Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/69

Rh the great chain of Gháts, which look down upon Malabar. It is inhabited by a sturdy and warlike race, the headmen living each on his own farm homestead, surrounded by the dwellings of his kinsmen, and his agrestic labourers, who were formerly serfs. By religion the Coorg Rájás were Lingáyats, and the word Bráhman stank in their nostrils. The mass of the people worshipped the sylvan deities, to whom many of the finest forests in the country were dedicated. The Coorgs appear to have maintained their independence, only acknowledging the jurisdiction of their own local chiefs, till the early part of the seventeenth century, when a scion of the Ikkeri house, previously mentioned, settled in the country as a devotee, and gradually obtained an ascendancy over the people, who made him yearly offerings, and consented to guard his person by sending relays of watchmen. In the course of a few years he felt himself sufficiently strong to declare himself ruler of Háleri and the surrounding districts ; and somewhat later all the headmen acknowledged him as their chief, agreeing to pay him one-quarter of their rentals.

When Haidar seized Bednúr in 1763 he affected to regard Coorg as tributary to that principality, and in 1765 sent a force to reduce the country, but was foiled in his attempt. In 1770 a dispute broke out in Coorg as to the succession. Lingaráj, uncle of one of the claimants, sought the aid of Haidar. who was only too ready to promise his support. The Maráthá invasion had caused Haidar to suspend his