If you don’t believe in Curse, read this story of the curse of Royal Wodeyar family and we bet you’ll start believing in the Curse.
Curse of Royal Wodeyar Family:
It all started in 1612, when Raja Wodeyar took over Mysore, then under the Vijayanagara Empire, after dethroning the ailing Tirumalaraja.
Raja Wodeyar
After the change of guard, Tirumalaraja’s wife Alamelamma took all the royal ornaments and escaped to Talakadu. According to historians, Alamelamma was upset about what she considered was her husband’s unceremonious ouster from the ruler’s chair. When Wodeyar’s soldiers tracked her down to confiscate the ornaments, in order to escape arrest, she committed suicide by jumping into the Cauvery river. But not before she uttered ominous words cursing the Wodeyars to an heirless future. “May Talakad turn into a barren expanse of sand; may Malangi (a village on the banks of Cauvery) turn into a fathomed whirlpool; may the Wadiyars of Mysore not have children for eternity,” she is said to have chanted as she took the leap to her death.
Incidentally, soon after learning of Alamelamma’s suicide, Wodeyar installed a statue of her at the Mysore palace and offered it prayers. To date, her statue is worshipped as a deity in the palace.
If you were the superstitious kind, though, you would look no further than Alamelamma’s desperate words to explain what has been happening since.
Talakadu has been a renowned tourist spot over the past century, where excavation of sand happens. It has yielded many temples since then. Malangi, on the other hand, is given a wide berth because of the killer whirlpools that form in its patch of the Cauvery.
Most significantly, ever since, the Wodeyars have birthed male children only in alternate generations.
If a king ended up not having a son, his younger brother’s progeny would be crowned the heir. For instance, Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, one of the most celebrated Wodeyar kings, had no children. And he chose his nephew Jayachamaraja as his successor.
“If we take a scientific view, there is no scope for a curse. But, after observation, the Wodeyar family tree, six rulers since the 17th century have been adopted sons (nephews). The Wodeyars also acknowledge it as fact,” historian Dr A. Veerappa said.
Now, do you believe in curse after reading this story about the curse of Royal Wodeyar Family?
