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Srirangapatna::The town obtained its name from a 1000 year old temple of Lord Sriranganatha. This history-rich town was the capital of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan – The Tiger of Mysore.

Srirangapatna is an island town on the Bangalore-Mysore Highway and is encircled by the river Cauvery. The town obtained its name from a 1000 year old temple of Lord Sriranganatha. This history-rich town was the capital of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan – The Tiger of Mysore. SOURCE: http://www.geocities.com/tipus_srirangapatna/

Tipu Sultan, the eldest son of Haider Ali, was born on December 10, 1750 at Devanhalli. On his father’s death in 1782, Tipu Sultan assumed power in Mysore. He continued fighting the British and defeated them in 1783. Tipu Sultan was a far-sighted person who could foresee East India Company’s design to get entrenched in India. He negotiated with the French for help and also sought assistance from the Amir of Afghanistan and the Sultan of Turkey. However, in the Third Anglo-Mysore war, he was defeated in his capital, Srirangapatna, and was forced to sign a humiliating treaty on March 22, 1792 as per which he had to concede half of his kingdom and pay an indemnity of 33 million rupees to the British. He died fighting during the storming of Srirangapatna on 4th May 1799 in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war.

Shrirangapattana (shrē‘rŭng‘gəpŭt‘ənə) , formerly Srirangapatna (srē‘rŭng‘gəpŭt‘nə) , town (1991 pop. 21,905), Karnataka state, S India, on an island in the Kaveri River. There are Hindu monuments, some built in the 13th cent. Most of the large buildings date from the 17th and 18th cent., when the city was the capital of Mysore (now Karnataka). The greatest builder was Tippoo Sahib, who left a large mosque, a summer palace, and a mausoleum, where he and his father, Haidar Ali, are buried. The importance of Srirangapatna declined after its capture (1799) by the British in a battle in which Tippoo was killed.

SOURCE:  http://www.answers.com/topic/srirangapatna

Srirangapatna
Srirangapattana (also spelt Srirangapatna; anglicized to Seringapatam during the British Raj) is a town of great religious, cultural and historic importance located near the city of Mysore in the south Indian state of Karnataka.

Location

Although situated a mere 13 km from Mysore city, Srirangapattana lies in the neighbouring district of Mandya. The entire town is enclosed by the river Kaveri to form an island, northern half of which is shown in the image to the right. While the main river flows on the eastern side of the island, the Paschima Vaahini segment of the same river flows to its west. The town is easily accessed by train from Bangalore and Mysore and is also well-connected by road, lying as it does just off the Bangalore-Mysore highway. The highway passes through this town and special care was taken to minimise any impact on the monuments here.

Religious Significance

 

 

Ranganatha Temple

The town takes its name from the celebrated temple of Sri Ranganathaswamy which dominates the town, making Srirangapattana one of the most important Vaishnavite centers of pilgrimage in south India. The temple was built by the Ganga dynasty rulers of the area in the 9th century; the strutcure was strengthened and improved upon architecturally some three centuries later. Thus, the temple is a medley of the Hoysala and Vijayanagar styles of temple architecture.

Tradition holds that all the islands formed in the Kaveri river are consecrated to Sri Ranganathaswamy, and large temples have been built in very ancient times dedicated to that deity on the three largest islands. These three towns, which constitute the main pilgrimage centers dedicated to Ranganathaswamy, are:

• Adi Ranga – at Srirangapattana
• Madhya Ranga – at Shivanasamudram
• Antya Ranga – at Srirangam

The presence of the river Kaveri is in itself considered auspicious and sanctifying. The Paschima Vaahini section of the Kaveri at Srirangapattana is considered especially sacred; the pious come from far and wide to immerse the ashes of the departed and perform obsequies to their ancestors in these waters.

History

Srirangapattana has since time immemorial been an urban center and place of pilgrimage. During the Vijayanagar empire, it became the seat of a major viceroyaly, from where several nearby vassal states of the empire, such as Mysore and Talakad, were overseen. When, perceiving the decline of the Vijayanagar empire, the rulers of Mysore ventured to assert independence, Srirangapattana was their first target. Raja Wodeyar vanquished Rangaraya ^[1], the then viceroy of Srirangapattana, in 1610 and celebrated the Navaratri festival in the town that year. It came to be accepted in time that two things demonstrated control and signified sovereignty over the Kingdom of Mysore by any claimant to the throne:

1. Successful holding of the 10-day-long Navaratri festival, dedicated to Durga, patron goddess of Mysore;
2. Control of the fort of Srirangapattana, the fortification nearest to the capital city of Mysore.

Srirangapattana remained part of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1610 to after India’s independence in 1947; as the fortress closest to the capital city of Mysore, it was the last bastion and defence of the kingdom in case of invasion.

===Hyder and Tipu===121212 Srirangapattana became the de facto capital of Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. When Tipu finally dispensed with the charade of deference to the legitimate Wodeyar Maharaja who was actually his captive, and proclaimed the “Khudadad State” under his own kingship, Srirangapattana became de jure the capital of that short-lived political entity. In that heady period, the state ruled by Tipu extended its frontiers in every direction, encompassing a major portion of South India. Srirangapattana flourished as the cosmopolitan capital of this powerful state. Various Indo-islamic monuments that dot the town, such as Tipu Sultan’s palaces, the Darya Daulat and the Jumma Maseedi (Friday congregational mosque), date from this period.

Battle of Seringapatam, 1799: Srirangapattana was the scene of the last and decisive battle fought between Tipu Sultan and the British forces led by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who later also defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. This battle was the last engagement of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The Battle of Seringapatam, 1799, was truly momentous in its historic effects: had Tipu won that battle, the British may never have had anything more than a peripheral role in the subsequent history of south India. Whether the state founded by Tipu would have retained its independence and grown into an empire, or whether it would have fallen under French hegemony, is a matter of speculation; that the history of south India would have been radically different from what ensued is a certainty.

In any event, Tipu Sultan was killed within the fort of Srirangapattana, betrayed infamously by one of his own confidants; the spot where he ultimately fell is marked by a memorial. For the last time in history, Srirangapattana had been the scene of political change in the Kingdom of Mysore. Having secured the victory, the British proceeded to plunder Srirangapattana and ransack Tipu’s palace. Apart from the usual gold and cash, innumerable valuables and objects d’art, not excepting even the personal effects of Tipu Sultan, his rich clothes and shoes, sword and firearms, were shipped to England. While most of this is now to be found in the British Royal Collection and in the Victoria and Albert Museum, some articles have occasionally become available at auctions and have been retrieved for their native land. The sword of Tipu Sultan has been acquired by Vijay Mallya, an industrialist from Karnataka, who purchased the same at a Sotheby’s auction.

Places of interest

The town is famous for a very ancient temple dedicated to Sri Ranganathaswamy, a form of Lord Vishnu. Other attractions include the Jumma Masjid (a Mosque) and the Daria Daulat Gardens. Near Srirangapattana is the Rangantittu Bird Sanctuary, which is the breeding site for several bird species, including the Painted Stork, Open-billed Stork, Black-headed Ibis, River Tern, Great Stone Plover and Indian Shag. The Karighatta (Black Hill) and its temple of Lord Srinivasa is situated a few kilometres from the town. The deity is that of Kari-giri-vasa (one who resides on the black hill). The famous Nimishambha temple is located in the near by district of Ganjam.

Footnotes

1. ^ The fall of Srirangapattana to the Wodeyar dynasty in 1614 is much celebrated in local ballad and legend, one of which concerns a curse put upon the Wodeyars by Alamelamma, the lamenting wife of the defeated Vijayanagar viceroy. In fulfillment of that curse, no ruling Maharaja of Mysore has ever had children; the succession has inevitably devolved upon brothers, nephews or adopted heirs, or on children born to the Maharaja before his accession, but never has a child been born to a ruling Maharaja.

References

• “The Tiger and the Thistle”
• “Tipu’s Srirangapattana”
• Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
• Tourism in Srirangapattana
• Templenet on Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple

Haidar Ali or Hyder Ali (both: hī’dər älē’) , 1722–82, Indian ruler.

Haidar Ali or Hyder Ali (both: hī‘dər älē‘) , 1722–82, Indian ruler. A Muslim of peasant stock, he rose by military brilliance to command the army of the Hindu state of Mysore. By 1761 he was virtual ruler of Mysore and began expanding the dominions of that kingdom at the expense of the Maratha states and Hyderabad. In 1767 the British, in alliance with Hyderabad and the Marathas, took the field against Haidar. They were soon deserted by their allies, however, and Haidar, after some initial reverses, took his army to the outskirts of Madras (now Chennai) and dictated the peace (1769). Angered by the British refusal to honor a defensive alliance (formed in accordance with the 1769 peace terms) in 1772 and by their seizure of Mahé from the French in 1779, Haidar invaded the Carnatic in 1780 and routed a British force. In 1781 he was defeated near Madras (now Chennai) by Sir Eyre Coote. Haidar died a year later, but the war was continued by his son Tipu Sultan (see Tippoo Sahib).

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/hyder-ali

Bibliography

See biography by N. K. Sinha (3d ed. 1959); study by L. B. Bowring (1969).

Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali

Engraving of Hyder Ali by William Dickes, 1846

Hyder Ali or Haidar ‘Ali (c. 1722 – 1782), was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India.

Hyder Ali was a Muslim soldier-adventurer, who, followed by his son Tipu Sultan, became the most formidable Asiatic rival the British had ever encountered in India. He was the great-grandson of a fakir or wandering ascetic of Islam, from Gulbarga, Deccan. His father was a naik or chief constable at Budikota, near Kolar in present-day Karnataka. He was born in 1722, or according to other authorities 1717. An elder brother, who like himself, was , at an early age, turned out into the world to seek his own fortune, rose to command a brigade in the Mysore army, while Hyder, who never learned to read or write, passed the first years of his life aimlessly in sport and sensuality, sometimes, however, acting as the agent of his brother, and meanwhile acquiring a useful familiarity with the tactics of the French when at the height of their reputation under Joseph François Dupleix. He is said to have induced his brother to employ a Parsi to purchase artillery and small arms from government of Bombay Presidency, and to enroll some thirty sailors of different European nations as gunners, and is thus credited with having been “the first Indian who formed a corps of sepoys armed with firelocks and bayonets, and who had a train of artillery served by Europeans.”

At the siege of Devanhalli (1749) Hyder’s services attracted the attention of Nanjiraj, the minister of the Raja of Mysore, and he at once received an independent command; within the next twelve years his energy and ability had made him completely master of minister and raja alike, and in everything but in name he was ruler of the kingdom. In 1763 the conquest of Kanara gave him possession of the treasures of Bednor, which he resolved to make the most splendid capital in India, under his own name, thenceforth changed from Hyder Naik into Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur; and in 1765 he retrieved previous defeat at the hands of the Marathas by the destruction of the Nairs or military caste of the Malabar coast, and the conquest of Calicut. Hyder Ali now began to occupy the serious attention of the Madras Presidency, which in 1766 entered into an agreement with the Nizam of Hyderabad to furnish him with troops to be used against the common foe. But hardly had this alliance been formed when a secret arrangement was come to between the two Indian powers, the result of which was that Colonel Smith’s small force was met with a united army of 50,000 men and 100 guns. British dash and sepoy fidelity, however, prevailed, first in the Battle of Chengam (September 3, 1767), and again still more remarkably in that of Tiruvannamalai (Trinornalai).

On the loss of his recently made fleet and forts on the western coast, Hyder Ali now offered overtures for peace; on the rejection of these, bringing all his resources and strategy into play, he forced Colonel Smith to raise the siege of Bangalore, and brought his army within 5 miles of Madras. The result was the treaty of April 1769, providing for the mutual restitution of all conquests, and for mutual aid and alliance in defensive war; it was followed by a commercial treaty in 1770 with the authorities of Bombay. Under these arrangements Hyder Ali, when defeated by the Marathas in 1772, claimed British assistance, but in vain; this breach of faith stung him to fury, and thenceforward he and his son did not cease to thirst for vengeance. His time came when in 1778 the British, on the declaration of war with France, resolved to drive the French out of India. The capture of Mahé on the Malabar coast in 1779, followed by the annexation of lands belonging to a dependent of his own, gave him the needed pretext for the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

Again master of all that the Marathas had taken from him, and with empire extended to the Krishna River, he descended through the passes of the Western Ghats amid burning villages, reaching Kanchipuram (Conjeevaram), only 45 miles from Madras, unopposed. Not till the smoke was seen from St Thomas’ Mount, where Sir Hector Munro commanded some 5200 troops, was any movement made; then, however, the British general sought to effect a junction with a smaller body under Colonel Baillie recalled from Guntur. The incapacity of these officers, notwithstanding the splendid courage of their men, resulted in the total destruction of Baillie’s force of 2800 (September 10, 1780). Warren Hastings sent from Bengal Sir Eyre Coote, who, though repulsed at Chidambaram, defeated Hyder thrice successively in the battles of Porto Novo, Pollilur and Sholingarh, while Tipu Sultan was forced to raise the siege of Vandavasi (Wandiwash), and Vellore was provisioned. On the arrival of Lord Macartney as governor of Madras, the British fleet captured Nagapattinam (Negapatam), and forced Hyder Ali to confess that he could never ruin a power which had command of the sea. He had sent his son Tipu to the west coast, to seek the assistance of the French fleet, when his death took place suddenly at Chittoor in December 1782.

The Wodeyars of Mysore, although nominally king, were effectively prisoners of Haidar Ali [1]. Haidar Ali’s son Tipu Sultan dropped the charade and declared himself a sovereign ruler.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Bhagwan S. Gidwani The Sword of Tipu Sultan.
• 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica references:
  • LB Bowring, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, Rulers of India series (1893)
  • For the personal character and administration of Hyder Ali see the History of Hyder Naik, written by Mir Hussein Ali Khan Kirmani (translated from the Persian by Colonel Miles, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund)
  • The curious work written by M Le Maitre de La Tour, commandant of his artillery, L’histoire d’Hayder-Ali Khan, Paris, 1783
  • For the whole life and times see Wilks, historical Sketches of the South of India (1810-1817).

See also

• Muslim warriors
• Kingdom of Mysore
• Wodeyar

External link

• http://www.storyofpakistan.com/person.asp?perid=P072

Devanahalli:: Here, a star was born :: – Birthplace of Tipu Sultan

Devanahalli

Here, a star was born : – Birthplace of Tipu Sultan

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar012005/spt1.asp

Tipu’s legacy is crumbling under the pressure of development, says SRINIDHI RAGHAVENDRA L V

Devanahalli is a small town on the outskirts of Bangalore. The town shot into fame the day it was chosen for the construction of International Airport. But the authorities are yet to realise that apart from being the real estate treasure mine because of the international airport, Devanahalli also is a potential tourist and heritage hotspot.

The town hosts several important monuments such as the birth place of Tipu Sultan, a fort and beautiful temples dedicated to Chandramauleshwara, Venugopalaswamy and Nageshwara among others. These heritage structures are slowly but surely succumbing to the vagaries of the weather thanks to the neglect and apathy of those in charge.

Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan was born in Devanahalli in 1750. The birthplace of Tipu Sultan, located very close to the Devanahalli Fort is just a small pillared enclosure with a stone tablet which declares the place to be the birth place of Tipu Sultan.

The area around the enclosure is known as Khas Bagh and has a dried up stone pond, banana, tamarind and mango plantations.

There are no information boards to tell visitors about Tipu Sultan, popularly revered as the Tiger of Mysore. Hardly anyone is aware that he was born in Devanahalli.

If the tourism department or the Archeological Survey of India were to develop infrastructure around the area of Tipu’s birthplace, it would encourage schools to conduct field trips and tourists to visit the place. This will ensure that our future generations will be aware, appreciative and protective of our rich heritage.

According to historical records Devanahalli was formerly known by several names: Devanapura, Devandanahalli, being two of them.

The fort was built in 1501 by Mallabairegowda of Avati clan, with the consent of ‘Devappa’ a feudatory at Devanadoddi. Subsequently the name was changed to Devanahalli.

The fort remained under the Avati rulers until 1747, when Mysore Dalawai, Nanjarajaiah, attacked the fort and captured it. Subsequently Devanahalli was usurped by the Marathas and reclaimed by the Mysore army under the leadership of Haider Ali.

During the reign of Tipu Sultan Lord Cornwallis laid siege to the fort and took possession of it during the Mysore War of 1791.

The original mud fort built by the Avati rulers was renovated and the present stone fort was built by Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan after they recaptured the place from the Marathas.

Yousufabad

Tipu Sultan also tried to change the name of the place to Yousufabad (the abode of Yousuf, the finest man), a name which never became popular. Devanahalli fort is an interesting structure.

Unlike most other forts in Bangalore district, such as Ramanagaram, Savandurga, Makalidurga, etc, built atop rocky hills, Devanahalli fort is built completely on flat ground.

The ramparts and bastions of the fort are still preserved fairly well. But due to lack of awareness and proper maintenance the ramparts are currently being used as public urinals and toilet by the villagers.

A walk on the ramparts of the fort would make one proud of the rich heritage of our land and simultaneously cringe at the filth and squalor that pervades the place.

The house in which Tipu and Hyder Ali lived also exists till date. According to residents of the town the authorities have made no attempt to either preserve or protect the monuments. The house of Dewan Purnaiah, a high ranking official in Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan’s court, is also located here but there is no board or sign to direct the visitor to the dwelling.

The only commercial use the Devanahalli fort is being put to is as venue of film shootings, primarily in ancient historical movies.

The old buildings and structures within the fort are disintegrating gradually. The fort is also crumbling and is badly in need of restoration.

Several houses have sprung up within the walls and buildings and other structures dating to the period of Tipu Sultan are being demolished.

Unless preservation and restoration of these monuments including the fort is done we may lose them to modernisation and urbanisation associated with the construction of the International airport. Are the authorities listening?

How to get there

If you travel on the Bellary Road (NH-7) and move towards Mekhri circle, after 9 km from Bangalore you get the Yelahanka Satellite Town. Proceed straight ahead for another 29 km to reach the outskirts of Devanahalli.

Then you have to turn left at the entrance of the town and half-a-km from the entrance is Tipu’s birth place and fort.

_______________

 

Devanahalli

Devanahalli, Bangalore, Karnataka State, India

– Located 30 km outside the city limits of Bangalore, India

– Birthplace of Tipu Sultan

– Site of the new Bangalore International Airport [1] scheduled to open in April 2008. At that time, the city’s existing HAL airport will be closed to commercial traffic (defence, test and VIP flights will continue).

Devanahalli is known as the birthplace of Tipu Sultan and as the site for Bangalore’s new International Airport. Situated 30 km from Bangalore, Devanahalli, was earlier called Devanadoddi or Devanapura. When Tipu came to power, he renamed it as Yusufabad, which however did not prove to be popular.

Tipu Sultan was born here in 1750. As one reaches the town from Bangalore, one finds a scant signboard, proclaiming the birthplace of Tipu. A few yards away is a stone tablet surrounded by fields, stating that Tipu was born here. A little distance away is the Devanahalli fort, built in 1501 by Mallabairegowda (before Tipu’s time), which remained in the hands of his descendants until the mid seventeenth century. In 1749, the then Dalwai of Mysore – Nanjarajaiah, attacked the fort and occupied it. Later, the fort passed into the hands of Hyder Ali and subsequently Tipu Sultan. In 1791, Lord Cornwallis laid siege to the fort and took possession during the Mysore War.

The house where Tipu and Hyder Ali stayed can be seen to this day. Dewan Purnaiah, who was a high ranking official during the time of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, also used to have a house here, which stands till this day. However, there haven’t been any efforts from the State or the Archeological Society of India or other organizations to maintain or repair these historical structures. It is only a matter of time before these structures get vandalized.

Although Devanahalli is just an hour’s drive from Bangalore, there is very little tourist traffic as the authorities have failed to realise the potential of the area. This should hopefully change with the impetus on the Bangalore International Airport.

There have been several articles written about Devanahalli by enthusiastic travel writers. Here are two links to the articles.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may312005/spectrum844492005530.asp

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar012005/spt1.asp

Nayaka Forts : Nayaka period kings and chiefs in Chitradurga District

Nayaka Forts : https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/blewis/www/nayaka.htm
This research project examines the cultural significance of forts and fortified towns as symbols for the status and legitimacy of Nayaka period kings and chiefs in Chitradurga District, Karnataka, between AD 1500-1800. The key problem faced by Nayaka rulers who pretended to greatness was often precisely that—their greatness was mere pretense (and their very lives were at risk) unless they could create for themselves an image of legitimacy and high status that was accepted in the villages and temples and at least tolerated by competing kings or chiefs in adjacent regions. One highly visible means by which a fiction of legitimacy and status could be created and maintained, a way used in many different times and places throughout the world, was to build forts. They organized labor, displayed the greatness of the chief, impressed the villagers, and—in the worse case scenario—successfully defended the king or chief against attack.From this perspective, forts are more than mere applications of military engineering to political problems resolved by violent means. During the Nayaka period in South India, they were complex and highly visible symbols of kingship, the existence of which must be understood in its cultural as well as its political contexts. Consequently, the social meanings of forts—as vehicles of legitimacy and status—are one of the primary objects of this research. Controlling for differences of space, most of the forts examined by this survey are either Nayaka constructions or were significantly added to during this period. This is significant because fort construction essentially ended in this part of South India by 1800. This focus enables us to avoid the inherent weakness of a time-centered examination of forts—that their construction is more a process than an event, and that much of what we see when we look at a fort is what happened last. They are seldom the product of one neatly packaged period of unrest on the one hand or self-inflation by elites on the other. We can, in principle, achieve an accurate basis for inference about the nature and social meanings of Nayaka period forts simply because political and technological changes rendered the construction of permanent fortifications obsolete by the 19th century. Example Forts Not all forts and fortified places are alike. The locations that figure most prominently in my study tend to be the largest and most extensive defensive works (e.g., Chitradurga and Kanakuppa). Nevertheless, one cannot understand these forts without first placing them in context. I have therefore also included even the smallest forts and fortified places in my research. Political unrest was such a constant factor of Nayaka period life in this region that most towns and villages were fortified, even if the defensive works were only a mud wall and an outer ring of cut thorn bushes. Here are some examples from my work, ranked roughly in descending order of settlement size and regional importance. Chitradurga This is the largest and most historically significant fort in the district. The surviving works crown several hills on the west side of the modern town of Chitradurga and are among the most well preserved Nayaka period fortifications in Karnataka. The site is well-maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India. Little is known about the extent to which the site was fortified prior to the 14th century, but there is every reason to believe that the existing works are only the latest and most extensive of a long history of fortifications at Chitradurga. It was the headquarters town of the Chitradurga nayakas until 1779 when it was taken by Haidar Ali. Many of the existing works appear to be the product of his French military engineers. Chitradurga fell to the British after the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799, but they made few changes and additions. It was garrisoned for a while, but proved to be an unhealthy station for British troops and was soon abandoned. Kanakuppa Kanakuppa is a large fortified town in Jagalur taluk. It is also an extraordinarily picturesque site and, while it lacks the size and complexity of Chitradurga, it is easily its equal in dramatic scenery. The main fortifications cover the crests of three neighboring hills. The northern and southern curtain walls extend down the hills and define a well-protected saddle area between them. Within these walls are the well-preserved remains of a town that served as the taluk headquarters until 1868, when it was shifted to the town of Jagalur, which lies about 6 km to the southeast. The town within the fort walls was soon abandoned and two new Kanakuppas grew up, one to the north of the hills and the other to the south. Like Chitradurga and Hosdurga in southwestern Chitradurga district, an important aspect of the complexity of the fortifications at Kanakuppa is simply the amount of surface relief that the works encompass. Although most of Kanakuppa town was protected by only one line of curtain wall, the defensive use of the neighboring hilltops, the siting of bastions, and the nested wall lines that protected the two citadel areas made the most of the natural defensive characteristics of the terrain. Whoever designed the works at Kanakuppa intended to emerge the victor from any assault on the town. Uchchangipura The fort at Uchchangipura occupies a low hill just west of the village of the same name in Jagalur Taluk. Although now abandoned and virtually unused except as a source of building stones, local residents report that the village was inside the fort until a few generations ago. It was then moved south of the fort to a bare ridge that placed it closer to the tank and, later, was shifted to its present location just east of the fort. The latter move appears to have been motivated by the construction of an all-weather road to the east. Uchchangipura is easily confused with Uchchangidurga, a much larger and historically important Nayaka period fort that lies about 15 kilometers to the west in Bellary District. The confusion extends even to the local populace—if you ask for directions to Uchchangipura, you inevitably get a question in response: do you mean Uchchangipura or Uchchangidurga? The fort described here gets its name from the name of a local goddess, Uchchangamma, an ancient temple for whom lies immediately to the west of the northwestern corner of the fort. The basic plan of this fort is that of a rectangle with wall extensions to the east and west. A large natural tank (which looked dry in January, 1997) is also enclosed by a wall extension to the south. The latter extension is unusual and appears to be an afterthought. It is the only place in the fort in which the fortification extends to two lines. There are two bent entrance type gates, one about mid-wall on the north, the other about mid-wall on the south. Ramdurga The fort at Ramdurga covers a low hill about 6 km south of Nayakanahatti, a town founded by the Hatti family of poligars. It was used as a village until a few generations ago, when the villagers moved less than a kilometer north of the fort wall to create the present village of Hosagudda, literally “New Hill.” The fort’s Siva temple, however, continues to be the village temple, although its popularity is said to have waned in early 1996 when the old priest and caretaker, who could trace his ancestry to the Hatti Nayakas, passed away. Ramdurga dominates the surrounding countryside, and the fort can be easily seen across the rolling open scrub and boulder-strewn fields for 4-5 km in any direction . Although dramatic in appearance when viewed from a distance, closer inspection reveals dead ground almost up to the walls on the southwest side of the fort; its design as a defensive work was fundamentally flawed

Dr. Barry Lewis

Publications 

In press Channabasappa S. Patil: An Appreciation. In Vijayanagara, Archaeological Exploration, 1990-2000, Papers in memory of Channabasappa S. Patil, edited by John M. Fritz, Robert Brubaker and Teresa Raczek. VRP Monograph Series 10. Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi. Hillside Shiva Shrine in Vijayanagara’s Eastern Urban Core.  In Vijayanagara, Archaeological Exploration, 1990-2000, Papers in memory of Channabasappa S. Patil, edited by John M. Fritz, Robert Brubaker and Teresa Raczek. VRP Monograph Series 10. Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi. (with Nicholas Powell) Recent Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archaeology, by Barry Lewis, Robert Jurmain, and Lynn Kilgore. 2007. 9th edition. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning:Belmont, CA. Please send comments, corrections, suggestions for future editions to blewis@uiuc.edu Chitradurga in the Early 1800s: Archaeological Interpretations of Colonial Drawings. 2006. Indian Council of Historical Research, Southern Regional Centre, Lecture Series Publication 6. Bangalore, India. 2005. The Mysore Kingdom at AD 1800: Archaeological Applications of the Mysore Survey of Colin Mackenzie. In South Asian Archaeology 2001, edited by Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre, Volume II, pp. 557-565. Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris. 2004. NVivo 2.0 and ATLAS.ti 5.0: A Comparative Review of Two Popular Qualitative Data Analysis Programs. Field Methods 16:439-464. 2003. Chitradurga: A Nayaka Period Successor State in South India. Asian Perspectives 42:267-286. (with C. S. Patil) 2003. Review of “The Jungle Kings: Ethnohistorical Aspects of Politics and Ritual in Orissa” by Burkhard Schnepel. The Journal of Asian Studies 62:1297-1298. 2002. Review of “Cahokia: Mirror of the Cosmos” by Sally A. Kitt Chappell. Journal of Illinois History 5:247-248. Cahokia and the Hinterlands, edited by Thomas E. Emerson and R. Barry Lewis. 2000. Illini edition.  University of Illinois Press, Urbana. 2000. Sea Level Rise and Subsidence Effects on Gulf Coast Archaeological Site Distributions. American Antiquity 65:525-541. 2000. ArcView 3.2a, MapInfo 6.0, and Manifold 4.5: A Comparative Review of Geographical Information System (GIS) Software.  Field Methods 12:358-377. 2000. Review of “The Cahokia Chiefdom: The Archaeology of a Mississippian Society,” by George R. Milner.  Journal of Field Archaeology 27:107-108. 2000. Review of “Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America,” by William N. Morgan. American Antiquity 65:208. Selected Older Publications 1999. The Mississippian Town as Metaphor.  In Self, Place & Imagination: Cross-Cultural Thinking in Architecture, edited by Samer Akkach, Stanislaus Fung, and Peter Schriver, pp. 93-105.  Proceedings of the Second International Symposium of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture.  University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces: Searching for An Architectural Grammar, edited by R. Barry Lewis and Charles Stout.  1998. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. Kentucky Archaeology. 1996. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington. (editor) 1996. The Western Kentucky Border and the Cairo Lowland. In Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley, edited by Charles McNutt, pp. 47-75. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1995. Neon Leon. Louisiana Literature 12:44-49. 1995. Constantine Rafinesque and the Canton Site, A Mississippian Town in Trigg County, Kentucky. Southeastern Archaeology 14:83-90. (with Charles Stout). 1990. The Late Prehistory of the Ohio-Mississippi Rivers Confluence Region, Kentucky and Missouri. In Towns and Temples along the Mississippi River, edited by David Dye and Cheryl A. Cox, pp. 38-58. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1988. Fires on the Bayou: Cultural Adaptations in the Mississippi Sound Region. Southeastern Archaeology 7:109-123. 1988. Old World Dice in the Protohistoric Southern United States. Current Anthropology 29:759-68. 1986 The Analysis of Contingency Tables in Archaeology. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, vol. 9, pp. 277-310. Academic Press, New York. Mississippian Towns of the Western Kentucky Border: The Adams, Wickliffe, and Sassafras Ridge Sites, edited by R. Barry Lewis. 1986. The Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort. 1985. Radiocarbon Dating and Lower Mississippi Valley Archaeology. North American Archaeologist 6:213-225. 1983. Archaic Adaptations to the Illinois Prairie: The Salt Creek Region. In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by James Phillips and James Brown, pp. 99-116. Academic Press, New York. Excavations at Two Mississippian Hamlets in the Cairo Lowland of Southeast Missouri. 1982. Special Publications 2. Illinois Archaeological Survey, Urbana. The Hood Site: a Late Woodland Hamlet in the Sangamon Valley of Central Illinois. 1975. Reports of Investigations 31. Illinois State Museum, Springfield. Mississippian Exploitative Strategies: A Southeast Missouri Example. 1974. Research Series 11. Missouri Archaeological Survey, Columbia.

Onake Obavva :: An Informal History of the Chitradurga Nayakas

An Informal History of the Chitradurga Nayakas

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/blewis/www/chitradurga.htm

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/blewis/www/chitradurga.htm

An Informal History of the Chitradurga Nayakas

Much of Karnataka endured chronic social and political upheaval in the centuries between the collapse of the Vijayanagara Empire in the late 1500s and the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799. It was an era of dynamic change, during which petty rulers and chiefs, variously called “little kings,” nayakas, and poligars in historical accounts, fought war after war against outsiders and each other. Mysore was ultimately the most successful of these polities and its history dominates what has been written about this period. Several smaller kingdoms, most notably Chitradurga and Keladi (Bednur, Bednore), endured into the middle 1700s and were of considerable regional importance.

Between 1500-1800, Chitradurga was at times a province of Vijayanagara, an independent kingdom, a tributary of the Marathas, a tributary of the Mughals, a tributary of Mysore, and, finally, a Mysore province. In spite of this tumultuous past, the Chitradurga nayakas have received so little attention from modern researchers that, until recently, its story was only a modest footnote in Karnataka history.

Origins of the Chitradurga Nayakas

Chitradurga was one of several central Karnataka regions governed by local chieftains well before the rise of Vijayanagara, which inherited control of the region from the Hoysalas in the early 1300s. By the 1500s, it was largely dominated by Bedar (Valmiki) families who traced their origins to southern Andhra Pradesh from which they had emigrated with their herds. Like most of the families that rose to power in the 1500s, the Chitradurga nayakas based the legitimacy of their rule on their relationship with the Vijayanagara kings, who appointed several of their line as local governors after they attracted the attention of the Vijayanagara rulers through acts of daring and bravery.

One such ruler was Timmanna Nayaka, who was attacked by a Vijayanagara force in the early 1560s because he had raided neighboring poligar territories. In a daring act of bravery and sheer arrogance, Timmanna Nayaka decided to steal the horse of the Vijayanagara prince who commanded the forces sent against him. Under cover of night, he stole into the enemy camp and found the prince’s horse. Before he could make his getaway, a groom arrived to re-tether the horse. Hiding literally at the groom’s feet, Timmanna Nayaka lay unnoticed in the darkness as the groom drove the tether rope peg through his hand. Pinned to the ground, Timmanna Nayaka waited for the groom to leave, cut off his hand to free himself, and rode away on the prince’s horse. It is said that the event convinced the Vijayanagara army that they could not defeat Timmanna Nayaka and they sued for peace. The Vijayanagara king formally appointed him as the governor of Chitradurga and he enjoyed a brief interlude of favor at court. Regrettably, it did not last and he died in prison at Vijayanagara.

Chitradurga Fort is the most visible modern reminder of the nayakas who once held sway across this part of central Karnataka. Although traces of older fortification walls can still be found there (the best example being the early Vijayanagara era covered gateway and walls you pass through when you enter the fort past the ASI ticket booth on Ta Ra Su Street), most of the standing walls and gateways were constructed by the Chitradurga nayakas and Tipu Sultan. This fort was effectively the heart of the kingdom.

click on a picture to see a larger version

Mysore, AD 1625For a long time after the collapse of the Vijayanagara empire, the rulers of small states fought with each other and outsiders for control of the region (Source of figure: Rice 1897, Vol. I, facing p. 357).

Royal Display AreaThe gateway in the right foreground leads to Hidimbeswara temple, one of the oldest temples on the hill. A monolithic pillar and two swing frames lie between the entrance to this gateway and the Sampige Siddheshvara temple, which rests at the foot of the hill in the left background.

The MintWest of the Hidimbeswara Temple complex (right background) is a walled compound popularly called the Mint (foreground). A road leads past the Mint to the main western gate, called Basavana Bagilu, and another line of fortifications, which protect the inner fort.

Inner FortThis area contains the remains of the palace complex, its ornamental gardens, and many warehouses and granaries. In the background, across the Gopalaswamy Honda, can be seen the Gopalakrishna Temple, the image of which is mentioned in inscriptions that date to the early 14th century.

Independence and Expansion

After the fall of the city of Vijayanagara in 1565, the Chitradurga family and most other central Karnataka nayakas soon declared their independence of the remnants of that empire. They also were in the thick of the chronic regional warfare that devastated central Karnataka for the next 250 years. They warred repeatedly with the Basavapatna or Tarikere poligars whose country lay to the west, with the Harapanahalli poligars to the north at Uchchangidurga; with the Harati or Nidugal family at Dodderi and later at Nidugal; with the Hatti family, whose headquarters town was Nayakanahatti; and with the Rayadurga poligars, among others. The political stability of the region was complicated further in the mid-1600s, when the Mughals invaded central Karnataka and established the suba or major province of Sira. Although the territories of many former poligars in the region became parganas or lesser provinces under the Mughals, Chitradurga was one of the fortunate few to enjoy limited independence as a tributary of Sira.

These events did not lessen the pace of regional warfare, which continued on the borders of Chitradurga. The story of the unfortunate end of Bharamappa Nayaka’s son, Hire Madakeri Nayaka, illustrates the temper of this era. He succeeded to the Chitradurga throne in 1721 and the kingdom enjoyed considerable military and economic successes during his reign. It ended, however, when a coalition of armies of the principal poligars whose territories bordered that of Chitradurga drew him into a decisive battle at Mayaconda around 1747. A kafiyat or town history, which was recorded at Mayaconda in 1801, describes how Hire Madakeri Nayaka advanced to receive the attack of his enemies with 20,000 Chitradurga soldiers and 5,000 soldiers of his Maratha allies. When the armies met, however, the Marathas refused to fight, having reputedly been bribed by the poligar coalition to stay out of the battle. Rather than retreat, Hire Madakeri Nayaka advanced to meet the enemy on his war elephant and engaged Konati Nayak, the Rayadurga poligar (other sources say it was Somashekhara Nayaka of Harapanahalli) in personal combat, chaining their elephants’ legs to hold them steady. Wounded by Konati Nayak’s arrows, Hire Madakeri Nayaka fell from his elephant and was beheaded by soldiers of the Savanur poligar. Defeated, the Chitradurga troops retreated and the poligar coalition army laid siege to Mayakonda fort for several months. The siege was eventually lifted by Hire Madakeri Nayaka’s son, Kasturi Rangappa Nayaka II.

Today, little evidence marks the mid-1700s clash of armies at Mayakonda. There is no trace either of the substantial fort that once stood here. All that remains is a small mantapa a little beyond the north side of town and, largely obscured by the grass and weeds around it, one can see the faint outline of what was once a small ornamental garden in the Mughal style. Here is where Hire Madakeri Nayaka’s body was burned, closing the chapter on one ruler’s reign and beginning a fresh and equally violent one for his successor.

The Fall of the Chitradurga Nayakas

Chitradurga’s political position became untenable in the mid-1700s after it was caught between the Marathas and Haidar Ali of Mysore in their struggle for control of central Karnataka. Gambling that the Marathas would eventually prevail, the Chitradurga rulers entered into secret negotiations with them. Had the plan succeeded, they would have had a valuable ally in their continuing military conflicts with the Keladi (Bednore) kings of modern-day Shimoga district; it may have even helped them to sustain their rule into the 19th century.

Haidar Ali, however, proved to be more than equal to the task of dealing with Chitradurga and thwarting the regional ambitions of the Marathas. After three sharp clashes with Chitradurga in the 1760s and 1770s, Haidar Ali finally took the fort in 1779 and the region became a Mysore province. Madakari Nayaka IV, the last ruler of Chitradurga, and his family were imprisoned at Shrirangapattana, where they died. To break the power of the Bedar caste in the region, which had loyally supported the Chitradurga nayakas, Haidar Ali is said to have moved more than 20,000 Bedars from Chitradurga to Shrirangapattana, the young men of which were pressed in his chela battalions and recruited into his army. As the historian and early British Resident at Mysore noted in the early 1800s, Chitradurga soldiers in the Mysore army enjoyed a reputation for bravery and military effectiveness in the Mysore wars that followed in the late 1700s.

Among the many heroes and heroines of Chitradurga, mention must be made of Onake Obavva, the wife of a common soldier, who, while fetching water during one of the several sieges of the fort, heard the muffled sound of enemy soldiers attempting to enter the fort walls through a small crevice that was just big enough for one person at a time to crawl through. Hiding silently next to the crevice with an onake, or pestle, she killed each soldier as his head appeared in the opening and dragged his body inside the wall. By the time her husband and others came to her aid, many dead soldiers lay around her. Onake Obavva’s courage and quick thinking single-handedly saved the fort that day. Her bravery is commemorated in Chitradurga by the name of Onake Obavva Stadium and by an extraordinary new sculpture near the DC Office. The sculpture was commissioned by the Government of Karnataka and brilliantly executed by the distinguished sculptor Ashok Gudigar.

Fort GatewaysMany of the fortification lines possess elaborate gateways. This gateway on the eastern side of the fort shows design elements typical of the Bahami sultanate in northern Karnataka.

Fortification LinesMost of Chitradurga’s rulers added to its fortifications. The wall walks and gun platforms seen in this slide are among the latest additions to the fort. Their design and construction suggest that they were built by mercenary European military engineers in the late 1700s.

Storehouses and GranariesForts show considerable investment in storage facilities for food, water, and the military stores necessary to withstand a siege. Chitradurga is unusual among South Indian forts in that its storage facilities are still well preserved.

Mud BricksMud brick walls of the storehouses and granaries at Chitradurga Fort. These bricks were laid down more than 200 years ago and are slowly melting away with each monsoon.

Chitradurga in the Early 1800s

After Tipu Sultan’s death in early May of 1799, which marked the end of the 4th Mysore War, the Mysore kingdom was recreated under the Wodeyars. Chitradurga remained a Mysore province and was governed from Mysore. Chitradurga Fort, which was viewed by the British as a potentially useful base along Mysore’s northern line of defense, was garrisoned by British troops between 1799-1809, after which it passed back into the hands of the Mysore government.

As an epilogue to the story of the Chitradurga nayakas, British troops detained Dodda Madakari Nayaka, a cousin of Madakari Nayaka IV, at Calicut in Malabar in early 1800. He requested a troop escort and passports so he could visit Madras to make his claim as the legitimate successor to Madakari Nayaka IV. After what was undoubtedly very careful consideration of the political implications of his requests, the Governor-in-Council at Madras rejected his claim to Chitradurga because Madakari Nayaka IV surrendered to Haidar Ali before the British conquest of Mysore and Dodda Madakari Nayaka had entered the service of Haidar Ali after the fall of Chitradurga, but later deserted to Travancore. By this reasoning, he had no legitimate claim to the territory of Chitradurga, whether from his relationship with Madakari Nayaka IV or with Tipu Sultan. It should also go without saying that, had the Governor-in-Council approved Dodda Madakari Nayaka’s requests, it could ultimately have posed a threat to the stability of the Wodeyar government in Mysore. Such a possibility, of course, was not in the interests of the Wodeyars or the British. According to G. N. Saletore’s account of these events Dodda Madakari Nayaka was eventually granted a pension by Dewan Purnaiya, regent for Mummadi Krishnaraja III Wodeyar of Mysore.

Until the late 1990s when Davangere district was created, the boundaries of Chitradurga district reflected its nayaka heritage. Its boundaries encompassed most of the territory held by Madakeri Nayaka IV when Chitradurga Fort fell to Haidar Ali.

Chitradurga, AD 1800The province consisted of 12 parganas, each of which contained a headquarters town that answered to the provincial capital at Chitradurga.

Sentry BoxesMany of the latest additions to the fort were made of fired bricks set in mortar, covered with a thin veneer of cement or chunam, and painted. Much of this brickwork has lost its protective coating of cement over the past 200 years.

The British at ChitradurgaThe East India Company garrison made few significant changes to the fort. This sign, painted on a boulder, identified the location of a post.

Scottish CannonThis cannon, one of two 18-pounders abandoned at the Tipu Sultan Battery on the northeastern corner of the fort, was cast in 1799 at the Carron Works in Falkirk, Scotland.

Sources

Patil, C. S. (1999) Karnataka Kotegalu [Forts of Karnataka]. Hampi: Kannada University.

Puttanna, M. S. (1924) Chitradurgada Paleyagararu [Chitradurga Poligars]. Bangalore.

Ramachandra Rao, P. B. (1943) The Poligars of Mysore and Their Civilization. Teppakulam: Palaniappa Bros.

Rice, B. Lewis (1897) Mysore: A Gazetteer Compiled for Government. Revised edition. 2 Vols. London: Archibald Constable and Company.

Rice, B. Lewis (1903) Inscriptions in the Chitaldroog District. Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. XI. Bangalore: Mysore Government Central Press.

Saletore, R. N. (1940) The Conquest of Citradurga by Hyder Ali. Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society 29:171-188.

Sathyan, B. N., ed. (1967) Mysore State Gazetteer: Chitradurga District. Bangalore: Government Press.

Srikanta Sastri, S. (1928) Capitulation of Chitradurga. Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society 18:145-154.

Srikantaya, S. (1941) Chitaldrug. Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society 31:339-356.

Wilks, Mark (1989) Historical Sketches of the South of India in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysore. 2 vols. Reprint of 1930 edition; originally published in 1810. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.

Dr, Barry Lewis

PUBLICATIONS

In press Channabasappa S. Patil: An Appreciation. In Vijayanagara, Archaeological Exploration, 1990-2000, Papers in memory of Channabasappa S. Patil, edited by John M. Fritz, Robert Brubaker and Teresa Raczek. VRP Monograph Series 10. Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi. Hillside Shiva Shrine in Vijayanagara’s Eastern Urban Core.  In Vijayanagara, Archaeological Exploration, 1990-2000, Papers in memory of Channabasappa S. Patil, edited by John M. Fritz, Robert Brubaker and Teresa Raczek. VRP Monograph Series 10. Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi. (with Nicholas Powell) Recent Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archaeology, by Barry Lewis, Robert Jurmain, and Lynn Kilgore. 2007. 9th edition. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning:Belmont, CA. Please send comments, corrections, suggestions for future editions to blewis@uiuc.edu Chitradurga in the Early 1800s: Archaeological Interpretations of Colonial Drawings. 2006. Indian Council of Historical Research, Southern Regional Centre, Lecture Series Publication 6. Bangalore, India. 2005. The Mysore Kingdom at AD 1800: Archaeological Applications of the Mysore Survey of Colin Mackenzie. In South Asian Archaeology 2001, edited by Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre, Volume II, pp. 557-565. Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris. 2004. NVivo 2.0 and ATLAS.ti 5.0: A Comparative Review of Two Popular Qualitative Data Analysis Programs. Field Methods 16:439-464. 2003. Chitradurga: A Nayaka Period Successor State in South India. Asian Perspectives 42:267-286. (with C. S. Patil) 2003. Review of “The Jungle Kings: Ethnohistorical Aspects of Politics and Ritual in Orissa” by Burkhard Schnepel. The Journal of Asian Studies 62:1297-1298. 2002. Review of “Cahokia: Mirror of the Cosmos” by Sally A. Kitt Chappell. Journal of Illinois History 5:247-248. Cahokia and the Hinterlands, edited by Thomas E. Emerson and R. Barry Lewis. 2000. Illini edition.  University of Illinois Press, Urbana. 2000. Sea Level Rise and Subsidence Effects on Gulf Coast Archaeological Site Distributions. American Antiquity 65:525-541. 2000. ArcView 3.2a, MapInfo 6.0, and Manifold 4.5: A Comparative Review of Geographical Information System (GIS) Software.  Field Methods 12:358-377. 2000. Review of “The Cahokia Chiefdom: The Archaeology of a Mississippian Society,” by George R. Milner.  Journal of Field Archaeology 27:107-108. 2000. Review of “Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America,” by William N. Morgan. American Antiquity 65:208. Selected Older Publications 1999. The Mississippian Town as Metaphor.  In Self, Place & Imagination: Cross-Cultural Thinking in Architecture, edited by Samer Akkach, Stanislaus Fung, and Peter Schriver, pp. 93-105.  Proceedings of the Second International Symposium of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture.  University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces: Searching for An Architectural Grammar, edited by R. Barry Lewis and Charles Stout.  1998. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. Kentucky Archaeology. 1996. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington. (editor) 1996. The Western Kentucky Border and the Cairo Lowland. In Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley, edited by Charles McNutt, pp. 47-75. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1995. Neon Leon. Louisiana Literature 12:44-49. 1995. Constantine Rafinesque and the Canton Site, A Mississippian Town in Trigg County, Kentucky. Southeastern Archaeology 14:83-90. (with Charles Stout). 1990. The Late Prehistory of the Ohio-Mississippi Rivers Confluence Region, Kentucky and Missouri. In Towns and Temples along the Mississippi River, edited by David Dye and Cheryl A. Cox, pp. 38-58. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1988. Fires on the Bayou: Cultural Adaptations in the Mississippi Sound Region. Southeastern Archaeology 7:109-123. 1988. Old World Dice in the Protohistoric Southern United States. Current Anthropology 29:759-68. 1986 The Analysis of Contingency Tables in Archaeology. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, vol. 9, pp. 277-310. Academic Press, New York. Mississippian Towns of the Western Kentucky Border: The Adams, Wickliffe, and Sassafras Ridge Sites, edited by R. Barry Lewis. 1986. The Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort. 1985. Radiocarbon Dating and Lower Mississippi Valley Archaeology. North American Archaeologist 6:213-225. 1983. Archaic Adaptations to the Illinois Prairie: The Salt Creek Region. In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by James Phillips and James Brown, pp. 99-116. Academic Press, New York. Excavations at Two Mississippian Hamlets in the Cairo Lowland of Southeast Missouri. 1982. Special Publications 2. Illinois Archaeological Survey, Urbana. The Hood Site: a Late Woodland Hamlet in the Sangamon Valley of Central Illinois. 1975. Reports of Investigations 31. Illinois State Museum, Springfield. Mississippian Exploitative Strategies: A Southeast Missouri Example. 1974. Research Series 11. Missouri Archaeological Survey, Columbia.