Purnaiah in wax

He played an important part in guiding Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. After the death of Tipu in the Battle of  Srirangapatna in 1799, he made efforts to see that the son of Tipu would ascend the throne. When that failed, he ensured that the Mysore Kingdom would be handed back to the Wodeyars.

This man was one of the key figures at the enthronement of a young Mumadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar as the King of Mysore in a makeshift tent in Mysore. He then went on to serve as his Dewan for several years.

He strengthened the finances of the State and took several administrative and legislative measures. When he quit as the Dewan, he was allotted the Jagir of Yelandur where he built a palatial bungalow.

This man is none other than Dewan Purnaiah, the legendary Dewan of Mysore State and the man who served three Kings-Hyder, Tipu and Mumadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar. He retired to this jagir at Yelandur where he constructed this beautiful bungalow.  

The British, several decades later, abolished the jagir system, and Yelandur reverted back to the Wodeyars. The bungalow, however remained with the Purnaiah family though it slowly lost its importance. After some public offices shifted their headquarters from the bungalow, it remained locked.

Now, this sprawling 10,000 square feet bungalow is in the news again. The State Archaeology Department is all set to open this 200-year-old heritage building in Chamarajanagar district as a centre which will provide tips to bureaucrats and politicians for modern administration, besides housing the State’s department’s first wax statues.

The department's first wax museum will be thrown open to the public shortly and it will have wax statues of  Dewan Purnaiah, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III or Mumadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar and one of the Governor-Generals of India, William Bentinck. A few  unseen paintings of  Purnaiah will also be displayed.
The department has taken the building on lease for 30 years from the Purnaiah family. The aim of the department is to make the public aware of the Dewan and provide a glimpse of him.

The museum is divided into two floors, with wax statues on the first and the paintings of Purnaiah with Krishnaraja Wadiyar III and other portraits and paintings displayed on the ground floor.
Besides, it will also contain 27 manuscripts of letters from Purnaiah to Sringeri and Keladi mathas. The translation in Kannada and summary of these documents will be displayed alongside the magnified images of these original scripts that have been obtained from the mathas. Some of the manuscripts will be brought from the museum at Keladi in Shimoga district.

The museum will screen documentary on the life and achievements of Purnaiah. It will also house sculptures, inscriptions pertaining to Chamarajanagar district and traditional Mysore paintings.

History tell us that, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III honoured Purnaiah with shawls and also gifted agricultural lands and a bungalow in Yelandur in 1807 after he gave up the Dewanship. This was the Maharaja’s manner of expressing his gratitude to the legendary Dewan.

Purnaiah’s bungalow earlier housed the taluk office and the police station. After these offices were shifted to new buildings, the bungalow was kept locked for more than a decade.

The purpose of the lease of this heritage building is only to set up a museum so as to protect the memory of the Dewan. The lease deed is for 33 years and the Directorate will pay Rs. 1,000 as rent to the descendants of Purnaiya every year.
The bungalow has already been declared as a protected monument in 1964 under the Karnataka Ancient and Historical Monuments Act and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1961.

Yelandur is the smallest taluk of Chamarajanagar district and it comprises of 33 villages. It is situated about 60 km south-west of  Mysore and about 150 km south of Bangalore on National Highway NH 209.

Apart from the Purnaiah bungalow, Yelandur is also famous for its Gauriveshvara and Varahaswamy tempes. While the Gauriveshwara temple was built in 1550 A.D during the reign of Devabhupala (Singadepa), a feudatory of  the Vijayanagars, the Varaharaswamy Temple is dedicated to one of the ten avatars of Vishnu.

Yelandur is near to the famous tourist and pilgrim spot of BR Hills. 

Falling prey to modernisation

In an earlier post, we had written about the Railway Press in the Divisional Railway Office in Mysore

which was closed down on March 1, 2013. The press printed Edmundson railway tickets in lakhs since its inception in 1908.The press was a heritage institution and it fell prey to the engine of modernisation. Another relic of the bygone era and one which had pleasant memories for all Mysoreaons was the last metre gauge service between Mysore and Chamarajamagar.

The metre gauge on the Mysore-Chamarajanagar section faded into history as the last train chugged out from the city railway station on January 17, 2007.

The Mysore-Chamarajanagar service was introduced more than a century ago when Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar was the King of Mysore. Incidentally, the last steam engine in Karnataka also ran on this section.

It was on December 1, 1891 that the Mysore-Nanjangud stretch was laid by the Railways. The cost of this 24-km line then was Rs. 6.2 lakh. Earthwork on the Nanjangud-Chamarajanagar section was taken up in 1921 but work was discontinued following financial problems. However, the work was once again taken up in 1923-24 and a loan of Rs. 8 lakh raised. The line to Chamarajanagar was completed and thrown open to railway traffic on August 27, 1926.

Since then, the train had been running continuously. This section has a length of 61 km. The longest railway bridge in the district, constructed across the Kapila between Tandavpura and Nanjangud railway stations, is on this section.

The Railways operated eight pairs of trains on the section which mainly catered to commuters and pilgrims visiting the temple town of Nanjangud and Chamarajanagar. About 8,500 passengers and 2,800 monthly season ticket-holders patronised the trains. The last train to Chamarajanagar pulled out of platform No. 5 at Mysore, bringing to an end one of the earliest rail services in Karnataka.

Today, the section is part of the broad gauge network and trains still continue to operate. The railway track was upgraded to broad gauge from in November 2008.

The project to construct a new railway line from Chamarajanagar to Satyamangalam, Gobichettypalayam and Erode is progressing slowly. It will reduce the distance between Bangalore and Chamarajanagar and other cities of Tamil Nadu.

The proposal to extend the railway line further to Mettupalayam in Tamil Nadu has not yet received environmental clearance. The line will cut through forests and slopes of Nilgiris, Kotagiri, Talamalai Hills and Mudiyanoor and it will entail construction of  277 bridges, 138 curves created and 61 tunnels.

Incidentally, Chamarajanagar is the last Railway station on the southern most point in Karnataka.