India is perhaps the only country where goddesses are still widely worshipped. The origin and nature of many of these present day Goddesses and their cults go back to primordial times. But the centre of all mother goddess worship is the desire to propitiate and praise the powers of nature for promoting growth and fertility. The nine day autumnal festival of Navaratri is an expanded and systematized form of such a fertility and thanksgiving festival.

During the medieval period, kings and rulers, as representatives of the people, took over the worship of the Mother goddess and added a spectacular tenth day material festival called Vijaya-dashami, popularly known as 'Dasara'. This was intended to placate the goddess to grant victory in battles. The Mysore celebration of Navaratri and Dasara is an integral part of this great martial tradition of Mother goddess worship.

This work traces the origin and background of this festival from early times. It then describes the various traditional rituals as prescribed in the Dharmashastra (moral and religious law) texts. Eyewitness accounts of the celebrations of this grand festival during medieval times, particularly in the famous South Indian Kingdom of Vijayanagara, are added in the third chapter. This forms a background to the last chapter that gives a graphic and comprehensive account of the ten day festival as celebrated today in the Mysore place by H.H. Srikanthadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, heir to the cultural and religious traditions of Vijayanagara.

The dazzling and intimate photographs by Gajendra Singh Auwa, brother in law of the Maharaja, add a personal dimension to the book that is both unique and rare.

Sivapriyananda was born into the royal family of a princely state in South Gujarat. He studied Sanskrit and Pali at graduate and post-graduate level at Poona University. He also studied for the traditional 'Kavya-tirtha' of the Bengal Sanskrit Association, Calcutta. After this, he went to England to study Archaeology at the London University.

He took sannyasa in 1974 in Rishikesh, and since then has visited many ashrams, saints and centres of traditional learning in search of forgotten and neglected aspect of Indian religion and culture. At present, he is finishing a book on Mysore Traditional Paintings. His other publications include Devotional Songs of Narsi Mehta (Motilal Banarsidass), Secret Power of Tantrik Breathing and Astrology and Religion in Indian Art (both by Abhinav Publications).

Gajendra Singh Auwa is a freelance nature and architectural photographer who also has his own wild life Resort in the South Indian sanctuary of Bandipur near Mysore.

His architectural coverage includes forts, palaces and temples of India. His nature photography includes wildlife, wilderness, landscapes etc.

Having married into the Mysore Royal family, he has had ample opportunity to cover comprehensively the private Dasara functions at the Mysore palace.