Mysore

Mysore is the most festive city in India's most festive month: the Dasara celebrations that the Wadiyar kings began in 1610 have been running every October since, and the royal procession on Vijayadashami — golden howdah, decorated elephants, cavalry, infantry — is India's most spectacular annual pageant.

The Mysore Palace, rebuilt in its current form in 1912 after the previous structure burned down, is the most visited monument in India after the Taj Mahal. On Sunday evenings, when the exterior is illuminated by 96,000 lightbulbs simultaneously, it is the most frankly gorgeous building in Karnataka — not subtle, not austere, but openly committed to visual pleasure in a way that the architectural tradition permits. The Durbar Hall, 200 feet long with stained glass skylights and columns of cast iron made in Glasgow, is similarly committed to the same aesthetic.

The Devaraja Market in the old city — a covered bazaar built in the 19th century and still trading — is the most aromatic place in Mysore: the flower vendors at its entrance supply the jasmine that Mysore women weave into their hair at the rate of several hundred kilograms a day, and the spice section carries the turmeric and sandalwood powder that the city's religious culture requires in industrial quantities.

Places to Visit in Mysore

• Mysore Palace
• Chamundi Hill
• Devaraja Market
• Brindavan Gardens

Things to Do in Mysore

• Palace illumination viewing (Sundays)
• Chamundi Hill temple visit
• Silk and sandalwood shopping