The Quadrilateral Goddesses of Bangalore

Last week, my daughters wore woken up from their afternoon snooze by the sound of drum beats. The beats were intermittent: yet they were sounded in perfect unison. The rhythm of the beats compelled my five-year olds to leave the safety of their house and head towards the place from where a cacophony of sounds was coming.

When we reached the Byresandra Main Road in Jayanagar 3^rd Block, we found that the drums were being sounded as part of a procession of garishly decorated floats which was accompanied by a fairly large crowd of villagers or rather rural folk.

The floats, on closer look, were goddesses but none of them were familiar to us. A query to the man leading the procession elicited the answer.

The float was an annual tribute to Bangalore’s oldest Goddesses-the four quadrilateral sisters-Annamma, Patalamma, Gadagamma and Muthyallamma.

All the four plus two others were being taken around in a procession and while Patalamma was from Elephant Rock Road near South End in Jayanagar, the rest were from different localities.

Anamma had come from Majestic, riding in her chariot as behoves an elder sister-you see all the three mentioned above are her younger sisters. Gadagamma had come from Domlur and  Muthyallamma from Shivajinagar.

All four are Grama Devethes and all of them are considered to be pox  healers. The oldest and perhaps the first among the Grama devathe is Anamma.

Anamma stands on Subedar Chatram Road in Majestic and the huge populace that flows by the temple seems oblivious of the historicity of the temple and the Goddess. Generally considered to be patron Goddess of Bangalore, she was right from the time of Kempe Gowda, the presiding deity of Bangalore.

The temple once stood just off the magnificent Dharmambudhi Tank. This tank was one of the outer tanks of Bangalore built by Kempe Gowda. It had an outlet that carried excess rain water to the inner tank of Siddi Katte, which is today’s City Market. (Kempe Gowda conceived the idea of outer and inner tanks to ensure that excess water from outer tanks flowed into the inner tanks.)

Today, neither Siddi Katte nor Dharmambudhi tank survive. The Siddi Katte is now a bustling locality called City Market and Dharmambudhi tank the Subashnagar bus stand.

Similarly, the Patalamma temple too is bereft of the pristine Kanakanapalya lake which today is named as Lalbagh lake. The Laklbagh lake is now enclosed within the walls of the Lalbagh and the Patalamma temple stands just opposite the Elephant rock in erstwhile Kanakanapalya, now Jayanagar 3^rd Block and Jayanagar 2^nd Block.

Patalamma descended from the sky when she saw the present spot. She got a temple built for herself. The temple survives but even the neighbours are unaware of the history.

The Gadagamma temple is in Dimlur, now known as Domlur. It was once close to Challaghatta tank but the waters of the tank have receded and the temple stands near the better known Chokkanatha Temple.

The temple is surrounded by one of the area’s busiest markets. As far as Muthyallamma goes, she is located near the busy Shivajinagar busstand.

If Muthyalamma is the grama devathe (village deity) of the Cantonment, Patalamma is the presiding deity of Kanakanapalya, Gadagamma of Domlur and Anamma or Anyamma, the grama devathe of the City area.

Interestingly, all the four sisters are well-known in the annals of City’s history for curing all varieties of poxes, including plague. Infact, Muthyalamma's history can be traced to the Great Plague of Bangalore that claimed hundreds of lives.

Thus, these four sisters form the quadrilateral deities of Bangalore and this is the tale I told my daughters. Unfortunately, in the rush to head towards the procession, I forget the camera and, hence, could not take any photographs. The procession was being held to herald the birthday of Patalamma and her sisters had come to Kanakanapalya to wish her.

However, I promised my daughters and myself that I would take photographs of the temples and post it along with the article.     

When Lalbagh housed a zoo

Today, this is one of the finest and most diverse botanical gardens in India. It also ranks among the best of its kind in the world. It is a must see for any tourist or visitor and for centuries it has its own tae to narrate.

Thousands of years ago, it was a burial place and several fragments belonging to the Paleolithic age have been recovered from the place. Over the centuries, it also became a place where some battles took place and even today a hero stone exists, standing a mute testimony to what it had been.

In the 18^th century, it was well-known for its mango grooves and a small lake besides it. On one side of the lake was the ancient temple of Patalamma. Today, the lake has shrunk in size and the Patalamma temple is just a small forgotten relic of the past.

Even as the temple lies almost forgo0tten on Elephant Rock road in Jayanagar, the botanical garden still survives.

The botanical garden has been much enlarged and there is no trace of the mango groove. Today, the botanical garden is better known as Lalbagh and it is visited by millions of tourists and visitors alike.

Lalbagh has earned  name on the tourist and horticulture map of the world but very few know that this once verdant garden was also a zoological garden. Yes, the botanical garden also doubled up as a zoo and it existed till 1937 when the zoological gardens were dismantled and all the animals shifted.

Today, the Bannerghatta National Park is the only place near Bangalore where you can see a variety of  wildlife, including lions and tigers.

Of course, there are small sanctuaries and patches of forests around Bangalore where you can see wildlife but none can match the variety of  Bannerghatta, which is one of the largest zoological gardens in India.

Lalbagh, till 1937, was not only a botanical delight spread over 249 acres but also a zoo where the animals were housed in a special enclosure in the sprawling garden.

Apart from several cages, the garden also boasted of one of the best aviaries in Bangalore region. It also had a new and separate enclosure for deer, which was dismantled a few years ago after stray dogs attacked the deer and killed several of them.

Records available at the Horticulture Department in Lalbagh testify to the fact that the garden once boasted of housing not only tigers but even wolves, rhinos, bears, Black panther, monkeys, peacocks, Black swans, Cockatoos and other small animals like rabbits.

One of the first carnivorous animals housed in Lalbagh was the Black panther which in 1862.

There is an interesting record which says that a lioness escaped from its cage in Lalbagh in 1887. The lioness wandered around Lalbagh, scaring people away before it was caught and caged again. Luckily, there was no loss of life or even injury though the tigress gave many anxious moments to the staff manning Lalbagh.

The escape of the tigress led to a general outcry that its cage was not strong enough. However, the cages of other carnivorous animals, including panthers and wolves were fund to be sufficient strong to prevent their escape.

The carnivorous animals continued to enjoy their stay in Lalbagh till 1902 when the Mysore Government decided to shift them to the Zoological Garden in Mysore. Ten years later, in 1930, the other animals were shifted to Mysore Zoo as their accommodation in Lalbagh was found to be inadequate.        

The 1930s also saw the shifting of a large number of monlys frm Lalbagh to the Mysore Zoo and the Monkey House was repaired and modified into a picnic house for women wearing veils and purdah.

In 1938, the Forest Department gifted an elephant to Lalbagh and this elephant was used by the department staff to provide a ride for both adults and children. While adults were charged two annas for a ride, it was just an anna for a child.

The zoo was a brainchild of James Cameroon, the Superintendent of Lalbagh from 1874 to 1908. For Cameroon, the zoo was meant to provide entertainment for children.  

The Zoo was one of Cameroon’s many pet projects. Though some animals had been kept in enclosures in Lalbagh since 1866, Cameroon went about adding to the collection of plants and animals.  There was an outcry when he paid a princely sum of Rs. 50 for purchasing a tiger cub for his Lalbagh zoo. He also paid money to purchase gibbons and orangutans. He also paid Rs. 1,000 for importing a male orangutan from Sumatra.

There is no trace of the zoo today and all tat can be seen is the many birds and reptiles that grace the garden. There are scores of birds and at least 31 species can be seen at the Lalbagh lake.

Summers don't matter in this palace

This summer Mysore experienced a severe water shortage and this could have multiplied had not Hemavathy water be let into the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam to meet the drinking water needs of the growing populace.

This summer also saw a large number of tourists making a beeline to Mysore and its famed surroundings. Almost every tourist who came to Mysore never went back without seeing the main palace or the Mysore palace, Chamundi Hills and the  Zoological gardens.

The scorching summer left scores of tourists parched for water and the sight of the animals in the zoo was pitiable. But strangely, there was no water shortage in the palace premises, which even today remains the second highest visited monument in India after the Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

If the main palace attracted 30 lakhs tourists and visitors in 2012, nearly 35 lakhs had visited the magnificent three-storied Indo-Sarcenic structure whose foundation was laid in 1897 and completed in 1912. The palace, designed by Sir Henry Irwin, cost a little more than R. 41 lakhs.

The palace, Palace Board members say, did not suffer much from the severe water crunch that affected almost all localities of Mysore. This is because of the huge tanks that were built by the Wodeyar Kings when they built the palace.

The terrace of the palace has no less than a dozen water tanks with a combined capacity of 1.20 lakhs litres of water. These tanks not only provide water to the members of the royal family still living in a portion of the palace but also to the offices of the Palace board and lakhs of visitors.

These water storage tanks are on the third floor of the palace and are under the domes of the structure. Each tank has been so designed that it can store 10,000 litres of water. Of the 12 tanks, six provide water to the Palace and the rest provide water to the offices of Mysore Palace Board.

The tanks have been so constructed that they keep the palace cool even in sweltering summers. Till recently, Cauvery water was pumped directly into these tanks but this has now been stooped and the eight borewells within the palace compound have taken over this job.

Each borewell is fitted with a 5 HP motor and they pump 30,000 litres of water to these overhead tanks. By the way, the fire extinguishers in the palace care connected directly to these tanks and in case of a fire, they can be used to douse the flames.

The palace is one of the few in India to have rainwater harvesting. The Palace Board has joined hands with the National Institute of Engineering to harvest 23 lakh liters of rain water. Two huge tanks, one with a capacity of 14.58 lakh litres and another with a capacity of 8.58 lakh litres, have been constructed in the palace compound to store rain water and when they are full, they can meet the water needs for an entire year.

The palace had harvested 60 lakh litres of rain water last year and it has set a goal of harvesting  one crore litres through surface water rain water harvesting during the current monsoon.

Rain water harvesting is taken up by he board in five stages. In the first stage, 80,000 litres of water is stored and in the second stage 2.2 lakh litres of water is stored. In the third phase it is 3.2 lakh litres of water, four lakh litres of water is stored and the last stage would see 10 lakh litres stored. This process will be repeated ten times an year to achieve the target of  one crore litres.

How Madras and Bowring strove to deny Wodeyars the Mysore Kingdom

When the British took over the administration of the Mysore Kingdom from 1831 to 1868, the Maharaja of Mysore became a mere puppet with absolutely no powers.

All the powers of the State were exercised by the Resident  or Commissioner of Mysore and the East India Company at Madras looked after the overall state of the Kingdom.

It was William Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, who recommended to the Board of Directors of the East India Company that Mysore be taken over and his recommendation was immediately accepted.

The Madras Government had in 1831 falsely represented to the British Government that the Mysore Kingdom had failed to pay the annual sum of Rs. 34,50,500 due to it. This amount had to be paid by Mysore every year as part  of the Subsidiary alliance that the kingdom was forced to enter into with the British after the death of Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799.

The British had in 1799 reinstalled the five year-Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar to the throne of Mysore and even participated in his coronation in Nazarbad , Mysore.

Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar turned out to be a King among Kings. He had the welfare of the people at his heart and he undertook many developmental works. Unfortunately, the Nagar rebellion of 1803-31 not only shook the Wodeyars but also put the British n a fix.

Citing the non-payment of the annual tribute as a wrong, Bentinck recommended the takeover of the Kingdom and this was done immediately.  

When Bentinck decided to enforce the provisions of the Treaty and wrote to the Maharaja asking him to surrender the

administration of the State to the Company, the King did so without even a murmur. Ironically, the letter by Bentinck was handed over to the Maharaja when he was celebrating

the Dasara festivities in 1831.

The Maharaja, made no attempt to evade the letter or delay the handing over of the power. He handed over the reins of Government and a Commission of British Officers was established to administer the country in the King’s name.

When Bentinck had the Mysore accounts examined by the Accountant General, he was horrified to find that the Kingdom had been regularly paying the annual tribute though it was a heavy drain on its resources. He also found the charge of financial mismanagement of the state coffers levied by the Madras Government against Mysore to be flimsy and false.

Bentinck regretted his hasty action and more than once said in India and in England that this was the only act in India that he looked back upon with deep sorrow.

A gentleman, he acknowledged his error and placed it on record that he had been  “misled into hasty action by the exaggerated representations of the Madras Government.” He doubted the legality and justice of what he had done and suggested that three-fourths at least of the territories of Mysore should be immediately restored to the Maharaja and the remaining portion could be  temporarily retained as a guarantee for the subsidy.

However, the Court of Directors  of the East India Company did not agree with the proposal and they decided to go ahead with administering Mysore for some more time.  

Mysore continued to be in British hands till 1868. The Maharaja, till then, never kept quiet. He continued canvassing for the return of his kingdom and enlisted the services of many people, including Britishers. He write to the Governors-General who followed Bentinck and sought their good offices in the return of his Kingdom. Meanwhile, even public opinion began building up against the British and in favour of the Maharaja.

When Lewin Bentham Bowring took over as the Commissioner in 1863 from Mark Cubbon (1834-1863), he immediately found out that the King and his subjects were keen to see and end to British rule. He instantly and unfairly took a dislike to the King and made all efforts to see that the Kingdom was returned to the Maharaja.    

Throughout his tenure from 1863 to 1870, Browning spared no effort in trying to tarnish the image of the Maharaja. Even trivial events were exaggerated to deliberately portray the Maharaja in poor light.

Mr. Bowing paid his first formal visit to the Maharaja on April 30,

1862, and the description of  the escort he gives of it shows how deeply he was prejudiced against the King. He called the escort at best a “heterogeneous rabble draped in bright colors and adept at only making a noise.” He further remarked that by sending such an escort, the Maharaja had “done honor to himself”.

The grandson of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, who received Bowring at the Mysore palace, was “a loutish looking youth.

Bowring claimed that during the interview, the Maharaja only spoke about the injustice meted out to him and the Dewan looked terribly frightened and did his part “very badly. Bowring then pats himself on his back, saying “but the Commissioner, wise and sagacious man that he was, ., shook his heard like Lord Burleigh but did not commit himself to any opinion on the Maharaja’s opinion.”

Bowring’s pride and ego took a severe beating when he  found that the Maharaja did not consult him about the many steps he had taken for getting back his Kingdom. The Maharaja, by then had come to rely more heavily on Campell, his doctor and others.

Bowring then writes that when he heard of the exertions of the Maharaja, he sent for the Dewan Bakshi Narasappa and told him that “His Highness better make known all his wishes

through him (Bowring) to the Government.

In England too, public opinion was building up against the arbitrary action of the British in taking over the Mysore Kingdom.  

Liberal thinkers like John Stuart and John (later Viscount) Morley took up the matter with the British Government.

On his part, Bowring continued his tirade against the Maharaja and continued his petty ways. All this was of no avail when in 1868 the British handed back Mysore to Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar.

So much so for the Indian reverence to Bowring and the manner in which he is lionized in Bangalore as one of its modern builder. My simple point is this. If Indians can forget and forgive Bowring for stalling the transfer of power of the Mysore Kingdom and credit him with the development of Bangalore, why can’t they forget the shortcomings of Tipu Sultan and agree that he is a freedom fighter. To me, the way we look at both these personalities, it shows our double standards.

The cop who stopped a Maharaja

The recent brouhaha over the suspension of a police inspector of Mysore merely on the ground that he had booked a case against the son of the present Chief Minister of Karnataka shows both the Chief Minister and the police in poor light.

While the media has highlighted the action of the Commissioner of Police, Mysore, in suspending an inspector for booking a case against the Chief Minister’s son during the recent Assembly elections, it has not highlighted similar incidents in the past and how the high and mighty dealt with it.

This is the story of one of the finest police officers of Mysore, who even today is fondly remembered by old timers and many in the police department for his devotion, strictness and uprightness. This cop, till date, remains the only person to have flagged down the Maharaja’s car.

This is how the incident happened and more importantly please note the manner in which the Maharaja behaved.

It was sometime in the 1950s and Mysore then was a small City and its most important resident was the Maharaja, Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar (1919-1974).

The Kingdom of Mysore had acceded to India and the Maharaja had only his palaces and property and no kingdom. Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar was the last Maharaja of Mysore (his son-Srikantadatta Natasimharaja Wodeyar is only a Yuvaraja.) and though he had signed the Instrument of Accession with India in August 1947, the State was merged with the Republic of India only on January 26, 1950.

Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar also held the position of  Rajpramukh of the State of Mysore from January 26, 1950 to November 11, 1956 and the Governor of the unified state of Mysore (after the integration of the neighboring Kannada-majority parts of the States of Madras and Hyderabad) from November 1,1956 to May 4, 1964. He was also the Governor of the State of Madras (Tamil Nadu) from May 4, 1964 to June 28,1966.

At his death, aged 55, on September 23, 1974, he was the last living prince of the erstwhile princely states with a 21-gun salute.

Coming back to the story of the Maharaja and the cop, Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar was in Mysore and one evening, he went out for an official engagement. When he was proceeding to the Rajendra Vilas Palace on Chamundi Hills from his main palace, it was already late in the evening and the street lights had already been switched on. Suddenly, the speeding car jerked to a abrupt halt.

The Maharaja’s driver had been signaled by a cop to halt. When the Maharaja rolled down the windows and looked out, he found Kuttappa, the traffic cop.

Kuttappa saluted the Maharaja and addressed him respectfully saying that it was evening and the car’s headlights-this car was a Rolls Royce with the royal insignia- had not been switched on. This, Kuttappa said, is a traffic offence.

What do you think was the reaction of the Maharaja. He apologized for the lapse, chided the driver and asked him to switch on the headlights. Needless to say, Kuttappa stepped aside and allowed the car to proceed to the Chamundi Hills.

Now, contrast the behavior of the Maharaja with our present day Maharajas and these are our politicians and bureaucrats. They love ostentation, honors, escorts, red beacons and what not. Forget about filing a case, see what happens if you dare to cross their path or overtake them on the road. Remember the incident of a minister in the previous BJP Government who let all hell loose when his car was overtaken by an ordinary person on a road.

There are numerous other instances but I have concentrated only on Mysore as both the incidents occurred in the royal city-one literally involving the Maharaja and another a man who claims to take pride on belonging to the common stock.  

This photographer became the Commander-in-Chief of India

A photograph, the adage goes,  can say what a hundred words cannot. A photograph perhaps is the most faithful representation of a person or a building.

The word photograph is derived from the Greek photos- for light and -graphos for drawing. This process of  creating and recording durable  images was started in the early years of the 19^th century and the first permanent photoetching was an image produced in 1822 by the French inventor Nicephore Niepce, but it was destroyed by an attempt to duplicate it. Niépce once again invented the whole process and was successful 1825. He made the first permanent photograph from nature with a camera in 1826.

Almost a century later, a British military officer, who had visited Mysore Kingdom, stayed back in Mysore for a few days and he took a photograph of the Maharaja’s palace.

This photograph of the magnificent palace was taken sometime in the early years of the 20^th century and it today remains the only known photograph (there are many painting though of the palace) of the wooden palace that was first constructed 1803.

Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, was killed in the battle of Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799 and the five-year-old, Mumadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the third (1794-1868), was placed on the throne at a hastily arranged coronation in a elaborately designed pandal near workmen sheds in present day Nazarbad. Mysore.

After the ceremony, the King’s family members, (the King was just a child to understand anything), Dewan Purnaiah and the British agreed that a palace was needed to house the King and the royal family as Tipu had razed to the ground the earlier palace of the Wodeyars at Puragere, the village which once stood near the present location of the palace.

A wooden palace was commissioned to be built and it was hastily completed in 1803 and Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar moved into the palace with his family.

The “Srimanmaharajaravara Vamsavalli”, which is the official annal of the Mysore royal family or the Wodeyars, contains details of this wooden palace and also the Rajas and Maharajas of  Wodeyar dynasty who lived in the palace from the 14th century.

However, the first definite mention of the palace is in 1638 when the Vamsavalli says the palace was struck by lightning and partly damaged during the reign of  Ranadhira Kantirava Narasaraja Wodeyar. He rebuilt the palace and also made a few additions. It was this palace that Tipu had razed to the ground and compelled the royal family, including the King, to shift to Srirangapatna, his capital.

Other references to the coronation and the subsequent construction of  the wooden palace is first by the then Duke of Wellington in 1799 that “there was no stately structure or house at all in the city suitable for the enthronement of the young raja” and, therefore, the coronation had to take place in a shamiana at Nazarbad.

The next reference to the Mysore Palace is in a correspondence by Col. Wellesley who wrote that the Raja's family has moved into old Mysore where their ancient palace has been rebuilt in the same form in which it was earlier.”

The Mysore Gazeteer says the wooden palace came to be constructed at almost exactly the same spot as was the earlier palace. However, this palace had very little fire safety norms and wood had been liberally used to embellish it. The hastily constructed palace soon fell into disrepair and it was in pretty bad shape in the later years of the 19^th century.

The late T.P. (Tribhuvan Prakash) Issar (1969-2004), former Chief Secretary, historian  and an author on books on Bangalore and Mysore, said in “Mysore-the Royal city” that “the wooden palace was an old structure of great extent, separated by open courts, in the Indo-Saracenic style. He quotes from a report of 1890 published in Indian Engineering.

Indian Engineering noted that the wooden palace’s interior was richly decorated, while the exterior was quite commonplace.   
The wooden palace was typical Hindu in style and the Darbar hall, reception hall and other rooms of State were on the first floor, while the ground floor had a fairly large open space.

The floors were a mix of plaster and mortar and the pillars, beams and some walls were made of wood. In 1897, during the closing ceremony of  Princess Jayalakshmi Ammani’s wedding, a fire in the kitchen blazed out of control, and the palace was almost completely destroyed.

Only the temple of Atmavilas Ganapthi was left standing, along with its silver doors and this was incorporated in the new building whose construction was started by the Regent Vanivilasa Sannidhana in 1897 itself-a few months after the blaze.

Unfortunately, though there are many photographs of  Mysore then, its surroundings, buildings, parks and playgrounds and  even the royal family, there is none except a lone photograph of the burnt down wooden palace.

This lone photograph was taken by a British officer who was commissioned in the 12^th Royal Lancers. This officer later went on to become the Commander-in-chief of the British Indian Army from 1925 till 1930 and he retired as Filed Marshal of both British Army and the Australian Army.

This officer is none other than William Riddell Birdwood (1865-1951).

Birdwood came to Bangalore sometime in 1886 and visited Mysore. When in Bangalore, he participated in the regimental sports and suffered two falls from a horse. He learnt Hindustani and passed higher secondary in the subject on August 4, 1886.

He then traveled to Mysore and from there went to Ooty before joining the 11^th Bengal Cavalry in Nowgong on December 19, 1886.    

Birdwood photographed the Mysore palace in 1886, a full eleven years before it burnt down.

Birdwood had a distinguished military career, winning several honors and serving under Lord Kitchner. He came back to India and in 1920 he was made the General Officer Commanding of the Northern Command (Army) in India in 1920 and Commander-in-chief of the Indian Army in 1925.

Birdwood visited Mysore in 1929 and when he met the Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the fourth, he handed over the photograph he had taken of the wooden palace.

By then, the wooden palace had been replaced with the present palace. The grateful royal family has since then preserved the photograph. To this day, this remains the only photograph of the wooden palace.

Apart from this photograph, the only other similar artifact is a wooden miniature replica of  the palace. This replica can still be seen in the Mysore palace.

An English school that owes nothing to Macaulay and everything to a Raja

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) is credited with having introduced English education in India and books on history and education by both Indians and foreigners have “tomtommed” this fact so much so that an English speaking Indian is even called a Macaulay’s child.

While it is true that Thomas Macaulay pushed for English as a medium of education in India, it is wholly wrong to credit the Britisher with the concept of English in India and in schools.

A few years even before Macaulay came up with his seminal :Minutes on Education”, meant for India in which he advocated English as a language, there was already a school in a princely state that was teaching in English.

The native state was Mysore and the King who introduced it in his capital was Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar (1794-1868), the third.  The Raja was enthroned back on the Mysore royal seat after the death of Tipu on May 4, 1799 in Srirangapatna. However, in 1831, the British took over the administration of the State, citing maladministration.

The unperturbed Raja, however, went about his task with equanimity. Though he accepted the takeover, it did not stop him from voicing his rights with the British over the injustice meted out to him and the need for them to revert back Mysore to him as per the articles of the Subsidiary Alliance that he had signed with the British.

He was well versed in many languages and a scholar in Sanskrit and a writer. He realized the importance of teaching English to his subjects and he set up what could possibly be one of the earliest such institutions in native India-provinces ruled by Indian rulers.

This was how the Maharaja's High School came into being in Mysore in 1833. The Maharaja saw the institution as one offering free education in elementary English. The Raja's Free School as it was known then taught English to Indians, employing Englishmen and Anglo-Indians.

Thus this school, whose contribution is forgotten now, was the pioneer of English education in India and this was a few years before Macaulay’s Minutes on Education.

What surprises me is that votaries of Macaulay and his minutes of education forget the reason why Macaulay wanted Indians to be taught English. This reason is the principle underlying the minutes and it was aimed at perpetual preservation of the British Raj.

However, the Raja's Free School had no such agenda. Initially housed in a building near the Residency (Government Guest House today), it offered primary education till 1863 after which it was upgraded to a high school.

In 1879, a college too was set up at Nazarbad and the institution shifted to its present building in 1893.

The High school boasts of some of the best known Indians such as novelist R K Narayan, his brother R K Laxman and former Chief Minister D Devaraja Urs.

More than anything else, the school was beacon to Indians to learn Emglish along with their native tongue, a factor not envisaged by Macaulay in his minutes.   

The Mysore school was established in 1833, a good two years before the “Minute on Indian Education” by Macaulay in February 1835.

In his Minute, Macaulay called for a educational system to establish solidly a class of anglicised Indians who would serve as cultural intermediaries between the British and the Indians. He had favoured the replacement of Persian and Sanskrit with English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.

Macaulay convinced the then Governor-General, William Bentinck, to adopt English as the medium of instruction in secondary education, from the sixth year of schooling onwards/

He strongly believed that the body of writing available in Sanskrit and Arabic was no match for the scholarship available in English. He stated this implicitly in the Minute: “All the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England.”

So much for Macaulay and his English. Contrast this with the Mysore Maharaja’s selfless gesture. Which of the two would you choose.  

When Bangalore went football crazy

Over the last week, almost everybody that I met spoke about betting and match fixing in cricket. Many keenly followed the news being repeatedly out by television channels. While all talk turned to cricket, and the old gentlemen players, G.R. Vishvanath, B.S. Chandrashekar, E.A.S. Prasanna, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad and many others, very few cared to remember that Bangalore was even a few decades ago more known for football than cricket.

Bangalore, till the 1970s, boasted of leading the nation in football and any were the stars who started their illustrious career in Bangalore and went on to wear the national colours. Almost a dozen of them represented India in Olympics and other international tournaments. Unfortunately, none seem to care for them or even remember their names.  Bangalore's earliest connection with football goes back to the matches in which Indians took on Italian prisoners of war during the second world war. A large number of Italians who were taken as prisoners of war by the British were shipped to India and thousands of them made their way to Bangalore.

The Italians stayed at prisoner camps in Jalahalli, Binamangala  and a few smaller places in Cantonment. It's been a long journey since then, with the city throwing up some great players and fighting teams. The Italians loved romancing the many European women , dancing and football, though not necessarily in that order.

Initially, the Italians played football against each other. Very soon, the British guards, particularly the members of the 26^th/5th Mahratta Light Infantry raised at Belgaum on March 1, 1942, by Lieut.-Colonel H. S. I. Pearson, were exclusively tasked with the job to guard these prisoners from 1942 to 1944.

The guards were attracted by the Italian ball magic and naturally the next thing was matches between the guards and their prisoners. Later, there were matches between the Italians and locals and British and locals. The Sullivan police grounds, BRV grounds, Garrison grounds in Cantonment and Jalahalli were the places where the initial football matches were held.

The craze for football soon spread from the Civil and Military Station to the Pete municipality of Bangalore or the Bangalore which was administered by the Wodeyars. The YMCA grounds and Cottonpet hosted many matches even as other areas such as Austin Town, Murphy Town took to football like a duck to water.     

 By the time the second world war ended, Bangalore had become football crazy and there were clubs such as Mysore Rovers, Bangalore Sporting, Bangalore Blues and Bangalore Muslims.

These clubs clashed with each other frequently and their matches at Sullivan Grounds drew houseful crowds.

Many a player made a cut at the Austin Town football ground and the ground produced India’s greatest ever goalkeeper in P.K. Nandan. Today the football ground is known as Nandan Grounds.

Old timers fondly reminiscence that Austin Town was the place where football in Bangalore took its birth.  The first Olympians came from here and the likes of Sarangapani Raman, Kannaiah, Thulukhanamm Shanmugham, and  J. Anthony were part of the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. Shanmugham, who led India to our first victory in the Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi.

Two other footballers , K.V. Varadarajan and Vajravelu, were from the Oklipuram, while SA Basheer, MA Sattar, P Venkatesh, KP Dhanraj, Ahmed Khan and M Kempaiah were from Ulsoor and Gowthampura areas of Cantonment area.

Ahmed Khan is still a legend in Bengal as he donned the cap for East Bengal for 13 years during which time he made his mark. He was part of the greatest line up in the 50s and it included the five pancha pandavas- Apparao, Dhanraj, Venkatesh, Saleh and Ahmed himself.

Players like Mewalal, Rahamat, Somanna, Lakshminarayana and Murugesh represented Bangalore Muslims and then went on to play for the Calcutta clubs. Bangalore Muslims became a formidable team in the 1940s and it won the Rovers Cup in 1948. Earlier, it had beaten British teams in 1937 and again in 1938 to win the Rovers Cup.

Local tournaments such as Stafford Cup and Ashgold Cup drew large crowds and football till the 1907s was the toast of Bangalore.

In the 1960s and 70s, public sector industries set up football clubs of their own and the most famous among them was ITI and HAL. The rivalry between the two on filed was legendary and their matches drew packed houses.

ITI was one of the strongest teams in India and it was founded in 1956. It went on to win the inaugural Federation Cup tournament in 1977.  

Football went into a decline from the 1980s even as the love of cricket grew. Today, many tournaments have either faded out or have lost their sheen. Football matches today barely draw crowds as opposed to huge turnouts during cricket matches.