By Shivaraj K.T
One of the popular myths about the royal family of Mysore that is the Wodeyar’s dynasty is the Curse to the royal family by Alameelamma, the wife of srirangaraya who was the subordinate to the Mysore. The curse as popularly believed is “Let the royal family may not have their heir” (a part of the curse)
The intentions of the essay are to decode the intentions of the popular curse. To understand history, one has to understand where it is coming from that is, the sources of the history .one of the dominant sources of the Indian historiography is the written sources the essay looks at the written sources as to decode the myth
After the death of Tippu Sultan British initially the Restored the political power to the Wodeyar’s in 1799.
The arrival of Dalhousie as the Viceroy changed the course. doctrine of lapse introduced by the viceroy, threatened the royal family’s power over the throne. Krishna raja Wodeyar- lll who was an adopted prince was dethroned of his power in 1831. According to the noted historian of Mysore prof. Nanjaraja Urs,”Maharaja made continuous efforts to regain his power and to explain his adaptation came up with the discourse of curse for the royal family and documented about the incident of 1600’s to emotionally convincice the British to regain the power of the royal family in his work, “Shreeman Maharaja Granthavali”.and prior to this work Nanjaraja urs points out, there is no reference to the 1600’s curse in any works about the royal family like that of 1680’s work ‘ Arasaraja Vijaya’ by Govinda viadya’, the court poet of kanthirava narasaraja Wodeyar or 18th century work of Tirumalarya, “chikkadevaraya vamshavali” which gives the detailed information about Mysore dasara.
Where did the myth come from?
According to Nanjaraja urs, The myth is of British origin where Lewis Rice documents about the myth in Mysore Gazetteer and thus it has been adopted blindly after mid nineteenth century
This blind imitation of the British Historiography of India has important role in strengthening the myth about the royal family
The explanation given by Nanjaraja urs, the historian of Mysore for adaptation of the prince is that because of the polyandry , a king who has several wives is rarely available to the royal queen In Mysore tradition, the king is only sees the royal queen during the time of dasara when he is expected to be a bachelor not having any sexual intercourse.so, there are chances of Royal Queen not having a heir
According to Nanjaraja urs the curse was a myth created to escape the doctrine of lapse but it deep-rooted in the history because of the imitation and authentifying British historiography like that of Lewis Rice in the case of Mysore.
References:
Shehari Safarnama 
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