History of Mysore Dasara

Mysore Dasara is the Nada habba or state festival of Karnataka. Often called Navaratri, it is a 10-day festival with the last day being Vijayadashami. According to a legend, Vijayadashami denotes the victory of truth over evil. For, it was the day the Hindu Goddess Chamundeshwari killed the demon Mahishasura.

Mahishasurana Ooru and Dasara

Mahishasura is the asura (demon) from whom the name Mysore has been derived. The word Mysore is a corrupted version of “mysooru” derived from the word “mahishur” or “Mahishasurana Ooru”, meaning the town of Mahishasura in Kannada. Mysore has been associated with the puranic story found in the Devi Bhagavatha.

According to the story, Mysore was ruled by Mahishasura, a buffalo-headed monster. In response to the prayers of the gods and goddesses, the Goddess Parvathi, took birth as Chamundeshwari and killed the monster on top of the Chamundi hill near Mysore. Hence the hill and the city have the names Chamundi Hill and Mysore respectively. After killing the monster, the Goddess stayed on top of the hill.

The famous 10-day long Dasara of Mysore is in honour of the Goddess.

The History of Mysore Dasara Festival

The city of Mysore has a long tradition of celebrating the Dasara festival. According to historians, the Dasara festivities began with the Vijayanagar kings in the 15th century. Abdur Razzaq, a Persian ambassador, reports the observance of Dasara (originally Mahanavami) in Vijayanagara during his stay in India, in his book Matla-us-Sadain wa Majma-ul-Bahrain (The Rise of the Two auspicious constellations and the Confluence of the Two Oceans). This is a major work which contains an overview of the history of the region from 1304 to 1470.