MANUAl- OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 271 



With Chikka Deva the house of Mysore seems to have lost the CHAP. XI. 

 administrative energy which had raised it in little more than a ^ 



_ 'Til iliARLY 



century to be a considerable power in South India. Two History. 



princes occupied the throne between his death and 1731, but 



authority was gradually passing out of their hands into those of 

 the Dalavaye, whilst the prestige of the house was greatly 

 weakened by the successful invasion of Sadat Ulla Khan, Naw^b 

 of Arcot, and his allies. These foes were, however, bought off by 

 a crore of rupees. A similar procedure was followed to induce 

 the Mahrattas to retire two years later. Two pageant princes 

 followed, but the real rulers were the brothers Deva and Nanja 

 Bdja. These chiefs gradually got mixed up with the wars of the 

 English and French in the Carnatic, into the details of which it 

 is not necessary to enter here. But it was in these conflicts that 

 an obscure Mussulman soldier, Haider, by military genius, courage, 

 energy and cunning rose to eminence, and in the course of a few 

 years succeeded not only in obtaining the chief place in the army 

 and state by ousting Nanja Rdja in J 759, whose brother Deva 

 Raja had recently died, but after a seemingly desperate reverse 

 usurped the government in 1761. This he retained till his death 

 in 1782, when he was quietly succeeded by his son Tippu. 

 Meanwhile Rajas continued nominally to occupy the throne, find 

 were exhibited annually in regal state at the Dasara feast, but 

 they were treated by Haider simply as state prisoners, and so 

 continued until the death of Chama Rdja Wodear in 1 796, when 

 Tippu deemed it unnecessary to appoint a successor. It is 

 unnecessary here to narrate the events of Tippu's reign, which 

 closed by his death at the storming of Seringapatam on the 

 memorable 4th May 1799- It may, however, be remarked 

 that during Haider and Tippu^s operations in Coimbatore against 

 the English, the importance of the Nilagiris as points of observa- 

 tion seems to have impressed itself on these strategists. Almost 

 inaccessible except to hill people, they commanded a splendid 

 view of North Coimbatore and the Gajalhatti Pass. From these 

 outposts reports of an enemy^s movements could be sent more 

 readily and quickly to Seringapatam than from stations near 

 Sattiamangalam. They seem, too, to have strengthened the 

 three old forts for the purpose of preventing raids from the 

 Wain ad into Mysore and Coimbatore, for a raid of the kind is 

 mentioned by Buchanan as happening immediately after the 

 overthrow of Tippu. Whether it was for these or for revenue 

 reasons, we find that the Nilagiris, or rather Devanaikenkota, 

 which included the greater portion of the tract, was of sufficient 

 importance to find a place and a name in the Proclamation 

 of annexation issued at Seringapatam by General Harris, Colonel 

 Arthur Welleslev, the Honorable Heni'v Wplleslev. Colonel 



