Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/135

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MYSORE CITI 123 (or Commander-in-Chief's) tank, 4 miles farther south. The streets generally are broad and regular, except in the fort. The majority of the houses are tiled, and some of them are substantial buildings, two or three storeys high, with terraces. Altogether, the city has a clean and prosperous look, and of late years some fine public buildings have sprung up, while the efforts of the municipal board have greatly improved the sanitation. The fort stands in the south of the city, forming a quarter by itself. The ground-plan is quadrangular, each of the sides being about 450 yards long. The defences consist of a stone wall, ditch, and glacis, with outworks and flanking towers; but they are mean and ill-planned In the interior is the palace of the Mahárájá, built since 1800 in an extravagant style of Hindu architecture, and adorned inside with a few paintings executed by a European artist. The front, tawdrily painted and supported by four wooden pillars fantastically carved, comprises the Sejje or Dassara Hall, where the Mahárajá shows himself to the people on great occasions seated on his throne. This throne is the principal object of interest in the palace. It is made of fig-wood, overlaid with ivory, and is generally stated to have been presented to Chikka Deva Ráj in 1699 by the Muhammadan Emperor Aurangzeb. The ivory has since been covered with gold and silver plating, wrought with the customary figures of Hindu mythology. To be seated on this throne constitutes the coronation ceremony in Mysore; and the State appellation of the Mahárájá is Simhásan-adhipati, or ruler enthroned.' The only other rooms in the palace worthy of mention are the ambacilisa, with floor of chunám and doors overlaid with richly carved ivory and silver, where the late Maharajá used to receive his European guests; and the Painted Hall, with massive walls of nud, which is the only relic of the original palace destroyed by Tipu Sultán. The building and its surroundings have undergone many improvements of late, while a new palace for the Mahárájá has been crected at Bangalore. The remainder of the area enclosed within the fort is covered with houses, which are mostly occupied by members of the royal household. Opposite the western gate of the fort is a lofty and handsome building known as the Jagan Mohan Mahál, which was erected by the late Vahárájá for the entertainment of the European officers. The upper storey is decorated with grotesque paintings of hunting scenes. The houses of the European residents are for the inost part to the east of the town. The old Residency, built by Colonel Wilks in the beginning of the present century, is now called the Lower Residency, and is used for the Sessions Court and the Representative Assembly, as well as for the accommodation of the Mahárájá’s European guests. The present Residency, first occupied as such by Sir James Gordon as