Papadu

Towards the end of his life, after the death of Aurangzeb and amid the subsequent power struggle for succession, Papanna was able to dramatically enhance his fortunes, in particular as a consequence of a raid on the wealthy city of Warangal.

They inherited an area that was relatively easy to govern as, even prior to the sultanate, there was an accepted social structure, which included warrior-cultivator groups and chieftains as well as a shared use of the Telugu language and literature.

The native people of Golkonda or, at least, those in positions of influence, were won over and this was particularly significant with regard to the Nayaka chieftains, whom Eaton describes as having "an ethic of courage and steadfast loyalty to their political overlords.

[10] Furthermore, the conquest had caused or coincided with crop failures, famine, cholera epidemics and other disasters, between 1686 and 1690,[11] while the post-conquest era saw Aurangzeb bleeding Golkonda of its wealth in order to finance projects elsewhere.

[5] It has been speculated that the contradiction between the position of his caste and the roles in society that his father, brother and sister may have attained could explain Papanna's refusal to accept the restrictive ritualised norms.

With these funds he built a hill-fort at Tatikonda and drew a band of men around him who were willing to become highwaymen, and then proceeded to rob traders who used the nearby route between Hyderabad and Warangal, the erstwhile capital of Golkonda.

[13] The opposition of the zamindars was to become a theme of his life, in part because of the destabilising threat that he posed to society and, more specifically, to their own vested interests in inherited lands and the power base implicit in their control of local militias.

The city, which had become an important commercial centre, was looted extensively but the larger prize came in the form of the abduction of many wealthy and influential residents, who were then imprisoned at Shahpur in a compound constructed that purpose.

Although many hostages were taken – he had promised silver to those who captured females, and gold if they were of high status – the raid was not as successful as that at Warangal, at least in part because an accident caused the insurgents to give away their intentions.

[17] In 1709 Papanna demonstrated his desire for recognition when he attended an audience at Hyderabad with Bahadur Shah I, who by that time was beginning to assert some authority as emperor in the fractious post-Aurangzeb court power struggles.

Loud protests followed this recognition, especially from influential Muslims of the area whose relatives had been kidnapped and people who decried that an emperor would recognise a person of a toddy tapper caste.

[18] Eaton describes that the robe "... seemed to represent official acknowledgement of his status as a legitimate, tribute-paying nayaka-zamindar ... Landholders claiming descent from ancient nayaka families were simply incensed at such impudence.

Finding his position there to be untenable, and facing the desertion of some of his own forces, he decamped to the fort at Tatikonda, leaving Khan to take control of the wealth within Shahpur in accordance with instructions of his superior, the governor of Hyderabad.

At that point, Yusuf Khan determined to take personal charge, doubling the number of imperial forces to around 12,000 and being further aided by the provision of at least 30,000 soldiers – cavalry and infantry – supplied by local landowners.

Claims that he was a "Hindu warrior" are further negated by analysis of the names of his followers noted in the ballads, which appear to demonstrate that those within his group included Muslims and non-Hindu tribal peoples in almost equal proportion to Hindus.

[21] Despite the considerable forces set against him at Tatikonda, it was bribery that caused significant losses for Papanna: his men, by now weary, hungry and demoralised, were tempted to defect by offers of double pay made in May.

[24] They say that in leading such a rebellion "against both imperial and local chiefly authority, Papanna struck too boldly at the most basic ordering of society, and thus mobilized against him all those with a stake in the established hierarchies of caste and wealth.