Cherished Moments of Our Visit to the Royal Mysore Maharaja Palace

One of the cherished moments during our 5-day trip to Bengaluru was a day trip to Mysuru. Our first stop was at Sri Ranganatha Swamy, Srirangapatna which was on the way to Mysuru. After spending some time in the divine vibes and some shopping, our next halt was at Sri Chamundeshwari temple, Mysuru. After getting ourselves recharged with the divine blessings we proceeded to the second most visited tourist place of India. Yes! the Royal Palace of the Mysore Maharajas which is one of the majestic buildings of India.

The Palace is a residential museum with historical importance. 25 Wadiyar kings in succession ruled Mysore for more than 500 years. Wadiyars were great patrons of arts, crafts and literature.

Mysuru is a very popular tourist destination much popular than Bengaluru. The city is a fine combo of history, cultural heritage, tradition, wildlife, palaces, temples and many more. Mysore is known as the City of Palaces and undoubtedly it is! The astounding Maharaja Palace stands an example for that. History says that the Wadiyar Kings built a palace in the 14th century CE (Common Era) which was demolished and was constructed several times. Construction of the present Palace was started in late 19th century, was completed in 1912 and was later expanded in 1940. Though Lord Irwin was the chief architect of the palace, Krishnaraja IV founded the palace in 1897 who had a great respect and admiration for local arts which can be seen in his collection inside the palace.
The present palace is built in Indo-Saracenic architectural style with stained glasses that exhibits a blend of Indian, Islamic, Gothic and other styles. The main building is a 3-storied stone structure with dark pink marble domes and a 145 feet 5-storied tower facing the east gate. There is an impressive sculpture of Gajalakshmi atop the central arch. The east gate is used by the VIP guest during Dasara procession. There is a beautiful garden with colourful flowers in front of the Palace. The ticket office is at the entrance to the grounds at the South Gate which is for the common visitors / tourists.

We started at around 4 p.m from Chamundi temple and on the way we stopped for a while at the view point. From here we had to rush to Mysore Maharaja Palace as it closes by 6 p.m. and the visitors must leave the palace by 6 p.m. However, they can hang around outside the palace and can see the lighting of the palace at 7 p.m. which is not a ticketed event.

We reached the Palace by 4.30 p.m. and were surprised to see the place heavily crowded with visitors as it was Sunday. We took the tickets at the South Gate office and hurriedly entered into the grounds wherefrom we had an astounding view of the Palace.
On entering inside there is the temple of Sweta Varaha Swamy to our right and there is also a temple of Prasanna Krishna Swamy on the backside of the Palace. We were in a hurry to go inside the Palace and finish seeing by 6 p.m. as visitors are not allowed to stay inside after 6 p.m. Earlier in 2008 we visited the Palace and at that time some construction was going on. But now after almost 15 years there is lot of change. At that time we moved inside the Palace freely but this time we had to remove our chappals put them in the bags provided at the counter. There were long lines in all the 8 counters of the shoe stand and I was a bit disappointed as I thought that we cannot finish seeing inside the entire Palace by 6 p.m. But to my surprise the visitors were streamlined in channelized barricades till the end. Visitors cannot move inside wherever they want but have to go through the proper lines only.

Stay connected to read our experience inside the Mysore Maharaja Palace. After a wonderful experience of going round inside the Palace did shopping in the gift shop at the Palace. We bought a beautiful wooden Palace with LED lighting inside and few sandalwood items like soaps, talcum powder, agarbatti etc. We then strolled for a while in front of the Palace waiting to see the lighting. Exactly at 7 p.m. the entire Palace, the gates and the temple entrances were illuminated which doubled the beauty of the Palace.
Finally after enjoying the lighted beauty of the Palace we were back to Bengaluru with full of cherished memories of moments.

In fact, I am short of words to describe the grandeur of Mysore Maharaja Palace. Undoubtedly, this is one of the must-visit tourist attractions in India.

Also Read: Inside Mysore Maharaja Palace