Mysore , India

Mysore
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?Mysore
Mysuru
Karnataka • India

Mysore Palace
Mysuru
Coordinates: 12°17′23″N 76°38′46″E / 12.2897, 76.6461
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
Area
• Elevation 129 km² (50 sq mi)
• 763 m (2,503 ft)
District(s) Mysore District
Population
• Density 1,038,490 (2001)
• 385.4/km² (998/sq mi)
Mayor Bharathi
Codes
• Pincode
• Telephone
• Vehicle
• 570 0xx
• +0821
• KA-09
Coordinates: 12°17′23″N 76°38′46″E / 12.2897, 76.6461
For other uses, see Mysore (disambiguation).
Mysore (officially Mysuru) (Kannada: ಮೈಸೂರು pronunciation (help·info)) is one of the largest cities in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of the Mysore district and the Mysore division. It lies about 140 km south-west of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. The city is spread across an area of 129 km2 and lies at the base of the Chamundi Hills.

The name Mysore is an anglicised version of Mahishūru, which means the abode of Mahisha. Mahisha stands for Mahishasura who was a demon in the Hindu mythology. According to this myth, Mahishasura was the ruler of the region around Mysore and he was killed by the Goddess Chamundeshwari. This earned her the title Mahishasura Mardhini (Slayer of Mahisha) and a temple dedicated to her is present atop the Chamundi Hills.

Till 1947, Mysore was the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore which was ruled by the Wodeyar royal family, except for a brief period of rule by Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. The Wodeyars were patrons of art and culture and have contributed significantly to the cultural growth of the city, which has led to Mysore earning the sobriquet of the Cultural capital of Karnataka. Mysore is famous for the festivities that take place during the dasara festival and receives a large number of tourists during this period. Mysore also lends its name to the Mysore style of painting, the sweet dish, Mysore Pak and the garment, Mysore silk saree.

While tourism is the major industry in Mysore, the last few years have seen a significant growth in the information technology related industry here, making it the second largest software exporter in the state of Karnataka, next to Bangalore. Though lacking an airport, Mysore is connected to other parts of India by railways and road transport. Mysore is also the location of the Mysore University whose alumnus include Kuvempu, Gopalakrishna Adiga and U. R. Ananthamurthy. The All India Radio, the premier radio broadcasting arm of the Government of India had its beginnings here.




Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Geography
3 Civic Administration
4 Demographics
5 Business and Economy
6 Education
7 Art and culture
8 Transport
9 Media
10 Sports
11 Tourism
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links



[edit] History
Further information: Kingdom of Mysore

Statue of the demon Mahishasura atop the Chamundi HillsThe history of Mysore is closely linked to the history of the Kingdom of Mysore. References from the times of the Mahabharata and Asoka mention Mahisha Nadu or Mahisha Mandala. In the context of Mysore's original name, this relates to the legend of Mahishasura, who could interchange his physical form between human and buffalo at will.

The earliest documented evidence of Mysore are available in the form of stone inscriptions, known as Saasanas. The earliest of these are dated around 1021 CE, and were discovered in villages surrounding Mysore.

From 1499, inscriptions consistently refer to Mahisūru as the original name of Mysore. During the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire, the Mysore kingdom served as a feudatory. With the demise of the Vijayanagar Empire in 1565 CE, the Mysore kingdom declared itself independent.

Mysore was the center of the Wodeyar administration till 1610 CE. Thereafter, the Wodeyars acquired Srirangapatnam and made it the center of administration. After Tipu Sultan died in the fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799, Srirangapatna became the capital of the Mysore kingdom. [1].

The administrative center was shifted to Bangalore in 1831, when the British moved their garrison from Srirangapatnam (on the outskirts of Mysore) to the Bangalore Cantonment. Mysore again became the capital of the kingdom in 1881 when the British handed over power to the Wodeyars. Most present day historical landmarks, and the organisation of the city of Mysore, were inspirations of the Wodeyar kings and their Dewans. Plans for organised development of the city exist from as far back as 1904. The period between 1910-1945 is considered the most important in the modernization of the kingdom. Several important infrastructure and development projects were implemented during this period. These include a steel mill, railway system, banking, and a network of irrigation canals. Art and culture flourished under royal patronage, and the educational system was revamped.


The Mysore palaceMysore is called the City of Palaces as a result of the number of palaces situated in the city, including Amba Vilas (Main Mysore Palace), Jaganmohana Palace (now been converted into an art gallery), Rajendra Vilas (the summer palace, situated on Chamundi Hills), Lalitha Mahal (now been converted into a Hotel) and Jayalakshmi Vilas (now on the University of Mysore premises). The main palace of Mysore was burnt down in 1897, and the present day structure was built on the same site. The palace exhibits a mixture of Dravidian, Indo-Saracenic, Roman and Oriental architectural styles. Even though the Government of Karnataka now maintains the Mysore palace, a small portion of the palace has been allocated for the erstwhile Royal family to live in. The Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion was constructed by Sri Chamaraja Wodeyar for his daughter Jayalakshammanni. It is now a museum dedicated to folk culture. A new gallery is being added for artefacts and collections of the Wodeyars of Mysore.


[edit] Geography

Chamundi Hills; at the base of which the city of Mysore is situatedMysore is positioned at 12.30° N 76.65° E and has an average altitude of 770 m.[2] It lies in the southern region of the state of Karnataka. The city lies at the base of the Chamundi Hill and is spread across an area of 128.42 km².[3] The summer season from March-June is followed by the monsoon season from July-November and the winter season from December-February.[2] The highest temperature recorded in Mysore was 38.5°C on May 4, 2006[4] and in winters, temperature as low as 11°C has been recorded.[5] The average annual rainfall received by the city is 798.2 mm.[3]. Though Mysore falls in the relatively safe seismic zone II[6], earthquakes of the magnitude greater than 4.5 have been recorded in the vicinity of the city.[7]



Kukkarahalli lake, MysoreMysore also has a number of lakes, prominent among which are Kukkarahalli Lake, Karanji Lake and Lingambudhi Lake. As of 2001, 39.9% of the total land in the city was comprised of residences, 16.1% of land was made up of roads, 13.48% of land was made up of industries, 2.27% of land was used for agriculture and 2.02% of land was made up of water bodies.[8]


Mysore lies in the region between the rivers Kaveri and Kabini which are also a source of drinking water to the city.[8] The city got its first piped water supply when the Belagola project was commissioned in 1896.[9] Currently, water is supplied to Mysore in the volume of 42.5 million gallons per day from three projects, namely, Hongally (III Stages), Belagola and Melapur. The water supply reaches 85% of the households in Mysore. However, Mysore sometimes faces water crises, mainly during the months of summer and in years of deficient rainfall.[10] The city has an underground drainage system since the year 1904. The entire sewage from the city drains into four valleys, namely, Kesare, Malalavadi tank, Dalavai tank and Belavatha.


[edit] Civic Administration

Office of the Chamundeshwari Electrical Supply Corporation in MysoreThe civic administration of the city is managed by the Mysore City Corporation which was earlier established as a municipality in 1888 and later converted into a corporation in 1977. It looks after the engineering works, health and sanitation, water supply, administration and taxation in the city. It is headed by a Mayor who is assisted by Commissioners and council members.[8] The city is divided into 65 wards and the council members (also known as corporators) are elected by the citizens of Mysore in elections held in these wards once every five years.[11] The council members in turn elect the mayor. The annual budget of the Corporation for the year 2007-08 is Rs. 11443.89 lakh ($ 28.6 million).[12]

The growth and expansion of the city is managed by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) which is headed by a commissioner and its activities include developing new layouts and roads, town planning and land acquisition.[13] One of the important projects undertaken by MUDA is the creation of an Outer Ring Road in Mysore which is expected to ease traffic congestion in Mysore.[14] In recent years, MUDA has faced criticism from citizens of Mysore for its inability to ensure that sites are allotted to domicile residents of the city.[15] The electrical supply to the city is managed by the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation.[8]

The citizens of Mysore elect four representatives to the Legislative assembly of Karnataka through the constituencies of Chamaraja, Krishnaraja, Narasimharaja and Chamundeshwari.[16] Mysore city, being a part of the larger Mysore Lok Sabha constituency, also elects one member to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The politics in the city is dominated by three political parties, Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS).[16]


[edit] Demographics
According to the census of 2001, Mysore city had a total population of 799,228 with 406,363 males and 392,865 females.[17] The sex ratio of the city is 967 females to every 1000 males and the population density is 6223.55 persons per km². The city's population crossed the 100,000 mark in the census of 1931. The city has seen a population growth of 20.5% in the decade 1991-2001. The literacy rate of the city is 82.8% which is much higher than the state's average of 67%.[8] Hindus make up the majority of the population and Kannada is the dominant spoken language in the city. 19% of the population in Mysore live below the poverty line and 8.95% of the population live in slums. The residents of the city are known as Mysoreans in English and Mysoorinavaru in Kannada. The ongoing dispute between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of the Kaveri river water, has frequent repercussions in the city leading to minor altercations and demonstrations.[18] The recent growth in the Information Technology industry in Mysore has led to a change in the demographic profile of the city and has been a cause of concern for some citizens of Mysore.[19]


[edit] Business and Economy

Campus of the Infosys at MysoreIn the past few centuries, Mysore has been the home of traditional industries like Mysore weaving, sandalwood carving, bronzework and the production of lime and salt.[20] The planned industrial growth of the city and the state was first envisaged in the Mysore economic conference, held in 1911.[21] [20] This led to the establishment of few big industries in Mysore city like the Mysore Sandalwood Oil Factory in 1917[22] and the Sri Krishnarajendra Mills in 1920.[23]

In a survey conducted in 2001 by Business Today, the business-arm of India Today, Mysore was ranked as the 5th best city in India to conduct business.[24] In recent years, Mysore has emerged as the hub of the tourism industry in Karnataka, attracting about 2.5 million tourists in the year 2006.[25] Mysore is also termed as the yoga capital and attracts many health tourists, mainly from outside of India.[26]

For the industrial development of the city, Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has established four industrial areas in and around Mysore. These are located at Belagola, Belawadi, Hebbal (Electronic City) and Hootagalli.[27]. Some of the major industries located in Mysore are BEML, J. K. Tyres, Wipro, Falcon Tyres, L & T and Infosys.[18]

The information technology related companies are also slowly creating bases in Mysore, with the city contributing Rs. 760 crores to Karnataka's Rs. 48,700 crore IT exports in the year 2006-2007.[28] Infosys has established one of the largest technical training centres in the world [29] and Wipro has established its Global Service Management Center (GSMC) at Mysore.[30]

The industrial sector in the city experienced some set-backs when the automobile manufacturer Ideal Jawa and the Sri Krishnarajendra Mills closed their operations in Mysore.[31] Some revival efforts, like the takeover of the Krishnarajendra Mills by the Atlantic Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd., have been made, but these have run into other problems.[32]


[edit] Education

Crawford Hall, the administrative headquarters of the Mysore UniversityBefore the advent of the kindergarten system of education in Mysore, agraharas, which imparted the Vedic system of education, and madrasas served as centres of learning.[33] The modern education saw its beginning in Mysore when a free English school was established here in 1833.[34] In 1854, the East India Company promulgated the Halifax Dispatch which looked at organising the education based on he western model, within the Mysore state.[35] The first college to be set up for higher education in Mysore was the Maharaja's College which was founded at Mysore in 1864.[34] In 1868, the Mysore state decided to establish hobli schools to extend education to the masses.[36] Under this scheme, a school was established in each hobli (a locality within the city) and the education was free. This also lead to the establishment of a Normal school in Mysore which imparted coaching to teachers who were supposed to teach in the hobli schools. In 1881, a high school exculsively for girls was established and this was later converted into the Maharani's Women's College.[37] In 1892, the Industrial School, which was the first institute to impart technical education in the city was started and this was followed by the Chamarajendra Technical Institute in 1913.[38] While the modern system of education was making inroads into the Mysore city, some colleges like the Mysore Sanskrit college which was established in 1876 continued to impart Vedic education.[39]

The education in Mysore received further impetus when the Mysore University was established in 1916.[40] This was the sixth university to be established in the whole of India.[40] It was given the name of Manasagangotri (fountainhead of the Ganges of the mind), by the poet laureate, Kuvempu. The university currently caters to the districts of Mysore, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar in Karnataka. Around 127 colleges (having a total student population of 53000) are affiliated to the university.

Education in the field of engineering was started in Mysore with the establishment of the National Institute of Engineering in 1946; a college whose alumni includes N R Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys.[41] Currently, the city has five engineering colleges, including the GSSS Institute of Technology and Engineering for Women, which is the only women's engineering college in the state of Karnataka.[42] Medical education started in the city when the Mysore Medical College was transferred from Bangalore to Mysore in 1930. Apart from this college, the Mysore city also has the privately-owned, J.S.S Medical College. Mysore city also hosts premiere Research Institutes like Central Food Technological Research Institutute [C.F.T.R.I], Regional Institute of Education [R.I.E] both run schools namely C.F.T.R.I School and Demonstration Multipurpose School respectively. There are other research institutes like Defence Food and Research Institute [D.F.R.L] and All India Institute of Speech and Hearing [A.I.I.S.H] which nurtures researchers and talents in the area of speech and hearing. Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering [S.J.C.E] run by J.S.S. Mahavidhyapeetha is one of the premiere technological institutes in the country.


[edit] Art and culture
Main article: Culture of Mysore

Mysore style of painting depicting the Hindu God, GaneshaMysore, also known as the cultural capital of Karnataka,[43] is well known for the festivities that take place during the period of dasara, the state festival of Karnataka. The dasara festivities, which go on for 10 days, were first started by the king Raja Wodeyar I (1578-1617 CE) in the year 1610[44]. On the ninth day of dasara, called Mahanavami, the royal sword is worshipped and is taken on a procession with elephants, camels and horses[45]. On the tenth day, called Vijayadashami, the traditional dasara procession (locally known as Jumboo Savari) is held on the streets of Mysore city. An idol of the Goddess Chamundeshwari is placed on a golden mantapa on the top of a decorated elephant and taken around in the procession, accompanied by tableaux, dance groups, music bands, decorated elephants, horses and camels. The procession starts from the Mysore Palace and culminates at a place called Bannimantap where the banni tree (Prosopis spicigera) is worshipped. [45]. The dasara festivities culminate on the night of Vijayadashami with a torch-light parade (locally known as Panjina Kavayatthu)

The Mysore painting form is an offshoot of the Vijayanagar school of painting. The king, Raja Wodeyar (1578-1617 CE) is credited to have been the patron for this style of painting[46]. The distinctive feature of these paintings is the gesso work in which gold foils are pasted on appropriate regions on the paintings. [46]. Mysore is also the location of the International Ganjifa Research Centre which is involved in the research of Ganjifa, the ancient card game and the artwork associated with it.[47]


The Kalamandira auditorium in Mysore hosts many performances by RangayanaMysore is famous for rosewood inlay work, with an estimated 4000 craftsmen in Mysore involved in this activity.[48] Mysore also lends its name to the Mysore silk saree, a ladies' garment, made with pure silk and gold zari [49]

Mysore also has institutes like the Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts (CAVA) which offers education in visual art forms like painting, graphics, sculpture, applied art, photography and photojournalism and history of art[50] and the theatre repertory Rangayana, which holds plays and offers certificate courses on subjects related to theatre [51]

Famous Kannada literateurs; Kuvempu, Gopalakrishna Adiga and U. R. Ananthamurthy have had a long association with Mysore, because they completed their education, and also served as professors, at the Mysore University.[52] The famous English novelist and creator of Malgudi, R. K. Narayan and his cartoonist brother, R. K. Laxman spent a large part of their life at Mysore.[52]


[edit] Transport
Mysore does not have a functional airport. The nearest airport to the city is the HAL Airport at Bangalore. The Mandakalli airport, near the city is being upgraded by the Airports Authority of India and is expected to be operational by the year 2009.[53] The absence of an airport has been a hindrance to the economic growth of Mysore.[54]


Inside the Mysore railway stationMysore city has a railway station and three different railway lines connect it to the cities of Bangalore, Hassan and Chamarajanagar. The first railway line established in the city was the Bangalore-Mysore metre gauge line which was commissioned in 1882.[55] However, all railway lines that serve the city are single track ones which impede faster connectivity to the city. Though there are plans to double atleast the Bangalore-Mysore track, the project work is yet to get completed.[56]. All trains that connect Mysore are operated by Indian Railways and the fastest train to serve the city is the Shatabdi Express which connects it to Bangalore and Chennai.

Mysore is connected by a National Highway (NH-212) which connects it to the state border town of Gundlupet and then forks into two different roads going into the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.[57] State highway 17, which connects Mysore to Bangalore is a road with heavy traffic density and it was recently upgraded to a four-lane highway which has reduced the travel time between the two cities.[58] A project was planned in 1994 to construct a new expressway to connect the cities of Bangalore and Mysore. But this has run into numerous legal hurdles and the work is yet to get started.[59] Other important roads are the state highways 33 and 88 which connect Mysore to H D Kote and Madikeri respectively.[60]

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and other private agencies operate buses between Mysore and other places. Buses also offer a cheap and popular means of transport for travel within the Mysore city. Auto-rickshaws are also available for intra-city travel. In the past decades, tongas which were popular in Mysore, have almost perished due to the onslaught of faster means of transport.[61]


[edit] Media

Star of Mysore, a local newspaper published in MysoreNewspaper publishing in Mysore started in the year 1859 when Bhashyam Bhashyacharya began publishing a weekly newspaper in Kannada, called the Mysooru Vrittanta Bodhini.[62] This was followed by other weekly newspapers like Karnataka Prakashika (1865), Mysore Gazette (1866) and Vrittanta Patrike (1887).[62] One of the well known publishers in Mysore during the Wodeyar rule was M Venkatakrishnaiya, who is also called as the father of Kannada journalism. He started a number of news magazines like Sampadabhyudaya, Vidyaadaayini, Mysore Patriot and Saadhvi.[63] Currently, some of the popular newspapers which have Mysore editions include Times of India and Deccan Herald in English and Prajavani and Vijaya Karnataka in Kannada. Star of Mysore, Andolana and Mysooru Mithra are some of the local newspapers published in Mysore which contain news mostly related to the Mysore city and its surroundings.[64]

Mysore was the location of the first private radio broadcasting station in India when Akashvani (meaning voice from the sky) was setup in the city on September 10, 1935. The radio station was setup by M.V. Gopalaswamy, a professor of psychology at his house in the Vontikoppal area of the Mysore using a 50-watt transmitter.[65][66] The station was taken over by the Mysore state in 1941 and was moved to Bangalore in 1955. In 1957, the name Akashvani was chosen as the official name of the All India Radio (AIR), which is the radio broadcaster of the Government of India. The AIR station at Mysore broadcasts an FM radio channel at 100.6 MHz.[67] BIG 92.7 became the first private FM channel to broadcast in Mysore when it started operations on November 1, 2007.[68]

Mysore city started receiving television broadcasts in the early 1980s when Doordarshan started beaming its national channel, all over India. This was the only channel available for Mysoreans till Star TV started beaming satellite channels in 1991. Direct to Home channels are now available in Mysore.[69]


[edit] Sports

Race Club from Chamundi HillsThe Wodeyar kings of Mysore were patrons of various games and sports; prominent among which was traditional wrestling, which has a history dating back to the 16th century.[70] Even now, the wrestling competition held in Mysore during the dasara celebrations, attracts wrestlers from all over India. Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, the king of Mysore had a passion for indoor games and he invented many board games and popularised the Ganjifa card games.[71]

In 1997, the city played host to its biggest sports event ever, the National Games of India. Mysore, which hosted the games along with Bangalore, was the venue for six events - archery, gymnastics, equestrian, handball, table tennis and wrestling.[72] An annual sports event incorporating various disciplines is organised in Mysore during the dasara season.[73]

Cricket is by far the most popular sport in Mysore.[74] The city has four proper cricket grounds, but is yet to host an international cricket match.[75] Javagal Srinath, who has played in many matches for India, is the most famous cricketer to emerge out of Mysore.[76]

Other prominent sports persons from the city include Prahlad Srinath, who has represented India in Davis Cup tennis tournaments;[77] Reeth Abraham, who was an Indian national champion in heptathlon and a long jump record holder;[78] and Rahul Ganapathy, a national amateur golf champion.[79]

Mysore also has the Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Golf club which was established in 1906 and offers an 18-hole golf-course.[80] This golf course is laid around the Mysore race course, which holds the popular Mysore racing season from Aug-Oct every year.[81] Mysore is also the birth place of the youth hostel movement in India with the first youth hostel in India being formed in the Maharaja's College Hostel in 1949.[82]


[edit] Tourism

The St. Philomena's Church in MysoreMysore receives a good share of tourists because of its cultural heritage. The maximum influx of tourists is during the Dasara festival. Some of the well-known palaces in Mysore are the Ambavilas Palace (also known as Mysore Palace), Jaganmohana Palace, Rajendra Vilas, Jayalakshmi Vilas and Lalitha Mahal which have been constructed by the Wodeyars. Another popular tourist destination is the Chamundi Hill which has a Hindu temple of Goddess Chamundeshwari at its top. Other religious locations in Mysore include the Ganapathi Sachidananda Ashram and the St. Philomena's Church. The Krishna Raja Sagara dam across the river Cauvery and the adjoining Brindavan Gardens are places which receive a lot of tourists.

Mysore is also home to the following museums:

The Regional Museum of Natural History has exhibits on plants, animals and the geology of the southern region of India.
The Folk Lore Museum (1968). Located on the University of Mysore campus, the museum exhibits over 6500 items of folk art and craft from all over the state of Karnataka.
The Railway Museum exhibits vintage locomotives and is the second such museum to be set up after the National Railway Museum in Delhi.
The Oriental Research Institute, formerly known as the Oriental Library established in 1891, contains over 33,000 palm leaf manuscripts.
Mysore is also a place for health tourism, mainly related to Yoga and receives lot of visitors from outside India who come here to perform Yoga under masters like Pattabhi Jois. GRS Fantasy Park and Planet-X are theme parks that also receive a good number of people. Mysore Zoo is one of the largest of its kind in India and is a popular place for kids. Mysore has a number of lakes and among them, the Karanji lake and Kukkarahalli lake are visited by many people.