Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

Here is my entry for Dan at https://nofacilities.com who was hosting the Thursday Door Challenge. I maybe a little late though for the challenge.

Ever since I started taking part in the ‘Thursday doors,’ feature, I have actively sought out doors every time I visit a new place- an object I otherwise took no notice of except occasionally.

This week I’m sharing a picture of just one door because I believe this door deserves a post all to itself. This door called the ‘Mayur Dwaar’ or the Peacock door is from the late 1700s and belonged to the royal family of Mayurs from present day Orissa in India. How the door made its way to Madurai in the South of India where I saw it, from Orissa in the East of India, is a long story which I have shared below.

Apparently, when the royal family moved to a new palace they demolished the fort which they had occupied for 75 years to prevent its misuse by invaders. However, they took the door of the fort which is the ‘Mayur Dwaar’ along with them and stored it as a symbol of strength and heritage of the Mayur dynasty. With the unification of the Mayur and Bhanja dynasties through marriage, the door lost its prominence and found its way to an Armenian trader in Calcutta where it remained until 1945. In 1945 when the family of the Armenian trader moved to the United States of America, the ‘Mayur Dwaar’ and other antiques were kept in the care of their manager, a Mr. S.C. Bose. He sold the door to the present owners in Madurai under the consent of the Armenian family.

The door is elaborately carved and has the peacock motif on it, hence the name. The wood seems to be specially treated and has somehow withstood the ravages of time.

It currently stands in the lobby of the Heritage Hotel in Madurai and has been maintained as a showpiece which can only be seen and photographed but not touched. I saw it on my trip to Madurai during the Christmas holidays.

Note: Information in italics on the Mayur Dwaar has been taken from the net.

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