Primrose Prince Passes

Second most important native potentate in India (after the Nizam of Hyderabad) is the Maharaja of Mysore. He rules over a prosperous plateau State twice as big as Switzerland, with rich revenues from silk, gold, sandalwood and agriculture--of which the Maharaja himself gets $13,000,000 annually. Its high altitude gives Mysore the healthiest climate in India. A sober, hard-working ruler, the childless Maharaja early designated his brother Sir Sri Kanthirava Narasimharaja Wadiyar Bahadur to be Yuvaraja--heir apparent. Last fortnight the Yuvaraja, one of the most glamorous, eccentric figures in the East, was dead before the Maharaja.

Prince Wadiyar wore the primrose path bare. In his 51 years he made 19 trips to Europe, encumbered always with a troupe of male and female dancers, singers, musicians. Mysore cooks went everywhere with him to prepare lavish, condimented Indian dishes. The Yuvaraja'?, parties at London's Dorchester House hotel were famous. A passionate gadgeteer, Prince Wadiyar, clad in magenta turban and sky-blue tweed frock coat, would stand all night under arc lights and before a microphone, alternately crooning into it U. S. jazz hits, chatting through it with his guests, and barking orders at his servants, who carried small loudspeakers or wore earphones.

He drank himself into a legend. At his parties he scorned champagne for alternate sips of vodka and hot water. One morning at breakfast a friend offered him sugar and milk to put into a cup which he had just filled from a teapot. "What!" exclaimed the Yuvaraja, "in whiskey?"

In recent years--the heir apparency to Mysore having been passed on to his soberer 21-year-old son--Prince Wadiyar's greatest enthusiasm has been the cinema industry. While in England he would hang around Denham (the Korda Studios) all day, and return in the middle of the night to shout out of their beds watchmen, actors, directors. Prince Wadiyar's contribution to civilization: he discovered Sabu, the Elephant Boy.

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