You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - Oct 2006

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00201 Oct 2006

 
Oct 2006 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


http://www.india-forum.com/articles/152/1/Did-Tipu-massacre-700-Iyengar-men,-women-&-kids%3F

Did Tipu massacre 700 Iyengar men, women & kids?

Deepavali, the festival of lights, is observed as Dark Day even now by their 
descendants


Less than three weeks from now will occurs 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 belongs 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 
threatened 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 cherished 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 with the 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 
endeavor. 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 history 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 polarization 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 shoulder all the opprobrium the 
historians 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 deprecates the tendency to brush aside folklore and 
tradition, "the backbone of Indian history".


                
__________________________________________________________
Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/



Azhvar EmberumAnAr JeeyAr ThiruvadigalE Saranam 
http://www.vedics.net

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:ramanuja-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    mailto:ramanuja-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list