If you want to see heritage buildings, Mysuru shows how to do it in style

A ‘heritage walk’ held on October 1 as part of Dasara brought to fore the salient features of different architectural styles of monuments that dot Mysuru.  

The participants learnt about the history and the context in which the monuments were built, that helped them appreciate the heritage of Mysuru.

Organised by the Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage, the heritage walk was inaugurated by MLA L. Nagendra at Town Hall.

Participants in the Heritage Cycling tour, organised as part of Dasara celebrations, pedaling past Crawford Hall in Mysuru on September 29, 2022. (Source: SRIRAM MA)

The walk took participants to the Clock Tower, Chamaraja Circle, palace, K.R. Circle, Small Clock Tower, Sayyaji Rao Road and Ayurvedic College Circle.

This was the last of three events organised by the department as part of Dasara. The Tonga Ride was preceded by Heritage Cycling on September 29 while heritage tonga ride, for which 42 couples had registered, was held on September 30. The couples were clad in traditional attire. The route was longer and enabled the tour to cover more monuments.

It was also flagged off from Town Hall. Participants were taken to the Clock Tower, K.R. Circle, Lansdowne Building, Jaganmohan palace, Parakala mutt, Oriental Research Institute, Crawford Hall, Deputy Commissioner’s office, Maharaja’s Junior College, Metropole Circle, railway station, Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute, and a slew of other heritage buildings along the route before the tour ended at Town Hall.

Experts believe that there is tremendous potential to make ‘Heritage Walk’ and ‘Heritage Tonga Ride’ or ‘Heritage Cycling’ regular features.

A heritage walk was organised for trainees of the Postal Department by the Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage in Mysuru on September 14, 2022. (Source: SRIRAM MA)

At present, these events are organised periodically for the benefit of trainees of various government programmes, but discerning tourists do not get a platform like these to appreciate the heritage buildings that dot the landscape of Mysuru.

“Though Heritage Walk has been a part of Dasara for the last 15 years, there is scope to widen its ambit and introduce more routes,” said Prof. N.S. Rangaraju of INTACH-Mysuru who is a regular resource person for such events.

A file photo of participants of the Heritage Walk, organised as part of Dasara celebrations, in Mysuru in 2018. (Source: SRIRAM MA)

Mysuru is dotted with over 200 heritage structures. But a recent exercise to update the structures indicate that there are more than 500 heritage structures in Mysuru, but not all of them are well-maintained. Experts aver that funds raised through programmes like ‘Heritage Walk’ and ‘Heritage Tonga Ride’ or ‘Heritage Cycling’ could be utilised to create a corpus.