Nine nights at the Palace
Behind the public festival runs a private one. Inside the Amba Vilas Palace the Wadiyar family keeps the Navaratri rituals their ancestors kept — the golden throne, the Durbar, the worship of weapons on the ninth day.
The Ratna Simhasana
Nine days before Navaratri the jewelled throne — of fig wood, plated with gold and studded with precious stones — is assembled in the Durbar Hall. It is seen by the public only during these ten days. On the first night the scion of the family ascends it, and the Durbar begins.
- Assembled only for Navaratri
- Seen from the Durbar Hall galleries
- Removed after Vijayadashami
Khas Durbar, every evening
Each night of Navaratri the family holds court in the Durbar Hall — a ceremony of music, ritual offerings and the presentation of the royal sword, unchanged in form for two centuries. Palace visitors with an evening ticket may watch from the galleries.
- Nightly through Navaratri
- Palace band and Carnatic recital
- Evening tickets at the Palace counters
Ayudha Puja
On Mahanavami the instruments of work and war are worshipped — the palace weapons, the royal elephants and horses, and by extension every tool, vehicle and machine in the city. Mysuru’s shopfronts and buses are garlanded with banana leaves and marigold for the day.
Vijayadashami
The day of victory. In the afternoon the goddess Chamundeshwari is placed in the golden howdah on the lead elephant and carried from the Palace to Bannimantap — the Jumboo Savari. The private Durbar ends; the public one, in a sense, begins.
