11) Mysore the city of palaces

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As we had had some problems with the bus connections, we arrived in Mysore too late to visit the famous City Palace. So we tried to catch a first glimpse of it through one of the gates. We liked the bit we could see and decided to move on to the Jagan Mohan Palace which we had already seen when the bus entered the city. Officially, it was also closed but when we came there, the doors were open and groups of people were standing outside, so we stepped in.

That evening, a seminar about tourism took place and not long after our hesitating entry we were cordially greeted by one of the organisers, a professor of accounting at the university which was organising the seminar. We were asked to sit down and watch the cultural program. We agreed, also to please him, because he was very enthusiastic about our presence. Believe us, we did not regret having stayed. First, we saw a modern pantomime that was well performed and very funny. Then it was time for a show of classical Indian dance. It was a story about Vishnu who fell in love with a beautiful maiden sent by Shiva, and they engaged in a powerful dance competition, until in the end Vishnu fell on the floor dead. It was so fascinating to see the dancers use every part of their body - feet, hands, faces, eyes - to tell the story. We hardly believed our luck that we had participated in a show that tourist usually had no access to! We were almost ashamed when we were asked to join the students, professors and dance group for dinner. Anyway, isn't it a funny coincidence that two tourists walk into a seminar on tourism? We had a nice meal in the refreshing company of many interesting people. We even talked to the dancers. Next morning we were invited for breakfast (which by the way is not much different from the dinner), were we even talked to the dean of the university, all in a very relaxed atmosphere. We would like to thank these fantastic people once again.

The next item on our program was the visit of the magnificent City Palace. It was built in 1897 in the so called Indo-Saracenic style in grand proportions, with domes, arches and colonnades of carved pillars and shiny marble floors.Watching this imposing cream-white building, one felt like in the middle of a fairy tale. Inside the palace, it was again not allowed to take pictures, so we will try our best to give you a vivid description.

Several huge halls could be visited, the marriage hall has a beautiful stained glass ceiling mainly depicting peacocks. The whole hall is decorated in different shades of blue and gives a rather cool impression. As in all the other palaces we have seen so far in India, also the Mysore Palace is equipped with a Durbar Hall open to the outside. This one is absolutely huge (47m x 13m) and a grand colonnaded hall with lavishly framed paintings, the ceiling is decorated with paintings of Vishnu incarnations. In this palace we finally understood what a Durbar Hall was used for. We had imagined that the sovereign and his court watch form outside what was going on inside the hall (e.g. dance performances). Of course we see everything with the eyes of modern backpackers and cannot put ourselves in the shoes of a Maharajah. In reality, the sovereign and his court were sitting in the cool hall and watch his army or any kind of procession parade by in the burning sun.

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