The 100-year link

The 100-year link
The Mythic Society, originally set up in the city to host discussions on history, culture and mythology is now in its centenary year. Times City revisits the historic institution
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Mythic Society, IISc Are Like Twin Institutions
Bangalore: The Mythic Society and IISc seem to have a unique 100-year-old bond. How many of us know that the first president of The Mythic Society was also the first director of IISc?
IISC director P Balaram revealed this fascinating facet of history of two institutions of Bangalore to a scholarly audience on a very special occasion on Sunday — the centenary celebrations of The Mythic Society.
A national seminar on Indian heritage, history and science will be held over the next three days.
Delivering his address soon after inaugurating the celebrations along with the Gandhian Harnahally Ramaswamy, Balaram offered a bird’s eye-view of the personality who headed The Mythic Society.
“I came here for a special purpose — the celebration of 100 years of The Mythic Society. IISc, too, is celebrating 100 years. Though the Geological Society is at this very moment celebrating its Golden Jubilee at IISc, I thought I should be here for reasons of history. We knew very little of Mythic Society. There was historian B V Subbarayappa’s book, which was valuable. We also wanted to see if The Society itself had some records. We eventually found some interesting facts.”
There is an organic connection, Balaram explained, between The Mythic Society and IISc. “The first director of IISc was also the first president of The Mythic Society — the British scientist Morris Travers. Travers was a man who was very precise, liked documentation and always wrote down everything.”
Travers came in very young at 34 to set up IISc. By that time (between 1900 and 1906), he had already written a book on the discovery of rare gases for which Ramsay won the Nobel Prize. “But Ramsay’s prize was really based on Travers’ experiments and work. From today’s vantage point, Travers would have won the Nobel,” Balaram observed.
While The Mythic Society is suffused with history, art, architecture, Balaram pointed out that Travers was inclined more towards science and engineering. Harnahally Ramaswamy dwelt on India’s national heritage, the subject of the centenary celebrations. “Heritage is a matter of pride for India. India has always reflected a wide tradition of humanity. It has withstood onslaught after onslaught and despite all that reflects a vibrant, heterogenous and tolerant culture.”
Seminar begins
The Mythic Society is holding a threeday national seminar till Tuesday on Indian heritage as part of its centenary celebrations. Seventeen scholars will make presentations ranging from innovations in Indian mathematics to Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi’s thoughts and South Indian iconography.
On Sunday, four presentations were made on very different fields. Navaratna S Rajaram spoke on ice age to vedic age, Michel Danino on Harappan town planning, R Balasubramaniam on the Delhi iron pillar and M D Srinivas on Indian planetary models.