The Wodeyar/ Mysore Dynast

The Wodeyar / Mysore Dynasty

The Anglo-French Struggle for Supremacy: the Carnatic Wars, Causes for the English Success and the French Failure. Immediate Cause of Rebellion. Offensive and Support. Retreat and Further Conflict. Resolution and Aftermath. Role of Nur Jahan Early Life and Marriage. Family Influence and Political Rise. Role in Governance and Administration. Cultural Contributions and Legacy. Relationship with Jahangir and Shah Jahan Political and Administrative Developments. Jahangir's Reign and Challenges. Nur Jahan's Influence and Succession Issues.

• After the battle of Talikota (1565) gave a deadly blow to the great kingdom of Vijayanagara, many small kingdoms emerged from its remnants.
• In 1612, a Hindu kingdom under the Wodeyars emerged in the region of Mysore.
• Chikka Krishnaraja Wodeyar II ruled from 1734 to 1766.
• During the second half of the 18th century, Mysore emerged as a formidable power under the leadership of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.
• The English felt their political and commercial interests in south India were threatened because of Mysore’s proximity with the French and Haidar Ali and Tipu’s control over the rich trade of the Malabar coast.
• Mysore’s power was also seen as a threat to the control of the English over Madras.

Rise of Haidar Ali

• In the early 18th century, two brothers, Nanjaraj (the sarvadhikari) and Devaraj (the Dulwai), had reduced Chikka Krishnaraja Wodeyar to a mere puppet.
• Haidar Ali, born in 1721 in an obscure family, started his career as a horseman in the Mysore army under the ministers, Nanjaraj and Devaraj.

Views on Haidar Ali

• Whether regarded as a duel between the foreigner and the native, or as an event pregnant with vast permanent consequences, Buxar takes rank amongst the most decisive battles ever fought.
• Not only did the victory of the English save Bengal, not only did it advance the British frontier to Allahabad, but it bound the rulers of Awadh to the conqueror by ties of admiration, gratitude, and absolute reliance and trust, ties which made them for the ninety-four years that followed the friends of his friends and the enemies of his enemies.
• —G.B. Malleson
• Clive was not a founder but a harbinger of the future. He was not a planner of empire but an experimenter who revealed something of the possibilities. Clive was the forerunner of the British Empire.
• —Percival Spear

Haidar Ali’s Leadership

• Though uneducated, Haidar Ali possessed a keen intellect and was a man of great energy and determination.
• Repeated incursions of the Marathas and of the Nizam’s troops into the territories of Mysore resulted in heavy financial demands made by the aggressors from Mysore.
• Mysore became financially and politically weak.
• The need of the hour was a leader with a high degree of military powers and diplomatic skill. Haidar Ali fulfilled that need and usurped the royal authority by becoming the *de facto* ruler of Mysore in 1761.

Military and Diplomatic Strategies

• Haidar Ali realised that the exceedingly mobile Marathas could be contained only by a swift cavalry, that the cannons of the French-trained Nizami army could be silenced only by effective artillery, and that the superior arms from the West could only be matched by arms brought from the same place or manufactured with the same know-how.
• Haidar Ali took the help of the French to set up an arms factory at Dindigul (now in Tamil Nadu), and also introduced Western methods of training for his army.
• He also started to use his considerable diplomatic skill to outmanoeuvre his opponents.
• With his superior military skill, he captured Dod Ballapur, Sera, Bednur, and Hoskote in 1761-63, and brought to submission the troublesome Poligars of South India (in what is now Tamil Nadu).
• Recovering from their defeat at Panipat, the Marathas under Madhavrao attacked Mysore and defeated Haidar Ali in 1764, 1766, and 1771.
• To buy peace, Haidar Ali had to give them large sums of money, but after Madhavrao’s death in 1772, Haidar Ali raided the Marathas a number of times during 1774-76, and recovered all the territories he had previously lost, besides capturing new areas.