Vinayaraj · File:Raja's Seat (Madikeri) (1).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raja%27s_Seat_(Madikeri)_(1).jpg
Raja’s Seat
A four-pillared brick pavilion on the western edge of Madikeri, built for the Kodagu kings to watch the sun go down over the valleys — and still what the town does in the evening.
The seat the kings kept
Raja’s Seat is a small brick-and-mortar pavilion — four pillars joined by arches — on the western edge of Madikeri, set in the Gandhi Mantap garden. The rajas of Kodagu, who ruled from about 1600 until 1834, used it as a retreat, and what they came for is what everyone still comes for: the ground drops away to the west into cliffs and valleys, and the sun sets straight down the line of it. All seven Kodagu itineraries finish the Madikeri day here, and they are right to. It is a local institution more than a viewpoint.
Explore Raja’s Seat on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
What is there
Less than you might expect, and that is rather the point.
The pavilion
- Brick and mortar, four pillars, connected by arches
- Used by the Kodagu rulers and their queens as a retreat
- Small — the structure is not the attraction, the aspect is
The view
- West over cliffs and valleys from the edge of the Madikeri ridge
- Layers of hill running away, with mist filling the valleys in the wet months
The garden
- Set within the Gandhi Mantap garden, laid out in beds and walks
- On 30 January a Sarvodaya Diwas procession brings an urn holding Gandhi’s ashes here
Getting there
In Madikeri itself, which makes it the easy end of a Kodagu day.
From Madikeri
- On the western edge of the town — a short drive or a walk from central Madikeri
- Roughly 270 km from Bangalore, which is the drive most itineraries arrive on
In the day
- Every Kodagu package puts it last, after the valley run to Bhagamandala and Talakaveri
- Timing the descent from Talakaveri to reach here before sunset is the day’s one real constraint
When to go
One hour of the day, and it is not a secret.
Sunset
- The aspect is due west; the last hour before sunset is the whole reason to come
- Arrive with time in hand rather than at the moment itself
Crowds and weather
- It is busy at sunset in every season — this is where the town goes
- In the monsoon months the valleys can be filled with cloud and there is no sunset at all
Worth knowing
Expectations, mostly.
What it is and is not
- A small pavilion in a public garden, not a monument you tour
- Forty-five minutes including the garden is plenty
Getting a place
- The edge fills first; arriving twenty minutes early is the difference between a view and a queue
- A clear sunset cannot be promised in any month — cloud closes it regularly
Close by
The rest of the Madikeri day.
Frequently asked
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