The political history of the region on the Deccan Plateau in west-central peninsular India (Map 1) that was later divided into Mysore state and Coorg province saw many changes after the fall of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire in 1565. The rise of Sultan Haidar Ali in 1761 introduced a new period.
At the height of the Vijayanagara Empire, the Mysore and Coorg region was ruled by diverse chieftains, or rajas ("little kings"). Each raja had the right to govern a small region, but also an obligation to supply soldiers and annual tribute for the empire's needs. 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. Sensing opportunity amidst the new uncertainty, various powers from the north invaded the region. Among these were the Sultanate of Bijapur to the northwest, the Sultanate of Golconda to the northeast, the newly-formed Maratha Empire farther northwest, and the major contemporary empire of India, the Mughal, which bounded all on the north. For much of the 17th century the tussles between the little kings and the big powers, and amongst the little kings, culminated in shifting sovereignties, loyalties, and borders. By the turn of the 18th 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 Mysore, all of which were Hindu dynasties; and the eastern and northeastern regions by the Muslim Nawabs of Arcot and Sira. Of these, Ikkeri and Coorg were independent, Mysore, although much-expanded, was formally a Mughal dependency, and Arcot and Sira, Mughal subahs (or provinces).
Mysore's expansions had been based on unstable alliances. When the alliances began to unravel, as they did during the next half-century, decay set in, presided over by politically and militarily inept kings. The Mughal governor, Nawab of Arcot, in a display of the still remaining reach of a declining Mughal Empire, raided the Mysore capital, Seringapatam, to collect unpaid taxes. The Raja of Coorg began a war of attrition over territory in Mysore's western bordering regions. The Maratha Empire invaded and exacted concessions of land. 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.
A common feature of all large regimes in the region during the period 1565–1760 is increased military fiscalism. This mode of creating income for the state consisted of extraction of tribute payments from local chiefs under threat of military action. It differed both from the more segmentary modes of preceding regimes and the more absolutist modes of succeeding ones—the latter achieved through direct tax collection from citizens. Another common feature of these regimes is the fragmentary historiography devoted to them, making broad generalizations difficult.
Poligars of Vijayanagara, 1565–1635
On 23 January 1565 the last Hindu empire in South India, the Vijayanagara Empire, was defeated by the combined forces of the Muslim states of Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar in the Battle of Talikota. The battle was fought on the doab (interfluve, or tongue of land) between the Kistna River and its major left bank tributary, the Bhima, to the north of the imperial capital, Vijayanagara (Map 2). The invaders from the north later destroyed the capital, and the ruler's family escaped to Penukonda, to the southeast, where they established their new capital. Later, they moved another east-southeast to Chandragiri, not far from the coast, and survived there until 1635, their dwindling empire concentrating its resources on its eastern Tamil and Telugu speaking realms. According to historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam: " ... in the ten years following 1565, the imperial centre of Vijayanagara effectively ceased to be a power as far as the western reaches of the peninsula were concerned, leaving a vacuum that was eventually filled by Ikkeri and Mysore."
In the heyday of their rule, the kings of Vijayanagara had granted tracts of land in their realm to vassal chiefs on the stipulation of an annual tribute and of military service during times of war. The chiefs in the richer, more distant, southern provinces were not controlled easily, and only a fraction of the tribute was collected from them. Overseen by a viceroy—titled Sri Ranga Raya and based in the island town of Seringapatam on the river Kaveri, south of the capital, the southern chiefs bore various titles. These included the Nayaka, assumed by the chiefs of Keladi in the northwestern hills, Basavapatna, and Chitaldroog in the north, Belur in the west, and Hegalvadi in the centre; the title Gowda, assumed by the chiefs of Ballapur and Yelahanka in the centre, and Sugatur (Kolar district) in the east; and Wodeyar, assumed by the rulers of Mysore in the south. (Map 2.)
The southern chiefs (sometimes called rajas, or "little kings") resisted on moral and political grounds as well. According to historian Burton Stein: 'Little kings', or rajas, never attained the legal independence of an aristocracy from both monarchs and the local people whom they ruled. The sovereign claims of would-be centralizing, South Indian rulers and the resources demanded in the name of that sovereignty diminished the resources which local chieftains used as a kind of royal largess; thus centralizing demands were opposed on moral as well as on political grounds by even quite modest chiefs.
These chiefs came to be called poligars, a British corruption of "Palaiyakkarar," Tamil: holder of "palaiya" or "baronial estate;" Kannada: palagararu.
In 1577, more than a decade after the Battle of Talikota, Bijapur forces attacked again and overwhelmed all opposition along the western coast. They easily took Adoni, a former Vijayanagara stronghold, and subsequently attempted to take Penukonda, the new Vijayanagara capital. (Map 3).) They were, however, repulsed by an army led by the Vijayanagara ruler's father-in-law, Jagadeva Raya, who had travelled north for the engagement from his base in Baramahal. For his services, his territories within the crumbling empire were expanded out to the Western Ghats, the mountain range running along the southwestern coast of India; a new capital was established in Channapatna (Map 6.)
Soon the Wodeyars of Mysore (present-day Mysore district) began to more openly disregard the Vijayanagara monarch, annexing small states in their vicinity. (Map 3) The chiefs of Ummattur attempted to do the same despite punitive raids by the Vijayanagara armies. Eventually, as a compromise, the son of an Ummattur chief was appointed the viceroy at Seringapatam. In 1644, Mysore Wodeyars unseated the powerful Changalvas of Piriyapatna, becoming the dominant presence in the southern regions. (Map 6.) By this time the Vijayanagara empire was on its last legs.
Bijapur, Marathas, Mughals, 1636–1687 In 1636, nearly 60 years after their defeat at Penukonda, the Sultans of Bijapur regrouped and invaded the kingdoms to their south. They did so with the blessing of the Mughal Empire of northern India whose tributary states they had newly become. They had the help also of a chieftain of the Maratha uplands of western India, Shahaji Bhonsle, who was on the lookout for rewards of jagir land in the conquered territories the taxes on which he could collect as an annuity.
In the western-central poligar regions, the Nayakas of Keladi were easily defeated, but were able to buy back their lands from their Bijapur invaders. (Map 4.) Eastward, the Bijapur-Shahji forces took the gold-rich Kolar district in 1639, and Bangalore—a city founded a century earlier by Kempe Gowda I. Advancing down the Eastern Ghats, the mountains rising behind the coastal plains of southeastern India, they captured the historic towns of Vellore and Gingee. Returning north through the east-central maidan plain (average elevation ), they gained possession of the towns of Ballapur, Sira, and the hill fortress of Chitaldroog. (See Map 4.)
A new province, Caranatic-Bijapur-Balaghat, incorporating Kolar, Hoskote, Bangalore, and Sira, and situated above (or westwards of) the Eastern Ghats range, was added to the Sultanate of Bijapur and granted to Shahji as a jagir. The possessions below the Ghats, such as Gingee and Vellore became part of another province, Carnatic-Bijapur-Payanghat, and Shahji was appointed its first governor.
When Shahji died in 1664, his son Venkoji from his second wife, who had become the ruler of Tanjore much farther down the peninsula, inherited these territories. This did not sit well with Shahji's eldest son, from his first wife, Shivaji Bhonsle—a chieftain back in the Maratha uplands—who swiftly led an expedition southwards to claim his share. His quick victories resulted in a partition, whereby both the Carnatic-Bijapur provinces became his jagirs, and Tanjore was retained by Venkoji. (See Map 4.)
The successes of Bijapur and Shivaji were being watched with some alarm by their suzrain, the Mughals. Emperor Aurengzeb, who had usurped the Mughal throne in 1659, soon set himself upon destroying the remaining Deccan sultanates. In 1686, the Mughals took Bijapur and, the following year, Golconda, capturing the latter's diamond mines. Before long, fast-moving Mughal armies were bearing down on all the former Vijayanagara lands. Bangalore, quickly taken by the Mughals from the Marathas, was sold to the Wodeyar of Mysore for 300,000 rupees. In 1687, a new Mughal province (or suba), Province of Sira, was created with capital at Sira city. Qasim Khan was appointed the first Mughal Faujdar Diwan (literally, "military governor").
Wodeyars of Mysore, 1610–1760 Although their own histories date the origins of the Wodeyars of Mysore (also "Odeyar", "Udaiyar", "Wodiyar", "Wadiyar", or "Wadiar", and, literally, "chief") to 1399, records of them go back no earlier than the early 16th century. These poligars are first mentioned in a Kannada language literary work from the early 16th century. A petty chieftain, Chamaraja (now Chamaraja III), who ruled from 1513 to 1553 over a few villages not far from the Kaveri River, is said to have constructed a small fort and named it, Mahisuranagara ("Buffalo Town"), from which Mysore gets its name. (Map 5.) The Wodeyar clan issued its first inscription during the chieftaincy of Timmaraja (now Timmaraja II) who ruled from 1553 to 1572. Towards the end of his rule, he is recorded to have owned 33 villages and fielded an army of 300 men.
By the time of the short-lived incumbency of Timmaraja II's son, Chama Raja IV—who, well into his 60s, ruled from 1572 to 1576—the Vijayanagara Empire had been dealt its fatal blow. Before long, Chama Raja IV withheld payment of the annual tribute to the empire's viceroy at Seringapatam. The viceroy responded by attempting to arrest Chamaraja IV, failing, and letting the taxes remain unpaid. An outright military challenge to the empire would have to await the incumbency of Raja I, Chama Raja IV's eldest son, who became the Wodeyar in 1578. Raja I captured Seringapatam and, in a matter of days, moved his capital there on 8 February 1610. (Map 5.) During his rule, according to Burton Stein, his "chiefdom expanded into a major principality".