Mysore is one of India’s most famous tourist attractions. It’s the land of heritage, culture, and wildlife. A tourist has not seen complete India without a visit to Mysore. The city is known for its palaces, gardens, museums, wildlife, and scenic beauty.
Mysore’s 10-day Dasara festival is world-famous, and thousands of tourists from around the world come to witness the beautiful celebration. But Mysore has many more things which cannot be overlooked. Below are some of the lesser-known facts about Mysore:
- Mysore has one of the oldest libraries in India, known as the Oriental Research Institute. It is a strange and wonderfully preserved building. The library has a collection of around 50,000 palm-leaf manuscripts collected from personal collections across South India.
- Karnataka was known as Mysore until 1973.
- Mysore is the second largest software exporter in Karnataka, next to Bangalore. Leading software companies such as Infosys and Wipro have established their major technical training centers.
- Mysore will be the first Indian city to have a sky wheel. The Sky Wheel is said to offer visitors a panoramic view of the city within a 20 km radius.
- Modern education began in Mysore when a free English school was established in 1833. The first college to be set up for higher education was the Maharaja’s College, founded in 1864
- University of Mysore and Mysore Medical College were the first university and medical college of Karnataka to be set up in 1916 and 1924, respectively.
- A high school exclusively for girls was established in 1881, and later it was converted into Maharanis Women’s College.
- Mysore was the first city to publish a weekly Kannada newspaper in 1859.
- In 1935, M.V. Gopalaswamy started India’s first private radio broadcasting station in Mysore.
- Karangi Lake in Mysore, surrounded by Butterfly Park and a walk-through aviary, is considered the largest “walk-through” aviary in India.
- In the 1780s, the first metal-cylinder and iron-cased rocket artillery were created in Mysore. It was developed by Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali. These rockets were much more advanced than what the British had seen.
- Indian Navy Warship, which was launched in June 1993, has been named after the city of Mysore, “INS Mysore”. Warship “Mysore” is one of the few hybrid warships in the world with a mix of Russian, Western, and Indian weapons systems, equipment, and machinery.
- The Wodeyars ruled their kingdom steadily between 1399 and 1947. The Wodeyars of Mysore are the only Indian Royal family in Indian history to have ruled a kingdom for more than 500 years.
- Mysore is the first city in India to get a bus stand modernized under the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Reconstruction Mission). The Rs 11.50 crore City Bus Stand (CBS) was upgraded within nine months.
- Administrators of the city implemented the underground drainage system for pockets of the city, including the Mysore Palace. Mysore was the first city to have an underground drainage system.
- KSRTC’s new initiative will make Mysore the first city in the country to have an intelligent transport system (ITS) for public transport.
- Mysore Zoo is the oldest zoo in India and has a collection of 168 species. The zoo was originally called the palace zoo and was built on the summer palace of Maharaja Sri Chamaraja Wodeyar.
- Mysore Railway Station became the first railway station in India to launch its own portal – mysorerailwaystation.in (no longer active though). The portal offers all the information, including train timings, arrivals, departures, FAQs, rules, and facilities.
- Mysore is one of the first cities in Asia to undertake a planned development. The City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) was established in 1903 to advance the city.
- Mysore is the homeland of many popular people, such as actor Vishnuvardhan, actor Arathi, Cricketer Javagal Srinath, Writer U.R. Ananthamurthy, etc.
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