Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760)

The political history of the region on the Deccan Plateau in west-central peninsular India (Map 1) that was later divided into Mysore state and Coorg province saw many changes after the fall of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire in 1565.

[2][b] The battle was fought on the doab (interfluve, or tongue of land) between the Kistna river and its major left bank tributary, the Bhima, 100 miles (160 km) to the north of the imperial capital, Vijayanagara (Map 2).

[c] Later, they moved another 175 miles (282 km) east-southeast to Chandragiri, not far from the coast, and survived there until 1635, their dwindling empire concentrating its resources on its eastern Tamil and Telugu speaking realms.

[4] According to historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam: " ... in the ten years following 1565, the imperial centre of Vijayanagara effectively ceased to be a power as far as the western reaches of the peninsula were concerned, leaving a vacuum that was eventually filled by Ikkeri and Mysore.

"[4] In the heyday of their rule, the kings of Vijayanagara had granted tracts of land in their realm to vassal chiefs on the stipulation of an annual tribute and of military service during times of war.

[5] Overseen by a viceroy—titled Sri Ranga Raya and based in the island town of Seringapatam on the river Kaveri, 200 miles (320 km) south of the capital,[d][7] the southern chiefs bore various titles.

For his services, his territories within the crumbling empire were expanded out to the Western Ghats, the mountain range running along the southwestern coast of India; a new capital was established in Channapatna[12] (Map 6.)

[15][16] They had the help also of a chieftain of the Maratha uplands of western India, Shahaji Bhonsle, who was on the lookout for rewards of jagir land in the conquered territories the taxes on which he could collect as an annuity.

[18][19] Returning north through the east-central maidan plain (average elevation 600 m (2,000 ft)), they gained possession of the towns of Ballapur, Sira, and the hill fortress of Chitaldroog.

A new province, Caranatic-Bijapur-Balaghat, incorporating Kolar, Hoskote, Bangalore, and Sira, and situated above (or westwards of) the Eastern Ghats range, was added to the Sultanate of Bijapur and granted to Shahji as a jagir.

[20] This did not sit well with Shahji's eldest son, from his first wife, Shivaji Bhonsle—a chieftain back in the Maratha uplands—who swiftly led an expedition southwards to claim his share.

[24] Although their own histories date the origins of the Wodeyars of Mysore (also "Odeyar", "Udaiyar", "Wodiyar", "Wadiyar", or "Wadiar", and, literally, "chief") to 1399,[7] records of them go back no earlier than the early 16th century.

[35] The apprehended inequity of this action, the unusually high taxes, and the intrusive nature of his regime, created widespread protests which had the support of the wandering Jangama ascetics in the monasteries of the Lingayats, a monotheistic religious order that emphasizes a personal relationship with the Hindu god Shiva.

[35] According to D. R. Nagaraja a slogan of the protests was: Basavanna[e] the Bull tills the forest land; Devendra[f] gives the rains; Why should we, the ones who grow crops through hard labour, pay taxes to the king?

[24] Continual strife with the Marathas led to an alliance with the Mughal emperor Aurengzeb (reigned 1658–1707), who elaborately praised the Mysore king for the pursuit of their mutual enemy.

[32] Lands below the Eastern Ghats around Baramahal and Salem, less the objects of Mughal interest, were annexed to Mysore, as were those below the Baba Budan mountains[g] on the western edge of the Deccan Plateau.

When the Raja died on 16 November 1704, his dominions extended from Midagesi in the north to Palni Hills and Anaimalai in the south, and from Coorg in the west to Dharmapuri district in the east.

[43] Barcelore became a busy trading centre which exported rice, local textiles, saltpetre, and iron from the interior regions and imported corals, exotic yard goods and horses.

Both Barcelore and Mangalore became principal ports for the export of rice, and during the first half of the 17th century supplied the other strategic fortalezas of significance to the Estado da India, the Portuguese Asian empire.

[45] When the last king of Vijayanagara sought refuge in his realms, Shivappa Nayaka set him up at Belur and Sakkarepatna, and later mounted an unsuccessful siege of Seringapatam on the latter's behalf.

[48] Under it, Basava agreed to pay 30,000 xerafins in Portuguese war-charges for the decade-long conflict with the Dutch (whom the Nayakas of Ikkeri had supported), to provide construction material for the factory at Mangalore, to provide 1,500 sacks of clean rice annually, to pay a yearly tribute for Mangalore and Barcelore, to destroy the factories of the Omani Arabs on the Kanara coast, and to allow Catholic churches to be built at a number of locations in Kanara.

[49] A Mughal province which comprised the Carnatic region south of the Tungabhadra river, and which was to exist for seventy years,[50] was established in 1687 with its capital at Sira (in Tumkur District).

[58] Although, Rājendranāme, a "royal" genealogy of the rulers of Coorg written in 1808, makes no mention of the origin of the lineage, its reading by historian Lewis Rice led him to conclude that the princely line was established by a member of the Ikkeri Nayaka family.

[63] Changing his modus operandi of guerrilla skirmishes in the hilly Coorg jungle, Dodda Virappa took to open field warfare against the Mysore army.

[65] More than a century earlier, Lewis Rice, had written:Dodda Virappa evinced throughout his long and vigorous reign an unconquerable spirit, and though surrounded by powerful neighbours, neither the number nor the strength of this enemies seems to have relaxed his courage or damped his enterprise.

[67] In Stein's words, Previously resistant aristocracies were eventually won over in early modern Europe by being offered state offices and honours and by being protected in their patrimonial wealth, but this was only after monarchies had proven their ability to defeat antiquated feudal forces and had found alternative resources in cities and from trade.

[68] Consequently, the larger states of this period in southern India, were not able to entirely change their mode of creating wealth from one of extracting tribute payments, which were seldom regular, to that of direct collection of taxes by government officials.

Surveying the historiography, Subrahmanyam, says:A major problem attendant on such generalisations by modern historians concerning pre-1760 Mysore is, however, the paucity of documentation on this older 'Old Regime'.

[71] The ruling dynasty's origins, especially as expounded in later palace genealogies, are also of doubtful accuracy; this is, in part, because the Wodeyars, who were reinstated by the British on the Mysore gaddi in 1799, to preside over a fragile sovereignty,[72] "obsessively" attempted to demonstrate their "unbroken" royal lineage,[73] to bolster their then uncertain status.

[78] The first attempt at including a comprehensive history of Mysore in an English language work is an account of a survey of South India conducted at Lord Richard Wellesley's request, by Francis Buchanan, a Scottish physician and geographer.

Mysore is shown in west-central peninsular India with the Madras Presidency bordering it on the east, west, and south, with the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal surrounding the peninsula, and with Sri Lanka in the vicinity to the south-east
Map 1 : Mysore and Coorg in a map of peninsular India showing shifting boundaries
Ruins of a temple, entirely made of stone. The four-storied temple ruins rise behind two free-standing pillared structures, one of which hides the entrance to the temple. Sculptures of human forms are seen on the upper stories. Grass grows on various exposed surfaces of the ruins. A pathway, paved with stone slabs, fringes the visible perimeter of the temple.
An 1856 photograph by John Alexander Greenlaw (1818–1870) of entrance to the Krishna temple at Hampi , among the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire , now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [ a ]
Panorama of a river island town, with pink pagoda-like structures and white minarets, and the river surrounding it. In the foreground two horse-riders scatter in different directions; in the distance, a grey hill rises on the left
An early 19th-century watercolour of the island town of Seringapatam on the Kaveri River .
A temple with a temple tank or pool and a few devotees. Behind, a hill rises steeply, covered here and there with huge boulders
Watercolour of the temple at Kolar, 1800. Kolar district was in the Carnatic-Bijapur-Payanghat province in the mid-17th century.
A huge bull, with large eyes, carved out of stone and ornamented with many necklaces, is seated on a stone altar built atop a hill and overlooking the plains behind. The bull's left front paw is extended out; its right, folded under. An adult man, shown in the picture, is dwarfed by comparison.
Company style watercolour , 1806, of the colossal monolithic granite Nandi bull of 1659 on the road to Chamundi Hill overlooking Mysore
A black and white picture of an ornamented throne, constructed out of some metal. There are intricate carvings of horses on its base and of women on the steps leading up to it. An umbrella rises above the throne and many chandeliers surround it.
Late 19th-century photograph of the ivory throne in Mysore palace, the original version of which, it was said, was presented by Mughal Emperor Aurengzeb to Chikka Devaraja in 1704
Watercolour of a river and a fort. The river's flow is disturbed by some small rocks; a hidden creek or stream runs into the river in the foreground; a small boat has been pulled out of the water and left resting on the far bank. The fort, with six visible turrets, is built on the edge of a cliff overlooking the river. Hills line the distant background.
Watercolour of Shimoga, 1805. Shimoga was an important stronghold of the Keladi Nayakas in the 16th and 17th centuries.
A fort with two-tiered ramparts and many bastions rises above the far bank of a river. Some human settlements are visible nearby.
A pen and ink drawing of Mangalore Fort made in 1783 after it had been taken by the English East India Company
A stone building with onion-domed minarets and a body of water adjoining it. Some men are bathing; others are engaged in conversation. A stone wall separates the water from the building's garden and its leafy trees.
A 1794 aquatint of the mausoleum at Kolar , where Haidar Ali 's father, Fateh Muhammad, the military governor ( faujdar ) of Kolar district in the province of Sira, is buried
A white mansion and, in the distance, a fortified palace atop a hill. Three men stand near a tent in the foreground. The mansion has a large rust-colored shingled roof, pillared porches and open-air balconies on its four sides, and large box-like corner sections that extend out from the rest of the architecture.
Watercolour of the guest house of the Raja of Coorg with the fort in the background, 1795