By N. Niranjan Nikam
It is a befitting tribute to the last Maharaja of Mysore Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar during his birth centenary year (1919-2019) that a six-foot portrait of his will be displayed at the Statue of Unity Museum in Gujarat. Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue, is a memorial built to the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on a river island facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the river Narmada in Kevadiya colony, 100 kms from the city of Vadodara. Sardar Patel played a pivotal role in the unification of India by bringing together nearly 565 Princely States and one of the rulers of the Princely States who willingly acceded his kingdom at that time was Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, the Maharaja of Mysore. There is also a museum in the premises of the Statue called “Uniting India” and a section on the Princely States titled “Salute States.” A ‘Salute State’ was a Princely State under the British Raj, which had been granted a gun salute as a protocol privilege for its ruler as recognition of the State’s relative status. At the time of Independence, only five rulers had the highest honour of a grand 21-gun salute. These included — the Maharaja of Mysore, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, the Maharaja of Baroda and the Maharaja of Gwalior. Other Princely States had fewer gun salutes to their name.
