 "Portrait of Mysuru's new titular maharaja")
On the surface, he shares all the interests of most in their 20s — he likes most of the HBO TV series, can strum the latest by Artic Monkeys on his guitar and though he reads philosophy and economics-centred literature, he loves a good spy thriller. He likes Amish (Tripathi) genre of fantasy fiction and he lapped up George Martin’s Game of Thrones books in a month, much like he did with JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. This economics graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who initially wanted to study marine biology, is eyeing an MBA next. All the same interests, and very similar aspirations.
Except when he is seated in his living room-cum-meeting hall, he stirs up a time portal. Here’s how: while I wait for him in the lobby of the Bangalore Palace, the wait doesn’t seem like a wait at all. The walls of the Bangalore Palace haven’t turned yellow in their 70-odd years; they were painted this way. They only add to the wall-mounted frames of portraits, sketches and watercolour landscapes made when Mysuru was still the Princely state of Mysore.
These frames are no lesson in chronological history, but more of a route that leads to an alternative world of great sailing ships carrying officers of East India Company, scenes from the daily village life in British Raj, native troops in action and maharajas. Lots and lots of maharajas, including the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Bahadur, who was the head of the Wadiyar dynasty that ruled the Mysore kingdom for over 500 years.
These exhibition-worthy frames continue even in the meeting hall where the sunlight streaming in bounces off the three chandeliers. And our young man, dressed in casuals, brings the swirling time portal to a halt as he politely puts away his cell phone in the presence of company. He appears at ease, much more than the pictures I’ve seen of him, a majority of which were taken on May 28 last year. On that day, at Mysuru’s famed Amba Vilas Palace, he was crowned as the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family in a glittering ceremony that included 40 priests, an elephant and a silver throne. This 24-year-old is Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, now the scion of Wadiyar royalty.
Though coronations aren’t exactly an everyday affair, Yaduveer Wadiyar’s coronation was significant for other reasons too — it ended months of speculation about the scion of the Wadiyar family after Srikantadatta Wadiyar passed away in 2013. In the absence of an heir, talk of the 400-year-old curse that shrouds the family immediately resurfaced. As the story goes, the family was cursed with childlessness, and every alternate generation has felt its sting.
The coronation of Yaduveer has brought back the balance, but for him, life has changed in flashes. When he came back from the United States late in December 2014, his mother, Tripura Sundari Devi, and Srikantadatta Wadiyar’s widow, Pramoda Devi, came to him. Yaduveer, the grandnephew of the late maharaja, was asked if he would take up the reigns after his granduncle. Yaduveer shares how he hadn’t seen it coming. “I had no clue about this and it took a couple of weeks for it to sink in,” says Yaduveer, who was formally adopted by the “maharani” on February 23 last year. With tours across Karnataka, the new “maharaja” has just begun meeting people of the erstwhile kingdom of Mysore and stepping into shoes he has to grow into.
As much as he understands the honour that comes with the coronation — the family continues to be held in high regard by Mysoreans — he also understands the duties that come with the deal. “I knew that some amount of my freedom had to go. Of course, in today’s time it’s largely just being a private citizen, but there’s also this huge amount of expectation from people, especially in Mysuru and Bengaluru,” says Yaduveer. On his left hand sparkles a green emerald in a sizeable gold ring; it’s beautiful, but the significance of it is in the symbolism — Pramoda Devi had given this ring to him when she chose him as the heir.
A detached demeanour seeps through him when our conversation skitters around the frayed edges of assets of the Wadiyar family. Frayed, because these are the questions that the family constantly encounters. Srikantadatta, a two-time lawmaker, had declared assets worth Rs 1,500 crore in an affidavit for contesting the 2004 Lok Sabha election. Besides inheriting the royal palaces in Bengaluru and Mysuru, and land across Karnataka, Yaduveer will also have to take on the legal battles the Wadiyar family has been fighting with the Karnataka government that wants to take over the palace properties.
Among Srikantadatta’s assets were a fleet of luxury cars and watches. “In the old days, the family did have a lot, but I’ve never seen anything in my lifetime,” says Yaduveer. Certain sections, he continues, have always portrayed the family “as an overly luxurious class of people, but that’s not true”.
“Personally, I’d always choose to remain understated. Yes, some things may look grand but those things are not an object of wealth for us; those things have reverence — we continue our traditions, which to the outside world may look glamourous.” At the end of the day, the drama is part of the ritual, he explains, but what goes on in the background is of more significance to the family.
By his own acceptance, Yaduveer isn’t a betting man. Instead, he’s careful and cautious. “I know what I am capable of and what I am not. There are many decisions that generally no youngster has to take, so I’m happy with listening to everything for now and letting my mother Pramoda Devi take the lead,” he clarifies. “So, I’d rather not talk about assets; I’m still picking up on the legal acumen of it all and coming up to date.”
Though legal affairs seem to work as a downer, he lights up when we talk about the environment, and, his nuptials. Engaged to Trishika Kumari Singh, daughter of Harshavardhan Singh, the “yuvaraja” of Dungarpur, Rajasthan, the duo are set to tie the knot in the first half of this year in a traditional ceremony during “uttarayana — when the sun is in its annual rising period”.
Everyone has to take up responsibilities, philosophises Yaduveer, “Only in my case, the scale just magnified. I have a lot to learn, and there are a lot of traditions to uphold, but it isn’t something that hasn’t been done before,” he says. “Besides, I’ll always have help from my family,” he adds.
As he continues to discover family histories — like how the princely state of Mysore was progressive enough to care for mental health and donated more than 100 acres to set up NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience) — he’s also charting out his path for the future. “It’s going to take a lot of time before I have any concrete ideas about how to preserve our heritage. I want to take what my father had and mother has, put it together with what I learn and make it relevant in the modern world. It’s a long drawn out process and hopefully we’ll see it through,” shares the young maharaja just beginning to come into his own.
Except when he is seated in his living room-cum-meeting hall, he stirs up a time portal. Here’s how: while I wait for him in the lobby of the Bangalore Palace, the wait doesn’t seem like a wait at all. The walls of the Bangalore Palace haven’t turned yellow in their 70-odd years; they were painted this way. They only add to the wall-mounted frames of portraits, sketches and watercolour landscapes made when Mysuru was still the Princely state of Mysore.
These frames are no lesson in chronological history, but more of a route that leads to an alternative world of great sailing ships carrying officers of East India Company, scenes from the daily village life in British Raj, native troops in action and maharajas. Lots and lots of maharajas, including the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Bahadur, who was the head of the Wadiyar dynasty that ruled the Mysore kingdom for over 500 years.
These exhibition-worthy frames continue even in the meeting hall where the sunlight streaming in bounces off the three chandeliers. And our young man, dressed in casuals, brings the swirling time portal to a halt as he politely puts away his cell phone in the presence of company. He appears at ease, much more than the pictures I’ve seen of him, a majority of which were taken on May 28 last year. On that day, at Mysuru’s famed Amba Vilas Palace, he was crowned as the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family in a glittering ceremony that included 40 priests, an elephant and a silver throne. This 24-year-old is Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, now the scion of Wadiyar royalty.
Though coronations aren’t exactly an everyday affair, Yaduveer Wadiyar’s coronation was significant for other reasons too — it ended months of speculation about the scion of the Wadiyar family after Srikantadatta Wadiyar passed away in 2013. In the absence of an heir, talk of the 400-year-old curse that shrouds the family immediately resurfaced. As the story goes, the family was cursed with childlessness, and every alternate generation has felt its sting.
The coronation of Yaduveer has brought back the balance, but for him, life has changed in flashes. When he came back from the United States late in December 2014, his mother, Tripura Sundari Devi, and Srikantadatta Wadiyar’s widow, Pramoda Devi, came to him. Yaduveer, the grandnephew of the late maharaja, was asked if he would take up the reigns after his granduncle. Yaduveer shares how he hadn’t seen it coming. “I had no clue about this and it took a couple of weeks for it to sink in,” says Yaduveer, who was formally adopted by the “maharani” on February 23 last year. With tours across Karnataka, the new “maharaja” has just begun meeting people of the erstwhile kingdom of Mysore and stepping into shoes he has to grow into.
As much as he understands the honour that comes with the coronation — the family continues to be held in high regard by Mysoreans — he also understands the duties that come with the deal. “I knew that some amount of my freedom had to go. Of course, in today’s time it’s largely just being a private citizen, but there’s also this huge amount of expectation from people, especially in Mysuru and Bengaluru,” says Yaduveer. On his left hand sparkles a green emerald in a sizeable gold ring; it’s beautiful, but the significance of it is in the symbolism — Pramoda Devi had given this ring to him when she chose him as the heir.
A detached demeanour seeps through him when our conversation skitters around the frayed edges of assets of the Wadiyar family. Frayed, because these are the questions that the family constantly encounters. Srikantadatta, a two-time lawmaker, had declared assets worth Rs 1,500 crore in an affidavit for contesting the 2004 Lok Sabha election. Besides inheriting the royal palaces in Bengaluru and Mysuru, and land across Karnataka, Yaduveer will also have to take on the legal battles the Wadiyar family has been fighting with the Karnataka government that wants to take over the palace properties.
Among Srikantadatta’s assets were a fleet of luxury cars and watches. “In the old days, the family did have a lot, but I’ve never seen anything in my lifetime,” says Yaduveer. Certain sections, he continues, have always portrayed the family “as an overly luxurious class of people, but that’s not true”.
“Personally, I’d always choose to remain understated. Yes, some things may look grand but those things are not an object of wealth for us; those things have reverence — we continue our traditions, which to the outside world may look glamourous.” At the end of the day, the drama is part of the ritual, he explains, but what goes on in the background is of more significance to the family.
By his own acceptance, Yaduveer isn’t a betting man. Instead, he’s careful and cautious. “I know what I am capable of and what I am not. There are many decisions that generally no youngster has to take, so I’m happy with listening to everything for now and letting my mother Pramoda Devi take the lead,” he clarifies. “So, I’d rather not talk about assets; I’m still picking up on the legal acumen of it all and coming up to date.”
Though legal affairs seem to work as a downer, he lights up when we talk about the environment, and, his nuptials. Engaged to Trishika Kumari Singh, daughter of Harshavardhan Singh, the “yuvaraja” of Dungarpur, Rajasthan, the duo are set to tie the knot in the first half of this year in a traditional ceremony during “uttarayana — when the sun is in its annual rising period”.
Everyone has to take up responsibilities, philosophises Yaduveer, “Only in my case, the scale just magnified. I have a lot to learn, and there are a lot of traditions to uphold, but it isn’t something that hasn’t been done before,” he says. “Besides, I’ll always have help from my family,” he adds.
As he continues to discover family histories — like how the princely state of Mysore was progressive enough to care for mental health and donated more than 100 acres to set up NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience) — he’s also charting out his path for the future. “It’s going to take a lot of time before I have any concrete ideas about how to preserve our heritage. I want to take what my father had and mother has, put it together with what I learn and make it relevant in the modern world. It’s a long drawn out process and hopefully we’ll see it through,” shares the young maharaja just beginning to come into his own.