The Sources

Today if an enthusiast who wants to know more about the history of Mysore were to go on a quest, where does he/she get the sources to reconstruct this saga? Sadly there isnt one authoritative piece that can be referred to, but it is almost a jigsaw puzzle that needs to be put together from a myriad disconnected sources.

Perhaps the earliest attempt that was ever made to chronicle the history of Mysore and its kings was by Lt Col. Mark Wilks (1760–1831), the British Resident at the Court of Mysore, 1803–08. Rather strange isnt it that for a chronicle about our kings, we more often than not tend to rely on foreign sources and historians---so much for indigenous research and documentation!


Wilks' work, Historical Sketches of the South of India in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, was published in 1810 and has been quoted as an authority on the subject. But Wilks was operating in an India that was completely unaware of techniques of historical documentation. It was either court eulogizers or biased writers who had the onerous job of preserving the past. A lot of Wilks’ efforts are based on local sources, memoirs and translations. Like the predicament that faces historians today, the paucity of information till about the time of Haidar Ali (c. 1750s), plagued Wilks too. But it was his account that gave historians a faint idea of the times bygone.

Apart from a myriad myths and legends of the royal family, a number of inscriptions—lithic and copper plate—from Mysore, Hassan, Tumkur, Bangalore, Salem and Coimbatore have been compiled in the Epigraphica Carnatica, Mysore Archaeological Report, Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, The Mackenzie Collection and The Madras Epigraphists’ Report. These are in Kannada and Sanskrit and date from the 16th to the mid-18th century. They simply document which king gave what gifts and grants to which temple or individuals. This helps to construct some of the events associated with a particular king.

Literary works have always mirrored society and the political situation of the times, and therefore are one option. In the case of the history of Mysore, the 17th and 18th century works in Kannada and Sanskrit mirror some of the events, but to a limited extent. Many of these are not published works and are still maintained as palm-leaf manuscripts in libraries in Mysore and Madras. But the thrust here seems to be more on religion, philosophy, poetry and literary value of the work rather than a serious and well thought-out process of documenting events and people. Some of them do deal with specific kings of the royal family like the Kanthirava Narasaraja Vijayam (c.1648) of Govinda Vaidya, Chikkadevaraja Vamshavali (c.1678–80), Chikkadevaraja Vijayam (c.1682–86), and Apratimavira Charitram (c.1695-1700) of Tirumalaraya, Soundaryakavya (c.1740) of Nuronda and so on.

Coins of the time, especially those of Ranadhira Kanthirava Narasaraja Wodeyar and Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar (1673–1704), throw some light on the general state of the economy, political evolution, religion of the king’s family and so on. But they also have their limitations. While a number of travelogues, chronicles and letters have been found—La Mission Du Madure (1659–86), Travels of the Jesuits (1743) of John Lockman, Dr John Fryer’s Travels in India (1676–1680), Niccolo Manucci’s Storio Do Mogor (1683–1708) to name a few—these are to be taken with a pinch of salt as they are the jottings of the Jesuit missionaries. They had their specific agendas and biases, were usually misinformed and tended to exaggerate.

Much later in time, secondary sources were added. These are: Mysuru Doregala Poorvabhyudaya Vivara (1710–14), Mysuru Nagarada Poorvottara (c.1734–40), Mysuru DoregaLa Vamshavali (c.1800), Mysuru Rajara Charitre (c.1800) by Venkataramanayya, Kaifiyats (c.1800–04), Keladi Nripa Vijayam (c.1800), Linganna Kavi’s Halegannada Chhampu (c.1830), Devachandra’s Rajavali Kathe (1838) and of course, the Palace-commissioned work, The Annals of the Mysore Royal Family, or Srimanmaharajaravara Vamshavali (1864–65).

It is in the light of this paucity and confusion that Wilks’ maiden effort becomes so appreciable an attempt. Also, in the wake of the uncertainty of the available sources, one tends to turn to the fables and legends for succour. The flavour of freshness they have and the fact of transfer by word of mouth from the time of the happening of the event (of course, discounting the distilling over the generations) makes them a tempting foundation to build our story on. But one must be incisive enough to know where to draw the line and what to take at pure face value.

Ajji certainly opened the windows of my mind to this vast plethora of sources....she almost pushed her unsuspecting grandson into the deep waters and stood there, guiding him to swim along....That he swam and not sank, is just one part of the story!