Anecdote

A N E C D O T E S
	A story runs like this as told to us and our cousins by our mothers. A young Brahmin pundit was walking along a village road when he observed a King Cobra hovering its hood over a young man sleeping under a banyan tree. The Naga after a few minutes raised its hood and slowly moved away into the forest. The astonished young pandit woke up the young man and predicted to him that one day he was destined to become a King. The boy laughed and told him that if that was so then he will be his Prime Minister. The deal was made. The young man later became the Raja of Mysore. The Brahmin, Purniah, extracted the promise and later became the Dewan of Mysore. (There could be merit to this story through circumstantial evidence. Purniah was born in 1746 and died in 1812. In 1775 Chamraja Wodeyar VIII died and another boy had to be adopted as Raja as there was no heir to the throne. The selected person was crowned Chamaraja of Wodeyar IX though some history books say he was selected by Hyder Ali.)
	The first Indian lady to drive a motor car in the State of Mysore was Mrs. Narasinga Rao Purnaiya, the daughter in law of Sir. Purnaiya Narsinga Rao Krishnamurthy, Dewan of Mysore in the 1890s.
	The Badamis:- This Maharastrian family had distinguished itself in military services and their ancestry dates back to the times of the Bahmani kingdom (1420-1490). It was during the times of Hyder Ali, whose cause they supported, that they were given the Jagir of Badami, from which they took their name. Records kept by the Badami family show that one of the scions, Bishtopant, for one of his military acts, was rewarded, by the Peshwas, to serve as subah of the celebrated hill fort of Badami. He remained there till it was captured by Hyder Ali. However Hyder Ali was so impressed by his military powers, tht he made him the commander of his cavalry in Srirangapatnam. After the fourth Mysore war, where Tipu was defeated at Srirangapatnam, Bishtopant surrendered to Lord Wellesley. When the Mysore Kingdom was reinstated under Krishnaraja Wodeyar, Bishtopant is said to have influenced the British to make Purnaiya the Dewan. ( My first cousin on my mother's side , originally Saraswati Rao [ See Purniah family tree ] became Saraswati Badami by marrying Mohan Badami .)
	The Wodeyars of Mysore :- Mysore became independent after the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire (1565 A.D.) and the Wodeyars ruled from 1578 till the independence of India in 1947 except for a short period when Hyder Ali usurped the kingdom and after him, his son Tippu Sultan's ruled. The kingdom was returned to the Wodeyars by the British in 1799.
	After the 4th War when Tipu was defeated, Purniah was summoned to surrender and was assured no harm will come to him. With a sense of relief he replied "How can I hesitate to a nation who are the protectors of my tribe from Kasi to Rameswaram ?"
	"Looting a conquered enemy enriches a few, impoverishes the nation and dishononours the entire army. Wars must be linked to battlefields. Do not carry it to innocent civilians. Honour their women, respect their religion and protect their religion and the infirm." - From Tipu Sultan's decree in 1783- (Comment. He was then aged 30 . He went on to do exactly the opposite in the 3rd and 4th Mysore Wars !!)
	A letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte in Feb 1798, when the English Army had already begun the invasion of Mysore, reads [ BONAPARTE, Members of the National Convention, General in Chief, to the most Magnificent SULTAN, our greatest friend, TIPOO SAIB] " You have already been informed of my arrival on the borders of the Red Sea with an invincible army.........full of the desire of delivering you from the iron yoke of England.......May the Almighty increase your Power and destroy your enemies"