Haidar ali and tipu sultan

CHAPTER IX

THE MARATHAS INVADE MYSORE A FOURTH TIME

HAIDAR had now to prepare for another formidable invasion of Mysore by the Marathas. Fortified by the tacit assent of Nizam Ali, who viewed with alarm, the pretensions of his brother Basalat Jang, Haidar proceeded to levy contributions from the Nawabs of Kadapa and Karnul, as well as from the smaller chiefs who were subordinate to Sira. Having thus replenished his treasury, he prepared to oppose the Peshwa’s army, demanding also assistance from the English under the provisions of the treaty recently executed. The aid demanded was however never rendered, and Haidar was left alone to bear the brunt of the Maratha attack. Knowing his inability to meet the foe in the open field, he retreated towards his capital, wasting the country as he retired; but finding his position precarious he sent an envoy to treat for terms. Madhu Rao demanded a million (one crore of rupees), partly on account of the exactions levied by Haidar from the chiefs just referred to, and partly as arrears of tribute, which the Peshwa claimed as being the overlord of Mysore in right of the Maratha succession to the sovereignty of Bijapur. These exorbitant demands being rejected by Haidar, Madho Rao proceeded to occupy the country, overrunning all the northern and eastern districts, and establishing garrisons at the principal posts. He carried everything before him, but only met with a signal repulse in attacking Nijagal, an almost inaccessible fort about thirty miles north-west of Bangalore. This place, after an investment of three months, was at last taken by the desperate courage of the Palegar of Chitaldrug, who, at the head of his brave band of Bedars, succeeded in seizing the fortress by escalade. Madhu Rao ordered the noses and ears of all the survivors of the garrison to be cut off, the only man who escaped mutilation being the commandant, Sardar Khan, whose undaunted behaviour before the Peshwa secured him immunity. Madhu Rao, whose movements, had been attended with entire success, now fell ill and returned to Poona, leaving his maternal uncle Trimbak Rao in command³⁰. This chief, after reducing Gurramkonda returned to the west, conquering several districts not yet seized by his nephew; but in the meanwhile Haidar had assembled a large force of cavalry and infantry, with which he determined to stay the invasion of his territory.

There is a sacred shrine called Melukote about twenty miles north of Seringapatam. Haidar, after some ineffectual manoeuvres near the stupendous rock-fortress of Savandrug, entered the eastern pass leading into the hills within which Melukote is situated, and drew up his troops in the form of a crescent facing the west, with his flanks resting on the most inaccessible sides of the hills. There happened however to be a detached hill on the eastern approach, from which the Marathas during eight days kept up a galling cannonade. To this, Haidar, having no large guns, was unable to reply, and his position became at length so intolerable that he resolved to retire on Seringapatam by the southern pass of the hills. His troops marched at night, but Haidar, having drunk freely in the evening, was not in a fit state to superintend the movement, while his son Tipu was nowhere to be found³¹, and the accidental firing off of a gun apprised the Marathas that the Mysore army was in retreat. An immediate pursuit was ordered, and the Maratha cavalry, aided by some guns which were brought to bear upon the enemy with great effect from the banks of a reservoir called the Pearl Tank, hovered in swarms about Haidar’s infantry, which with much difficulty reached the hills near Chirkuli, or Chinkurali. Here the utmost confusion ensued, and during the panic the Maratha horse charged the fugitives, and breaking through the square which had been formed, commenced an indiscriminate slaughter. Seeing that all was lost, and that the enemy were engaged in plundering his camp, Haidar escaped alone and unattended to Seringapatam, a distance of eleven miles, and was soon after followed by Tipu in the disguise of a fakir or mendicant. The only officer who behaved gallantly on the occasion was Fazl Ullah, Khan, who, cutting his way through the enemy, with a small body of men, lorded the Kaveri and reached Seringapatam in safety. This disastrous affair occurred on March 5, 1771.

Melukote, being a richly-endowed shrine and the headquarters of the sect of Sri Vaishnava Brahmans, offered an irresistible allurement to the greed of the Marathas, and as the place was deserted they did not hesitate, after pillaging the precincts, to, set fire to the temple cars, which involved the destruction of the sacred buildings. The delay caused by the inveterate habit of plundering which characterized the Marathas enabled Haidar to take measures for the effectual defence of his capital, which Trimbak Rao besieged with no result. The Maratha host continued however to hold the greater part of his territory for more than a year. Haidar, despairing of getting rid of the enemy, then sued for peace, which was concluded in June, 1772, on his agreeing to pay at once fifteen lacs, and a like sum afterwards, some of his richest districts being given in pledge. During the course of these hostilities Haidar discovered that the young Raja Nanjraj had been in secret communication with the Marathas, whereupon he ruthlessly ordered him to be strangled, substituting for his brother Chamraj.

CHAPTER X

CONQUEST OF COORG

RELIEVED from the pressure imposed upon him by the Marathas, Haidar began to recruit his means by exacting heavy contributions from all the wealthy persons he could seize. On hearing of the dissensions at Poona as to the succession, on the death of the Peshwa Narayan Rao³², he despatched Tipu to regain possession of the territory ceded to the Marathas, which he himself prepared to recover Malabar. Between the Mysore country and Malabar intervenes the small mountainous district of Coorg now the field of active European enterprise in the production of coffee, and as its subjugation appeared to Haidar to be essential to his keeping open his communication with the coast, he suddenly entered the country towards the end of 1773.

Coorg, or Kodagu, is a most picturesque alpine region, heavily wooded, and bounded on the west by the great chain of Ghats, which look down upon Malabar. It is inhabited by a sturdy and warlike race, the headmen living each on his own farm homestead, surrounded by the dwelling of his kinsmen, and his agrestic labourers, who were formerly serfs. By religion the Coorg Rajas were Lingayats, and the word Brahman stank in their nostrils. The mass of the people worshipped the sylvan deities, to whom many of the finest forests in the country were dedicated. The Coorgs appear to have maintained their independence, only acknowledging the jurisdiction of their own local chiefs, till the early part of the seventeenth century, when a scion of the Ikkeri house, previously mentioned, settled in the country as a devotee, and gradually obtained an ascendancy over the people, who made him yearly offerings, and consented to guard his person by sending relays of watchmen. In the course of a few years he felt himself sufficiently strong to declare himself ruler of Haleri and the surrounding districts; and somewhat later all the headmen acknowledged him as their chief, agreeing to pay him one-quarter of their rentals.

When Haidar seized Bednur in 1763 he affected to regard Coorg as tributary to that principality, and in 1765 sent a force to reduce the country, but was foiled in his attempt. In 1770 a dispute broke out in Coorg as to the succession. Lingaraj, uncle of one of the claimants, sought the aid of Haidar, who was only too ready to promise his support. The Maratha invasion had caused Haidar to suspend his designs, but as soon as he had got rid of his powerful enemy, he proceeded with a large force to Coorg, and intriguing with both sides, succeeded in reaching Merkara, the capital, with little opposition³³. Devappa, the antagonist of the claimant whose cause Haidar has espoused, fled, but was shortly afterwards seized and sent to Seringapatam, where he died in prison. Haidar, having attained his object, at once despatched a force through Wainad to Calicut, and speedily achieved the re-conquest of the whole of Malabar.