Punganur

Punganur is a town on the Mysore plateau, in the north-west corner of the old North Arcot district.¹ Its poligars (local chiefs) held Kolar until Bijapur took it in 1639, and then held Punganur.²³ After Tipu’s fall in 1799, the whole estate was transferred to the East India Company.⁴

Punganur lies above the Eastern Ghats.¹ According to the district manual, it had Mysore to the west and Kadapa (then Cuddapah) to the north.¹ The Chandragiri (then Chendragiri) and Chittoor taluks lay to the east, and the Palamaner (then Palmanér) taluk to the south.¹ The natural features of the estate, the manual says, are “those of the rest of the Mysore plateau”.¹

Gribble’s manual of the Kadapa district notes that Punganur was part of that district until 1858.⁵ In that year the Ceded Districts were rearranged, and Punganur was transferred to North Arcot.⁵ Its poligars came to be called zamindars (landholders).³ They belonged to the Sivachar or Lingayat caste.³ See the Marathas in the Telugu country.

Kolar and Bijapur

The North Arcot manual summarises the family’s own history.²³ It says that the poligars’ ancestors settled in the country in the thirteenth century.²³ Later they founded and fortified Kolar, Hoskote and Anekal.²³ One ancestor built the fort of Punganur but went on living at Kolar.²³

While Hulsammal was regent, the Bijapur ruler “Tenésha Padshah” sent “Ranadhullá Khán” to besiege “Kólár and Uskóta”.²³ The regent fled with her nephew to Avulapalli in 1639.²³ The sultan then confirmed the young poligar in Punganur, Saddam, Kandur and other districts.²³ Kolar became part of the jagir (land grant) of Shivaji’s father, Shahji Bhonsle.⁶

Gribble’s version is based on Munro’s report of 1802.⁵ He says that “about 1612 both the above jaghirs were taken by the Mahrattas, probably by Shahjee”.⁵ He adds that the poligar went to Hyderabad and received Punganur and Avulapalli from the Nizam.⁵ The revenue history in the first volume of the North Arcot manual gives another date.⁷ It says he was “dispossessed in 1642 by the Sultán of Bijapúr”, that is, driven out.⁷

Golconda, the Mughals and Cuddapah

The North Arcot manual gives Munro’s report.⁷⁴ According to it, the poligar received Punganur and Avulapalli at Hyderabad on a peshkash (yearly tribute) of half their value.⁷⁴ Under Aurangzeb, Zulfiqar Khan fixed his tribute at 10,000 pagodas (gold coins) in cash.⁷⁴ The poligar also had to serve with a hundred horsemen and two thousand foot soldiers.⁷⁴ In 1713 the Nawab of Kadapa raised the tribute to Rs 32,000.⁷⁴ He also required 2,000 foot soldiers in time of war.⁷⁴

Gribble dates the Nawab’s expedition to 1718.⁵⁸ In that year, he says, Abdul Nabi Khan “invaded and subdued Baramahl, and on his way reduced the Punganoor Poligar”.⁵⁸ The Kadapa gazetteer says that Abdul Nabi Khan, Nawab from 1714, “extended his province as far south as Punganúr”.⁹

The Marathas and Mysore

The second volume of the North Arcot manual tells what happened next.³ In 1757 the poligar Mummidi Chikkarayalu “fell fighting against the Mahráttas”.³ He fought on the side of “Abdul Mahsim Khán, Nabob of Cuddapah”.³ The Nawab was killed too, and the Marathas took half his soubah (province), including Punganur.³ From them it passed to Haidar (“Hyder”) after “twenty years of contest between the nabob, the Mahráttas and Mysore”.³ During that time, Punganur paid tribute sometimes to one and sometimes to another.³

Gribble and the first volume of the manual date the Maratha conquest to 1755.⁸⁴ Gribble says that “a new Poligar was appointed by Madoo Row, the Mahratta General”.⁸ In 1771 this general cut the tribute to Rs 28,000.⁸⁴ The manual says he did so “on account of the destitute condition of the country”, that is, because the country was very poor.⁴

In 1774, Gribble says, Haidar Ali took possession of the estate and raised its tribute.⁸³ The poligar followed Haidar into the Carnatic and died before Wandiwash.⁸³ Tipu drove out his son in 1785, and again in 1795.⁸³ After Tipu’s fall in 1799, the poligar got his estate back, and the whole of it was transferred to the Company.⁴ See Balwant Rao Mendle and Gurramkonda.

Where the sources disagree

• The loss of Kolar. The second volume of the North Arcot manual says that the regent fled from Kolar in 1639, when Bijapur attacked.²³ Gribble, following Munro, says that the Marathas took the family’s lands “about 1612”.⁵ The first volume of the manual says the poligar was driven out by the Sultan of Bijapur in 1642.⁷
• The Maratha conquest. The second volume of the manual dates the battle in which the poligar and the Nawab of Cuddapah were killed to 1757.³ Gribble and the first volume of the manual date the Maratha conquest of Punganur to 1755.⁸⁴

Footnotes

1. Arthur F. Cox, rev. Harold A. Stuart, Madras District Manuals: North Arcot, Vol. II (1894), p. 406 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Cox and Stuart, North Arcot, Vol. II (1894), p. 407 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Cox and Stuart, North Arcot, Vol. II (1894), p. 408 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹

4. Cox and Stuart, North Arcot, Vol. I (1895), p. 177 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

5. J. D. B. Gribble, A Manual of the District of Cuddapah (1875), p. 89 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

6. James Grant Duff, A History of the Mahrattas, Vol. I (1826), p. 121 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. Cox and Stuart, North Arcot, Vol. I (1895), p. 176 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

8. Gribble, Cuddapah (1875), p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

9. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (1915), p. 41 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩