Pejawar Mutt Seer Sri Vishwaprasanna Theertha Swamiji, priest Prahlad Rao perform rituals at Palace amidst rain

Mysore/Mysuru: The first batch of nine Dasara elephants camping at Mysore Palace premises was offered Gaja Puja on account of Gowri-Ganesha festival yesterday.  

As part of Gaja Puja, arishina- kumkuma were applied to perform pada puja (the foot) to the elephants and other religious rituals, near Trineshwaraswamy temple premises within the Palace precincts.

The elephants — howdah carrier Abhimanyu, along with Dasara veteran Arjuna, other elephants Bhima, Mahendra, Dhananjaya, Vijaya, Gopi, Varalakshmi and Kanjan were also decorated with flower on the occasion.

Though it started to rain, Udupi Pejawar Mutt Seer Sri Vishwaprasanna Theertha Swamiji and priest Prahlad Rao performed the puja, in keeping with the tradition.

Sri Vishwaprasanna Theertha  Swamiji, who is in the city on Chaturmasya Vratha, said “Let Dasara festival be a success with the blessings of Goddess Sri Chamundeshwari and the land be blessed with peace and development.”

“Dasara festival is one of the sacred traditions of Sanatana Dharma and the elephants play a key role in celebrating the festival with dedication and devotion. We should all strive for the welfare of wildlife including elephants. The Government and people should work in tandem to find out an amicable solution for man-animal conflicts,” the Seer said.

Priest Prahlad Rao, who regularly performs Gaja Puja to elephants said, “Elephants are revered as ‘Ganesha’, hence on the occasion of the festival, the elephants are worshipped and treated with modaka, fruits among other food.”

Earlier, Udupi Pejawar Mutt Seer was accorded a traditional welcome by the office-bearers of Dasara Sub-Committee and Forest Department Officers.

DCF Saurabh Kumar, DCF Dr. K.N. Basavaraju, RFO Santosh Hugar, veterinarian Dr. Mujeeb Rehman, Deputy Director of Mysore Palace Board T. S. Subramanya, ACP (Palace) Chandrashekar and others were present on the occasion.