3 Review(s)

After reading this book, a reader would feel that Mysore is not just a city but it is indeed a city ofpalaces and culture.It was in the summer of 1399 ad that disaster struck a small principality of Southern India.Mahisuru, which later went on to become Mysore, had lost its chieftain and was vulnerable to themachinations of a cunning upstart. Around the same time, two young aspirants left their ancestralhome in Dwaraka, Gujarat, and proceededSouthwards in search of fame. Yaduraya, the elder of the two aspirants, was destiny’s chosen manto lead a valiant attack against the vile upstart, rescue the family in distress, wed the princess andassume the lordship of the place. This event marked the birth of the Wodeyar Dynasty, which wasamong India’s longest reigning royal houses.In one of the most definitive accounts of the Wodeyar Dynasty, author Vikram Sampath sketches thislong and fascinating regime replete with wars, palace intrigues, romance, valour and deceit. From thegenesis in 1399, to the age of glory under Raja Wodeyar, Ranadhira Kanthirava Narasaraja Wodeyar and Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar, to the times of spineless monarchs who let the reigns of the kingdomslip into the hands of the powerful ministers, the book revisits the ups and downs of the Dynasty.The brief interlude under Haidar Ali and his son Tipu Sultan saw Mysore emerge as a veritablenightmare for the British East India Company. With Tipu’s death in 1799, power was restored tothe Wodeyars and they continued to hold sway over the region till the time of India’s Independence.Under progressive rulers and able Dewans, Mysore emerged as a front-runner State of India by thetime of Independence on all developmental indices—a strong foundation on which the modernstate of Karnataka was built.Vikram Sampath narrates the history of the Mysore royal family, documenting the victories,struggles, the tumultuous half century when they nearly lost their kingdom, to the glorious daysof what we now refer to as the Golden Age of Karnataka.