6 S 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
1 
CHAPTER This fortress could have been of no possible use in defending the 
country, and was probably planned merely with the view of ob~ 
May 20, &c. scuring the fame of Mysore , the former capital. At a great ex- 
pense, and to the great distress of the peasants working at it, 
the Sultan had made considerable progress in the works of this 
place, when he began to consider that it afforded no water. He 
then dug an immense pit, cutting down through the solid black 
rock to a great depth and width, but without success ; and when 
the siege of his capital was formed, the whole work was lying in 
a mass of confusion, with a few wretched huts in it for the accom- 
modation of the workmen. Into the best of these, in July last, the 
young Raja was conducted, and placed on the throne. At the same 
time the rebuilding of the old palace of Mysore was commenced. 
It is now so far advanced, as to be a comfortable dwelling ; and I 
found the young prince seated in it, on a handsome throne, which 
had been presented to him by the Company. He has very much 
recovered his health, and, though he is only between six and seven 
4 
years of age, speaks, and behaves with great propriety and de- 
corum. From Indian etiquette , he endeavours in public to preserve 
a dignified gravity of countenance ; but the attentions of Colonel 
Close, the Resident, to whom he is greatly indebted for that officer’s 
distinguished efforts in his delivery, make him sometimes relax; 
and then his face is very lively and interesting. 
The sovereign Raja of Mysore is called the Curtur ; in order to 
distinguish him from the head of another branch of the family, 
called also Raja, but distinguished by the title of Dalawai, or 
Putarsu. The two families generally intermarried ; and the power 
of the Curtur was frequently as much controlled by the Dalawai , 
as it was afterwards by Hyder . The Dalawai family still exists, hav- 
ing been spared by the magnanimity of Hyder , although they had 
attempted to procure his destruction ; and they had sunk too low 
in the estimation of the people, to be objects of Tippoo's jealousy. 
By the Mussulmans, they were in derision called the Pettahutty 
