Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s12: 12. Ummattūr Woḍeyars
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s12
- Language
- English
12. Ummattūr Woḍeyars
c9.s12.1
The Ummattūr Woḍeyars were an important line of rulers in the south of Mysore, and the chief rivals in that quarter of the Mysore house. Ummattūr is in the Chāmrājnagar tāluq, but the principal fortress of the chiefs was on the island of Śivasamudram,¹ at the Falls of the Kāvērī, where also was the temple of Sōmēśvara, their family god (Gu 11). Their distinctive titles were: *mahā-maṇḍalēśvara*, *javādi-kōlāhala* (exulting in musk), *pēsāli-Hanuma* (Hanumān in artifice), *arasanka-sūnegāra* (slaughterer in war with kings), *ghēnanka-chakrēśvara* (emperor in fight with the dagger), *gaja-beṇṭekāra* (hunter of elephants). They were of the Solar race, called themselves masters of the Hoysala-rājya, and ruled also over Terakanāmbi and the Nilagiris, where they had a fort at Mālekōṭa, near Kalhatti, in which they took shelter when in trouble.
c9.s12.2
¹ See note, p. 119.
c9.s12.3
They appear in inscriptions in the fifteenth century. In 1491 they take the royal titles, and seem independent (Nj 118). In 1505 they have the titles Chikka-Rāya, Penugoṇḍa-chakrēśvara, and lord over all rājas (Gu 67). But Ganga-Rāja now openly rebelled, while parts of the Bangalore District were called the Śivasamudram country. The Vijayanagar monarch Krishna-Rāya had therefore to march against him, and captured his fort at Śivasamudram in 1510, thus reducing him to submission. Ummattūr itself was finally taken by the Mysore Rāja in 1613, and the line brought to an end. Śivasamudram fort was ruined and deserted under tragic circumstances arising out of struggles with local chiefs. In 1814 the island was given as a *jāgīr* to Rāmaswāmi Mudaliyār, who had been native secretary to the Resident in Mysore, and he erected between 1830 and 1832 the bridges over the Kāvērī which connect it with Mysore on the one side and Coimbatore on the other. His descendants now own the place. In 1902 the first electric power installation in India was set up there by the Mysore State at the Kāvērī Falls on the Mysore side.