104 Facts About Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali was the Sultan and de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India.

Hyder Ali became the de facto ruler of Mysore as Sarvadhikari by 1761.

Hyder Ali left his eldest son, Tipu Sultan, an extensive kingdom bordered by the Krishna River in the north, the Eastern Ghats in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west.

Hyder Ali has been described of having an Arab Nawayath ancestry.

The exact date of Hyder Ali's birth is not known with certainty.

Hyder Ali's father, Fath Muhammad, was born in Kolar, and served as a commander of 50 men in the bamboo rocket artillery in the army of the Nawab of Carnatic.

Hyder Ali was born in Budikote, Kolar district; he was Fath Muhammad's fifth child, and the second by his third wife.

Hyder Ali introduced them to Devaraja, the dalwai of Krishnaraja Wodeyar II, and his brother Nanjaraja, who held important ministerial posts.

Hyder Ali is known to have personally served alongside de Bussy, and is believed to have met both Muzaffar Jung and Chanda Shahib.

Hyder Ali supported the claims of Muzaffar Jung and later sided with Salabat Jung.

Early in his career, Hyder Ali retained as one of his chief financial assistants a Brahmin named Khande Rao.

Hyder Ali, who was illiterate, was reported to be blessed with a prodigious memory and numerical acumen.

In 1757 Hyder Ali was called to Srirangapatna to support Devaraja against threats from Hyderabad and the Marathas.

Hyder Ali then led campaigns against the Zamorin of Calicut in the Malabar Coast of India.

In 1758 Hyder Ali successfully forced the Marathas to lift a siege of Bangalore.

Hyder Ali is known to be the first ruler of Mysore to be granted the title of Nawab, thus it can be said that he was briefly the "Nawab of Mysore" by 1759.

Hyder Ali was a beneficiary of this action, rising in influence in the court.

Hyder Ali was precipitously forced out of Seringapatam, leaving his family, including his son Tipu Sultan, under house arrest.

Hyder Ali soon consolidated his strength by placing Mirza Sahib as the commander of Sira, Ibrahim Ali Khan in Bangalore and Amin Sahib his cousin in Basnagar.

Khande Rao, with 11,000 men, won the battle, and Hyder Ali was forced to apply to the exiled Nanjaraj for support.

Hyder Ali sent letters appearing to be from Nanjaraj to some of Khande Rao's commanders, confirming their agreement to hand Khande Rao over to Hyder Ali.

Concessions that he extracted included the surrender of Khande Rao, who Hyder Ali imprisoned in Bangalore.

Hyder Ali became king of Mysore in 1761 after overthrowing the prime minister and making the king, Krishnaraja Wodeyar II, a prisoner in his own palace.

Hyder Ali formally styled himself Sultan Hyder Ali Khan in his correspondence with the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.

Hyder Ali retained his title during the first Anglo-Mysore War that raged in 1766, and onwards.

Hyder Ali was very cautious in his diplomacy with the Nizam of Hyderabad, who was, according to an official Mughal firman, the sovereign of all Muslim-ruled territories in southern India.

Hyder Ali renamed the capital Haidernagar, and began styling himself Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur, a title that had been bestowed on him by Salabat Jung as reward for his taking of Sira.

Hyder Ali moved most of his family to Ikkeri, a natural fortress, in the hopes that it would "serve him for a safe refuge".

Hyder Ali assumed the trappings of the ruler of Bednore, began issuing coins, and established a system of weights and measures.

Hyder Ali made sure his son Tipu received a quality education, "employing learned tutors" and "appointing a suitable hand of attendants" to see to his upbringing.

Hyder Ali cultivated a suspicion of foreigners, specifically refusing to allow the East India Company to have a resident at his court.

Hyder Ali's security was not assured in Bednore: a bout of illness and a widespread conspiracy against him convinced him that it would not make an ideal capital for his domain, and he returned to Mysore.

Hyder Ali had amicable relations with the Christian population in Mangalore, which had long been under Portuguese influence and had a sizeable Roman Catholic population, and with Christians in general.

Hyder Ali had a very close friendship with two Goan Catholic clergymen, Bishop Noronha and Fr.

Hyder Ali's army included Catholic soldiers, and he allowed Christians to build a church at Seringapatam, where French generals used to offer prayers and priests used to visit.

At this point in his life Hyder Ali decided to go to war with the Marathas and put an end to the threat they posed to his power.

Hyder Ali therefore attacked the Maratha aligned Rani of Bednore.

Hyder Ali had appealed to the Nawab of Savanur for assistance when Hyder invaded.

Hyder Ali consequently threatened the Nawab, attempting to extort tribute from him.

In 1766 Hyder Ali returned to the Malabar, this time at the invitation of the raja of Cannanore, who sought independence from the Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut who held sway over Cannanore.

Hyder Ali claimed a debt of tribute from the Zamorin, who had supported Hyder Ali's opponents in earlier campaigns.

Hyder Ali placed the Zamorin under house arrest and had his finance minister tortured.

Hyder Ali's response was harsh: after putting down the rebellion, many rebels were executed, and thousands of others were forcibly relocated to the Mysorean highlands.

Hyder Ali had left orders that Krishnaraja's son Nanjaraja Wodeyar be invested should that happen, and he only later came to formally pay his respects to the new rajah.

Hyder Ali took advantage of this opportunity to engage in a sort of house cleaning: the raja's palace was plundered, and its staff reduced to the point where virtually everyone employed there was a spy for Hyder Ali.

The Nizam then ostensibly struck a deal with the Company administration in the Madras Presidency for their support, but apparently did so with the expectation that when Hyder Ali was prepared for war, the deal with the British would be broken.

Hyder Ali moved on to capture Kaveripattinam after two days of siege, while the British commander at Changama, Colonel Joseph Smith, eventually retreated to Tiruvannamalai for supplies and reinforcements.

Hyder Ali retreated northward, covering the movements of the Nizam's forces, but was disheartened when an entire corps of European cavalry deserted to the British.

Hyder Ali, apparently seeking an end to the conflict, made peace overtures to the British, but was rebuffed.

Hyder Ali levied additional taxes as punishment against local malabari Nair chieftains which were then stripped of rights and authority.

Hyder Ali summoned a Portuguese officer and several Christian priests from Mangalore to suggest an appropriate punishment to impose on the Mangalorean Catholics for their treachery.

Hyder Ali afterwards opened negotiations with the Portuguese, and reached an agreement with them that removed suspicion from the clergy and other Christians.

Hyder Ali was then foiled in an attempt to prevent the arrival of a second British column at the allied camp; the strength of these combined forces convinced him to retreat from Bangalore toward Gurramkonda, where he was reinforced by his brother in law.

Hyder Ali attempted diplomatic measures to prevent a siege of Bangalore, offering to pay ten lakhs rupees and grant other land concessions in exchange for peace.

Hyder Ali specifically refused to deal with Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah, his nemesis in the Carnatic.

Hyder Ali renewed his attack, but was eventually repulsed with heavy losses: he was estimated to lose 1,000 men while the British lost about 200.

Company officials blamed Smith for the failure to decisively defeat Hyder Ali, and recalled him to Madras.

Hyder Ali successfully captured supplies and arms, and drove Wood in disgrace toward Venkatagiri.

Hyder Ali then raised additional forces in Mysore and went on the offensive.

Hyder Ali, who was seeking diplomatic leverage against the Marathas, wanted an alliance of mutual defence and offence.

When Hyder Ali took over the Malabar territories, he took advantage of the coastal access to develop relations with trading partners overseas.

Nursullah Khan, Hyder Ali's ambassador, had more success in Muscat, where a trading house was established in 1776.

Hyder Ali, believing he would be supported by the British in conflict with the Marathas, began demanding tribute payments from smaller states on the frontiers between Maratha and Mysore territories, and refused to pay tributes demanded by the Marathas.

The Company refused, and Hyder Ali retreated, slashing and burning as he went to deny the bounty of the land to the Marathas.

Hyder Ali offered to pay some of the tribute demanded, but his offer was rejected as insufficient, and the Marathas renewed the offensive after the monsoons.

When Hyder Ali followed, they turned in force, and claimed to inflict serious casualties on Hyder Ali's army, and captured most of its baggage.

Hyder Ali again appealed to the British for help, but their pre-conditions and proposed terms were unacceptable to him, and an attempt by Hyder Ali to get them to go on the offensive scuttled the negotiations.

Hyder Ali ordered Nanjaraja strangled, and placed his brother Chamaraja on the throne.

In 1773, Hyder Ali used this opportunity to send Tipu with an army to recover territories lost to the Marathas to the north, while he descended into Coorg, which provided a more secure route to the Malabar territories he wanted to recover from the Marathas.

Hyder Ali quickly captured Coorg's capital, Merkara, imprisoning Raja Vira Rajendra.

Hyder Ali installed a Brahmin as Governor to collect revenues before continuing to Malabar, where by the end of 1774 he had recovered all his lost territory.

The Coorgs rose in rebellion against his Governor, upon which Hyder Ali returned to Coorg, crushed the rebellion, and hanged most of the ring-leaders.

Hyder Ali successfully extended his domain to the Krishna River after a lengthy siege of Dharwad.

Since Hyder Ali was at the time still attempting alliance with the British, he informed them of this offer, noting that he thought the Marathas would gain too much power and even threaten his own position under those circumstances.

Hyder Ali received much of his French-supplied equipment through this French-controlled port, and had provided troops for its defence.

Furthermore, the action had provoked the Nairs on the Malabar coast to rise in rebellion again, although Hyder Ali had quickly put this down.

Hyder Ali expected to receive assistance from the French, especially in the Carnatic, the territory he sought to conquer.

However, diplomatic actions by Governor Warren Hastings and the Company successfully convinced both the Nizam and the Marathas not to take up arms, and Hyder Ali ended up fighting the war on his own.

Hyder Ali successfully gained alliances with Ali Raja Bibi Junumabe II of Cannanore Arakkal Kingdom and the Muslim Mappila community and later even met with Muslim Malays from Malacca, who were in Dutch service.

The Battle of Pollilur, where the forces of Hyder Ali effectively used Mysorean rockets and Rocket artillery against closely massed East India Company troops.

The army Hyder Ali assembled was one of the largest seen in southern India, estimated to number 83,000.

Hyder Ali himself organised the Siege of Arcot, while detaching his son Karim Khan Sahib to take Porto Novo.

Hyder Ali had in the mean-time descended into Tanjore, with severe consequences.

Hyder Ali's ravages were followed by alleged expeditions of plunder launched by the Kallars.

Hyder Ali then dispatched Tipu in an attempt to prevent the junction of Coote's army with reinforcements from Bengal.

Hyder Ali was defeated this time, although the battle was not decisive.

Hyder Ali's artillery was ineffective, and the re-provisioned Vellore, which had been on the brink of surrender.

Hyder Ali made an agreement with the Dutch to provide troops for its defence, but was himself forced away from Negapatam by Braithwaite.

Hyder Ali did not prevent the re-supply, but shadowed the British back toward Tripassore, offering battle near Sholinghur.

Hyder Ali immediately sent Tipu from Tanjore to meet with them, and followed himself from Arcot.

The onset of the monsoon season then suspended most military activity on the eastern plain, and Hyder Ali established his camp near Chittoor.

Hyder Ali was a bold, an original, and an enterprising commander, skilful in tactics and fertile in resources, full of energy and never desponding in defeat.

Hyder Ali was singularly faithful to his engagements and straightforward in his policy towards the British.

Hyder Ali's advisers tried to keep his death a secret until Tipu could be recalled from the Malabar coast.

Hyder Ali's accession was not without problems: he had to put down an attempt by an uncle to place Tipu's brother Abdul Karim on the throne.

In 1763 his allies, the Ali Rajas, sailed from Lakshadweep and Cannanore carrying on board sepoys and on its pennons the colours and emblems of Hyder Ali, and captured the Maldives.

Ali Raja returned to Mysore to pay homage to Hyder Ali, presenting him the captured and blinded Sultan of the Maldives Hasan 'Izz ud-din.

Outraged at this excess, Hyder Ali stripped Ali Raja of the command of his fleet.

In 1768, Hyder Ali lost two grabs and 10 gavilats in a naval skirmish with forces of the East India Company.

Hyder Ali was left with eight garbs and ten galivats, most of them damaged beyond repair.

Hyder Ali was an innovator in the military use of rockets, which were used against positions and territories held by the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars.

Rocket technology was already in use when Hyder Ali's father served, but it was Hyder Ali who improved them and significantly expanded their use in the military.

Hyder Ali organised companies of rocketmen who were experienced in aiming rockets based on the size of the rocket and the distance to the target.

At the 1780 Battle of Pollilur, during the second war, Colonel William Baillie's ammunition stores are thought to have been detonated by a hit from one of Hyder Ali's rockets, contributing to the British defeat.