Legacy of Learning in Mysore State: Celebrating the Growth of Library Services and 60 Years of the MyDLIS.
This is a story about a kingdom that acted differently, introducing the library service inside the palace and later moving it to the public space.
The Princely State of Mysore, which stretched across some 29,000 sq miles of Southern India and today is known as Karnataka State, governing 31 districts, made a series of decisions over the last 150 years by introducing knowledge-based learning, which was the luxury for the few, but was a necessity for all, and is the most consequential in the history of Indian civilisation. And then, which is rarer than the decision itself – they built the institutions to prove it.
This story is of those institutions – the libraries, once the manuscript rooms were confined to the palace, helped the kingdom in becoming the intellectual backbone of a state; the school of library science that grew up alongside them, training professionals who keep the motto alive ‘Nothing is Equal to Knowledge,’ and it aimed at providing knowledge service to the nation. This is the story of a philosopher-king, mathematician, librarian, engineering statesmen, and both men and women who spent their lives placing the right book in the right hand. It is also an unavoidable story about us, the library and information science professionals – what we choose to preserve and what we choose to forget.
S R Ranganathan taught us that the library is a living, evolving entity. From this story of libraries, we see that the Maharajas of Mysore understood this before he said it. The library tradition of the Mysore State, once initiated across the two cities, spread to five types of institutions, a hundred and fifty years, and the full intellectual spectrum from Sanskrit palm leaves manuscripts to aerospace engineering specifications – is the proof.
Pre-1799
The ‘Library’ as a concept in this region can be traced back to the time of Tipu Sultan’s personal library, which housed 1,112 works in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hindi, and Kannada. The British officer George Stewart documented this collection from 1800 to 1805, before these collections were taken away by the British. The collection, which can stand out as evidence of the mind that ranged across the intellectual traditions, and which could be a precious collection of Karnataka State Archives, got lost in the name of war and throne (Devika, 2023; Ehrlich, 2020; Sims-Williams, 2021).
The archives record that the Mysore Palace Library was known as ‘Saraswathi Bhandara’ earlier to this. Many visitors and Britishers appreciated its collection till mid of eighteenth century. Chikka Devaraja Wadiyar, who ruled from 1672 to 1704, had lists and copies made of the inscriptions throughout the country. Unfortunately, the collection of the Mysore Palace Library was taken for boiling the gram or Kulti for the horses on the orders of Tipu Sultan (Rice, 1909).
The Long Root – the Tradition Before the System (1799-1868)
After Tipu Sultan fell at Srirangapatna, 12-year-old
Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar was installed as the ruler of Mysore in 1799. He
was a polyglot scholar, at ease in Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, English, and Urdu (Gopal & Narendra Prasad, 2004). During his long sixty-nine-year rule, longer than
Queen Victoria's, he made an honest attempt to rebuild the collection and housed
a treasure of knowledge and reestablished ‘Saraswathi Bhandara’ –
the Treasury of the Goddess of Learning Saraswathi, the first
systematic personal library of the Wadiyars of Mysuru (RBSI,
2013).
H.H. Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar in 1866
Source: Wikipedia, 2026
Two rulers, two libraries, one land. The soil of Mysore was sown with the idea that structured knowledge signifies true learning through reading.
The Landmark of Beginnings (1891-1909)
Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, the adopted son of
Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, was seventeen years old when he began a remarkable
effort to promote democratised knowledge in the Mysore State. He established a
library for scholarship itself – the Government Oriental Library (or) Oriental
Research Institute (ORI) in the magnificent Victoria Jubilee Hall in Mysore
city. This is the beginning of library services to the public by the
Government.
Source: Oriental Research Institute Mysore, 2026
The public image was given to libraries with the start of ‘Sarvajanika Library’ at Belgaum in 1848 by J D Inverarity, in 1854 at Dharwad by L S Nagapurkar, at Hubli in 1865. During 1863-90, many libraries started serving society with the support of businessmen and social reformers who contributed to the knowledge discovery (Rao, 1929).
The First Library Curator – Rudrapatnam Shamashastry
The effort for systematic organising of the knowledge treasure and the effort to identify the literature for proper cataloguing were attempted by Rudrapatnam Shamashastry. In 1905, he identified a significant text – a treatise on statecraft, economics, and military strategy written in ancient Sanskrit attributed to Kautilya, the legendary advisor of Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta. In 1909, Shamshastry published his edition of the Arthashastra to worldwide academic acclaim, making the Library of Mysore State a topic of discussion in the knowledge world.
Source: Anima Anandkumar, 2024
The story of Shamashastry and Arthashastra stand out
as evidence of the proposition that the rest of this history demonstrated
repeatedly that the trained professional librarians do not merely store the knowledge
but create it. The case for library science education had been in practice, even
before anyone in Mysore thought of converting it into theory.
The Second Library: Mythic Society – Where Scholarship Found a Home (1910-1924)
The developments in Mysore made a huge impact in Bangalore, the industrial hub of Mysore State. In 1909, 15 Britishers and 2 Indians gathered at F H Richards, the Collector of the Bangalore Cantonment District, who called themselves the ‘Mythic Society,’ with a purpose to study the history, culture, philosophy and ethnology of South India. The rich donations from Sir Hugh Daly, Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, Oxford University Press, and the collections from the Smithsonian Institute and the Mysore Secretariat were transferred to the society.
The effort to gather the collection for a period of 8 years resulted in a scholarly library at the Daly Memorial Hall, opened for reference on 25 July 1917, by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV.
Mysore State got its Public Libraries (1912 – 1915)
In 1912, Dewan Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya – engineer, economist, visionary, and the man who became the only engineer to receive the Bharat Ratna – convened the Mysore Economic Conference. The conference recommended the establishment of public libraries in the State’s two principal cities, Mysore and Bangalore. A sum of Rs 21,000 was sanctioned for the purchase of books. Public subscriptions and the Maharaja’s grant were identified for funding the building and furniture.
The activities of the Mystic Society to develop a
scholarly library instill the need for a library in the common, which was
already experienced and functioning in Baroda with the effort of Maharaja Sayajirao
Gaekwad III of Baroda, who pioneered the public library movement in India,
starting in 1906. In 1914, Dewan Visvesvaraya was the man behind the
construction of the hall between 1908 and 1915 in honour of Sir K Seshadri
Iyer, the Dewan of Mysore (1883–1901) known as the ‘Maker of Modern Bangalore’.
The Seshadri Iyer Memorial Hall in Cubbon Park, for the establishment of the
State Public Library in Bangalore. On May1 1915, Sir Leslie Miller, the Chief
Judge of Mysore, inaugurated the State Public Library with 4,750 books and 215
members, operating its services from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, six days a week.
known as the Seshadri Iyer Memorial
Hall
Five months later, on October 15 1915, the second Public Library started functioning with the inauguration of the Mysore Public Library by Yuvaraja Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar, in the premises of the Chamarajendra Technical Institute on Sayajirao Road.
The City Central Library (old building) at
Chamarajendra Technical Institute, Mysore
Source: Sunil et al., 2024
The establishment of two libraries, two cities, the
same year, the same Maharaja, the same Dewan and the dual inauguration in 1915,
propelled the Mysore state library philosophy. It was a policy translated into
buildings and books and open doors, even during the time of world wars.
Formation of First Library Committee (1915)
This demanded that the professionals manage the libraries and body to monitor the activities – the Library Committee. This brought together – B M Srikantaiah, the great champion of Kannada literature, Roa Bahadur Ranga Iyengar, M Venkatakrishnaiah, Janab M Hamjad Hussain, N S Subbarao, Rev E W Thompson, and B G Lakshman Rao – as the Members of the First Library Committee of the princely Mysore State in 1915 (Bhagirath, 2014).
Commencement of Library Training Program
Inspired by the Public Library Movement of 1910 in Baroda under Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III and following the committee’s decision, Dewan Sir M. Visvesvaraya launched a training course for librarians in Bangalore as part of a ‘Programme of Library Development’. This initiative involved inviting experts from Baroda’s public library to provide training for the State Public Library and the Mysore Public Library in 1917. It is also noteworthy that the first formal librarianship training program in India was established in Baroda in 1911, initiated by W A Borden at the invitation of Maharaja Sayaji Rao (Rao, 1929).
Establishment of Academic and Research Library
The idea of having libraries in educational institutions was conceptualized at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. The IISc was established with the donation of 371 acres of land and Rs 5 lakhs by Maharani Kempunanjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana, to nurture the idea of industrialist Jamsetji Tata. The financial support extended by Tata and the administrative sanction of the British the IISc to become operational in 1909. The IISc Library (later known as JRD Tata Library in 1995) was started to support the three departments of the institute. This unique specialized library gave rise to the concept of the Institute Library in particular and special libraries in general (Rao, 1929).
Establishment of the University Library
The University of Mysore officially started on 27 July 1916 – it was the sixth university in India and the first in the southern state, with a combined effort of Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, Dewan Sir M Visvesvaraya, and Sirdar M. Kantharaje Urs, who succeeded Sir MV as Dewan of Mysore. In 1918, the university library began its service to the academic and research world with a modest collection of 2,311 books gifted, and was housed in the Jubilee Building, which was later named the Oriental Research Library and began functioning. And it was only in 1932 that the library moved to a well-structured with a wood furnished Maharaja College Library (now, the Maharaja Undergraduate Library) on the college campus (Krishnamurti, 1941).
The other noteworthy personal library, with the most updated editions during 1920-1930, was maintained by Dewan Kantharaje Urs. As a passionate reader, educationist, and able administrator who proposed the ‘Mobile Library’ during the 1922 Mysore Economic Conference to reach rural India. During his tenure as Dewan, he incentivised the authors for their contributions and supported them in their research activities. Another important development was the involvement of the women’s only library committee and constituting to recommend books for its collection.
The first Library Association of the State
These developments influenced and attracted many intellectuals to the library culture in the princely state. What is remarkable about these developments is the connection they established with S. R. Ranganathan and brought into the Mysore intellectual sphere. Before becoming a librarian, he was teaching mathematics at the Government College in Mangalore under the Madras Presidency. He founded the Mysore Library Association (MLA), the first professional body for people working in libraries in the state. Later in 1923, he was appointed as Librarian at the University of Madras and moved to University College London, in the library school run by W C Berwick Sayers for formal library education.
The year 1931 is a remarkable achievement for libraries with the introduction of library philosophy – the five laws – for library management and services by Ranganathan. The education and training were also formalised by the establishment of the Department of Library Science at the University of Madras. A new professional course was created. These developments made a great impact on Mysore State as it was administered under the Madras Presidency of the British. Secondly, these establishments were started by Ranganathan, the man with deep roots in the soil of Mysore State.
The celebration of 25 years and institutionalizing the library service
On 5 November 1940, the Mysore Public Library celebrated its Silver Jubilee – the 25 Years of its knowledge service. Here, it is worth remembering that when the whole world was impacted by the war, the knowledge service to mankind continued without any disturbance. Dewan Sir Mirza Ismail presided over the celebration. This celebration made the library an essential civil amenity and an institution of the state. This was clear with the establishment of several academic and research libraries in the Mysore State Province.
The shift in administration, thoughts, and priorities
The Indian freedom struggle intensified from 1940 onwards, followed by the emergence of Independent India in 1947 and later the division, followed by the merging of the different state provisions as the independent state of India, in 1952, it didn’t give much room for a milestone development in this segment. Further, the administrative shift from the princely state to a democratic state which demanded time for the process of establishment. There was also a shift in the priorities of the public services.
The Law guaranteed the Right to Read
At the Karnataka Library Conference held in Belgaum in 1958, a resolution was moved calling for library legislation. A drafting committee headed by Dr S. R. Ranganathan was formed. The committee worked for five years and presented its recommendations, which later came to be known as the Mysore Public Libraries Act, making Karnataka the third state in India to legislate for public libraries.
The gap addressed by formalising
The Mysore State had built magnificent libraries for over a century and a half, but a library without trained librarians is an achievement. For this, the state depended on short-term training programs, qualified professionals from other states, and people from the state started moving towards Madras for formal library science education. The interest and the initiatives by Dr. Radhakrishnan and the intellectuals at the University of Mysore initiated the activities to establish a formal Library Science education in the state.
Setting the Benchmark – DRTC, ISI, Bengaluru
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) pioneering Indian scientist and statistician known as the ‘father of statistics in India’ and founder of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1931 in Bangalore; heard the requirements specified by the higher academic bodies of University of Mysore and invited Dr S R Ranganathan who was known as ‘father of library science in India’ in 1957 to frame a formal education and training courses in documentation and library science. On 1 January 1962, the Documentation Research and Training Center (DRTC) was established in a rented building near Ranganathan’s Bangalore residence, as a unit of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).
In 1962, DRTC introduced a two-year postgraduate programme in library science with a small class size and a project-based learning curriculum.
Library Science Course at the University of Mysore
The library science education in Bangalore propelled the activities in this direction in Mysore. On 24 June 1965, Prof. P.K. Patil and Prof. K.S. Deshpande laid the foundation and led the establishment of the Department of Library Science (DLS) in Manasagangotri.
Prof P K Patil Prof K S Deshpande
Independent University Library in Independent India
Prof. P.K. Patil and Prof. K.S. Deshpande took on the responsibility for structuring and process implementation of the functioning of Mysore University Library (MUL) along with the DLS. It took six months of effort to move the books from the Maharaja Undergraduate Library and the books housed in the warden's room of the Maharaja College Hostel. The library also attracted gifts from many scholars, authors, poets, and industry people. The foundation stone was laid by Prof. C D Deshmukh, who was the UGC Chairman, on 11 July 1960, and Prof N A Nikam was the vice chancellor. The library was formally inaugurated to start the services in the building measuring 1,15,000 sq. by Dr S Radhakrishnan on 7 December 1965.
Inauguration plaque of Mysore University Library
Moving ahead with Master’s and Doctoral Programmes
Later in 1971, DLS introduced a one-year master’s degree in library science and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) programme in 1976 – again, both the programmes were the first in Karnataka. In the same year, the DLS was renamed as the ‘Department of Library and Information Science,’ reflecting the profession’s broadening scope. In 1992, the BLiSc and MLiSc amalgamated to offer an integrated two-year master’s degree in library and information science (MLISc), deepening the quality of professional formation.
MyDLIS 60 Years
During the 40th year celebration of the Department of Library and Information Science and the Mysore University Library, held in 2005, Dr Shalini R. Urs, the professor of the department, coined the acronym for the department name as MyDLIS to bring a sense of belongingness to the Mysore University Department of Library and Information Science (MyDLIS).
When MyDLIS is celebrating its 60 years on 27 and 28 May, 2026, the alumni community is proud as MyDLIS stands as an instrumental force in framing, curriculum development, and delivering the Certificate Programmes in Library Science offered by Undergraduate Colleges and Public Libraries. Over the 60 years, MyDLIS has trained hundreds of library professionals and semiprofessionals who have staffed public libraries, university libraries, special libraries, and government information centers across Karnataka and beyond.
When every book is correctly catalogued, every reader correctly guided, every archive correctly organised in libraries of this state bears, in some sense, the invisible fingerprint of the MyDLIS and the tradition it embodies.
Both the Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC) and MyDLIS played a significant role in establishing special research libraries of NAL and ISRO. The public sector undertakings such as Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), and others in the city of Bangalore. The special libraries and the educational institutions created demand; the university had created the supply. Education and services were together like gears in a mechanism, which drove the whole system forward.
One river, many tributaries:
The tracing of the library tradition of the Mysore Sate across a century and a half, across two capitals – Mysore and Bangalore, and six distinct types of institutions – Saraswathi Bhandara, the personal royal library; the Oriental Research Institute of manuscripts; the Public Libraries of Mysore and Bangalore; the scholarly society library of the Mythic Society; the academic libraries of Mysore and Bangalore; and the special libraries of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Aeronautics Laboratory (NAL), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the public sector undertakings.
Running parallel to this library ecosystem was the development of library science education, off course, sometimes ahead of it, sometimes behind, always in intimate relationships. The court pandits of the Saraswathi Bhandara, the scholarly archivist of Shamashastry at the Oriental library, the Mysore Library Association founded by Ranganathan, the Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC)established in Bangalore, the University of Mysore MyDLIS, the Karnatak University DLIS, the Bangalore University DLIS, and several industrial libraries, these are not parallel lines running in isolation; they are, as Ranganathan said, a ‘Single growing organism’.
Every library and information professional, historian, researcher, and many others eventually ponder the basic question – why here? Why did the princely state of Mysore build something that the other Indian states, richer or more powerful, did not? Why did they focus on preserving the intellectual output? Why did library after library, school after school, law after law, and association after association emerge from this particular territory?
The answer this history suggests is that there was no single reason. There was a philosopher-king, and there was an engineer-dewan, who believed that public access to knowledge was as important as public access to water. There was a mathematician from Tamil Nadu, who had taught in Mangalore and never forgot what the learning from this soil. There was a dewan who understood that what a king’s generosity had created, there was an effort to bring a republic’s law to protect all these efforts. And there was, beneath all of these, a culture of civilization that had written its own motto on its university’s emblem: ‘ನಹಿ ಜ್ಞಾನೇನ ಸದೃಶಂ’, ‘Nothing is equal to the Knowledge’.
Acknowledgement:
The author gratefully acknowledges Dr Pamela Sanath Nikam, Dr N S Harinarayana, Mr Nishith Amarnath, and Mr Nadhish for their valuable support in providing the relevant information, references, and records for this work.
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