The Daly Memorial Hall, located in Bangalore

Bangalore

Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

, Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

 was built in 1917 to house the Mythic Society (founded 1909).

Origin

It was the creation of both the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 as well as India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n 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

St. Joseph's College, Bangalore

St. Joseph's College , Bangalore is one of the oldest colleges in the State of Karnataka with a history of more than 125 years behind it. It imparts graduate, post-graduate and research education while searching, renewing and expanding itself, attempting to be ever relevant to the changing...

. 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

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

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.