Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760)

The political history of the region on the Deccan Plateau in west-central peninsular India saw many changes after the fall of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire in 1565. The rise of Sultan Haidars Ali in 1761 introduced a new period. The region was ruled by diverse chieftain, or rajas, or kings, until the end of the 18th century, when the Mughal Empire took control.

About Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760) in brief

The political history of the region on the Deccan Plateau in west-central peninsular India saw many changes after the fall of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire in 1565. After the empire’s fall and the subsequent eastward move of the diminished ruling family, many chieftains tried to loosen their imperial bonds and expand their realms. A common feature of all large regimes in the region during the period 1565–1760 is increased military fiscalism. In the chaotic last decade of this period, a little-known Muslim cavalryman, Haidar Ali, seized power in Mysore. Under him, and in the decades following, MysORE was to expand again. It was to match all of southern India in size, and to pose the last serious threat to the new rising power on the subcontinent, the English East India Company. The rise of Sultan Haidars Ali in 1761 introduced a new period. The region was ruled by diverse chieftain, or rajas, or kings, until the end of the 18th century, when the Mughal Empire took control. The Mysores and Coorgs were ruled by Hindu dynasties, and the Muslim Nawabs of Arcot and Sira by Muslim subahs. The last Hindu empire in South India was defeated by the combined forces of the Muslim states of Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar in the Battle of Talikota. The invaders from the north later destroyed the capital and the ruler escaped to Penukonda, 125 miles to the southeast.

Later, they moved another 175 miles east-southeast to Chandragiri, not far from the coast, and survived there until 1635, their dwindling resources on the coast. According to Sanjay Subrahrah, in the heyday of their rule, the kings of the Vijayanayanagara had granted tracts of land in their realm to vassal chiefs on the western reaches of the peninsula. In ten years following the imperial centre of Vijayanagar, the centre of the empire effectively ceased to be a power as far as the western peninsula was concerned, leaving a vacuum that was eventually filled by Ikkeri and MYSore. The rulers of the two states were concerned with the northern reaches of their realm, which were concerned by the vassals of Telugu speaking chiefs. By the turn of the18th century the political landscape had become better defined: the northwestern hills were being ruled by the Nayaka rulers of IkkerI, the southwestern—in the Western Ghats—by the Rajas of Coorg, the southern plains by the Wodeyar rulers of Mysoren, all of which were Hindu Dynasties. The eastern and northeastern regions by theMuslim Nawabs were independent, and Arcot & Sira, Mughals subahs. Of these, Ikker i were independent; Mysorean, although much-expanded, was formally a MughAL dependency. The Maratha empire invaded and exacted concessions of land.

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