442 Political Events in the Carnatic, from 1564 to 1687. [No. 150. 



eluding a chronological, but succinct list of their ancient kings, con- 

 veyed under the disguise of a prophecy, denouncing the evils that 

 were to ensue, after declaring that the country shall then fall unto 

 great disorder, and prodigies and omens shall appear. The goddess 

 Callee shall appear in the world in all her wrathful form. The pro- 

 prietors, occupiers, nobles, inhabitants and all the children of the 

 South shall perish, mankind shall be in strife and war, the demons 

 every where exciting to strife and arms in every town and in every 

 street. The Munnovars (the great nobles,) shall be obliged to obey 

 the command of Mussulmans, and be like sheep led to the slaughter, 

 concludes with a prophetic annunciation* of a deliverer and conqueror 

 to come, who should relieve the natives from their distress and op- 

 pression. Then the divine Veera Vasunta shall appear, young 

 women and virgins shall announce his approach with songs of joy, and 

 the skies shall shower down flowers, &c. These prophecies undoubtedly 

 had the effect that was designed, of stimulating resistance to the weak- 

 er administrations of the Deckan, and exciting hopes of a conqueror 

 and deliverer of their own nation ; but relief was not yet destined to 

 come through the means of a Hindoo. To elucidate the causes and 

 progress of the approaching change of government; to explain the pre- 

 tensions of the several competitors, and the actual state of the two ex- 

 piring Mahomedan governments that were now about to be absorbed 

 in the prevailing fortune of the Moguls, it may be satisfactory to trace 

 back the chain of events that preceded the furthest extension of that 

 empire. 



* This resemblance to other well known prophecies of other nations and times is 

 striking; in fact they have been made use of in all nations to stir up the populace, and 

 nowhere oftener or with greater effect than in India, where the doctrine of the Me- 

 tempsychosis particularly favors these opinions that are industriously propagated by the 

 class of Jungums. We have had very recent instances of the use to which they are 

 converted. Copies of several of these pretended prophecies circulated by these people, 

 some so late as 1805, are translated. 



