Royal city mourns its last monarch

Workers at the Mysore Palace pay tributes to their master; visitors requested to leave premises.

The news of Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar’s demise plunged the City of Palaces into gloom on Tuesday afternoon.

All activities came to a halt, both inside and outside the Palace. Pramodadevi Wadiyar, who was in the palace here when she heard the news, rushed to Vikram Hospital in Bangalore with her personal assistants and bodyguards.

At the palace, tourists were requested to cooperate with the Palace Board to voluntarily exit the precincts, while all the four gates to the Palace - Varaha (the main entrance), Karikal Thotti (opposite the City Corporation), Brahmapuri (adjacent to KSRTC city bus stand) and Jayamarthanda (opposite Doddakere grounds) were closed for tourists, as the police and palace workers sealed the imposing building.

As many as 21 stalls within the palace compound, especially in the surroundings of the Maharaja’s private museum, downed shutters, with the shopkeepers mourning the untimely demise of their ‘buddhi’ (master).

Staff and workers of Wadiyar too looked crestfallen and anxious. Having abandoned work, they huddled in a corner, wondering what to do next.

Police Commissioner M A Saleem, who came to the spot, took stock of the situation. The commissioner said that the police would make adequate security arrangements.

Floral tributes

A huge portrait of Wadiyar in sartorial elegance, keeping with the royal tradition,
was put up at different places in the palace premises to enable the 250-odd staff members of the Palace Board, guides and Wadiyar’s staff to offer floral tributes.