सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

Tradition holds that the buffalo demon Mahishasura ruled this country until the Devi, as Chamundi, destroyed him — and the land kept his name, Mahishuru, which time softened into Mysuru. The goddess settled on the hill above the city, and Chamundi Betta has been her seat ever since, crowned today by a temple whose towering gopura, added under the Wadiyar kings, is visible far across the plain. Chamundeshwari is the kula devate, the family goddess, of the Wadiyar dynasty, and the bond between goddess, royal house and city runs through Mysuru's whole identity — most famously in Mysuru Dasara, celebrated as the state festival of Karnataka in her honour. Pilgrims who climb the hill's thousand-and-more steps pass the great monolithic Nandi partway up, one of India's largest, and near the summit the vividly coloured statue of Mahishasura reminds every visitor whose defeat the hill commemorates.

A vardhanti is an anniversary — the yearly commemoration of the deity's establishment — and Chamundeshwari's Vardhanti Mahotsava is kept in Ashadha, the month the tradition holds dearest to her. The temple marks it with special abhishekas from the early hours, homas, and alankaras in which the goddess is adorned in her most splendid forms, with the utsava murti taken in procession and prasada distributed on a festival scale. The same month brings the Ashadha Shukravara tradition: on each Friday of Ashadha, lakhs of devotees climb or ride up Chamundi Hills for darshana, many walking the stone steps as a vow, and the temple extends its hours to receive queues that begin before dawn. Together the Vardhanti and the Ashadha Fridays make early monsoon the hill's most intense season outside Dasara — a month that belongs wholly to the goddess, before the city's grand October festivities in her name.

For Mysuru families abroad, Ashadha remains the goddess's month wherever they live. In Ottawa, the traditional keeping is simple: on the Fridays of Ashadha — which this site's panchang can identify for Ottawa's time zone — offer the Devi a lamp, kumkuma and flowers at home, with the Devi Mahatmya's praises or the Lalitha Sahasranama according to the family's custom. The temple's festival worship is widely covered by Karnataka media and shared by the temple's channels, so following the Vardhanti alankaras from afar is easy. Families can arrange sevas through relatives or the temple's official booking, and anyone planning a Karnataka visit should know that an Ashadha Friday on Chamundi Hills — or Dasara in October — shows Mysuru at its most devoted.