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Lakkireddipalle

Village on a pass in the Rayachoti taluk of the old Cuddapah district. Early in 1751 the Pathan Nawabs of Kurnool, Cuddapah and Savanur turned on the new Nizam, Muzaffar Jang, here, as he marched north from Pondicherry with Bussy's French corps. Muzaffar Jang was killed, by the Nawab of Kurnool's javelin in most accounts. The Nawab of Kurnool was cut down, the Nawab of Savanur was killed and the Nawab of Cuddapah was badly wounded. Bussy then raised Salabat Jang to the throne.

Lakkireddipalle is a village in the Rayachoti country of the old Kadapa (then Cuddapah) district. It lies on the road from Kadapa south towards the plains of the Carnatic. Gribble’s Cuddapah manual places there the fight in which the Pathan Nawabs killed the Nizam Muzaffar Jang in 1751.1 It says that “the conspirators met him at the narrow pass of Luckireddipally in the Royachoty Taluq of the Cuddapah District”.1

The Cuddapah gazetteer of 1915 repeats the account and spells the name Lakkireddipalle.23 It argues that armies going between Kadapa and Arcot took the road “through Rayachoti, Kalakada, Pilér and Damalcheruvu”.23 See the Nawabs of Cuddapah and the Nawabs of Kurnool.

The death of Muzaffar Jang, 1751

The Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah, Kurnool and Savanur had helped to kill Nasir Jang near Jinji in 1750 and to raise his nephew Muzaffar Jang as Nizam.41 Gribble says that the Nawab of Cuddapah was then “disgusted that he had not gained as much as he had expected”.1 Muzaffar Jang then marched north from Pondicherry with a French corps under Bussy.56 The Kurnool manual calls him “Mir J’afar Jang”.5 It makes him the nephew of Nasir Jang, raised to the throne when Nasir Jang was killed.5 The Kurnool manual says that the Nawabs “were now drawn up together in battle array to meet him near Rayachoti”.56

According to the manual, the Nawab of Savanur was cut to pieces, and the Nawab of Cuddapah fled badly wounded.56 Muzaffar Jang overtook the Nawab of Kurnool.56 The Nawab drove his javelin into Muzaffar Jang, “through his forehead into the brain”, and was himself instantly killed.56

Gribble says that Muzaffar Jang “fell struck down by a javelin thrown by the Nabob of Kurnool (January 1751)”.17 He adds that the Nawab of Cuddapah “was severely, if not mortally, wounded”.17 Bussy then raised Nasir Jang’s brother, Salabat Jang, to the throne.6 See Muzaffar Jang, Himmat Bahadur Khan and Salabat Jang.

Dates

William Kirkpatrick followed the Persian of Mir Husain.89 He calls the fight “a sanguinary tumult which took place at Raechooty”, about two months after Nasir Jang’s death.89 In a note he dates it to “the 17th of Mihurram, A.H. 1164, or about the end of January”.9

Charles Philip Brown’s Carnatic Chronology (1863) records the “Battle of Lakri-palli, on the 2nd of February”.10 In it, Brown says, Muzaffar Jang “vanquished Himmat Khan and other Pathan chiefs”.10

The Kurnool manual says that Muzaffar Jang set out from Pondicherry “on the 4th of January 1752”.5 But it dates the army’s storming of Kurnool, after his death, to 15 March 1751.6

Footnotes

  1. J. D. B. Gribble, A Manual of the District of Cuddapah (1875), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

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

  3. Brackenbury, Cuddapah (1915), pp. 43–44 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Gribble, Cuddapah (1875), p. 93 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District (1886), p. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. Chetty, Kurnool District (1886), p. 33 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. Gribble, Cuddapah (1875), p. 95 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. William Kirkpatrick (tr.), Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lvii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan (1811), Appendix G, p. lviii, note 16 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

People

Himmat Bahadur Khan (Nawab of Kurnool)

1733–1751 CE

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.

References

Sources (5)
  1. 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. 93–95. [Public domain]
  2. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 42–44. [Public domain]
  3. Narahari Gopalakristnamah Chetty, A Manual of the Kurnool District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1886, pp. 32–33. [Public domain]
  4. 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, lvii–lviii. [Public domain]
  5. 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. [Public domain]

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