Srikanta Wadiyar

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Srikanta Wadiyar bigraphy, stories - Maharaja Of Mysore

Srikanta Wadiyar : biography

20 February 1953 –

Maharaja Sri Kantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar Bahadur, Maharaja of Mysore, – website Royal Ark also named Srikanta Wadiyar, is the present head of the Wadiyar dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Mysore between 1399 and 1950. Wadiyar was also a member of Indian Parliament from the Mysore constituency.

Biography

Born in 1953, the only son of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, the last ruling Maharaja of Mysore and his second wife, Maharani Tripura Sundari Ammani Avaru, Srikantha Datta Wadiyar succeeded his father as the head of his dynasty in September 1974.

He was elected as a Member of Parliament representing the Mysore Parliamentary Constituency four times as a candidate of Indian National Congress and has lost twice, once as a BJP candidate and recently as a Congress party candidate. He is married to Maharani Pramoda Devi Avaru, who hails from the famous Bettada Kote Ursu family of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore. The royal couple have Post-graduate degrees from the University of Mysore in Political Science and Hindi respectively and have won gold medals for obtaining First Rank.

The Maharaja also represented Mysore University as a cricket player and was captain of the University team. He served as President of Karnataka State Cricket Association till November 2010.

He is an acknowledged fashion designer and a promoter of Mysore silk sarees under his Royal Silk of Mysore brand name.

Although the Maharaja is the only son of the previous and last ruling Maharaja, and has no sons himself, he has several nephews by his sisters, and it is likely that one of them will be adopted and succeed upon his death. Adoption of heirs from the female line has been done before in the case of Chamaraja Wadiyar X.