Mysore is one the most famous tourist attraction spots in India. 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, wild life and scenic beauty.
Mysore’s 10 day Dasara festival triumph is world famous and thousands of tourists 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 of 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, which is collected from personal collections across South India.
- The present state Karnataka was known as Mysore till 1973.
- Mysore is the second largest software exporter in Karnataka, next to Bangalore. Leading software companies such as Infosys and Wipro have established its major technical training centers.
- Mysore will be the first Indian city to have a sky wheel. The sky wheel is said to give a panoramic view to the visitors of the city within 20km 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 Maharajas 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 city was the first one to publish weekly newspapers in Kannada in 1859.
- In 1935 M.V. Gopalaswamy started the first private radio broadcasting station of India in Mysore.
- Karangi Lake in Mysore which is surrounded by Butterfly Park and a walk-through aviary is considered to be the biggest “walk-through” aviary in India.
- In the 1780s, it was in Mysore the first metal-cylinder and iron-cased rocket artillery were created. And it is 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 city 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 steady between 1399 and 1947.The Wodeyars of Mysore is the only Indian Royal family in the history of India 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) 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 zoos of India and is inland of 168 species. The zoo was originally called the palace zoo and is built on 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 such as train timings, arrivals, departures, FAQs and rules as well as the facilities.
- Mysore is one of the first cities of Asia to undertake planned development of the city. The City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) was established in 1903, for the progress of the city.
- Mysore is a homeland for many popular people like actor Vishnuvardhan, actor Arathi, Cricketer Javagal Srinath, Writer U.R. Ananathamurthy etc.
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