Mangaluru Dasara: nine nights at Kudroli and a procession until dawn

At the start of Navaratri the priests install the idols of Sharada (the goddess of learning, as Saraswati is called here), Mahaganapati and the nine Navadurgas in the temple's Swarna Kalamantapa, and pujas are performed before them every day. The temple stays lit and open late, and the city's main roads are decorated with lights for the ten days.

Throughout the nine days the Gangavatarana fountain runs in the temple grounds: four painted figures of Shiva, each about 13 feet high, send up jets of water that rise to around 100 feet and meet in the shape of a lingam, representing the Ganges flowing from Shiva's crown.

Out in the city the Pili Vesha (huli vesha in Kannada) is the sound of Dasara. Troupes of five to ten young men, painted and costumed as tigers, roam with thaase drummers, stop at homes, shops and street corners to dance for about ten minutes and collect money from the onlookers. The tiger is honoured as the favoured animal of the goddess. Lion and bear dancers join them.

The procession leaves Kudroli in the late afternoon or evening of Vijayadashami (in a recent year at about 4 pm). The idols of the Navadurgas, Mahaganapati and Sharada ride on decorated tableaux, with bands, chende drums, Yakshagana characters, Dollu Kunitha drummers and the tiger troupes.

The route runs from Kudroli through Mannagudda, Ladyhill, Lalbagh, K S Rao Road, Hampankatta, Car Street and Alake, and then back to Kudroli through the night. At daybreak the idols are immersed in the Pushkarini, the pond inside the temple complex (in a recent year at about 6:30 am). The police divert traffic in the centre for the procession.

There are no tickets or stands. Choose by the time of night.

The Kudroli temple was founded by the Billava community at a time when they were barred from many temples. In 1908 a delegation of Billava elders led by Koragappa, a Mangaluru businessman, invited the social reformer Sree Narayana Guru to guide them; he chose the site at Kudroli and brought the Shiva lingam himself, and the temple of Gokarnanatha, a form of Shiva, was built in 1912. Under a later leader, B. R. Karkera, the temple opened its doors to Dalits (then called Harijans), and Karkera also started the Sharada procession that became the heart of the Dasara. The temple was rebuilt in the Chola style, with a 60-foot gopuram, and reopened in 1991.

Kudroli is the best known Dasara in the city, but not the only one. At the Mangaladevi temple in Bolar, of the goddess who gave Mangaluru its name, the goddess's chariot is pulled to Marnamikatta on Mahanavami, the day before Vijayadashami. At the Sri Venkataramana temple on Car Street the Mangaluru Sharadotsava ends with its own Sharada procession and an immersion in the Mahamaya temple tank before dawn.

Mangaluru has plenty of hotels, but Vijayadashami falls in Karnataka's Dasara holidays, when much of the state travels.