Mysore’s last Wodeyar prince no more

Bangalore  :  Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, the 60-year-old last prince of Mysore’s Wodeyar dynasty, died Tuesday following a cardiac arrest at a private hospital, an official said.

“Wodeyar was declared dead around 3.30 p.m. after doctors could not revive his heart which suffered a massive cardiac arrest,” Vikram Hospital administrator K. Madan Kumar told IANS.

The scion was rushed to the hospital around 2 p.m. in a critical condition when he collapsed after lunch in his sprawling Bangalore Palace in the city centre.

“As Wodeyar’s heart stopped beating, we did a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to revive it but could not. We shifted him to the cardio care unit and put him on a ventilator for life support. When all efforts to revive him failed, our chief cardiologist Ranganath Nayak declared him dead,” Kumar said.

The prince was staying in Bangalore for over a month after the Dasara festival in Mysore in October to contest in the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) elections for the president’s post, which he won Dec 1.

Mysore, the city of palaces, is about 140 km from Bangalore.

“Wodeyar has been not been best of his health over the months, as he had kidney ailment and was undergoing dialysis every fortnight. He was also overweight (about 130 kg). He was in our hospital last month for treatment and was discharged in November last week after his condition stabilised,” Kumar said.

The prince leaves behind his widow Pramoda Devi and two elder sisters, who stay in the Bangalore palace with their families.

As the prince had no offspring, he was the last of the seven-centuries-old Wodeyar dynasty that ruled the Mysore kingdom till his father Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar relinquished the throne in 1948 after the Indian government annexed the region.

The young prince succeeded as the head of royal dynasty in September 1974 following his father’s death.

The scion was also elected as a Congress lawmaker to parliament four times from the Mysore Lok Sabha constituency and lost twice, once as a candidate of the opposition BJP.

An avid cricketer, the prince captained the Mysore University team when he was undergoing his post-graduation in arts.

The scion was also a fashion designer and promoted the popular Mysore silk saris under his Royal Silk of Mysore brand.