Monday, June 25, 2012

Vira Rajendra - Tippu's Defeat

The success of the first operations by Lord Cornwallis having driven the Mysore troops during two night attacks to seek shelter under the walls of Seringapatam, about 5,000 Coorgs who had been carried away by Tippu, with their wives and children, altogether about 12,000 souls, made their escape in the confusion that ensued and returned to their native country.

Lord Cornwallis made peace with Tippu under the walls of Seringapatam, on severe but still too easy terms. Tippu had to pay three crores of rupees, and to cede one half of his dominions to the Company and to its allies the Nizam and Peshwa. Coorg was in danger of being overlooked and sacrificed. It required the zealous intercession of Sir Robert Abercromby, to induce the Governor General to make an after demand for the cession of Coorg, though not adjacent to the Company's territory, in order to keep faith with Vira Raja and to save him from the fangs of Tippu, whose first move after the peace would no doubt have been to wreak his vengeance upon his former vassal. This demand enraged Tippu beyond all limits. The treaty was in danger of being broken off; but Lord Cornwallis remained firm. English guns, which had already been sent away, were ordered back, and Tippu began to prepare for defence. At the last moment he gave an unwilling assent to the demand, and admitting the stipulation which guaranteed the independence of the Coorg principality from Mysore, he transferred to the English his claims of allegiance and the annual tribute of Rs.24,000 from the Raja; whereupon peace was concluded in March 1792.

From this time to the end of his life, Vira Raja remained the trustworthy friend of the Company, and his affairs prospered. On the place where he had first met with General Abercromby on his march to Seringapatam in 1791, the Raja had founded the town of Virarajendrapet. This was in 1792. In April 1795 he took up his residence in the new palace built at Nalknad.

Meanwhile, Tippu, maddened with revenge against the Chief who had so long alarmed his fears and so successfully defied his power and resisted his arms, resolved on his destruction by the basest means. He gained over Linga Raja, a relative of Vira Rajendra, to undertake with some Coorgs the foul plot of shooting the Raja at a favourable spot in the jungle on his way to Mercara. The first attempt failed; but Tippu concerted with Linga Raja more effective measures to accomplish his design. Two of his best marksmen were to lie in ambush in some place belonging to Linga Raja, and shoot the Raja when coming from his new palace at Nalknad to attend the Sivaratri festival at Mercara. The conspiracy, however, was betrayed, the assassins seized, and during the night-scuffle Linga Raja and his family were killed. The two would-be murderers were kept alive at Virarajendrapet as manifest witnesses of Tippu's treachery, but each had one leg cut off to prevent their flight.
Source: Mysore and Coorg, Vol. III by Lewis Rice

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