Krishnaraja Wadiyar, king of erstwhile Mysuru, had held a meeting in Bengaluru in 1912 to exclusively discuss the impact of fast growing population and the ways and means to check it?

In the meeting held with technocrat Sir M. Visvesvaraya and administrator Mirza Ismail, the king decided to promote family planning in his State besides underlining the need to increase cultivation of crops to feed the growing population.

Such information related to history have been recorded in the Kannada book Marethuhoda Mysurina Putagalu (The forgotten pages of Mysuru) being released in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Authored by Dharmendra Kumar Arenahalli, the book is a collection of 52 stories or instances related to the history of the then Mysuru State including Bengaluru and its kings. “It is oral history or the instances referred to in folklore. I have spent five years and spoken to about 100 persons to collect the stories,” says the author.

Mr. Kumar, 50, is a civil engineer, who worked abroad for 18 years. “I have been fascinated by the history of Mysuru right from my childhood. My grandfather bought the house in which we live in Mysuru from Krishnaraja Wadiyar for ₹two. Since the house had such a history, it also has some of the articles depicting Mysuru heritage. This started drawing my interest towards Mysuru history right from childhood,” he says.

Next thing on Mr. Kumar’s mind is to write on a comprehensive history of Mysuru State and kings right from 1399 to 1947.

Marethuhoda Mysurina Putagalu is being released at JSS College in Jayanagar 7th Block at 10 a.m. in the presence of cricketer Javagal Srinath on Sunday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / September 29th, 2018