Jaganmohan palace
Encyclopedia
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Its construction was completed in 1861 and was initially used by the Wodeyar
Wodeyar
The Wodeyar dynasty was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from 1399 to 1947, until the independence of India from British rule and the subsequent unification of the Indian dominion and princely states into the Republic of India.The spelling Wodeyar/Wadiyar is found in most...
s, kings of Mysore
Kingdom of Mysore
The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. The kingdom, which was ruled by the Wodeyar family, initially served as a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire...
as their home. It was later converted into an art gallery.
History
The Jaganmohan Palace was constructed in the year 1861 by the king, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III as an alternate retreat for the royal family. The Mysore PalaceMysore Palace
The Palace of Mysore is a palace situated in the city of Mysore in southern India. It is the official residence of the Wodeyars - the erstwhile royal family of Mysore, and also houses two durbar halls ....
, which was the original home of the royal family was burnt down in a fire and the construction of a new palace in its place was started in the year 1897. Till the new palace was completed in 1912, the Jaganmohan Palace was used by the royals as their home. In 1902, the king Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar was installed to the Mysore throne, in a ceremony that took place in a pavilion inside the Jaganmohan Palace. This ceremony was attended by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy and Governor General of India. The palace was used for his daily durbar by the king and also the special Dasara durbar during the dasara
Mysore Dasara
Mysore Dasara is the Nadahabba of the state of Karnataka. It is also called Navaratri and is a 10-day festival with the last day being Vijayadashami, the most auspicious day of Dasara. Dasara usually falls in the month of September or October...
period. In 1915, the palace was converted into an art gallery, which was later renamed in 1955 in the name of Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, as the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery . The early convocations of the Mysore University were also held in this palace. The first session of the Legislative Council
Vidhan Parishad
The Vidhan Parishad is the upper house in those states of India that have a bicameral legislature. , six states have a Legislative Council: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh...
of the Mysore state
Mysore State
The Kingdom of Mysore was one of the three largest princely states within the erstwhile British Empire of India. Upon India gaining its independence in 1947, the Maharaja of Mysore merged his realm with the Union of India...
was held here in July 1907. The Legislative Council was then called as the Representative Council and was presided over by the Diwan. Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar converted the palace into a trust and opened it for public viewing.
Architecture
The palace is built in traditional HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
style and has three stories. In 1900, an external facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
with a hall behind it was added to the palace. This facade has three entrances and the entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
has religious motifs and miniature temples crafted on it. The walls of the interiors are painted with mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s. These mural paintings which follow the traditional style of the Mysore school of painting
Mysore painting
Mysore painting is an important form of classical South Indian painting that originated in the town of Mysore in Karnataka. Painting in Karnataka has a long and illustrious history, tracing it’s origins back to the Ajanta times Mysore painting is an important form of classical South Indian...
depict the Dasara scene and the canvas depicting the sequence of the Jumboo Savari stretches across three walls. This mural is the earliest known picture of the Mysore Dasara and has been painted using vegetable dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
s. A family tree of the Wodeyar
Wodeyar
The Wodeyar dynasty was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from 1399 to 1947, until the independence of India from British rule and the subsequent unification of the Indian dominion and princely states into the Republic of India.The spelling Wodeyar/Wadiyar is found in most...
s tracing the lineage of the royal family is also painted on a wall. Two wooden displaying Dashavatara, the ten incarnations of the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
God, Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
is also present in the palace.
Art Gallery
The art gallery contains one of the largest collection of artefacts in South IndiaSouth India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
. Most of these artefacts are paintings, prominent among which are those by Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter from the princely state of Travancore who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana...
, some of which demonstrate scenes from the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
epics, Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
and Mahabharatha. The collection of paintings in the gallery exceed 2000 in number and these belong to different Indian styles of painting like Mysore, Mughal
Mughal painting
Mughal painting is a particular style of South Asian painting, generally confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums, which emerged from Persian miniature painting, with Indian Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist influences, and developed largely in the court...
and Shantiniketan. 16 paintings of Raja Ravi Varma were donated to the gallery by Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar. Another important painting present here is the Lady with the lamp which was painted by the artist Haldenkar and is placed in a dark room where it is the only exhibit. This is to give an illusion that the glow of the lamp is illuminating the face of the woman. Some other painters whose works are exhibited here include Nikolai Roerich, Svetoslav Roerich
Svetoslav Roerich
Svetoslav Nikolaevich Roerich Russian painter, son of Nicholas Roerich, studied from a young age under his father's tutelage. He studied architecture in England in 1919 and entered Columbia University's school of architecture in 1920...
and Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
. Another collection of paintings by a British Army Officer named Col. Scot on the wars between Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...
and the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
army are said to be the only visual representation of the wars.
Other exhibits here include weapons of war, musical instruments, sculptures, brassware, antiques coins and currencies. Some other unique artefacts exhibited here is a French clock which has a mechanism in which a parade by miniature soldiers is displayed every hour; beating drums mark the seconds and a bugle marks the minute. Paintings made on a grain of rice which can be viewed only through a magnifier are also displayed here.
Restoration
A new hall was built in the year 2003 because there was insufficient space available to exhibit all the paintings. The original paintings of Raja Ravi VarmaRaja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter from the princely state of Travancore who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana...
which are over 100 years old are being restored by the Regional Conservation Laboratory (RCL). Syrendri (which had a hole in the canvas), Victory of Meganath and Malabar Lady were some of the paintings of Ravi Varma to be restored. Unscientific stretching of the canvas on which the paintings were drawn was one of the major problems noticed including unprotected exposure to dust, heat and light. Even the murals on the walls had been damaged because of water seepage and these were also restored by RCL.
Despite what is mentioned here regarding restoration of these paintings,recent visits to the Jaganmohan palace suggest gross neglect. These priceless paintings are ill maintained and incompetently restored. For example, in the painting of Ravana slaying Jatayu by Raja Ravi Varma the colors used to restore the painting are different from the ones used in the original painting. The painting is also torn and ridden with holes at the bottom. One can only understand the tragic plight of this extremely powerful painting when one visits the palace.Painting the walls of this room has also resulted in damage to the paintings, with the paint from the walls dripping on the uncovered paintings. These paintings which are already in very bad condition are further affected by the abysmally poor lighting and humidity conditions. The painting of the lady holding the lamp by Haldenkar is also poorly exhibited. The windows are covered by a mouldy cloth to supposedly give the effect of "shade" which only ends up ruining the effect due to the poor lighting in the first place. This palace and its contents especially the Ravi Verma paintings are in dire need of attention and very poorly managed.This needs to brought to national attention so that it may be handed to amore competent restoration team and management. These priceless paintings must also be brought to the notice of UNESCO so that the issue can be taken seriously.