CHAPTER IV
Haidar assumes the Control of affairs–Conquest of Bednúr
The young Rájá Chikka Krishnaráj of Mysore had long smarted under the thraldom of his Mayor of the Palace, Nanjráj, and it occurred to the dowager queen that advantage might be taken of the ascendancy over the troops which Haidar had acquired to get rid of the obnoxious minister. This was successfully achieved with the aid of Khande Ráo, but the effect was to exchange King Log for King Stork, for Haidar, having practically command of the army and of the revenue of nearly half the kingdom, kept the Rájá in the same state of dependence as before. Khande Ráo was then won over by the Ráni, and by his advice recourse was had to the Maráthás, at a time when the greater part of Haidar's troops were engaged in operations below the gháts, and a force was despatched to Seringapatam to attack him. Taken by surprise, Haidar was compelled to flee in haste, leaving his family behind him, and, attended by only a few faithful followers, reached Bangalore, having ridden ninety-eight miles in twenty hours.
This was a critical period in Haidar's career. Having lost all his treasure and his artillery, his sole hope was in the troops under the command of his brother-in-law, Makdúm Alí, then engaged in warfare in the Arcot district, while the main object of the treacherous Khande Ráo, who owed everything to Haidar's patronage, was to annihilate this force with the aid of the Maráthás. Fortune however favoured Haidar. For just at this time the Peshwá's army was signally defeated in the memorable battle fought against Ahmad Sháh Abdáli at Pánípat in 1761, and the Maráthá force in Mysore, commanded by Visají Pandit, was recalled hastily to Poona, the only conditions exacted being the cession of the Báramaháls[1] and the payment of three lacs of rupees. The money was paid, but the territory mentioned was never surrendered, while Haidar, relieved from the pressure which had been put upon him, proceeded to encounter Khande Ráo at Nanjangúd, twenty-seven miles south of Seringapatam. He was, however, defeated. Haidar then adopted the singular course of throwing himself as a suppliant at the feet of Nanjráj, the late Minister, who, completely deceived by his professions of fidelity, was weak enough to put him in command of a respectable body of troops, and to give him the title of Dalwái, or commander-in-chief. Armed with this authority Haidar endeavoured to effect a junction with the force at Seringapatam, but was outmanœuvred by Khande Ráo, and his ruin seemed inevitable. But he fabricated letters in the name of Nanjráj to the officers of the latter's troops, desiring them to surrender Khande Ráo in accordance with a pre-arranged agreement. These letters were designedly carried to Khande Ráo, who, fearing a conspiracy, abandoned his army, and fled to Seringapatam.
Haidar, hearing of Khande Ráo's flight, attacked his troops, and gained an easy victory, capturing all his guns and baggage, while the infantry readily sided with the conqueror. For some months he was actively engaged in reducing all the forts below the passes which had come into possession of Khande Ráo. During these operations he added largely to his following, and when his preparations were complete, he assembled his army on the banks of the Káveri, opposite to Seringapatam. After a few days of apparent inactivity, Haidar suddenly dashed across the river, and surprised the enemy's camp, scattering dismay among the troops, who at once acknowledged his authority. He then, after arranging for the Rájá's personal expenditure, demanded that the control of affairs should be made over to him, and that his treacherous friend Khande Ráo should be surrendered to his mercy. A story is told as to this last incident, to the effect that the ladies of the palace interceded for the unfortunate Bráhman, whereupon Haidar replied that he would cherish him like a tótá (parrot), a promise which he kept by keeping him in an iron cage, and feeding him on rice and milk till the end of his life.
The Nizám Salábat Jang, who was of inferior capacity, had two younger brothers, named Basálat Jang and Nizám Alí Khán, by the latter of whom he was deposed and imprisoned in 1761. The other brother, Basálat Jang, who was in charge of the Adoni district bordering on Mysore, deemed the occasion favourable for extending his own possessions, and accordingly meditated the reduction of Sírá; but finding the place strongly occupied by the Maráthás, who had seized it four years before, he advanced upon Hoskote, not far from Bangalore. Haidar, ascertaining that he was unable to seize that town, entered into negotiations with him, with the result that Haidar, on the payment of three lacs, was appointed Nawáb of Sírá, and proclaimed as Haidar Alí Khán Bahádur, a title which Basálat Jang had no authority whatever to bestow, but which was afterwards openly assumed by Haidar.
On the departure of Basálat Jang, after the occupation of Sírá, Haidar Alí turned his attention to the reduction of the Pálegárs of Chikka Ballapúr, Raidrúg, Harpanhalli, and Chitaldrúg, all of whom were compelled to submit to his authority and to pay tribute. While Haidar was encamped near Chitaldrúg, his assistance was solicited to replace on the masnad an individual who gave himself out to be the legitimate Rájá of Bednúr, a chiefdom in the Malnád, a hill country to the westward, and better known as the territory of the Náyaks of Kiladi. Kiladi, now a petty village in the north-west of Mysore, was the homestead of two brothers who, about the year 1560, having found a treasure, and duly sacrificed a human victim, according to the barbarous practice of the time, received from the Rájá, of Vijayanagar a grant for the territory which their wealth enabled them to overrun. Their descendants moved the capital to Ikkeri[2], ten miles to the south, where Venkatappa Náyak was ruling at the time when the Italian traveller Pietro della Valle visited this part of India about 1623. Della Valle, who had great powers of observation, gives an interesting account of the social and religious customs of the Lingáyats, to which sect the chief belonged. Della Valle was in the suite of the Portuguese envoy, for whose amusement various entertainments were provided, among which Della Valle mentions the Kolahátá dance, in which the girls held short sticks in their hands, which they struck against one another as they danced, singing as they circled round in the piazza of the temple. This dance is still practised by the Coorgs[3].
In the distracted times when the Vijayanagar dynasty was tottering towards its fall, Ikkeri was considered unsafe as a capital, so the chiefs headquarters were moved in 1640 by Sivappa Náyak to Bednúr, or Bidurúrú, i. e. the town of bamboos. This was a central position in a difficult hilly country, surrounded by thick forests, whilst the Náyak fortified the town with strong outposts extending several miles, which made it, if not impregnable, at any rate sufficiently strong to defy all attacks by undisciplined troops. Horses were rarely found in the country, while no forage could be procured for them without great difficulty. The rough tracks were traversed by pack-bullocks, which, at the risk of fractured limbs, descended the rugged passes leading to the coast, laden with rice and betel-nut, and bringing back cloths and salt, while in every pass and gorge was a guard of soldiers, who not only stopped all hostile invaders, but acted as custom-house officers, and levied toll on all imports and exports.
Sivappa Náyak was an able administrator, who took practical steps to test the real value of land by
cultivating various crops and noting the produce and the market-rates, by which he arrived at a fair notion of the capabilities of each description of soil, and was enabled to fix an equitable assessment. During his rule the town increased rapidly, and became eventually of such importance as to merit the appellation of nagar, or city, the name which it still bears, while the possessions of the chief included not only the greater part of the Malnád, or hill region, but also the plain country below the passes extending to the western coast, now called Kánara. In fact the territory comprised nearly 10,000 square miles, while the Náyaks were at the beginning of the eighteenth century of greater importance than the Rájás of Mysore.
In this secluded region the Náyaks held undisputed sway for two hundred years, but did not advance their frontiers to any extent after the death of Sivappa Náyak, whose successors merely retained the possessions he had won. In 1755 Baswappa Náyak, the ruling chief, died, leaving his widow Virammají as guardian of an adopted son named Chenna Baswaia. This youth is said to have been murdered by the widow and her paramour, but the claimant who was presented to Haidar averred that he was in effect the heir alleged to have been killed, and that he had escaped the machinations of the Ráni and her lover.
Haidar, who derided the idea of hereditary rights, and was as unscrupulous as he was avaricious, was not slow to avail himself of the opportunity of attacking Bednúr on pretence of restoring the fugitive to his lawful position. In the beginning of 1763 he set out on this expedition, distributing his troops into four columns, and having seized Shimoga, where he found four lacs of rupees, proceeded on to Kúmsi. Here he found the imprisoned minister of the late Rájá, who readily undertook to be his guide through the wild country between Kúmsi and the capital. The affrightened Ráni, hearing of his advance, twice offered him large sums of money, but Haidar pressed onwards, rejecting all overtures, and the Ráni fled to the fortress of Bálalráidrúg[4]. Acting on the information imparted by the ex-minister, Haidar, after ordering a false attack, passed through the outworks by a secret path, and suddenly made his appearance in the city. In an instant all was confusion, the inhabitants fleeing to the woods, while the Ráni's guards, struck with fear, offered no resistance, but contented themselves with firing the palace. Haidar however promptly extinguished the flames, and knowing well the reputed wealth of the town, set to work at once to appropriate the booty by systematically sealing up all the principal houses, the palace, and public offices.
The value of the property thus acquired was reputed at twelve millions sterling, and Haidar attributed to this conquest his future successes. He made short work of the Ráni and her lover, who were arrested at Balálráidrúg, and, together with her adopted son Sómasekhara and the pretended claimant, forwarded to Madgiri, a hill fort in the eastern part of Mysore.
Haidar at first thought of making Bednúr, which he now called Haidarnagar, his capital, and formed designs for building there a palace and arsenal, with a local mint, besides constructing a dockyard on the coast. But a severe attack of illness, and a conspiracy in which many hundred persons were implicated, seem to have deterred him from this project. Three hundred of the conspirators were hanged, and all signs of revolt suppressed. His acute judgment soon showed him that by confining himself to the hill country he would lose his preponderating influence in Mysore proper.
- ↑ The districts referred to are in the northern part of the Salem district of Madras, the hills which enclose the greater part of them protruding from the plateau of Mysore, the passes into which they practically commanded. The territory nominally comprised twelve districts, whence the name of 'Báramahál,' but the precise extent of the territory so called seems to have varied at different times. The excellent Salem District Manual derives the word Mahal from the Persian for a palace, but it is more probably Mahál, i.e. a district.
- ↑ In the temple at Ikkeri are curious effigies of some of the Náyaks, one of whom, who was mad, is represented as fettered hand and foot. The distance between the pillars of this building was adopted as the standard for measuring the space between the several trees of a betel-nut plantation.
- ↑ Della Valle appears to have married a Syrian lady, who died during his absence from his native land. He carried her remains however to Rome, and deposited them in the family vault in the church of Ara Coeli, erecting a large cross, on the foot of which was inscribed the following epitaph in 1626: – Maani Gieroidae, Heroinae Praestantissimae Petri De Valle Perini uxoris Mortales exuviae, See Notes in Goethe's 'West-Oestlicher Divan' on Pietro della Valle.
- ↑ This fortress is forty miles south of Bednúr. Some accounts state that she fled to Káulidrúg, another fort, only ten miles distant, which was taken after a month's siege.