TRAGIC PREDICTION FOR RAJA VENKATAPPA NAIKA OF SHORAPUR IN 1857 WAR

TRAGIC PREDICTION FOR RAJA VENKATAPPA NAIKA OF
SHORAPUR IN 1857 WAR

Dr K Prabhakar Rao

Many people do not accept the predictions and science of astrology. Yet astrology has deep roots in Hinduism. It also has followers in other parts of globe too. But in Hinduism, it has a very strong base. It is customary in any Hindu family to get the horoscope written when a child is born. Gone are the days when mothers delivered the kids in natural way going through the labor pains. With growth in modern medical technology, many parents are able to choose date and time for the birth of their offsprings. Women are also not very keen to go through the painful process of labor pains. The ever willing medical practitioners to make fast buck are ready to conduct cesarean operation on pregnant women and deliver the child at the most auspicious moment as per their desire. This has become a practice for mothers staying in West and is also catching up in this country beleaguered by Western craze. In bye gone days of course, this facility was not available due to non availability of surgical procedures and medicines and element of risk. People prayed to god for a safe delivery of women. Children were then born as per the god’s will to put things straight.

There is an interesting story about the last maharaja of a small princely state Shorapur in present Karnataka. He was Raja Venkatappa naik who ruled over the princely state of Shorapur. Shorapur was a small (5,370 sq. kilometers) Hindu kingdom in the southwest angle (Gulbarga District) of the Nizam's former dominions of Hyderabad. It was situated between the Krishna and the Bhima rivers ( Bhima is a tributary to mighty Krishna river), immediately west of their junction, and its greatest length was about 45 miles from east to west. Thus it was a small kingdom. These areas are now in Karnataka state.Krishna river eminates in Western ghats , flows through Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and finally flows into Bay of Bengal.
During the turbulent times before the conquest of Bijapur kingdom in Deccan by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 17 century, Raja Pid Nayaka I ( 1636-1666), a Bedar (or Ramoshi in Marathi) official of the sultans of Bijapur, occupied a rather extensive tract north of the Krishna river and established his capital at Sagar. His family, initially known as Gosala and later as Kosala, had been sardesais ( Chieftains) over the territories south of the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, including Kanchi. Pid Nayaka and his successors were commonly called the Ramoshi (Ramoosy) Raja as not only the ruler but most of his subjects belonged to this aboriginal tribe. The Bedars gradually emerged as the supra-local chieftains in the Raichur and Shorapur doabs. Seeking to enlist the Bedars' help as a second line of defense intended to check the Moghuls, the sultans of Bijapur granted an extensive jagir to Raja Pid Nayaka's nephew and successor, Raja Pama Nayaka I (r. 1666-1687). This raja helped the last king of Bijapur resist Aurangzeb's armies and, following the fall of the Adilshahi kingdom, was deprived of his estate by the Moghul emperor. His nephew Raja Pid Nayaka II (r. 1687-1727) reestablished his rule in the Shorapur doab shortly after the death of Aurangzeb, following 20 years of continuous warfare against the Moghuls. Indeed, Aurangzeb's last campaign, in 1705, ended with the storming of Bedar, the samasthan's capital after 1687 when Sagar ( A town near Shorapur) was lost to the Moghuls.
In 1710 Raja Pid Nayaka II built a new capital at Surapura ( Shorapur) (the City of Gods) and the samasthan came to be known after it. For much of the 18th century, Shorapur was a buffer state between the dominions of the Nizam and the Peshwa, and after 1767 its rajas paid peshkash ( Tax or tribute) and rendered military service to both. After 1818, the Company received the tribute formerly paid to the Peshwa. In 1842, the raja was unable to fulfill his engagements to the Nizam and, under the authority of the Company, an arrangement was entered into whereby Shorapur ceded certain possessions south of the Krishna river, including Devadurg, to the Nizam in payment of its arrears ( 1).
Later, when Raja Krishnappa Naik died in 1841, his son Venkatappa Naik was then, a minor boy was of seven years only. The British Resident at the Nizam of Hyderabad therefore, decided to impose Meadows Taylor as their political agent at Surpur ( Shorapur) and completely entrusted the work of supervising the prince’s education as well as his upbringing. However, in 1853, when Venkatappa Naik turned 19, Taylor returned to Hyderabad and the former took the reigns of the government into his hands. But now, the British Raj proposed to the young Shorapur Raja that he keep a British Officer as an adviser for the state for some more years at a princely sum of Rs. 20,000 per annum.The first independent decision of Raja Venkatappa Naik, after he assumed power of the Surpur Samsthan, was the rejection of the British proposal of an adviser on the grounds that there was no need for an adviser from the British Government and that the financial condition of the state did not permit them to keep an adviser. It is said that the kings of other samsthanas and representatives of kings of South India including Anegundi, Jamkhandi, Tasugaon (Maharastra), Jat, Mudhol, Malakhed, Mundargi, Jambagi and Gamvar Samsthana held a meeting in Mysore somewhere between 1855-56 and entrusted the leadership to Nalwadi Raja Venkatappa Naik to wage war against the British. All these Samsthanas not only supplied explosives and weapons to Surpur Samsthana but also warriors from the various states who actively participated in the first war of independence which took place in Surpur in 1857 and the young King defeated the British but did not live long to see the fruits of his success (2).
There are some variations in the achievements and conduct of the last young king Venkatappa naik as noted from writers. It has been written that Raja Venkatappa Nayaka IV (r. 1842-1858), the 13th and last raja of Shorapur, a young man of 23, "squandered his capital, financial, mental and physical, in orgies of wild dissipation and debauch." Fearful that the British were about to disarm his state, he recruited an army of Arabs and Afghans and joined the Mutiny in 1857. When Company troops stormed his capital in February, 1858, the raja fled to Hyderabad, where he was arrested and handed over to the British who sentenced him to transportation for life. He killed himself in prison later that year, and in 1860 Shorapur was declared forfeit on the charge of rebellion against the Paramount Power and turned over to Hyderabad (3).
The tragic story of the rebellion of Raja Venkatappa Naik of Shorapur in which the astrological prediction about the death of the Raja made to Col. Meadows Taylor
confidentially 20 years before the event found its fulfillment. When Taylor was the
regent at Shorapur, a pundit had shown him the horoscope of the infant prince and
gave his prediction that he would die in his 24th year and his estate would be
forfeited. At that time, Taylor simply laughed it off and in course of time even forgot
about it. The young boy was brought up by Taylor and had shown promise of
becoming a good ruler of his estate, and loyal to the British. But he was abetted by
his tribe of Beydurs, who attacked a small force of the English sent to reinforce
Captain Campbell's garrison. This attack was repulsed and thereupon the Raja fled to
Hyderabad. For his part in the rebellion, the Raja was sentenced to death.
On Taylor's appeal, the Resident, in the maximum exercise of his authority,
commuted it to transportation for life. On further consideration the Governor-General
reduced it to confinement for four years. The Raja's wives celebrated this show of
mercy by the English, and, since he was permitted to keep them with him, they made
ready to join him. However, the Raja after only one day's journey towards his
destination, shot himself dead.The gloomy predictions of the astrologer of Shorepur was thus fulfilled.
Thus there are some conflicting versions about the conduct of the young Maharaja who was portrayed as a pleasure seeker who mismanaged his estate while others praised him as an efficient ruler with national pride who took up arms against the Englishmen during First war of independence in 1857.The prediction about the early death of the young maharaja also came out to be true. Unfortunately sacrifices of many patriots during 1857 war went unrecorded and were not glorified. Their patriotism was no way lesser than other well known martyrs such as Rani laxmibai, Tantya Tope and Nana sahib. Raja Venkatappa naik was one among them. Even today, one can see the ruins and relics of the historic battle against the British and hear as many explosive stories about the valiant Naik Kings that had till today remained a forgotten chapter of the history (4).



Bibliography

1. 110:204; 113:IV,470-471; Aruni, Surapura:6,12-44; Ghorpade, Grand Resistance:30-31; Gribble, Deccan:II,239-244; Mahalingam, Mackenzie MSS:II,49; B. Qanungo
As cited at http://princelystatesofindia.com/Extinguished/shorapur.html

2. Valiant warriors of surpur.. http://expressbuzz.com/states/karnataka/The-valiant-warriors-of-Surpur/360731.html

3. 110:204; 113:IV,470-471; Aruni, Surapura:6,12-44; Ghorpade, Grand Resistance:30-31; Gribble, Deccan:II,239-244; Mahalingam, Mackenzie MSS:II,49; B. Qanungo
As cited at http://princelystatesofindia.com/Extinguished/shorapur.html


4. Turrebazkhan freedom fighter, http://ebookbrowse.com/turrebaz-khan-ff-pdf-d140165533


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