Cursed royalty

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The fairtytale love story of Jetsun Pema, a young, pretty commoner swept off her feet by the dashing 31-year-old King of Bhutan who made her his queen, might tempt young girls into wishing for their own real life Prince Charming, but be

warned, marrying into royalty, even in today’s times, isn’t all a bed of roses — there are also some sharp thorns of curses, jinxes and misfortunes.
Along with fancy titles, great fortune and palaces, modern day princes and princesses have also inherited their family curse. From Mysore to Monaco, almost every royal family is dogged by its share of misfortune.
While Jetsun Pema and Kate Middelton appear to be fortunate, the same can’t be said about royal bride Princess Charlene of Monaco. The European press were convinced that she was being forced to marry Prince Albert and had tried to flee three times before the wedding. The couple stayed in separate hotels during the honeymoon.
According to legend, in the 13th century, Prince Rainier I kidnapped and raped a beautiful girl, who became a witch and cursed the prince’s family saying, “Never will a Grimaldi find true happiness in marriage.” So far, the witch’s words have proven true. Princess Grace, the American movie star, was said to be unhappily married to Prince Rainer III and it is alleged that both had affairs during their marriage which ended when she was tragically killed in a car crash.
Their elder daughter Princess Caroline’s first marriage ended in divorce, her second husband was killed in a motorboat accident, her third husband and she now lead separate lives. Caroline’s sister Princess Stephanie fell in love and married her bodyguard who cheated on her. Her affair with a circus trainer too was short-lived.
Some royals face the curse of not having children. “When you are a king, the most important thing is to have progeny to continue your dynasty. Many kings took wives just to get a heir. Since that was the most important thing for rulers, people would say, ‘You will not have an heir,’ as that would hurt the most. This happened with the Mysore royal family,” says Rai Sahiba Begum Scheherazade Javeri, former adviser to H.E.H. Prince Mukarram Jah, XIII Nizam of Hyderabad. She adds that items which rulers took as loot also brought ill-luck as their owners didn’t want to part with them.
Many curses were uttered by unhappy subjects upset with their rulers. Princess Archana Singh of Badnore explains, “In earlier times, punishments given to people were harsh, and kings were autocratic. An innocent man given an unjust punishment would curse the family and generations would suffer. I know about the Awagarh royal family that had the curse of madness hurled on it and many suffered due to it.”
Since it is impossible to please everyone, curses would have been part of the job as Princess Deepshika Singh Deo, who is married into Orissa’s royal family says, “In India and Nepal royal families historically were prone to getting cursed because of their role as protectors of their people. When rulers failed to meet expectations, ire was vented by way of a curse. Maybe if Marie Antoinette or the Russian tsars had been Indian royalty, they too would have been cursed instead of being executed.”
Ancient curses still seem to have the power to destroy people. T.P. Sundara Rajan, a retired police officer who went to court to have the vaults of the 16th Century Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala opened, died shortly after he won the case. Treasure worth billions was discovered in vaults that were opened, but the Travancore royals, the custodians of the Shree Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum, have not been tempted to lay any claim to the riches which were gifted to the temple by their ancestors.
Author, playwright and journalist Shreekumar Varma, great-grandson of Regent Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, the last ruling Maharani of Travancore, denies believing in any curse but says, “There are no such superstitious beliefs that have been carried down the generations; however, there are certain strong conventions and traditions that have been passed on over the centuries.”
From 1750, when Maharajah Marthanda Varma transferred all his powers to the deity of the famous temple, all male members of the family are considered slaves to Padmanabha — hence the title ‘Padmanabha Dasa’ is given to all kings, who are supposed to administer the state on behalf of the deity, Mr Shreekumar explains. The maharajah is supposed to visit the temple every morning, and mark his attendance there. And every male child of the Travancore family is placed at the ‘one-stone’ mandap at the temple as soon as he is born, and dedicated as a servant to the deity, explains the great-great-grandson of Rajah Ravi Varma.
Rubbishing stories of the curse and the ‘serpent omen’ reportedly engraved on the door of the unopened chamber, celebrated Mohiniattam danseuse Gopika Varma too stresses that all the wealth and gold belongs to the deity, and the royal family does not take anything from the temple. “There is the tradition that the maharajah wipes and dusts off his feet after visiting the temple, because he does not take even a grain of sand from the temple. It is not because of fear of a curse, it is simply a custom,” says Varma, who is married into the royal family. She lives in Chennai, with husband and son, in the Ramalayam Travancore Palace. Guess the Travancore royals are happy because they don’t mess with tradition and don’t do anything to annoy their deity.
Ladies, before you say yes to your Prince Charming, do a background check on the family first to check whether your life together will be curse-proof or not. And keep the curses at bay by following Muzaffar Ali of Kotwara’s footsteps as he says, “If you are motivated to do good things for people and help them, like we do by giving villagers livelihood, nothing can touch you. God will find a way to help you in all situations.”