Mysore Dasara

This amateur footage captures an astounding display of pomp and ceremony for the state festival of Mysore (now Karnataka) in south west India. In what appears to be the final day of the 10 day festival we see the abundance of the royal house on full display for the masses. Thousands of soldiers stand on ceremony waiting for the blessing of the Maharaja, who then mounts a golden palanquin atop his royal elephant for a parade through the city. This was one of several films shot in India by Sir Hopetoun Stokes and his wife Lady Stokes.

The festival is one of southern India’s most prominent events on the annual calendar. Running for over 400 years it attracts thousands of devotees and tourists to this day. The Maharaja's blessings or 'Puja' display the wealth of this state for all to see, from the golden carriages, royal horses adorned in jewels and flowers to the amazing golden palanquins precariously balanced on top of the royal elephants. Filming at night was a tricky task for an amateur filmmaker in the early 1930s, but the film gives an impression of the huge scale of effort gone into lighting the Mysore Palace with over 100,000 lights. Tejinder Jouhal