Stepping up for heritage: Mysuru's active community

A youth-led campaign has sprung up to save Devaraja Market in Mysuru. Over the last month, the market has been the venue for silent reading sessions by Mysuru Readers, several heritage walks and treasure hunts by Gully Tours and students of Wadiyar Centre for Architecture (WCFA), sketching sessions by Urban Sketchers Mysuru, and a candlelight vigil by the Mysore Storyteller’s Network.

Artists have photographed, drawn and sketched the market. They share their thoughts and stunning visuals on social media, including on an Instagram page called ‘Save Devaraja Market’. And this week, a pre-release YouTube video of the upcoming Vinay Rajkumar starrer Ondu Sarala Prema Kathe is being filmed in the heritage market. 

Devaraja Market was listed as a heritage building in the Mysuru Master Plan 2031, which was adopted by the Mysore Urban Development Authority in 2016. However, later that year, a portion of the market’s North Gate collapsed. Ever since, the ‘sword of Damocles’ has been hanging over the market. Several committees have deliberated the market’s fate, some calling for its restoration, others for its demolition. When the Mysuru City Corporation proposed to raze the historical market, four citizens filed a PIL against demolition. The Karnataka High Court dismissed the PIL in August 2023. The case is currently in the Supreme Court. 

Last month, to bring greater attention to the market, INTACH Bengaluru Chapter, WCFA and Esthetique Architects, with support from Mysuru’s N R Foundation, jointly organised a symposium on the conservation of living heritage like markets. Invited experts from around the country were in agreement that Devaraja Market could be restored. Dr S Raghunath of BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru, shared examples of buildings with severe, Grade 4 damage that he had helped restore. “Devaraja Market has only Grade 2 level of damage,” he pointed out. 

“Many people did not know about the market’s heritage,” adds K S Anuroopa, a speech pathologist. Take, for example, her 15-year-old sibling, who initially wondered what the fuss was about. Later, when she took him on a heritage walk around the market, “he was fascinated and thrilled to learn that it is 137 years old,” she says. Anuroopa started the Save Devaraja Market Instagram page, a WhatsApp group and is part of a campaign team that organises events at the market.  

Devaraja Market has always occupied a very special place in the heart of many Mysureans. Artist K J Pavan credits the multi-sensory experience of the bustling market with its riot of colour and sound with helping shape him into an artist, a sentiment echoed by artist N S Harsha.

Around 5,000 to 8,000 people visit Devaraja Market every day, double that number visit during festival seasons, according to Souharda U L, a documentary filmmaker. The market exerts its pull even on people who live far away, perhaps because of the social contact it provides. “After years of shopping here, people have built relationships with the vendors and others,” says Pavan. 

A rich legacy

Lansdowne Building was once as important to Mysureans. People went there to buy textbooks, newspapers, second-hand books, stationery, exam guides and so on. But its shops are shuttered and the building has been abandoned for years. 

Lansdowne now serves as a powerful example for the movement to save Devaraja Market. “It is disheartening to see its skeletal remains. I cannot imagine Devaraja Market becoming like that,” says Pavan. 

Thanks to its royal past, Mysuru has a rich inventory of heritage buildings. Perhaps this is why people took their legacy for granted. Not any more. The Lansdowne example has catalysed the movement to fight the prospect of losing Devaraja Market. The campaign’s two-pronged approach is to create awareness about the market’s history and heritage, and to help people build emotional connections with it. “The people, the culture and the language are Mysuru’s soul, but its identity is tied to its buildings. And the market is its heart,” says Souharda. As part of the core campaign team, he has led several heritage walks around Devaraja Market. When he tells young people that their forefathers – “the reason you exist now” – have all been to that market, it builds a personal bond, he says. 

There are plans for more events, a documentary film about the market, and hopes to get younger people involved. 

While the market is the current focus of the campaign, the overarching vision is “to let Mysuru be itself,” says Amshula Prakash, a media and entertainment lawyer by profession who has helped organise events at Devaraja Market. Besides the action around Devaraja Market, there is already an active community working to save Kukkarahalli Kere. Meanwhile, an old restored bungalow christened Heritage House now curates weekly, well-attended cultural events. “Slowly, the movement is happening,” says Souharda.

(Meera Iyer is the Convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter and the author of Discovering Bengaluru.) 

Stills from Devaraja Market. Photos by K J Pavan