Mysore Palace History

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Statue of Chamaraja Wodayar on the northern side of the palace. click for a large image..

. The palace you see at Myosre is propably the third or the fouth generation of the palatial structure built over this location by thge ruling dynasty.

Many reasons , including the shift in power and other catastropries casued the destruction of older citadels.

The one thing that probably remained unchanged throught the citadels' history is probably it name : The Mysore Palace.


Originally this area was a bastion. A fortified area with ditches all around as in any military archetecture. Even today it is, though the dominating palace structures steals the show. You can see the fortwalls, and some remains of the ditches on either sides of the main gatewat to the east of the palace compound.

The original fort was made in as early as 1574. The construction of the fort is often attributed to Chamaraja Wodayar IV, the then ruler of Mysore.


What this fortification enclosed was a large community, mostly associated with the palace and the court.




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The first definite mention of a palace structure is found in the text of Shrimanmaharaja's Vamshaavali ( History of the Mysore Royal Family ). The historic document says of the destruction of the then Mysore Palace by a lightining and reconstruction of a new palace by the ruling king Ranadheera Kantheerava Narasaraja Wodeyar in the year 1638.

A century later power was shifted to Hyder Ali and his famous son Tippu Sulthan. That is roughly during the period from 1760 to 1799.

That was a period of great trunmoil in Mysore as Tippu was challenging the expansive ambitions of the British East India Company.

Tippu Sultan demolised the structures inside the palace to give way to his new capital - Nazarabad. New fortifications were built . Mysore became Mysore became the City of Nazarabad. Howevere the temples were left as it is.

In 1799 Tippu Sultan was killed in the storming of the Srirangapatna by the English forces ( Battle of Seringapatam ).

Fall of Tippu. click for a large image..

. They brough an end to the 4th Anglo-Mysore War. That was practically the fall of the last king in India who challenged the British power.

The Wodeyar kings were reinstalled again as the rules of Mysore.

The capital of Mysore kingdom was moved back to the Mysore city. The 4 year old Krishna Raja Wodeyar III, son of the last Wodeyar king Khasa Chamaraja Wodeyar VIII, was enthroned as the King of Mysore. From now onwards Mysore became a subsidiery of the British Raj.

Howevere there was no palace worth its name in Mysore.




. The enthronment cerimony has to happendend the makeshift veniew ( shamiyana / pandal ).

The fortifications Tippu Sultan built around Nazarabad was brought down. The stones used to build the fort around the presentday palace. Inside the fort A new palace was built by 1803. That is on the same location of the palace you see presently.



In a 1897 again disastur struck.

Eleven year old Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV in1895, the ruler of Mysore. click for a large image..

. A fire brock out during the wedding cerimony wedding of Princess Jayalakshmanni. That was a goofup by some serventa. The wooden place built in Hindu style as completely destroyed. The only remaining thing of this wooden palace as a photograph taken by a lancer in the then Mysore Army. A model of this palace is the first exhibit you see as a visitor to the new palace.

The same year the construction of a new palace was inagurated. The then regent Vani Vilas Sannidhana, queen of Chamaraja Wodeyar X, commissioned the British architect, Henry Irwin.

By 1912 construction of the new palace was completed. The architecture of Mysore palace is unique in many ways. It is a hybrid style known as the Indo-Sarsanic , combining many archetectural styles.

Later bu 1940, a few more additions were added to the palace by Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. The Durbar Hall in the faced extended and the towers on either sided added.

Presently the palace is in the control of the government body called Mysore Palace Board.

The residence of Srikanta Datta Narsimharaja Wadiyar, the present scion of the Wodayar dynasty is inside this palace campus.

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