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Anwar-ud-din Khan

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1744 until he was killed at the battle of Ambur in 1749, and the founder of the family of the later Nawabs, the Walajahs. He was an officer of Nizam-ul-Mulk. From 1725 to 1741 he governed the Ellore and Rajahmundry country in the Telugu north, and then the Nizam gave him Arcot. His sons Mahfuz Khan and Muhammad Ali fought beside him at Ambur against Chanda Sahib, Muzaffar Jang and the French. Muhammad Ali escaped to Trichinopoly and, with English support, won his claim to the Nawabship.

Anwar-ud-din Khan was the Nawab of the Carnatic who died at Ambur in 1749.1 His death began the long contest for Arcot between his son Muhammad Ali, supported by the English, and Chanda Sahib, supported by the French.1 The official record of the treaties calls him “the founder of the family of the Carnatic”.1 This was the line of Nawabs that ended with the treaty of 1801.1 See the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot).

Ellore and Rajahmundry

Muhammad Burhanuddin’s history of the Carnatic and Kurnool (1905) here follows Orme.23 It says that Anwar-ud-din was the son of Muhammad Anwar, a learned man.23 Aurangzeb gave Muhammad Anwar a pension, and he retired to Gopamau, his home town.23 Anwar-ud-din rose in the Mughal service.23

Nizam-ul-Mulk “appointed Anwaruddin Khan, Nabob of the Ellore and Rajamundry countries, which he governed from the year 1725 to 1741”.23 After that he held “some of the principal stations in Golcunda”.23 See Rajahmundry and Eluru.

Arcot, 1744

The Nawab Safdar Ali was murdered.4 In 1743 Nizam-ul-Mulk marched to Arcot and appointed Khwaja Abdullah Khan as a temporary deputy.4 But, Wilks says, Khwaja Abdullah “did not live to return to the possession of his government”.4

The Nellore manual says that when he was murdered, “Anwar-u-din [was] appointed his successor”.56 The official record says that “Nizam-ul-Mulk then appointed one of his own officers, Anwar-ud-din Khan, to the vacant Nawabship”.56

Wilks says that he “arrived at Arcot in April 1744, tainted with the suspicion of having poisoned his predecessor”.7 He was the guardian of Safdar Ali’s young son Muhammad Saeed.7 He was suspected too of a share in that boy’s murder.7 Wilks adds in a note that “the adherents of the family of Anwar u Deen acquit him of the murder”.7 Burhanuddin says that the Nizam made Anwar-ud-din’s son Mahfuz Khan his diwan (finance minister).2

The French and the English

War broke out between England and France.58 Anwar-ud-din tried to keep both nations from fighting on his land.58 La Bourdonnais took Madras in 1746, and Anwar-ud-din demanded it for himself.58 He sent an army of 10,000 men under Mahfuz Khan to surround it.58 But they “were, however, entirely defeated by the French, and compelled to retire to Arcot”.58 He then helped the English at Fort St. David, and in 1747 he made peace with the French.58

The Cuddapah gazetteer says that in May 1746 his son Muhammad Ali marched to Kurnool.9 There, “with the assistance of the Nawabs of Kurnool and Cuddapah”, he defeated the Maratha chief Bapoji Nayakkan.9 See Kurnool.

Ambur, 1749

In 1749 Muzaffar Jang, who claimed the Deccan, and Chanda Sahib, who claimed the Carnatic, came down with a French force.10 Anwar-ud-din held a trenched position by the hill fort of Ambur with 20,000 men.10 The trenches were stormed, “chiefly through the aid of the French troops”.10 Wilks writes that he “was at length slain, in pushing forward his elephant to close with the standards of his rival, on the twenty-third July, 1749”.10

Wilks says that two of Anwar-ud-din’s sons fought at Ambur.10 The elder, Mahfuz Khan, was taken prisoner.10 The younger, Muhammad Ali, escaped to Tiruchirappalli (then Trichinopoly), where he had been governor under his father.10

Wilks also calls Mahfuz Khan “the only legitimate son of Anwar u Deen”.11 He says that the family had held the Nawabship “just five years”.11 See Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah, Muzaffar Jang and Nasir Jang.

Nellore under Anwar-ud-din

The Nellore manual begins its list of the chief fauzdars (governors) of Nellore “from the days of the Nawab Anwar-u-din and his successors”.12 The second name in the list is Abdul Wahab Khan.12 Its list of the Nawabs of the Carnatic gives Anwar-ud-din the years 1743 to 1749.13 See Nellore and Najib-ullah Khan.

Footnotes

  1. C. U. Aitchison, A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, Vol. VIII (1892), p. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui, The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (Madras, 1905), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Burhanuddin, The Carnatic & Kurnool (1905), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, Vol. I (1810), p. 254 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 445 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. Aitchison, Treaties, Vol. VIII (1892), p. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Wilks, Historical Sketches, Vol. I (1810), p. 255 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 446 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  9. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (1915), p. 42 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Wilks, Historical Sketches, Vol. I (1810), p. 259 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  11. Wilks, Historical Sketches, Vol. I (1810), p. 261 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  12. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 472 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 444 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot)

c. 1710–1801 CE

The Mughal and then Asaf Jahi governors of the Carnatic below the Ghats, the coast from Guntur to the Coleroon, who ruled from Arcot from about 1710 until 1801. Their Telugu districts were Nellore, Ongole and the Palnad, with the jagir of Udayagiri and the tributary poligars of Venkatagiri and Kalahasti. The first house, the Navayats of Saadatullah Khan, gave way in 1744 to Anwar-ud-din Khan, who was killed at Ambur in 1749. His son Muhammad Ali Walajah won the Nawabship with English help against Chanda Sahib and the French, while his brother Najib-ullah held Nellore and rebelled. Deep in debt to the East India Company and to private lenders, Muhammad Ali assigned his revenues to the Company in 1781. The Company managed the country in 1790–92, and in 1792 he bound himself to pay for its troops. After a secret correspondence with Tipu Sultan came to light, Azim-ud-daula handed over the government of the Carnatic in 1801, and Nellore and Ongole became a British district.

References

Sources (5)
  1. C. U. Aitchison (compiler), A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads relating to India and Neighbouring Countries, Vol. VIII: Madras Presidency, including Ceylon, Hyderabad, Mysore and Coorg, and the Central Provinces (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, India, Calcutta, 1892, pp. 1–2, 5. [Public domain]
  2. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, London, 1810, pp. 254–255, 259, 261. [Public domain]
  3. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui (Moulvi), The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (opens in a new tab), Commercial Press, Madras, 1905, pp. 29–30. [Public domain]
  4. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras, 1873, pp. 444–447, 472. [Public domain]
  5. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 42. [Public domain]

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