#wodeyars

The Chamundeshwari Temple holds a special place in the history and culture of the state of Karnataka. It is located on a scenic green hill.

The Chamundeshwari Temple holds a special place in the history and culture of the state of Karnataka. It is located on a scenic green hill.

The Chamundeshwari Temple holds a special place in the history and culture of the state of Karnataka. It is located on a scenic green hill.

The Chamundeshwari Temple holds a special place in the history and culture of the state of Karnataka. It is located on a scenic green hill.

The Chamundeshwari Temple holds a special place in the history and culture of the state of Karnataka. It is located on a scenic green hill.

Mysore Palace - the official residence of the Wodeyars - the rulers of Mysore. History of the Palace A testament to the irrepressible spirit of the people of Mysuru and their kings, the Mysuru Palace has survived political upheavals, disaster and destruction, only to rise out of the ashes more magnificent than ever. The current Mysuru Palace – the fourth to occupy this site – was designed by the British architect Henry Irwin after its predecessor was destroyed in a fire in 1897. The imposing building that stands today was completed in 1912, but it is believed that a Mysuru Palace was established as part of a wooden fortress, by the royal family of Mysuru, the Wodeyars, as early as the fourteenth century. In 1638 the palace was struck by lightning and rebuilt by Kantirava Narasa Raja Wodeyar (1638 – 1659 AD), who extended the existing structures, adding new pavilions. The glory of the new building was to prove short-lived. The death of Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar (1673 – 1704 AD) in the eighteenth century plunged the kingdom into a period of political instability. During these turbulent times the Mysuru Palace slipped into a state of neglect culminating in its demolition in 1793 by Tipu Sultan, the son of Hyder Ali, a maverick general in the king’s army who rose to become the ruler of Mysuru. In 1799, when upon the death of Tipu Sultan the five-year old Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1794-1868) AD assumed the throne, the coronation ceremony took place under a marquee. One of king’s first tasks, on his accession, was to commission a new palace built in the Hindu architectural style and completed in 1803. The hastily constructed palace soon fell into disrepair and in 1897 was razed to the ground by a fire at the wedding ceremony of princess Jayalakshmmanni. The destiny of the Mysuru Palace now passed to Queen Regent Kempananjammanni Vanivilasa Sanndihana, who commissioned well-known British architect Henry Irwin to build a new palace that would be a tribute to the legacy of Mysuru and the Wodeyars. Completed in 1912 and at a cost of Rs. 41,47,913 the result was the Mysuru Palace you see standing today. A masterpiece in Indo-Saracenic architecture, on par with great Mughal residences of the North and the stately colonial public buildings of the South. — at Mysore Palace.

The Mysore Palace (Wodeyar Dynasty, rebuilt 1912) keeps alive the extraordinary legacy of the Princely Kingdom of Mysore, which acceded to the Indian Union upon the country's Independence in 1947. You can trace the story of the Wodeyars along the crowning archway: from the patron deity Chamundeshwary slaying the demon Mahishasura, to the two founding Wodeyar brothers laying the groundwork of their kingdom. To the onset of colonial rivalries in south India and the consequent rise of the young soldier Haider Ali as de facto ruler of Mysore. To the ensuing reign of his iconic son Tipu Sultan and his final battle with the British, ending with the Kingdom's subsidiary alliance to the British as a princely state.Illustration by Nirupa Rao.