May 27, 2015 shall go down in the annals of Indian history as the day a king ascended a throne. A king returned, without much fanfare though.
In a traditional ceremony, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wodeyar, the adopted son of Pramoda Devi Wodeyar, was crowned as the 27th King of Wodeyar dynasty on Thursday.
The coronation took place at Kalyana Mantap in Amba Vilas Palace in Mysuru at an auspicious hour on Thursday morning amid Vedic chants and slogans hailing the Mysuru royalty and the 23-year-old “King†as he ascended the silver throne ‘Bhadrasana’.
Yaduveer, the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family, will have to wait until Dasara to ascend the golden throne, when he will preside over the ‘khasa (private) durbar’, which is reminiscent of the bygone era.
The coronation was attended by a large number of well-wishers including members of the royal family, senior political leaders and the who’s who of Mysuru and Bengaluru. The presence of such large number of people was reflective of the contribution of the Wadiyars to the development of Mysuru and public affection.
Yaduveer has completed his BA in Economics and English at Boston University in the US and is the grandson of Princess Gayatri Devi, the eldest daughter of the last Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar. Yaduveer’s fiancé Trishika Kumari, who also belongs to a royal family from Rajasthan, attended the event. Their wedding is expected by end of this year.
After the ceremonies, Yaduveer said with the cooperation of the people, “I will try my best to continue the royal family traditionsâ€.
As part of the coronation ceremony, Yaduveer along with Pramoda Devi and other family members were performing series of rituals according to royal traditions since Wednesday that included visits to temples and ‘pada puja’ to ‘Rajaguru’ Bramhatantra Parakala mutt seer Abhinava Vageesha Brahmatantra Swatantra Swami After ascending the throne, Yaduveer was presented with ‘prasada’ from various temples, including Chamundeshwari Temple in Mysuru, a tutelary deity held in reverence for centuries by Mysuru Maharajas.
About a thousand guests, including family and friends, attended the coronation ceremony. Prominent personalities who attended the event included former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and state ministers K J George, R V Deshpande, D K Shivakumar, Srinivasa Prasad and Roshan Baig and Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao. The Wodeyar dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Mysuru from 1399 to 1947, the last king being Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, who ruled from 1940 until Indian independence in 1947 when he acceded his kingdom to the dominion of India, but continued as the Maharaja until India became a Republic in 1950.