The told & untold history of Mysuru Kingdom

The practise of Governments controlling the wealth exiting the country is fairly well documented. The Moghuls from their early days did so. There is documentation of how the Europeans vied for permissions of the Delhi court to conduct trade in the Indian subcontinent (1). And Alamgir Aurangzeb used the religious tax  Jeziya as a tool to control the prosperous Hindu traders and pheasants. Apparently quite a few categories of people including the Brahmans were exempted from Jeziya (2). Entrance to Moghul Emperor Akbar's palace at Ajmer, Rajasthan where his grandson Emperor Jahangir received Thomas Roe of East India Company on Mar 1616 Pic: Ameen Ahmed. Info source: ASI board at the site 1700s in Mysore Kingdom: People’s gold and invading armies But ever since the earliest organised Governance emerged, many Governments and rulers administering territories in what now is India have had their lust for their subjects wealth go beyond the taxes they impose. Surely ther...

Kodi Basaveswara Swamy Temple, popular as 'Kodi Basava' Among the many landmarks of old Tumakuru, an important city in the Old Mysore region of Karnataka state is the Kodi Basaveswara Swamy Temple, popular as 'Kodi Basava'. Residents of Tumakuru City have fond memories of this temple particularly when the city was a small town. It is located at the south-western edge of the expansive Tumakuru Amanikere. In the days gone by it was the first landmark as one entered the town north from Sira along the old National Highway 4, before the new city by-pass was built. I visited the temple in October 2016 and interacted with Mr. Naveen, the temple priest. According to him, this temple is the most important of all Lingayat temples in the city. He said the temple was built during the time of Sri Siddlingeshwara Swamy (1), a revered Lingayat saint in 15th century. According to legend, villagers were trying to build a 'weir' ('kodi' in Kannada). But for some re...

Summary Religious persecution is a hotly debated topic in India. But instances where people of a religion are killed by kings or warriors of their own religion are rarely looked into. A dispassionate look at such incidents can be done so by visiting those time periods and understanding the prevailing social, political and economic situations. This will help us understand the complex history of a diverse country like India and answer many questions raised in the on-going debates on religion based conflicts. This article looks into one such phase in the history of Karnataka and modern Hinduism, where people belonging to the Lingayat sect were persecuted and mass murdered by a king who practised Hinduism. Conflicts of late 17th and 18th centuries Thanks to religion-based politics being practised by various political parties, we often hear of the many conflicts between kings of different faiths, which resulted in the death and destruction of people belonging to the losing king’s f...