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Bengaluru keeps date with WWI tradition

Age Correspondent

Bengaluru

To the "King’s Dasara" in Mysore, Bengaluru has its own answer — a "people’s Dasara". Each year, on Vijayadashmi, the Gundu Muneshwara Swami temple in Munireddy Palya serves as the fount for a day of processions and tableaux from in and around the city. It did on Monday, too.

Bengaluru’s Dasara tradition is of World War I vintage and it, too, has got a connection to the Wodeyars of Mysore. King Krishnaraja Wodeyar sent three platoons of his Mysore Lancers to Europe to aid the British Army in the Great War against Germany.

Before setting off, the Mysore Lancers vowed that if they returned safe and victorious, they would take out a procession of the idol of Muneshwara Swami on Vijayadashmi every year.

Those soldiers may no longer be there, but the devotees and trustees of the temple have kept up the tradition. "When the Mysore Lancers came back victorious, they took out the first procession. That tradition has carried on," one temple trustee said.

The practice has acquired a rich history, and some of the city’s best-known landmarks are associated with it, says Arun Prasad, research head of Discover Bengaluru. Following their return, the king gifted a large piece of land to Mysore Lancers. That’s what is today High Grounds.

In fact, a street in the area is known as Old Mysore Lancer Lane.