Volume 1

A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar. Performed under the orders of the most noble the Marquis Wellesley, governor general of India, for the express purpose of investigating the state of agriculture, arts, and commerce; the religion, manners, and customs; the history natural and civil, and antiquities, in the dominions of the rajah of Mysore, and the countries acquired by the Honourable East India company / by Francis Buchanan. Pub. under the authority ... of the Honourable the directors of the East India company.

Francis Buchanan-Hamilton

Date:: 1807

Credit: A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar. Performed under the orders of the most noble the Marquis Wellesley, governor general of India, for the express purpose of investigating the state of agriculture, arts, and commerce; the religion, manners, and customs; the history natural and civil, and antiquities, in the dominions of the rajah of Mysore, and the countries acquired by the Honourable East India company / by Francis Buchanan. Pub. under the authority ... of the Honourable the directors of the East India company. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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From the 1st to the 6tli 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. l—6. n State of the Caver]/. country near Sira, for a short time, was the seat of a government which ruled Sxra- a considerable extent of country, and seems to have been at its greatest prosperity under the government of Dildwur 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 Hyder, 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 Shahar 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 Seringapatarn, 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

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