This article lists heritage and monumental edifice built before the Indian Independence in and around Mysore City in the first section, and then tabulates modern buildings. The history of Mysore city, in particular, and of the Mysore Plateauin general, spans across both the eras. Mysore is believed to have been formed into a republic even before the mythical times of Medieval India. The regions in and around the Mysore belts find mentioning from Vedic scripts, where the region is termed as Mahishaka.
History
Over the centuries, before and after the Common Era, the region was ruled by different, numerous dynasties, mostly South Indian ones, like the Rashtrakutas, the Western Chalukyas, the Hoysalas, and others, until it was ruled by the last dynasty, the Wadiyars, the government of whose kingdom was transferred to them by its superior predecessor, the Vijayanagara Empire, in 1399, and gradually, the Vijayanagara Empire itself declined to its entirety, resulting in the Wadiyar Dynasty's being the very last principal Indian royal family to have ruled the South.
Patrons during Princely India
Most of the construction works undertaken by earlier empires and monarchies have either been completely destroyed over time, owing to rampages of the Deccan Sultanates, or have been dismantled by the following monarchies. However, most of the structures in Mysore City, and in fact, in the cities in the Kingdom of Mysore, which includes as close as Bangalore, Erode, Shimoga, Chitradurga, among others, were built between the early 1700s and the late 1940s, and are, hence, often attributed to the Wadiyars. Since Mysore was the capital city of the kingdom for almost six centuries, the Wadiyars were directly supervising the construction and progress of the city. Construction in other Mysore Kingdom cities were delegated to subordinates, like that of Bangalore to Kempe Gowda I, Shimoga to Shivappa Nayaka, et cetera. After the decline of strong subordinates and the influence of British rule, the Wadiyars became principal, direct rulers of Mysore Kingdom, with supervisors mostly being the Diwans of Mysore and British agents. Therefore, while other cities attribute their progress to the subordinates of the Wadiyars, Mysore credits all its progress to the Wadiyars. After the abolishment of absolute monarchy, most of the structures are being used by the democratic government bodies, like the Indian Government's using Cheluvamba Vilas Palace as CFTRI, University of Mysore's using Jayalakshmi Vilas Palace as University Museum and Oriental Research Library as Museum Library, and the Karnataka Government's using several palaces for tourism attraction, just to name a few within Mysore city.
