Rural life in India is full of rich traditions in culture which are both latent and also open. The traditional gudigaras of the erstwhile Mysore State have in them the talent to give definite shape to wood viz.. Teak, Sandal and Rose. Though of immense value there is apprehension that these traditions may slowly disappear a heritage which has enriched the cultural horizons of our country. In the earliest days man's very existence depended upon these. The succeeding ages produced many skilled craftsmen. But with the advent of the machine age this craftsmanship is slowly receeding The present work on the Caskets in the collection of the Mysore Palace is confined to the silver and sandalwood categories. Mysore Palace houses a huge collection of caskets. They are of the 19th century, and were presented to the last Maharaja of Mysore H. H. Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar by the people of the erstwhile Mysore State as mementos.
Sri H. T. Talwar's work on a catalogue of the Mysore Palace Caskets published for the first time in the Department gives descriptions and illustrations of the various caskets, which will throw light on the workmanship of the craftsmen of Karnataka. I hope this piece of work attracts the attention of scholars and researchers who are interested in knowing more about our traditional, occupation, for the revival and preservation of this art, of intrinsic value.
The Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Karnataka, feels very happy to present this work of Sri H. T. Talwar, Technical Assistant of this Directorate who has taken keen interest and put all his efforts to collect the relevant materials required for this book.
We are immensely thankful to Sri T. R. Subramanyan, Managing Director, Marketing Consultants & Agencies Limited, Bangalore, for timely printing of this publication elegantly.
When I was working as the Curator of Mysore Palace for about four years, I prepared catalogue cards and systematic documentation of the objects in the Mysore Palace.
The Mysore Palace houses huge collection of silver and sandalwood carvings. No attempt has been made to project the caskets of the Palace to the public. This work gives comprehensive information on the caskets to scholars and researchers.
I am thankful to Sri Chiranjiv Singh, Secretary, Information, Tourism and Youth Services, for his guidance, encouragement and keen interest in bringing out this book. I am grateful to my Director Dr. D. V. Devaraj for contributing foreword to my work. 1 gratefully acknowledge the encouragment given by Sri M. L. Shivashankara, Deputy Director, Dr. C. S. Patil, Registering Office, Dr. John M. Fritz: Dr. George Michell: Dr. A. Sundara, Sri L. S. Krishnasastry: Dr. K. G. Bhatsuri: Sri R. Gopal and Sri Swamy.
I am thankful to Sri Balaraja Naidu for colour transparencies, Sri K. R. Srinivas for drawing and D. J. Ganesh and S. Jothirlingeswarappa for preparing the type script neatly on the computer.
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