more celebrated paintings that has captured the grandeur of the Mysuru Dasara is the one in which the maharaja is depicted as seated in the golden howdah mounted on a caparisoned elephant with Chamundi Hills forming the backdrop.

The procession paintings also highlight some of the well-known monuments of Mysuru, including the St. Philomena’s church on Ashoka Road. The procession no longer moves along Ashoka Road. It now passes through Sayyaji Rao Road, Bamboo Bazaar, Highway Circle and Nelson Mandela Road before terminating at Bannimantap Ground.

While the palace paintings capture the splendour of Mysuru Dasara of the early decades of the 20^th century, there are lengthy descriptions by medieval travellers like Domingo Paes of Portugal who visited the Vijayanagara empire during 1520-22 CE. Fernao Nuniz was another traveller from Portugal who visited between 1535-37 CE and wrote about a ‘great feast’ spread over nine days.

The travelogues of medieval traders and the palace paintings have not only served to document a slice of age-old tradition but are a reminder that they continue to resonate in present-day celebrations.

Published - October 09, 2024 04:18 pm IST