Mysore

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

or MAISUR (misör), a native state of southern India, bounded by districts of the Madras presidency; area 27,9361½ square miles; pop. about 6,000,000. Mysore is an extensive tableland much broken by hill ranges and deep ravines, and is divided into two portions, a little N. of lat. 13° N., by the watershed between the Kistna and the Kaveri rivers. Numerous isolated rocks (drugs), rising to 4,000 or 5,000 feet, are a peculiarity of the country, and have been mostly converted into hill fortresses. The rivers are used for irrigation purposes, but are not navigapotash. ble. The climate of the higher districts is during a great portion of the year healthy and pleasant. The annual value of the exports, chiefly betel nut and leaves, coffee, ragi, gram, cotton, piecegoods, cardamoms, rice, silk, and sugar, is above $6,000,000. The imports, consisting mainly of piece-goods, cloth, wheat, silver, gold, cotton, rice, silk, betel leaves, and pepper, are over $7,500,000. The ruinous misgovernment of the native prince led the British to assume the administration in 1831; but in 1881 Mysore was restored to the native dynasty. The famine years (1876-1878) told with great severity on that state. Capital, Mysore, situated amid picturesque scenery on a declivity formed by two parallel ranges running N. and S. 245 miles W. S. W. of Madras, is a prosperous, well-built town with broad, regular streets, and substantial houses and public buildings. On the S. side stands the fort, which incloses the rajah's palace; its chief object of interest is a magnificent chair or throne of fig-wood, overlaid with ivory In and gold. Pop. about 75,000.