India Guide
Karnataka
Maharaja's Palace
Price: Rs100
Opening time: Daily 10am–5.30pm
Mysore's centre is dominated by the walled Maharaja's Palace, a fairy-tale spectacle topped with a shining brass-plated dome. On Sunday nights and during festivals, it's magnificently illuminated by nearly 100,000 lightbulbs. It was completed in 1912 for the 24th Wadiyar raja. Twelve temples surround the palace, some of them of much earlier origin. Although there are six gates in the perimeter wall, entrance is on the south side only. Shoes and cameras must be left at the cloakroom inside.
An extraordinary amalgam of styles from India and around the world crowds the lavish interior. Entry is through the Gombe Thotti or Dolls' Pavilion, once a showcase for the figures featured in the city's lively Dussehra celebrations and now a gallery of European and Indian sculpture and ceremonial objects. Halfway along, the brass Elephant Gate leads to the centre of the palace. Decorated with floriate designs, it bears the Mysore royal symbol of a double-headed eagle, now the state emblem. To the north stands a ceremonial wooden elephant howdah. Elaborately decorated with 84kg of 24-carat gold, it appears to be inlaid with red and green gems – in fact the twinkling lights are battery-powered signals that let the mahout know when the maharaja wished to bring his car in or out.
Walls leading into the octagonal Kalyana Mandapa, the royal wedding hall, are lined with a meticulously detailed frieze of oil paintings illustrating the great Mysore Dussehra festival of 1930. The hall itself is magnificent, a cavernous space featuring cast-iron pillars from Glasgow, Bohemian chandeliers and multicoloured Belgian stained-glass arranged in peacock designs in the domed ceiling.
Climbing a staircase with Italian marble balustrades, you come to the Public Durbar Hall, an orientalist fantasy. A vision of brightly painted and gilded colonnades, the massive hall affords views out across the parade ground and gardens to Chamundi Hill. The maharaja gave audience from here, seated on a throne made from 280kg of solid Karnatakan gold.