With two more days left for the grand Vijaya Dasami on October 17, Mysore has turned into a fairyland, with hundreds and thousands of bulbs glowing at several places after sunset.
Dasara is made most attractive by the way the city is illuminated. Power shortages or not, during this festive season Mysore is grandly lit up on all the 10 days. This has been the feature right from the days when electricity became a common man’s usage.
But the most brilliantly attractive illumination is the century-old Mysore Palace. It is lit up with about 100,000 bulbs. The sudden burst of lights at the dot of even in the evening breaks the darkness, the architectural beauty of the old royal mansion magically appearing in an eye-pleasing golden sheen. Carried away by the beauty of the Palace, onlookers burst out exclamatory remarks like, “Wow! What a wonderful sight.”
The Palace, which looked more grandiose when the Durbar was conducted during the reign of the Mysore Wodeyars, is illuminated through the 10 day-long Dasara celebrations for two hours.
The circles around the Palace and the procession route from the Palace to Banni Mantap, the Sayaji Rao Road, marking the visit of Baroda Maharaja Sayaji Rao as the guest of the Mysore Maharaja, is another place with colourful illumination during the Dasara evenings. Half way down the Sayaji Rao Road, the Chamundeswari Electricity Company has set up a green pandal adding further colours to the rows of bulbs on the royal road.
Besides these, many prominent public buildings too are bringing out their architectural features in tastefully illuminated colours..
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The trees on the way to the Chamundi Hills are also lit up with colour bulbs hanging from them. Over 4,500 metal alloyed lamps have been used to brighten up the road. Illuminated portrayal exhibit Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, the last ruler of the Wodeyar dynasty and Goddess Chamundeswari, the benign diety of the royals and Mysoreans of yore.
Over 50 parks, most of which remain dark during evenings have been brightly lit up and some host cultural programmes.
Illumination like this, round the year can make the parks attractive for evening visits and brighten up the heritage city which draws a large number of tourists throughout the year.
If Dasara is successful and draws more tourists making Mysore a great place to visit during the 10 days, much of the credit goes to the illumination, which is increasingly becoming popular and expanded to cover new places and structures.
Illumination and several other programmes are attracting good crowds while the inflow of tourists is on the rise.