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The political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760) is the political history of the contiguous historical regions of Mysore state and Coorg province located on the Deccan Plateau in west-central peninsular India (Map 1). It begins with the fall of the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire in 1565 and ends just before the rise of Sultan Haidar Ali in 1761. At the height of the Vijayanagara Empire (1350–1565), the Mysore and Coorg region was ruled by motley chieftains, or rajas ("little kings"). Each raja had dominion over a small area, and each supplied soldiers and annual tribute for the empire's needs. Soon after the empire's fall and the subsequent eastward move of the diminished ruling family, many chieftains, especially in the west, tried to loosen their imperial bonds and expand their realms. Sensing opportunity amidst the new uncertainty, various powers from the north invaded the region intermittently. Among these were the Sultanate of Bijapur to the northwest, the Sultanate of Golconda to the northeast, the fledgling Maratha empire, farther northwest, and the Mughal empire, farther north still. For much of the 17th century the tussles between the little kings and the big powers, and amongst the little kings, resulted in shifting sovereignties, loyalties, and borders. By the turn of the 18th century, the political landscape had become better defined. The northwestern hills were being ruled by the Nayaka rulers of Ikkeri, the southwestern, in the Western Ghats, by the Rajas of Coorg, the southern plains by the Wodeyar rulers of Mysore, all of which were Hindu dynasties; whereas the eastern and northeastern regions were being ruled by the Muslim Nawabs of Arcot and Sira. Of these, Ikkeri and Coorg were independent, Mysore, although much expanded, was formally a Mughal dependency, and Arcot and Sira, Mughal ''subahs'' (or provinces). The stability, however, was not to last. Mysore's expansions had been based on unstable alliances. When the alliances began to unravel, as they did during the next half century, political decay set in, presided over inevitably by pageant kings. The Mughal governor, Nawab of Arcot, in a display of the still far-flung reach of a declining Mughal empire, raided the Mysore capital, Seringapatam, to collect unpaid taxes. The neighbouring Raja of Coorg began a war of attrition with Mysore over western territory. Soon, the Maratha empire invaded again and exacted more concessions of territory. In the chaotic last decade of this period, a little-known Muslim cavalryman, Haidar Ali, seized power in Mysore. Under him, in the decades following, Mysore was to expand again. It was to do so prodigiously to match in size southern India itself. It was also to pose the last serious threat to the new rising power on the subcontinent, the English East India Company. A common feature of all large regimes in the region during the period 1565–1760 is increased military fiscalism. This mode of creating income for the state consisted of extraction of tribute payments from local chiefs under threat of military action. It differed both from the more segmentary modes of preceding regimes and the more absolutist modes of succeeding ones—the latter achieved through direct tax collection from citizens. Another common feature of these regimes is the fragmentary historiography devoted to them, making broad generalizations difficult. ==Poligars of Vijayanagara, 1565–1635== The last Hindu empire in South India, the Vijayanagara Empire, was defeated on 23 January 1565, in the Battle of Talikota by the combined forces of the Muslim states of Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar to its north. The battle was fought in Talikota on the ''doab'' (or "tongue" of land) between the Kistna river and its major left bank tributary, the Bhima, north of the imperial capital of Vijayanagara (see Map 2).〔 The invaders later destroyed the capital, and the ruler's family escaped to Penukonda, southeast, where they established their new capital.〔 Soon they moved their capital another east-southeast to Chandragiri, not far from the southeastern coast, and survived there until 1635, their dwindling empire concentrating its resources on its eastern Tamil and Telugu speaking realms.〔, 〕 According to historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam: " ... in the ten years following 1565, the imperial centre of Vijayanagara effectively ceased to be a power as far as the western reaches of the peninsula were concerned, leaving a vacuum that was eventually filled by Ikkeri and Mysore." Earlier, in the heyday of their rule, the kings of Vijayanagara had granted tracts of lands throughout their realm to various vassal chiefs on the stipulation that they pay tribute and render military service.〔, 〕 The chiefs in the northern regions were supervised directly from the capital.〔 Those in the richer, more distant southern provinces, however, could not be controlled easily and the Vijayanagara emperors were able to collect only part of the annual revenue from them.〔, 〕 Overseen by a viceroy—titled ''Sri Ranga Raya'' and based in the island town of Seringapatam on the river Kaveri (also Cauvery), some south of the capital—the southern chiefs bore various formal titles. These included the title ''Nayaka'', assumed by the chiefs of Keladi in the northwestern hills, of Basavapatna, and Chitaldroog in the north, of Belur in the west, and of Hegalvadi in the centre; the title ''Gowda'', assumed by the chiefs of Ballapur and of Yelahanka in the centre,〔 and of Sugatur in the east; and ''Wodeyar'', assumed by the rulers of Mysore,〔 of Kalale and of Ummatur in the south.〔 (See Map 2.) The somewhat tenuous hold the Vijayanagara centre had on its southern periphery resulted only partly from the latter's remoteness. The centralisation imposed by the empire was resisted by the southern chiefs (sometimes called ''rajas'', or "little kings") for moral and political reasons as well; according to historian Burton Stein: 'Little kings', or ''rajas'', never attained the legal independence of an aristocracy from both monarchs and the local people whom they ruled. The sovereign claims of would-be centralizing, South Indian rulers and the resources demanded in the name of that sovereignty diminished the resources which local chieftains used as a kind of royal largess; thus centralizing demands were opposed on moral as well as on political grounds by even quite modest chiefs. These chiefs came to called ''poligars'', a British corruption of "Palaiyakkarar" (Tamil: holder of "palaiya" or "baronial estate").〔 (Kannada: "pale" + "gara" = palegara). Meanwhile, almost a decade after their victories at Talikota, the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar agreed in 1573 not to interfere in each other's future conquests by reserving regions to the south for Bijapur. In 1577, Bijapur forces attacked again and overwhelmed all opposition along the western coast. Easily taking Adoni, a former Vijayanagara stronghold, they attempted next to take Penukonda, the new Vijayanagara capital. (See Map 3).) There, however, they were repulsed by an army led by the Vijayanagara ruler's father-in-law, Jagadeva Raya, who had traveled north for the engagement from his base in Baramahal. For his services, Jagadeva Raya's territories within the crumbling empire were vastly expanded, extending westward now up to the Western Ghats, the mountain range running along the southwestern coast of India, and with a new capital in Channapatna〔 (See Map 6.) The territories controlled by the other poligars were also changing fast.〔 Some, such as Tamme Gowda of Sigatur, expanded theirs by performing services for the Vijayanagara monarch and receiving territorial rewards. In Tamme Gowda's case, the rewards consisted of a tract of land which, from his base in Sigatur, extended west to Hoskote and east to Punganur. Others, such as the Wodeyars of Ummattur and of Mysore (now Mysore district), achieved the same end by ignoring the monarch altogether, and annexing small states in their vicinity.〔, 〕 (See Map 3.) Through much of the 16th century, the chiefs of Ummattur in particular had carried on "unceasing aggression" against their neighbors, even in the face of punitive raids by the Vijayanagara armies. In the end, as a compromise, the son of a defeated Ummattur chief was appointed the viceroy at Seringapatam.〔 The Wodeyars of Mysore too were eying surrounding land; by 1644, when the Wodeyars unseated the powerful Changalvas of Piriyapatna, not only had they become the dominant presence in the southern regions of what later became Mysore state, but the Vijayanagara empire was also on its last legs, having only a year's life left.〔 (See Map 6.) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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