Hyder Ali - Second War With The Marathas

Second War With The Marathas

Hyder, believing he would be supported by the British in conflict with the Marathas, began demanding tribute payments from smaller states on the frontiers between Maratha and Mysore territories, and refused to pay tributes demanded by the Marathas. The Marathas responded in November 1770 with an invasion by an army of 35,000 men. Pursuant to their treaty, Hyder requested British assistance. The company refused, and Hyder retreated, slashing and burning as he went to deny the bounty of the land to the Marathas. The Marathas captured much of northeastern Mysore, and consolidated their gains during the monsoon season. Hyder offered to pay some of the tribute demanded, but his offer was rejected as insufficient, and the Marathas renewed the offensive after the monsoons. They advanced to the vicinity of Seringapatam, and then feinted a withdrawal to the north. When Hyder followed, they turned in force, and claimed to inflict serious casualties on Hyder's army, and captured most of its baggage. They then fruitlessly besieged Seringapatam for five weeks, before abandoning the effort and instead took Bangalore. Hyder again appealed to the British for help, but their preconditions and proposed terms were unacceptable to him, and an attempt by Hyder to get them to go on the offensive scuttled the negotiations. In 1772 Hyder finally sued for peace. He agreed to pay 36 lakhs rupees in tribute arrears, and 14 lakhs rupees in annual tribute, and ceded territory all the way to Bangalore. Upon his return to Seringapatam after the peace was concluded, Hyder learned that Nanjaraja, the titular ruler of Mysore, had been engaged in secret communications with the Marathas. Hyder ordered Nanjaraja strangled, and placed his brother Chamaraja on the throne.

The peace with the Marathas was short-lived. The peshwa Madhavrao I died late in 1772, beginning a struggle for his succession. In 1773 Hyder used this opportunity to send Tipu with an army to recover territories lost to the Marathas to the north, while he descended into Coorg, which provided a more secure route to the Malabar territories he wanted to recover from the Marathas. A claimant to the Coorg throne had asked for Hyder's assistance in 1770 when he was preoccupied with the Marathas. He quickly captured Coorg's capital, Merkara, imprisoning Raja Vira Rajendra. He installed a Brahmin (a caste unpopular with the Coorgs) as governor to collect revenues before continuing to Malabar, where by the end of 1774 he had recovered all his lost territory. The Coorgs rose in rebellion against his governor, upon which Hyder returned to Coorg, crushed the rebellion, and hanged most of the ringleaders. This did not stop the restive Coorgs from becoming a continuing problem for Hyder, and Tipu after his death.

In 1776 the young Raja Chamaraja died. To choose a successor, Hyder had all of the children of the royal family brought together, and watched them play. A child, also named Chamaraja, chose to play with a jewelled dagger, and was supposed selected on that basis as the new raja of Mysore.

By March 1775 the leadership situation at Poona, the Maratha capital, had stabilised, and the Marathas joined an alliance with the nizam of Hyderabad to oppose Hyder. The Maratha army was routed by one of Hyder's generals in 1776, and Hyder either bribed or sufficiently threatened the nizam's military leaders that they withdrew from the campaign. This only temporarily halted the conflict, which was fought with renewed vigor until 1779. Hyder successfully extended his domain to the Krishna River after a lengthy siege of Dharwad. In a controversial action, Hyder in 1779 dealt harshly with Madakari Nayaka, the ruler of Chitradurga. Madakari had supported Hyder in earlier conflicts, but in 1777 had changed allegiance to the Marathas. After seizing Chitradurga, Hyder sent Madakari to Seringapatam as a prisoner, where he died. Hyder further sent 20,000 of Madakari's followers to Seringapatam, where the boys among them were allegedly forcibly converted to Islam and formed into so-called chela battalions in the Mysorean army.