Hyderabad City is graced by the Osmania University and by the
imposing Mecca Masjid Mosque, where ten thousand Mohammedans may
assemble for prayer.
Mysore State too is a scenic wonderland, three thousand feet above
sea level, abounding in dense tropical forests, the home of wild
elephants, bison, bears, panthers, and tigers. Its two chief cities,
Bangalore and Mysore, are clean, attractive, with many parks and
public gardens.
Hindu architecture and sculpture achieved their highest perfection
in Mysore under the patronage of Hindu kings from the eleventh to
the fifteenth centuries. The temple at Belur, an eleventh-century
masterpiece completed during the reign of King Vishnuvardhana, is
unsurpassed in the world for its delicacy of detail and exuberant
imagery.
The rock pillars found in northern Mysore date from the third
century B.C., illuminating the memory of King Asoka. He succeeded
to the throne of the Maurya dynasty then prevailing; his empire
included nearly all of modern India, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan.
This illustrious emperor, considered even by Western historians to
have been an incomparable ruler, has left the following wisdom on
a rock memorial:
This religious inscription has been engraved in order that our sons
and grandsons may not think a new conquest is necessary; that they
may not think conquest by the sword deserves the name of conquest;
that they may see in it nothing but destruction and violence; that
they may consider nothing as true conquest save the conquest of
religion.
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