272 MANUAL OF THE NILAQIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XI. Kirkpatrick and Colonel Barry Clof5e on the 24.th June 1799 as 

 Early portion of tbe Sultan's territory ceded to the British. 

 H istory . Thus far we have traced the history of the native states whose 

 Malaydlam. history was more or less connected with the Nilagiri mountains, 

 but there is one race whose connection with the Nilagiris we 

 have no means of ascertaining, though probably for several 

 centuries past it has claimed a portion of the hills as its own — 

 I allude to the Malayalam people. Their claim of suzerainty 

 over any portion of the plateau (they never colonized any part 

 of it) probably dates back to the age in which they forced back 

 the indigenous races, and perhaps the Kauarese, from the Wainad 

 plateau, which geographically is a portion of Kdrndta and not of 

 Malabar. When this movement took place I am unable to say, 

 but I have already noted that in the fifth century the boundary 

 of Kerala (Malabar) extended to Tirkanambi east of Giindulpet. 

 It was probably prior to this extension of dominion that the 

 Kanarese races took possession of the hills south of the Nilagiris. 

 Buchanan writes : 



" There is a tract of land occupying part of the mountains which 

 separate Malabar from Cuimbatore. The Namburis or Nairs had no 

 authority over its inhabitants, who speak the language of Karnata. It 

 is divided into two districts, Attapadi and Agrata Cadawa, each 

 subject to a Gauda or hereditary chief. The pass leading to Attapadi 

 goes by Manaarghat, which was subject to the Tamuri' as chief of a 

 district called Nerunganada." 



He thus accounts for the subject position of these Gaudas : 



" Each raja took advantage of the hill chief, who could only have 

 access to the commerce of the low country through his dominions 

 and forced him to pay a tribute for permission to trade." 



He goes on to say : 



" Fi'om these hilly districts there are road.s that lead to Ban Nayakan- 

 cotay and Coimbatore ; and it would be of great importance to 

 comraerre to have these roads cleared, as also the passes which 

 lead up from Imdda in Malabar to the northern parts of Mysore." 

 Early Jt was, however, in consequence of the Malayalam suzerainty 



Missionaries. ^^^^ Europeans first approached the hills at the opening of the 

 seventeenth century. The following account of this expedition, 

 which I extract from Mr. Breeks' work^ apart from its great interest 

 in other respects, is especially noteworthy as abolishing entirely, 

 the ordinary, though uuphilosophical, view that the Badagas came 

 to the Nilagiris on the break-up of the Vijayanagar empire 

 three hundi'ed years ago ; for here we find, at this very date, that 



S(i the n;<tiv<^f; mil llie /anioiin 



