580 Political Events in the Carnatic, from 1564 to 1687. [No. 152. 



dar of Canchee. He seems to have met little opposition. He soon suc- 

 ceeded in establishing the first Mogul system of government in the 

 country, and is considered as the first Mogul Fouzdar of Beejapoor 

 Carnatic. He was surprized by the Marhattas and the Chittledroog 

 chief at Dodairee 1 1 years afterwards, where he died of a violent* 

 death, whether by his own hands is doubtful. He yet appears 

 in this interval to have effectually reduced the open country to the 

 form of a province, dependent on the Soobedaree of Deckan, the general 

 government of which was soon after conferred on the celebrated Zool- 

 facar Khan. After the reduction of Golconda, that officer appears to 

 have been employed on an unceasing course of severe service for near- 

 ly 19 years till the death of that Emperor in 1707. Of the destructive 

 warfare in which the whole country was for this time involved, some 

 idea may be formed from its being especially stated, that in six months' 

 time he fought 19 actions, and marched or countermarched 3000 coss.f 

 To complete the measure of their wretchedness, the unfortunate inhabi- 

 tants were at the same time afflicted by the accumulated misery of 

 The provinces be- severe famine, J in addition to all the other horrors 



[a^untr £*£ ° f »«• ^ this «». * ■*• three di « erent eX P edi " 

 tion - tions beyond the Cavery to Tanjore and Trichinopoly, 



laying these countries under heavy contributions. He took Gingee and 



Wakenkaira, places memorable in the history of that time, more for 



the length of their sieges, than for the skill of the assailants, or the 



strength of these fortresses. The former fortress had for sometime 



been the refuge of Rama, the chief of the Marhattas ; its capture had 



been a special object of the Emperor's vigilance and attention, and it 



was expected, that in its fall, the hopes of that aspiring nation would 



have been crushed, and the possession of the strongest fortress of the 



Carnatic Payen Ghaut have secured a seat of government, and a place 



* See the Doodairee Memoir, confirmed by the Hakeekut Hindoosthan. 



f Scott, Vol. 11, p. — Some notices of Cossim Cawn and of the new Governors sent 

 into the Carnatic occur in the Madras Records, (perused since the above was written,) 

 in the end of the year 1687. 



X This famine appears to have extended through the whole Peninsula. It is repeat- 

 edly mentioned in the Madras Records, with the precautions taken for the relief of the 

 rising settlement. In the Memoir of Sree Permadoor, and in the Records or Annals of 

 Condamir, the effects of the famine are detailed, and the extravagant prices to which 

 grain of all kinds arose. The Cycle year Achaya is memorable as a period of aggra- 

 vated distress from war, famine, and pestilence. 



