The Sultan and the Maharaja

Tipu Sultan

   Tipu Sultan, is a name we have come across multiple times before. he was a  successful ruler of Mysore. He fought four wars against the British. He forged alliances with other Muslim rulers in India, and with the French. He is still honoured today as a freedom fighter against British rule in the country. His nickname is The Tiger of Mysore. The tiger stripe is prominent on his flags and in his palace and mausoleum.

   Apart from battles, he had great significance for the economy of state of Mysore. Under his leadership, Mysore's silk production became one of the most important in the country. Furthermore, Mysore is a court supplier of essential oils and incense.

   In short, he is an interesting historical person, whom we also got to know a little better here in Mysore. We drove to his old capital Srirangapatna, 12 kilometres from Mysore. There stood the fort, where the British finally defeated him for good. Although his -French- advisers told him to flee the fort through secret passageways, he decided to keep fighting his opponents. "It is better to live one day as a tiger, than a thousand years as a sheep," he said. That became his last battle.

   The British completely demolished the fort. All that's left is a gate and some fortifications along the river. Everything else has been destroyed. Fortunately, they did stay away from Tipu Sultan's summer palace, or Garden Palace. A magnificent building. It didn't look like much on the outside when we got there. The blinds were down, and the roof is not particularly decorated. But the palace, apart from its foundation, is built entirely of wood. And every square inch is painted. Large murals of battles of Tipu Sultan, florals on the ceilings. And again in the most vibrant colours. Now I can understand why they want to keep the sun out to protect the painting.

   The palace is a square building, with open corridors around the outside of the palace. In the centre are several rooms, connected by doors. Apparently there are stairs hidden in the double walls, leading to the top floor. Unfortunately, we did not see these. Consequently, we were not allowed to go upstairs. During Tipu's last battle, the British had already captured this palace and his sons had surrendered, while the Sultan himself was still fighting.

   After visiting the Palace, we went his place of death, and finally to the mausoleum where he is buried alongside his parents, and surrounded by dozens of relatives (uncles, sisters, children). We were struck by how many Muslims visited all these places as well. The mausoleum in particular seemed like a veritable pilgrimage site, with prayer house and all. We almost felt out of place. Until here, too, we were asked if we could be photographed together. Really, the tourists are the same everywhere. Those few whites walking around are at least as interesting as the place they are visiting.

The maharaja of Mysore

   Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan's father, was actually a soldier of fairly low birth. His talents as an army commander had brought him to the attention of the maharaja of Mysore. And at one point he had so much power that he was the de facto ruler of the state. And this status he passed on to his son, whom he brought up from an early age for this purpose. After Tipu Sultan's death, the British returned power to the family of the Wodeyar Rajas (Radja: King, Maharajah: Great King), and made an alliance with them. This maharaja eventually became one of the strongest Indian allies of the British. And he made good money on it.

   The line of Maharajas is unbroken, from 1399 to the present. The current one is the 27th. After Indian independence, Mysore became a constitutional monarchy, until 1954. Then the state was completely absorbed into the Republic of India, and the maharaja became king in name only. In 1973, the royal title even officially disappeared, and he was only the head of the family. But popularly, he remains the Maharajah.

   The Maharajah still lives in the grand palace in Mysore. But this too needs to be maintained. Although the Maharajah seems to be rich enough, an extra penny for building maintenance is more than welcome. We visited the palace twice. The first time was in the evening. There was a light and sound show in the palace garden, which highlighted the palace in different colours. The night that we were there, there was a show in Kannada (the language of Karnataka), which we did therefore were unable to understand.  But judging by the sounds of cannons and tramping horses, Mysore has lived a heroic history. The dynamic lighting of the palace was such that during the narration you could just imagine the messengers walking through the building, informing the king of what had happened. The performance ended with all the lights on the palace going on. A magnificent sight.

   The palace is not really very old. Like Tipu Sultan's summer palace, the maharaja first lived in an all-wood palace. However, this burned down in 1896, during the wedding party of the eldest princess. The then Maharajah had his new accommodation designed by a British architect. It was completed in 1912.

   We again visited the palace during daytime. We assumed that taking photos would be forbidden, but miraculously this was not the case. It was crowded, hugely crowded. It is summerholiday season, and many Indians had also entertained the idea of coming to admire the maharaja's residence. And there was plenty to admire. The gardens were neatly laid out, with fresh bushes and raked paths. Virtually no litter to be found here, which was a big surprise to us.

   The palace itself was well maintained. Everything was painted in bright colours aand gold leaf. Unfortunately, the stained-glass roofs were covered with cloth, probably to protect the glass from the sun and the effects of pigeon droppings. Because despite nets and metal pegs on all ledges, plenty of birds flew and nested in the building. The front of the palace is open to the gardens, with arches and pillars harking back to the architectural style of the Moghuls, as are the onion-shaped domes that form the roofs. Stained-glass windows bring light into the stairwell and the ballroom has a glass roof decorated with peacocks.

   The palace garden also contains an elephant enclosure, home to the maharaja's two elephants. Judging by the murals in the palace, they used to have many more elephants in the past. These have probably been replaced by luxury cars. After all, even a maharaja wants to keep up with the times. Furthermore, at each of the four entrance gates built into the palace wall you can find a temple. We have visited one. They are all too much alike to be interesting enough to grant them all  a visit.

But there is more to Mysore

   OUr last day in Mysore we visited Jaganmohan Palaca Art Gallery. This used to be the maharaja's hideaway palace, for instance when maintenance work was carried out in the main palace. The royal family also lived here, when the old, wooden palace burnt down in 1896.

   For the wedding of yet another princess, a new facade was built for this palace, in 1902. And a large auditorium. The auditorium is still in use, for dances and musical perfomances, The older palace became an art gallery in 1915. While we were there, they replacing the roof of the auditorium.

   The artgallery exhibits many painting collected by the respective maharajas. Fun fact: There are many paintings here, painted by Raja Ravi Varma. As you should know by now, "Raja" means "king". This particular Raja was a member of the royal family of Travancore. They were a very artistic dynasty, producing painters, writers, musicians and composers. On the top floor of the palace, there were a fewe room with original wallpaintings. One of them the royal pedigree of the house of Wodeyar.

   We still had some time to kill before the bus to Kozhikode was to leave, wo we decided to visit Mysore underwaterzone which had a nice display of the fish. It was reasonably cool in there, too, and at the end of the tour you walk through a large underwatertunnel. The thing is, it is hard to find ways to spend your time. Plenty of places to visit and activities to do, but a cafe where you can just sit on the terrace, drink a coffee and watch people go by, as we would do in Europe, hardly seems to excist here in India. Eating and drinking are enjoyed at a very fast pace here. Order, consume and move on. Your bill is presented immediately after your last bite. Nice after-dinner conversations are almost impossible. The past few days we have found one place where you can actually stay for a while longer. And they have reasonably pallatable filter coffee. So now we find ourselves at Starbucks of all places, every once in a while.