Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1761–1799)

The political history of Mysore and Coorg (1761–1799) is the political history of the contiguous historical regions of Mysore State and Coorg province on the Deccan Plateau in west-central peninsular India from the time of the rise of Haidar Ali in 1761 to that of the death of his son Tipu Sultan in 1799.

Finding the body of Tipu Sultan. Painting by Samuel William Reynolds, 1800.

Sources and historiography

• 
  Haidar Ali in durbar.
• 
  Tipu Sultan in the 1790s.
• 
  Tipu Sultan, another view.

There is very little contemporaneous documentation of the pre-1760 period of Mysore's history, especially the last century of that period. According to (Subrahmanyam 1989, p. 206), the 18th-century Wodeyar rulers of Mysore—in contrast to their contemporaries in Rajputana, Central India, Maratha Deccan, and Tanjavur—left little or no record of their administrations.

A Wodeyar dynasty genealogy, the Maisüru Maharajara Vamsävali of Tirumalarya, was composed in Kannada during the period 1710–1715, and was claimed to be based on all the then-extant inscriptions in the region.[1] Another genealogy, Kalale Doregala Vamsävali, of the Delvoys, the near-hereditary chief ministers of Mysore, was composed around the turn of the 19th century.[1] However, neither manuscript provides information about administration, economy or military capability.[1] 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,[2] "obsessively" attempted to demonstrate their "unbroken" royal lineage,[3] to bolster their then uncertain status.[4]

• 
  Haidar Ali's dominions in 1780.
• 
  Map illustrating the Anglo-Mysore Wars, 1784.
• 
  A 1794 map showing the regions ceded by Tipu Sultan under the Treaty of 1792.
• 
  An 1800 map showing the regions ceded by Tipu Sultan after his defeat and death in 1799.

The earliest manuscript offering clues to governance and military conflict in the pre-1760 Mysore, seems to be (Dias 1725), an annual letter written in Portuguese by a Mysore-based Jesuit missionary, Joachim Dias, and addressed to his Provincial superior.[5] After East India Company's final 1799 victory over Tipu, official Company records began to be published as well; these include (East India Company 1800), a collection of Anglo-Mysore Wars-related correspondence between the Company's officials in India and Court of Directors in London, and (Wilks 1805), the first report on the new Princely State of Mysore by its first British resident, Mark Wilks. Around this time, French accounts of the Anglo-Mysore wars appeared as well, and included (Michaud 1809), a history of the wars by Joseph-François Michaud, another Jesuit priest. The first attempt at including a comprehensive history of Mysore in an English language work is (Buchanan 1807), an account of a survey of South India conducted at Lord Richard Wellesley's request, by Francis Buchanan, a Scottish physician and geographer.

The first explicit History of Mysore in English is (Wilks 1811), written by Mark Wilks, the British resident mentioned above. Wilks claimed to have based his history on various Kannada documents, not only the ones mentioned above, but also many that have not survived. According to (Subrahmanyam 1989, p. 206), all subsequent classic histories of Mysore have borrowed heavily from Wilks's book for their pre-1760 content. These include (Rice 1897), Lewis Rice's well-known Gazetteer and (Rao 1948), C. Hayavadana Rao's major revision of the Gazetteer half a century later, and many spin-offs of these two works. By the end of the period of British Commissionership of Mysore (1831–1881), many English language works had begun to appear on a variety of Mysore-related subjects. These included (Rice 1879), a book of English translations of Kannada language inscriptions, and (Digby 1878), William Digby's two-volume critique of British famine policy during the Great Famine of 1876–78, which devastated Mysore for years to come; the latter work, even referred to Mysore as a "province."

See also

• Princely state
• Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760)
• Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1800–1947)
• Anglo-Mysore Wars
• Kingdom of Mysore

Notes

1. (Subrahmanyam 1989, p. 206)
2. Ikegame 2007, p. 17
3. Nair 2006, pp. 139–140
4. Bhagavan 2008, pp. 887
5. Subrahmanyam 1989, pp. 215–216

References

Contemporary sources

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Manor, James (2004), "Gandhian politics and the challenge to princely authority in Mysore, 1936–47", in Low, D. A. (ed.), Congress and the Raj, Facets of the Indian Struggle 1917–47, New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. 513, pp. 405–433 Michell, George (1995), Architecture and Art of Southern India: Vijayanagara and the successor states: 1350–1750, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 250, ISBN 978-0-521-44110-0 Nagaraj, D. R. (2003), "Critical Tensions in the History of Kannada Literary Culture", in Pollock, Sheldon (ed.), Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, Berkeley and London: University of California Press. Pp. 1066, pp. 323–383, ISBN 978-0-520-22821-4 Nair, Janaki (2006), "Tipu Sultan, History Painting and the Battle for 'Perspective'", Studies in History, 22 (1): 97–143, doi:10.1177/025764300502200105, S2CID 159522616 Parthasarathi, Prasannan (19 April 2001), The Transition to a Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720–1800, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 165, ISBN 978-0-521-57042-8 Ramusack, Barbara (2004), The Indian Princes and their States (The New Cambridge History of India), Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 324, ISBN 978-0-521-03989-5 Narayana Rao, Velcheru; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2009), "Notes on Political Thought in Medieval and Early Modern South India", Modern Asian Studies, 43 (1): 175–210, doi:10.1017/S0026749X07003368 Stein, Burton (1985a), "Notes on 'Peasant Insurgency' in Colonial Mysore: Event and Process", South Asia Research, 5 (1): 11–27, doi:10.1177/026272808500500102, S2CID 143808036 Stein, Burton (1985b), "State Formation and Economy Reconsidered: Part One", Modern Asian Studies, 19 (3, Special Issue: Papers Presented at the Conference on Indian Economic and Social History, Cambridge University, April 1984): 387–413, doi:10.1017/S0026749X00007678, JSTOR 312446 Stein, Burton (1987), Vijayanagara (The New Cambridge History of India), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 156, ISBN 978-0-521-26693-2 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (1989), "Warfare and state finance in Wodeyar Mysore, 1724–25: A missionary perspective", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 26 (2): 203–233, doi:10.1177/001946468902600203, S2CID 145180609 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay; Shulman, David (1990), "The Men Who Would Be King? The Politics of Expansion in Early Seventeenth-Century Northern Tamilnadu", Modern Asian Studies, 24 (2): 225–248, doi:10.1017/s0026749x00010301, JSTOR 312655 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (1991), "A note on some early nineteenth century inam records in the Karnataka state archives", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 28 (4): 435–443, doi:10.1177/001946469102800405, S2CID 143533075 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2001a). "Warfare and State Finance in Wodeyar Mysore". Penumbral Visions. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 161–193. ISBN 978-0-472-11216-6. Subrahmanyam (2001b), The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500–1650, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 411, ISBN 978-0-521-89226-1 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2008), "India: Regional States, c. 1700–1850:The Marathas:Mughal mystique in the 18th century:The case of Mysore", Encyclopædia Britannica

Classic sources

Bowring, Lewin B. (1899). "Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, and the struggle with the Musalman powers of the South". Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pp. 227. Archived from the original on 17 August 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011. Buchanan, Francis (1807), A Journey from Madras Through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar: For the Express Purpose of Investigating the State of Agriculture, Arts and Commerce, the Religion, Manners, and Customs, the History Natural and Civil, and Antiquities, London : T. Cadell and W. Davies (Facsimile Reprint, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1988. ISBN 81-206-0386-9.), ISBN 978-81-206-0386-8 Dias, Joachim, SJ (1725). Relaçāo das couzas succedidas neste reino do Maȳsur desde mayo de 1724 athe agosto de 1725 ("Relation of the events occurring in this kingdom of Mysore between May 1724 and August 1725"). Lisbon: Bibloteca Nacional de Lisboa, Fundo Geral, Códice 178. fls. 40–51v. Digby, William (1878). The Famine Campaign in Southern India (Madras and Bombay Presidencies and Province of Mysore) 1876–1878, In Two Volumes. London. East India Company (1800). Copies and Extracts of Advices to and from India, Relative to the Cause, Progress and Successful Termination of the War with the Late Tippoo Sultaun, Chief of Mysore, the Partition of His Dominions in Consequence Thereof, and the Distribution of the Captured Property Found in Seringapatam. Printed for the use of the Proprietors of East India Stock. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Provincial Series (1908), Mysore and Coorg, Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing. Pp. xvii, 365, 1 map.

Michaud, Joseph-François, SJ (1809). Histoire des progrès et de la chute de l'empire de Mysore, sous les règnes d'Hyder-Aly et de Tippoo-Saïb: contenant l'historique des guerres des souverains de Mysore avec les Anglais et les différentes puissances de l'Inde. Paris: Chez Guiget et C^ie.. Rice, Lewis (1879). Mysore Inscriptions: Translated for Government. Bangalore: Mysore Government Press. Pp. 336. Rice, Lewis (1897), Mysore: A Gazetteer Compiled for the Government, Volume I, Mysore In General, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company. Pp. xix, 834 Rao, C. Hayavadana (1948). History of Mysore (1399-1799 A.D.): Incorporating the Latest Epigraphical, Literary and Historical Researches. Mysore: Government Press. Wilks, Mark (1805). Report on the Interior Administration, Resources, and Expenditure of the Government of Mysoor: Under the System Prescribed by the Orders of the Governor General in Council, Dated 4th September 1799. Fort William: By Order of the Governor General in Council. Pp. 161. Wilks, Mark (1811) [1st edition: 1811, volume 1; 1817, volumes 2 and 3; second edition: 1869]. Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace the History of Mysoor, Second Edition. Madras: Higginbotham and Co. Pp. xxxii, 527.