Skip to content
A standing man in orange robes and an orange turban performs aarti with a lit multi-wick oil lamp at a Dasara celebration stage in Hyderabad. He wears long garlands of green leaves and orange-yellow flowers, and smoke or incense haze fills the hall. Beside him a seated man in orange with a rudraksha mala and a white-clad helper stand near a golden throne draped with marigold and white flower garlands and a golden canopy. Brass plates of offerings, flower bowls and rows of small brass vessels lie on a red carpet. Behind the stage a large backdrop shows a smiling man in an orange turban beside the word Dasara. Whether the orange-turbaned aarti performer is a person cannot be confirmed from appearance, so the figure is treated as a priest performing aarti.