Dasara festivities draw huge crowd

Mysore, Oct 16 (UNI) The world famous Dasara festivities here is attracting a large number of tourists, including foreigners to the City of Palaces.

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

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, 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 time at the palace premises during the festival. The highlight 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 from across 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 calibre.

Chamaraja Wadiyar was considered as an able musician while the court of Narasaraja Wadiyar was renowned for its veena artistes. Chikka Devaraya authored a musical treatise 'Geetagopala' while Krishnaraja II made 'Sritattvanidhi.' MORE UNI