CM Siddaramaiah offers bagina to river Cauvery at KRS Dam

Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and colleagues of the Cabinet, offered bagina to river Cauvery at Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) Dam, in Srirangapatna taluk, Mandya district, on Monday, at around 12:20 pm.

The event was scheduled for 11 am. After offering the bagina, the CM took part in the puja for Goddess Cauvery on the premises of the dam. This was the fifth time the CM was offering  bagina at KRS Dam.

As the KRS Dam is filled to its maximum capacity, it is a custom for the CM to offer bagina, since D Devaraja Urs was chief minister. Urs began the custom of offering bagina in 1979. At 8 am on July 29 (Monday), the inflow at KRS Dam was 57,012 cusec and outflow 33,462 cusec. The water level stood at its maximum capacity of 124.80 feet. The dam and the Brindavan Gardens were decked up for the event.

He is the second CM from Mysuru district, besides D Devaraja Urs, to offer bagina. Last year, he was unable to give this offering, due to drought.

According to religious scholar Bhanu Prakash Sharma, this is the first time that the bagina is offered at KRS Dam during Ashada month of Chandramana calendar. During the previous years, it used to be offered during Shravana or Bhadrapada months, as the dam used to take time for filling and the Chandramana month used to arrive a bit late. Sharma has been facilitating the offering of bagina by CMs at KRS Dam, since 1989.

Sharma said 30 baginas, each containing two bamboo ‘mora’, a blouse piece, turmeric, vermillion, coconut, ‘navadhanya’, bangles and puja items, were offered to river Cauvery, on Monday. Extra care was taken to ensure that there are no plastic materials in the offering. Besides offerings, milk to the dam, puja to Goddess Cauvery, Ganapathy puja, homas and abhisheka to the idol of Goddess Cauvery were also held.

Ministers N Chaluvarayaswamy, H C Mahadevappa and K Venkatesh, MLAs Ramesh Bandisiddegowda, Tanveer Sait, K M Uday, P M Narendra Swamy, C Puttaranagashetty, Ravi Kumar Ganiga, Manthar Gowda, Darshan Dhrvanarayan, K Harish Gowda, Ganesh Prasad and A R Krishnamurthy, and MLCs Madhu G Madegowda and Dinesh Gooligowda were present.

Other chief ministers who have offered bagina in KRS Dam are: R Gundu Rao, S Bangarappa and H D Kumaraswamy, thrice; Ramakrishna Hegde, M Veerappa Moily, S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and Basavaraj Bommai twice; Veerendra Patil, H D Deve Gowda, J H Patel and D V Sadananda Gowda once. P Venkatasubbaiah also offered bagina at KRS Dam once, in 1988, as Governor.