Jaganmohan Palace

Royal residence and arts gallery at Mysore, India

Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, commonly known by its former name Jaganmohana Palace, is a royal mansion, arts museum and auditorium, and formerly an alternative royal residence of the ruling maharaja of Mysore, located in Mysore, India, about 200m (600ft) to the west of Mysore Palace. Began in 1856 and completed in 1861, the palace is one of the oldest modern structures in Mysore. The royal family would reside at the palace when renovations and construction works would be underway at Mysore Palace. The last time the palace was inhabited by the royal family was in 1897 when the old Mysore Palace burned down due to a fire accident. Both personal and official ceremonies, including the maharaja's coronation in 1902 by Marquess George Curzon, the Governor General of India, the maharaja's daily durbar, and major ceremonies connected to Mysore Dasara would be held there. The first session of Mysore Representative Council was also held here in July 1907, presided over by Dewan V. P. Madhava Rao. The early convocations of the Mysore University were also held in this palace. In 1915, Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV converted the palace into an art gallery. In 1950, Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar placed the palace under a trust and opened it for public viewing. In 1955, by which time the Kingdom of Mysore had been subsumed into the Republic of India, the art gallery was enlarged with gifts of many precious articles by the maharaja. In 1980, Prince Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar renamed the palace Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery in his father's honour. The palace is overseen by Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, the queen mother.

The palace is built in traditional Hindu style and has three storeys. A mural featured in the palace is the earliest known picture of Mysore Dasara and has been painted using vegetable dyes. A family tree of the Wadiyars tracing the lineage of the royal family is also painted on a wall in the palace. Two wooden artefacts displaying the Dashavatara, the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, are also present in the palace.

In 1900, an external facade with a royal auditorium hall behind was added to the palace. This facade has three entrances, and the entablature has religious motifs and miniature temples crafted on it. music, and other cultural programmes, mainly during the Dasara.

The art gallery contains one of the largest collections of artefacts in South India. Another collection of paintings by Col. Scot, a British Army office during the Anglo Mysore wars are said to be the only visual representation of those wars. A unique artefact exhibited here is a French clock which has a mechanism in which a parade of miniature soldiers is displayed every hour, beating drums marking the seconds, and a bugle marking the minute.

In 2003, a new hall was built owing to insufficient room available to exhibit all the paintings. The original paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, which are over 100 years old, are being restored by the Regional Conservation Laboratory (RCL). Syrendri (which had a hole in the canvas), Victory of Meganath and Malabar Lady were some of Ravi Varma's paintings that were restored. Unscientific stretching of the canvas on which the paintings were drawn was one of the major problems noticed including unprotected exposure to dust, heat, and light. Even the murals on the walls had been damaged because of water seepage and these were also restored by RCL.