After 60 Years, Mysuru Royal Family Celebrates Birth of a Baby

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and his wife, Trishikaa Kumari Devi welcomed a baby boy on 6 December.

File image of Mysuru’s titular Maharaja Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and his wife, Trishikaa Kumari Devi.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

It was celebrations all around as Mysuru’s titular Maharaja Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and his wife, Trishikaa Kumari Devi welcomed a baby boy at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Wednesday, 6 December.

This is the first time in nearly six decades that the royal family has given birth to an heir, reported The New Indian Express. The baby boy is the 28th heir in the family. According to TNIE, the last time a baby was born to the royal family was in February 1953, with the birth of Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar.

The arrival of the royal baby was widely anticipated ever since a pregnant Trishika was spotted observing Dasara rituals in September.

Bangalore Mirror reported that Trishika had moved to Bengaluru along with Yaduveer after Dasara celebrations and was staying with her mother in Indiranagar.

Tradition dictates that the ‘Maharani’ of the palace has to observe rituals alongside her husband during Dasara festivities. This includes ascending the golden throne and holding the ‘khaas durbar’.

“Maybe 50 years and Dasara hold a special significance for the royals. Trishika is the third pregnant maharani to perform Dasara rituals in a long time and this is a joyous occasion for the family,” said Raja Chandra, the son-in-law of Jayachamaraja Wodeyar and brother-in-law of the late Srikantadatta Wadiyar speaking to BM.

TNIE reports that legend has it that a curse was put on the Wadiyar family 400 years ago by queen Alamelamma – the wife of a Vijayanagara king. The birth of the royal baby on Wednesday has broken that curse.

The story goes that the Wadiyars had started as a principality of the larger Vijayanagara Kingdom in 1399 and Alamelamma was unhappy with the way Raja Wadiyar I usurped the Vijayanagara kingdom from her husband King Tirumalaraja.

When the Wadiyar king sent his soldiers to take away Alamelamma’s ornaments, it is believed that she uttered, “Talakadu maralagali, Malangi maduvagali, Mysuru Doregalige Makkallilade Hogali," which translates to “May Talakadu turn into sand, may Malangi be consumed by whirlpools and may the kings of Mysore never have heirs”, according to the TNIE report.

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar took over as the 27th titular king of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family in May 2015.

Yaduveer succeeded the former scion of Mysuru, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, who died in 2013, leaving behind no heir. After a long search, Wadiyar’s wife Pramoda Devi formally adopted Yaduveer in February 2015, and named him the late scion’s successor.

Yaduveer is the nephew of the late Maharaja and the son of Leela Tripurasundari Devi and Swarup Anand Gopalaraj Urs.

(The article was originally published on The News Minute.)

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