On Sunday, 18 October, Kambala was held for the first time in the Mysuru Dasara programme. There are 150 pairs of buffaloes and two days of racing, until Monday evening. The Hindu and Star of Mysore describe the opening, not a final ranking and not a ruling about the animals.

The venue is the Mysuru Development Authority ground near the VTU regional centre, on the Outer Ring Road at Sathagalli. Urban development minister and district in-charge Yathindra Siddaramaiah flagged it off. Star of Mysore names the two tracks Vijaya Kare and Dashami Kare. Thousands of people came to the ground.

The first day was league racing, not a final. Each pair had handlers, ten to fifteen people who ran with the animals and stopped them at the finish, Star of Mysore writes. Organisers, the Dasara Kambala sub-committee, said the event was plastic-free and that there was security and veterinary care. That is their notice, not an independent audit.

Yathindra said the coastal Karnataka sport should not stay only where it began, and that bringing a pair to Mysuru costs about five lakh rupees. Puttur MLA Ashok Rai spoke of 30 to 40 lakh spectators across the state in a year, not at Sunday's gate. He also mentioned opposition to holding the race in Mysuru amid drought, and said the craft is kept by farmers, not by large prizes.

Chamundeshwari MLA G.T. Deve Gowda called the race a bridge between Tulu Nadu and Mysuru. Chief minister D.K. Shivakumar is credited by Rai with support for bringing the sport here. Neither paper names a winner. On Monday, 19 October, the programme continues.

Kambala is a slush-track race, not a palace parade. The Dasara debut shows organisers wanted the coastal sport inside the festival. Until Monday's results, this is the opening, not the title.

Image: Sajith mv parappally, Kambala at Paivalike, Kasaragod, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; an archive coastal race, not the Sathagalli track on 18 October 2026.

Sources consulted: 150 buffalo pairs race as Kambala debuts at Mysuru Dasara - The Hindu; Kambala makes Dasara debut - Star of Mysore.