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Arcot

Town on the Palar west of Madras, the capital of the Nawabs of the Carnatic in the eighteenth century. Their province ran along the coast from Guntur to the Coleroon and took in Nellore, and it was also called the province of Arcot. Clive held the town against Chanda Sahib's army in 1751, and Haidar Ali took it in 1780. Tipu Sultan blew up two sides of its fort before leaving the Carnatic. Its mint struck the Nawabs' coins, and the 'Arcot rupee' was coined in their name at Madras.

Arcot is a town in the Tamil country west of Madras. It was the seat of the Nawabs of the Carnatic, whose government in the eighteenth century reached north into the Telugu districts of Nellore, Ongole and the Palnad. The Nellore manual says of the Carnatic that “from its capital the province also received the name of Arcot, and included the district of Nellore”.1

Wilks calls the province the Carnatic Hyderabad Payanghat (payanghat: the land below the hills).2 He describes it as “the whole country extending from Guntoor to the Coleroon, along the sea-coast of Coromandel; afterwards better known as the province of Arcot”.2 Later the upper Carnatic was given a governor of its own.3 Wilks says that it then became usual “to designate those several officers as the Nabobs of Sera, Arcot, and Kurpa from the names of their capitals”.3 See the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot).

The Nawabs’ capital

Anwar-ud-din Khan “arrived at Arcot in April 1744” to take up the Nawabship.4 He died at Ambur in 1749.5 The victors, Muzaffar Jang and Chanda Sahib, then “marched without farther opposition to Arcot”.5 There they took on “the state … due to their new dignities”.5

In 1751 Clive attacked and took Arcot, to draw the enemy away from Tiruchirappalli (then Trichinopoly).6 Chanda Sahib’s son besieged it for fifty days, but “the attempt to storm the fort failed”.6

By the treaty of 1801 the Nawab Azim-ud-daula was established in “the soubadarry of the territories of Arcot”.7 The government of the Carnatic passed to the Company.7 See Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah.

Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan

In July 1780 Haidar Ali invaded the Carnatic, “and in August laid siege to Arcot”.8 He took the town in October.8 An English attack on Arcot in 1781 failed.9 Tipu Sultan left the Carnatic after his father’s death.9 Before he left, “he blew up the fortifications of Wandewash and Carangoly and two sides of the fort of Arcot”.9 See Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.

The Arcot mint

Walter Elliot wrote of the coins of “Arcot under the Nivayat Nawábs of the Carnatic”.1011 He says that the Nawab Muhammad Ali “struck coins at other places besides Arcot”.1011 The records of the Madras Factory named Arcot among the Nawabs’ mints.1011 Their rupees, “inferior in standard, but of the same nominal value”, competed with the Company’s.1011

Charles Philip Brown’s Carnatic Chronology records under 1758 that “the English coined money at Madras for the Nabob of Arcot”.12 It adds: “These were called Arcot rupees, and dated A.H. 1172”.12

Footnotes

  1. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 444 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  2. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, Vol. I (1810), p. 218 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Wilks, Historical Sketches, Vol. I (1810), p. 227 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  5. Wilks, Historical Sketches, Vol. I (1810), p. 260 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

  7. C. U. Aitchison, A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, Vol. VIII (1892), p. 57, treaty with Azim-ud-daula, 1801, Article 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 461 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 462 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India (1886), p. 144 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. Elliot, Coins of Southern India (1886), p. 145 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. C. P. Brown, Carnatic Chronology (1863), p. 74 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Photos

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.

People

Morari Rao Ghorpade

c. 1741–1776 CE

A Maratha soldier who fought for pay, of the Ghorpade family. He was lord of Gooty from the 1740s until Haidar Ali took the fortress in 1776. The Marathas left him as governor of Trichinopoly in 1741. He gave it up to the first Nizam in the mid-1740s and was accepted as chief of Gooty under the subahdar of the Deccan. His horsemen, whom Orme thought the best Indian soldiers of the day, fought in the Carnatic wars for Muhammad Ali and the English, for Mysore and for the French. Later they fought with the English against Haidar. He held Penukonda and Madakasira and took tribute from the Anantapur poligars. After a long siege of Gooty he surrendered to Haidar and died a prisoner at Kabbaldurga.

Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah

1749–1795 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1749 to 1795, the son of Anwar-ud-din Khan. His father was killed at Ambur in 1749. He held out at Trichinopoly and, with English help, won the Nawabship from Chanda Sahib and the French. The treaty of Paris of 1763 recognised him, and the Mughal emperor gave him the title Walajah. His Telugu districts were Nellore, held under his brother Najib-ullah, who rebelled in 1757, Ongole and the Palnad. He owed large debts to the Company and to private lenders. He handed the revenues of the Carnatic to the Company in 1781, saw it take over their management in 1790–92, and agreed by the treaty of 1792 to pay nine lakhs of pagodas a year for its troops. He died in October 1795.

Ranmast Khan (Munawwar Khan, Nawab of Kurnool)

1752–1792 CE

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.

Anwar-ud-din Khan

before 1749 CE

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.

Saadatullah Khan

before 1732 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic, with his capital at Arcot, from about 1710–13 until his death in 1732. A Navayat, born Muhammad Saeed, he was the diwan (finance officer) and faujdar (military governor) of the Mughal general Daud Khan Panni. He followed Daud Khan in the government of the Carnatic below the Ghats, which ran along the coast from Guntur to the Coleroon and took in Nellore. A chronology of Sidhout says that he took the place in 1694 and appointed its fort commander, years before he became Nawab. His faujdar governed Nellore. He granted the jagir of Udayagiri in 1720. With the Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah, Kurnool and Savanur he took a large payment from Mysore. He left the Nawabship to his nephew Dost Ali.

References

Sources (5)
  1. 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. 218, 227, 255, 260. [Public domain]
  2. 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, 448, 461–462. [Public domain]
  3. Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India (International Numismata Orientalia, Vol. III, Part 2) (opens in a new tab), Trübner & Co., London, 1886, pp. 144–145. [Public domain]
  4. Charles Philip Brown, Carnatic Chronology: The Hindu and Mahomedan Methods of Reckoning Time Explained (opens in a new tab), Bernard Quaritch, London, 1863, pp. 74. [Public domain]
  5. 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. 57. [Public domain]

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