MYSORE, CANARA, AND MALABAR. S99 
From the 1st to the 6th of August , I remained at Sira, investi- CHAPTER 
gating the state of that neighbourhood ; as being the principal 
place in the central division of the Raja's dominions north from the Aug. 1 — 6. 
State of the 
C avery. country near 
Sira , for a short time, was the seat of a government which ruled Stra • 
a considerable extent of country, and seems to have been at its 
greatest prosperity under the government of Dildzvur Khan , imme- 
diately before it was conquered by Hyder. It is said, that it then 
contained 50,000 houses, of which Mussulmans occupied a large 
proportion. By this change of masters Sira suffered greatly ; not 
owing to any oppression from ffyder, but from its being deprived of 
the expenditure attending the court of a Mogul Nabob \ It was also 
much reduced by the Marattah invasions, which had nearly proved 
fatal to the rising power of its new master; and its ruin was accom- 
plished by his son Tippoo,. who removed twelve thousand families, 
to form near his capital the new town of Shakar Ganjam. About 
three hundred houses remained, when the Marattah army, under 
Purseram Bhow and Hurry Punt, took up their head quarters in 
the fort, which is well built of stone, and of a good size. These 
invaders did no harm to the town, but destroyed most of the vil- 
lages in the neighbourhood, and many of these still continue in 
ruins.- The town itself, although the seat of an Asoph, or Mussul- 
man lord lieutenant, continued to languish till it came under the 
English protection. It is little more than a year since the army 
under General Harris encamped here on its route to Chatrakal ; and 
since that time two thousand houses have been built ; many of its. 
former inhabitants, whom the Sultan had forced to Seringapatam y 
have returned to their native abode; and others are coming in 
daily from the country that has been ceded to the Nizam. The only 
building in the place worth notice is the monument of a Mussul- 
man officer, who commanded here during the Mogul government;; 
but it is abundantly supplied with tombs of men who by the Mu- 
hammadans are reputed saints, and near which the people of that 
