Mysuru: Even as the nearly 157-year-old Jaganmohan Palace is going hi-tech, Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, who has set up the H H Sri Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Foundation, is keen on taking up many other works related to art and culture.

As a first step, apart from Conservation Laboratory, she is planning to establish the Wadiyar Heritage Centre at Chamundi Vihar Mansion on Bannur Road, adjacent to Chamundi Vihar Stadium. There is a stately old building here which has been lying unused for years. Here is where the mother of the last ruler of Mysuru, Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, Kempacheluvarajammani lived. After her passing away, her daughter Sujaya Devi also lived here.  

“I am planning to set up the Wadiyar Heritage Centre in these serene surroundings. I am already in touch with a group of architects who are experts in restoration work. The main reason is to see that we have a pool of skilled people to work on restoring the objects in our museums and also to see that they are preserved in pristine condition. Here young people will be trained by the expert architects,” said Pramoda Devi Wadiyar speaking to Star of Mysore.

“For instance, the restoration work on the staircase of Bangalore Palace is being taken up scientifically by these experts. They look critically at everything and then give their opinion and now the same expertise is being brought to the Jaganmohan Palace Art Gallery,” she said.

SDNR Wadiyar Foundation

The H H Sri Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Foundation was launched in Bengaluru in February of this year. The Foundation will focus on health, heritage, art and culture and policy studies.

Some of the works that are planned include the restoration of the Mysore Palace where the Wadiyar family resides, to its original state that was built by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, said Pramoda Devi Wadiyar.

“We are very keen on preserving art and culture through the Foundation. In fact many people do not know that my late husband and I would go and watch Master Hirannaiah’s plays in Jaganmohan Palace right from 1976, and we have the recorded tapes of those plays,”  she said.

“In short I have very many ambitious plans and I am living my husband’s dream today in trying to fulfil them,” said Pramoda Devi Wadiyar.