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Himmat Bahadur Khan (Nawab of Kurnool)

Pathan Nawab of Kurnool from 1733 to 1751. The Kurnool manual calls him Himayat Khan, and Kirkpatrick's sketch of the family calls him Bahadur Khan or Himmat Bahadur. The Marathas overran his country in 1741. In 1750 Nasir Jang called him to his camp, and he joined the Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah and Savanur in the plot with the French that ended in Nasir Jang's murder near Jinji. Several historians say that he fired the shot. Early in 1751 the three Nawabs turned on the new Nizam, Muzaffar Jang, near Rayachoti. Himmat Bahadur killed him with a javelin and was cut down. Salabat Jang and Bussy then stormed Kurnool and took his sons to Hyderabad.

Himmat Bahadur Khan was the Nawab of Kurnool who took part in the killing of two Nizams within two months.1 They were Nasir Jang in December 1750 and Muzaffar Jang in early 1751, and he died in the second fight.1 The Imperial Gazetteer says that “Himayat Khan succeeded in 1733”.1 It says he “played an important part in the Carnatic Wars of the eighteenth century, proving treacherous alternately to the English and to the French”.1 See the Nawabs of Kurnool.

Family

The Kurnool manual says that Ibrahim Khan left two sons, Rahmatullah and Alif Khan.23 The younger, Alif Khan, took over the jagir (land grant) in 1724 and ruled nine years.23

Muhammad Burhanuddin wrote a history of the Carnatic and Kurnool (1905).45 He says that Alif Khan died in 1733 and left two sons, Himmat Bahadur and Ranmast Khan.45 The elder son took over the jagir.45 The Kurnool manual names the sons Himayat Khan and Rahmat Khan.3

William Kirkpatrick wrote a sketch of the family (1811), based on the Persian of Mir Husain.6 He calls him “Behadur Khan, known also by the title of Himmut Behadur”.6 He says Himmat Bahadur was known “for his extraordinary intrepidity, and for the prudence with which he carried on the internal affairs of his government”.6 See Ranmast Khan (Munawwar Khan).

The Marathas, 1741

The Kurnool manual says that in 1741 a Maratha army under Fatte Singh overran the district on its way back from the south.3 A local bard described the damage.3 He said: “On his return in Durmati he plundered Cuddapah, Chagalmari, Sirvel and Nandyal, in short, the whole of the Srisaila country, and took possession of Kurnool and other strongholds”.3 He added: “The brave Patans were alarmed and took to flight.”3

The Cuddapah gazetteer says that in May 1746 Muhammad Ali, son of the Nawab of Arcot, came to Kurnool.7 There, “with the assistance of the Nawabs of Kurnool and Cuddapah”, he defeated a Maratha chief.7 See Kurnool.

Nasir Jang

Nizam-ul-Mulk died, and his son Nasir Jang marched south against his nephew Muzaffar Jang.3 Nasir Jang called the Nawabs south of the Krishna to join him with their troops.3 The Kurnool manual says that the Nawab of Kurnool refused.3 He had already paid a nazar (gift to a ruler), “a large nazar of about eleven lakhs of rupees, amassed in his father’s time”.3

With 300 men the Nawab defeated the officer sent to turn him out of the fort.3 His priest had encouraged him with a charm, “a pot of pebbles to be broken before the enemy”.3 Nasir Jang then won him over through an envoy.3

While he was on the march, floods on the Handri and the Tungabhadra washed away part of Kurnool’s walls.8 Nasir Jang refused him leave to go home, “but promised to rebuild his fort with bricks of gold”.8

The Pathan Nawabs of Kurnool, Kadapa (then Cuddapah) and Savanur did not get the rewards they hoped for.8 They were also angry when Muzaffar Jang was put in chains after he surrendered.8 So they began a secret correspondence with Dupleix.8 See Nasir Jang.

In December 1750, near Jinji, Nasir Jang blamed him for doing nothing.8 Then “the Nabob of Cuddapah, or, as other historians (Colonel M. Taylor and Persian manuscript) have it, the Nabob of Kurnool”, fired the carbine that killed Nasir Jang.8

Kirkpatrick says that, according to Mir Husain, “it was by the immediate hand of Behadur Khan that the unfortunate Nazim perished”.6 In a note he adds that this took place near Jinji on 5 December 1750.6 He notes that “other writers, however, make the Nabob of Kurpah the assassin”, and that the Maasir-ul-Umara agrees with his own account.6

Muzaffar Jang and the fight near Rayachoti

Muzaffar Jang was proclaimed Nizam with French help.89 He agreed to give the Pathan Nawabs a share of Nasir Jang’s treasure and some land.89 He set out from Pondicherry for Hyderabad with Bussy’s French force.89

The manual says that the three Nawabs “had premeditated the ruin” of the new Nizam.89 In the Kadapa country they drew up their forces against him near Rayachoti.89 The Nawab of Savanur was cut to pieces, and the Nawab of Cuddapah fled wounded.89

Then Muzaffar Jang came up with the Nawab of Kurnool.89 The manual says that “his antagonist, thrusting his javelin, drove the point through his forehead into the brain”, and the Nawab “was instantly cut to pieces”.89

The sources differ on the place, the date and the killer:1011612

  • Gribble places the fight at the pass of Lakkireddipalle in the Rayachoti taluk and dates it January 1751.1011612
  • Kirkpatrick says that Behadir Khan was killed “about two months after” Nasir Jang, “in a sanguinary tumult which took place at Raechooty”.1011612 He says Behadir Khan had ruled Kurnool for seven or eight years.1011612
  • The Nellore manual follows Orme and says instead that Muzaffar Jang “was killed by the Nawab of Cuddapah”.13141516
  • Charles Philip Brown’s Carnatic Chronology (1863) dates “the battle of Lakri-palli” to 2 February 1751.13141516 It records the death of “Himmat Bahadar” in 1754.13141516

See Muzaffar Jang and Lakkireddipalle.

The fall of Kurnool, 1751

Bussy raised Nasir Jang’s brother Salabat Jang to the throne, and the army marched north by Kurnool.9 The manual quotes an account of the French operations: “On the 15th March 1751 they came to Kurnool and carried the fort by assault”.9

The Handri floods had carried away about 200 yards of the wall, and 4,000 Pathans tried to hold the gap.9 The French under Kirjean, a nephew of Dupleix, stormed the castle.9 Salabat Jang’s army “assisted in the massacre of the inhabitants”.9

“The wife of the late Nabob Himmat Khan Bahadur and her two sons were made prisoners”.9 She was left at Kurnool under her husband’s diwan (minister), and the sons were taken to Hyderabad.9 His brother Ranmast Khan, then at Arcot, won back Kurnool in 1752.17

Footnotes

  1. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 406 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14

  4. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui, The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (Madras, 1905), p. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Burhanuddin, The Carnatic & Kurnool (1905), p. 62 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. William Kirkpatrick (tr.), Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lvii and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

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

  8. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15

  9. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 33 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15

  10. J. D. B. Gribble, A Manual of the District of Cuddapah (1875), p. 93 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. Gribble, Cuddapah (1875), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  13. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 447 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 448 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. C. P. Brown, Carnatic Chronology (1863), p. 73 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. Brown, Carnatic Chronology (1863), p. 74 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 34 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Nawabs of Kurnool

c. 1690–1839 CE

A Pathan family of the Panni tribe who held Kurnool, where the Tungabhadra meets the Handri, as a jagir (land grant) from the Mughal conquest of the 1680s until the British annexed it in 1839. The Mughal general Daud Khan Panni received the jagir. His kinsman Ibrahim Khan seized the fort in 1715 and died fighting the first Nizam in 1724. Himmat Bahadur Khan helped to kill two Nizams, Nasir Jang and Muzaffar Jang, in 1750–51 and died in the second fight, after which the French stormed Kurnool. His brother Ranmast (Munawwar) Khan won it back in 1752 and paid tribute to the Nizam and to Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. In 1800 the Nizam gave the tribute to the East India Company. The last Nawab, Ghulam Rasul Khan, was deposed in 1839 after troops found a secret store of arms in his fort, and Kurnool became a British district.

References

Sources (8)
  1. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1886, pp. 30–33. [Public domain]
  2. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui (Moulvi), The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (opens in a new tab), Commercial Press, Madras, 1905, pp. 61–63. [Public domain]
  3. William Kirkpatrick (tr. and ed.), Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan to Various Public Functionaries (opens in a new tab), Black, Parry and Kingsbury, London, 1811, lvi–lviii. [Public domain]
  4. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 406. [Public domain]
  5. J. D. B. Gribble, A Manual of the District of Cuddapah in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1875, pp. 93–94. [Public domain]
  6. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 42–44. [Public domain]
  7. 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. 447–448. [Public domain]
  8. Charles Philip Brown, Carnatic Chronology: The Hindu and Mahomedan Methods of Reckoning Time Explained (opens in a new tab), Bernard Quaritch, London, 1863, pp. 73–74. [Public domain]

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