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. 

The whistle blower who became a Dewan

A whistle blower, he exposed the rot and corruption of the bureaucracy that had set in in the Revenue Department in British India. He published a booklet on the corruption but he did not lend his name to its authorship. Instead, he called it a book by a native Indian officer.

A few years later he came to be appointed the Dewan of the Mysore Kingdom. He went about his job with ferocity and took several steps to root out corruption. He also introduced music in schools.

He worked for the Imam Commission which had been set up by the British. Subsequently, he was appointed to go into the working of the Indian Railways.

As Dewan of Mysore, he instituted the first Representative Assembly in India.  

Unfortunately, he fell very sick and passed away just a few years after he had assumed the Dewanship. But his name is immortalised even today and he is ranked among the ablest administrators of his times.

He had a deep and abiding passion for chess. His name is forever on the lips of Mysoreans as the Town Hall in the Royal City is named after him. He is Dewan C.V. Rungacharlu.

Born in 1831, he lived a little more than 50 years. Yet, he has left behind a rich legacy of administrative work, which are worth implementing even today.

Rungacharlu was born in an Iyengar family in Chingleput district in the then Madras  Presidency. He was a Vadagalai Iyengar. His father, C. Raghavachariar, was a clerk in the office of the Collectorate at Chingleput.

His parents were poor and he could attend school only after V. Raghavachariar, the first Indian magistrate in Madras, promised to support him financially.

He joined Government service as a Huzur deputy accountant in the office of the Collector of  Madras when he was 19 years. It was 1850 then.

Soon after his conformation, he was transferred to the Chingleput Collectorate. He was subsequently promoted to Head Writer and posted in Salem. It was here that young Rungacharlu performed his task as a Head Writer with distinction. He was disgusted with the corruption in the Revenue Department and in 1856 he published two pamphlets – “Bribery and Corruption in the Revenue Department” and “Mirasi Rights in the Chingleput and Tanjore Districts”.

He was then appointed Tahsildar of  Saidapet and then as Head Sheristadar of Nellore. In 1859, he was appointed Special Assistant to G. N. Taylor, President of the Imam Commission. When the term of the Imam Commission ended, Rungacharlu was appointed to the inquire into the working of the Indian Railways. Rungacharlu was subsequently appointed Commissioner of the Madras Railway Company. He was working as a Treasury Deputy Collector at Calicut in 1868, when he was invited to join the Mysore civil service.

He then assisted British official Major Elliot in reorganization of the Mysore Palace establishment in 1868. He was assistant to the guardian of Chamaraja Wodiyar before the Wodeyar ascended the throne in 1881.

Rungacharlu was appointed the Dewan the day when Chamaraja Wodeyar asssumed charge to rule the Mysore State.

He served as Dewan from 1881 to 1883. He was instrumental in setting up the Representative Assembly. He also introduced music as one of the subjects in schools.

When he became Dewan in March 1881, Mysore was in throes of  financial crisis which had adversely impacted the agricultural and industrial sector. The State was devastated by the famine of 1877 and it was faced with a debt of Rs. 8 lakhs. He postponed for five years, the payment of Rs. 10.5 lakhs as subsidy to the British.

He replaced British officers with Indians. He also disbanded Hassan and Chitradurga districts and downgraded nine taluks into Deputy Amildar sections. The number of Munsiff Courts, Sub-Courts and district jails were also reduced. These measures helped reduce the expenses of the state. He also o lifted the ban of the sale of sandalwood and sandalwood products, thus earning much needed revenue for the State.

With the revenue generated by the sale of sandalwood, he helped   develop the railway system for Mysore. He was also instrumental in commissioning the railway line from Bangalore to Tiptur.

He fell seriously ill at the end of 1882. When the illness became critical, he  resigned as Dewan. He came to Madras where he died on January 20, 1883.

Mysore has honored him by constructing a Town Hall which it has named as Dewan Rungacharlu Memorial Hall. 

When Sir MV blackmailed DVG

Sir M Visvesvaraiah was the Dewan of the Mysore State from 1912 to 1918. Sir MV, as he was popularly known, had a fairly large circle of friends and among them was eminent Kannada writer and thinker D V Gundappa (DVG).

DVG was not merely a writer but was also a journalist and later published his own newspaper. In 1945, he set up the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs in NR Colony, Bangalore, and he was instrumental in beginning the Popular Education League and the Social Service League.

DVG was a close friend and associate of Sir MV. There were many times when Sir MV would either invite DVG over for discussions on State polity and other affairs of the Mysore State.

The discussions were helpful to Sir MV in taking decisions or coming up with a policy. Over time, the discussions became longer, took on a more serious note and the result led to the adoption of several radical changes in the State polity.

Ever the gentleman, Sir MV had no qualms about acknowledging the credit to DVG but was that enough. This was in the mid 1920s and DVG was not in a very sound financial position. Yet, he neither sought favours nor accepted any from any person or organisation.

It was then that Sir MV decided to do something to his friend. He first broached the idea of an allowance for DVG  for “picking” his brains and helping the State come to a decision. A proud DVG outrightly refused.

DVG pointed out that the discussions were between friends and they could not be measured in monetary terms. Moreover, he was a journalist and he could not afford to take money from the Government, however benevolent it may be.

Sir MV then suggested that DVG could accept the appointment of a Consultant to the Mysore Government and in return he would be paid a certain amount. DVG trashed the idea  and steadfastly refused to reconsider his decision of not taking any amount from the Government.

DVG pointedly told Sir MV that he disliked the idea of taking money for discussing issues with his friend. Try as mush as he could, Sir MV failed to budge DVG.

Sir MV then told DVG that, henceforth, their conversation would be limited only to family and personal matters and no other topic would be discussed. A reluctant DVG agreed but soon he found himself starved of the intellectual companionship of Sir MV. It was now the turn of DVG to cajole Sir MV to get back to the scholarly interactions that had become so important part of their daily routine.

Sir MV then realized that he had DVG where he wanted. He promised to continue the serious and scholarly debates and discussions provided DVG became a consultant to the State. DVG agreed and soon both were back to their scholarly best.

The regular discussions helped Sir MV  formulate State policy and also in governance.  He ensured that DVG would be paid for the discussions and the then Mysore State Treasury (it was then called Huzur Treasury) issued cheques to DVG.

Sir MV died in 1962 and DVG in 1975. When a trunk belonging to DVG was opened shortly after his death, there were several cheques issued from the Treasury that had been kept uncashed.

These were the cheques issued on the insistence of Sir MV but DVG had no intention of encashing them he accepted them and kept them locked away in a trunk. The total amount in the cheques ran to lakhs.

Thus, we find two great men of Bangalore each sticking on to his principle. Neither of them was after money or fame. Yet, today, they are remembered by one and all. If one is remembered for his engineering skills, the other is known for his Kagga-a rare piece of art in the otherwise dry world of literature.

Both the engineering skills of Sir MV and the Kagga of DVG have survived.