With the death of Mahadeva Rani, Vira Rajendra's hopes of a son and heir were buried. He had loved her, it appears passionately. Her loss almost drove him mad. It had also soured his temper and he fell prey to the suspicion that some traitors had conspired against the life of Mahadeva Rani and destroyed her by charms and incantations. He himself began to live in dread of secret enemies. He detested Hindus in general and Coorgs in particular. He had killed hundreds of his own people on some idle suspicion or malicious denunciation, or on the mere impulse of a sudden gust of passion.
The Raja had surrounded himself with an African bodyguard, and eunuchs from Mysore had charge of his harem. But the guards of the palace and all the military officers, with very few exceptions, were Coorgs. No longer able to bear the iron yoke, they conspired against the Raja's life. The day and the hour were fixed. All the Coorg guards, who held the gates of the fort and the entrances of the palace, being of one accord, his destruction seemed to be certain. But a few minutes before the signal was given, the secret was betrayed to Vira Raja. With great presence of mind he imitated Haidar Ali, who had in similar circumstances gained time by placing a bundle of clothes on his bed covered with a blanket. The Coorgs rushed in and cut in pieces the form which they mistook for the sleeping Raja. Next moment they discovered that the Raja had fled, that he had at the last moment been warned.
Vira Raja in the mean time had run out and summoned his Africans. The fort gates were shut. Some three hundred Coorgs had assembled in the palace yard. The Africans received orders to cut them down to a man. The Raja himself took his post at a window and fired upon the terrorstricken conspirators. They allowed themselves to be slaughtered like sheep. Vira Raja himself boasted of having shot twenty five of them. The rest fell without resistance under the swords of the Siddis, who waded ankle deep in blood. An old Jemadar, who had been eyewitness of the dreadful scene, said that the blood ran out of the palace yard as the rain in a heavy monsoon day. Three hundred Coorgs, by his account, fell that morning in front of the palace. Coorg tradition says eight hundred. Both accounts are probably correct, for Vira Raja would, as a matter of course, destroy many of the families of the fallen conspirators, ordering the men to be killed and distributing the women among the slaves.
Mahadeva Rani had left him four daughters, the eldest of whom was eight years old when the mother died. The eldest of them, Devammaji, when she was about nine years old was betrothed to a Coorg of the name of Mallappa.
Some time in October or November 1808, Vira Raja was seized with forebodings of his own death, and terrible fears for the safety of his daughters overtook him. In a fit of madness, he decided to execute his two brothers, Appaji and Linga Raja, to ensure the safety of his daughters and their rightful succession to the throne. A party was despatched to Appagalla, a second party to Haleri, to bring the heads of the brothers, Appaji and Linga Raja. Within an hour of this despatch, however, reason and humanity gained the mastery, and the decree of death was revoked. Sadly, the messengers who ran down to Appagalla, were met by the executioners carrying Appaji's head. The distance to Haleri was greater, and perhaps Linga Raja had had a friendly warning. He had not been found by the executioners on their first arrival, and before he was discovered, his pardon arrived.
In the beginning of the year 1809, Mr. Cole, the Resident of Mysore, received a message from Mercara that the Raja was insane, and that the assistance of an English physician might be granted. Dr. Ingledew was despatched immediately and on reaching he found the Raja in a dangerous state. His madness came upon him in fits, which were succeeded by the darkest melancholy. The presence of an English gentleman was a relief to him. There was one man now near him whom he could trust.
From May 1809, Vira Raja's health started declining. During his last days he seems to have been more favorably inclined than formerly towards the Sode Raja, who was appointed to transact business for him, and whom he desired to act as Devan during the minority of Devammaji. On the 9th June 1809, the unhappy prince called his beloved daughter to his bedside, gave his seal into her hands, and shortly afterwards breathed his last. He lies buried in one of the mausoleums which grace the hill overlooking the town of Mercara.
Source: Mysore and Coorg, Vol. III by Lewis Rice
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