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Chronology of Tumkur

Tumkur or Tumakuru is originally known as Tummeguru. It has been said that the word Tumakuru is a derived from ‘Tumbe ooru’ because of abundance of a flower called ‘Tumbe huuvu’ spread throughout the town. Moreover, since Tumkur is situated at an elevation, during the governance of Cholas, the soldiers used to stand at hilltop with an instrument called Tumaki, which was used to warn the people in the city of any danger approaching the city.

Tumkur owes most of its history to Kante Arasu, a member of the royal family in Mysore, Gangas, Nolambas, Hoysalas and of course the British.

Between 5th and 10th Century A.D., Tumkur was under the rule of Gangas and therefore, was a part of Gangawadi but in the 11th Century, the north eastern part of Tumkur came under the rule of Nolambas and was therefore, known as Nolambavadi.

The Hoysalas succeeded the Gangas and took over the entire area of Tumkur. Their ruling was in two stages. First, the Vinayaditya (1047-1100) and Vishnuvardhana (1100-1152) who ruled only over Gangavadi and second, Narasimha 1 (1152-1173), who ruled over both Gangavadi and Nolambavadi.

Hoysala rule in Tumkur


During 14th Century, the Vijayanagara Kings conquered this area, which was later invaded by the Bijapur Army and the entire northern part of Tumkur district came under the rule of Adil Shahi. Later, the Mughals captured northern Tumkur and made Sira a provincial district under the charge of a Subedar or Faujdar known as Karnatak - Bijapur - Balaghat, which consisted of Doddaballapur, Bangalore, Hoskote and Kolar.

Vijayanagara Empire

Whereas by the 18th Century, the southern area of Tumkur became a part of Mysore Territory and later, the entire area came under Mysore Territory when it was conquered by Hyder Ali in 1761.

History of Tumkur
During 1811-1831, Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar the third divided Mysore state into six subedars namely Bangalore, Maddagiri, Ashtagram, Manjarabad, Nagar and Chitaldrug. Tumkur district was part of the Maddagiri subedar. However, in 1834, these 6 subedars were reconstituted into just four subedars of Bangalore, Nagar, Ashatagra, and Chitaldrug. Tumkur and Chitaldrug district belonged to the Chitaldrug subedar with its headquarters at Tumkur.

After British invaded the country, Mr. Bowring in 1862 divided Mysore into 8 districts (Tumkur being one of them) and 3 divisions. However, in 1879, all the divisions were eradicated and in 1882, Chitaldrug district was made a sub-division under Tumkur, which was later re-established without Pavagada that was shifted to Tumkur district.


Between 1870-1882, Tumkur consisted of Sira, Tumkur, Maddagiri (presently Madhugiri), Koratagere, Chiknayakanahalli, Honnavalli (presently Tiptur), Kunigal and Kadada (presently Gubbi).

In 1915, Tumkur consisted of 8 taluks, 2 sub-divisions and 2 sub-taluks. In 1928 and 1938, Korategere and Turuvekere sub-taluks were converted into taluks respectively.

Mysore in 1956


In 1956, the Mysore state was then divided into 4 divisions and Kolar, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Bangalore and Bellary districts were made part of Bangalore Division. However, on February 1966, Bellary district was shifted to Gulbarga Division and instead Shimoga district was included in the Bangalore Division.

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