The Carnatic band of Mysore Police is stationed as part of the Karnataka State Mounted Police, which is also known by its acronym KARP. The Royal Mounted Body Guards of the then Maharajas - the Wadiyars of Mysore, were known in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom as the HHMMBGs - His Highness the Mysore Maharaja's Body Guards. Their military lineage maybe traced back to the famed Mysore lancers, The Mysore Horse and the Mysore Infantry. The Mysore infantry remained in action till 1951, when it was disbanded and absorbed into Indian army after India became a Republic in 1950. The 18th battalion of the Madras Regiment of Indian Army was formed from the Mysore State infantry. A subset of the princely Mysore infantry, the horse troops were attached to the last Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar before being seconded to the Mysore Police, and later after Mysore state was absorbed into state of Karnataka, they came to be known as the Karnataka State Armed Police Mounted Company. One cannot miss their staggering presence as a cavalry unit during the Mysore Dasara Jamboo Savari, on the Vijayadashami day every year.
Check out their presence as 'Special Branch' at:
http://mysorecitypolice.gov.in

In 2015, while I was doing my Masters in Contemporary Music at the New England Conservatory, a colleague of mine said ‘The Beatles discovered Raaga music and showed it to the world’. This irritating cliché of the West handpicking traditional gems in the East for global consumption, (oh, so oriental of him!) somehow annoyed me.  Where and when did Western art music meet India and Indian music for the first time? Where were the very first of these Carnatic Encounters? These questions gripped me. The very first encounters of Carnatic music happened not in the 20th century with bands like Shakti or in the Ravishankar era - but back in the hay days of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar and in the culturally fertile soils of Mysore!  The 'Indian Orchestra' and the "English Band' of the Mysore court tell the stories of these very first and very significant encounters of Western and Indian music.