Mysore, Kingdom of

The French and the British East India company initiate a protracted struggle for military control of South India in the middle of the eighteenth century.

The period is marked by shifting alliances between the two East India companies and the local powers, mercenary armies employed by all sides, and general anarchy in South India.

Cities and forts change hands many times, and soldiers are primarily remunerated through loot.

The four Anglo-Mysore Wars and the three Anglo-Maratha Wars see Mysore, the Marathas and Hyderabad aligning themselves in turns with either the British or the French.

Eventually, British power in alliance with Hyderabad prevails and Mysore is absorbed as a princely state within British India.

The Nizam of Hyderabad seeks to retain his autonomy through diplomacy rather than open war with the British.

The Maratha Empire that stretches across large swathes of central and northern India is broken up, with most of it annexed by the British.

Mughal power withers following the death of Aurangzeb, and South Indian rulers gain autonomy from Delhi.

The Asaf Jahis of Hyderabad control the territory north and east of Mysore, while the Marathas control portions of what is today Karnataka.

By the close of the "medieval" period, most of South India is either ruled directly from, or under tribute to the Nayak dynasty or the Wadiyars of Mysore.

The Wadiyar kingdom of Mysore, which had originally been in tribute to Vijayanagara, gains in strength over the next few decades, subsequently emerging as the dominant power in the southern part of South India.

It is the rare state in eighteenth-century India that wholly throws off all pretense of allegiance to the Mughals.

Rather, the Mughal system of honors and titles, as well as Mughal-derived administrative terminology and fiscal practices, has spread apace despite the deterioration of imperial power.

The Mughals in the 1720s theoretically claim rights over a far larger area than had ever been the case under Akbar, Jahangir, or Shah Jahan.

This area includes large parts of southern India, over which central rule is never actually consolidated.

The Marathas, taking advantage of their somewhat ambiguous relations with the Mughals, and claiming to be the agents of Delhi, often make partial claims on the revenues of these areas, as cauth and sardesmukhi.

This is the case, for example, in Mysore in the 1720s and '30s.

Mysore had come under the sovereign umbrella of the Mughals in the late 1690s, as the result of an embassy sent to Aurangzeb by Chikka Devaraja Vadiyar, the ruler of Mysore at the time and the the most notable of Mysore's early kings.

In effect, this means that Mysore is to pay a periodic tribute (peshkash) to Mughal representatives in the south, but there is a problem in doing so.

As Mughal authority in the Deccan and the south is itself fragmented, several possible channels of tribute exist.

Mysore thus seeks to make use of this ambiguity, playing off Chin Qilich Khan (known by the title Nizam-ul-Mulk), a powerful Mughal noble who in these years had founded a dynasty at Hyderabad, against the Mughal representative at Arcot, thereby putting off the tribute payment.

A further variable in the fiscal politics of Mysore is the presence of the Marathas; and some clans, such as the Ghorpades, make it a regular practice to raid the Mysore capital of Seringapatam (Shrirangapattana).

In this way, overlapping and at times conflicting claims are justified with reference to a Mughal center that is distant and for the most part lacks interest in these affairs.

As such, then, few if any of the states discussed above make a direct attack on Mughal legitimacy or seek to challenge Mughal claims head-on.

To the extent that such a frontal challenge (as distinct from a rebellion conducted within a shared understanding of the framework of authority) can be located in the period, it comes from the far northwest of the Mughal domain.

This repercussions from this challenge will be felt eventually by the Marathas and other groups.

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