The Curse of Alamelamma: Separating Myth from Reality

It was Around 17th Century, the Vijayanagar empire had almost declined. The Province of Mysore had declared itself independent from the empire. The last ruler of the Vijayanagar empire, Sri Ranga Raya(some texts says it was Tirumala raja) who was sick, had given up his capital Srirangapatna and retired in the nearby town of “Talakadu spent his last days there and eventually died. Meanwhile, Mysore's Ruler Raja Wadiyar captured the City of Srirangapatna. Sri Ranga Raya had two wives, the younger one was Queen Alamelamma. Alamelamma was a great devotee of Goddess Ranganayaki whose temple is in Srirangapatna. Alamelamma also possessed some precious gold jewelry. Every Tuesday and Friday she used to give her Jewels for the veneration of goddesses. Raja Wadiyar was aware of this. Out of greed, he commanded his soldiers to forcefully cease those jewels and bring it to him. King had no clue of what was on his way. The soldiers went to Queen Alamelamma. She refused to give it to them and escaped the scene with jewels. She was running for her life, followed by the Army of Wadiyars. She halted on the bank of Kaveri. With full of rage and exhaust she shouted,

"Let Talakadu become Barren, filled with Sand,

Let Malangi become whirlpool,

Let Mysore Kings be childless..!!"

ತಲಕಾಡು ಮರಳಾಗಿ,

ಮಾಲಿಂಗಿ ಮಡುವಾಗಿ,

ಮೈಸೂರು ಒಡೆಯರಿಗೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳಾಗದೆ ಹೋಗಲಿ

We all know this story. There are many versions of this story, but all end with these three historical lines. Many believe this story to be true. Because, we can still witness the aftermath of the curse. The Mysore Royal family is still said to be suffering from the curse. And the Talakadu region is still filled with sand and near the place of Malangi, Kaveri has some big Whirlpools. While some say it is just a folk story and all these effects are mere coincidence. Well, We can’t conclude anything without verifying.

Last year we had an Industrial visit organised by our college to Madhava Mantri Mini hydel power plant, Bhoruka, which is very close to Talakadu. We even visited Talakadu later that day. I knew the story of Talakadu and wanted to know the actual scientific reason behind Talakdau’s fate. So, I did some research on it. I came across this research paper which was published on 2014 by Prof. Ashit Baran Roy and Dr. M S Sethumadavan. From this paper I got to know about the geographical features of the Talakadu.

Talakadu is actually a low lying alluvial plains on the banks of River Kaveri.

The Kaveri flows at her peaceful pace near the town. The study even shows that a Kaveri had shifted its course slightly eastwards and a major part of Talakadu was under the river’s older course.

So what was the reason for its sand dunes? Why is Talakdu under Sand? Well to answer this lets go back in time to the 14th century. Madhava mantri, a minister from Vijayanagar Empire built a dam on the course of Kaveri just before she enters the region of Talakadu. The purpose of the dam was to aid agriculture in the region. When I read this story I wished I could visit this dam during my visit. It was on the day of the trip that I realized the plant which we were visiting was built on the same dam. That's why the name Madhava mantri mini hydel power plant. Moving on with the story, this Dam made the remaining course of the river shallow. The sediments and sand at the river bed are now exposed. These sediments got dried up. The south westerly winds transported sands to nearby places including Talakdu. This continued for years. A.B Roy in his publication mentions that this region was victim of “eco disaster” during the 17th century. (To be noted, this is the same timeline as mentioned in the story of Alamelamma). As a consequence of that, people started to abandon Talakadu. The sands of Talakdu are so fine and powdery, without any clay materials which proves that it was deposited by air.

There are few temples of Talakdu,which are still buried under the sand. Some of them are wrecked. Research says that the destruction of temples is not due to any river, Curse or communal riot. Instead, states that it is because of the earthquake or tectonic disturbance. The evidence of this is, the pattern of the ruins resembles that of monuments of Harappan Civilisation which were destroyed by earthquakes. The seismic graph of India also shows the mild-seismic instability of southern India. Although the region has no records of active earthquakes in the past, researchers believe there might have been some slight tectonic disturbance at the region in the past which led to the destruction of the temples.

Now, let's know the reason behind the whirlpools of Malangi. If we take a look at satellite images of the Region, near Malangi, The Kaveri takes Steep curve, Which causes the disturbance in the flow of the currents and causes the whirlpools. Some versions of the story tell that Alamelamma jumped into the whirlpool of the river, which indicates that Whirlpool was already present in the river even before the curse.

Now considering the third aspect of the curse it is known that, 10 out 19 rulers failed beget a heir. And also the curse has affected the alternate generation of Family. Ever since the curse, the Royal Family

had Adopted a son from their distant relative to continue the lineage. It has been suggested that the Wadiyar family may have been affected by depression caused by inbreeding, as some of the kings were married to princesses who were closely related to them.

Well these are the reasons and explanation I got when I did the research, Does this mean the curse was fake? Or does this even mean there was no one named Alamelamma?. Well again all these research have given the possible explanation to curses but have not given any conclusion about Alamelamma. Even the Royal family of Mysore believes in the story and out of guilt they are still worshiping Alamelamma as goddess. You may hear many stories of Alamelamma but all revolve around the sacrifice of a great lady.

The widowed Queen Might have run to save her life from clutches of the Soldiers. And when there was no way to go she might have just jumped off with all the gold. Maybe the plot of Curse was added later, or she might have actually cursed out of immense pain and anger, no one knows, because no one was there to witness this painful sight. We heard, what was told to us, by someone who in turn has heard it from someone else!.

This is the group picture, taken at Madhava Mantri mini Hydel power plant.

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