The Wodeyar dynasty (also spelt Wadiyar-by the British) was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from 1399 to 1947, until the independence of India from British rule and the subsequent unification of British dominions and princely states into the Republic of India.
The spelling Wodeyar/Wodiyar is found in most records and is used by the royal family members themselves. The spelling by modern transliteration rules from Kannada is Odeyar. The word is pronounced to start with a vowel sound and not with the consonant as present in the English spelling. Odeyar in Kannada means the king or the owner.
The dynasty was established by Vijaya, a Yadava who by some accounts came to Mysore from Dwaraka. Vijaya took on the name Yadu-Raya and ruled Mysore, then a small town, from 1399 CE to 1423 CE. The Wodeyars of Vijaya's dynasty belong to the Arasu community of Karnataka, which includes many of the noble clans of the region.
The Mysore kingdom was ruled by a succession of Wodeyar rulers for the next couple of centuries. However, the kingdom remained fairly small during this period and was not totally independent, being part of the Vijayanagara Empire. The kingdom of Mysore got involved with the British during the reign of His Highness Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, G.C.S.I. (1799-1868). His successors changed the English spelling of their royal name to Wadiyar, and took the title of Bahadur. The last two monarchs also accepted the British decoration G.B.E.
The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, which was founded about AD 1400 by the Wodeyar dynasty, who ruled the state until the independence of India in 1947, when the kingdom was merged with the Union of India.
The kingdom originated as a small state based in the city of Mysore, and was established by two brothers, Vijaya and Krisha Wodeyar. The Wodeyar Dynasty claims descent from Yadu Vanshi,i.e., the Jadeja/Jadon Rajputs. They migrated from Gujrat to Vijay Nagar and from there the two brothers set up a kingdom at Mysore Mahisasur and assumed the title of Wodeyars as per the history of the family. It remained a kingdom tributary to the Vijayanagara empire until the collapse of the latter in the second half of the 16th century. In common with every other feudatory of that empire, Mysore, under the Wodeyar dynasty, then assumed the trappings of independence. It was in the reign of Raja Wodeyar and his successor, the celebrated Kantheerava, in the mid-1600s, that the kingdom really asserted its independence, and expanded to include most of the southern part of modern-day Karnataka, as also parts of neighbouring states.
Mysore India 1811-1833
Elephant Walking Left, Nagari Legends Above obverse,
Karanese Legends/ XX cash No Date reverse.
Ref: KM# 177, 20mm & 9.2gms.
