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A musical tribute to the last maharaja of Mysore

Special Correspondent

Two-day music festival to highlight contribution of Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar

COMPOSER KING: Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar

MYSORE: It will be a tribute to the last of the maharajas, whose passing away on September 23, 1974 signalled the end of monarchy as described in the classical texts of European travellers.

For, eminent musicians and scholars will recall the contributions of the last king of Mysore, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, to the field of music and fine arts and help rekindle interest in a personality of whom little is known to a generation which is far removed from an era of the nobility and the royalty now relegated to the textbooks of history.

The two-day music festival to be held at the University Fine Arts College is aptly called Sri Jayachamarajendra Memorial Music Festival and will commence from Monday, which coincides with his birth anniversary (July 18). The programmes will be inaugurated by the Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi.

Reckoned to be one of the few enlightened rulers of India, who was also an accomplished musicologist with 94 compositions to his credit in the field of Carnatic music, Jayachamrajendra Wadiyar has been compared to the likes of Swati Tirunal of the royal Travancore family.

Born in Mysore on July 18, 1919, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was well versed in all nuances of fine arts and had a well-refined aesthetic sense that drew him to the company of great stalwarts of music such as Mysore Vasudevacharya and Tiger Varadachariar, apart from great Hindustani musicians of his age. He also took to learning western classical music and was an honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London.

That Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was a multifaceted personality can be best ascertained from some of his writings on various aspects of Indian art and culture published in India and abroad.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore, J. Shashidhar Prasad, described the late king as India's cultural ambassador who followed the tradition of his predecessors such as Nalvudi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and others. But not much of his works have been popularised.

The two-day workshop will be an effort in that direction.

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