This year will see renewed focus on the private Dasara of the Wadiyars, as the family tradition will be carried forward by the new scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar.
A custom followed by the family since 400 years, it was kept alive by Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar after the demise of the last maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar in 1974. But after Srikantadatta’s death in 2013, there was a void in 2014 though the rituals were held without the Khas Durbar and other paraphernalia.
But with Pramoda Devi Wadiyar adopting Yaduveer as her son early this year, the latter will carry forward the traditions. It will be his maiden Dasara.
The rituals are normally spread over 9 to 10 days, depending on the reading of the almanac and Yaduveer will have to follow injunctions prescribed in the religious texts being followed by the Wadiyars since 1610. The Khas Durbar — though symbolic in nature following the abolition of the privy purse and the disappearance of monarchy — will be enacted, in which Yaduveer will ascend the golden throne daily till Mahanavmi and receive tributes and blessings from the religious heads. Kayo Shree Gowri , composed during the regime of Chamaraja Wadiyar (1868-1894), will rendered by the musicians. This was adopted as the State anthem by the later Wadiyars.
The royal procession of the Wadiyars will feature the silver chariot, caparisoned elephants, horses, camels and cows, before which the famed Vajra Mushti Kalaga — a unique form of wrestling in which the participants will inflict blows on each other and the first to draw the blood is declared the winner — will be staged. This form of wrestling went out of vogue decades ago, but is enacted only during the Vijayadashami celebrations of the Wadiyars.
