Dasara festivities draws huge crowd

Mysore, Oct 16 (UNI) Political turmoil notwithstanding, the world famous Dasara festivities here, is attracting a huge number of tourists, including foreigners to the city of palaces.

The festivities which entered fifth day, saw the tempo picking up, with visitors from across the country pouring into the heritage city to participate in various cultural festivities.

The mega cultural programmes held in front of the Mysore palace and Yuva Dasara at Maharaj's College grounds were major crowd pullers.

The illuminated palace continued to hold centre stage while the classical music and dance, cultural programmes which were inaugurated by noted writer Chandrasekhara Kambara on October 13 followed by a violin maestro Kunnakudi Vidyanathan's concert enthralled the audience .

The programme titled 'Janapada Jatre' was held for the first tine at the palace premises during the festival. The highlight at the palace was the folk dance performance by 15 troupes from the state.

Such musical extravanganza had been a tradition with the Dasara festivities here as the erstwhile rulers utilised the occasion to patronise eminent singers and musicians cross the country.

The entire programme was sponsored by the TVS group and State Bank of Mysore.

A few members of the royal family were musicians of high caliber, Chamaraja Wadiyar was considered an able musician while the court of Narasaraja Wadiyar was renowned for its veena artists. Chikka Devaraya authored a musical treatise 'Geetagopala' while Krishnaraja II made Sritattvanidhi.

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