ABSTRACT

In southern India, the tradition of the Dasara or Mahanavani festival as a public ritual of kingship can be traced back to the time of the Vijayanagara kingdom in the fifteenth century. One important aspect of the Navaratri festival in Vijayanagara was the royal assemblage, durbar, which subordinate chiefs had to attend and where they had to exchange homage and gifts with the king of Vijayanagara. During the colonial period, an important public ceremony was added to the Mysore Dasara, which was called 'the European Durbar'. There is an important domestic festival that people perform during Dasara, which is called bombe or gombe habba (doll festival). People, especially the women in each household, arrange dolls of gods, humans, and animals on a podium with several successive levels leading up to the top. Dasara, for the majority of the people, means performing ayuda pujaa at home or at their work place, and watching the Dasara procession on TV.