Sir,
Now that the Dasara season has set in, I found this brief news item titled “Mysore Dasara Festivities” quite interesting [Courtesy: From ‘The Hindu’ Archives – A hundred years ago, Oct. 10, 1918, published in its issue dated Oct. 10, 2018):
Mysore Dasara Festivities
“His Highness the Yuvaraja opens the All-India Dasarah Exhibition (in Mysore) on the 12th evening. The arrangements for the opening ceremony are nearing completion and considerable improvements have been effected, in the accommodation of exhibits. Another useful feature is the opening of a Hindu Restaurant and Hotel within one of the permanent stalls intended for the exhibits from the Mysore Province. In previous years, it was found impossible for visitors and exhibitors to obtain any food or lunch and great difficulty was experienced by many of them. Mr. Balraj Urs, Secretary of the Exhibition Committee, deserved credit in making this arrangement. The admission will be through silver passes, and season tickets.”
Note: The venue is not mentioned but definitely not in the present Doddakere Maidan. Incidentally, it was Chamaraja Wadiyar X who started Mysore Dasara Exhibition in 1880 with the intention of introducing up-to-date innovations and developments to the people of Mysore.
– K. Vijaya Kumar, V.V. Mohalla, 11.10.2018
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Very interesting piece! The World War I was nearly at its end ( it ended in November 1918), and Jayachamaraja Wadiyar was not born then! His birth in July 2019, brought Joy to Mysoreans, and winning the War by the Allies,meant that he was christened with ” Jaya” at the start of his name. Doddakere exhibition arrange is of recent origin, after the permanent exhibition building in Irvin Road was taken over and used for other purposes. One would assume that the exhibition in 1918 would have been in this vicinity as there was plenty of space in this part of the City.