Author: PM Vijendra Rao
Publication:
Date:
Deepavali, the festival of lights, is observed
as Dark Day even now by their descendants
Less than three weeks from now will occur
Naraka Chaturdashi, the famous festival of lights, but Mandyam Iyengars don't
celebrate it; they observe it as a Dark Day. It was on this day over 200 years
ago that Tipu Sultan herded nearly 700 men and women belonging to this community
and put them to a cruel death, according to two Mysore-based scholars who
have more than academic interest in this particular aspect of history.
Dr MA Jayashree and MA Narasimhan, whose close
relation with the Wadiyars of Mysore goes back to more than 150 years, have
brought out this fact in a paper they jointly presented at a seminar of significance
at Dhvanyaloka, Mysore, not too long ago. Their all-important observations
went unrecorded in the main due to poor media coverage of the seminar what
was essentially academic in character. The ongoing animated debate on Tipu,
set off by Minister Shankara Murthy, who has since apologised for what he
said, provides an opportunity to highlight what the two scholars describe
as "the forgotten chapter in the history of Mysore".
In their detailed account of the event, the
couple says that the mass killing of Mandyam Iyengars, related to Tirumaliengar,
the Pradhan of Mysore (referred to by the British as Tirumala Row) and living
between Mandya and Srirangapatna, is very much a fact of history, not fiction
created by the enemies of Tipu. Iyengars who belong to to Bharadwaja gotra,
the lineage of the Pradhan, stay away from Deepavali celebrations because
it was on the same day that Tipu Sultan killed their ancestors. Every child
of those families is told about the bloody event that day, the paper points
out.
The heroic role that dowager queen Rani Lakshammanni
and her relentless battle for the restoration of the throne during the period
of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, is not adequately mentioned (except in the three-volume
History of Mysore by Hayavadana Rao). "It is a pity that her persistent
effort and courage despite being confined behind the curtains of the royal
palace and constantly thratened by the mercurial temper of Tipu Sultan in
bringing about the promise that she had made to her husband Immadi Krishnaraja
Wodeyar, finds scant mention by the historians. We do not even have an authentic
biography of this grand dame of Mysore who lived most of her life under house
arrest," it says.
Historians have not done justice to the pradhans
of Mysore either, Dr Jayashree and Nrasimhan complain, adding that Without
Tirumalaiengar and his brother Narayan Row, Lakshmmanni could not have achieved
her cheirshed goal. "The history of the pradhans is all the more endearing
to us for we belong to Tirumalaiengar's family.
What was the provocation for Tipu to put the
700 members of this family to sword? Though Lakshammanni begins her quest
for the restoration of the throne from the ascension of Hyder Ali to the throne,
she started negotiating with the British in the 1760's withthe help of Tirumala
Row and Narayana Row. She had assured the two brothers of the pradhanship
of Mysore and one-tenth of the income of the state as their salary in perpetuity,
should they succeed in their endeavour. On coming to know of this, Hyder imprisoned
all their relatives.
It was in 1790's that Tipu Sultan, on coming
to know of the agreement between Gen. Harris, the then Governor of Madras,
and Tirumaliyengar, herded the latter's relatives for decimation. "There
is no mention of this in any history book, but 200 years after the horror,
the Mandyam Iyengars do not celebrate the festival. This itself is a strong
indication how true the event is and how strongly they feel about the cruel
end their ancestors met with for no fault of theirs," the couple points
out.
Narasimhan, who is the superintendent of Jaganmohan
Art Gallery, and his wife Jayashree identify themselves a a "group of
people who are trying to set down the norms for re-writing of the hisotry
of India with an Indian perspective" as from the Moghul historians downwards
to the historians of the colonial and modern period, there seems to be a gradual
polarisation of presentation, which is "glaringly biased".
"It somehow slips in to a mode where
the conquerors are heaped with all the encomiums and the vanquished is made
to shouler all the opprobrium the histoirans see and create," the couple
says. Questioning the stand of noted historian Romilla Thapar that history
has to be read in between the lines (of inscriptions), it depcrecates the
tendency to brush aside folklore and tradition, "the backbone of Indian
history".