The Other Kingdoms

When the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb died in 1707, power in India did not pass to one new ruler. It broke into many hands. Besides the Marathas and the Sikhs, a group of regional kingdoms grew strong during the eighteenth century. Mysore in the south, Bengal in the east, Hyderabad in the Deccan, Awadh in the north and Travancore on the Kerala coast all shaped the years before British rule. Later came Jammu and Kashmir, and in the Himalaya the Gorkha state that became Nepal. This post explains who ruled them, how they rose and what happened to each.

Our old post on this topic was very short and hard to read. We have rewritten it in plain English and checked the dates against standard history references.

How the Regional Kingdoms Rose

Many of these states began as Mughal provinces. Their governors slowly stopped taking orders from Delhi and passed power to their own families. Others, such as Mysore and Travancore, were old Hindu kingdoms that grew larger once the empire could no longer control the south. To understand the empire they broke away from, read our post on the Mughal dynasty.

The Marathas were the strongest Indian power of the age. They raided and taxed many of their neighbours, and several rulers paid them tribute at different times. See our post on the Maratha Empire.

The Kingdom of Mysore

The Wodeyar Kings

Traditional accounts say the Kingdom of Mysore was founded around 1399 near the modern city of Mysuru by two brothers, Yaduraya and Krishnaraya. For a long time it was a small state under the Vijayanagara Empire. In 1610, King Raja Wodeyar I took the fort of Srirangapatna from the Vijayanagara governor, and it became the royal capital.

Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Wodeyar kings had lost real power. Hyder Ali, a soldier who rose to become commander in chief, was the true ruler of Mysore by 1761. He conquered Bednur, invaded the Malabar coast, took Calicut in 1766 and pushed the borders north to Dharwad and Bellary.

His son Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore, ruled from 1782 to 1799. He was a pioneer of rocket warfare and improved the iron cased Mysorean rockets that his armies fired at British troops.

The Anglo Mysore Wars

Mysore fought four wars against the British East India Company between 1767 and 1799. The Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad often joined the British side. Hyder Ali almost captured Madras in the first war. In the third war, Lord Cornwallis besieged Srirangapatna, and Tipu had to sign the Treaty of Seringapatam on 18 March 1792. In the fourth war, Tipu was killed on 4 May 1799 while defending his capital. Our post on the Fourth Anglo Mysore War tells that story in detail.

After Tipu’s death, the British gave the throne back to the Wodeyars under Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, but Mysore was now a dependent state. The British ruled it directly from 1831 to 1881 before handing power back to the royal family. In 1947, Mysore joined India, and it later became the core of today’s Karnataka.

The Nawabs of Bengal

Bengal was one of the richest Mughal provinces. Murshid Quli Khan became its first Nawab in 1717 and ruled from Murshidabad, which grew into the capital of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

Alivardi Khan seized power in 1740 after winning the Battle of Giria. His reign was troubled by Maratha raids. Between 1742 and 1751, armies sent by Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur invaded Bengal five times to collect a tribute called chauth. The raids ended only when the Nawab agreed to give up Orissa to the Marathas and pay them a yearly sum.

Alivardi’s grandson Siraj ud Daulah became Nawab in April 1756 at the age of 23. He quarrelled with the East India Company when it strengthened its fort in Calcutta, and his forces captured the city that year. A British army under Robert Clive defeated him at Plassey on 23 June 1757, helped by the betrayal of his commander Mir Jafar. After this, the Nawabs had no real independence. Read our post on the Battle of Plassey for the full story.

Hyderabad and the Nizams

The city of Hyderabad was founded in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth sultan of Golconda. Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687 and jailed its last sultan, Abul Hasan Qutb Shah,.

In 1724, a powerful Mughal noble named Qamar ud din Khan, known by his title Nizam ul Mulk, won the Battle of Shakar Kheda and took control of the Deccan. The emperor Muhammad Shah gave him the title Asaf Jah. He founded the Asaf Jahi dynasty, and his descendants, the Nizams, ruled Hyderabad from 1724 until 1948.

In 1798, Hyderabad became the first state to sign a formal subsidiary alliance with the British. Under this system, a ruler kept his throne but paid for Company troops based in his state, accepted a British Resident at his court and gave up control of foreign affairs. In September 1948, the Indian Army entered the state in Operation Polo, and Hyderabad became part of India.

Awadh

In the north, Saadat Ali Khan I was appointed governor of Awadh on 9 September 1722 and soon ruled it as his own state. His successor Safdar Jang moved the capital from Ayodhya to Faizabad in 1740. The Nawabs of Awadh were among the richest princes in India, and the British Resident lived at Lucknow.

Over time the Nawabs came to depend on British troops, and Awadh accepted a subsidiary alliance in 1801. On 7 February 1856, Governor General Lord Dalhousie deposed Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and annexed Awadh, claiming misrule. During the revolt of 1857, his wife Begum Hazrat Mahal led the resistance in the name of their young son, Birjis Qadr.

Travancore

In the far south, Marthanda Varma turned the small state of Venadu into the Kingdom of Travancore and ruled it from 1729 until 1758. In 1741 he defeated the forces of the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Colachel, a rare victory of an Indian ruler over a European trading power. In 1750, he dedicated his kingdom to the deity Sri Padmanabha and ruled as the god’s servant. Travancore lasted as a princely state until 1949.

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir was a later creation. Gulab Singh was a Dogra Rajput noble from Jammu who served the Sikh Empire. After the First Anglo Sikh War, the British took the Kashmir Valley from the Sikhs as war payment. On 16 March 1846, under the Treaty of Amritsar, they sold it to Gulab Singh for 75 lakh rupees. He became the first Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, and his Dogra family ruled the state until 1947. On 26 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the accession to India.

The Gorkha Kingdom and Nepal

The small hill kingdom of Gorkha grew into modern Nepal. King Prithvi Narayan Shah took the Gorkha throne in 1743 and began a long campaign to unite dozens of small states. He captured the Kathmandu Valley in 1768 and 1769, moved his capital to Kathmandu and used the name Nepal for his whole kingdom. After his death in 1775, his successors pushed Gorkha rule from the Teesta River in the east to the Sutlej in the west, until a war with the British ended in the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816.

Why These Kingdoms Lost Their Power

The regional kingdoms often fought one another. Mysore was crushed in war, Bengal fell after Plassey and Awadh was simply annexed. Hyderabad, Travancore, Jammu and Kashmir and the restored Mysore survived as princely states, with their own rulers but under British control, until India became independent in 1947. Nepal was the only one to remain a fully separate country.

Key Facts at a Glance

• Mysore: Wodeyar kings, then Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan from 1761 to 1799.
• Bengal: Nawabs from 1717, capital Murshidabad, power broken at Plassey in 1757.
• Hyderabad: Nizams of the Asaf Jahi dynasty from 1724 to 1948.
• Awadh: Nawabs from 1722, annexed by the British in 1856.
• Travancore: founded by Marthanda Varma in 1729.
• Jammu and Kashmir: created by the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846.
• Nepal: united by Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha from 1743.

What We Changed From the Old Post

We rewrote the post in plain English and gave each kingdom its own section with checked dates.

We corrected the Maratha raids on Bengal to five invasions between 1742 and 1751, and we replaced the claim that most kingdoms paid regular tribute to the Marathas with a more careful statement. We also explained the subsidiary alliance system.

We added Awadh and Travancore, which the old post left out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who ruled Mysore before the British?

The Wodeyar kings, and from 1761 to 1799 Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan.

Who was the first Nizam of Hyderabad?

Qamar ud din Khan, known as Asaf Jah I or Nizam ul Mulk, who took control in 1724.

When did the Nawabs of Bengal lose power?

After Siraj ud Daulah’s defeat at the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757.

Who founded modern Nepal?

Prithvi Narayan Shah, king of Gorkha, who captured the Kathmandu Valley in 1768 and 1769.