Indian History: 1600-1947

 This blog is written based on the book History of Tamil Nadu: 1529-1801 by Manoranjithamani.  I would not recommend the book. It is extremely dry and is just a statement of facts.  We saw here  that the Vijaynagar defeated the short lived Madurai Sultanate and subsumed Madurai region into his kingdom. This happened around 1375.  The local power structures were maintained and the local feudatories continued to rule their small part of South India. The Vijaynagar aking appointed his own representative called Mahamandaleswaras for the region.  These appointments were not hereditary. The Mahamandaleswara basically was the liaison with the smaller kings and collected taxes from these smaller kings.   While trying to understand this better, Gemeni drew the analogy to a Pizza Hut that is owned by Corporate at a location far from the HQ. The  Mahamandaleswara is sent by HQ to manage the store.  This was a good mental model and helped contrast...

Coins issued by the East India Company are generally very clear, well catalogued and easy to identify. I generally use this very good catalogue and I assumed every coin ever issued by EIC would be in this book.  However, I have come across these set of small copper coins that seem to have been issued by EIC from Trichy mint.  A good discussion of these coins with some clean outlines are here .  Zeno has its own category here  and Numista its own category here .  While I haven't verified, these are apparently discussed in Mitchiner Part 2 pages 246-248. I have a few of these in my collection. I have catalogued them as its own section here

 An interesting series of coin are the coins attributed to Nawab of Arcot that have the charachters Na written on the obverse. Here are two examples from Zeno that I have copied ( Z1 , Numista ). I have both these coins in my collection here and 13.9 .  The argument for why this is Nawab is because "Na" means Nawab. Further,  Numista refers to MSI #999 as a reference though I havent verified it.  Another collector/seller (Maninkandan Prabhu) made the case that the "Na" signified Nayana and the coin was issued by Vana Immudi Hamma Nayana of the Gatti Mudali Dynasty.   This led me down the rabbit hole of learning about the Gatti Mudali dynasty. I had not heard of this dynasty and started reading about them. Here is a good reference . Gatti Mudali were Polygars under Madurai Nayaks Ruled the Palayams that covered modern day Salem, Erode and Karur  Held two forts: At Salem and Attur                  ...

 With work and kids I want to write a series that is not well crafted and just conveys the key ideas. It’s based on my visit to American History Museum in DC, Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg  # Origin story for British colonies in India and US is similar  - Britain had a colony in India. Britian had a colony in US - Both were started around the same time. 1610 first factory was established in India and 1607 the first settlement was established at Jamestown  - Both were started by private companies headed by the same person. Thomas smythe  # How they were different?  - Native population in one colony was still in Stone Age. The native population in the other was more advanced than the European settlers with sophisticated culture, technology and weaponry  - One colony was sparsely populated. The other was dense and full of people  - Britian knew almost nothing about one colony. On the other hand it had been in continuous contact through land ba...

Tamil Nadu, our focus, is not a modern-day construct. In Sangam literature, it was referred to as Tamilakam . The British referred to it as the Carnatic , while modern historians often refer to the region as the Far South . There is a natural and geographical reason why this entity has persisted over the centuries. The Western Ghats form a natural barrier to the west, while the Bay of Bengal lies to the east and the Gulf of Mannar to the south. The north-western frontiers are defined by the Eastern Ghats , and the northern boundary is marked by Pulicat Lake . These Ghats form a natural defense against invading armies; there are only a few specific "gates" or mountain passes through which one can access the heart of Tamilakam.    1. Western Gate: Palghat Pass The Route: This is likely how the Cholas accessed western ports during their raids. The Guard: The Palghat Fort was built within this pass to serve as a vital guardhouse. 2. Deccan Gates Beyond the Chola era, the s...

This is the third and final part of this series. We left off at the end of the Carnatic Wars in 1761. Through the Carnatic Wars, over a short 15-year period, the British East India Company transitioned from traders with muskets to becoming the primary force in Tamil Nadu politics. While they still only governed a few-mile stretch around Fort St. George, they were the power behind the Arcot Nawab Wallajah. The Nawab of Arcot was the nominal authority in Tamil Nadu. Practically, smaller chieftains like the Thanjavur Maratha and the Polygars of the Madurai region (including Sivagangai and Pudukottai) were, on paper, his vassals who accepted his suzerainty but often resisted paying taxes. After the Second Carnatic War, the Tirunelveli and Madurai region was administered by Mahfuz Khan. He was the elder brother of the Arcot Nawab and was appointed as his representative. However, he did a poor job of stabilizing the region and collecting revenue from the Polygars. Deeply in debt and unable t...