An innovation that became a tradition

The Jamboo Savari, with the caparisoned elephants carrying the idol of goddess Chamundeshwari, remains firmly etched in public memory and consciousness as the defining image of Mysuru Dasara.

But the use of elephants to carry the golden howdah is a recent tradition and could be traced back to the late 19th or the early 20th Century. The practice of carrying the idol of goddess came only in the 1970s.

For, the Dasara mural at the Jaganmohan Palace clearly indicates that during the regime of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, the king used to be seated in a chariot drawn by multiple elephants. This made way for howdah and the practice continued till late 1960s and Jayachamaraja Wadiyar was the last king to sit in a howdah during the Dasara procession.

As the institution of the Maharajas was abolished after Independence and the privy purse – the privileges and special status given by the government to the princely States – was also scrapped in 1971, Mysuru Dasara became a private affair of the erstwhile rulers of Mysore.

It was then that the citizens of Mysuru conducted their own Dasara to carry forward the tradition and the government stepped in early 1970s. The idol of goddess Chamundeshwari was placed inside the howdah mounted on the elephant which carried it in the procession. This innovation, has now become a tradition, which is here to stay.