In the land of gushing waterfalls and coffee plantations, where green forests are framed by lavender tumble of hills, the authors stumble on a palace in Coorg that is shrouded in secrecy. They try to unravel the mystery of the royal retreat in this hauntingly beautiful corner of the country that has a way of throwing surprises to its visitors.
Nalknad Palace in Coorg (or Kodagu as it is now called) does not have the flagrant beauty that one associates with palaces in India. It is draped in an aura of secrecy and mystery, typical of a once-luxurious den of a king besieged by many enemies.
The palace snuggles amidst dense forest at the foot of Thadiandamool, the highest peak in this picturesque district in Karnataka. The red-tiled roof palace is speckled tellingly with escape routes, trap doors and eerie underground chambers prompting us to imagine that this is where tales of love, intrigue and betrayal may have unfolded. The interiors of this late 18th century seat of the kings of Coorg, are etched, even today, with faded murals of victory processions and the royal life, while carved teak pillars separate the various chambers.
A palace shrouded in mystery
Indeed, the palace holds secrets that it seemed unwilling to share with stray wayfarers like us till a self-appointed guide offered to show us around and related a potted history of the palace. Here, exclaimed our garrulous guide pointing to an ornate pavilion, King Doda Veerarajendra married his beloved second wife. The pavilion still stands on the grounds. When she died years later, the king, it is said, could not handle life without his better half and succumbed to insanity. And heartbreak and tragedy shadowed the royals again when the last king of Coorg, Chikka Veerarajendra who resided at Nalknad Palace, was forced to abdicate by his colonial masters in 1834 and exiled to Varanasi.
After a few treacherous twists and turns of cruel fate, the last king of Coorg sailed to England with his beautiful 11-year-old daughter Gowramma in 1852 to claim and recover his lost wealth which had been spirited away by the colonisers. There, Queen Victoria, enchanted by the ravishing little princess with her air of fragility, decided to have her baptized and took her under her wing as her godchild. She called her Victoria Gowramma. The monarch tried to play cupid between Victoria Gowramma and another deposed, exiled prince, the handsome Maharaja Duleep Singh. But the lack of chemistry between the two put paid to the monarch’s plans and Victoria Gowramma chose instead to marry a much older Colonel John Campbell. Tragically, she died when she was just 23 years old under mysterious circumstances. On her death, it is said that the Coorg jewels too vanished into thin air.
We had stumbled on this royal retreat on our third visit to Coorg, in south-west Karnataka, known as much for the aroma of its coffee as the good looks and valour of the local Kodavas. In Coorg, green forests are framed by a lavender tumble of hills and the nature-scape is enhanced by the sacred Kaveri river which meanders across the district’s lush landscapes, playing hide and seek like a mischievous maiden. Waterfalls gush, and coffee plantations spray a delicate fragrance into the crisp air.
As we drove back to our resort, Tamara Coorg, 10 km from the palace and located in the village of Yevakapadi, thoughts about the palace, haunted by memories of colonial skulduggery, melted away as the beauty of Coorg filled our senses. In the seemingly endless green depths of the forest, tall bamboo stands and silver oaks rose like pagan totem poles; and, below the silver oaks, lovingly tended coffee and spice plantations flourished in a haze of green. And, occasionally, we glimpsed the sprightly jade-green, fish-speckled Kaveri river.
Medicine man and his oracle wife
Coorg has a way of springing surprises on a visitor. On an earlier visit to this charmed corner of our country, we had met a local witch doctor and chieftain of the Janu Kurubas tribe. We were on a forest walk in the Dubare Forest and were introduced to the medicine man and his oracle wife by our guide Ganesh who worked with the luxe Evolve Back resort, Siddapur, Coorg (known in its earlier avatar as Orange County). The Evolve Back resort is cocooned in a 300-acre plantation, bounded by River Kaveri and the Dubare Forest Reserve. Ganesh acted as an interpreter and told us how the witch doctor’s concoction — an assortment of chicken legs, a tarantula, tortoise eggs and a scorpion — which when powdered and given judiciously could cure diseases as varied as an upset stomach, paralysis and post-delivery complications.
The tribal chieftain and his soothsayer wife were a highly respected duo at the time, and when his wife would be possessed with supernatural powers on certain days of the week, she drew believers from places as far away as Mysore who come in search of answers to perplexing problems. The thatched roof, mud and bamboo hut of the family was clean and included a bedroom where the entire family slept, an area for storing grain, a kitchen and another open-sided hut which was the temple. Basically animistic, the simple tribals had built their temple around a termite hill which was daubed red and decorated with bougainvillea and May flowers, coconuts and other offerings.
The village huddled in a grove of trees where nearby buffaloes grazed and ambled peacefully, bamboo bells tinkling… Beyond unfurled manicured fields tilled by several families on land given by the government. In the meantime, the pregnant lady of the house had brewed a mix of local Robusta and Arabica coffee for us on a wood fire. As we sipped the coffee, we pondered that the family must be living on the edge, in what seemed to be, to our urban eyes, a penurious existence. Yet the faces that surrounded us were happy and suffused with contentment.
After gulping down the delicious black coffee, we bid goodbye and walked back through the Dubare Forest Reserve to Evolve Back resort, three kilometres away. The forest is connected with Nagarahole and Waynad in Kerala and there, elephant, bison, sambar and leopard roam. We walked into the tangled, mysterious green of the jungle where 45 ft tall stands of bamboo spooked the blue sky above to form a protective green awning. Knuckled roots and fallen trees jutted out from under feathery stands of bamboo like gnarled ancient fists and a fugitive earthy fragrance hung in the air. The thick-trunk mathi trees stood tall, seeming to challenge elephants to test their power and strength against their formidable girth. (The mathi tree has medicinal value and is so strong, it can’t be toppled even by the mightiest of pachyderms.)
Revelling with the gentle beasts
Occasionally, wild flowers bloomed in colourful bouquets in the silent forest which resonated with bird calls and the crunch of dry leaves underfoot. Back at our resort, we zoned out and did nothing. The next morning, we awoke to an achingly blue sky and to life that had wound down to the slowest tempo. More rustic pleasures awaited us.
We decided to check out the Elephant Camp at Nisargadhama, 35 km away, where we came upon elephants who were revelling in their morning bath under the shade of gulmohur trees painted orange-red with brilliant blooms. We joined the mahouts in the rub down of these enormous, yet gentle beasts in the flowing Kaveri river which the locals worship. (The Kaveri is an angler’s haven too, for it is home to the mighty hard-to-catch mahseer which weighs 120 lbs.)
The drive back over twisting country roads and past slumbering green plantations that glistened with golden sunlight was enchanting. We took a small detour to visit Bylakuppe, the second largest Tibetan settlement outside Tibet, complete with a monastery, a village and a flea market. The aura of the village was very Buddhist: monks in dark orange robes spinning prayer wheels and colourful pagoda- roofed monasteries.
Coorg is a hauntingly beautiful corner of the country, we discovered, as beautiful as the people who live here. For when we met a few locals on one of our ambles, their patrician profiles and proud bearing reminded us of an oft-told legend. The Kodavas are said to be the descendants of Alexander the Great’s army, some of whom disillusioned with warfare travelled beyond the Vindhyas and settled in idyllic Coorg.
Gustasp and Jeroo Irani are travel companions for whom life is a never-ending journey. Over the last 25 years they have travelled extensively across India and the globe, taking the rough with the smooth; sampling different cultures and cuisines. In the process they have trekked in the Australian Outback, slurped snake soup in HongKong, have danced with the Samburus in Africa, stayed with a local family in a Malay village, cracked the Da Vinci Code in Paris… For them, writing and photography are more than just freezing moments of that journey; it’s a passion.