Sir,

This refers to the column “Over A Cup of Evening Tea” by Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem in Star of Mysore dated Mar.17. In the article titled “The glorious past of a present-day landmark,” the doctor says, “The reigning king is said to have succumbed to an attack of Diphtheria while on a visit to Calcutta, where his funeral was held on a small plot of land at Kalighat, that still stands as the property of Mysore royal family.”

I would like to bring to the knowledge of readers about this Memorial, popularly known as Mahisur Garden. It is a better maintained memorial of Mysore Royal in the distant Kolkata, that too by the Municipal Corporation!

Unfortunately the story doesn’t end here. In the immediate aftermath of the death of the last Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar on 23.9.1974 (50 years ago), the State Government annexed all the Palace temples including the above Memorial. But the State has conveniently forgotten the existence of the above Memorial and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) too used a vast vacant land to build electric crematoria for public use.

Thankfully they demarcated and developed the Memorial with exclusive compound with murals on the wall and a functional fountain in the front. It is well-maintained with even a Purohit appointed to look after. I have visited the place a couple of times and the Maharaja’s death and birth anniversaries are celebrated appropriately every year with the help of the Purohit.

– Raja Chandra, Bengaluru, 25.3.2024

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