A History of the Mahrattas v1.c29.41

v1.c29.41

A.D. 1764.—Whilst the Mahrattas had to maintain these struggles in the Deccan, a new power was arising on the ruins of the Hindoo dynasty of Mysore, under the celebrated adventurer Hyder Ally Khan, which to the southward promised in a very short time at least to confine the Mahrattas to their native boundary. Busalut Jung, still hopeful of forming an independent kingdom in the Carnatic, took advantage of the absence of the Mahrattas to plan the conquest of their southern districts, and with this view obtained the alliance of Hyder, whom he appointed Nabob of Sera, precisely in the same manner as the Raja Shao used to confer unconquered territories, the right to which, as Colonel Wilks has observed, ‘could only be inferred from the act of granting.’ Busalut Jung and his new ally had reduced Ouscotta, Sera, and Bura-Balapoor by the end of 1761, and Busalut Jung soon after, being apprehensive of an attack from his brother Nizam Ally, returned to his capital at Adonee; but Hyder prosecuted his conquests. In 1762 he reduced, or exacted tribute from, the Polygars of Chota-Balapoor, Raidroog, Harpoonelly, and Chittledroog. In 1763 he conquered Bednore,¹ and confined the Ranee and her adopted son in the fort of Mudgerry; Fuzzul Oollah Khan, one of his officers, overran Soonda, and early in the ensuing year Hyder defeated the Nabob of Savanoor. He left Fuzzul Oollah Khan in that quarter, to occupy as much as possible of the Mahratta country, whilst affairs of government required his own return to Bednore. Fuzzul Oollah Khan accordingly took Dharwar, and established Hyder’s posts nearly as far north as the Kistna.²