Opéra National de Paris - Palais Garnier - Paris

In France the oldest man is always young,
Sees operas daily, learns the tunes so long,
Till foot, hand, head, keep time with every song:
Each sings his part echoing from pit and box,
With his hoarse voice, half harmony, half pox.

- prologue of John Dryden's 1685 Albion and Albanius

The rich history of French music began in 10th century with court songs and chivalrous music. From this point forward, France has an illustrious musical history, ranging from Opéra to classical, to pop and rock. While the first operas that appeared in France during the mid-17th century were experimental, they was soon met with considerable enthusiasm in Paris, especially those based on Italian opera of the time. During the reign of Louis XIV, Italian-style Opéra began to flourish in France. The Opéra represented French grand Opéra and attracted the upper class.





Entertainment for the upper class

There would frequently be huge pageants to celebrate occasions such as the birth of an heir or an empire-building marriage in Italy during the Renaissance. Members of the aristocracy and hired performers to impress the nobility of neighbouring states performed at these events.

When one of King Charles VI's knights married one of the queen's gentlewomen, he performed in a masque or morisco (masked performance) called Bal des Ardents or Burner's Ball where he played a Wild Man of the Forest in a big hairy costume made of flax and pitch. At one moment when he separated himself from the other five "wild men" to talk to a duchess, a torch held by an onlooker set the other five dancers on fire. When the fire spread to the king's costume, the duchess smothered it with her train. All but one of the other five dancers died from their burns.

Christina of Sweden, the kings of Denmark and Poland, the princes of Germany and Italy, the Holy Roman Emperor, all had their Ballets. Even the taciturn William of Orange, later William III of England, danced in a Ballet de la Paix at the Hague in 1668. France was no different. Where the French king led, the courts of Europe followed.


Evolution of Ballet
Men wearing wigs and bloomers with hard shoes and women wearing heavy long-skirted gowns took part in the dance that also had equestrian demonstrations and mock combats!

As ballet advanced and became more dance and less speaking over the next fifty years it stopped being something that was only offered in court and was offered to paying audiences. Also during this time, the nobility, including King Louis XIII, performed in roles ranging from the hero to the lowest scum in the ballet, lending prestige to the portrayal of evil parts. A number of stage works informed the creation of Opéra. It did not remain tied to a single geographic area, and fast became one of Italy's chief exports.





Ballet receives royal patronage in Paris

Cardinal Mazarin
Louis XIV's interest in dancing was strongly supported and encouraged by Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin. Louis XIV made his ballet debut as a boy. Louis accomplished his most memorable feat as a dancer in 1653 when he was just a teenager. He performed a series of dances in Le Ballet de la Nuit . He appeared as Apollo the Sun God for his final piece and he came to be known as the Sun King.

Lully

Cardinal Mazarin promoted Italian influences in the French spectacle. Jean-Baptiste Lully, a Florentine, arrived in Paris at age 14 to serve as an Italian tutor to Louis XIV's cousin, Grande Mademoiselle Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans. Having distinguished himself as a violinist and dancer, he left to take a position in Louis XIV's court in 1652.

Lully composed court ballets with Isaac de Benserade - including the one performed at Louis' wedding. He became one of the king's favorite dancers and rivaled the king as the best dancer in France. He continued to gain importance in the court and in 1661 he was appointed surintendant and compositeur de la musique de la chambre du roi.

Académie Royale de Danse
In 1661 Louis established the Académie Royale de Danse in a room of the Louvre, the world's first ballet school. The king attended a party put on by the finance minister to show off his new home in the country. The king was greatly by the entertainment put up. He thought that the finance minister was a treasonous servant and arrested him. He then hired the ballet master Molière, the home's architect, and the gardener.


In 1662 Lully was granted the title maître de la musique de la chambre which placed him in regular contact with the king. With his directorial duties dispersed to others, Lully began working with the playwright Molière on a series of comédies-ballets -- a new genre combining spoken comedy with singing and dancing.



Molière
At court, Molière and Lully collaborated, with Molière choreographing and Lully composing the music for ballets. By the end of the decade, Lully witnessed the first attempt to perform opera in Paris.

Académie d'Opéra et Académie Royale de Musique
In 1669 Louis, (still Louis XIV), established the Académie d'Opéra which was renamed as Académie Royale de Musique a year later. Pierre Perrin and Robert Cambert were given royal permission (a "monopoly") to stage operas. Then, in 1670 the king, past his physical prime, retired from dancing, allowing other, better dancers to take lead roles. Though Perrin and Cambert were bankrupt three years later, Lully was keenly aware of the possibilities and persuaded the king to transfer the monopoly to himself.

In 1672 Lully established a dance academy within the Académie Royale de Musique. This dance company survives today as the ballet of the Paris Opera - the world's oldest continuously running ballet company.

Lully accidentally stabbed his foot in 1687 with his time marking stick and subsequently succumbed to the injuries. At this time, ballet was normally performed in a theatrical form known as opéra-ballet by the same productions as opera. The music academy that Lully had run set the standard in the opéra-ballet, which people attended for the dancing as for the music. L'Europe Galante(1697), the composer of one opéra-ballet suggested making the opéra-ballet more popular by lengthening the dances and shortening the skirts of the now common female dancers.

Through the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the Paris Opéra occupied a succession of buildings:
Première Salle du Palais Royale, from 1673
Salle des Machines du Palais des Tuileries, from 1764
Deuxième Salle du Palais Royale, inaugurated in 1770
Salle de la Porte Saint-Martin, from 1781;
Théâtre des Arts, from 1791 and
the Salle Le Peletier, constructed from 1820-21 on rue Le Peletier. The Salle Le Peletier was destroyed by fire in 1873.



Palais Garnier

All the previous halls, since the foundation of the Académie Royale de Music, had been either of temporary construction or had been destroyed by fires. Hence Napoleon III decided to build the Grand Opera in 1858.

An architectural competition was organized for the new opera house in 1860. Charles Garnier's design was selected out of the 171 entries. He created an Opera House and stage in the traditional Italian style inspired both by the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux built by Victor Louis in 1870 and by the Italian and French villas of the 17th and 18th centuries. The passages, halls, foyers, staircases, and rotundas occupy a far larger area than the theatre itself. This was to facilitate hosting the festivities of the Emperor's entourage and of elegant audiences from the moneyed and social élite, for whom a night at the Opera was a pleasant excuse for meeting people and renewing acquaintances.

A water table was discovered at the site when the construction started in 1861 and it had to be drained before the construction could begin. This slowed down the work drastically. An enourmous concrete well was designed and filled with water to carry the stage and fly tower. The well was filled with water in order to counter the water pressure (hence the legend of the underground lake popularized by Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera).

Franco-Prussian war and the Commune interrupted the construction works in 1870. But the fire at the old opera in Rue Le Peletier in 1873 hastened the completion of the monument. Begun under the Second Empire in 1862, construction of the opera house took about 14 years to complete. It was officially inaugurated during the Third Republic by Field Marshall de Mac-Mahon on 5 January 1875.

The building, which is a perfect example of 19th century stage architecture, hides its iron frame under flamboyant decoration. The overall impression is harmonious in spite of the diversity of its inspiration and the temes taken up by Charles Garnier. He personally supervised the integration in the architecture of decorative works entrusted to sculptors, painters and mosaic artists representative, as himself was, of state-sponsored artists.



TRIUMPH OF ECLECTICISM
Garnier's architectural principles are imbued with Renaissance ideals. Garnier also had "general interest in all kinds of technological progress", such as "balancing the ancient craft of stonecutting against iron's modern industrialization of architecture. This diversity of the materials used in the building and the range of colours used right from the façade, takes you into the fairy-tale world of the Opera House.

The two side pavillions formerly provided access for the regular subscribers on one side and for the Emperor on the other. They are today occupied by the Library and the Opera Museum. At the right of the entrance halls, there is the famous group of dancers by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux - the original is in the Musée d'Orsay. The great staircase continues down towards Pythia's water basin and the former subscribers' rotunda. The stairs are decorated in marble and onyx, a true theatre of worldly events, while the lobby is decorated with Venetian mosaics.

Two small rooms, one dedicated to the Moon, the other to the Sun, lead to the main foyer, a princely gallery of gilded luxury in which the mythological characters and the allegories of Paul Baudry stand out. The rotunda is adorned by eight tapestries made by the Gobelins, under a ceiling by Georges Clairin. In the auditorium itself, the great chandelier illuminates the ceiling by Marc Chagall, which has, since 1964, covered the original work of Jules-Eugène Lenepveu. Echoing the colorful style dear to Charles Garnier's, Chagall has designed his painting as a living image of the festive spririt surrounding each performance: luminous, fluid figures surge forth, contrasting with the gold and red tones of the theatre.



Among round arches and soaring Corinthian columns, busts and medallions of celebrated composers adorn the stately façade of dressed stone. The four thematic façade groups at the entrance to the opera house include Harmony by Jouffroy; Instrumental Music by Guillaume; Lyric Drama by Perraud; and The Dance, the celebrated sculpture by Carpeaux.


The façade attic groups with winged goddesses by Guméry are entitled Harmony and Poetry. Each flytower corner group by Lequesne features Pegasus rearing above the great, copper-plated dome. At the stage flytower apex stands Aimé Millet's monumental group Apollo Crowning Dance and Poetry. The youthful god holds aloft a golden lyre - a decorative leitmotif throughout the splendid Palais Garnier.

The French Revolution of 1789 prompted the Paris Opéra to produce a series of operas on revolutionary subjects. In the middle and late 19th century, grand opera, exemplified in the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer, flourished in the company’s repertory. The Opéra underwent a decline in the 20th century, and attempts to rejuvenate it began at mid-century. Its administration was joined with that of the Opéra-Comique, which traditionally stages works with spoken dialogue. From 1875 to 1990 the Paris Opéra was housed in the Théâtre Nationale de l’Opéra, an architectural landmark that is better known simply as the Opéra. In the latter year the company occupied its new home in the Opéra de la Bastille building.

Star Turtles

Turtles have been inhabiting our planet for more than 150 million years. Star Turtle is a species of Turtle found in dry areas and scrub forest. This species is quite popular in the exotic pet trade. Star Turtles have a yellow or tan head. Females are much larger than males and have a shell which is much broader.Life span is up to 80 years.



ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2011) — A report issued Feb. 22, 2011, co-authored by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) working in conjunction with the Turtle Conservation Coalition, lists the 25 most endangered turtle species from around the world -- some of which currently number less than five individuals.

Decimated by illegal hunting for both food and the pet trade along with habitat loss, many turtle species will go extinct in the next decade unless drastic conservation measures are taken, according to the report, which was released at a regional workshop hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore and WCS.

Illegal hunting for turtles in Asia for food, pets, and traditional medicines is a particular problem, the report says.

"Turtles are being unsustainably hunted throughout Asia," said co-author Brian D. Horne of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Every tortoise and turtle species in Asia is being impacted in some manner by the international trade in turtles and turtle products.

Liz Bennett, Vice President of WCS Species Program, said: "Turtles are wonderfully adapted to defend themselves against predators by hiding in their shells, but this defense mechanism doesn't work against organized, large-scale human hunting efforts. The fact is that turtles are being vacuumed up from every nook and cranny in Asia and beyond."

Hawa Mahal - Jaipur

The succession of Madho Singh's five year old son Prithvi Singh on his death in 1768 was in accordance with protocol.What was unusual was that the person appointed as his regent was not his own mother, but an older and more senior queen of Madho Singh's, a woman descended from the Chandawat line (a branch of the house of Mewar); and she had a son of her own, Pritvi Singh's younger half-brother Pratap.

The thakurs strongly disliked female rule of any sort but they were divided about how to take control of their infant king themselves, were further appalled by the open secret of the close personal relationship between her and one of her ministers, a man named Firoz who had previously been an elephant driver. Impotent to change the situation, the thakurs returned to their own estates and sulked, waiting for the boy to come of age when he could appoint his own advisers and ministers. But Prithvi Singh never reached his majority. At the age of fifteen, just at the point when he seemed ready to shake off his unwholesome guardians and assert himself, he died suddenly as a result of a fall from his horse. Though not yet old enough to rule, he had already married twice. That he was succeeded not by his own infant son Man Singh, the legitimate heir, but by the son of the queen regent, his half brother Pratap - thus perpetuating the power of the regent and of her elephant driver - must excite the suspicion that Prithvi Singh was pushed. Poor Prithvi Singh had been riding for this fall all his life. As James Tod mildly put it, given that the Chundawat rani had a direct interest in the death of Prithvi Singh, the laws of common sense were violated in appointing her his guardian.

- "JaipurNama" Giles Tillotson

Thus Pratap Singh succeeded Prithvi Singh in April 1778 at the age of thirteen. Early in 1779 he visited the emperor at Delhi and was recognised as the rightful ruler. Pratap was a man rather more in the image of the founder, his grandfather Sawai Jai Singh. Though not on the same scale, he was an enthusiastic patron of literature, painting and architecture. His major addition to the palace is the building for which Jaipur is best known today, the Hawa Mahal.



He commissioned Lal Chand Usta in 1799 to design Hawa Mahal which literally translates to "Palace of Winds". It is an icon of Jaipur and is an extension of the Royal City Palace Zenana (women’s chambers) standing away from the main complex. The monument with a spectacular view of Jaipur city with road avenues, intersections and colourful crowds in the market, was originally conceived with the aim of enabling ladies of the royal household to watch the everyday life and royal processions in the city without being seen. This is the element on which the builders lavished most attention.

Admired by many for its breathtaking eccentricity, the Hawa Mahal has been derided by others as a gratuitous flourish, disconnected from any serious purpose. Leaving aside arguments as to its quality, the seeming confusion and jumble of forms is in fact regulated by a strict and carefully calculated order. Though superficially it appears arbitrary, a careful scrutiny will reveal how the architect has devised a composition out of a handful of well-establised and elementary principles of vastu vidya.




The building, standing on a high podium, is a fifty-foot high thin shield, less than a foot in thickness, with small intimate chambers , which give this palace its unique facade. There are no regular stairs to reach the upper floors, but only ramps.

Though often described as merely a screen, the Hawa Mahal is in fact a structure built around two courtyards, but with a vast screen-like facade on the east, overlooking the street. The five storied pyramidal shaped monument built in red and pink sand stone to keep with the décor of the other monuments in the city is in the form of a Mukuta or crown, adorning Lord Krishna. Its façade depicts 953 niches with intricately carved Jharokhas (some are made of wood) is a stark contrast to the plain looking rear side of the structure.





Its cultural and architectural heritage is a true reflection of a fusion of Hindu Rajput architecture and the Islamic Mughal architecture; the Rajput style is seen in the form of domed canopies, fluted pillars, lotus and floral patterns, and the Islamic style is evident in its stone inlay filigree work and arches (as distinguished from its similarity with the Panch Mahal – the palace of winds – at Fatehpur Sikri).




One very interesting feature of Hawa Mahal is the fact that the elaborate and decorative element exists only on one side. There is a total lack of ornamentation on the inner face of the building. The chambers are plain and more a mass of pillars and passages leading to the top storey.



Entrance to Hawa Mahal is from the City Palace side, through a stately door. Façades of Jaipur and surroundings typically have gokhdas (sitting spaces) on either side of the entrance. Stylistically, the bangaldar (curvilinear) roof became prevalent in stone chhatris and chhajjas (sunshades) and was later used in other areas of Rajasthan too. Ganesha (opens gate to material success and is the spiritual guide), Shiva, Laxmi on moon (symbol of beauty), Vishnu and Kalki are etched on the chhatri.

The stately entrance door opens into a spacious courtyard. The courtyard has a double storeyed building on three sides. The royal family celebrated the colorful festival of Holi on Phalgun Purnima which comes in February end or early March in the courtyard.

There is a small archeological museum here. Only the eastern wing has three more storeys above, which are just a single room thick.




Pratap Mandir
Sawai Pratap Singh was barely 13 years when he ascended the throne.He had no knowledge of administration. He lived through troubled times. The kindom had spent 25 years placating the Maratha. The royal treasury had run dry. Jaipur was poor. He would retire to Pratap Mandir (situated at one end of the open courtyard) where he spent time composing poems in praise of his beloved Lord Govindaji. He would sing and dance praising his lord.



N.G. Rathod in his book "The Great Maratha Mahadaji Sindhia" describes Pratap as a fickle-minded transvestite who tied "jingling bells" [anklets]to his feet and danced in the dancing halls.


Bhojan Bhavan - Rare public Dining Hall
On the other side of the courtyard is the Royal Dining Hall. Among the many things popular about the Maharajas of Rajasthan are the dishes they savoured. The food was prepared to nourish people fighting wars and were away from their homes for long periods. It was required for the food to have long shelf lives. Also the desert climate has seen the evolution of recipes that call for minimum water and did not use great quantities of vegetables. The foods were cooked in accordance to what was available and that scarcity never changed the grandiose lifestyle of its people. Greater use of milk, butter milk and other milk products can be seen in Rajasthani cuisine.

Royal Dining Hall

Some of the widely renowned Rajasthani Cuisine are dal-bati, besan-chakki, churma, jhajariya, gevar, balusahi, tarfini, raabdi, bail-gatte, panchkoota, chaavadi, laapasi, nukhti, googri and dhungari hui chaach. In Rajasthan, dry fruits, yogurt and spices are used while cooking many dishes. Dal-Bati-Choorma, made of butter, cereals and sweetened bread pudding of Jaipur is considered a specialty. The royals often treated their guests to these Rajasthani delicacies in the Royal Dining Hall on the ground floor.



The second storey is known as Ratan Mandir because of the dazzling glasswork on its walls.



The third storey is called Vichitra Mandir, as no one knew what lay behind the closed doors. Some believe that the maharaja worshipped his deity Lord Krishna here.
The Jaipur royals were a formidable polo playing family. They kept special stables for polo ponies and their teams included among the very best in the world. Very often, the players were the rulers and members of their families, though their armies also encouraged the sport. In the zenanas, even the women of the royal family were encouraged to play polo and proved themselves adept at it. The royal family also played polo on elephant-backs. The queen and her maids watched the polo matches and archery matches from the fourth story known as Prakash Mandir. It has an open terrace on both sides.





The fifth storey is known as Hawa Mandir after which the whole structure came to be known as Hawa Mahal.










Beautiful Light patterns caused by colour glasses in the windows




Hawa Mahal's unique five-storey exterior is also akin to the honeycomb of the beehive with its 953 small windows called jharokhas that are decorated with intricate lattice work. The small windows circulated cooler air during the months of summer season. The original intention of the lattice was to allow royal ladies to observe everyday life in the street below without being seen, since they had to observe strict "purdah" (the practice of preventing women from being seen by men). Though no historical record is available to its exact history, it is conjectured that Royal family ladies, who were under strict observance of purdah , had to be given opportunity to witness proceedings in the market centre and watch the royal processions and festivities sitting behind the stone carved screens.

St. Mary's church - Cantonment Belgaum

Known as poor man's hill station, Belgaum has a pleasant weather that attracted the Europeans to establish a Cantonment in the year 1832. It is one of the 62 Cantonments in the country and the only Cantonment in the State of Karnataka. It provides the city with beautiful lung space and is a walkers' paradise. It comprises of main Cantonment and Fort area.




Of the several historical monuments in Cantonment, St. Mary's Church deserves a special mention. This Gothic church was designed by Reverend Francis Gell and built under the supervision of the then army garrison engineer. It is built of Gokak pink stones, Alnavar and Dandelt teak and mortar. It took five years to complete. It was consecrated on April 15, 1869 by the then Governor of the Bombay Precedence.



Features of Gothic architecture

The pointed arches allows a greater weight to be carried when compared to a Norman rounded arch. It is important to note that in addition to providing a greater flexibility to architectural form, the pointed arch also directed one's gaze to heaven.Due to the versatility of the pointed arch the structure of Gothic windows evolved from simple openings to immensely rich and decorative sculptural designs and the windows were later filled with stained glass which added a dimension of color to the available light in the building.

The buttresses allow the extra weight to be transferred to additional parts of the church. 'Flying buttresses' allow the outward pressure of the massive roofs to be resisted. The ability to cope with greater weights also allowed Gothic architects to use larger windows.


The teak and marble altar is towered by an exceptionally beautiful stained glass collage. The collage is 20 feet tall and 8 feet wide. The collage depicting the life of Lord Jesus from birth to resurrection in 12 frames was made in Italy. The sun filters through the stained glasses in the church during the morning service creating a breathtaking view. The main thrust of Gothic style is to make light all important. The pipe organ is as old as the church itself.




St Mary’s Church follows the Anglican form of worship. Prior to Independence, it was the Army Garrison Church of Belgaum, under the Army Station Commander, the Bishop of Bombay and the Archbishop of Canterbury, England. The head priest of the church was the Chaplain of Belgaum. Even today the locals refer to this church as the Church of England or High Church.

Chennamma's Kittur

The fort at Kittur spread over an area of about 23 acres was built by Allppa Gowda SarDesai the fifth ruler of Kittur dynasty during 1660-1691 A.D. The fort built with small stone available in plenty in the surrounding region was extensively damaged by Chaplin, the British Comissioner of Deccan region.



The palace in the Kittur fort popularly known as "Rani Chennamma's palace" was also constructed by Allappa Gowda SarDesai. The palace was constructed in the Peshwa-Islamic style. The palace was a three storied building consisting of several rooms. The various rooms in the palace can be classified as: Rest Rooms, Discussion Rooms, Pole Star Viewing Room, several kitchens, bath rooms etc. Copper pipes supplied water to the palace. The palace also had a secret well that reflects the social structure of the period.




The guest rooms, the Durbar hall, the Dining hall, the store rooms, the kitchen etc. provide a glimpse of the architectural marvel of the palace. Every room had two entrances. A well was constructed inside the palace and brass pipes were used for water supply. Stone containers and tanks were built to store water. The dining hall was designed to feed at least thousand persons at a time. The palace had an in-built swimming pool. Inside the palace, there are remnants of ornamental arches and decorated shelves.


There was a beautiful dwara mantapa in front of the palace. This measured 100ft broad and 300 ft long. This was decorated by tall and attractive pillars. In one of the rooms of the palace, in the midst of a wall, an iron pipe measuring 1.5 ft was in-built to enable one to view Pole-star from inside the room.




Kittur known as Geejaganahalli in the 12th C became the seat of power of Kittur kings between 1585 and 1824 A.D. The principality of Kittur was founded by the Shetty brothers - Hiremalla and Chikkamalla who hailed from Sagar area of Shimoga district. Adil Shahi, the king of Bijapur, in admiration of teh services and the heroic deeds of these brothers gifted Kittur in 1585 A.D. The Shetty brothers ruled this area with Sampagaon as their capital. Kittur was ruled by 12 kings in all.






King Mallasarja, the most famous of all the Kittur kings ruled this land between 1782 - 1816 A.D. Kittur attained great fame during his rule. Baji Rao Peshwa of Pune who was jealous of his achievements invited him to Pune on the pretext of extending his hand in friendship and kept him in prison for 3 years. Mallasarja's health deteriorated and he died in 1816. His first wife Rudramma turned towards spiritualism and his second wife Chennamma, an able administrator ruled the land after Mallasarja's death.





Though Chennamma's son Shivabasavaraja was older than Rudrasarja Chennamma coronated Rudrasarja as she had promised Rudramma that she would always treat her as her elder sister and her son would inherit the kingdom. She tied "Bhairavi kankaNa" to her son which meant that he had to pledge his life to save the king's life with his own if required. Rudramma's son Shivalinga Rudrasarja proved to be a very weak ruler. So Chennamma assumed to herself the reigns of Kittur. Shivalinga Rudrasarja died issuless on 12-10-1824. The British then started interfering in the administration of Kittur. Thackery, the Collector of Dharward, seized the treasury of Kittur. Chennamma provocated by this incident prepared to confront the collector. The brave soldiers of Kittur defeated Thackery and his men. Thackery was killed by Amatur Sadhunavar Balappa's bullet, a loyal bodyguard of Chennamma who was leading the battle. Since the battle preceeded the revolt of Jhansi Rani, Chennamma is popularly known as "the pole star of Indian Independence".



Chennamma realised that she could not fight the British army and on the advise of her guru initiated the peace treaty with the British. She also took good care of British officers Illiot and Stevens who were prisoners of war. She was also simultaneously preparing for the inevitable war with the British. British galvanised a huge army and attacked Kittur on 3rd December 1824. The battle that lasted for 3 days resulted in the defeat of the queen who was exiled at Bailhongal.




Kittur fort fell to the British on December 5, 1824. Rani Chennamma was captured and sent away to the jail in Bailhongal. Chaplin confiscated 16 lakh Rupees, ornaments worth 4 Lakhs and other valuables from the Kittur fort. He destroyed the palace and the fort to avenge the death of comissioner Munroe and other British officers. He sold the wooden doors and windows in the palace. He permitted the British soldiers to loot the palace and ransack it completely. He wanted to instill fear in the minds of other Indian rulers who dared to retaliate against the British rule.





The patriotic queen who dreamed of a free country breathed her last in 1829 while still in the British custody.