Dry rehearsal from tomorrow

Mysore/Mysuru: With just 12 days left for the inauguration of Dasara festivities, traditional puja was performed to 11 cannons at the Mysore Palace premises this morning. Out of these 11 cannons, seven will be used to give 21-round cannon salute before the commencement of Jumboo Savari on Vijayadashami Day (Oct. 24).

Priest S.V. Prahallad Rao, accompanied by other priests, performed Ganapathi and Mrutyunjaya pujas near Aane Baagilu in the Palace premises. City Police Commissioner B. Ramesh also offered puja after the cannons were pulled a little further from Aane Baagilu between 11.30 am and 12 noon today.

A total of 35 personnel drawn from City Armed Reserve (CAR) Force including new staff led by three Reserve Sub-Inspectors (RSIs) have been deployed for ‘Pirangi Dala’ to fire the cannons.

On Vijayadashami Day, the Golden Howdah will be mounted on Howdah Elephant Abhimanyu and the idol of Goddess Chamundeshwari will be placed inside the Golden Howdah. During the showering of flowers to the idol and the Golden Howdah, the Police Band will play the National Anthem in three phases during which 21 rounds of cannon salute will be given using seven cannons in one minute.

City Top Cop B. Ramesh said that ‘Pirangi Dala’ has been formed and traditional puja was performed to the cannons today. Preparations are made to provide training to ‘Pirangi Dala’ personnel to fire the cannons, he added.

Dry rehearsal from tomorrow: The ‘dry talim’ or rehearsal with unloaded cannons will commence from tomorrow in the Palace premises for which 4-5 personnel from ‘Pirangi Dala’ will be deployed for each cannon. The responsibility of the 21 rounds of cannon salute has been given to the ‘Pirangi Dala.’

To acclimatise Dasara elephants and horses from the Mounted Police force to the booming sound of cannons during Dasara procession, these cannons will be fired for three days during the rehearsals performed 10 days before the grand finale.

Usually, Dasara elephants and horses from the Mounted Police force were being made to acclimatise to the booming sound of cannons at the parking lot near Mysore Palace, but the venue of the same was changed to the Parking lot of Dasara Exhibition on M.G. Road from last year.

DCP (Law and Order) M. Muthuraj, DCP (Crime and Traffic) S. Jahnavi, Palace Security ACP Chandrashekar, Mounted Police Commandant Shailendra, DCF Saurab Kumar and others were present.