Sports Wadiyar was a good horseman and a tennis player. He was also well known for his marksmanship and was highly sought after by his subjects whenever a rogue elephant or a man-eating tiger attacked their immediate surroundings in and around the city of Mysore. There are many wildlife trophies attributed to him in the
Palace Collections. Wadiyar is credited for financially supporting the tennis player
Ramanathan Krishnan participate at
Wimbledon. The maharaja also encouraged and aided the cricketer
E. A. S. Prasanna's visit to the
West Indies as his father was otherwise reluctant to send him.
Literature Wadiyar was a
man of letters: he was an avid reader and writer and an acknowledged authority of
Indian philosophy. His literary works deal with a range of disciplines including administration, theology, history, civics, philosophy, administrative studies, among others. Wadiyar sponsored the translation of many classics from Sanskrit to
Kannada as part of the "Jayachamaraja Grantha Ratna Mala", including 35 parts of the
Rigveda. These are essentially ancient, sacred scriptures in Sanskrit which at that time were not available in
Kannada language comprehensively. All the books contain original text in Kannada accompanied by Kannada translation. As the courtier and astrologer Dharmadhikari H. Gangadhara Shastry, who himself contributed substantially in the above works, has stated, the Maharaja used to study each and every one of these works and discuss them with the authors. Wadiyar also encouraged historical research on modern lines; this finds an echo in the dedication of the encyclopaedic work entitled
History of Mysore by C. Hayavadana Rao published in three voluminous works published between 1943 and 1946. During his presidency, he founded the Medtner Society at London in 1948 in honour of the Russian composer
Nikolai Medtner. The maharaja also financed the recording of a large number of Medtner's compositions. Medtner dedicated his
third piano concerto to the maharaja. Maharaja wrote a personal letter on 20 October 1948 in which he said: I want particularly to let you know what real and genuine pleasure it has given me to listen to your glorious third piano concerto which it is my unique honour of having it dedicated to me. You will allow me to say that I consider your third concerto is possibly the greatest contribution made to the literature of the piano during the last half a century. I say so not because it happens to be dedicated to me, not because many other musicians and great critics have held it to be a work of the highest artistic standard, but because I as a layman have been deeply moved by its great spiritual feeling, its undertone of tragedy and sublimating all our "elan-vital" - like a Promethean will of victory over the darkness of our immediate horizons... Again on 28 Sept 1951 he wrote to his manager, Capt. Binstead: "Medtner is really a very remarkable man, amazing to the doctors themselves. His determination is as great as his talents. It is really a matter for admiration that Mr. Medtner has been able to finish the two songs, even at the time when he was on the verge of collapse. Really, God will grant him sufficient strength andhealth to be of immense service to the musical world - of which there is a real and great need at the present moment.." Medtner succumbed to his illness soon thereafter on 13 November 1951 and Maharaja cabled his wife thus: Nicholos great music will be immortal and that his name will live and shine as lustrous star is my firm conviction" !
Walter Legge, who was the record producer in these efforts, stated:The visit to Mysore was a fantastic experience. The Maharajah was a young man, not yet thirty. In one of his palaces he had a record library containing every imaginable recordings of serious music, a large range of loud speakers, and several concert grand pianos... In the weeks I stayed there, the Maharajah agreed to paying for the recordings of the Medtner piano concertos, an album of his songs, and some of his chamber music; he also agreed to give me a subvention of 10,000 pounds a year for three years to enable me to put the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Philharmonia Concert Society on firm basis... This largesse proved sufficient to transform Legge's fortunes in 1949; he was able to engage
Herbert von Karajan as conductor. The repertory the maharajah wished to sponsor were
Balakirev's Symphony,
Roussel's Fourth Symphony,
Busoni's
Indian Fantasy,
etc. The association produced some of the most memorable recordings of the post-war period. In 1950, Wadiyar sponsored an evening orchestra event at the
Royal Albert Hall by the Philharmonia Concert Society with German conductor
Wilhelm Furtwängler in the lead and soprano
Kirsten Flagstad singing
Four Last Songs, fulfilling
Richard Strauss's last wish. The maharaja was an equally good critic of music. When asked by Legge to pass judgement on the recent additions to the
EMI catalogue, his views were as trenchant as they were refreshingly unpredictable. He was thrilled by Karajan's
Vienna Philharmonic recording of
Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony ("as Beethoven wished it to be"), held Furtwängler's recording of the
Fourth Symphony in high esteem, and was disappointed by
Alceo Galliera's account of the
Seventh Symphony, which he preferred Karajan had recorded. Above all, he expressed serious doubts about
Arturo Toscanini's recordings. "The speed and energy are those of a demon", he wrote to Legge, "not an angel or superman as one would ardently hope for". One of the reasons he so admired Furtwängler's Beethoven was that it was "such a tonic after Toscanini's highly strung, vicious performances". In the July 1950 edition of
Gramophone, Legge writes:... Many more correspondent have written expressing their admiration for the vision, constructive enterprise, and generosity of the young Indian Prince who conceived this plan, and who is making it possible for the music lovers throughout the world to learn, enjoy and study works which but for his knowledge and love of music, would never have been recorded...
Carnatic classical music After becoming Maharaja, he became increasingly exposed to
Carnatic classical music owing to the cultural vibrancy which prevailed in the Mysore court. He learnt to play veena under
Vid. Venkatagiriappa; he eventually mastered the nuances of Carnatic music under the tutelage of the veteran composer and courtier
Vid. Vasudevachar. The maharaja composed as many as 94 Carnatic music works under the assumed name
Shri Vidya. All his compositions are in different
ragas and some of them for the first time ever. He is credited with the creation of the
raga Jayasamvardini. These compositions were published as a book in 2010 by R. Raja Chandra, his son-in-law, as "Sree Vidyaa Gaana Vaaridhi", edited by S. Krishna Murthy,
Vid. Vasudevachar's grandson. A total of 94 of his compositions are supposed to be available in print. 93 are available in the website given below: http://www.carnatica.net/lyrics/jclist.pdf During these compositions, Wadiyar built three temples in Mysore city: Bhuvaneshvari Temple and Gayatri Temple, located inside the Mysore Palace Fort, and Sri Kamakaameshwari Temple, situated on Ramanuja Road, Mysore, all sculpted by his guru Siddalingaswamy. Many noted Indian musicians received patronage at his court, including
Mysore Vasudevachar,
Veena Venkatagiriyappa,
B. Devendrappa, V. Doraiswamy Iyengar,
T. Chowdiah,
Tiger Vardachar, Chennakeshaviah, Titte Krishna Iyengar, S. N. Mariappa, Chintalapalli Ramachandra Rao, R. N. Doreswamy, H. M. Vaidyalinga Bhagavatar.
V. Ramarathnam, a veteran musician and scholar, authored the "Contribution and Patronage of Wadiyars to Music", a book that delves deep into the patronage and contribution of Wadiyars to Carnatic music. at
Mysore|255x255px |254x254px == Death ==