422 Political Events in the Carnatic, from 1564 to 1687. QNo. 150. 



appointments, in lieu of salary or wages according to the nature of the 



service. It would appear that these appointments were generally here- 



Officers granted ditary in the eldest son ; though a confirmation was 



in hereditary suc- 

 cession, expected, and a recognizance solicited on each succession, 



accompanied by douceurs, gifts, and offerings, the origin perhaps of fees 



of a like nature in European tenures; but defects from want of talents, 



from crimes, and from disloyalty, were sufficient to disqualify and lay 



aside the eldest son ; though a regard to propinquity was so far observed, 



that the nephew not unfrequently succeeded the uncle, and stept in 



during the minority of the real heir, who in his turn, assumed his 



station in the natural course, by domestic arrangement, by fraud, or by 



violence ; this is particularly remarked in the Bednore* and Mysore 



history. Evident traces of such variations appear in the mutilated 



_ .. . . . accounts still preserved, and of the appointments of 



Condition of the r rr 



general mass of the great officers and functionaries ; and though our 



the people. 



knowledge of the real state of the great mass of the 

 population be more obscure, there is reason to presume, that the con- 

 dition of the lower ordefs in the country South of the Kistna, had 

 never varied much under this government of Beejanuggur in their re- 

 lations to the paramount sovereignty, from that which under the 

 general system had from time immemorial prevailed throughout India ; 

 this holds at least to the period previous to the dissolution of the 

 Southern^ monarchy, which being first shaken by the celebrated 

 battle with the confederate Moslem princes near the banks of the 

 Kistna, continued to linger under a gradual decline till the last 

 branch, whose titles J were barely acknowledged, was expelled from 

 A. D. 1646. their last fortress in the Carnatic, about twenty-eight 

 years afterwards. 



* See Historical Memoirs of Bednore, Mysore, Chittledroog, and Serah, which 

 throw considerable light on this subject. 



f This is meant here to apply to the Beejanuggur government; the system that 

 prevailed among the Dravida nation seems in some respect to have been different, and 

 more attention was paid to the privileges and rights of the subject. — See their grants ; 

 but the Beejanugur government appears to have respected these privileges after they 

 had acquired the supreme authority over the country. 



% See Grant No. 1 of the Mysore Rajahs, where the several titles of the Kayel are 

 still observed, though that chief had entirely thrown off all the authority of the para- 

 mount sovereign. A. D. 1613. 



