77-year-old devotees himself to study biography of Mummadi Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar

His collection includes photographed picture portraits of members of the royal
family, scholars in various fields
If one wants to know the entire history and genealogy of the Wodeyar dynasty, the erstwhile rulers of Mysore, need not visit any museum or library, instead just visit AN Niranjana Raja Urs house in Saraswathipuram. His vast collection of pictures and memorabilia of the Wodeyar family dating back to several generations not only include members of the royal family but also the court artisans and Ministers who served the Kings. All the pictures are photographs of actual paintings carefully preserved over the years.

The 77-year-old Niranjana Raja Urs, is a member of the Mysore Royal family and has devoted himself to study the biography of Mummadi Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar and has already authored historical book about him titled `Mummadi Sri Krishnaraja Mahipala Vamsharathnakara'.

His collection includes pictures from Yaduraya, the first ruler of Mysore, upto Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and his decedents, including son-in-laws and in-laws. He has even taken up conversion of black and white pictures into coloured ones.

In his collection is a rare picture of Henry Irwin, the British architect, who built the old Palace, the Palace Vidwans during the reign of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar such as Kashishasha Shastri, Kadur Srinivas Choye and several others.

In addition to photographed picture portraits of members of the royal family, photographs of scholars in various fields such as music, Dharma Shastra, Grammar (Vyakarna) can be seen in his collection. He has also preserved pictures of Mummadi's teacher, Panayana Kempu Shastrigalu..

He also has more than 100 pictures of various court artistes namely Veene Anantha Subbaiah, Veene Venkatasubbaiah, Veene Appayya and others whose names are completely forgotten today. Pictures of Goddess Sapta Matrike, Rajarajeshwari too has been preserved.

Speaking to Express, says Urs “due to keen interest to preserve the history of Wodeyars, I took voluntary retirement in 1986 and started preserving the documents related to the royal family. By spending more than Rs 60,000 I have visited many placed and took 6 1/2 years to collect all the relevant material and publish the historical books. I have also plans to bring out new editions of the book, adding more information which I came across recently.

“I have prepared six charts related to genealogy, inscriptions, Adhikarigala Patti of Mysore Wodeyar right from Raja Wodeyar to Mummadi Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar and a separate genealogical chart called, Santhana Vriksha, of Mummadi Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar.”

“I have published a research article about a painting titled, ‘Santhana Kamala Kalpa’, depicting the entire genealogy of Mysore Wodeyars, painted by the renowned painter, Venkatasubbu in 1870, following the tradition of Chitra Shadanga on the orders of Mummadi Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar. Together with another research article related to a copper inscription dated 5th May 1860, also depicting the genealogy of Mysore Wadiyars, both the articles written in English has been sent to Royal Asiatic Society, London, to help research scholars to refer them during the course of their research work,” says Urs proudly.