Category: Places

Our Mythology has various Towns and Cities named after major rulers. However once Town has been named after a demon who is believed to have ruled there. The demon had power of invincibility and at last in the end was assassinated by the power of the God. Now the Town is famous for the Temple of the Goddess

Welcome to Mysore !!!! Mahisasura’s town Mahisa-ooru eventually turned to Mysooru!!!

Mahishasur was a Demon with a Bull’s head  who performed severe penance to Lord Brahma and got the power of invincibility. However, he could be destroyed only by a Woman. Getting the power of invincibility, he terrorized the 3 worlds. Sages and the Gods approached Lord Brahma for help and getting to know the boon granted to Mahisasura, turned to Goddess Shakti, the creator of Universe for the help. Goddess Shakti, with the powers of Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, incarnated as Goddess Chamundi and slayed the demon. However there was a flaw in the clause.. The blood drops of Mahishasura could turn into Mahisasura and hence slaying him became tough. Goddess Chamundi summoned her Sister Jwalamukhi Tiruparasundari, who drank the blood as it dropped. Thus Mahisasura was slayed, and world was happy again. Goddess Chamundi got the name “Mahisasura Mardhini” or the one who destroyed “Mahisasura”

Celebrations of this victory continue even today. Goddess Shakti went into penance for 9 days and Mahisasura was slayed on the 10th day. This celebration of victory is marked as Dusshera and the entire town of Mysore goes into grandeur this 10 days with people from all over the State visting the Town for this 10 day celebration.

The temple, dedicated to Goddess Chamundi was established on a hillock just outside the Mysore City. Believed to be built by the Hoysala Rulers in the 12th Century (about 900 years ago), the temple is flocked by devotees and tourists alike. during the Dusshera season.

Located about 12 kms from Mysore city through a winding ghat road, the drive provides a wonderful view of the Mysore Town. enroute to the temple, a road branches its way towards a huge statue of Nandi, the vehicle of the Goddess. Down the road from the Nandi near the foothill of the Chamundi Hills, is the temple dedicated to Goddess Jwalamukhi Tirupurasundari, who assisted the Goddess in slaying Mahisasura.

• Chamundi Temple is open for darshan from morning 7:30 to afternoon 2PM and again from 4PM to 9PM.  

• Mysore City bus services on rout&e 201 route 100 connect frequently from the Mysore city bus stand to Chamundi Hills operating both Non-AC and AC services

• Jwalamukhi Temple located close to Nanjangud town is connected via buses on route 100(Via Chamundi Hills) & route 203(Via Nanjangud road) frequently

Celebration of Dusshera in Mysore is a wide affair continued since the Hoysala and Vijayanagar empire and carried on through the present day by the Wodeyar linage. The Palace of Mysore is still in their possession and the roads leading to the palace are well illuminated to commensurate the festival.Jambu-savari or the elephant parade is the most important aspect of the festival and the Elephant march on the 10th day of the Dusshera festival is the major highlight attracting locals and tourists alike

The palace is located right in the City centre .A Fort marks the boundary wall of the palace, built during the Woderyar regine to protect their palace from invasions.  Well laid roads circle the place with each circle having a roundabout with a statue of the ruler standing.

• The Palace is located  at a walkable distance from Mysore city bus stand. A section of the palace is open for visitors from 10AM to 530Pm on all days while the remaining portions are prohibited for the privacy of the owners of the palace

The rulers of Mysore wanted a created a seperate park for themselves and housed certain animals in 1892 and was popularly known as the Mysore zoo where the rulers enjooyed their leisure time. Later the same was open to Public as the Jayachamarajendra Zoological Gardens as it is known today. Spread over 45 acres, the speciality of the zoo is housing of certain exotic species such as the Giraffee, Zebras, Gorilla, Wallaby (A Kangaroo type Marsupial from Australia) and most recent addition to the lot , a Green Anaconda from  South America. An artifical lake is situated inside the park which attracts water birds such as Pelicans and Storks and also peacocks can be found moving freely around the lake

• The zoological garden is located about 4 kms from the palace and is connected via buses on route 201 & route 100 from the city bus stand. The zoological park is open for visitors from 9AM and 5:30PM and visitors are charged at Rs.25/- per head. The zoological park is closed to visitors on Tuesdays for maintainence 

The water supply to Mysore Town is met by the famous river of the South “The Cauvery”. The river, having origin about 100 kms from Mysore Town, passes very close to the Town at 18 kms. The famous engineer of the South, Sir M. Vishweshvaraiah was the chief architect over the construction of the dam across the river at Krishnarajasagara, most famous now called the K.R.S Dam. in the year 1927.

To add to the beauty of the dam, a beautiful garden was laid out, work for which started in 1927 and ended in 1932 and was finally opened to visitors. This gardens, the most famous Brindavan gardens, turnded out to be a major shooting spot right from the 1950’s. In 1964, Indian Railways started a train from Chennai to Bangalore named after this park as Brindavan Express(Bangalore Mysore was in Meter Gauge then , and hence the train was terminated at Bangalore even to this day) This park attracts all visitors  to Mysore and is famous for night lighting and musical fountain show held after 7PM.

• K.R.S & Brindavan Gardens are located about 15 kms away from the City Centre in Srirangapatna taluk. Mysore city bus service on route 313 connect the City bus stand and Brindavan Gardens and passes about 100 mtrs close to the City Railway station.The park is open from morning 10AM and closes after the Musical Fountain function at 730PM

 About Mysore:

Mysore is strategically connected via State Highway 17 from Bangalore City, the Capital of Karnataka and is about 140 kms from Bangalore. Despite the overburdening of the Capital City, Mysore enjoys a peaceful life. Though IT has penetrated into mysore too, the effect is neverthless very lesser compared to its bigger counterpart. Overall, Mysore= a calm quiet life with comfort of Bangalore. Located on a connectivity point to Madikeri,  Mangalore, North Kerala and West Tamilnadu from Bangalore, the floating population of the Town is very high during holidays and weekends

Vareity of Restaurants are available close the city centre offering wide vareities of South Indian and North Indian delicacies. Accommodation is also available in plenty providing comfort accommodation including the State run loding facilities belonging to KSTDC.

How to Reach:

Rail : Mysore is well connected by almost 15 pairs of daily trains running at regular intervals from Bangalore. Apart from that, 2 daily trains connect Mysore to Chennai, while Thanjavur, Madurai,Tirupati,  Hubli, Shimoga ,Gulbarga ,Bellary are connected by single dailies. Bi-weekly trains connect Mysore to Secunderabad, Jaipur, Varanasi, & Ajmer while Weekly connect Mysore to Howrah (Calcutta), Bombay and Delhi

Road: Mysore has a strategically connected road. Located in the Southern part of Karnataka, Mysore acts as a midpoint in connecting Western Tamilnadu and Northern Kerala to Karanata specially Bangalore. Hence regular KSRTC buses connect Mysore from all over Karnataka, with Bangalore topping the chart with a bus every 2 minutes and a non-stop Non-AC services every 15 minutes once. Apart from them, TNSTC connects Mysore regularly to Erode, Coimbatore and Ooty while KSRTC (Kerala) connects Mysore to Calicut at regular intervals.

Self Driving: State Highway 17 from Bangalore is 4 laned and provides comfortably laid but weekend traffic snarls are higher than Bangalore’s daily traffic snarls. Variety of restaurants dot the highway and so refreshment is not an issue anywhere between Bangalore & Mysore