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The Complete History of Mysore

Reference

Glossary

AgraharaAdministration
A village or settlement granted to Brahmin scholars, usually revenue-free, recorded extensively in Ganga and Hoysala inscriptions.
Amara-nayakaAdministration
The Vijayanagara system assigning revenue-bearing territory to a warrior chief in exchange for maintaining troops for the empire.
BasadiArchitecture
A Jain temple, especially in Karnataka; Ganga-period basadis survive across the region.
DalavayiAdministration
Commander-in-chief of the Mysore army; between 1734 and 1761 dalavayis held effective power over the Wadiyar kings.
DewanAdministration
Chief minister of the state of Mysore, the pivot of its administration from Purnaiah (1799) to Mirza Ismail (1941).
GandabherundaCulture
The two-headed mythical bird used as the royal insignia of Mysore and today the emblem of the Government of Karnataka.
GangavadiGeography
The territory of the Western Gangas, broadly the modern southern Karnataka districts around the Kaveri.
GopuraArchitecture
The monumental gateway tower of a South Indian temple, dominant in Vijayanagara and Nayaka-period building.
JagatiArchitecture
The raised platform on which Hoysala temples stand, permitting a processional path around the shrine.
Jamboo SavariCulture
The elephant procession that closes Mysore Dasara, carrying the idol of Chamundeshwari in the golden howdah.
KereGeography
A tank or reservoir; the chain of kere across southern Karnataka was the backbone of pre-modern irrigation.
Nada HabbaCulture
The 'state festival' — the official designation of Mysore Dasara in Karnataka.
NaduAdministration
A locality-level agrarian and political unit in medieval South India, analysed by Burton Stein as the basic building block of the state.
RenditionAdministration
The restoration of Mysore to Wadiyar rule on 25 March 1881, after fifty years of British Commission administration.
RyotwariAdministration
A land-revenue settlement made directly with the cultivator (ryot) rather than an intermediary; adopted in Mysore in the nineteenth century.
Subsidiary allianceAdministration
The treaty system by which an Indian state surrendered external relations and hosted a British garrison in return for internal autonomy; applied to Mysore in 1799.
VachanaCulture
A free-verse devotional form in Kannada, central to the twelfth-century Lingayat movement of Basava and Akka Mahadevi.
WadiyarDynasty
From Kannada odeya, 'lord'; the dynastic name of the rulers of Mysore from 1399 to 1950, also spelt Wodeyar.
VimanaArchitecture
The tower over the sanctum of a South Indian temple, distinct from the gateway gopura.
EkikaranaAdministration
The unification movement that gathered Kannada-speaking territories into a single state, achieved in 1956.