Mysore - Unique city with multicultural integration.

 

It was a heritage exploration journey which took us to Mysore. We had first visited Kasargode - Kumble temple, Hampi - a UNESCO recognised heritage site and Aghoreshwara temple in Ikkeri. We reached Mysore after seven hours of journey from Simoga, by 7:30 pm at the home stay prebooked by us. It was a cozy, comfortable place for a 14 hour stay, majorly spend for sleeping. We ordered for the breakfast which was complimentary and slept early to rest ourselves for a long, tiring time on the next day.

It was a long day ahead, to cover the historical sites in Mysore in one day, as preplanned. We reached Srirangapatna, the old city, which saw changing reigns and rulers. We started by giving our prayers to the lord Vishnu deity at Srirangam temple of Srirangapatna, similar to Padmanabha Swamy temple deity in Trivandrum. Structural remains from the reign of Tipu sultan were there all over the place. Some of the named ones include the palace fort, gumbaz-e-shah (Tipu's tomb) and Tipu Sultan's summer palace.

All the places are well maintained with less littering. We went with a responsible crowd, who managed themselves and others well. The first destination was to the Srirangam temple where Lord Vishnu is the main deity with 7 goddesses and Anandhan the snake god. We spend an hour there, bought some curios from the premises and moved to Gumbaz e shah and the mosque. There were beautiful ornated horses in front of these structures, for the tourists to take a ride. We did not want a horse riding at that time, so we restricted ourselves to only viewing the place. We did a quick visit to the place, clicked few pictures, other than the inside of the mosque and moved to Tipu sultan's summer palace. 

The palace visit has to be with tickets bought online and we were not aware of it beforehand. We had some technical issues with the ticketing process and waited for 15-20 minutes before entering the beautiful premises. The entrance is built like the typical dome like fort of the era. After entry, on the left side is a structure which will not be missed as it's the hub of pigeons. Many pigeons sit and take rest on the dome with vents. The old trees and the well maintained garden are amazing. Outside, the main palace structure, there is a " a peerangi" the ammunition used during the British era. 

In the inside, there were many old paintings, of the legendary historical persons, attires, weapons and other articles of historical importance, kept inside the glass door , not to be touched. It took an hour to tour the place reading captions for the painting of personnels and events, and other captive captions. The stories included history of Mysore and Srirangapatna since inception and extending to independence time, both by pictorial representations through paintings and inscriptions.

Clicking photos are not allowed inside the palace and so we moved reading and discussing on the articles showcased, the palace structure and stories attached. We clicked photos outside the palace , in the garden, under the trees, near the historical objects kept outside and also the structures in the palace premises.

Our final destination was Somnathpur Temple, beautiful, with its architectures, carvings and historical age. It has carvings on the walls which depict each of the reigns and traders of the place, such as Mongols, Muslims and so on. The temple is not active with deity and rituals. But, the vibe inside it, take us to the era when it was active and carry our thoughts, back to history. The place is well maintained and the crowd was less.

It was a quick tour of Mysore and never can be completed in a day. We moved to the famous Mysore emporium, where products such as incence sticks, perfumes, soaps, sarees, cloth materials and many more exclusive products are available. 

Buying, was never in our list of " things to do", as it was historical exploration trip. But, resisting to buy something unique, of our interest and our like, was also difficult. We bought few products and cloth, after having a heavy lunch from the nearby restaurant. Our bus was scheduled at 3:30 pm and we reached our boarding point thirty minutes earlier and waited patiently, the excitement of the tour, still fresh and alive in our minds. 

Mysore said, 

And visit Mysore Bringahavan garden, Tipu's palace, art gallery and zoo...!

Bye! See you next time....!