The curse of Talakad

My niece Bhavya had told me that there was a book by this name and that she could never get hold of one. I chanced upon it on my usual visit to Eloor library this weekend and have read through it twice; thanks to the size of the book and crisp presentation. I knew about the curse, its connection to the wodeyars and the sand dunes at Talakad, but vaguely. Sashi Sivramkrishna deep dives into the legend and puts it to the litmus test of reason; the scientist that he is. The outcome? “…or unanswerable questions-which perhaps only future history can resolve. We had moved closer to the world of reason, but had not succumbed fully to it.”

To cut the long story short- Alamelamma, wife of the defeated king of Srirangapatna, curses the victorious Wodeyars that they would be heirless. She also curses, for reasons which the author struggles to investigate, that Talakad be covered by sand and that Malingi (another village) become a whirlpool. The Wodeyars have been heirless for four centuries now and still continue too. However, the author shows that this part of the curse is satisfyed in an indirect manner. The adopted heir had sons but no grandsons. Every second generation had to adopt. The author tries to ‘rationalise’ rather put in perspective the other two parts of the curse using records left by travelers, archaeological evidence and some logic based on an understanding of the history of those times. The author provides a lot of other info, why the name Talakad and is it one legend or two in one, the Tipu connection, can sand dunes be formed by meandering rivers….The book is a must for everyone who plans to visit Talakad. It would had added value if the author had interviewed the living Wodeyar scion and also tried to trace the descendants of Alamelamma.

I recently discovered another review of this book here.

A documentary made on this topic is available on youtube here.