Splendours of Royal Mysore 
BY 
VIKRAM SAMPATH

Publisher: Rupa & Co

Price Rs 1500

Published 2008

Vikram Sampath’s astounding chronicle of Mysorean history is evidence that, finally, Indian history has come of age. To say this is a work of epic proportions would be to state the obvious; simply put, this book is the author’s extraordinary effort to preserve the history of Mysore, through both text and image. Sampath’s relentless curiosity and passionate involvement for Mysore throbs through the approximately 750 pages of the book. When I turned the last page and shut the book, my first thought was, “When will Sampath write more such historical work on other areas?”

This awe-inspiring labour of love is the handiwork of a full-time Bangalorean banker. Sampath’s extensive research is   assimilated and neatly presented, in a fairly linear and chronological structure. The sheer historical expanse is full and final evidence of Sampath’s “chronic addiction” to Mysore.  

The voluminous book is interspersed with a vast and myriad collection of unnumbered portraits, photographs and maps (he has also included Haldenkar’s Glow of Hope painting, famous as the “lady with the lamp’ painting, from Mysore); this is a veritable Mysorean ocean, and the avid reader can swim in it if he has the stomach, patience and interest. The photographs of many of the Wodeyar maharajas struck me because of their similarity to one another. Was I looking at different men in different periods, or was it indeed the same man? So many maharajas looked like twins!    

From palace intrigues to folk tales, from betrayals and cunning double crossing, to foreign invaders and taxes; from women’s education to the arts, from heinous punishments, to rich rewards, from Hitler to Gandhi, the book deals with them all.    

Importantly, the book has a serious significance: the history found between the pages of the book is fair in its handling, since Sampath has made a scrupulous attempt away from leaning either left or right. This is of vital significance in the twenty-first century when India awaits genuine as against committed historians, those with no eye on the next conference or seminar in East or West Europe.

Thus, Sampath repeatedly refuses to see Tipu Sultan as either a hero or villain, instead he merely presents the facts, and leaves the questions on the page for the reader to answer for himself. He has written about his difficulty in dealing with slanted history in the introduction itself: “The pro-Wadeyar records berate the House of Haidar as a barbaric and dogmatic clan, while the contemporary Muslim records heap encomiums on the father and son. To complicate matters further, you have English historians who, seized with rabid hatred for Haidar and particularly Tipu, portray them as the worst villains mankind has ever seen. In the midst of such totally contrasting records, where does a modern, unbiased commentator on history, such as myself, go? Who am I supposed to believe and what am I to take as the truth? A commentator on history can at best see all these differing records… he must do, without tilting the scales favourably on either side, since none of us can be certain of the truth without a time machine!...India has for long been vivisected by the Hindu-Muslim debate. These communities have always been at odds with each other, perhaps since they are different in so many ways. In this case, since a Hindu monarch’s kingdom was usurped by a Muslim, it is natural for each side to paint the other side in a poor light on communal grounds. There are Hindu records that speak of mass conversions to Islam under Tipu’s short and stormy rule, uprisings and revolts in different parts of Mysore, such as Malabar, Coorg, South Kanara, and so on, offering people a choice between the Koran and the gallows. At the same time, there is evidence of Tipu’s patronage of Hindu pontiffs and temples across the state, including the world-famous Sringeri Mutt or Adi Shankaracharya- the harbinger of Hinduism’s Advaita philosophy.” To the question whether Tipu was communal or secular, he replies, “The demand for instant classification of characters of the past into categories set by us in the present, to pander to our present-day exigencies, encourages a tendency to overs-implify history by painting characters black or white with no place for shades of gray. The breed of Marxist historians do no great service in this department, causing more harm in fact, as they have specific agendas to pursue in their depiction.”

Attempting to strike a balance between the two ends of the political spectrum, Sampath neither whitewashes nor demonizes the Wodeyars, the British or the Muslims. They are all human, sometimes leading events, sometimes led by them.  

Who were the Wodeyars and what power did they wield over their subjects? What were the folktales that even today are part of the psyche of Mysoreans? What kind of threat did the foreign invaders pose to the culture and religion of the region, and how did Mysore deal with them?  Sampath has focused on Mysore in the last 600 years and answered these and several other questions in good measure, in the voluminous treasure that is Sampath’s Mysorean monolith.

This rather expensive book of Rs 1500, is divided into 6 sections with a foreword by Mr H.D.Kumaraswamy, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, who has aptly described Sampath’s style as, “interesting and captivating”.

Critically, one finds the book populated with just too many names of people and cities and towns, making it impossible for a quick recall as the book progresses. This tiring name-parade drains interest and draws attention away from the Wodeyars, the British, and the Haider clan. Minor characters could have been relegated to a brief mention in the footnotes, making the narrative fluid and more reader-friendly. Hurrying on with names, as people are inclined to do at the Oscar awards functions (“let me not forget to thank X,Y,Z and my grandmother’s aunt”) Sampath expects a little too much latitude from the reader on this front.

Having said that, the icing on the cake are the “Looking Back” chapters of sections 1, 2, and 3, which offer the writer’s studied analysis of the period, giving the book its depth. Sampath’s understanding of the freedom struggle, and his understanding of culture and art come in the latter part of the book. An interesting observation from him, one with which one may agree, is the writer’s insight on art:

“In ancient India art went hand in hand with religion; so much so that it would not perhaps be wrong to say that art turned inward is religion and religion turned outward is art…for an artist, a work of art is an expression of one’s experience, a universal language of deep human emotions. Art is a great unifier and a real artist is above all false division among humans, because a good work of art is appreciated everywhere, as human experiences are fundamentally the same—people weep everywhere, smile everywhere, love everywhere!”

Sampath’s magnificent obsession with Mysore is his first book; undoubtedly, there will be more. One can only add, the more the merrier.