at the siege of Ganjikotá won applause, and preferment at the hands of the Súbahdár of Sírá, heing raised to the rank of Náyak; but on a change of Súbahdárs, he tried to better his fortunes, first at Arcot, and then at Chittúr. Eventually he returned to Mysore, was made a Fáujdár, or military commander, and received Búdikota as a jágír or appanage. He married first a Sayyádani, by whom he had three sons, and subsequently two sisters (permissible by the law of Islám), whose father was a Naváyat of the race of Háshim. By the younger of these ladies he had two sons, Sháhbáz or Ismáil and Haidar[1] (the Lion), the latter of whom eventually usurped the sovereignty of Mysore.
It would occupy too much space to relate the former history of the territory now called Mysore[2], but it may be stated that at no time prior to Haidar Alí had the whole of it been governed by one ruler, or been known by this name. The ancient Hindu dynasties of Kadambas, Gangás, Chálukyas, and others, which ruled parts of it from the fifth to the twelfth centuries, had passed away, leaving no annals save those recorded on their stone-grants[3]. To them
- ↑ There is some uncertainty as to the year of his birth, some authorities giving 1722, and others 1717.
- ↑ For an account of the Mysore province, the reader is referred to The Imperial Gazetteer of India.
- ↑ Silá Sháshanas are grants on stone, generally found in the courtyards of temples, and having incised on them the descent of the donor, his feats of arms, and the nature of the benefaction, which almost always consisted of land. Támrá, or copper Shásanas, were engraved on copper-plates, through which was passed a ring,
