Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV is popularly deemed a rajarshi, or ‘saintly king’, a moniker with which Mahatma Gandhi revered the king in 1925 for his administrative reforms and achievements.^[1][2] He was a philosopher king, seen by Paul Brunton as living the ideal expressed in Plato‘s Republic.^[3] Herbert Samuel compared him to Emperor Ashoka. Acknowledging the maharaja’s noble and efficient kingship, John Sankey declared in 1930 at the first Round Table Conference in London, “Mysore is the best administered state in the world”.^[4][5] He is often regarded as the “father of modern Mysore” and his reign the “golden age of Mysore”.^[6] Madan Mohan Malaviya described the maharaja as “dharmic” (virtuous in conduct). John Gunther, the American author, heaped praise on the king. In an obituary, The Times called him “a ruling prince second to none in esteem and affection inspired by both his impressive administration and his attractive personality”.^[7]

At the time of his death, Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV was one of the world’s wealthiest men, with a personal fortune estimated in 1940 to be worth US$400 million, equivalent to $7 billion in 2018 prices.^[8] He was the second-wealthiest Indian, after Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad.

A son of the Chalukya monarch Kirttivarman I, Pulakeshin overthrew his uncle Mangalesha to gain control of the throne. He suppressed a rebellion by Appayika and Govinda, and decisively defeated the Kadambas of Banavasi in the south. The Alupas and the Gangas of Talakadu recognized his suzerainty. He consolidated the Chalukya control over the western coast by subjugating the Mauryas of Konkana. His Aihole inscription also credits him with subjugating the Latas, the Malavas, and the Gurjaras in the north.

The most notable military achievement of Pulakeshin was his victory over the powerful northern emperor Harshavardhana, whose failure to conquer the Chalukyan territories to the south is attested by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. In the east, Pulakeshin subjugated the rulers of Dakshina Kosala and Kalinga. After defeating the Vishnukundina monarch, he appointed his brother Vishnu-vardhana as the governor of eastern Deccan; this brother later established the independent Eastern Chalukya dynasty of Vengi. Pulakeshin also achieved some successes against the Pallavas in the south, but was ultimately defeated during an invasion by the Pallava monarch Narasimhavarman I.

Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the unity of Vishnu and Shiva as different aspects of the same Ultimate Reality, known as Brahman. This concept of equivalence of various gods as one principle and “oneness of all existence” is discussed as Harihara in the texts of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.^[1]

Some of the earliest sculptures of Harihara, with one half of the image as Vishnu and other half as Shiva, are found in the surviving cave temples of India, such as in the cave 1 and cave 3 of the 6th-century Badami cave temples.^[2][3]

His court was adorned with some of the most notable of medieval Kannada language poets including the Jain poets Janna and Nemichandra, and the Brahman poet Rudrabhatta.^[7][8] According to the historians Chopra et al., during his rule, the Hoysala kingdom consolidated into an independent empire commencing an age of “Hoysala imperialism”.^[9] His architectural legacy includes numerous ornate temples, the Kedareshwara temple, the Veera Narayana temple and the Amrutesvara temple.^[7] He was ably supported in war and in administrative matters by his son, prince Vira Narasimha II, and crowned queen Umadevi. His other queen Cholamahadevi was a Chola princess. His daughter Somaladevi was given in marriage to the Chola monarch Kulothunga Chola III.^[7]