A living, bustling heritage: Nostalgic Mysuru markets
The late 1800s was a period of new beginnings in Mysore. The administration of the Mysore state reverted to the Wadiyar family in 1881. The event kickstarted many changes in the capital city, Mysore.
One such change was the creation of New Market Road by filling up the Poornaiah Nala — Dewan Poornaiah’s futile attempt to bring the waters of the Lakshmanateertha to Mysore and Nanjangud. The road was later christened Sayyaji Rao Road. This was where the popular Devaraja Market was built, a building that has been in the news recently.
The structure was built during the reign of Chamaraja Wodeyar X at the site of a traditional weekly market. Work on it probably started in 1886, though archival records indicate that the main eastern façade was built only in 1890-91. The market was probably named after the 17th-century ruler, Dodda Devaraja Wodeyar. Another theory is that it was named after Chamaraja Wodeyar’s fourth son who died young in about 1892.
There are several significant monuments near Devaraja Market. The Dufferin Clock Tower, initially Dufferin Fountain, was inaugurated by Viceroy Dufferin on his visit to Mysore in 1886. The iconic Lansdowne Building, earlier known as Lansdowne Bazaar, was erected to commemorate a visit by another Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, who came by in 1892. And less than a kilometre from Devaraja Market is the most famous monument of them all, the Mysore Palace.
Situated on one of the city’s major roads, and close to so many monumental structures including the palace, the market was designed to be and was clearly always a commercial hub.
Architectural creations
In his book Taming the Oriental Bazaar, scholar Pushkar Sohoni writes that public markets built in India from the 1880s till the 1940s or so were inspired by enclosed markets in France and England, but with an architecture adapted to the local weather. Most Indian public markets of that time were either semi-enclosed or were courtyard buildings.
Devaraja Market has a rectangular footprint covering about 3 acres. Its street facades on four sides create a quadrangular courtyard which is full of shops under sheds. There are also street-facing shops along the entire length of the market. Altogether, there are more than 800 shops and another 250 or so makeshift stalls selling a variety of vegetables, fruits, sweets, kitchen tools and other items including Nanjangud bananas, Mysore pak, Mysuru petas – in fact, all things Mysuru.
Sohoni points out that while public markets were built to be functional, they were also to be admired as architectural creations. “It was to be consumed visually, while permitting other kinds of tangible consumption inside,” he writes.
In Devaraja Market, while the large courtyard was practical and functional, great attention was paid to the visual impact on the street. Originally, the facade had an attractive arched colonnade. This has now been replaced by shuttered shops. However, you can still see the parapets and decorative gables with their patterned mouldings in stucco, arabesques, finials and so on.
The entrances into the quadrangular courtyard are emphasised with a double-storey facade with a strikingly ornamental gable and finials. The corners of the building are also adorned with smaller decorative gables. Though Lansdowne Market’s facade is different, it speaks a similar architectural language. And as the bureaucrat and author T P Issar remarked in his book Mysore: The Royal City, “these touches constitute a very special charm of Mysore City’s civic architecture.”
A city’s identity
Sadly, both Devaraja and Lansdowne Markets have endured decades of poor maintenance, made worse by inappropriate and ill-planned additions. This has led to some portions of both structures collapsing. And as a result, both the markets have had the threat of demolition hanging over them for some years now.
It is hard to overstate the importance of these markets to the identity of Mysuru as a heritage city, a tag that every Mysurean is proud of. As representatives of a period in history, Devaraja and Lansdowne Markets have historic and architectural value. And quite apart from their value to tourism, these markets are living heritage, experienced by thousands of people every day. Most Mysureans have memories of walking past those impressive facades, of shopping, selling or eating there. As Issar observed, in Mysuru, more than its older neighbourhoods, “it is the planned markets which give it its familiar – in many ways unique – character.”
Too many heritage buildings have fallen prey to this old script of poor maintenance, being declared ‘unsafe’, and then being demolished. Instead, we should follow the example of Bengaluru’s majestic High Court building. In the 1980s, the government planned to demolish this structure, built in 1868, saying it was in a weakened condition.
Vociferous protests from citizens followed, including a public interest litigation against the demolition, which was dismissed by the High Court. Citizens even flew in Sir Bernard Feilden, then the world’s leading conservation professional. In a press conference, Sir Bernard declared that with some minor repairs, the building would last another 150 years! And eventually, the government decided against demolition and this grand structure still stands.
(Meera Iyer is the Convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter and the author of ‘Discovering Bengaluru’.)
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks