The South Indian city of Mysore, once the capital of the princely state of Mysore in the era of the British Raj, is notable for its grandiose celebrations of the Hindu festival of Dasara.  The festival commemorates an ancient and storied destruction of a demon by a Hindu goddess. This year's celebrations constituted the city's 408th anniversary of the celebrations, an event marred somewhat by confusion and an unruly crowd which devolved the annual elephant procession into chaos at its twilight.