INS ''Mysore'' was a Fiji-class

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

commissioned in the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...

in 1957. She was acquired from the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

, where she served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as . ''Mysore'' was the second cruiser to be purchased by independent

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 ...

. She was commissioned into the Indian Navy in August 1957. The crest for ''Mysore'' depicted the mythological double-headed eagle

Gandaberunda Gandaberunda () or Bheruṇḍa (Sanskrit: भेरुण्ड, lit. ''terrible'') is a two-headed bird in Hindu mythology, believed to possess immense magical strength. Later Vaishnava traditions hold it to be a form of Vishnu to fight Sharabha ...

from the coat of arms of the former

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 ...

. The ship's motto ''Na bibheti kadachana'' was taken from the

Taittiriya Upanishad The Taittirīya Upanishad (Devanagari: तैत्तिरीय उपनिषद्) is a Vedic era Sanskrit text, embedded as three chapters (''adhyāya'') of the Yajurveda. It is a ''mukhya'' (primary, principal) Upanishad, and likely co ...

Operational history

In 1959, ''Mysore'' rammed the Royal Navy destroyer , severely damaging ''Hogue''s bow.Mason, Geoffrey B. (2004)
Service History of Royal Navy warships in World War 2: HMS HOGUE (H.74) - Battle-class Destroyer
naval-history.net. Retrieved 31 August 2010. In 1969, she collided with the destroyer ''Rana'' resulting in the latter being decommissioned and again in 1972 with the frigate ''Beas''. ''Mysore'' served as a crucible of training. On her several Indian naval officers earned their stripes as her successive commanding officers. In 1971 she served as the flagship of the

Western Fleet The Red Sea Fleet Command or officially Western Fleet (WF), also called ''" West Coast Fleet ",'' is a regional naval fleet and one of the two main formations of the Saudi Arabian Navy, with headquarters at Royal Naval Base at Jeddah, Western Pr ...

of the

and commanded the missile attack on Karachi harbour in December 1971. Later in her life from 1975 onwards ''Mysore'' served as a training cruiser for naval cadets. ''Mysore'' was decommissioned on 20 August 1985 and scrapped.

In popular culture

''Mysore'' appears in the 2016

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

movie '' Rustom'', which was based loosely on the popular ''

K. M. Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra ''Commander K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra'' was a 1959 Indian court case where Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, a Naval Commander, was tried for the murder of Prem Ahuja, his wife's lover. Commander Nanavati, accused under section 302, was ...

'' case of the 1960s.

References

*
HMS ''Nigeria'' at Uboat.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mysore (1939) Crown Colony-class cruisers of the Indian Navy Ships built on the River Tyne 1939 ships