Chikka Devaraja - Relations With The Mughal Empire

Relations With The Mughal Empire

However, soon thereafter, the Mughals under Aurangzeb invaded the region and, having conquered the Maratha-Bijapur province of Carnatic-Bijapur-Balaghat (of which Bangalore was a part), made it a part of the Mughal province of Sira. The payment for Bangalore was consequently made to Qasim Khan, the Mughal Faujdar Diwan of Sira and through him Chikka Devaraja "assiduously cultivated an alliance" with Aurangzeb. He also soon turned his attention to the regions to his south which were less the objects of Moghul interest. The regions around Baramahal and Salem below the Eastern Ghats were now annexed to Mysore, and in 1694 were extended by the addition of regions to the west up to the Baba Budan mountains. Two years later Chikka Devaraja attacked the lands of the Naik of Madura and laid a siege of Trichinopoly. Soon, however, Qasim Khan, his Mughal liaison, died. With the intention of either renewing his Mughal connections or seeking Mughal recognition of his southern conquests, Chikka Devaraja sent an embassy to Aurangzeb, at Ahmadnagar. In response, in 1700, the Mughal emperor sent the Mysore Raja a signet ring Seal "bearing the title Jug Deo Raj" (literally, "lord and king of the world"), and permission to sit on an ivory throne, and also a Sword from Aurangzeb's personal Regalia, a Firangi (sword),( see Swords of India ), with Gold Etching on the Hilt, to be used as a Sword of State by the Mysore Raja, while seated on the Ivory Throne. " Chikka Devaraja at this time also reorganized his administration into eighteen departments, in "imitation of what the envoys had seen at the Mughal court." When the Raja died on November 16, 1704, his dominions extended from Midagesi in the north to Palni and Anaimalai in the south, and from Kodagu and Balam in the west to Baramahals in the east.