Mysuru: The Gajaswaagatha, a traditional welcome to the Dasara elephants at the Mysuru Palace Courtyards was held on Monday.
The elephants were offered traditional pooja by a team of priests and were formally welcomed with flowers and by feeding them sugarcane and jaggery at Jayamarthanda gate of Mysuru Palace.
Ahead of the event, the authorities had put up shelters to accommodate the caretakers of the pachyderms too besides erecting tents for the jumbos.
The first batch of six Dasara pachyderms, Arjuna, Abhimanyu, Dananjaya, Eeshwara, Vijaya and Varalakshmi who arrived in Mysuru on August 22, after their journey was flagged off with a grand Gajapayana event at Veeranahosalli near Nagarahole tiger reserve, the elephants were relaxing at Aranya Bhavan in Mysuru.
