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Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar
Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar
	Wadiyar in 2015
27th Head of the Wadiyar dynasty
Tenure	28 May 2015 – present
Predecessor	Srikantadatta Wadiyar
Spouse	Trishikha Kumari Wadiyar (m. 2016)
Issue	Aadyaveer Narasimharaja Wadiyar (born 2017)
Dynasty	Wadiyar dynasty
Religion	Hinduism
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 4 June 2024
Preceded by	Pratap Simha
Constituency	Mysore, Karnataka
Personal details
Born	Yaduveer Gopal Raj Urs; 24 March 1992 (age 32); Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Parents	Swarup Anand Gopal Raj Urs (father); Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar (adoptive father); Tripurasundari Devi (mother); Pramoda Devi Wadiyar (adoptive mother);
Residence	Mysore Palace

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar (born 24 March 1992) is an Indian politician and a royal scion from the Wadiyar dynasty, currently serving as a Member of Parliament for Mysore since 2024. The great-grandson of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, Yaduveer Wadiyar was adopted on 10 December 2013 by Pramoda Devi Wadiyar after the demise of her husband Srikantadatta Wadiyar. He was installed as the titular, "Maharaja of Mysore" in a private ceremony in 2015.^[a]

Early life and education

Yaduveer Wadiyar was born Yaduveer Gopal Raj Urs, the only son of Swarup Anand Gopal Raj Urs and Princess Leela Tripurasundari Devi. He has a younger sister, Jayathmika Lakshmi.

Yaduveer's paternal great great-grandfather was Sardar Gopalaraj Urs, the eldest brother to Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X who had been adopted into the royal family by their maternal grandfather Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar III and had ascended the throne in 1868. A closer connection to the royal family exists through Yaduveer's mother, Leela Tripurasundari Devi, who is the daughter of Kantharaj Basavaraj Urs, holder of the Kallahalli feudal estates (under Mysore) and his wife Princess Gayatri Devi, the eldest daughter of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, making the maharaja his maternal great-grandfather. Thus, Yaduveer's maternal grandmother, Maharajakumari Gayatri Devi, was a sister of the late Maharaja Srikantadatta Wadiyar, Yaduveer's adoptive father.

Yaduveer received his education in Bangalore, initially at Vidya Niketan School and then at the Canadian International School. He then obtained an undergraduate degree in English literature and economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.^[3]

Accession

Yaduveer Wadiyar's great-uncle Prince Srikantadatta Wadiyar, the previous head of the Wadiyar dynasty, died childless on 10 December 2013 without naming a successor, leaving the family headship vacant. As per the traditions of the family, and in accordance with Hindu customs, it was left to his widow, now the queen mother, Pramoda Devi, to adopt an heir to assume the position of head of the family. She and other members of the family, as also the former senior nobility of the state, pondered the question for over a year. During this interregnum, no celebrations or non-religious observances of any kind were held at the palace, except for the rituals connected to Dasara, which, according to traditions, are never deferred even by the death of the head of the family owing to its connection to honouring in the palace Goddess Chamundi (an avatar of Durga), the presiding deity of Mysore. On this occasion, the "royal sword" was used to represent the majesty of the late head of the family and the rituals were conducted under this instrument of continuity.^{[citation needed]}

The interregnum lasted for more than one year, during which Pramoda Devi held consultations with members of the family, the raja gurus and priesthood from the Parakala Matha who traditionally advise the head of the family, and with important members of the erstwhile nobility of Mysore. Finally, on 12 February 2015, fourteen months after the death of her husband, the Pramoda Devi held a press conference at the Palace and announced the name of her 'adopted son designate', Yaduveer Gopalaraja Urs, son of Swaroop Anand Gopalraj Urs of Bettada Kote; Yaduveer is a grandson of Princess Gayatri Devi, the deceased eldest sister of the late head of family. This choice had met with the consent of almost every member of the family, as also of the other eminences temporal and spiritual whose opinion had been sought.^{[citation needed]}

The announcement was met with both relief and acclaim across Old Mysore, where people were becoming disturbed at the unprecedented length of the interregnum.^{[citation needed]} The monarchy does not have formal existence at present; the state had been merged with the Dominion of India in 1948 and the residual titles and privileges of the titular Maharaja had been taken away by the government of India in 1971. The idea was shocking to the inhabitants of the state, who continue to have a strong emotional resonance with the erstwhile royal family.^{[citation needed]}

Srikantadatta Wadiyar had continued to play a pivotal role in religious and social ceremonies, and the family is a lodestar and fountainhead of honour for many talented performing artists, musicians, and craftsmen; it continues to have an important role in the cultural life of Karnataka. Pramoda Devi announced that the customs and traditions of the family, and its bond with the people, would continue as before.^{[citation needed]} Nevertheless, some slight controversy did arise at the time of Yaduveer's adoption.

Pramoda Devi formally adopted Yaduveer in a ceremony on 23 February 2015. The ceremony was a private affair, attended among many by the presiding chief minister Siddaramaiah, followed by a public procession late in the evening. This adoption made him the son of Srikantadatta Wadiyar and Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, and he was formally renamed Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Personal life

With his anointment ceremony on 28 May 2015, Yaduveer became, at 23, the twenty-seventh head of the erstwhile royal family of the Kingdom of Mysore, one of the richest Indian royal families. He conducted his first Dasara durbar in September 2015.

On 27 June 2016, over a year after his appointment, Yaduveer Wadiyar married Trishikha Kumari Devi, daughter of Harshvardhan Singh and Maheshree Kumari of the erstwhile Dungarpur royal family from Rajasthan.^[7] Trishikha has given birth to two boys, Aadyaveer Narasimharaja Wadiyar, on 6 December 2017 in Bangalore and another on 11 October 2024 in Mysore.^[8]

Political career

In March 2024, he was announced as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Mysore and Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 Indian general election.^[9] He won with over 8 lakh (800,000) votes.^{[citation needed]}

References

Notes

^ Although princely pensions, titles, and privileges are abolished in India, families of former princely rulers have created private roles and styled titles for some within their ranks to preside over family ceremonies and traditions; in some instances, this has been done with a view to sustaining the wealth, fame, and influence that the families possess.^[1]^[2]

Citations

^ Aldrich, Robert; McCreery, Cindy (2016), "European sovereigns and their empires 'beyond the seas'", in Robert Aldrich, Cindy McCreery (ed.), Crowns and colonies: European monarchies and overseas empires, Studies in Imperialism Book 142, Manchester University Press, p. 43, ISBN 9781526100894, Although Prime Minister Indira Gandhi deprived the India princes of their official titles and privy purses in 1971, the maharajas and other princes, such as the traditional Maharana of Udaipur, who now styles himself as the 'Custodian' of the House of Mewar in Rajasthan, retain wealth, influence and celebrity; in 2015, a twenty-three-year-old economics graduate was thus installed as the most recent Maharajah of Mysore.
^ Ramusack, Barbara N. (2004). The Indian princes and their states. Cambridge University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-521-26727-4. In recent decades nobles and merchants in the former princely states have joined princes in opening palaces, havelis, forts and hunting lodges, from Mysore city in the south to the foothills of the Himalayas, to tourists.
^ Foster, Stuart (11 June 2015). "UMass graduate crowned head of 600-year-old Indian kingdom". The Massachusetts Daily Collegian.
^ "Yaduveer Gopal Raj Urs is heir of Mysuru royal family". The Hindu. 13 February 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
^ "In Yaduveer, erstwhile Mysuru kingdom gets new king". The Times of India. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
^ "Mysuru new King to wed Trishika Kumari". NewsKarnataka. 25 February 2015.
^ "The big royal wedding: When Mysuru went gaga". The Times of India. 28 June 2016.
^ P, Shilpa (11 October 2024). "Mysuru royal family welcomes new baby boy on Dasara Ayudhapuja festival". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
^ "Lok Sabha 2024: Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar to contest on BJP ticket". mint. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.

External links

Titles in pretence
Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar Wadiyar Born: 24 March 1992
Preceded by Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar	— TITULAR — Custodian of Royal House of Mysore 28 May 2015 – present Reason for succession failure: Kingdom abolished in 1950	Incumbent