Devaraja Market in Mysore

Devaraja market is one of the best and oldest markets in the heritage city Mysore which was built during the rule of Chamaraja Wodeyar IX with the Indo-Muslim architectural style. It is the right place if you want to get the local flavor of everyday Mysore life. With 100 years of existential history, this market is a good example of a South Indian bazaar. The environment here is noisy, vibrant, a bit chaotic, yet colorful at the same time. The market is oriented along the Sayyaji Rao Road. North entrance faces the Dufferin Clock Tower (recent news is that this entrance is demolished to upgrade it) and the South entrance is on Dhanvantri Road (just behind the Bata showroom).

Of course there are many smaller entrances along the length of the market. The ideal way is to enter the market from one of the two main entrances, so that one can walk through the full length of the market and come out through the other end. The spectacle starts outside where flowers and fruit are sold. There are about 800 traders in the market at a time and they are well organised into rows. The Northern side of the market is by and large filled with stalls selling fruits, mostly bananas. The Southern part is for selling vegetables. There is a section in the middle where one can find rows for local flowers. On top of it, one can find a generous mix of incense shops, shops selling traditional household tools, betel vine, banana leaves, seeds and even some souvenir stalls.

There is no concept of cold storage here. Everything here is raw, straight from the farm to the market, then to the homes / hotels etc. Retail rates vary every day, and sometimes even during the day. It seems the 'discount' starts by the closing hours, with the intention of disposing of all the day's stock. Business continues for many hours well after sunset. Prices shoot up dramatically during the festive seasons, especially for flowers and fruits, that is in high demand during the period. Mornings and evenings are peak business hours that the visitors can enjoy the liveliness of the markets. For peaceful, afternoons are advised, where the market is dull with busy mornings. So are the weekends and the days preceding the festivals.