Historical Research on Wodeyar Yaduvanshi (Pauranic Yadavas ) Lunar race Kshatriya’s Dynasty of Mysore (Vijayanagar )—

Historical research on Wadiyar /Wodeyar  Yaduvanshi ( Pauranic Yadavas ) Lunar race  Kshatriya ‘s Dynasty of Mysore(Vijayanagar)  —-

Origion  of  the Wadiyar  Yaduvanshi Kshatriya Dynasty —–

In 1399 CE .Gujrat was a part of the Tughluq dynasty that related from Delhi with Muzaffar Shah I , as its governor .He later decleared himself independent and founded the Gujarat Sultnate .In the South , the Vijaynagar kingdom was in its nascent stages under its third king Harihara II. The Bahamani kingdom was sandwhich in between these two domains .it sounds incredibly far-fetched that Harihara II invited Yaduraya  ( also called Vijaya in some account ) and Krishnaraya , the two brothers who hailed  from distant Dwaraka ,welcoming to rule the region around the Kaveri river –that they set foot in Karnataka .For the sake of our story it is important that the siblings were Kshatriyas  from the Yaduvamsha or the “Lunar race” which effectively linked them to Lord Krishna . imperiling  his life , for he had no navigate  through two hostile Muslim kingdoms to reah the middle of Vijayanagar .
The Vijayanagar rulers followed a system of designating 77 palegaras or feudal to rule a division each .These Nayakas /Palegaras were subordinate to the Vijayanagar kings ; and they handed the affairs in the kingdom ( later Empire ) . During this time ,local rulers continued to hold sway with varying degrees of independence .At the end of the day , no one was left in any doubt as to who the true sovereign was .Epigraphy mentioning the Wodeyars begins only in the middle of the 16th Century  , a good 150 years after 1399CE-a date that later records claim .The mythological story of Yaduraya made its advent no earlier than the 17th Century , and there is more than one version of it .The most popular exant narratives citing the Wddeyars are those written by Sri Vaishnava poets under various rulers of this dynasty , particularly Narasaraja Wodeyar and Chikkadeva raja Wodeyar .

The origion is traced to the heroes of a chivalrous exploit ,Vijayaraj and Krishnaraj ,two young Kshatriyas   of Yaduvanshi lunar race  came to the South in very early times from Dwarka in Kathiawar .Of these   ,appear to have settled in the Ashtragram division of the Mysore dominions towards the close of the 14th century .On arriving at Hadi-nad or Hada-nad ( called Hadana by Wilkes , but now known as Hadinaru ) , a few miles south-east of the present city of Mysore  , they learned that the chief of the place * who was also a Kshatriya of Yadava descent had wandered away in a state of mental derangement ; and that the neighbouring chief of Karugahalli ,who was of inferior caste  ,taking advantage of the defencelesscondition of the family , had demanded the only daughter of the house in marriage .To this , a consent had been given under compulsion , and arrangement unwillinghly made for the ceremony .The two brothers espoused the cause of the distressed maidan , and having secreated themselves with some followers , fell upon the chirf and his retinue while seated at the banquet and slew them .Marching at once on Karugahalli they surprised it , and returned in triumph to Hadanad .The girl became the willing bride of Vijayaraj who took the title of ODEYAR or WODEYAR ( Lords ) and assumed the Government of Hadanad and Karugahalli .
*One Suradevaraya , a descendant of Bhojaraya of the Yadava dynastry ruling in Muttra (Mathura ) came to the country of Karnatic and established a principality in Mysore through the blessings of Chamundeswari Devi .The princess in question was a dwscendant of that family .The gotra of this family was Gautama –Ramakrishna Rao , Annals of Mysore ,Part I,P.6 to 7 .

The following is the succession of the Mysore Rajas , according to the annals compiled in the palace , Vijaya  being here called Yadu Raya;  –

1-Yadu Raya Vijaya—1399-1423 ;2-Hire Bettada Chama Raja Wodeyar I—1423-1458 ; 3-Timma-Raja Wodeyar I—1458-1478 ;4-Hire Chama Raja Wodeyar II Arberal( 1)—1478-1513 ; 5- Bettada Chama Raja Wodeyar III,Arberal ( 1)1513-1551;  6- Timma Raja Wodeyar II,Appana –1552-1571 ; 7-Bola Chama Raja Wodeyar IV—1571-1576 ;7-Bettada Chama Raja Wodeyar V (1)Six fingered –1571-1576 ;8-Raja Wodeyar I 1578-1617; 9-Chama Raja Wodeyar VI—1617-1637 ;10-Immadi Raja Wodeyar II1637-1638 ;Ranadhira Kantirava Narasa Raja Wodeyar –1638-1659 ;11- Dodda Deva Raja Wodeyar –1659-1672 ;12-Chikka Deva Raja Wodeyar –1672-1704 ;13-Kanthirava Wodeyar Mukarase—1704-1713 ;14-Dodda Krishna Raja Wodeyar I—1713-1731 ;15-Chama Raja Wodeyar VII—1731-1734 ;16-Krishna Raja Wadeyar II—1734-1766 ; 17-Nanja Raja Wadeyar –1766-1770 ;18-Bettada Chama Raja Wodeyar VIII—1770-1776 ;19-Khasa Chama Raja Wodeyar IX —1776-1796 ; 20-Krishna Raja Wodeyar III —1799 -1868 ;21-Chama Rajendra Wodeyar X-1868-1894 ;22-Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV-1895-

Yadu Raya or Vijaya’is said to have been eleventh in descent from Yadu Vira of Atreya gotra and Aswalayana sutra .But of the early period on annals were preserved until the time of Chama Raja ,III.He , during his life –time , made a partition of his dominions  between his three sons .To TimmaRaja or Appana  ,he gave Hemmanhalli ,  to Krishna Raja he gave Kembala , and to Chama Raja IV, surnamed the Bol or Bald ,he gave Mysore .No male heir surviving to either of the elder brothers , succession was continued in the junior or the Mysore Branch .With Krishna Raja I ,the direct descent ended .Chama Raja the VII , a member of the Hemmanhalli family  ,was next elected  , but was eventually deposed by Dalavayi –Deva –Raj and minister NanjaRaj .He died a prisoner at Kabbaldurga in 1734 .Chikka or Immadi Krishna Raja the IIof Kenchengode , a younger and distant branch was put on the thorne in 1734 , and he died in 1766.His eldest son ,Nanja Raja was directed by Haider to be installed , but finding him not sufficiently subservient , Haidar turned him out of the Palace in 1767 and took all control into his own hands .Nanja Raja was strangled in 1770 and was succeeded by his brother Chama Raja VIII, who died in 1775 childless .Chama Raja IX ,son of Deva Raja Arasu of Arkotar  ,a member of Karugahalli family ,was then adopted by the wife of Chamaraja VIII.He died in 1796.
On the fall of Seringapatam  ,and the death of Tipu , the British Government restored the Hindu raj ,  and placed on the thorne Krishna Raja III ,the son of the last named Chama Raja .The British Government took charge of the province in 1832 , but in 1867 ,a year  before the death of Krishnaraja  , his adoption was recognized of Chama Rajendra X( the third son of Krishna Arasu of the Bettadakote family ) who succeeded him , being placed on the thorne on his attaining majority in 1881 .He died at the close of 1894  ,and his eldest son Krishna Raja IV ,has been installed as his successor .’’

According to another Story of Wodeyar Yaduvanshi Kshatriya dynasty —-

One of his descendants , named Yadu Raja , ruled over Mysore from 1399 A.D to 1422 A.D, and was then succeeded by his son , Here Bettud Chamraj .The grandson of the latter was a Raja named Here ( or Arberal ) Chamraj –arberal meaning six-fingered , in allusion to a physical particularly  ; and the six fingered Raja ‘s son was Here Bettud Chamraj II, in whose time the fort of Mysore was built on the site of a village formerly called Puragere , and was given the name Mahesh-uru , Buffalo – town , from Mahesh-usura , the buffalo-headed demon destroyed by the goddess Kali .
These Rajas were called Wadiars or Wadeyars of Mysore –Wadeyar being a plural or honorific from of Odeya  ,Kanarese for “ Lords .’’
Here Bettud Chamraj was succeeded by his two sons in turn .The younger , Role Chamraj  , is said to have been named Bole , or The Bald , because he had been made bald by a stroke of lightning .His grandson , Raj Wadiar , 9th Raja of Mysore , was the great and most successful of all these Wadiars .He reigned from 1578 to 1616  A.D ; and in the year 1609 -10 he seized the strong fortress of Seringapatam , formerly held by a lieutenant of the King of Vijayanagar .The great Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar on the Tungabhadra had previously , in 1538 A.D, been subverted by the alliance of the Muhammadan Chiefs of the Deccan , and the descendants , having obtained possession of the important strategical position of Seringapatam , rapidly increased their power and extended their dominions . This process  of aggrandisement   continued  down to the time of the Raja Dodda Krishnaraj , who reigned from 1703 to 1730 A.D .His adopted son was Hadinente Tingal Chamraj , who died in 1733 A.D ,  and was succeeded by his adopted son , Chikka Krishnaraj – Chikka means ‘Junior’ . Or ‘The Less’. The long reign of Chikka Krishnaraj from 1731 to 1765 A.D ,was hardly more than nominal  ,for during this period  the famous Muhammadan Haidar Ali rose to power , and ultimately became the sovereign of Mysore  ,retaining the Maharaja as a puppet-prince .Haidar’s splendid military powers , and those of his even more famous son ,Tippu Sultan , immensely increased the Mysore dominions , and made the State the greatest in Southern India , and its rulers the most formidable potentates in the whole country .
Of the Maharaja Chikka Krishnaraj’s two sons , who nominally succeeded him , one was strangled by order of the Sultan , and the other died childless .Haidar then , in order to retain the shadow of a Hindu dynasty , permitted the third wife of Chikka Krishnaraj to adopt a young kinsman named Chamraj .Not long before the fall of Tippu and conquest of Seringapatam by British in 1799 , ,Chamraj had died in captivity ; and when the British Government resolved that Mysore should revert to the control of the family of its ancient rulers , an infant son of Chamraj  , by name Krishnaraj , was placed on the Gaddi .During the minority of the Maharaja Kishnaraj , from 1799 to 1810 , the State was successfully administered by a Diwan or Prime Minister , the famous Purnaiya  , a Brahman stateman of the great ability .The affairs of the State , however , fell into disorder after the retirement of Purnaiya ; and the misgovernment of the Maharaja Krishnaraj terminated by the British Government assuming the direct administration of the country in 1831 ,retaining the Maharaja as the titular sovereign . On the 18th June  1865 the late Maharaja adopted as his son and successor the young prince , now the Maharaja Chama Rajendra Wadiar  ,who was the third son of Chikka Krishna Arasu  , a scion of the Bettada Kote branch of the Royal house .
       The adoption was sanctioned by the Government of India in April 1867 ;and the death of the Maharaja Krishnaraj in 1868 , the present Maharaja ( His Highness Maharaja Sir Chama Rajendra Wadiar Bahadur , born 22nd February 1863 ,succeeded to the Gadi as a minor 23rd September 1868 ,A Ruling Chief , and one of the Premier Prince of the Empire  )  was duly installed in his place as titular sovereign .The young Maharaja proved himself in every way so deserving of the position that in 1881 , it was resolved that the sovereign power should be restored to the sovereign title ; and on the 25th March in that year the “Rendition” –the term has become historical –was carried out by the installation of the Maharaja as a Ruling Chief , when the British Chief Commissioner handed over his office to the Diwan or Prime Minister of His Highness .Maharaja Jayachama Rajendra Wodeyar was the last king of this dynasty  also married a princess from north India .The Maharani was from Charkhari , a princely state in Uttar Pradesh , which had the privilege  of 11 gun salute .Marring out of and into north India princely states has continued ever since .
The subsequent  history of the Maharaja rule has abundantly justified the “Rendition”’ .The good administration of the country  ,which had been firmly established under the rule of Sir Mark Cubbon and his successors as Chief Commissioners of Mysore  , has been maintained and improved . Not withstanding that the State has been devastated by one of the most terrible famines ever known —that of 1877-78 –and by several very serious droughts , its general advance in prosperity under the Maharaja ‘s rule has been marvelous . His Highness had the advantage of being assisted by several Indian statesmen of the first rank and highest abilities ; the place of the late Diwan  , Mr .Rangacharlu –who was himself an administrator of no mean power –having been taken , very fortunately , by His Excellency the present Prime Minister , Sir .K.Sheshadri Iyer , K.C.S.I.(q.v .) by whose aid the Maharaja has attained an administrative success not surpassed in any part of the Indian Empire , British as well as feudatory .

The area of the State is 24 ,709 square miles , which is more than double the combind area of Switzerland and Saxony . His Highness the Maharaja  ,who was created a Knight Grand Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India  on 23rd May 1884, maintains a military force of 1173 cavalry , 3425 infantry , and 10 guns , besides an Imperial Service Corps for special service of frontier defence .His Highness has issue several sons and daughters ; both princes and princesses being highly educated under capable instructors , both English and Indian .He is entitled to a salute of 21 guns .
The arms displayed on His Highness’s banner , which was unfurled at theImperial Assemblage at Delhi ist January 1877 , on the occasion of the Proclamation of Her Most Gracious Majesty as Empress of India  .

Arms –

Myrrey  (the Indian Bhagwa ) ,a garur berunda (sacred double -headed eagle ) , displayed argent , beaked and armed or .Crest –Alion passant ,carrying an antelope’s head  ,all proper .Supporters—Satvas ( yali ) ,elephant –headed tigers , sable , armed and unglued  or .


1-Princely India Re-imagined ;A Historical Anthropology of Mysore from 1799 to the present . –by Aya Ikegame .
2-The Golden Book of India by Lethbridge Roper Sir ,1893.pp.362-368.
3-A History of modern India 1480-1950 edited by Claude Markerits .
4- Enigmas of Karnataka Mystery meets History .,by S.Shyam Prasad.
5-The Mysore .by Vemkatesa Lyengar ,1932.
6-Mysore Gazetteer ,Voll.II,Historical part I, Edited by C.Hayavadana Rao,1930.

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