Tipu Sultan: Ruler of Mysore

A military leader in 18th century South India, Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782-99) was the ruler of Mysore for a seventeen-year-period until his death in 1799. He succeeded to the throne when his father Hyder Ali died on December 7, 1782 during the course of Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84). The Second Anglo-Mysore War came to an end by the Treaty of Mangalore (March 1784) on the basis of mutual restitution of conquests. 

Tipu Sultan was born in 1750 in Devanahalli (near Bangalore in Karnataka). 

Unlike his father who was a de facto ruler, Tipu assumed royal title of Sultan by dethroning the Hindu raja of Mysore in 1786.

The increasing power of Mysore made the Marathas and the Nizam enter into a coalition in 1786 against Tipu Sultan who became successful in defeating them by crossing the flooded Tungabhadra in rafts and basket boats in a brilliant military feat. The defeat brought the Marathas and the Nizam closer to the English who were eyeing opportunity to avenge the past defeat. The alliance among the English, the Marathas and the Nizam led to the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92) in which Tipu Sultan was defeated. The Third Anglo-Mysore War came to an end by the Treaty of  Srirangapatnam. Under the terms of the treaty Tipu had to surrender of nearly half of Mysorean territory to the victorious allies. 

Tipu was killed in 1799 in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The immediate cause of the war was, according to the English, Tipu’s intrigues with the Marathas and the Nizams. He also tried to enlist the support of Zaman Shah of Afghanistan and the French in the Isle of France (Mauritius) by sending embassies to Arabia and the Directory at Versailles for an alliance against the British in India. The fourth Anglo-Mysore War took place during the governor generalship of Lord Wellesley who jettisoned the non-intervention policy and annexed most of the territories of the Mysore state to the East India Company under the subsidiary Alliance system. A boy of the earlier Mysore Hindu royal family was placed on the throne. 

Tipu Sultan is revered by a section of the people as a patriot and a hero as he stood against the British. That even cost him his life. But there is another angle to view the truth. Tipu Sultan was in cahoots with the French. There is every possibility that had he succeeded in driving the British away with French help, Mysore would have fallen to the French instead. And there was no concept of nationalism in the age in which Tipu lived.

Key Takeaway

Tipu Sultan had planted the 'Tree of Liberty' at Srirangapatnam. 

Mughal Mansabdari System

Mansabdari system was a unique feature of the administrative system of the Mughal empire. It was introduced by Akbar with a view to organizing his nobility as well as army. Under the system, all officers of the state were entitled to a mansab. Mansabdari system was, in sum, “the army, the peerage, and the civil administration, all rolled into one.”   

Mansabdar (holder of a rank, or an officer) is a title derived from the word Mansab which is of Arabic origin and means a rank or a position. 

Under the system, each mansabdar held a mansab (rank) and was to maintain a quota of horses, elephants, camels, beasts of burden and carts. They were paid either in cash (naqd) or allotted land (jagir). The mansabdars who received pay in cash were known as naqdi and those paid through assignments of jagirs were called jagirdars.

According to the Ain –Akbari, there were thirty-three grades of mansabdars ranging from the dahbashi (commanders of 10) to the dah hazari (commanders of 10,000). Mansabs above 5,000 were reserved for the royal princes. 

The status of mansabdars was defined by sawar (cavalrymen) and zat (personal). The former indicated number of horsemen which a mansabdar had to maintain while the zat rank showed his personal pay in the pay schedules.

Akbar included all nobles in the Mansabdari system. Persons holding ranks below 500 were called Mansabdar. Those holding from 500 to less than 2500 were called Amir and those holding 2500 and above were known as amir-i-umda or amir-i-azam or omrahs. 

In theory all mansabdars were appointed, promoted, suspended or dismissed by the emperor. Mansabdars holding ranks below 500 zat were called mansabdars, those more than 500 but below 2,500 amirs and those holding ranks of 2,500 and above were called amir-i-umda or amir-i-azam or omrahs.

The post of a mansabdar was not hereditary and it automatically lapsed after his death or dismissal. Children of a mansabdar, if they were granted a mansab, had to start afresh. 

Mansabdari system marked the end of the separation of civil and military departments. Now officers were expected to perform both duties and were liable to be transferred from the civil administration to the military department and vice versa. 

In order to provide rest for the horses during their marches and their replacements in times of war, it was expected of the mansabdars to maintain twenty horses for every ten cavalrymen. A sawar with only one horse was considered as a nim-sawar i.e. half a sawar. 

Mansabdari system introduced by Akbar was continued by his successors with some modifications. 

While during Jahangir’s reign there was a reduction in the average rate of maintenance grant payable to Mansabdar per Sawar, a significant modification introduced by Shah Jahan to the system came in the form of drastic reduction in the number of sawars a noble was expected to maintain.

Some selected mansabdars were allowed by Jahangir to maintain a large quota of soldiers without raising their zat rank. 

During the reign of Aurangzeb the numbers of the Hindu mansabdars was higher than that of the Muslim mansabdars. 

Reference: Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb by Ali M. Athar

Kunwar Singh: Leader of the 1857 Revolt in Bihar

                                    Kunwar Singh: 1857 Rebellion Hero / Image source

A Rajput zamindar, Kunwar Singh is known as a brave leader who unfurled the banner of rebellion against the British in Bihar. At the time of Revolt of 1857, he was eighty years old. However, old age did not deter him from fighting the British with utmost valour.  

Popularly known as Veer Kunwar Singh, he was born at Jagdishpur village (then in the erstwhile Shahabad district) in Bhojpur district in Bihar in 1777. Chivalry, undaunted courage and able generalship had earned him the sobriquet of “Lion of Bihar”. 

He challenged the British authority and established his own government. He marched to Kalpi in Bundelkhand with a view to give helping hand to Nana Saheb, leader of the revolt in Kanpur.

Known for his perfection in guerrilla warfare, he employed this warfare tactic with great effect against the British.

His gallant resistance to the British forces ended when he died on 26 April, 1858 of the wounds he sustained during the fight with them. 

Yahaya bin Ahmed Sirhindi and his Tarikh- i- Mubarak Shahi

Yahiya bin Ahmad bin Abdullah Sarhindi was a contemporary of Mubarak Shah (reigned 1421- 1434 ) and Muhammad Shah (reigned 1434-45), the rulers of the Saiyid dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. It was during Mubarak Shah’s reign that he composed his Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi, dedicated to the Sayyid ruler. 

Written in Persian, Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi begins with the reign of Muizzuddin Muhammad of Ghor and ends at 1434 with the accession of Sultan Muhammad Shah, the third Saiyid ruler. 

Tarikh-i-Rashidi by Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat

Written in Persian, Tarikh-i-Rashidi deals with the history of Central Asia as well as the events in Kashmir. It was written by Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat (1499-1551) who was a ruler of Kashmir. Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat was a cousin of Mughal founder Babur.  

His grave was restored in 2018 in Srinagar by the Kazakh embassy in India in association with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Hala – The Satavahana king who wrote Saptasataka

Hāla was a Satavahana king who is traditionally assigned the authorship of Saptasataka (Seven Hundred) or Gathasaptashati, the most important literary work in Prakrit. Written in the Arya metre, Saptasataka is a collection of self contained stanzas full of beauty. 

Out of seven hundred poems, some forty-four were penned by Hala, who, according to the Matsya Purana, was the 17th Satavahana ruler. 

Hāla ruled in the Deccan in the 1st century AD.  

The Maharashtri Prakrit work "Lilavati Parinayam" narrates his romance and marriage with Lilavati, a princess of Simhaladvipa (identified with modern Sri Lanka). Lilavati Parinayam was written by  Kuthuhala Koūhala.

Bipin Chandra Pal, Father of Revolutionary Thoughts

One of the famous triumvirate called “Lal-Bal-Pal”, Bipin Chandra Pal is known as "Father of Revolutionary Thoughts" in India. He was born in 1858 in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh).   

Bipin Chandra Pal joined Indian National Congress in 1886.

He started newspapers with a view to educating public opinion. He was the founder editor of Paridarshak, a weekly, and later worked as assistant editor of the Bengal Public Opinion and the Tribune.

Nationalist to the core, Bipin Chandra Pal was an exponent of concept of Indian Swaraj and Swadeshi. He vehemently opposed the partition of Bengal announced in 1905. He was a noted writer and a powerful speaker. His most famous work was Memories and My Life and Times (in two volumes).

He also launched English newspaper Bande Mataram of which the revolutionary and later a mystic Aurobindo Ghose became an editor. In 1907, he was convicted for six months following publication of seditious views in the paper.

Bipin Chandra Pal worked for Association for the Advancement of Scientific and Industrial Education of India which was set up during the Swadeshi Movement for the dissemination of scientific and industrial education.

Critical of Mahatma  Gandhi, he retired from active politics in 1920. He continued to publish in retirement till his death on May 20, 1932.