Coorg otherwise called as Kodagu has a fascinating history. The place holds a colourful past with so many interesting aspects. Its after ninth and tenth centuries the history of Coorg became the subject of authentic record before that most of the accounts on Coorg was legendary.
During this period, as per the inscriptions, the country was ruled by the Gangas of Talakad, under whom the Changalvas, kings of Changa-nad, styled later kings of Nanjarayapatna or Nanjarajapatna, held the east and part of the north of Coorg, together with the Hunsur taluk in Mysore.
After the overthrow, in the eleventh century, of the Ganga power by the Cholas, the Changalvas became tributary to the latter. In fourteenth century the place was under the supremacy of Vijayanagar empire. Thereafter Coorg was ruled by petty local chieftains called Nayakas, till the advent of the Lingayat Rajas.
On Linga Rajas death in 1780’s Hyder Au and in 1782 Tipu Of Mysore ruled this place. In 1788 Tipu's force was driven out of Coorg by Vira Raja. The British then made an agreement with Vira Raja and enter into the place.
After the annexation of Coorg by the British in 1834. Queen Victoria was the Godmother of a Coorg Princess. After Coorg was annexed by the British in the year 1834, Chikka Virarajendra, the last Raja of Coorg, was taken by the British first to Vellore in Tamil Nadu, and then to Varanasi in 1835.
In 1852 Chikka Virarajendra, with two of his wives and his favorite daughter Gowramma whom he wished to give a European education sailed to England. He was the first Indian Raja to sail from India to England.
On the 30th of June she was baptized, Queen Victoria being one of her sponsors also present during the ceremony. She afterwards married a British officer who, after her death in 1864, mysteriously disappeared together with their child.
From 1834 to Indian Independence that is till 1947 Coorg was ruled directly by the British. The Indian Constitution considered Coorg as part ' C' state and an elected government assumed office in 1952 with its own chief minister. In November, 1956, Coorg was merged with the former state of Mysore, during the reorganization of states. Present time Coorg is a district in the state of Karnataka.
