Older than the temple

Srirangapatna, the erstwhile capital of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, has a history dating back to the New Stone Age. But very few of the thousands of visitors and pilgrims who come to this island town are aware of this fact.

The New Stone Age is also called the Neolithic Age and it was a period of human development and technology.

It began sometime in 10,200 BC and ended between 4500 BC and 2000 BC. In south India, the Neolithic period began in 3000 BC and continued till about 1400 BC. The age in Karnataka is characterised by ashmounds.

Robert Bruce Foot (1834 -1912), a British geologist and archaeologist, discovered the first conclusive Paleolitic stone tool (a hand axe) in Pallavaram near Madras. He then along with William King went on to discover more such tools and settlements in South and West India, including Srirangapatna. He is, therefore, often considered as the Father of Indian prehistory.

In 1884 he discovered the 3.5 kilometres (2.2 miles) long Belum caves, the second largest cave in the Indian subcontinent. Foote spent 33 years, starting as a youth at the age of 24, working for the geological survey.

Foote's father-in-law was the Rev. Peter Percival, missionary, linguist and a pioneering educator of Sri Lanka and South India. Foot’s grandson, Major General Henry Robert Bowreman Foote, was awarded the Victoria Cross during the second Word war.

Coming back to Srirangapatna, other archaeologists have discovered some stone tools such as an axe, hammer and other antiquities of the new stone age culture.

In 1984, Dr C. Mahadeva discovered stone tools such as bone, Ardha chandra and a chopping splinter belonging to the microlithic age. It is significant that these tools are made out of jasper, chert and other stone materials.

The discovery of many microlithic weapons in the area has led archaeologists and historians to believe that this must have been a factory site. Historians have discovered stone age settlements in Pandavapura, Kuntibetta and Srirangapatna. Some remnants of the stone age culture have been found at Hangarahalli

and Ranganathittu on the banks of Cauvery, (Srirangapatna taluk); Maralahalli, Belakawadi, Muttatti, Halagur (Malavalli taluk) Kuntibetta, near Pandavapura and Sanabakoppalu in Pandavapura taluk.

The findings suggest that the population density in this part was very thin. The stone age man who lived around thick forests, river valleys.

Srirangapatna was originally built by Udayaditya, the brother of Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, in 1120 AD. It soon became an important agrahara during the Hoysala period. In 1454, Timmana Dannayaka, a local chief of Nagamangala, obtained permission from the Vijayanagara king Praudadeva Raya, and built a fort at Srirangapatna. Soon, the Vijaayanagar rulers mde Srirangapatna their provincial capital. 

This fort was captured by Raja Wodeyars from the Vijayanagar Viceroy, Tirumala, in 1610 and it later fell into the hands of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.

The fort was destroyed in May 1799 in the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore war. After the death of Tipu in 1799 A.D., Srirangapatna lost its glory as the Wodeyars shifted the capital to Mysore.

Since the island is home to the first of the three Ranganatha shrines on the banks of the river Cauvery, it is also known as Adi Ranga. As it is located to the west of Srirangam (in Tamil Nadu), it is also called as Paschima Ranganatha Kshetra.

Several inscriptions belonging to the Gangas (2), Hoysalas (2), Vijayanagars (12), Wodeyars of Mysore (15) Hyder-Tipu (14) and others (22) have been found here. Among them, four are in Tamil, 36 in Kannada, eight in Sanskrit, 14 in Persian and two each in Telugu and English.

Thus we see that Srirangapatna has much more to offer than the Ranganatha Swamy Temple and the monuments belonging to the Hyder Ali-Tipu era. A student of  history and archaeology would be interested in the ancient history of the island which is older than the ancient and hoary temple of Ranganatha.

The forgotten palegar

Mention Srirangapatna and the first name that comes to our mind is that of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.  Similarly, mention  Srirangapatna fort and the first thing that comes to the mind is the heroic death of Tipu on May 4, 1799 just a few yards away from the massive fortifications.

The Fort, perhaps, is the second most important monument of Srirangapatna which lends a unique character to the bustling town (The first important monument should be the sprawling Ranganatha Temple). There are a lot of legends and myths associating the Wodeyars, Hyder Ali and Tipu with the fort. 

But what many have forgotten is that the fort was initially built by a local chieftain whose name is now almost forgotten, so much so that the fort is more associated with Hyder-Tipu and the Wodeyars than this palegar.

There is no plaque, name board or even a sign board detailing the contribution of this Palegar. What is more astonishing is that it was this palegar who laid the foundations of the massive Srirangapatna fort more than seven centuries ago.

Moreover, it was also this palegar who contributed lavishly to the temples in Srirangapatna, Tonnur or Kere Tonnur and of course Melukote.

This palegar was the first chieftain to fortify Srirangapatna and also rule from the area but as a vassal of the might Vijayanagars. A devout Srivaishnava, he ruled justly and he was one of the top army commanders of the Vijayanagar forces.

This palegar is none other than Thimanna Hebbar, the chief of Nagamangala, who was also known as Thimmanna Dannayaka.

He rose to prominence because of his military and administrative prowess and in 1454 A.D., he took the permission of the Vijayanagar Emperor to build a mud fort in Srirangapatna.

However, even before Thimanna Hebbar fortified Srirangapatna, it was a thriving and important town. During the Hoysala rule(943-1340), Srirangapatna was one of the most important agrahara centres.

Once Veera Ballala (1291-1343) died, the Hoysala empire disappeared and Srirangapatna became a provincial capital of the Vijayanagars. Sometime in 1450 or a little earlier, Thimanna Hebbar took up the post of a palegar of Srirangapatna and he was a vassal of the Vijayanagars.

In 1454, Thimanna Hebbar laid the foundations of the mud fort and also dug a trench around it. He also repaired, renovated and donated liberally to the Ranganatha temple in Srirangapatna, the Nambi Narayana temple in Tonnur and the two main temple of Melkote-Cheluva Narayanaswamy and Yoga Narasimha.

These temples had been ravaged by Mailk Kafur during his south India invasion of 1311.

Thimanna Hebbar was a commander of the Vijayanagar forces under Emperor Mallikarjuna Raya (1446-1465) who continued him in the post of a palegar of Srirangapatna.

The descendents of Thimanna Hebbar were confirmed in the post of  palegar of Srirangapatna till 1495 when the Vijayanagar Emperor  Narasimha Raya (1491-1505) decided to appoint relatives of the royal family as Viceroys of Srirangapatna.

The royal family of  Vijayanagar continued to hold Srirangapatna as Viceroys till 1610 when Raja Wodeyar defeated Tirumalaraya in the battle of Kesare and made Srirangapatna his capital.

Raja Wodeyar realised the strategic importance of the Jaladurga or island fortress formed naturally by the north and south branches of the Cauvery and renovated the fort.

Later, Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar in 1654 and Chikkadevaraya Wodeyar strengthened the fortress and Hyder and Tipu too contributed immensely.

When the British stormed the fort on May 4, 1799, they admired the massive structure and refrained from pulling it down.

The fort is on the western end of the island and it is in the form of an irregular pentagon with a perimeter of about 4 kilometres.

The fort is a major tourist attraction as are the many additions to it made by Tipu. Of the brave and just palegar, there is no mention and it seems time has swallowed his name. 

The Ganjam figs

An earlier post had dealt with the City of Ganjam and also the jewellery making. This post is about the world famous figs of Ganjam.

Ganjam was as famous for its jewellery as it was for its figs. Though the city of Shehar Ganjam was constructed by Tipu just two kilometers away from his island capital of Srirangapatna, it developed into a distinct city in itself.

Tipu ensured that Ganjam was surrounded by lovely orchards, farms and plantations. He introduced a variety of Indian and foreign plants and trees. He planted many exotic trees and plants in the Gumbaz gardens and around Daria Daulat palace. If the Gumbaz housed the mausoleum of his father Hyder Ali, the Daria Daulat was his summer retreat.

Both the Gumbaz and Daria Daulat were surrounded by hundreds of varieties of  trees and plants. Since Ganjam city was built between these two buildings, it too received Tipu’s largesse. Tipu imported fig or anjura from several countries and had them planted in and around Ganjam.

Soon, the fog took root in Ganjam thanks to the salubrious climate and the ready supply of water from the nearby Cauvery. The garden department of Tipu supervised the fig in the royal gardens in Ganjam.

Ganjam soon became known for its figs. Farmers were encouraged to grow fig and the special and popular variety of fig grown here came to be known as Ganjam fig (Ganjam anjura).

Even Tipu is known o have enjoyed the Ganam fig. Soon, the fig was an important export from Srirangapatna and it contributed to the local economy.

When the British set up camp at Ganjam and overran the Gumbaz, they also captured Ganjam. They destroyed many trees and plants. Initially, growers and farmers fled Ganjam fearing the British. But they came back after the death of Tipu and once again began cultivating fig.

The British imported Ganja fig from Srirangapatna to Bangalore and other places. The Wodeyars too encouraged the farmers and growers to come back and take back possession of their land. Though the fort of Ganjam was destroyed in 1799, the British and the Wodeyars allowed residents to comeback after the death of Tipu Sultan on May 4, 1799.

 Fig cultivation once again took off. Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar and Dewan Mirza Ismail gave a boost to fig cultivation. Both were admirers of the Ganjam fig and they encouraged 150 farmers in and around the village of  Ganjam to grow them. They gave subsidy and donated five guntas of land to each of the 150 growers. They also initiated steps to irrigate the fig farms with water from the Cauvery.

The figs grown on these 150 farms were initially sent to Mysore palace where the royal family of Wodeyars took pride in serving them to the British officers and visitors. Soon, Ganjam figs began to be exported to other states and they commanded a good price in the market.

The Ganjam figs gave the Australian figs and Pune figs a run for the money. They had a unique taste of their own.  
The fig farms survived till1960 after which they slowly died. Lack of encouragement, lack of proper inputs and the growing interest in other cash crops led to many farmers abandoning the fig. Today, there are barely handful of the 150 fig gardens that could be seen in and around Ganjam till the 1960s.

There is a small patch of land which belongs to the  Horticulture department where it has grown 20 plants. The department had taken possession of this 5.5 acres of land from the PWD in 1964.
It is said that the Horticulture department has taken over the 5.5 acre fig gardens from the Public Works Department in 1964. However, we can see a few Sapota plants there. The Ganjam fig plants can be seen at the department nursery at Javarahalli farm in Ganjam (there are 100 fig trees there) and at the farm in Nagamangala taluk.
When we visit Ganjam, even today we can see rusted machines and pipeline network that were used to pump water from the Cauvery to the farms. The two pumps of 40 HP and 20 HP capacity can still be seen but they are defunct.

The Cantonment Saheba

There has always been an ongoing debate about the game of cards or rather poker, its origin and whether it is a game of  skill or a game of chance. While card players say it is a game of skill, the police and law enforcement authorities term it as a game of chance. They label it as gambling and clamp down on it.

A few days ago, the Karnataka High Court had ruled that poker is  a game of skill and, therefore, held that it does not come under gambling. The ruling was in response to petitions urging the court to set aside the police action in terming playing cards as gambling and consequently booking cases against the cars players.

Though playing cards or poker is certainly not a modern sport, it was not unknown in India. The Mysore Kingdom under the Wodeyars popularised the Ganjifa cards and one of its Kings, Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, was an expert and he himself designed several Ganjifa cards.

However, the credit for making Bangalore a card playing centre and a city that hosted Western games such as billiards, snooker, golf, football and cricket must go to the British. The Cantonment Saheba was an expert card player, apart from taking to other British customs such as dressing in a typical British fashion, puffing a cigar and eating with a fork and spoon.

All this and more  began sometime in the early 1800s when the British decide to establish a Cantonment in Bangalore. Read on…..

The British, by 1807, had decided to abandon their garrison at Srirangapatna and shift it to Bangalore. They selected an elevated piece of land abutting present day Ulsoor for their Cantonment.

The British consciously decided to allow a physical boundary of a few small tanks, lakes and a garden which later developed into Cubbon Park in the mid 1800s to separate the new establishment from the old Pete.

The old Pete had bad memories for the British and the victory they had achieved over Tipu Sultan in 1791 was bitter sweet as they had lost several British officers and men.

The stubborn resistance that the then Daroga of the fort, Bahadur Khan, had put up against Lord Cornwallis who led the British army in 1791 was still fresh in their minds. The British allowed the Wodeyars to rule over the ruined Pete, while they forced the Wodeyars to part with a large tract of  land which they named as Cantonment.    

Soon, both the Pete and Cantonment grew separately and each had its own unique and distinct identity. If the pete was full of natives, the Cantonment was the most modern British establishment boasting of well-laid out roads, parks, playgrounds, churches, military barracks, a Stately residence for the British Resident of Mysore, tanks and lakes.

The Cantonment needed people to serve the British and such people settled down in and around present day Ulsoor. While only a handful of people from the Pete could come to the Cantonment, which was out of bounds for a vast majority of Indians, the working class at Ulsoor and other localities who were mostly Tamilians, were given more access.   

The two towns-Pete and Cantonment too developed distinct cultures. The dance and ball culture of the British soon appeared on the Cantonment map. It quickly replaced the native song and dance routine, which then found itself flourishing in the Pete.

The drink-dance culture of the Cantonment gave birth to ball dances, football, cricket, cards games, billiards, tennis, boxing, musical soirees, fancy dress balls, domino dances, polo, golf and of course horse races.

BRV was initially a hall where dances were held. Raffles, the dance club, is where Deccan Herald stands today on MG Road. Just a little away from Deccan Herald on MG Road was Tom’s Billiards Parlour.

The Bangalore Palace of the Wodeyars had a highly polished wooden dance floor where Europeans danced regularly to the beat of the Wodeyar Maharaja’s royal orchestra.

The Opera cinema today at the junction of Residency Road and Brigade Road is the place where boxing bouts took place regularly. Crowds from the pete too thronged the bouts. Football matches were regularly played between European teams at the Sullivan grounds.

The first horse races were organised with the help of the Wodeyar Maharaja at Agaram. Europeans outnumbered Indians and all jockeys were British. Pubs and restaurants too began coming up in and around Cantonment.

The Cantonment was essentially Christian in character. Many churches were built and Sundays revolved on morning mass and singing. There were only handful of temples.  

On the other hand, the pete area had to be satisfied with traditional arts and traditional games. The pete area boasted of several Garadi manes where local wrestlers honed in their skills on red earth in Ranasinghpet and surrounding petes.

There were scores of temples in the Pete area and trading in commodities was the main economic activity. Kannada and Tamil apart from Telugu and a smattering of Marathi was spoken in Pete as against English in Cantonment.

If West End and Sullivan’s Inn in Whitefield signified the British eatery, it was left to small hotels to open shop in Pete areas. These hotels initially had distinct area for orthodox and non-orthodox people and they sold only dosa, idlis and vada. Of course, filter coffee was always there.

If the Mysore peta was must for a high ranking local, the Cantonment gentleman was dressed in Western dress.         

Thus the lifestyle in both the cities of Bangalore differed. This distinction led to the birth of  two new categories of fashionable people. One was called Pete Bhoopa and he was a master of the pete and the other was the dandy Cantonment Saheba.

The two entities continued with their different lifestyle and in 1947 both came to be merged as Bangalore. Yet, the merger has not been able to erase the distinction of  the old pete and the snobbery of the Cantonment.

Even today, we see tree lined avenues, broad roads, spacious bungalows, huge churches, well-maintained parks and playgrounds in Cantonment. None of them can be seen in the Pete area, which is highly congested with small and narrow roads, chok-a-block.

In the initial years, the Cantonment outstripped Pete in all aspects, including economy and population. However, the Pete hit back and slowly and surely, it pulled ahead of the Cantonment from the late 1800s.

The growth of Bangalore or rather the growth of the dual cities of Bangalore was unheard of in any other part of India. Soon, people from other states, mainly Tamilians decided to try their luck in Bangalore and they came in hordes. They were encouraged by the British and the Madras Government which wanted to desperately have a piece of the Bangalore pie.   

British officers, sick and tired of the heat of Madras and the orthodox  lifestyle, fought among themselves and used influence to get postings in Bangalore. Some even were willing to become an attendant to the British officer and all this for a posting in Bangalore.

The highly enlightened rule of the Wodeyars in making Mysore an ideal State made people decide to emigrate to Bangalore. Thus, we see that the Pete and Cantonment both gave rise to the migration of people of other religions and regions into Bangalore. No wonder, to this day, Bangalore continues to remain cosmopolitan. It is a cacophony of cultures and people and it continues to remain so. The only people who seemed to have vanished are the Pete Bhoopa and the Cantonment Saheba. In their place today we have the Cantonment educated Bangalorean sprouting a hybrid of English called Inglish and refusing to speak in Kannada. Of course, he goes to MTR but he also visits KFC and Dominoes. He rarely if ever comes to a Cinema hall but prefers the multiplex. Does he watch Kannada films. No, he prefers English and films of other languages to Kannada. Who is he? A legacy of the British Cantonment Saheba or the modern day Bhoopa. 

Ganjam and its French connection

In an earlier post, we had covered the guava fruits of Ganjam, the small village just two kilometers off Srirangapatna, the island capital of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan.

After the death of  Tipu Sultan on May 4, 1799 in Srirangapatna, Shehar Ganjam-the City that he founded was taken over by the British. However, today Ganjam is known for its French connection and not British and all thanks to Abbe J.A. Dubois or Jean-Antoine Dubois, the French missionary.

Abbe Dubois (1765-1848) was a French Catholic and he had come to India in 1792 as a member of the Missions Etrangeres de Paris.  He first came to Pondicherry and then to Srirangapatna in 1799 to reorganise the Christian community.

Apart from being a missionary, Dubois founded agricultural colonies and was instrumental in introducing vaccination as a preventive method to control smallpox.

He also wrote down a record of Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. He gave up European society and adopted the native style of clothing, and dressed himself very much like a Hindu.

He would go around Srirangapatna, Ganjam and surrounding areas in the garb of sanyasi. Like a Hindu monk,  he abstained from eating meat and this continued for several years.

Locals of  Mysore Kingdom, used to seeing him in Indian style dress and in local manners  affectionately called him Dodda Swamiyoru.

He established “The Immaculate Conception Church (Abbe Dubois Church) at Ganjam where he lived for 30 years.
The church today has a 15-feet high bell tower. Adjacent to the bell tower is a small memorial structure (house) which is believed to be the hermitage of the Padri Abbe Dubois.

He also  founded a school for the children of Ganjam village.
The school is at the rear side of the Church and it can be said to be Ganjam’s oldest school.

Since Dubois followed local customs and tradition, he was highly  popular. He was fond of raagi mudde and he had no hesitation in joining farmers for their work in fields.

Abbe Dubois had learnt all south Indian languages, including Kannada. He knew Sanskrit too. He left India for France in January, 1823 where he became the Superior of the Christian order that he represented.

What sets out this missionary from the rest of  his ilk is his frank confession in his “Letters on the State of Christianity in India” that Hindus might never convert to Christianity.

Guavas of Ganjam

The small village of Ganjam or Shehar Ganjam near Srirangapatna was several decades ago known for its fruits and vegetables.

Ganjam today is more famous for housing the Daria Daulat-the summer palace of  Tipu, the Gumbaz-where Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan are buried and the Gosai Ghat and Sangam apart from the Nimishamba temple.

Bur just a few years ago, Ganjam was known for its high quality fruits and people of Mysore and surrounding areas literally went gaga over some of the fruits such as guavas.

There are many guava orchards in and around Ganjam and most of the yield was sent to Mysore, Srirangapatna and surrounding towns and cities, including Mandya and Malavalli.

Apart from guavas, Ganjam was also known for rearing good quality jackfruits and even figs, which were first introduced here by Tipu Sultan sometime in 1780. The orchards and fruit gardens in Ganjam received royal patronage from Hyder Ali and his son, Tipu Sultan.

The guavas of Shehar Ganjam, the city founded by Tipu, are better  known as Kabul Benne. They are known for their high-quality pulp.

The Ganjam guavas have a distinct taste and flavour. This gives them an edge over other varieties, especially those with the pink pulp. The Ganjam variety has less seeds and its pulp is highly tasty. They are, therefore, much sought after by agro-processing industries.

Many of the guava plantations are anywhere between 15 acres to 20 acres in area.

Once on the decline, the Ganjam guavas seem to have made a comeback what with bumper harvests. The unique taste has led traders and wholesale merchants from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to come to Mysore and place orders for this fruit.

Guava is native to tropical America where it occurs wild. It was introduced in India in the seventeen century. The area under guava cultivation in India increased by 64 per cent  from 94,000 hectares  in 1991-92 to 155000 ha. in 2001-02 whereas the production increased by 55 per cent from 11 lakh tonnes to 17 lakh tonnes. Major guava producing states include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh

Guava  is a good source of vitamin C, pectin, calcium and phosphorus. It is used for the preparation of processed products like jams, jellies and nectar.  Guava jelly puree is very popular for its attractive purplish-red colour, pleasant taste and aroma. Leaves of guava are used for curing diarrhoea and also for dyeing and tanning.

Once considered a forbidden fruit, as per the Philippian mythology, guava is an essential part of a weight loss diet. In fact it also has more Vitamin C than in an orange and makes it to the list of super fruits.

According to the Karnataka Directorate of Economics and Statistics, guava is grown in almost all the districts in more than 4,200 hectares. Kolar alone produces over 30 per cent of the annual 23,000-tonne harvest in the State.

Generally,  Bangalore gets its guavas from Nelamangala, Hoskote, Magadi, Yelahanka, Doddaballapur and Devanahalli. The Allahabad Safeda and Lucknow 49, also known as Sardar are the most widely grown varieties in Karnataka.

Today, the guavas of Ganjam are also sold in Bangalore, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, and Dakshina Kannada.

Located just two kilometrs from Srirangapatna and to the east of the historic island, Ganjam gets its name from the Persian ‘Ganj-i-am’ meaning granary of the world.

Guava which is called the Apple of the Tropics or poor man’s Apple, is the sixth most cultivated fruit in India. It is today commercially cultivated in more than 60 countries across the world.

The first drought of Bangalore

It was sometime in 1804 and Bangalore was just a small dot on the map of India. It was not even as big as Mysore, which had become the capital of the Wodeyar Kingdom.

The new king of the Wodeyars, Mumadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar (1794-1868), had gone about in right earnest rebuilding Mysore which had been ransacked and pillaged by Tipu Sultan years ago.

Though Tipu had died in May 1799 at the gates of Srirangapatna and the British had returned the Mysore Kingdom to the Wodeyars, the British were still wary of the south. The British forces in the South were completely exhausted by the four Anglo-Mysore wars that they had fought against Hyder Ali (1721-1781) and his son Tipu Sultan (1750-1799).

Though Tipu’s children and grandchildren had been taken prisoners and kept in the Vellore fort (they were taken to the fort on June 19, 1799), there was still a sense of uneasy among the remaining British troops that had been billeted in Srirangapatna. FSherzada Hyder Ali, the grandson of Hyder Ali and son of Abdul Kareem, had escaped from Vellore Fort and joined the Marathas in 1801.

The Mysore State was on the boil and there were revolts in different parts of the Kingdom. The British managed to suppress them, but they were vary of a backlash. They had wanted to completely destroy the fortification of Srirangapatna but had been asked to desist by the then Governor-General, Wellesley.

Wellesley had also refused to pay heed to the entreaty of  the British officers to shift the Army from Srirangapatna to Bangalore.  

Though the British had appropriated Bangalore to themselves, including the Lalbagh, they had conveniently left out the Pettah or Pete areas or old Bangalore to the Maharaja of Mysore, Mummadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar. Thus, old Bangalore was still in the hands of the Wodeyars, while the fort was in the custody of the British.

The British had a substantial military presence in Srirangapatna and Mysore. The Wodeyars had shifted the capital of Mysore Kingdom from Srirangapatna to Mysore and the boy king, Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, was assisted among others by Dewan Purnaiah (1746-1812) and Barry Close (1756-1813), the British Resident, in running the kingdom.

The British in Mysore were more uneasy as they for the first time faced a sever drought. In one of the official despatches to the Madras Government, Dr. Heyne, on August 25, 1804, reported on the state of the garden- Lalbagh-under his care, stating that it had suffered due to drought, and requesting permission to purchase around 400 sheep to ensure a supply of manure for the Garden.

The Madras Government replied from its headquarters in Fort St George, on March 23, 1804 and October, 16, 1804. Both these letters were regarding Dr. Benjamin Heyne's report on the Botanical Garden at Bangalore.

It was in 1799 that Hayne had taken charge of the gardens under the order of Lord Wellesley. Dr. Heyne was a naturalist and a medical officer with the Topographical survey of Mysore. During the surveys, economic, demographic, botanical, geographical and cultural data of Mysore was collected.

Botanical data was given particular importance as Wellesley himself had instructed Heyne to take charge of the Sultan's Cypress Gardens, called the Lalbagh, and stressed that it should be turned into a botanical garden and developed “as a depository of useful plants sent from different parts of the country”.

Heyne also sent a letter to Fort St George, dated April 27, 1803, proposing the retention of a small spot of ground in Bangalore for the purpose of cultivating the potato, turnip and other culinary vegetables.

However, the drought of 1804 bothered him and he wanted the permission of the Madras Government to rectify this.

If Heyne was bothered about lack of manure and water to his Lalbagh, the British were concerned about the severe drought in Bellary during 1802-04 and again in 1805-07.

By then, Hayne had collected a large variety of plants and trees, giving special importance to economically useful plants and those that could be used medicinally. He left Lalbagh in 1812 to join and assists Francis Buchanan in his survey of Mysore.

He himself reported sometime in 1812 that some plots of  Lalbagh had all but disappeared and the major part of the garden was under the cultivation of ragi and rice.

At around 1804, the British Residency was just shifted from Mysore to Bangalore and the official residence of the British Resident of Mysore was the old post office building on Madras Bank Road.

Unfortunately, there is not adequate record of this drought though we are told that there was scarcity of water and foodgrains and that the people of the Petta suffered most. The ruling Wodeyars did their best to alleviate the suffering of the people.    

However, this drought was as severe or as painful as the one that struck Mysore Kingdom, including Bangalore, decades later. The drought and famine of 1875 that would sweep through Mysore State led to major changes in lifestyle and economy of Bangalore and Mysore.

Yet, the drought of 1804 is important as it is the first such natural calamity that occurred when the British were ruling the south and they had partitioned the Kingdom of Mysore between themselves, Wodeyars and Nizam of Hyderabad.

Thankfully, the Lalbagh had developed into a world class garden by then and it continues to exist today and the full credit for this goes to the foresightedness of its founders and its many superintendents.  

He introduced apples to Bangalore

The Lalbagh is perhaps the most famous landmark of Bangalore and it is one of the finest botanical gardens in the world. There are many people whose association with the Lalbagh is still recalled with respect and awe.

If Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan are credited with having started the garden and also developed it into the charbagh style, the British subsequently took pains to not only maintain the garden but also develop it.

The names of botanists and Superintendents of Lalbagh like James Cameroon, Krumbeigal, Mari Gowda and others quickly come to the fore but there are a few others whose contribution is as great as that of these men.

One such person is Benjamin Heyne (1770-1819), a surgeon, botanist and naturalist. Heyne nurtured Lalbagh during the early 1800s and it was he who gave the botanical garden its present shape. What is more it is this man who introduced apples into Bangalore along with several other fruits and vegetables.

It was in 1793 that a young Heyne joined the service of the British East India Company. In 1796, he was assigned to the Madras Presidency as Botanist to Samalkot (Samalkot today is s small mandal in Andhra Pradesh and it is about 64 kilometres from Rajamundhry. Samalkot then had a botanical garden and it was part of the Northern Circars that the British ruled).

In 1799, the British alliance defeated Tipu Sultan in the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore war. The British returned the Mysore Kingdom to the Wodeyars and appropriated the Lalbagh Botanical garden in Bangalore.

The British decided to transform Lalbagh as a “depository for useful plants sent from different parts of the country.” They then ordered Dr. Benjamin Heyne, the Company’s botanist at Madras, to take charge of  Lalbagh.

The order to preserve and protect Lalbagh came from the Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley. The British asked Heyne to accompany the Surveyor, with the following instructions:

“A decided superiority must be given to useful plants over those which are merely recommended by their rarity or their beauty,... to collect with care all that is connected with the arts and manufacturers of this country, or that promises to be useful in our own; to give due attention to the timber employed in the various provinces of his route,... and to collect with particular diligence the valuable plants connected with his own immediate profession, i.e. medicine.”

Heyne was in charge of Lalbagh till 1812. He set about the task he had been assigned with diligence and he collected a lot of plants, shrubs and plants from Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore and even the Western Ghats.

A large collection of plant specimens which were forwarded to London. He collected more than 350 species from the Western Ghats and more than 200 species were named by him. He also sent many of his Indian botanical specimens to the German botanist Albreht Roth, whose work “Novae plantarum” ) is largely based on these botanical specimen.

Coming back to the Survey work he had been entrusted with,  Heyne was assistant to Francis Buchanan. Both took up and completed the epoch making Mysore Survey.

Benjamin Heyne died at Madras in 1819 but not before he had been appointed to superintend in 1803 the cultivation of potatoes and other culinary vegetables such as turnip in the Company's garden in Mysore State. The garden, of course, was in Bangalore.

He was also tasked with the job of introducing bread fruit in Mysore State. Bread fruit belongs to the mulberry family, Moraceae. In Karnataka, it is locally called divi Halasu.

It is to him the credit must go of commissioning botanical illustrations though none of them survive today. In the eighteenth century, botanical illustrations had become important and botanists depended on them to identify, classify and publish botanical nomenclature. Heyne was keen to train ‘native' artists in identifying and illustrating characteristics of plants and shrubs that he had collected and planted in Lalbagh.

In 1803, William Bentinck wanted Heyne to  apply his “mineralogical knowledge to the subject of gold sand, collected in the vicinity of Bangalore, and the mode of extracting it from the stones in which it is embedded”.

The Vajra Musti Kalaga

There have been several queries on Vajra Musti Kalaga. Several people have either written or called to find out how the sport is played and whether they can learn it.

Well, here are some details and we hope it will be of some help.

The Vajra Musti Kalaga is a sport played in Mysore only during Dassara and that too only within the confines of the Mysore Palace.

The name of the sport has its origin in Sanskrit. The Vajra Musti refers to a knuckleduster-like weapon. It also means the weapon which is employed in this unique forms of wrestling. The weapon is called by many names such as ayudha, bhukhandi or Indra-mukti which means Indira’s fist.

The Vajramusti is usually made of ivory or buffalo horn. Its appearance is that of a knuckleduster, slightly pointed at the sides and with small spikes at the knuckles. The variation used for warfare had long blades protruding from each end, and an elaborate bladed knuckle.

The Vajramusti is a fierce mode of  wrestling where the combatants wear the Ayudha or Vajramusti on their right hand. This weapon has several small holes along its length, so it can be tied onto the hand with a thread. This is to ensure that it cannot be  dislodged during the fight.

A weapon similar to the Vajramushti was also used by ancient Greek and Roman boxers and Pancrationists. They called it the Cestus and this was a ring, usually made of bronze, worn around the knuckles.

The first mention of vajra musti is in Manasollasa, a reference work, of the Chalukya Emperor Someswara III (1124–1138). However, history tells us that Vajra Musti was practiced even during the times of Mauryas.

The first English account of Vajra Musti is given by James Scurry (1766–1822), a British soldier and memoirist. He was captured by Hyder Ali and imprisoned in Srirangapatna for ten years from 1780.

After his release in 1790, he reached an English camp. He then prepared a narrative of his captivity in 1794, but it was published in 1824, after his death.

This work is called “The captivity, sufferings, and escape of James Scurry”. In one of the chapters, he describes the Vajra Musti thus: “The Jetti’s would be sent for, who always approached with their masters at their head, and, after prostration, and making their grand salams, touching the ground each time, they would be paired, one school against another. They had on their right hands the wood-guamootie -vajra-musti- of four steel talons, which were fixed to each back joint of their fingers, and had a terrific appearance when their fists were closed. Their heads were close shaved, their bodies oiled, and they wore only a pair of short drawers. On being matched, and the signal given from Tippu, they begin the combat, always by throwing the flowers, which they wear round their necks, in each other’s faces; watching an opportunity for striking with the right hand, on which they wore this mischievous weapon which never failed lacerating the flesh, and drawing blood most copiously. Some pairs would close instantly, and no matter which was under, for the gripe was the whole; they were in general taught to suit their holds to their opponent’s body, with every part of which, as far as concerned them, they were well acquainted. If one got a hold against which his antagonist could not guard, he would be the conqueror; they would frequently break each other’s legs and arms”.

After Tipu died in 1799, the Wodeyar Kings of Mysore continued patronising it. Over decades, it slowly lost out to other sports and was restricted to the royalty. It then became an integral part of the Dasara and came to be reduced as a ritual.

The Kalaga now precedes the Jumbo Savari on Vijaya Dashami and it is personally inaugurated by the Maharajas of Mysore. After the last Maharaja, Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, died, it was his son, Srikantadatta Narasimnharaja Wodeyar who inaugurated this ancient sport in the palace courtyard.    

The sport commences on Vijaya Dashami and it takes place at the Savari Thotti, the courtyard in the Mysore palace. The Jumboo Savari procession commences immediately after this ritual.

This year, that is 2013, the Vajra Musti Kalaga began with Yuvaraja, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, performing pooje between 9.15 a.m., and 9.25 a.m., in the auspicious Vrischika lagna.

The palace priests, Narasimha Sharma and Manjunath Sharma, chanted the slokas after which the Kalaga or fight between Jetties commenced at 9.50 am.

This year, for jetties participated in the contest. Narayana Jetty from Bangalore, Vijaykumar Jetty from Mysore, Anil Jetty from Channapatna and Shamanth Kumar Jetty from Chamarajanagar.

The contest is stooped even as the first blood spills. Narayana Jetty

drew the first blood by pinning down Mysore’s Vijay Kumar Jetty.  Srikantadatta Wodeyar then pierced a pumpkin with a dagger,

signaling the commencement of Vijaya Yatre or victory parade.

Senior jetties Srinivas Jetty and Tiger Balaji were the referees of the the bout.

By the way, R Vijaykumar Jetti is an autorickshaw driver from Mysore. You can ask his address at the Mysore Palace office or any autorickshaw driver hailing from Mysore.

Last year, Manjunath Jetty, a KSRTC driver, had represented Mysore and had won the bout. The KSRTC officials will have details about him, if not the conductors and drivers. 

Even today, members of the Jetty or Jetti community are found in large numbers in Mysore, Chamarajanagara, Channapatna and Bangalore. They originally hailed from Delmal in Gujarat but migrated to Vijayanagar first and Mysore next when they saw that the Mysore Kingdoms –of Hyder, Tipu and Wodeyars-patronised wrestling.

History tells us that the first migration of the Jettys from Gujarat was in the 11th century when the Hoysalas ruled Mysore.

If you want more details abpout jettys and their art, you can contact M.R. Madhava, son of M.R. Sudarshan of the Jetty family, who lives in Mysore.

The family of  Madhava is synonymous with the vajra mushti kalaga. They trace their fighting skills to the times of Tipu Sultan. When Kari Jatappa, great great grandfather of Madhava, was a Raja Vastadi or royal courtier. Another well-known Vajra musti exponent in this family is Rama Jattappa who was patronised by  Mummudi Krishnaraja Wodeyar.

Rama Jatappa was considered to be invincible and people treated him with a lot of respect. They would say “Aakashakke eeni ella, Rama Jatappange kustili sati ella” (Just as there is no ladder to the sky, there is no equal to Rama Jatappa). Another wrestler in the family was M.R. Jatappa who supplied agarbattis to the palace durbar. It was famous all over India. His son was M.R.  Sudarshan, who was conferred the title Mr. Body Builder Mysore and with Mr. Olympics in Madras.

Tiger Balaji, the referee is one of the five sons of  M R. Sudarsha. The other brothers of Tiger Balaji are Ramji, Basavanna, Arvind and Madhav. All five were experts in wrestling and M.R. Madhava specialised in Varja Musti.

Now coming to the contact details, in case anyone is interested in getting more details about the sport or the participants, please check with the Mysore Palace Board. This board is in charge of the Mysore Palace and is involved in its day to day running. If you fail to get information here, you can contact the office of  the late Srikantadatta Wodeyar and we are sure they will be happy to help you out.  

There are many akhadas or wrestling houses in Bangalore and Mysore and they will be able to give you more details. If you still fail to gather information, check out with the Karnataka Wrestling Federation. They should be having some information. If all this fails, head straight to Mysore, talk to the auto drivers and ask them to take you to the house of  Madhava or any other Jetty.

The dreams of a Sultan

The dreams of Tipu Sultan or Tippuvina Kanasugalu is a Kannada  play written by playwright Girish Karnad. The play traces the story of Tipu and follows the last days of the Tiger of Mysore.

However, this post is not about this play. It is about the dreams of Tipu Sultan and it is these dreams that Tipu compiled in the form of a book.

The book, as can be expected, is not in India. It was looted from Srirangapatna along with other books, artifacts and other items by the British when they killed Tipu and overran Srirangapatna his capital on May 4, 1799.

The book, -dreams of Tipu-was not in the library or the royal library in Srirangapatna. It was discovered hidden in the bed chamber of the Sultan in his palace Lal Mahal the ruins of which can be seen today in front of the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple.

Tipu has recorded 38 dreams in this book. He was always careful t ensure that nobody saw the book or had an occasion to read it. He kept it so well hidden that even his personal servants and body guards could not locate it.

What makes this book unique is that it can give us a clear and umambiguous portrait of the man that Tipu was, his inner conflict and his ambition.

The dreams are recorded in flawless Persian, a tribute to the language skills of the Sultan. Most of the dreams are about his conflict with the British and the volatile political situation of the times.

The dreams tell us that Tipu was as human as anyone like us and that the hectic life he lived was reflected in his dreams too. The dreams are the inner reflection of his personality and a mirror to his unconscious self.

The dreams are in his won handwriting and reflect his inner most thoughts. It was discovered in his bed chamber after a thorough search  by none other than Col. Kirkpatirck who was assigned the task of  indexing Tipu’s library.

Habibullah, the Munshi of Tipu Sultan, was present at the

time the manuscript was discovered. But he too had only heard of the dreams and never seen it.

Kirkpatrick, in his letters and book on Tipu’s Library, acknowledges the fact that Habibullah knew of the manuscript but Tipu had concealed it even from him as he did not want anyone to read it.

Habibullah told Kirkpatrick that Tipu Sultan was always anxious to hide the book from the view of anyone who happened to approach him while he was either

reading or writing in it.

Later, on April 23, 1805 this book was presented in

the name of the Marquis Wellesley to Hugh Inglis, Chairman of the Court of  Directors of the East India Company, by Major Alexander Beatson.

This was how the book was first taken to the library of the India office in London and subsequently it became a part of the collection of the British Museum. A copy of this is available in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris which was made for it in 1822

The dreams and other notes in the book are recorded on the first thirty- two pages and again on eleven pages towards the end of it. In between, a large number of pages are left blank. The size of the register is 7 inches by 5I inches.

The first of the recorded dreams is dated 1785 and  the last 1798, just a year before he was killed in the fourth and final war with the British. The dreams cover thirteen years of his reign. By the way, Tipu has himself given his own

interpretations to some dreams.

Six of these dreams (Nos. 12, 13, 14, 17, 24 and 28) have

been translated by Beatson and given in the form of an

appendix to his book.

Beatson notes in his “ A View of the Origin and Conduct of War with Tippoo Sultauny London, 1800, p. 196”,  that “...the destruction of Caufirs (English) were subjects of a sleeping (no less than) that of his waking thoughts.” 

The language is good but on some places defective and even ungrammatical. But what has astonished its readers is that it has some spelling mistakes. Was this because Tipu woke himself forcefully from his sleep after his dreams and immediately recorded them without caring for either language or spelling. He himself agrees that he has recorded some of the dreams as soon as he woke up.

There are several dreams which give Tipu tidings of general success and victory in war such as dreams II, IV, V, VI, IX, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXII,

XXIII, XXVII, XXVIII, and XXXIII. Many dreams show us Tipu’s intense love and veneration for the Prophet,

Hazrat Ali, other Muslim saints and even sufis. This can be seen in dreams VIII, X, XII, XXXI XXXIV and

XXXV.

In some of the dreams, Tipu says he write them down almost immediately after he woke up. The Sultan also  interpreted some of his dreams as in dreams  

XIII, XVII, XXVIII and XXXI. Some of the interpretations are highly interesting and they show us the interpretative ability of the Sultan. For example, in dream XIII Tipu

interprets the woman in man's dress as the Marhattas, against whom he was waging a war at that time. In

dream XXVIII the three silver trays of  fresh dates are seen as the dominions of his three enemies, the British, the Marhattas and the Nizam, which he hoped, would fall into his hands.

Tipu in Rashtrapathi Bhavan

The Rashtrapathi Bhavan or President’s House in New Delhi has been in the news recently for several reasons. The first was when the President of India, who stays in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, declined to entertain the mercy petition of several people like the Pakistani terrorist Kasab and Parliament House attacker, Afzal Guru both whom were hanged to death.

The Rashtrapathi Bhavan was in the news again when the President sought certain clarifications on a bill that the Congress Government wanted to pass regarding allowing convicted netas or politicians to contest elections. The Government wanted to pass an ordinance on the issue till the Bill was passed and, hence, they had sent the ordinance to the President for his approval.

However, there is another little bit of news from the President’s  office and this would please all Kannadigas. The magnificent library of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan is being renovated and refurbished.

The library too like the rest of the Bhavan was personally designed by Edward Lutyens. The main library is the focus of the restoration drive being taken up now and 24,000 books and manuscripts are in the queue for digitization. Of them, 4,000 have already been archived during the tenure of President A.P.J Abdul Kalam.

The main library room has a collection of over 2000 rare books published from 1800 to 1947 and they are stacked neatly by year of publication in the built-in shelves.

Often described as the daughter of the Durbar Hall, the library room located at the North-East corner of  sprawling building and it has an imposing interior. Two fire places make the room cosy for winter reading.

The library overlooks the Raisina Hill and it is being renovated as per Lutyens’ original design. Old and rare photographs and artifacts are being reintegrated to bring about harmony and old world taste.

Extra shelves that were added over the years to accommodate books have been removed and an old table that Lutyens himself designed, along with set of chairs inspired by his famous round spectacles occupies the pride of place.

The library, when built, was equipped with 60 feet of book cases, two fire places and a marble and golden yellow Jaisalmar stone. However, what would make Kannadigas rather proud is that the library has two rare books on Mysore and each is a masterpiece.

And the oldest book in the collection is one dating back to 1800 and this on is on Tipu Sultan (1743-1799), the Tiger of Mysore, or Tipu Sultaun as his name is spelt on the cover of the book.

The book is by Lt Col Alexander Beatson (1758-1830) and it is a beautiful  narrative of the operations of the combined armies of the British, French mercenaries and the Nizam of Hyderabad under the command of Lt Gen George Harris.

The combined forced laid siege to Srirangapatna and on May 4, 1799 killed Tipu in the battle. The body of Tipu was discovered several hours later lying under a heap of other bodies near the present Water Gate.

Beatson penned the book to bring he facts and incidents about the war and its aftermath to the attention of the chairman and directors of the East India Company. It was called “A View of the Origin and Conduct of the War against Tippoo Sultaun” and it was first published from London in 1800.

Beatson became a cadet in 1775 and the next year he was appointed as ensign in the Madras Infantry in India. He served as an engineer officer in the war with Hyder Ali.

As lieutenant, he served with the Guides in Lord Cornwallis’s campaigns against Tipu. In 1799, he was a field officer and  surveyor-general under Gen Harris in the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore war.

Another book is an 1810 volume called  “Historical sketches of the South of India”  by Col. Mark Wills.

The author says this is an attempt to trace the history of “Mysoor”, from “the origin of the Hindoo government of that state to the extinction of the Mohammedan dynasty in 1799”.

Mark Wilks  (1759–1831) was a Manx soldier and administrator. He was also the author of “Report on the Internal Administration of Mysore”. This document is a continuation of report of the survey of Mysore undertaken by Lt. Col Colin Mackenzie.

Wilks was the uncle of Mark Cubbon who was the Commissioner of Mysore and after whom the Cubbon Park in Bangalore is named.

Both the books shed light on the life and times of Tipu and the socio-economic condition of the then Mysore State. Both these books are rare and are of immense interest and importance to historians and researchers alike. These books came to the library when the capital of India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi and the office and residence of the Viceroy of India too was shifted to Delhi.

The books were part of the collection of the library of the Viceroy when they had their residence in Calcutta. Apart from these two books, there are scores of others on and from Karnataka but none as precious and as invaluable as these.

The bone setters of Bangalore Pete

“We shape our buildings; thereafter, our buildings shape us,”so said Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England and one of the great wartime leaders of all times.

This adage perfectly fits the City of Bangalore and more appropriately this was one of the few cities that the young Churchill lived and wooed his sweetheart at the iconic Waverly Inn in Whitefield, near Bangalore.

Legend has it that Churchill courted Rose Hamilton, the daughter of the inn keeper, James Hamilton. The young soldier that Churchill was then, frequented the inn regularly. Waverly today is one of the oldest houses in the area that still stands. It was owned in 1882 by James Hamilton who owned many properties in Whitefield.

Churchill might have been saying the adage about the building about the Inn in Whitefield. But this adage today is more appropriate to describe old and heritage buildings in Bangalore such as the Kayangadi Papanna Massage Institute in Akkipet, which is perhaps one of the oldest message and bone treatment centres of Bangalore.

The origin of  this building is shrouded in the past which goes back to more than 150 years. Bangalore was then just a small city and the Pete and Cantonment were two different areas. The Pete then comprised of old localities such as Akkipet, Cottonpet, Nagarthpet, Balepet, Chickpet, Ranasinghpet, Doddapet and all the petes had their own Garadi manes or wrestling centres.

It was sometime around 1860 and Tipu Sultan had died on May 4, 1799, leaving the British to meddle with the Mysore Kingdom. The British always had an eye on Bangalore and they coveted the city. However try as they might, they failed to get the Mysore Wodeyars to permanently hand over Bangalore to them.

The only way in which they could lay their hands on a piece of Bangalore was by setting up a Cantonment to station their garrison. When the Cantonment came about, the British began systematically destroying everything Indian and this included indigenous sports, industries, education system and even the social and religious fabric.

Wrestling or Kusti soon went into a tailspin as the British encouraged golf, polo, cricket and football. The number  of garadi manes in Bangalore began decreasing and there were only a handful of people who took to wrestling. Besides, most of the wrestlers shifted to Mysore as the Wodeyar Kings were patrons of Kusti.

Mysore, after the death of  Tipu, saw a resurgence of Garadi manes and man of them exist even today in the royal city. In those days, and I am talking of the period from 1800 to Independence, wrestlers from Bangalore and Mysore competed against each other.

One of Bangalore’s best known pehalwans or Kusti exponents was Kayangadi Papanna. This wrestler initially eked out his living in Bangalore by selling coconuts and he also had a shop in Akkipet selling coconuts.

According to a local legend, Papanna honed in his wrestling skills at the garadi manes and took part in many contests. A remarkably strong person, Pappanna soon earned renown as a foremost wrestler of Bangalore.

His fame spread far and wide and he displayed his skills before the Mysore Maharaja in Mysore where he defeated  more fancied opponents. The then Mysore Maharaja, Chamarejendra Wodeyar, the tenth, conferred the title Ustad on Pappanna in 1876.

By then, Pappanna had set up his own Garadi Mane and even a small clinic to treat injuries that wrestlers got while fighting or practicising.

Slowly, Pappanna retired from wrestling but the reputation of his clinic only began growing. Every year, saw more people flocking to the clinic to get their injuries treated. Over the years, the clinic transformed itself into what is now known as Kayangadi Papanna Massage Institute.

The institute was set up sometime in 1860 and it is today a well-known landmark of OTC Road in Akkipet. The institute is located just after another iconic building- the Tawakkal Mastan Darga.  

Papanna learnt how to make oils and tie bandages from a Muslim of the Pete. Initially, he treated his shishyas or budding wrestlers but his treatment became so popular that people began flocking to his clinic.

Even today, the descendents of Pappanan operate the institute and treat people suffering from a variety of bone ailments. There is no fixed charges but a box is kept nearby where patients are supposed to donate whatever money they can.

The institute has had celebrity patients, including two former Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs and R. Gundu Rao, a Maharaja who had backache and several other distinguished people.

Strangely, neither the buildings nor the OTC road itself which commences from BMP headquarters and goes all the way to Goods Shed Road, have changed in the last two centuries. It is on this road that the Dharmaraya Temple is situated and it is here that the famed Karaga commences.

Today, the institute has four branches and all of them are named after Kayangadi Papanna. However, the pone I am writing about is the Ustad Kayangadi Papanna’s Massage Institute in the Pete area. The address is  276/4, UKP Building, Akkipet Main Road (2287-5156). The timings are:  Monday to Saturday 8.30am-1.30pm and 4 p.m., to 8p m. Sundays 9 a. m., to 1p.m.

Churchill’s adage is an apt comment on the building that houses the institute. The institute today is much better known and more popular that the people who practice bone setting and provide a cure for other ailments. Want to check it out. Then head for the Pete and take in a slice of Indian history and culture. Mind you, the treatment is ayurvedic based and ayurveda is one of the oldest systems of medicine in the world. 

The informal economy of petes

Bangalore today is a bustling metropolis and is better known as the Silicon City. Gone are its earlier names such as Garden City or Pensioners Paradise.

The rapid urbanisation of Bangalore has seen many landmarks and heritage buildings and areas razed to the ground. What many do not know is that the establishment of the Cantonment by the British in Bangalore in 1806 signalled the beginning of the end of the Pete or Pettah area.

When the British decided to shift their troops from Srirangapatna to Bangalore, they compelled the ruling Wodeyar King of Mysore to transfer more than 9000 acres of land near Ulsoor lake to them for building a modern military establishment.

John Blackiston was entrusted with designing of the Cantonment. The British preferred to bring labourers and other people from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and ignored the old Pete or Pettah area which till 1799 was ruled by Tipu Sultan. They preferred to let the Pete area to be handled by the Mysore Government.

The moat around the fort was dried and the thorns surrounding them to a distance of 100 yards removed. The British guarded the Cantonment zealously and did not permit natives from the Pete to enter Cantonment.

Entry to Cantonment was regulated and Indians had to obtain passes to visit Cantonment, which soon became the second biggest garrison of the British in South India. The Cantonment had broad roads, avenue lined trees, lakes and tanks, parks, tastefully designed bungalows and vast open spaces, playgrounds, churches and of course military barracks.

The old pete continued to be grossly neglected. While the Pete areas were highly congested and overpopulated, the Cantonment soon overtook the pete both in terms of population and trade. The revenues of the Cantonment grew and more and more people migrated to the new City. Till 1911, the population of Cantonment continued to outstrip that of the Pete.

It was Kempe Gowda who laid out the petes in 1537 with permission from the Vijayanagar Emperor, Achuta Deva Raya. The Bangalore Pete area, which is rectangular, covers 2.5 km from east to west and 1.5 km from north to south. It was initially laid out north of the fort. Kempe Gowda had segregated each pete according to a particular trade and this continued well into the reigns of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and even later.

Both Kempe Gowda I and his son Kempe Gowda II invited businessmen, traders and artisans to settle down in Bangalore and each class of traders got a separate pete or locality. This is how Doddapet or big market, Chickpet or small market, Balepet or locality of bangle makers, Akki pete or rice market, Uppara pet or salt sellers area, Kumbara pet or pot makers area, Ganigarapet or oil makers and Arale pet or Cottonpet (textiles) came up.

Bangalore by then had emerged as an important trading centre. The trading activity went into a sharp decline when Tipu prohibited trading with Hyderabad. Arcot and Madras. When Tipu died in 1799, trading was almost non-existent in Bangalore.

However, once the Wodeyars took over the Pete area and the British the Cantonment, Bangalore once again picked up activity in commerce. People living in Pete areas began modifying their dwelling houses into commercial and business establishments. Since the petes had limited space, commercial establishments came up on the ground floor and houses on the first and second floors. Many landmark buildings were either pulled down or converted into business houses. The old palace of Shahaji in Chickpet was demolished to make way for buildings. Several houses, built decades earlier, were either repaired or pulled down to make way for business houses.

Soon, almost all independent houses in the petes made way for commercial establishments and even today the petes such as Balepet, Chickpet, Doddapet, Cottonpet, Mamulpet, Taramandalpet, Ranasinghpet, Nagarthpet, Akkipet and others areas host a variety of  shops, business establishments and commercial outlets.   

The explosion of trade and commerce in the pete areas and the rush of people forced the Government to go in for new layouts which were purely residential in nature and character. The great plague of 1898, which affected the pete, led to the founding of  Basavanagudi and Malleswaram. Other localities soon followed.

Thus, the pete city is the only known example in south India of  transforming itself into a commercial hub. There is no other such example.

Today, the Pete is in the heart of Bangalore and it has a population of over 2 lakhs. It lends itself to diverse land use with residential comprising 37.5 per cent, commercial: 34.6 per cent and industrial: 6.1  per cent. Medarpete is home to more than 500 families of Rajput community, while Muslims predominate Kumbarpete. The pete even today has temples, mosques and even churches, jostling for space with wholsesale traders and small retailers.

The pete has the largest informal economy in Bangalore. A  special feature of the Pete is the concentration of its activities on certain streets and neighbourhoods. The best example is the textile industry of Cubbonpet. Such specialization has encouraged access to information, led to formation of shop owners associations, distilled social regulations such as live-work culture.

One of the best description of the pete is found in Maratha chronicles called Bhaker such as Shiva Bhaker which described Bangalore of the period as a prosperous trading centre, stocked with shops selling goods and merchandise. The British work, “The Military History of Madras Engineers and Pioneers from 1743 up to the Present Time”, compiled by H.M. Vibart (1881). Bangalore as a major trading centre is also described in his work by Francis  Buchanan.

Buchanan visited Bangalore in 1800, just a few months after the death of Tipu in Srirangapatna in 1799 and he gives us a vivid account of Bangalore, Mysore and Srirangapatna. He says Bangalore was known for its varied products and commodities like blankets, cotton, silk, yarn, betel nut, black pepper, sandalwood and salt. He also says Bangalore had several industrial units relating to tanning, oil pressing and gunny manufacture.

Another work on Bangalore is Picturesque India: A handbook for European travelers by W. S. Caine. The Illustrations in the book serialized by The Spectator were by John Pedder, H. Sheppard Dale, and H. H. Stanton.

The book was first published 1890 by G. Routledge & sons, limited. Here, Caine says the pete has handsome houses of prosperous merchants.

Today, the houses may have gone but the trades remain and till the middle of the 20^th century they drove the economy of Bangalore. It was only when big public sector units set shop here and Bangalore became a manufacturing hub that the pete took a back seat.

Even the Government and the agencies have now realized the importance of keeping the Pete tradition and economy alive. The Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited has come up with a pre-feasibility report on revitalizing the pete area and reviving its economy.