Just north of the city centre, close to the Cantonment Railway Station, Bangalore, is the Jayamahal Palace. This was the summer palace of the royal family of Gondal (Gujarat). The history is obscure, but it is said to have been built in 1903 by Arni Jagirdar (Maratha Brahmins from Arcot district, Tamil Nadu), and it was hence named Arni House.

This palace, designed by a British architect in Gothic and traditional architecture, is now a heritage hotel, owned by the Gondal royal family, who ruled the erstwhile Gondal princely state located near Rajkot in Gujarat. The palace is situated on 24 acres of land. There is a story that Jagirdar could view the goings-ons at the adjacent Bangalore Palace through binoculars, and hence the Mysore Maharaja bought the palace from him. Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV (1894 –1940) subsequently gifted the palace and named it after his nephew Jayachamrajendra Wadiyar, whose father was Kanteerva Narasimharaja Wadiyar, who was the heir to the throne. Jayachamrajendra was a music aficionado and lived in this palace to pursue his passion. However, the untimely demise of his father resulted in his coronation, and he decided to sell Jayamahal Palace to the Maharaja of Gondal. The buyers were closely related to the Wadhwan rulers, whose king Kunwar Atmanya Dev was married to Wadiyar’s daughter, Kamakshi Devi.

This palace, designed by a British architect in Gothic and traditional architecture, is now a heritage hotel, owned by the Gondal royal family, who ruled the erstwhile Gondal princely state located near Rajkot in Gujarat. The palace is situated on 24 acres of land.

It was a relaxed lunch this afternoon in the outdoor restaurant (that serves only vegetarian food), which took us back to the Bangalore of yore. You can choose from a menu that has Indian, Chinese, Italian as well as continental food. It has a bar too and the service was quite good.

Bangalore has such gems, and it is a pity that the civic administration, BBMP is totally incapable of preserving the beauty of the city to match with these structures of yore. No wonder my late grandmother said she preferred monarchy to what followed later. At least in the princely state of Mysore.