Wrongly titled and described. It is the entrance arch to the Summer Palace in Mysore.

Mr. Satya, could you let us know when the Summer Palace was built? The summer palace in Bangalore used French wood. Was the same done for the palace in Mysore too? The French association with Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan wasn't lasting. They betrayed Hyder a victory over the British at Cuddalore in 1781, after which relations were permanently soured. There were efforts to gather French help in 1798, but only a few hundred men were handed to Tipu. This was enough of a pretext for Richard Wellesley to begin preparations for The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, which received further impetuous from the news of Napolean's campaign in Egypt.

Thank you Gouri Satya! I have corrected the description of this picture.

I do not understand what the description trailing the picture got to do with it. Totally unrelated ! It is actually called LOKARANJAN MAHAL. It is one of the oldest Palaces in Mysore built by HH. Sri. Mummadi Krishna Raja Wadiyar around 1850-60. Zoo was part of this palace till it was thrown open for public by his adopted son HH. Sri. Chamarajanedra Wadiyar. It also served as Royal School for many years.

Raja Chandra: Thank you Sir! The corrected description has been posted as a note below the picture at the British Library site: http://bit.ly/11GWfO3

Going by Mr. Raja's comment, this cannot be Tipu's Summer palace. I'm not sure if Mr. Satya referred to that in his comment?

Our friend Digvijay Singh Kushwaha should have some fond memories of this place as he had the privilege of staying here in his younger days ! Late HH Satya Prema Kumari - first wife of Late HH JCRW stayed here for some time when after many years she decided to return to Mysore around 1970 ! More from Diggy Raja !

Daria Daulat Bagh aka summer palace is just outside the fort town of srirangapatana but within the island. Where as Lokaranajan Mahal is in Mysore abutting the Zoo. For the record neither the Fort of Mysore or Fort of Nazarbad circumscribed this area. As a matter of fact the lake Karanji was also built by Mummadi and is abutting to this place.

What Mr. Raja Chandra said is right. We Mysorians never forget these Precious places.

Shashi Kolar: Pl Read my comment again. I have not said it is Tipu's Summer Palace. What I have said is, "It is the Summer Palace in "Mysore" The Lokranjan Mahal is also known as "Summer Palace.".

Thanks Mr. Satya. I wasn't aware of Lokranjan Mahal being called so.

This is the Palace where Maharaja Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar had held his first press conference in Mysore. I was among the reporters who had the opportunity of attending the press meet. Somewhere in my collection, I have a photo of the pressmen with the Maharaja taken in front of the Palace entrance then.

Yes Raja Chandra: Hukum I have lovely but intermittent memories of the Summer Palace from my childhood. Countless lazy afternoons spent playing by myself in its apertinent land with the pekinese Rosy in tow. The roaring tigers thundering from a distance who could be heard late into the night.....I even recall how once a jackal that had escaped the zoo and entered the palace was re-captured in the dining hall by the summoned zoo stuff. I recollect playing hide and seek in the squash court and the indoor swimming pool which had large turtles and frogs in glass ...... The Nepalese dishes prepared by the senior maharani sb's ( my nani sa) Nepali lady in waiting and the famed Mysore paak. The mango and gooseberry trees I used to climb . It had that brilliant orange flower creeper which is prolific in the south but found nowhere in the north and so also the woodroses. The front colonnaded verandah had busts of the maharajahs.It had two stone elephants at the back whom I used to mount and play for hours on end upon . The principal drawing room i remember distinctly and so also the hunting trophies esp the giraffe leg table ......I think it had a kund if i recall correctly with a shivling in it half submerged in water around which there were colonnaded apartments where nani sa's guards used to stay......the most enduring memory however is of the Mysoreans who used to come to pay obeisance to their senior maharani and how they used to prostrate themselves before her even doctors and professors ! That kind of respect that royalty used to get was un-seen in the north.

want to take my kids and show them the enchantingly beautiful Mysore of my childhood one day

Thanks Diggy Raja for that enchanting account. Probably the only Indoor Swimming pool of its kind and may be the first pool of Mysore. I have seen a VCR ( which I had procured from British Library) about Dasara where in the crew was shown enjoying this pool ! But Squash courts were common to Fernhill Palace, Bangalore Palace and Lokaranjan Mahal Palace. Maharaja KRW IV was an excellent player and even an acknowledged pro like Prince of wales (Future King Edward VIII who abdicated for American Widow Wallis Simposn and became Duke of Windosr) played at this palace Squash Court and lost the game to HH. He is said have joked that He will return one day to avenge his defeat ! ( This was Jan 1922) . Incidentally he also received Honorary Degree at BHU from its Chancellor HH KRW IV during its convocation held in Dec 1921.

Today one can go stay in any of the several palace hotels which were abodes of royalty not too far back in time but the experience of having stayed in a palace as a grandson of one who was a reigning maharani once and that too of a premier Indian kingdom bigger in size than most European nations is un-paralleled. That is now consigned to history forever. Now that you pointed out and I did some soul searching I realised the same. In Jaipur too HH enjoyed special privileges for she was a maharani of a bigger state than Jaipur. Their highnesses of Jaipur used to call on her on formal occasions and I think the only place where they’d come to play Holi ! Since the late HH Jaipur’s sister was the maharani of Panna and nani sa was a princess of an important Bundelkhand kingdom and also because her elder sister was married into Jaipur’s premier nobility HH Jaipur used to call her jijji sab respectfully which is the Bundelkhandi term for an elder sister. Glorious times and glorious memories indeed……fancy having played blind man’s buff with my maternal aunts in the squash court where HH Mysore and the then prince of Wales had once played a match ! ~ Cheers

Thank you Raja Chandra and Digvijay Singh Kushwaha for sharing your personal experiences. It is indeed a rare privilege to hear anecdotes of that genteel and elegant period.

pl uplad photos