Buffalo-demon city that officially became Mysuru
Mysore, officially Mysuru since November 2014, served as capital of the Kingdom of Mysore under the Wadiyar dynasty for almost six centuries. Set at about 770 metres beneath the Chamundi Hills in Karnataka, it takes its name from Mahishasura, a buffalo demon the goddess Chamundeshwari is said to have slain.
Chamundeshwari’s temple crowns Chamundi Hill, and the city’s old Kannada name, Mahiṣūru, means abode of Mahiṣa, the demon who in legend ruled this region. Karnataka announced the switch to the spelling Mysuru in December 2005; New Delhi approved it in October 2014, and the change took effect on 1 November alongside twelve other cities. Mysore lies some 140 kilometres southwest of Bangalore, and about 1.29 million people lived in the metropolitan area in 2023.
In the early sixteenth century the palace site was a village called Puragere, where Chamaraja Wodeyar III built a fort in 1524. The Wodeyar kingdom began as a vassal of the Vijayanagara Empire and peaked in the late eighteenth century under the de facto rulers Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, who planted mulberry for silk and fought four wars against the British, winning the first two and losing the last two. Tipu also tore down parts of the city to erase Wodeyar legacies.
Under direct British rule, the Great Famine of 1876 to 1878 killed nearly a fifth of the population. Power returned to Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar X in 1881, the municipality followed in 1888, and Mysore stayed a princely state until 1947. Its last king became governor of the new state and died in 1974. A television studio fire in 1989 killed 62 people.
The 2011 census counted about 920,550 residents, with literacy of nearly 87 per cent, above the state average. The Dasara festival draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and the city lends its name to Mysore painting, the sweet Mysore pak, sandalwood soap, silk saris, the peta turban and a local jasmine called Mysore mallige.
Source: Mysore
