Wadiyar dynasty

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This article is part of a series about the Kingdom of Mysore
Kingdom of Mysore Mysore State Karnataka Ruling families Wadiyar dynasty Ruling titles Maharaja of Mysore Capitals Mysore Srirangapatna Bangalore (residence) Superiors Vijayanagara Empire (1399 - 1646) British Raj (1857 - 1947) Indian Union (1947 - 1950) Prime ministers Dewan of Mysore Alliance French Kingdom British Raj Related Famous leaders Chamarajendra Wadiyar X Krishnaraja Wadiyar III Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar Kempa Nanjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana Tipu Sultan M. Visvesvaraya Mirza Ismail Arts and culture during Mysore Kingdom Mysore Yoga Mysore literature in Kannada Musicians of the Kingdom of Mysore Famous events and moments Vani Vilas Regency Golden Era of Mysore Kingdom Mysore Dasara Vijayadashami Mysore Brand Mysore Incense (ಮೈಸೂರು ಅಗರ್ಬತ್ತಿ) Mysore Sandal Soap Mysore Sandalwood Oil Mysore Betels (ಮೈಸೂರು ವೀಳ್ಯದೆಲೆ) Mysore Jasmine (ಮೈಸೂರು ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆ) Mysore Turban (ಮೈಸೂರು ಪೇಟ) Mysore Paints, Mysore Inks Mysore Pak (ಮೈಸೂರು ಪಾಕ) Mysore Rosewood Inlay Mysore Kingdom landmarks Mysore Palace Mysore Zoo Krishna Raja Sagara Bangalore Town Mysore City List of Heritage Buildings in Mysore Mysore era firms and organisations Mysore Paper Mills Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited Shivanasamudra Hydro-Electricity Power Station State Bank of Mysore Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
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The Wadiyar dynasty (formerly spelt Wodeyer or Odeyer) (

During the late 14th century, the family was originally poleygars (Kannada for garrison) defending the regions in and around Mysore town for the Vijayanagara Empire, their feudal overlords. With the fall and decline of the empire in the 17th century, the Wadiyars declared independence when Raja Wadiyar seized the nearby town of Srirangapattana, the seat of Tirumala, Sriranga II's viceroy, in 1610.^[2] Between 1766 and 1799, when Hyder Ali and Tipu dictated the kingdom, the Wadiyar rulers as maharajas were largely nominal without any actual powers.^[3] After Tipu's execution in 1799, the British Crown which was ruling India at that time restored the kingdom back to the Wadiyars under a subsidiary alliance. After India's independence from the Crown, the ruling Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar ceded the kingdom into the newly formed Dominion of India.^[4]

Name

In Kannada, the common noun odeyaru (ಒಡೆಯರು; anglicised wodeyar or wadiyar) is the plural form of the singular odeya (ಒಡೆಯ) which means lord or lordship. The first poleygar and raja of Mysore, Yaduraya, assumed the term as his titular proper noun.

In Kannada, the common noun arasa (ಅರಸ; anglicised urs or ursu; anglicised plural ursus) means ruler or king. Members of the Wadiyar dynasty hail from the Urs clan;upon incarnation or by heredity, they assume the title Wadiyar and their immediate family therewith, the latest instance of its happening with the present head of the Wadiyar family Yaduveer Wadiyar upon coronation in 2015.^[5][6][7]

History

The Wadiyars claim descent from the deity

The Wadiyar dynasty started when Yaduraya, a garrison leader (poleygar), was made the prefect of Mysore and the surrounding regions his overlord Harihara II of the Vijayanagara Empire in 1399. With this, Yaduraya assumed the title Raja and the honorary surname Wadiyar. He and his successors ruled the fiefdom of Mysore as rajas under the vassalage of the Vijayanagara Empire until around 1553.

Independent kingdom

The Vijayanagara Empire disintegrated in 1565. With the fall of the empire, Mysore became an independent kingdom, the first independent king being Timmaraja Wodeyar II, the great-great-great-grandson of the founding ruler Yaduraya. Thimmaraja's nephew Raja Wodeyar I expanded the borders of the kingdom. In 1610, he moved the capital from Mysore to nearby island town of Srirangapattana on the river Kaveri, which provided strategic protection against military attacks. Raja Wadiya's cousin and successor down the line Kanthirava Narasaraja I expanded the frontiers of the kingdom to Trichy in present-day Tamil Nadu. The kingdom reached its peak under Kanthirava's grand-nephew Devaraja Wodeyar II, who reformed the administration of the kingdom by dividing it into 18 departments (called chavadis); he also introduced a coherent system of taxation.

• 
  Maharaja Raja Wadiyar who started Mysore Dasara
• 
  Maharaja Kanthirava Narasaraja I was referred to ranadheera (valiant on the battlefield)

Sultanate

From 1760 to 1799, the rule of the Wadiyar dynasty was essentially nominal, with real power firmly in the hands of the Commander-in-chief and later self-proclaimed sultan, Hyder Ali, and his son and successor Tipu. The two, ruling the sultanate from Srirangapattana, expanded the kingdom aggressively.

• 
  Hyder Ali, the commander-in-chief who usurped power
• 
  Ali's son Tipu, the Sultan of Mysore
• 
  The Kingdom of Mysore under Tipu

Independent kingdom in a subsidiary alliance

After

In 1868, upon Krishnaraja Wadiyar III's demise, his five-year-old adopted son Yuvaraja Chamaraja Wadiyar X became the heir to the throne. When in 1881 he attained the age of majority, through an act of parliament, the British Parliament once again transferred power back to the Wadiyars. The maharaja changed the English spelling of their royal name from Wodeyar to Wadiyar and assumed the title Bahadur. He established the Mysore Representative Assembly; for the first time in India, democratic experiments were being conducted in Mysore.

Chamaraja Wadiyar X's son and successor Maharaja

Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV's nephew, successor, and the last reigning king of the Wadiyar dynasty, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, ruled from 1940 until 1950. Upon India's independence from the British crown in 1947, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar ceded his kingdom into the new temporary Dominion of India but continued as Maharajah until India became a Republic in 1950.

• 
  Maharaja

  Krishnaraja Wadiyar III

  during his latter years
• 
  Golded coind during Krishnaraja Wadiyar III depicting Shiva holding his attributes of a trident and a deer, with his consort Parvati seated on his lap. The obverse reads: Sri Krishnaraja in Sanskrit
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  Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar X with his children
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  Crown prince Yuvaraja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV with two other Indian princes
• 
  Rajamate

  Kempananjammanni Devi with grandson and future king Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar

The Indian Constitution continued to recognise him as the Maharajah of Mysore until 1971, when titles and privy purses of maharajas were abolished by the Government of India under Indira Gandhi. The maharajah died in 1974.

His only son

Upon Srikantadatta Wadiyar's demise 2013, his widowed wife Devi Pramoda Wadiyar adopted Yaduveer Wadiyar, who was anointed as the maharaja of Mysore and the head of the family in 2015.

• 
  Jayachamaraja Wadiyar with Elizabeth II
• 
  Srikantadatta Wadiyar holding a private durbar during a Dasara festival
• 
  Yaduveer Wadiyar, the present head of the Wadiyar dynasty

Residences

Mysore Palace has been the official residence of the Wadiyars for most of the family's recorded history. Briefly, Srirangapattana was also the seat of the Wadiyars. By the early 1900s, Bangalore had seen significant infrastructural development and had become a secondary residence for the Wadiyars at the Bangalore Palace.

• 
  Mysuru
• 
  Bengaluru
• 
  Jaganmohan Palace served as a temporary residence in the early 1900s when the old Mysore Palace burnt down

Alamelamma's Curse

With a declining Vijayanagara Empire, in 1610 Raja Wadiyar conquered the fort of Srirangapattana from Tirumala, the Vijayanagara viceroy stationed there. Tirumala is said to have retired to the nearby town of Talakadu with his two wives. At about the same time, Tirumala suffered from a terminal disease; his condition deteriorated and he eventually died.

One of his wives was Alamelamma, a staunch devotee of Ranganayaki, the consort of Lord Ranganatha, the presiding deity of the famous Adi-Ranga temple in the island fortress of Srirangapatna. Alamelamma had a large amount of jewellery, including a fine nose ring studded with a large pearl. As a widow, customs forbade jewellery on her. She frequently lent the jewels to the temple of Ranganayaki. Every Tuesdays and Fridays, Ranaganayaki's idol would be decorated with the jewellery, returned to Alamelamma's safe custody for rest of the week.

On one instance, the temple requested the king's soldiers to fetch the jewels from Alamelamma as has become a practice. An approaching king's emissaries, headed by Chief Courtier Ramanath Molahalli, seems to have scared her off. To escape an ill-presumed imminent wrath of the king, she ran over to a cliff overlooking the Kaveri river into the whirlpool and cursed before plunging to her own death, "may Talakadu become a barren expanse of land, Malangi turn into a whirlpool, and may kings of Mysore never beget children to all eternity" (Kannada: ತಲಕಾಡು ಮರಳಾಗಲಿ, ಮಾಲಂಗಿ ಮಡುವಾಗಲಿ, ಮೈಸೂರು ದೊರೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಹೋಗಲಿ; transliteration: talakāḍu maral̤āgali, mālaṃgi maḍuvāgali, maisūru dŏrĕgal̤igĕ makkal̤illadĕ hogali).

Alamelamma's idol

Learning of this accident, the king felt repentant and had an idol of Alamelamma made in gold, installed it in the palace, and worshipped it as a deity. To this day, the idol can be found in Mysore Palace. The king's only surviving son, Narasaraja Wadiyar, died (believed to be an effect of the curse in folklore).

The Dasara festivities inside the palace end on the evening of Navarathri with a formal pooja to Alamelamma. Another interesting part of the story is that the Alamelamma temple is under the care of her legal heirs. Strangely, these priests/caretakers appear to be cursed by the same curse, following the same pattern afflicting the Wadiyars.

Talakadu and Malangi

Talakadu and Malangi are two small towns near

Raja Yaduraya is recorded as the founding ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. The sixteenth maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar I was the last direct male lineage of Raja Yaduraja.^[17] However, Krishnaraja Wodeyar I's successor was his adopted son, Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar VII from the Ankanahalli Urs branch. After him, Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar III's second daughter Rajakumari Chikkadevi's family with the Bettada Kote Urs branch takes over the monarchy.

Bettada Kote (Hill Fort) Urs branch

The Bettada Kote Urs was one of the larger jagirs, or feudal estates, in the Kingdom of Mysore. After the death of the 22nd ruler Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar VIII, his widowed queen mother Maharani Lakshmi Devi adopted Chamaraja Wodeyar IX of the Bettada Kote Urs branch which continues to-date.

Kalale Urs branch

Maddur Urs branch

Contributions

The Wadiyars were patrons of fine arts, fostering a number of famous musicians, writers and painters. Their contributions to music and literature has rendered the city of Mysore a cultural centre of Karnataka.

See also

• Diwan of Mysore
• Hyder Ali
• Karnataka
• Kingdom of Mysore
• Maharaja of Mysore
• Mysore
• Mysore State
• Srirangapatna
• Talakad

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wadiyar dynasty.

• The Wodeyars of Mysore (1578 A.D. to 1947 A.D.)
• Mysore – Imperial City of Karnataka
• Curse on Wodeyars: Documenting a Legend
• Curse on Wodeyars: ORAL TRADITIONS -Legend and history
• Coins of the Wodeyars
• The Wodeyar / Wadiyar Dynasty (Official Website of Mysore Palace)