On 30th December 1894, two days after the passing away of H.H. Chamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur X, the British Government of India announced the succession of 10-year-old H.H. Krishnaraja Wadiyar Bahadur to the throne of Mysore.

Lord Elgin, the then Viceroy, with his Lady, came to Mysore on an official visit. This photograph was shot on 21st November 1895, in the old portion of the Mysore Palace.

Here, the Viceroy Lord Elgin and his wife, Vicereine Lady Constance Carnegie, are seated on the right of the young Maharaja.

Notable Mysoreans, five of them standing in this photograph (from left) are: 1. Dewan Sir Kumarapuram Sheshadri Iyer, 2. T.R.A. Thumboo Chetty C.I.E. (Chief Judge of the Chief Court of Mysore), 3. P.N. Krishnamurti K.C.I.E. (Judge of the Chief Court of Mysore and later served as 16th Dewan), 4. Sir Maddur Kantharaj Urs (served as the 20th Dewan) and 5. Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahman (Deputy Commissioner of Shimogga).

Elgin served as Viceroy of India from 1894 to 1899. He has famously quipped: “India is the pivot of our Empire… If the Empire loses any other part of its Dominion, we can survive, but if we lose India, the sun of our Empire will have set.”