Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s13: 13. Keladi Kings
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s13
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13. Keladi Kings
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The Keladi, Ikkēri, or Bednūr kings ruled in the Shimoga District and along the west coast from the beginning of the sixteenth century to 1763. Their territory included Āraga and Gutti (Chandragutti), both above the Ghats, in Mysore, and Bārakūr and Mangalūr, both below the Ghats, in South Kanara (Sg 11). Their capital was removed from Keladi (Sāgar tāluq) in about 1560 to Ikkēri (in the same tāluq), and in 1639 to Bednūr (now Nagar). Their State was the most considerable and wealthy of those conquered by Haidar Ali and annexed to Mysore. The kings were Lingāyits, and had the titles: *Yeḍava-Murāri* (said to be the names of two slaves belonging to the founder of the line, who, on condition that their memory was preserved, volunteered to be sacrificed for the establishment of his power, for which a human sacrifice was declared to be necessary), *Kōṭe-kōlāhala* (disturber of forts), *viśuddha-vaidikādvaita-siddhānta-pratiṣṭhāpaka* (establisher of the pure Vaidika Advaita doctrine), *Śiva-guru-bhakti-parāyaṇa* (devoted to faith in Śiva and the guru). A genealogy of the line to 1667 is given in Tl 156 in Sanskrit. Most of their inscriptions record grants to Lingāyit *maṭhas* or remission of transit duties on articles carried on pack bullocks for the use of such *maṭhas*. The following is a table of the kings:—
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1. Chauḍappa-Nāyaka, son of Hulibail Basappa, 1499-1513
2. Sadāśiva-Nāyaka, 1513-45
3. Sankaṇṇa-Nāyaka I, 1545-58
4. Sankaṇṇa-Nāyaka II, 1558-70
5. Rāmarāja-Nāyaka, 1570-82
6. Venkaṭappa-Nāyaka I, 1582-1629 Siddappa-Nāyaka Bhadrappa-Nāyaka
8. Śivappa-Nāyaka, 1645-60
9. Venkaṭappa-Nāyaka II, 1660-61
7. Vīrabhadra-Nāyaka, 1629-45
10. Bhadrappa-Nāyaka, 1661-63
11. Sōmaśēkhara-Nāyaka I, 1663-71
12. Chennammāji (widow of No. 11), 1671-97 (adopted)
13. Basappa-Nāyaka I, 1697-1714
14. Sōmaśēkhara-Nāyaka II, 1714-39 Vīrabhadra-Nāyaka
15. Basappa-Nāyaka II, 1739-54 (adopted)
16. Chenna-Basappa-Nāyaka 1754-57
17. Vīrammāji (widow of No. 15), 1757-63 (adopted)
18. Sōmaśēkhara-Nāyaka III.
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The first prominent king was Sadāśiva-Nāyak, who received his name from the Vijayanagar sovereign Sadāśiva-Rāya, in reward for his services against rebellious chiefs in Tuluva or South Kanara, and he was invested with the government of the provinces above mentioned.
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After the fall of Vijayanagar, Venkaṭappa-Nāyak I assumed independence. He drove back the invasion of the Bijāpur forces commanded by Randulha-Khān, and extended his dominions on the north and east to Māsūr, Shimoga, Kadūr, and Bhuvanagiri (Kavaledurga), and on the west and south to the sea at Honore (North Kanara), by victory over the queen of Gersoppa, the pepper queen of the Portuguese, who was a feudatory of Bijāpur. At the same time he acquired territory down to the borders of Malabar, and established his power so firmly that he was able to add 50 per cent to the land assessment in great part of Kanara. His valour is said (Sh 2) to be like adamantine armour to the Karnāṭa country, and he is described as an elephant-goad to the rutting elephants the bounding Taulava kings, a sun to the darkness the Kirātas, a boundary mountain to stop the great ocean of Mlechchas ever seeking to overflow the South in victorious expeditions. In 1621 he re-established the maṭha at Śringēri (Sg 5), originally set up in the eighth century by Śankarāchārya (Sg 11), the abbot of which was instrumental in founding the Vijayanagar empire in 1336. By espousing the cause of the queen of Ola against the Bangār rāja, he came into collision with the Portuguese, who call him Venkapor, king of Canara. But their Viceroy at Goa, being anxious to secure the trade in pepper for Portugal against the English and Dutch, sent an embassy to him in 1623 to form an alliance.
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Vīrabhadra-Nāyak averted a formidable invasion threatened by Bijāpur, which was to be assisted by the rājas of Sunda and Bilige, and the chiefs of Tarikere and Bānāvar. But the capital was removed to Bednūr, and Śivappa-Nāyak, who was in command of the army, subdued Bhairarasa of Kārakala, invaded Malayāla, and entered Coorg. Vīrabhadra is said (Sh 2) to be like a long right arm to the rājādhirāja Venkaṭādri (Venkaṭapati-Rāya II of Vijayanagar), and to have given protection to the southern kings alarmed by the great army of the Pātuśāha (the Ādil-Shāhi Sulṭān of Bijāpur).
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Śivappa-Nāyak himself next ascended the throne, and was one of the most distinguished kings of the line. He greatly enlarged Bednūr and made it a central emporium of trade. He also introduced the land assessment called shist. His expeditions in Mysore extended over Balam or Manjarābād to Vastāra, Sakkarepaṭṭaṇa and Hassan. Father Leonardo Paes, then travelling in Kanara, says that he had amassed enormous treasure, that his possessions extended from the Tudry river to Kāsargōd or Nilēśvar, and that he had a standing army of from forty to fifty thousand men. There were more than thirty thousand Christians among his subjects, originally natives of Goa and Salsette. In 1646 Śrī-Ranga-Rāya, the fugitive king of the Vijayanagar dynasty, fled to him for refuge, and Śivappa-Nāyak not only gave him the government of Bēlūr and Sakkarepaṭṭaṇa, but attacked Seringapatam on his behalf. In 1652 Śivappa rescued from the unlawful hands into which they had fallen the lands with which the Śringēri maṭha had formerly been endowed, and restored them to the maṭha (Sg 11, 13).
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In the time of Bhadrappa-Nāyak the Bijāpur army is said to have taken Bednūr and besieged Bhuvanagiri, whither the king with his family had retired, but a peace was eventually concluded. In 1664 the Mahratta leader Śivāji made a sudden descent on the coast of Kanara, sacked Kundapūr and sailed back to Gōkarna, plundering all the adjacent tracts. Sōmaśēkhara-Nāyak was seized with sensual madness, which led to his assassination. But his widow succeeded in carrying on the government for a considerable time. Her army captured Basavāpaṭṇa and other places to the east, where she fortified Harikere and named it Channa-giri after herself. She also gave shelter to Rāma-Rāja, the son of Śivāji, when he was hiding from the Mughals, until he could escape to his own country. Peace was made between Mysore and Bednūr in 1694, the former retaining the Bēlūr country. Basappa-Nāyak I was devoted to works of charity and the care of ascetics, vagrants, and infant children. As an atonement for the murder of Sōmaśēkhara, he imposed a small extra assessment, to be spent in feeding pilgrims.
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Sōmaśēkhara-Nāyak II is said to have attacked Sīra and taken Ajjampur, Sante-Bennūr, and other places from the Mughals. In 1748 was fought the battle of Māyakoṇḍa against Chitaldroog, in which the enemy suffered a disastrous defeat, Medakēri-Nāyak, their chief, being slain. Besides this, an incident of some importance was connected with the event. Chanda-Sāhib, nominated by the French as the Navāb of the Carnatic in opposition to the English candidate, Muhammad-Ali, had just been released from the Mahrattas at Sattāra. Being on his way south, he took part in the battle on the side of Chitaldroog. But his son was killed, and he himself was taken prisoner. While being led in triumph to Bednūr, he induced his Musalmān guards to march off with him to the French instead. He took Arcot in 1750, but in 1752, when the French surrendered to the English at Trichinopoly, fled to the protection of the Tanjore general. This man treacherously put him to death and sent his head to the rival Navāb, who made it over to Nanjarāj, the Mysore commander. The latter despatched it to Seringapatam, where it was exposed on one of the gates for three days. In 1751 a treaty was concluded between Bednūr and the English factory at Tellichery.
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An adopted son next came to the throne, but on remonstrating with his adoptive mother on her amours, which had become a public scandal, he was strangled, and Vīrammāji reigned in her own name. She was the last of her line. Haidar Ali, after a career of conquest over the eastern parts of Mysore, met at Chitaldroog with a pretender who professed to be the Bednūr prince supposed to have been murdered. Haidar resolved to make use of him, and invaded Bednūr in 1763 ostensibly to restore him. Making a feigned attack at the barriers, he entered by a secret path and captured the city. The Rāni, with her paramour and adopted son, fled to Ballālrāyandurga (Kadūr District), having set fire to the palace. The inhabitants deserted the place *en masse*, and in panic took shelter in the surrounding woods. The triumphant Haidar, extinguishing the flames and sealing up the houses, acquired a booty estimated at twelve millions sterling. The Rāni, her lover, and her adopted son were all seized and sent as prisoners to the hill-fort of Maddagiri (Tumkūr District), together with even the pretender. They were liberated by the Mahrattas when these captured Maddagiri in 1767. Virammāji died on the way to Poona, and Sōmaśēkhara ended his life there unmarried.