Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s1.47

c8.s1.47

¹ Mysore, properly Maisūru, derives its name from *mahisha*, Sanskrit for buffalo, reduced in Prākrit to *mahisa* and in Kannaḍa to *maisa*, and *ūru*, Kannaḍa for town or country; which commemorates the destruction of Mahishāsura, a minotaur or buffalo-headed monster, by Chāmuṇḍi or Mahishāsura-mardani, the form under which the consort of Śiva is worshipped as the tutelary goddess of the reigning family. Mahisa-maṇḍala appears in the Tamil form Erumai-nāḍu in Mānūlanār’s *Aganānūru*, which is of the second century.