Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/128

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116 MYSORE DISTRICT. of Aurangzeb, the fort of Bangalore for the sum of £30,000; and in 1699 he obtained from the Delhi Emperor the right of sitting on an ivory throne-to this day the badge of royalty in Mysore. On the death of Chikka Deva Ráj in 1704, his dominions extended from the south of Coimbatore to the middle of Túmkúr District, and from the borders of Coorg to the Karnátik Gháts. It will be observed that these limits are much narrower than the present State of Mysore; and, moreover, the sovereign rights of the Rájá were greatly impaired by the semi-independence of his many feudatories. It is to the Musalmán usurper Haidar Alí that Mysore owed both its widest extension and the organized empire which tolerated no subjects but slaves. From the beginning of the 18th century, the Wodeyars fell under the control of their Dalawáis or hereditary Mayors of the Palace. And this circumstance rendered it the more easy for Haidar Ali to supersede their authority, and finally to rule in his own name; while the representatives of the old Hindu dynasty were kept as State prisoners in their own palace at Seringapatam. The usurpation of Haidar Ali is generally dated from 1761. It is a matter of imperial history how, after the death of Tipú in 1799, the Marquis of Wellesley resolved to restore the Hindu dynasty in the person of a boy four years old; how, in 1831, the British assumed the direct administration of the State, and in 1881 restored the same to Native rule. In 1811, Bangalore was fixed upon as the most healthy station for the European troops, and as the head-quarters of the civil government, though Mysore still continues to be the capital of the Mahárajá, who resides in both towns at different seasons of the year. Population.—A khána-sumári, or house enumeration of the people, in 1853–54, returned a total of 602,040 souls, exclusive of the jágir of Yelandúr. The regular Census of 1871 showed the number to be 943,187, giving an increase over the corresponding area of 52 per cent. in the interval of 18 years, if the earlier estimate can be trusted. The Census of 1881 made the following returns : Population, 902,566, namely, males 443,179, females 459,387; density of population per square mile, 303 ; villages per square mile, 0°72 ; houses per square mile, 57*2; persons per house, 6'4. The District contained 2137 towns and villages, consisting of 138,912 occupied and 31,721 unoccupied houses. The decrease in the population is mainly due to the fa 1876–77; during which fanine, it is estimated, there had been a loss of about a million of lives in Mysore STATE (9.v.). There were in 1881, under 15 years of age, 174,644 boys and 171,734 girls; total children, 346,378, or 38.4 per cent of the District population. The adults numbered 268,535 males and 287,653 females ; total, 556,188, or 61:6 of the population. All the population figures in this article, and all averages and per