Kingdom of Mysore
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The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, which was founded about 1400 by the Wodeyar dynasty, who ruled the state until Indian independence in 1947, when the kingdom became Mysore state of India, later renamed Karnataka. The kingdom has its origins as a small state, based in the city of Mysore, which was established around 1400 as a tributary kingdom of the Vijayanagara empire. The empire collapsed after a severe military defeat in 1565, and shortly thereafter the Wodeyar dynasty asserted the independence of Mysore. From the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries, Mysore was the chief city, but nearby Srirangapatna (Seringapatam) served as the royal seat. The Kingdom grew to include most of the southern part of modern-day Karnataka. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Mysore Kingdom found itself in conflict with the British East India Company, which was trying to expand its control in India. The British went to war with Mysore, and after the defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799, the British annexed part of the state and installed the five-year-old Wodeyar heir on the throne, and Mysore became a princely state in British India. The capital was moved to Bangalore after 1830. After India's independence in 1947, the last Wodeyar Maharaja acceded to the Indian Government, and the kindgom became India's Mysore state. The former Maharaja was appointed rajpramukh, or governor, by the Indian Government until 1956, when the state was enlarged, and the former Rajpramukh became the state's first elected governor.
