1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mysore (town)

MYSORE, capital of the state of Mysore, India, 10 m. S.W. of Seringapatam on the Mysore State railway. Pop. (1901), 68,111. The city, which is spread over an area of about 71/2 sq. m., has its nucleus at the foot of the Chamundi hill, in a valley formed by two parallel ridges running north and south. The fort stands in the south of the town, forming a quarter by itself; the ground-plan is quadrangular, each of the sides being about 450 yds. long. The old palace of the maharaja within the fort, built in an extravagant style of Hindu architecture, was partly destroyed by fire in 1897, whereupon a new palace was built on the same site. The principal object of interest in the old palace was the throne, which is said to have been presented to Chikka Deva Raj by the emperor Aurangzeb. The houses of the European residents are for the most part to the east of the town. The residency or government house was built in 1805. The building afterwards used for the district offices was originally built by Colonel Wellesley (duke of Wellington) for his own occupation. The domed building for the public offices in Gordon Park, the Maharaja's College, the Victoria Jubilee Institute, and the law courts are conspicuous. Mysore, though the dynastic capital of the state, was superseded by Seringapatam as the seat of the court from 1610 to 1799, and in 1831, on the British occupation, the seat of administration was removed to Bangalore.