Haidar Alí/Chapter 1

by Lewin Bentham Bowring

HAIDAR ALI

---

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

HAIDAR AL!'S ANCESTORS. THE MYSORE DYNASTY.

The terrible uprising in India in 1857, commonly called the Mutiny, has to some extent obliterated the recollection of previous events in that country; but two generations ago most people had heard of the siege of Seringapatam, while readers of the Waverley Novels were familiar with the slight story called 'The Surgeon's Daughter.' In both cases the scene lay in that part of India now known as Mysore (Maisur), which was the cradle of one of the most daring and successful adventurers recorded in the annals of the East, and perhaps the most formidable adversary whom the British ever encountered in that region. The name of this leader of men was Haidar Ali, and although the kingdom founded by him lasted only during his own time and that of his son, Tipu Sultan a brief space of some thirty-eight years this short period was fruitful of events which tended to consolidate British power in India as the paramount authority.

In Hindustán, as elsewhere, when any man of vigour and energy has raised himself to a throne, it is not difficult to find for him a pedigree showing his noble descent, and it is not therefore surprising that native annalists should endeavour to prove that Haidar came from the famous race of the Korésh. According to their accounts, one of his ancestors named Hasan, who claimed Yahya as his progenitor, left Baghdád, and came to Ajmere in India, where he had a son called Walí Muhammad. This person, having quarrelled with an uncle, made his way to Gulbarga in the Deccan, and had a son named Alí Muhammad, who eventually migrated to Kolár in the eastern part of Mysore, where he died about the year 1678, having had four sons, the youngest of whom was named Fatah Muhammad^[1]. Fatah Muhammad was not long in finding military employment, and by his prowess at the siege of Ganjikotá won applause, and preferment at the hands of the Súbahdár of Sírá, heing raised to the rank of Náyak; but on a change of Súbahdárs, he tried to better his fortunes, first at Arcot, and then at Chittúr. Eventually he returned to Mysore, was made a Fáujdár, or military commander, and received Búdikota as a jágír or appanage. He married first a Sayyádani, by whom he had three sons, and subsequently two sisters (permissible by the law of Islám), whose father was a Naváyat of the race of Háshim. By the younger of these ladies he had two sons, Sháhbáz or Ismáil and Haidar^[2] (the Lion), the latter of whom eventually usurped the sovereignty of Mysore.

It would occupy too much space to relate the former history of the territory now called Mysore^[3], but it may be stated that at no time prior to Haidar Alí had the whole of it been governed by one ruler, or been known by this name. The ancient Hindu dynasties of Kadambas, Gangás, Chálukyas, and others, which ruled parts of it from the fifth to the twelfth centuries, had passed away, leaving no annals save those recorded on their stone-grants^[4]. To them succeeded Jáin rulers, whose memory is sustained by the beautifully carved temples at Halebid and Belúr, while the ruins at Hampi attest the glory of the sovereigns of Vijayanagar.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century the country was occupied by petty chiefs called Pálegárs or Náyaks, who ruled various portions of it. Those of Bednúr and Chitaldrúg were the most important, but many of the smaller states were in course of time conquered and annexed by the Wodiars of Mysore proper, whose possessions on the death of Chikka Devaráj in 1704 comprised about half of the present Mysore kingdom. The history of these latter rulers, who claim a Kshatriya descent, has a certain amount of romantic interest attached to it, the first of the race who entered Mysore having been a Paladin named Vijayaráj, who at the close of the fourteenth century, with his brother Krishnaráj, left Dwárká in Káthiáwár, and proceeded to the Karnátik country. On arriving at Hadinád near Mysore, they ascertained that the daughter of the local Wodiar or prince, a man of insane mind, was about to be forcibly married to a neighbouring chief who, in case of refusal, threatened to seize her father's possessions. The brothers by stratagem slew the obnoxious suitor and annexed his territory, while Vijayaráj himself wedded the distressed damsel, adopting at the same time the tenets of the Lingáyat faith^[5]. Such was the commencement of the rule of the present Mysore sovereigns, who, though of noble descent, were, unlike most of their predecessors in the Karnátik, of foreign origin.

For a period of two hundred years they held the status of petty chieftains only, but in 1609 Ráj Wodiar, seventh in descent from Vijayaráj, taking advantage of the weakness of the decaying Vijayanagar kingdom, to which Mysore was nominally subject, seized the fortress of Srírangapatan (Seringapatam), and made it the seat of his government. Shortly afterwards he renounced the Lingáyat faith, reverting to the worship of Vishnu, as practised by his ancestors. From this time he and his successors gradually extended their territory by conquest till, on the death of Chikka Devaráj, their possessions yielded a considerable revenue. In order to conciliate the Emperor Aurangzeb, who was said to contemplate the invasion of the Mysore country, Chikka Devaráj despatched an embassy in 1699 which was favourably received by the Great Mughal, who bestowed upon the Rájá, as he was now styled, the title of Jaga Deva, and an ivory throne, which was afterwards used on the installation of his successors. Chikka Devaráj was a brave soldier and an excellent administrator, but those who followed him being incompetent rulers, all power, as in the case of the descendants of the famous Sivají, fell virtually into the hands of the minister, the Rájás being mere puppets, who were put on the throne or deposed at the caprice of the leading men of the State. The direct descent ended in 1733 with the demise of Dodda Krishnaráj (or Krishnaráj the Elder), after which time new chiefs were elected at the pleasure of the Dalwái, or Commander-in-Chief, who usurped all the functions of government.

PEDIGREE OF THE MYSORE RÁJÁS.

Vijayaráj, 1399.

Ráj Wodiar, 1577-1616.

Chikka Devaráj, or Devaráj the younger, 1671-1704/5.

Kánthi Rái, 1704/5-16. The dumb Rájá.

Dodda Krishnaráj, or Krishnaráj the elder, 1716-33^[6].

Chámráj, adopted, 1733-36, died in prison.

Chikka Krishnaráj, or Krishnaráj the younger, adopted, 1736-66.

Nanjráj, 1766-71, strangled.

Chámráj, 1771-76.

Chámráj of Karúhalli, 1776-96, adopted, chosen by Haidar Alí.

Mummadi Krishnaráj. or Krishnaráj the Third, 1799-1868.

1 The dates given for the accession of this chief and his successor vary slightly from the generally-received record, but as the report from which they are taken gives the name of the Hindu cycle year, they are presumably correct.

1. Wilks, in his history of Southern India, gives a somewhat different version of Haidar's ancestry. According to his authorities, Haidar's great-grandfather Muhammad Bháilól was a Musalmán devotee, who left the Punjab to seek his fortune in Southern India, accompanied by his sons Alí Muhammad and Walí Muhammad. He settled at Áland in the Haidarábád territory, whence the sons proceeded to Sírá in Mysore, where they found service under the Súbahdár or Governor of that place, but subsequently migrated to Kolár. Here Alí Muhammad died, and his son Fatah Muhammad, with his mother, was ejected by Walí Muhammad from the family home. The discrepancy between this account and that given in the text is not however very material. Bháilól is an Afghán name, and was that of the founder of the Lódi dynasty which was uprooted by the celebrated Mughal Bábar in 1526.
2. There is some uncertainty as to the year of his birth, some authorities giving 1722, and others 1717.
3. For an account of the Mysore province, the reader is referred to The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
4. Silá Sháshanas are grants on stone, generally found in the courtyards of temples, and having incised on them the descent of the donor, his feats of arms, and the nature of the benefaction, which almost always consisted of land. Támrá, or copper Shásanas, were engraved on copper-plates, through which was passed a ring, stamped with the seal of the donor, each dynasty having its own emblem, in one case an elephant, in others a boar, or a hanumán monkey.
5. The Lingáyats are worshippers of Siva, and wear the phallus in a small silver box, which is suspended by a string from the neck.
6. 1