The Hindu : Curtains come down on lacklustre Dasara

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Curtains come down on lacklustre Dasara

By Our Staff Correspondent

A view of the illuminated Mysore Palace.

Mysore Oct.15 . The curtains have finally come down on a lacklustre Dasara. The only "high point" of Dasara was the illumination of the Mysore Palace on five of the nine days during the festivities this year.

Amid the gloom and uncertainty due to vagaries of Nature, the illuminated palace continued to enthral the visitors with its ethereal beauty as if dispelling darkness and portending the advent of a bright future. It was on this optimistic note that the city said goodbye to an eminently forgettable Dasara even as the authorities averred that the "celebrations will be revamped and revived next year".

And perhaps for the first time in recent times, the palace courtyard, which was the hub of all cultural activities during the Navaratri festival, presented an eerie silence following the cancellation of all programmes in view of the Cauvery agitation and the drought.

The palace had, over the years, evolved as a cultural centre and brought alive the glory of a bygone era which is reckoned to be a watershed in the annals of cultural history of Karnataka. No wonder the backdrop for the State-sponsored Dasara and the essence of all celebrations revolve around the palace. But the evolution of the palace from a dwelling of the royal family to a centre for art and culture makes for interesting reading. Historians point out that the first reference to the presence of a palace in Mysore could be traced to 1630 A.D., and the palace was reckoned to have been built by Ranadhirava Kanthirava Narasaraja Wadiyar.

But nothing much is known about its fate as the then Duke of Wellington pointed out: "There was no house suitable for the enthronement of the raja". Hence, it is reckoned that either the earlier palace was destroyed or there was no palace till 1799 in Mysore.

However, a palace was hastily built in the last decade of the 19th Century, which was destroyed by fire. The surviving image of the wooden palace is a photograph taken by John Birdwood, who was in the Mysore Army and also wrote about the art and artefacts of India. The present palace was built on the foundation of the earlier palace and modelled after it by the well-known architect Sir Henry Irwin and completed in 1912. The main building is a granite structure in the Indo-Sarcenic tradition and rises to three storeys with a splendid tower forming the crest. The palace is lavishly decorated with inlay work, stained glass, ivory, and silver doors.

The Wadiyars of Mysore patronised art and culture and artists were drawn to Mysore from all over the country. In the early 19th Century, patronage by the royal family led to the evolution of the Mysore school of art in painting. The zenith was reached in the period of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV when Raja Ravi Varma executed a few oil paintings in the palace.

Similarly, i the realm of music and dance received special interest and eminent artistes adorned the court.

It is reckoned that Carnatic music reached its high water mark when Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV ruled Mysore and his period is called the golden age of Carnatic music. It was during his regime that musicians such as Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Tiger Varadachar, and Hindustani classical musicians such as Fiaz Khan and Abdul Karim Khan flourished, according to the Mysore Gazetteer.

During the period of Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, the patronage to art and culture continued and the king was credited with composing many kritis set to Carnatic style.

The subsequent developments saw the royal family relinquishing its hold on cultural programmes. But the palace continued to be the hub of cultural activities even after Government took the initiative to conduct Dasara as a tribute to the cultural heritage bequeathed by the royal family.

Hence, it is not surprising that connoisseurs of art and culture feel the void in the absence of cultural programmes at palace this year.

They hope that the echo of the percussion instruments and the sweet strain of stringed instruments will reverberate again in the palace premises from next year.

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