Mahisha Dasara held amidst tight security

Chamundi Hills was out of bounds for the public due to prohibitory orders in view of Mahisha Dasara held in Mysuru on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

The Mahisha Mandalothsava or Mahisha Dasara was held at the Town Hall here on Sunday amidst tight security with additional police deployed at the venue to prevent untoward incident.

The Commissioner of Police Seema Latkar had clamped prohibitory orders under section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita within the Mysuru City Police Commissionerate jurisdiction, including Chamundi Hills as a precautionary measure.

Writer Yogesh Master who was one of the speakers said that the mainstream narrative of history and epic reflected the views of the ruling and the upper class and the need of the hour was subaltern history that brough to the fore the history and voice of the commoners.

He said it will be a time-consuming process but new strands of history was being unravelled that questioned the current narratives and in future Mahishasura would also be seen in a different light.

The mainstream narrative need not be accepted as the gospel truth in the light of new revelations and the process of unravelling the past in the light of new information should continue, said Yogesh Master.

Referring to events narrated in the epics and Puranas or mythologies Yogesh Master said there were a lot of inconsistencies in them and scholars should analyse them dispassionately without getting charged up or emotional. The events mentioned in the Puranas or epics should not be cast aside as devoid of historical material because they are reflective of the conflict between the ruling and the priestly class and the rest of the society, said Mr. Yogesh Master.

He referred to Ramayana and Mahabharatha and said they were part of an oral tradition and were orally transmitted from generation to generation before being written in Sanskrit. But the one-sided narrative that reflects the views of the dominant class should be questioned.

This, Yogesh Master said, called for patience and intellectual pursuit, so that  a more broad-based and democratic narrative with multiplicity of views could be reflected and the Constitution provides such a freedom.

P.V. Nanjaraje Urs, who has authored books on KRS Dam, Tipu Sultan, Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar etc., flayed the police and the district administration for proclaiming prohibitory orders on Chamundi Hills. “It is a matter of disgrace that the police have resorted to such a move and have caused inconvenience to the public and the tourists,” he added.

Writer K.S.Bhagawan equated Hinduism with Brahminism and said that the word Hindu was first used by Persian scholar Al-Biruni in 1030 CE and it finds no mention in either the epics or the Vedas. Dubbing Brahminism as “discriminatory”, he said people subjected to such practices should desist from visiting temples and instead embrace Buddhism.

Former mayor Purushottam, Jnanaprakash Swami, and others were present.