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The Daly Memorial Hall, is a heritage building located in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...
,
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
that houses the Mythic Society. The Mythic society, founded in 1909, is a pioneering institution of Catholic-Indic studies in South India. Daly Memorial Hall, built at a cost of INR 24,783, was inaugurated on 25 July 1917 by the
Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar
Yuvaraja Sri Sir Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar (5 June 1888 – 11 March 1940), was the heir apparent of the princely state of Mysore from 1895 until his death in 1940.
Biography
Narasimharaja Wodeyar was born at the Mysore Palace, the sec ...
(the Yuvaraja of
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
. The Hall is named after
Sir Hugh Daly, who served as the Resident of Mysore State and Chief Commissioner of Coorg (1910-).
Mythic society
Origins
It was the creation of both the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
as well as
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n residents who were eager to know India's life, society and history, in the hope that useful and interesting information might be gathered of the history, growth and source of the civilization in which people lived. The society was the brainchild of
F. J. Richards who was the Collector, Bangalore cantonment District under the Madras Presidency. Richards visualised the Mythic Society as an academic 'club'. At a meeting held at his residence on 5 May 1909, a list of members likely to be interested in this 'club' was drawn up. It had seventeen names of both European and Indian residents of Bangalore. Thus was born the Society.
To the great surprise of the founders, the first year membership of the club touched 174.
Father Tabard
It was a French priest who was destined to come to India and to leave his indelible mark on Bangalore in the form of the Daly memorial Hall. Arriving in Bangalore in 1886, the Reverend Father
Antoinette Marie Tabard was attached to
St. Joseph's College. However, since had come out to India to be a Missionary, teaching did not satisfy his inner urge and so he appealed to his
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
Dr. Kleiner to send him out in the District. He wanted to identify himself with the people amongst whom he had to work. He was sent to Mysore to study the regional language Kannada under Rev. Father Reautearu.
Upon the death of the Rev. Father Quenard, the Parish Priest of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Father Tabard returned to Bangalore to fill the post. From 1891 to 1926 he remained its Chaplain and Chaplain to the British troops stationed in Bangalore.
Father Tabard was essential to the creation of the Mythic Society. It is said that the late Col. Desaraj Urs once offered him a pair of white mules. Father Tabard remarked that a cash donation equivalent to their value would be more welcome to the Mythic Society. The next day the Colonel sent him the pair of mules with a cheque for Rs 500. Father Tabard soon succeeded in obtaining land on Cenotaph Road and he erected the "Daly Memorial Hall" and provided it with an extensive reference library. He started its quarterly journal and established a reserve fund of Rs 10,000. The Mythic Society was founded and has rendered services to the State and continues to do so for the United Karnataka.
Daly Memorial Hall
Construction
The foundation of the Daly Memorial Hall was laid on 30 August 1916 by
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the
Maharaja of Mysore
The maharaja of Mysore was the king and principal ruler of the southern Indian Kingdom of Mysore and briefly of Mysore State in the Indian Dominion roughly between the mid- to late-1300s and 1950.
In title, the role has been known by differen ...
. The construction cost was INR 24,783, out of which INR 10,000 was granted by Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, and the rest from other patrons such as
Maharaja of Baroda
Baroda State was a state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India in 1949. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its ...
,
Begum of Bhopal
The Nawabs of Bhopal were the Muslim rulers of Bhopal, now part of Madhya Pradesh, India. The nawabs first ruled under the Mughal Empire from 1707 to 1737, under the Maratha Empire from 1737 to 1818, then under British rule from 1818 to 1947, a ...
and the
Raja of Travancore. The completed Daly Memorial Hall was inaugurated on 25 July 1917 by the
Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar
Yuvaraja Sri Sir Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar (5 June 1888 – 11 March 1940), was the heir apparent of the princely state of Mysore from 1895 until his death in 1940.
Biography
Narasimharaja Wodeyar was born at the Mysore Palace, the sec ...
,
Yuvaraja
Yuv(a)raj(a) (Sanskrit: युवराज) is an Indian title for the crown prince, and the heir apparent to the throne of an Indian (notably Hindu) kingdom or (notably in the Mughal Empire or British Raj) princely state. It is usually applied t ...
of Mysore.
Architecture
The facade of the hall is reminiscent of the Greco-Roman style, with fluted columns capped with capitals featuring Acanthus leaves. The floor is made of reclaimed French terracotta tiles and the roof is finished with
Mangalore tiles. As of 2017, the hall had been standing for a hundred years.
Hugh Daly
The Daly Memorial Hall is named after
Sir Hugh Daly, who served as the Resident of Mysore State and Chief Commissioner of Coorg (1910-). He played a vital role in signing the 1913 Treaty of Mysore, which made the Mysore Government equal to the
British India Government. He was also involved in negotiating with the
Madras Presidency with regards to sharing the
Cauvery River
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dist ...
water, on behalf of the
Mysore State
Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later India, Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's c ...
. He also served as the first honorary president of the Mythic Society.
Eminent members
The Mythic Society ranks among many pioneering institutions of its kind like the Royal Asiatic Society of Calcutta or the Bharath Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandal of Pune, which had strived to reconstruct India's past. Eminent historians and researchers on South India like Dr.
J. F. Fleet, Dr.
B. L. Rice
Benjamin Lewis Rice (17 July 1837 – 10 July 1927), popularly known as B. L. Rice, was a British historian, archaeologist and educationist. He is known for his pioneering work in deciphering inscriptions, especially in Kannada, and in Sansk ...
, Dr. Jouveail Dubreuil, Sir John Marshall,
Fred Goodwill, Prof.
S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar, T.A. Gopinath Rao, Mahamahopadhyaya R. Narasimhachar,
V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Shastry, Dr. A. Venkatasubbiah, Dr. R. Shama Shastry, Prof. K.N. Shastry, Prof. B.M. Srikantaiah, T.T. Sharman and Dr. M.V. Krishna Rao were closely associated with the Mythic Society and many of their publications have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society. The Society published a quarterly journal with academic articles written by peers. The list of council members of the society reveal that the Society had among its patrons
Maharaja of Mysore
The maharaja of Mysore was the king and principal ruler of the southern Indian Kingdom of Mysore and briefly of Mysore State in the Indian Dominion roughly between the mid- to late-1300s and 1950.
In title, the role has been known by differen ...
and the
Maharaja of Baroda
Baroda State was a state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India in 1949. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its ...
.
Rev. Fred Goodwill, one of the founding members
of the Mythic Society, carried out research on behalf of the society on the early history of
Kolar Gold Fields
Kolar Gold Fields (K.G.F.) is a mining region in K.G.F. taluk (township), Kolar district, Karnataka, India. It is headquartered in Robertsonpet, where employees of Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML) and BEML Limited (formerly Bharat Earth Mov ...
and
Bangalore
Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...
. His scholarly work on the 'Prison Song in Bangalore', based on the experiences of ''A Narrative of the Captivity and Sufferings of the Officers, Soldiers and Sepoys, who fell into the Hands of Hyder-Ali, after the Battle of Conjeveram (Kanchi), September 10, 1780'', is acknowledged to be part of the history of Bangalore.
Library
The Society houses a library which has many rare books in its collection over 46,000 books. The library is also now the home to the personal book collections of eminent individuals like Diwan
C. Hayavadana Rao, Diwan
V. P. Madhava Rao, R. Ananda Rao, Prof. K. N. V. Shastry and Prof. Mugali.
References
{{Bangalore topics
Buildings and structures in Bangalore
Buildings and structures completed in 1917
Libraries in Bangalore
20th-century architecture in India