Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s13.10

c9.s13.10

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.