Friday's child: Or how Tej Singh became Tecinkurajan

Indian Economic and Social History Review

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 69-113

  Subrahmanyam, Sanjay ^a  

^a ÉCOLE DES HAUTES ÉTUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 22844454931     PISSN: 00194646     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/001946469903600103     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. Cu. Canmukacuntaram, ed., Teciṅkuräjan+ (Combining lew line sign) Katai, Madras, 1984, lines 1,695-1,701.
2. Of particular interest for the Karnatak Payanghat in the period is the colourful account of Niccolao Manucci, Mogul India (1653-1708) or Storia do Mogor, trans. William Irvine, 4 Vols, reprint Delhi, 1990, Vol. III, pp. 366-87, passim.
3. -69, fols. 1-24, lettre de Mr Hebert à Pondichéry le 15 février 1710.
4. See, however, the brief discussion in Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900, Cambridge, 1989, pp. 151-54;
5. also N.S. Ramaswami, Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs, New Delhi, 1984,
6. and for revenue details, M.A. Nayeem, Mughal Administration of Deccan under Nizamul Mulk Asaf Jah (1720-1748 A.D.), Bombay, 1985.
7. For a detailed and very useful discussion of the pre-1707 period see J.F. Richards, 'The Hyderabad Karnatik, 1687-1707', Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 9(2), 1975, pp. 241-60.
8. For further details, see Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Exploring the Hinterland: Trade and Politics in the Arcot Nizâmat, 1700-1732', in Rudrangshu Mukherjee and Lakshmi Subramanian, eds, Politics and Trade in the Indian Ocean World: Essays in Honour of Ashin Das Gupta, Delhi, 1998, pp. 113-64.
9. Karnätaka Räjäkkal Cavistära Carittiram, ed. V.R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Madras Government Oriental Series, Madras, 1952.
10. Oriental and India Office Collections, London (hereafter OIOC), Persian Mss., I.O., 3,177 (Ethé 2,845), The Sa'ïd Näma of Jaswant Rai, son of Bhagwant Rai, son of Sundardas, son of Malik Haidar, takhallus Munshi, fols. 1-184 (copy dated 1849);
11. in the same mss., ff. 193-204 is the Waqä 'i'-i Sa'ädat taking the history of Arcot to Ghulam Murtaza Khan.
12. A partial translation may be found in S.A.R. Bukhara, 'The Carnatic under the Nawabs as revealed through the Sayeed Nama of Juswant Rai', M. Litt. thesis, Madras University, 1965.
13. Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague (hereafter ARA), Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren, VOC. 1811, p. 58, Daniel Bernard and Council at Nagapattinam to Batavia, 28 November 1711, for an expedition against Mysore; VOC. 1863, fols. 295v-296r, letter from Daniel Bernard and Council at Nagapattinam to Batavia, 10 August 1715, where Sa'adatullah Khan is mentioned as being at Cidambaram, while on his return from Tiruccirapalli to Arcot.
14. See the contemporary account by Bhimsen, Nuskha-i Dilkusha, trans. Jadunath Sarkar, in V.G. Khobrekar, ed., Sir Jadunath Sarkar Birth Centenary Commemoration Volume: English Translation of Tarikh-i-Dilkasha (Memoirs of Bhimsen Relating to Aurangzib's Deccan Campaigns), Bombay, 1972, pp. 200-201, 206.
15. 'Abd al-Hamid Lahauri, Pädshäh Näma, eds, Maulavi Kabir al-Din Ahmad, Maulavi 'Abd al-Rahim and W.N. Lees, 2 vols, Calcutta, 1866-72, Vol. II, pp. 94-96.
16. Dirk H.A. Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 125-27, quoting the nineteenth-century British colonial official, W.H. Sleeman.
17. We may note that Chatrasal is seen in some circles at least as a nationalist hero, rather like Shivaji today; a comic-book in the series Amar Chitra Katha is devoted to him. For a biography, see Bhagwan Das Gupta, Life and Times of Maharaja Chhatrasal Bundela, New Delhi, 1980.
18. Jaswant Rai, Sa'ïd Näma, OIOC, Persian Mss., I.O., 3,177, fol. 102.
19. Cf. M. Athar Ali, The Apparatus, of Empire: Awards of Ranks, Offices and Titles to the Mughal Nobility (1574-1658). Delhi,1985, entries S-252, S-561, S-1,649, S-3,938 and S-7,569;
20. also The Shäh Jahän Näma of 'Inäyat Khän, trans. A.R. Fuller, eds, W.E. Begley and Z.A. Desai, Delhi, 1990, pp. 110, 150. The last mention of Candrabhan dates to A.D. 1657-58.
21. On Mitra Sen, see M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb, Bombay, 1968, p. 198.
22. Records of Fort St. George, Diary and Consultation Book of 1713, Madras, 1929, p. 188.
23. Records of Fort St. George, Diary and Consultation Book of 1712, Madras, 1929, pp. 5-6, 75-76, 88, passim. Note that 'Senr. Nichola Manuch, former inhabitant of Madras now at Pondicherry' is alleged to have played a role in the negotiations.
24. Also see Diary and Consultation Book of 1713, p. 183.
25. 269 (1710-1716), letter from M. Du Livier, 14 février 1714, fols. 76v-77r.
26. 269 (1710-1716), letter from M. Du Livier and Councillors at Pondichery, 18 juillet 1714, fol. 89v.
27. ARA, OB, VOC. 1849, letter from Daniel Bernard and Council at Nagapattinam to Batavia, 6 September 1714, fols. 366r-75r.
28. Records of Fort St. George, Diary and Consultation Book of 1714, Madras, 1929, p. 120.
29. Saqi Must'ad Khan, Ma'as+ (Combining lew line sign)ir-i 'Alamg̈ir̈i, trans. Jadunath Sarkar, Calcutta, 1947;
30. Persian text ed. Agha Ahmad 'Ali, Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1871, English trans., p. 238; Persian text, pp. 390-91.
31. 269 (1710-1716), letter from M. Du Livier at Pondichery, 8 octobre 1714, fol. 108v.
32. 'Colonel Lawrence's Narrative of the War on the Coast of Coromandel', in Richard Owen Cambridge, comp., An Account of the War in India between the English and French on the Coast of Coromandel, from the Year 1750 to the Year 1760 (. . .), London, 1761, pp. 32-33. A detailed study of Senji and its fortifications is in preparation, under the direction of Jean Deloche at the Ecole Française d'Extrëme-Orient, Pondicherry.
33. For a brief discussion, see George Michell, 'Courtly Architecture at Gingee under the Nayakas', South Asian Studies, No. 7, 1993, pp. 143-60.
34. Diary and Consultation Book of 1714, p. 126.
35. 269 (1710-1716), fols. 138-40.
36. The text is reproduced in Muhammad Yousuf Kokan, Arabic and Persian in Carnatic, 1710-1960, Madras, 1974, p. 36; a photograph of the inscription taken on a visit to Senji in March 1995 is in my possession.
37. The contents are summarised briefly in Ziyaud-Din A. Desai, A Topographical List of Arabic, Persian and Urdu Inscriptions of South India, New Delhi, 1989, No. 453. My thanks to Muzaffar Alam for revising my translation of the inscription.
38. For the texts, both composed by Muhammad Amin-i Bani Isra'il, see Kokan, Arabic and Persian, pp. 16-17;
39. the first appears in summary in Desai, Topographical List, No. 454.
40. In this context, a related manuscript of interest is the Majma'al-inshä' of Muhammad Amin-i Bani Isra'il, OIOC, Persian mss., I.O. 2,894, ff. 177 (another copy of which is classified Or. 1,599, ff. 414); this is a collection of epistolography, whose compiler was in the service of first Lala (or Rai) Dakhni Ram, and later his son Rai Budh Cand.
41. For a recent, detailed, discussion of Mackenzie's project, see Nicholas B. Dirks, 'Colonial Histories and Native Informants: Biography of an Archive', in Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer, eds, Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia, Delhi, 1994, pp. 279-313.
42. In this context, also see the discussion in Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Reflections on State-Making and History-Making in South India, 1500-1800', Journal of the Economic und Social History of the Orient, Vol. 41(3), 1998 (Special Issue), pp. 382-416.
43. Karnätaka Räjäkkal Cavistära Carittiram, p. 57.
44. The paragraphs above summarise in broad outline the text in Karnätaka Räjäkkal Cavistära Carittiram, ibid., chapters 6-8, pp. 42-57.
45. An earlier, fairly literal, translation into French from Tamil is by Gnanou Diagou, Histoire détaillée des Rois du Carnatic, par Narayanampoullé, Pondicherry, 1939, pp. 143-55.
46. OIOC, Mackenzie Collection, General (Carnatic), Vol. IX, No. 13b, pp. 132-35, translated from Marathi by Suba Row (1803). The Marathi (Modi) original of this text is in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras.
47. For a general consideration of texts of this class, see Raghunath Vinayak Herwadkar, Maräthï Bakhar, Pune, 1975.
48. OIOC, Mackenzie Collection: General (Carnatic), Vol. IX, No. 13a, pp. 121-29, 'Kyfyat of Gingee from Colonel A. Read translated from the Marattas'. Since Read died in May 1804, we may suppose that the translation of this fragment was made before that.
49. For a contemporary translation of the earlier sections concerning the Nayakas, running though to 1672, see OIOC, Mss. Eur., Mackenzie Translations Class II, No. 7, 12 pp, 'Kyfeyeat of Chenjee procured by Aupah Dechatool, one of the head inhabitants thereof'. The text from which these translations were made appears to be OIOC, Mss. Marathi, C. 15, 35 pp.
50. OIOC, Mackenzie Collection, General (Carnatic), Vol. IX, No. 13g, pp. 162-65, 'Fragment of a Memoir Relating to the Death of Jai Singh at Gingee', translated by Soobarow from a Marathi Ms. communicated by Reddy Row (October 1808).
51. For an exercise that parallels the present one in some respects, see J.F. Richards and Velcheru Narayana Rao, 'Banditry in Mughal India: Historical and Folk Perceptions', The Indian Economic and Social History Review (hereafter IESHR), Vol. 17(1), 1980, pp. 95-120,
52. reproduced in Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, eds, The Mughal State, 1526-1750, Delhi, 1998, pp. 491-519. The central figure there is also from the early eighteenth century, that of Pap Rai or Sarvayi Papadu.
53. Also compare Shail Mayaram, 'Mughal State Formation: The Mewati Counter-Perspective', IESHR, Vol. 34(2), 1997, pp. 169-97.
54. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Mss. Indien 429, Tecinkuräcävin+ (Combining lew line sign)pätal, 30 ff., 'Copie sur un manuscrit appartenant a M. Aith G. Mouthum par Djagannadou; collationé par moi Ravu en suite sur un autre imp. sur ola (1849-50)'. One of the earliest published texts is from Madras (Cennai) in 1868, and is attributed to Pukalentippulavar.
55. For a discussion, inter alia, of the Telugu version, see David Shulman, 'Arcot Heroes: Desingu Räja and Teyvïka Räjan in Text and Time', Paper presented to the Conference on 'Sources and Time', EFEO-IFP, Pondicherry, 11-13 January, 1997, forthcoming in the conference volume.
56. Pukal+ (Combining lew line sign)entip Pulavar Iyar+ (Combining lew line sign)r+ (Combining lew line sign)iya Tecinkuräjan+ (Combining lew line sign) Katai, (Pataṅkal+ (Combining dot below sign)utan), Madras, 1973.
57. This bazaar edition has a number of interesting illustrations, but for the text, I have generally preferred a more recent edition, Cu. Canmukacuntaram, ed., Teciṅkuräjan Katai, Madras, 1984. A number of other editions exist, from 1868 (already noted above), 1896, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1929, 1931, 1932 and 1935 (as well as several others that are undated). These data were provided to me by the late Dr. Sankaralingam of the Roja Muthiah Library in Cennai (Madras) to whom I would like to express my gratitude.
58. Ravuri Venkata Subbayya Desingu-räju-kathä, ed. Nelaturu Subrahmanya, Madras, 1934.
59. I am unable at present to explain the importance of Friday (vel+ (Combining dot below sign)l+ (Combining dot below sign)ikkil+ (Combining dot below sign)amai) in the story. One explanation that has been proposed is to link it with the Muslim jum'at, but the implications of this remain unclear.
60. The price paid, pan+(Combining lew line sign)n+ (Combining lew line sign)iräyiram (line 1,847) should be understood as 12,000, which may thus give an appropriate etymology for the horse's name päräcäri, which is to say bärä hazäri, or twelve-thousander.
61. M. Arunachalam, Ballad Poetry (Peeps into Tamil Literature-1), Tiruchitrambalam, 1976, pp. 142-43, 224-25; for the original, see Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, R. 1,513, p. 18.
62. Compare the similar insults hurled at Muhammad 'Ali Walajah by Yusuf Khan in the Kän+ (Combining lew line sign) Cäkipu Con+ (Combining dot below sign)t+ (Combining dot below sign)ai, cited in Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings, p. 215.
63. Arunachalam, Ballad Poetry, p. 141.
64. Alf Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadi, 1: Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra, Chicago, 1988, pp. 101-2.
65. P.R. Krishnaswami, The Ballad of Jinji, Madras, n.d., p. 3,
66. first published in the Madras Mail Annual (1923). I am grateful to Dr. Bharat Ramaswami for providing me with this text.
67. I am very much mindful, of course, of the comparative possibilities between the present exercise and that of Richards and Narayana Rao, 'Banditry in Mughal India'. However, they must regretfully be left to another occasion.
68. Henry Heras, 'The City of Jinji at the end of the sixteenth century', The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 55, 1926, pp. 41-43.
69. Also see, in this context, the bilingual magazine Pontil/Bondil, which styles itself the 'Organ of the Rajput Bondil Association (Tamil Nadu)'. In this magazine (Vol. 7(1), 1988), the State President of the association, Mr. B. Govind Singh, describes the community in a letter to the Prime Minister of India as descendants of 'Raja Desingh'. I am grateful to Dr. Isabelle Nabokov for a copy of parts of this magazine.
70. C.S. Srinivasachari, A History of Gingee and Its Rulers, Annamalainagar, 1943.
71. Alf Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadi, 1, pp. 18-20; Appendix 2, pp. 450-53. This useful work should be read with caution where its analysis of historical events is concerned; to begin with, most pre-colonial events cited in it are even dated inaccurately.
72. Also, see Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadi, 3 (Chicago, forthcoming), which returns to some of these themes.
73. For the inscriptional record, see Noboru Karashima, Towards a New Formation: South India under Vijayanagar Rule, Delhi, 1992, pp. 15-63. This suggests that the first Nayaka figure at Senji was Vaiyappa (mentioned from 1532 to 1547), then his brother Surappa (1547-1567), then Vaiyappa's son Krishnappa (c. 1572), followed by his son Kondama (1582 to 1596), succeeded in turn by his son Muttu Krishnappa, who probably ruled from about 1597 to 1624.
74. Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadi, pp. 99-100.
75. Arunachalam, Ballad Poetry, p. 142.
76. 270, 'Extrait du registre des deliberations du Conseil', fol. 4r.
77. 270, fols. 86-89, letters from M. Cuperty at Pondicherry to M. Hardancourt, August 1716.
78. For a brief discussion of this breach of Mamoul (or customary law), see Jacques Weber, Les Etablissements français en Inde au XIXe siècle, 1816-1914, Paris, 1988, 5 vols., Vol. I, pp. 1-2.
79. It would appear that the script-writers for this film drew in part on an earlier account in Te. Kirushnacamippavalar, Teciṅku Räjan, Cennai, 1917.
80. In a future work, I hope to comment more extensively on this film, and on other relatively modern works such as Tiruvannamalai Virapattiraiyarvarkal, Teciṅkuräjan nätakam. ed. Cuppiramanniyacuvami, Cennai, 1881.