Indian royal dog breeds: the Mudhol hound, Rajapalayam, Rampur hound and more

India's princely states had their own hunting dogs, and some of those dogs are still known by the names of the places where rulers kept them. This page follows four of them: the Mudhol hound of the Ghorpade rulers of Mudhol, the Rampur hound of the Nawabs' state of Rampur, and the Rajapalayam and Chippiparai of southern Tamil Nadu. It also covers the Kombai and Kanni, and how India registered its first native dog breeds in 2020. It is part of our guide to royal pets in history.

Hunting dogs at the Indian courts

In the 1600s the Mughal emperor Jahangir recorded his greyhounds, and the dogs that other rulers sent him as gifts, in his memoirs; our page on Jahangir and his animals tells that story.

Most of the written history of the breeds on this page is recent, and much of what is said about them online has no source at all. For this page we used only university research, government records, peer-reviewed studies and dog books printed in 1907 and 1915. Where a story about a breed rests on belief or report, we say so.

The Mudhol hound and the rulers of Mudhol

A Maratha state

Mudhol is a town in Bagalkot district of Karnataka. It was once the capital of Mudhol State. A history of the state, written as a doctoral thesis at Shivaji University in Kolhapur in 2004 by M. S. Ghorpade, calls it one of the leading and oldest Maratha states of the Southern Maratha Country. The state came into being in 1551 and lasted until 1948. Its rulers belonged to the Ghorpade family.

The thesis follows the reign of Raja Malojirao Ghorpade. His father died on 19 July 1900, when Malojirao was still a minor, and British officers ran the state until he came of age. On 25 January 1904 the British political agent handed the government to him. The thesis says that in his time "the breed of dog known as Mudhol hound or Maratha hounds was famous."

Many modern websites tell further stories about the Mudhol hound and the British royal family. We found no museum, university or government record for them, so they are left out here.

A university centre for the breed

Today the breed has its own research centre. The Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University runs the Canine Research and Information Centre at Timmapur, 16 km from Mudhol. The university says the centre was opened on 24 September 2009 by the Chief Minister of Karnataka, on 40 acres of land given free by the state government. Its work to conserve and develop the Mudhol hound began in 2010 to 2011.

The centre's tasks include research on the breed's feeding, behaviour, training, health and breeding. It has sent Mudhol hound puppies to government agencies, among them the SSB in Rajasthan, the CRPF in Bangalore, the CISF at Sriharikota, the BSF at Tekanpur, the Bandipur Forest Department, the Air Force at Yelahanka, and the SPG in New Delhi. It received a Breed Saviour Award in 2015 and a Breed Conservation Award for 2022 from the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, presented on 17 February 2023.

A 2022 study from the same university, in the Indian Journal of Animal Research, describes the Mudhol hound's long association with wars, hunting and guarding, and with the Indian Army's sniffer dog squad. It adds that postage stamps were issued for the breed.

From the hunt to the security forces

On 30 August 2020 India's Prime Minister spoke about Indian dog breeds in his monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat. He named the Mudhol hound and the Himachali hound, and the Rajapalayam, Kanni, Chippiparai and Kombai. He said the Mudhol hound had been trained and taken into the dog squads of the Army, the CISF and the NSG, and that the CRPF had taken Kombai dogs.

The Border Security Force, or BSF, trains Indian breeds too. A Press Information Bureau paper on the national unity day parade of 31 October 2025 describes a marching squad of BSF Rampur hounds and Mudhol hounds planned for that parade, to be led by a Mudhol hound named Riya, who had come first in the All India Police Dog Competition. All India Radio reported that 150 Indian breed dogs were serving on the borders, trained at the BSF Academy at Tekanpur.

The Rampur hound

Rampur is a town in northern India. It was the capital of a state ruled by princes with the title Nawab. India's Ministry of Culture says Nawab Faizullah Khan founded the Rampur Raza Library there in 1774, and that the Nawabs were great patrons of scholars, poets, painters and musicians. After independence, the state joined the Union of India.

The hound that carries the town's name was described in England in 1907. Robert Leighton's New Book of the Dog says it comes "from Rampur in North-West India". He calls it a large greyhound of powerful, coarse build, fast, and used mainly to hunt jackal and to run down wounded big game. He lists these points:

• a long, flat head and bright yellow eyes
• a short coat like a newly clipped horse, mouse-grey or black, with black dogs the rarest and considered the best
• a height of 29 to 30 inches and an average weight of 75 lb
• feet that stand hard ground, where an English greyhound's feet would not

Leighton adds that Rampur hounds had been brought to England and shown at Dublin. In 1915 Walter Esplin Mason's Dogs of All Nations gave the "Rampur Greyhound" the same mouse-grey colour, a height of 30 inches and a weight of 75 lb.

Many modern breed pages name one particular Nawab as the creator of the Rampur hound. We found no museum, university or government record that confirms it, so this page names none.

The dogs of Tamil Nadu

Rajapalayam

The Rajapalayam comes from Rajapalayam taluk, an area around the town of Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district of southern Tamil Nadu. In 2017 scientists of the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources and the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University published a study of the breed in the Indian Journal of Animal Sciences. They measured 88 adult dogs and 21 puppies.

On history, the study is careful. It says it "was believed" that the Nayak dynasty of Tamil Nadu bred these dogs, and that it "was reported" they were used in the Carnatic war against the British army. It records the local name Vellai Moonji Naai, meaning white faced dog.

The dogs they measured were medium-sized, with a white coat, pink skin, pink nostrils, pink eyelids and, in most cases, golden eyes. Adult males averaged 24.69 kg and 63.1 cm at the shoulder, and females 21.42 kg and 58.9 cm. Some dogs had silver eyes, and the authors report that dogs with silver eyes were said to be deaf. The study puts the breed among mid-size hounds.

Today, the authors say, farmers near Rajapalayam keep the dogs to guard farms and farm houses, and the Indian Army has used them as guard dogs on the international borders. They took the ages of some dogs from pedigree records on registration certificates issued by the Kennel Club of India. They also studied the Dog Breeding Unit of Tamil Nadu's Department of Animal Husbandry in Chennai.

Chippiparai

The Chippiparai comes from Tirunelveli district of southern Tamil Nadu. A 2014 study from Madras Veterinary College calls it a medium-sized sighthound, a dog that hunts by sight and speed. Its marks are a fawn coat, black nostrils, black eyes, a broad chest and a tucked-up belly. Scientists of the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources write that the Rajapalayam and the Chippiparai are both kept to guard farms, and that Chippiparai dogs are even given to brides at their weddings.

Kombai, Kanni and the Poligar hound

The 2017 Rajapalayam study says four of the seven Indian breeds known outside India come from Tamil Nadu: the Rajapalayam, the Kanni, the Chippiparai and the Combai, also spelled Kombai. It calls the Kanni an indigenous hound of southern Tamil Nadu. The Kombai is the breed the CRPF took into service, according to the Prime Minister's address of 2020.

Leighton's book of 1907 recorded a southern hunting dog with a royal link in its name. He called it the Poligar hound, "a native of the districts round Madras", and said it bore the name of the military chieftains of the Southern Carnatic, who were "evidently the original breeders or owners". He wrote that it hunted foxes, deer and jackal, and that three of them would tackle a boar. Leighton names no modern breed, so the Poligar hound cannot be matched to any breed on this page with certainty.

Official recognition in 2020

India's National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, part of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), keeps the national register of livestock breeds. The bureau says that until 2020 no Indian dog had been recognized as a native breed, although some native dogs already worked as sniffer dogs with the Army and other security forces.

After the Prime Minister's address of 30 August 2020, the ICAR gave the bureau the authority to register dogs. On 16 September 2020 it registered the country's first three native dog breeds: the Mudhol hound, the Rajapalayam and the Chippiparai. The Government of India listed all three in the Official Gazette on 13 November 2020. By the bureau's count, it has registered 202 breeds of livestock and poultry and 3 breeds of dog.

Other rulers in other lands kept their own hunting dogs. Our page on the borzoi and the tsars follows the Russian imperial hunts.

A royal portrait for an Indian breed

The Mudhol hound's history gives it a natural match on this site. The thesis on Mudhol State calls the breed the Maratha hound, and Maratha King is one of Purrealism's 15 portrait styles. Our article on Shivaji and the Maratha kings explains the kingdom behind that style.

For a dog from Tamil Nadu, the Chola Warrior style takes its name from the Tamil kings described in our article on the Chola dynasty. The cover of this page is a studio example: a Vizsla and Labrador mix in the Chola Warrior style. For a portrait with a turban and throne, the Maharaja style is one more choice, and our article on what Maharaja means explains the title.

See finished portraits in the gallery, then upload one clear photo of up to 5 MB in the portrait studio. Prints come in 8 × 10, 12 × 16, 18 × 24 and 24 × 36 inches, on matte or glossy paper, or you can choose a digital download.