D C Ponnuraj inaugurates Mangalore Dasara at Kudroli Temple

D C Ponnuraj inaugurates Mangalore Dasara at Kudroli Temple

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, October 8: V Ponnuraj, Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district, inaugurated the 20th Mangalore Dasara or Navaratri celebration at Kudroli temple, by lighting the lamp placed in front of the idols of Goddess Sharada devi and Nava Durgas on Friday, October 8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The members of organizing committee have carried all the idols of Godess Durga and Sharada into the decorated hall and installed all the idols at 12.15pm in the afternoon with the presence of Deuty Commissioner V Ponnuraj, Dr Vijay Prakash, Commissioner, Mangalore City Corporatioon and Suresh Ballal, Congress leader.

The religious pomp and grandeur will mark the 10-day festivity which concludes with the grand Dasara procession that will be taken out on October 17. The organizing committee has made arrangements for leading artists from all over to perform in the cultural programmes that begin on Friday, October 8 up to October 16.

The Kshetra has made arrangements to feed devotees who come there in the afternoon on all days of the festivities

On the last day of the festival, a grand procession, carrying all the nine worshipped idols from the Kudroli temple, would pass through Kambla Road, Mannagudda, Lady Hill, Lalbagh, Ballalbagh, P V S Circle, Navabharath Circle, K S Rao Road, Hampankatte, University College, Ganapathy High School Road, Venkataramana Temple, Car Street, Chitra Talkies, Alake and culminate with the immersion of the idols in the ’kalyani’ of the Sri Kshetra. The festivities will end with guru pooja to be held on October 18 at 8 pm

Mangalore Dasara celebration at Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara Temple is one of the biggest festivities in coastal Karnataka. Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara Temple was established as a small shrine by Sri Narayana Guru in 1912. Sri Narayana Guru, hailing from Kerala worked for the upliftment of backward communities.

Dasara celebrations here began 20 years ago in 1990, when the old small shrine was renovated into a large complex in Chola style architecture. In 1995, tableaux were introduced for the first time in the Dasara procession on the last day of celebrations. Mangalore dasara is called common man’s dasara as it is not funded by the Government as in Mysore Dasara and people of the city participate actively.