MYSORE: Gift articles received by the erstwhile maharajas of Mysore from common people will be kept on display for the visitors in the palace soon.
It is for the first time in its history that these gift articles - mostly made out of silver and sandalwood and preserved in several almirahs in the palace - will be taken out from there and put on display for the public.
The idea is that these priceless articles which the commoners had given to the erstwhile royal family as a token of love and gratitude should be made known to the public. It will be an opportunity for the people of different places to establish connections of their villages or places to the palace.
Palace Board Deputy Director T S Subramanya told Express that it was the tradition in those days which the commoners used to follow while submitting a request to the maharajas for some development work or while extending invitation to functions. People used to gift the maharajas a miniature of the temple gopura or a dam implying that they were inviting him for a temple inauguration or they wanted a dam to be built in their place. A or invitation used to be part of the gift.
A majority of the collected articles include gift boxes and temple miniatures. Models of Bangalore’s Rajarajeshwari Temple and Gati Subramanya Temple are among the items. While a tennis club association inviting for the inauguration of the club has presented a badminton racquet made of sandalwood, people from a village in Mandya have given a dam model with a request to build a dam in their place.