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Ranmast Khan (Munawwar Khan, Nawab of Kurnool)

Pathan Nawab of Kurnool from 1752 to 1792, the brother of Himmat Bahadur Khan, called Ranmast Khan and Munawwar Khan. His brother died, and the French stormed Kurnool in 1751. He came back from Arcot and raised troops with money from the Nawab of Cuddapah and the help of the deshmukh of Kurnool. In 1752 he won back his capital from the Nizam's officer and the raja of Gadwal. He paid tribute to the Nizam and, from 1769 or about 1775, to Haidar Ali. Local tradition says he paid Haidar after a holy man's attempt to frighten Haidar failed. Tipu Sultan pressed him for unpaid tribute. His son Alif Khan led his horsemen with the Nizam's army against Tipu in 1790–92, and he died in 1792.

Ranmast Khan, also called Munawwar Khan, ruled Kurnool for forty years, through the wars of the Nizams, the Marathas and the rulers of Mysore.12 The Kurnool manual calls him “Ranmas Khan, alias Munauwar Khan Bahadur, brother of Himmat Khan”.12 Muhammad Burhanuddin’s history of the Carnatic and Kurnool (1905) calls him “Runmusth Khan alias Munawar Khan, brother of the late Nabob Himmut Bahadur Khan”.12 See the Nawabs of Kurnool and Himmat Bahadur Khan.

Recovering Kurnool, 1752

The French and Salabat Jang stormed Kurnool in March 1751.1 The country was then left in the charge of the Nizam’s officer Saiyid Muhammad Alam and of Rama Nayadu, the zamindar (landholder) of Gadwal.1

The manual says that in 1752 Munawwar Khan, “who had gone to Arcot, returned to seize his ancestral estate”.1 “He obtained a sum of three lakhs of rupees from the Cuddapah Nabob, collected a small force, and marched into the Kurnool District”.1 There the deshmukh (district revenue officer) of Kurnool, Khandoji Pant, joined him with about 2,000 men.1

He took Sirvel and reached Nandyal.1 For about six months he fought small battles with the Gadwal raja’s troops.1 At last he bought off his enemies with the promise of Betamcherla and Yerraguntla to the Gadwal raja, and money to Muhammad Alam.1 Then “Munauwar Khan entered Kurnool and assumed the government”.1

The deshmukh was rewarded with the village of Gani, and he built a fort there.1 But he soon displeased the Nawab, who seized it.1 “Khandoji, it is said, was dragged to death by the tail of an elephant”.1 See Gadwal and Kurnool.

Kirkpatrick’s sketch of the family, from Mir Husain, tells the recovery in another way.3 In it, the poligar (local military chief) of “Gudduck”, helped by the French, seized Kurnool while Munawwar Khan was at Nandyal.3 Munawwar Khan went to Kadapa (then Cuddapah), where its chief, “Abdal Nuby Khan”, gave him some money.3 He raised about 700 foot and 300 horse.3 He won back his capital when the garrison came out to fight.3 Mir Husain put the victory down to the presence and prayers of a holy man, Shah Mustan.3

Burhanuddin prints a sanad (grant) of the emperor Shah Alam II, dated in his thirty-fourth year.4 It grants Kurnool as a jagir (land grant) to “Mukhurrabud Doulah Moizzul Mulk Runmusth Khan Bahadur Munawar Jung and to his sons”.4 Burhanuddin says that “this was the last occasion on which an Imperial Sunnad was sent”.4 See Abdul Nabi Khan.

The Nizam, Haidar and Tipu

Kirkpatrick says that Shahnawaz Khan, minister of Salabat Jang, sent an army to punish Kurnool.5 But Munawwar Khan used bribes and submission.5 He got “a confirmation of his Jageer, on condition of paying a certain annual tribute to the government of Hyderabad”.5

The Kurnool manual says that in 1772 and 1773 he took back Betamcherla and Yerraguntla from the Gadwal raja by force.16 He besieged Rangapuram for seven weeks.16

Wilks says that in 1769 Haidar Ali collected payments from “Kurpa, and Kurnool, the territories of the Patan Nabobs”.78 The memoir of Ram Chandra Rao says that Haidar “marched to Kurnool and exacted three lacks of rupees from Munavvar Khan (Nabob of that place)”.78 See Haidar Ali.

The Kurnool manual follows local tradition and dates Haidar’s march on Kurnool to about 1775.69 Munawwar Khan’s spiritual guide, Shah Miskeen, promised to put the enemy to flight.69 He rode bareheaded on an elephant with two or three hundred Afghans towards Haidar’s camp.69

Haidar’s officers urged him to spare a place under the protection of a saint.69 Haidar “demanded of them if his army also were not under the protection of some valis or saint”.69 The holy man advised peace.69 Of the five lakhs demanded, the Nawab paid two.69

Kirkpatrick’s version, from Mir Husain, has Haidar ask “whether his state was not under the protection of a saint, as well as that of Kurnool”.10 In this version Haidar settled for a yearly tribute of a lakh of rupees and provisions.10 Wilks says that the Nawab of Kurnool at one time paid tribute to the Marathas, the Nizam and Mysore at once.11

Tipu Sultan kept up the claim.12 In a letter translated by Kirkpatrick, Tipu writes to “the Nabob Runmust Khan” about eleven lakhs of rupees “to which I had a just claim”.12 He gives up four “for the sake of the true faith, and on account of the eminence of your family”, and asks for the other seven.12

Kirkpatrick’s note explains that Runmust Khan “was a Patan chieftain, who possessed the district of Kurnool”.12 Haidar had forced him to pay tribute “though he was, at the same time, a feudatory of the Nizam”.12 The Kurnool manual says that he “had been compelled to submit to Mysore”.9 But “he did not recognize the Mysore prince as his sovereign and did not pay the peshcush imposed”.9 See Tipu Sultan.

Last years

In 1790 Munawwar Khan sent a party of horse under his third son, Alif Khan, with the Nizam’s army to join Lord Cornwallis against Tipu.413 Kirkpatrick says that he was “too old and infirm to undergo the fatigues of the field”.413 He died in 1792.94

His eldest son lived at Hyderabad on a small jagir the Nizam had given him, “where he built a village still known as Runmusthpura”.94 Munawwar Khan passed over the second son, Hasan Ali Khan, as unfit to rule.94 He named the third, Alif Khan, to follow him.94 See Alif Khan II.

Footnotes

  1. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 34 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17

  2. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui, The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (Madras, 1905), p. 63 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. William Kirkpatrick (tr.), Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Burhanuddin, The Carnatic & Kurnool (1905), p. 64 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

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

  6. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 35 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  7. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, Vol. II (1817), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Ram Chandra Rao Punganuri, Memoirs of Hyder and Tippoo, tr. C. P. Brown (1849), p. 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  10. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lx (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Wilks, Historical Sketches, Vol. II (1817), p. 207 note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), p. 135, Letter CII and observations (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  13. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lxi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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 (6)
  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. 34–36. [Public domain]
  2. Muhammad Burhanuddin Siddiqui (Moulvi), The Carnatic & Kurnool, their Last Muhammedan Rulers (opens in a new tab), Commercial Press, Madras, 1905, pp. 63–64. [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, pp. 135, lviii–lxi. [Public domain]
  4. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London, 1817, pp. 131, 207. [Public domain]
  5. Ram Chandra Rao Punganuri (tr. C. P. Brown), Memoirs of Hyder and Tippoo, Rulers of Seringapatam (opens in a new tab), Simkins and Co., Madras, 1849, pp. 20. [Public domain]
  6. 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]

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