DAILY PHOTO: Guardian Elephant at Srirangapatna Temple
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This cannon points right at the main entry to Daria Dalaut, Tipu Sultan’s palace in Mysore. It seems a tad inhospitable, but one can’t be too careful.
The gun doesn’t look so imposing from the end of the first cement pond, and is just a speck from the gate.
Brindavan Garden is built at the base of the Krishnarajasagara (KRS) dam. However, it’s so beautiful that one forgets to worry about what would happen if the massive wall holding back a lake from the Kaveri River were to catastrophically fail.
The garden takes advantage of the availability of water both in its fountains and in a gradual cascade that splits the garden down the center.
In the evening, all the tourists in town converge on this site to see the fountains lit up (except on Sundays when everybody is at the Mysore Palace to see it lit up.) About 2 million people a year visit the gardens.
This is the front of the palace at Mysore. This particular palace was constructed between 1897 and 1912, and was the seat of the Wodeyar Kingdom that ruled from 1399 to 1947.
The front of the building is set up like a parade ground with a stage from which the King could address the public, with the highfalutin’ people sitting under the shelter of the palace roof and the minions and peasants out baking under the sun. Of course, now there’s bird netting all over the facade to prevent the pigeons from bombing the place into poop-blivion.
One can’t take pictures inside, which is too bad because the colors and opulence are stunning, e.g. imagine a sterling silver couch. I come from the wealthiest country in the world (if one doesn’t count debt, which the government doesn’t, so why should I), and I have trouble wrapping my brain around a silver couch. I bet Warren Buffet doesn’t even own a silver couch.
There’s something about this picture that strikes me as not of this world. The albino creature contrasted against the earth-tone environment. One expects to see a deer in a verdant patch where it can meet its grazing needs, not on barren, stony soil. Then there are those wicked screw-bit horns, seeming a little out of place on bambi–like fangs on a butterfly.