Daly Memorial Hall

Coordinates: 12°58′16.78″N 77°35′13.01″E / 12.9713278°N 77.5869472°E / 12.9713278; 77.5869472

The Daly Memorial Hall in Bangalore

The Daly Memorial Hall, located in Bangalore, Karnataka was built in 1917 to house the Mythic Society (founded 1909).

Origin

It was the creation of both the British as well as Indian residents who were eager to know India's life, society and history, in the hope that useful and interesting information might be gathered of the history, growth and source of the civilization in which people lived. The society was the brainchild of F. J. Richards who was the Collector, Bangalore cantonment District under the Madras Presidency. Richards visualised the Mythic Society as an academic 'club'. At a meeting held at his residence on 5 May 1909, a list of members likely to be interested in this 'club' was drawn up. It had seventeen names of both European and Indian residents of Bangalore. Thus was born the Society.

To the great surprise of the founders, the first year membership of the club touched 174.

History

It was a French priest who was destined to come to India and to leave his indelible mark on Bangalore in the form of the Daly memorial Hall. Arriving in Bangalore in 1886, the Reverend Father Antoninette Marie Tabard was attached to St. Joseph's College. However, since had come out to India to be a Missionary, teaching did not satisfy his inner urge and so he appealed to his Bishop Dr. Kleiner to send him out in the District. He wanted to identify himself with the people amongst whom he had to work. He was sent to Mysore to study Tamil under Rev. Father Reautearu.

Upon the death of the Rev. Father Quenard, the Parish Priest of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Father Tabard returned to Bangalore to fill the post. From 1891 to 1926 he remained its Chaplain and Chaplain to the British troops stationed in Bangalore.

Father Tabard was essential to the creation of the Mythic Society. It is said that the late Col. Desaraj Urs once offered him a pair of white mules. Father Tabard remarked that a cash donation equivalent to their value would be more welcome to the Mythic Society. The next day the Colonel sent him the pair of mules with a cheque for Rs 500. Father Tabard soon succeeded in obtaining land on Cenotaph Road and he erected the "Daly Memorial Hall" and provided it with an extensive reference library. He started its quarterly journal and established a reserve fund of Rs 10,000. The Mythic Society was founded and has rendered services to the State and continues to do so for the United Karnataka.

The Mythic Society ranks among many pioneering institutions of its kind like the Royal Asiatic Society of Calcutta or the Bharath Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandal of Pune, which had strived to reconstruct India's past. Eminent historians and researchers on South India like Dr. J.F. Fleet, Dr. B.J. Rice, Dr. Jouveail Dubreuil, Sir John Marshall, Prof. S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar, T.A. Gopinath Rao, Mahamahopadhyaya R. Narasimhachar, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Shastry, Dr. A. Venkatasubbiah, Dr. R. Shama Shastry, Prof. K.N. Shastry, Prof. B.M. Srikantaiah, T.T. Sharman and Dr. M.V. Krishna Rao were closely associated with the Mythic Society and many of their publications have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society.

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