Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 136

124
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE. 1917
empire to the southernmost limits of India, of that spirit of supercilious contempt with which he regarded the feudatory princes, calling them petty chiefs and zemindars. The expedition of Zulfikar Khan in the reign of Mangammal was probably a punitive20 xpedition.
Ranga Krishna's death. In the midst of such a glorious career, the young king of Madura was struck down by small-pox, then, as now, a virulent curse to India. It was the greatest misfortune which could befall the unfortunate kingdom. If Ranga Kțishṇa had continued to live, he would in all probability have postponed the subjugation of his kingdom by the Mughals; and though his mother, Mangammal, carried on the affairs of state with a remarkable capacity for fifteen years after his death, she could hardly fill his place. The 18th century was not an age for the rule of women in India. It was too unsettled, too much under influence of upstart powers and adventurous leaders, to allow the mild sceptre of a woman. Mangammâl was one among a million women. She was wise, generous and clever; yet even she failed to secure the independence of her state from Mughal domination, and underwent & tragic death.
The death of Ranga Krishna was followed by one of the most romantic and tragic episodes of which Madura history is so full. It has been already mentioned that Raiga Krishna had but one queen, to whom he was passionately attached and whose attachment to him was equally passionate. On his death Muttammal expressed a strong resolve to imitate the heroines of antiquity and become sati. The people, however, looked on this attitude with mingled feelings of horror and admiration. Muttammal was then in au interesting state, and the birth of a successor to Raiga Krishna was expected.
(To be continued.)
29 See Christian College Magazine, Vol. XII, pp. 276-77 for a discussion of the probability of this event by J. D. B. Gribble. “The foregoing account is from a Hindu source, and there is nothing in any of the Mahomedan histories which in any way confirms it. It is probably exaggerated, especially As regards the number of Mahomedan army who were put to fight. It shows however that previous to this incident which ocourred before the end of the 17th century, the custom of sending the slipper had been for eome years in force, since the Trichinopoly Sirdars were aoquainted with it, and that the emperor's over-rule was recognized, as the first impulse of the Sirdars was to show respect to the slipper, it is clear that for some time previously the Emperor's rule was recognized as far south as Trichinopoly. In the account of the transactions of the latter years of Aurongazeb's reign, translated by Scott from the narrative of a Bondela officer, we are told that in 1693 Zulficar Khan, the Emperor's great general,
...... marched 60 coss from Gingi into the territories of Trichinopoly and Tanjore, and collected considerable contributions from the zemindars. The slipper embassy was probably subsequent to this expedition, and it was only 8 or 6 years later, when Aurangazeb's whole attention was taken with the Mahrattas, that so flagrant an insult could have been committed. Without therefore relying on the exact accuracy of the incident ap here given, it proves that after the fall of Golkonda the emperor's armies overran the whole of the territories of that State and of Bijapur, and exercised a certain amount of control over the hitherto independent kingdom of Trichinopoly." Gribble is wrong in saying that the incident referred to is subsequent to Zulfikar Khan's expedition. For, if so, the incident must have taken place after 1693, while Ranga Kuishna Muttu Virappa died in 1689. It seems to me therefore that Zulfikar Khan's invasion was subsequent to, if not the immediate outcome of, Ranga Křishna's treatment of the slipper. As regards Gribble's argument that the readiness of the Sirdars to pay allegiance to the slipper proves previous imperial supremacy, it seems to me that the inference does not necessarily follow from the fact, as the pirdars might have learnt it from heareay rather than from their own experience, in the past. M. J. Walhouse believes, it may be added here, from the very minute and circumstantial nature of the story that it " wears much the appearance of truth." (ante, Vol. VII, p. 26.).