Political History of Medieval Karnataka - Modern Era

Modern Era

The fall of the Vijayanagara Empire in 1565 at the Battle of Talikota started a slow disintegration of the Kannada speaking region into many short-lived palegar chiefdoms, and the better known Kingdom of Mysore and the kingdom of Keladi Nayakas, which were to later become important centres of Kannada literary production. These kingdoms and the Nayakas ("chiefs") of Tamil country continued to owe nominal support to a diminished Vijayanagara Empire ruling from Penukonda (1570) and later from Chandragiri (1586) in modern Andhra Pradesh, followed by a brief period of independence. By mid-17th century, large areas in north Karnataka came under the control of the Bijapur Sultanate who waged several wars in a bid to establish a hegemony over the southern Deccan. The defeat of the Bijapur Sultanate at the hands of the Mughals in late 17th century added a new dimension to the prevailing confusion. The constant wars of the local kingdoms with the two new rivals, the Mughals and the Marathas, and among themselves, caused further instability in the region. Major areas of Karnataka came under the rule of the Mughals and the Marathas. Under Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, the Mysore Kingdom reached its zenith of power but had to face the growing English might who by now had a firm foothold in the subcontinent. After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799 in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war, the Mysore Kingdom came under the British umbrella. More than a century later, with the dawn of India as an independent nation in 1947, the unification of Kannada speaking regions as modern Karnataka state brought four centuries of political uncertainty (and centuries of foreign rule) to an end.