Mysore palace is a standing testimony of Indo-saracenic style of architecture, located at the heart of the Mysore city. It is one of the most visited places in India that it is estimated that about 2.7 million people visit this magnificent palace every year. This was the residential building of the Mysore chieftains. Until the year 1610 it remained the headquarters of Wodeyar dynasty. Though the present Mysore palace was built a century back, there existed a royal structure of Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar and Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar. The first one is supposed to build the old structure and fortify it.

When the capital was shifted to Srirangapatnam and so the palace lost its elegance for sometimes. Later in 1799 it was rebuilt and the royal family moved to it in 1801. However this palace was destroyed in fire in February 1897 and so a new structure was built in the same model and was completed in 1912. The construction of the palace costed 42 lakh rupees. It is a three storied building standing to a height of 145 feet above the ground level. An addition of Public Durbar Hall was made in 1940.

Fine gray granite and deep pink marble is used to build the structure and has a sculpture of Hindu Goddess Gajalakshmi above the arch. There are twelve Hindu temples within the palace complex and they were built during different timelines. The oldest temple was built during 14^th century. Lord Shiva is housed in Someshvara Temple, Lord Vishnu is housed in Lakshmiramana Temple and there is a temple for one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu called as Lord Varahasamy.

There are many rooms in the palace like Ambavilasa, Gombe Thotti and Kalyana Mantapa and these rooms remind us of the luxurious life of the people. These rooms have rosewood doors with artistic carvings. They are inlaid with ivory and silver with stained glass ceilings that will captivate the minds of the visitors. The floral motifs and wooden elephant adorned with 84 kilograms of pure gold are breathtaking.

The octagonal shape structure with multicolor glass ceiling is the Kalyana Mantapa. The peacock patterns of the tiles are brought from England and the other structures like peacock motifs are made at Glasgow in Scotland. It has beautiful oil paintings on the walls that show the life of the kings and queens and their military parade. Other rooms of importance are audience chamber, public durbar and armoury. The audience chamber is the place where the official meetings of the king with his ministers are held. The public durbar opens to a big arena facilitating the king to meet his common people. One can see the collection of arms of various types in the armoury showing the bravery and valor of the bygone days.

Dasara festival is celebrated in this palace commemorating the victory of Goddess Durga over the devil demon Mahishasura. During the celebration of Dasara 96,000 lights of the palace are illuminated for two months. The palace is open to visitors from 10.00 am to 5.30 pm on all week days. The entrance charge for Indian people is 20 INR per head and for foreigners it is 200 INR. Entrance is free for children up to ten years old. On all Sundays and national and state holidays, the palace is illuminated from 7.00 pm to 8.00 pm.

Article Posted By : Sumazla  On January 10, 2012lView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger and has written thousands of original articles. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

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mysore palace , mysore maharaja palace , mysore wodeyar palace