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Bengalurina Ithihasa
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July 10, 2021
This book was created from a series of lectures the Author Ba Na Sundara Rao gave in the Karnataka Secretariat club for over three years after extensive research on the topic (From Preface).
Over the years this book has been considered as one of the authoritative sources on the History of the City.
The book starts out by tracing the history of the city from prehistoric times, the origin of its name, and its rulers.
The book is divided into 3 parts - Roughly from early times till the sale of the city by Aurangzeb to Wodeyars - Rule of Hyder and Tipu, fall of Bangalore to British, Restoration of Wodeyars, and Commissioner rule - Restoration of Wodeyars again to Independence.
The origin of this book as a lecture series is evident in its form. Many of the chapters can probably be started without reading previous chapters and a lot of important information and source texts are repeated.
This may be irritating if you are reading it cover to cover - but is very useful if you are just referring to one period or chapter.
Book also has dedicated parts describing the lives of ordinary citizens during different periods along with the social and administrative organizations of the time.
There are a good number of sources sprinkled all through and many of the original texts are reproduced as is, which is very fascinating.
Chapters on Early Wodeyars and Hyder-Tipu has stories that may seem far-fetched - and the language almost hagiographical, but this is also the most interesting chapter in the book.
The descriptions about the internal politics of Wodeyars-Hyder-Tipu are fascinating and gripping, so is the whole episode of wars between Tipu and the British concluding with the death and defeat of Tipu.
The last chapters are extensively about the Dewans of Mysore and Commissioners, their administration, and achievements.
These are also the chapters that contain a lot of information that a general reader like me may not really be interested in (The details about the family - early life, etc about each Dewan and Commissioners) but are very important nevertheless to be included.
One mistake to avoid when reading this book is to think of this as a sort of Novel or a story that flows linearly in time - Although the author has made effort to make it seem coherent and linear, and succeeds to most of the parts, there are parts that move to and fro in the given timeframe, especially in the last chapters and can get confusing very quickly - but this seems to be a compromise made to keep it accessible to the general reader as well as for someone to use as complete reference material.
This book really puts the city and history of the area in general in the larger context of things.
Over the years this book has been considered as one of the authoritative sources on the History of the City.
The book starts out by tracing the history of the city from prehistoric times, the origin of its name, and its rulers.
The book is divided into 3 parts - Roughly from early times till the sale of the city by Aurangzeb to Wodeyars - Rule of Hyder and Tipu, fall of Bangalore to British, Restoration of Wodeyars, and Commissioner rule - Restoration of Wodeyars again to Independence.
The origin of this book as a lecture series is evident in its form. Many of the chapters can probably be started without reading previous chapters and a lot of important information and source texts are repeated.
This may be irritating if you are reading it cover to cover - but is very useful if you are just referring to one period or chapter.
Book also has dedicated parts describing the lives of ordinary citizens during different periods along with the social and administrative organizations of the time.
There are a good number of sources sprinkled all through and many of the original texts are reproduced as is, which is very fascinating.
Chapters on Early Wodeyars and Hyder-Tipu has stories that may seem far-fetched - and the language almost hagiographical, but this is also the most interesting chapter in the book.
The descriptions about the internal politics of Wodeyars-Hyder-Tipu are fascinating and gripping, so is the whole episode of wars between Tipu and the British concluding with the death and defeat of Tipu.
The last chapters are extensively about the Dewans of Mysore and Commissioners, their administration, and achievements.
These are also the chapters that contain a lot of information that a general reader like me may not really be interested in (The details about the family - early life, etc about each Dewan and Commissioners) but are very important nevertheless to be included.
One mistake to avoid when reading this book is to think of this as a sort of Novel or a story that flows linearly in time - Although the author has made effort to make it seem coherent and linear, and succeeds to most of the parts, there are parts that move to and fro in the given timeframe, especially in the last chapters and can get confusing very quickly - but this seems to be a compromise made to keep it accessible to the general reader as well as for someone to use as complete reference material.
This book really puts the city and history of the area in general in the larger context of things.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review