Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/41

Rh cultivating various crops and noting the produce and the market-rates, by which he arrived at a fair notion of the capabilities of each description of soil, and was enabled to fix an equitable assessment. During his rule the town increased rapidly, and became eventually of such importance as to merit the appellation of nagar, or city, the name which it still bears, while the possessions of the chief included not only the greater part of the Malnád, or hill region, but also the plain country below the passes extending to the western coast, now called Kánara. In fact the territory comprised nearly 10,000 square miles, while the Náyaks were at the beginning of the eighteenth century of greater importance than the Rájás of Mysore.

In this secluded region the Náyaks held undisputed sway for two hundred years, but did not advance their frontiers to any extent after the death of Sivappa Náyak, whose successors merely retained the possessions he had won. In 1755 Baswappa Náyak, the ruling chief, died, leaving his widow Virammají as guardian of an adopted son named Chenna Baswaia. This youth is said to have been murdered by the widow and her paramour, but the claimant who was presented to Haidar averred that he was in effect the heir alleged to have been killed, and that he had escaped the machinations of the Ráni and her lover.

Haidar, who derided the idea of hereditary rights, and was as unscrupulous as he was avaricious, was not slow to avail himself of the opportunity of