TBE DVTCB EA.ST INDIA COMPA.NY A.ND MYSOllE

Transcription

1 TBE DVTCB EA.ST INDIA COMPA.NY A.ND MYSOllE

2 VERBANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE DEEL XXXI THE DUTCH E.4ST INDltf COMPA.NY.4ND MYSORE BY J AN VAN LOHUIZEN, Ph. D. Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y. 1961

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4 CONTENTS Page NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS, CURRENCY AND WEIGHTS VI PREFACE VII INTRODUCTION 1 I THE DUTCH AND HAIDAR AU, FROM ONE EMBASSY TO ANOTHER, YEARS OF GROWING ESTRANGEMENT AND HOSTILITIES, IV WAR WITH THE BRITISH, V THE DUTCH AND TI PU SULTAN, CONCLUSION 164 APPENDIX I: THE ORIGIN OF THE NAIR REBELLION OF APPENDIX 11: APPENDIX 111 : THE CONQUEST OF COORG AND CALICUT IN THE MYSOREAN-DUTCH AGREEMENT OF BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 INDEX 202 KAPS

5 NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS, CURRENCY AND WEIGHTS L.f.B. Letters from Batavia (Overgekomen brieven van Batavia) L.f.C. Letters from Ceylon (Overgekomen brieven van Ceylon) L.f.Cor. Letters from Coromandel (Overgekomen brieven van Coromandel) L.f.M. Letters from Malabar (Overgekomen brieven van Malabar) SeI. Dutch Records Madras s.l. Selections from the Records of the Madras Government, Dutch Records secret letter Although rupees and pagodas of different values were in use it will be sufficient for the purpose of this study to reckon as follows: 1 pagoda is approximately equivalent to 4 rupees or 8 shillings or 5 guilders. 1 lakh is 100, candy is 500 Ibs Dutch or 550 Ibs avoirdupois approximately.

6 PREFACE Only very few Dutch historians have been working in the field of the activities of the Dutch East India Company in India, and their main interest was often directed to the period in the 17th century during which Dutch settlements were founded in different parts of the subcontinent. Detailed studies by Dutch authors on the development of these settlements during the 18th century are lacking almost completely. As far as Malabar is concerned, the works of the English authors Day and Logan, published du ring the second half of the last century, have contributed to a wider knowledge of the Dutch in the later period. In more recent years Indian scholars have consulted Dutch documents either for the study of Dutch activities in Malabar (e.g. Panikkar and Alexander), or within the context of Indian history in the 18th century (Hayavadana Rao, Sinha and Khan). But the work of none of these writers seems to me entirely satisfactory, either because unfamiliarity with the Dutch language has resulted in errors, or, and more important, because these authors have consulted only a fraction of the Dutch sources available. They have restricted themselves to comparatively iew letters or some of the volumes of Dutch records published at Madras in the beginning of this century. The greater part oi these published records are Memoirs written by the heads of the administration at the time of their departure in order to give their successors some idea of their duties. They are oi value, and sometimes even indispensable, but their importance should not be overestimated in view oi the abundant mass oi other contemporary material. Another point in connection with the available sources is that although Malabar ranks as the most important area of contact between the Dutch and Mysore, there were others as weil, Coromande1 and, indirecdy, Ceylon and Batavia, which should not be neglected. Several episodes could not have been dealt with in this study if I had depended only on the sources which are concerned with Malabar. The chief material which I have used consists oi the manuscript records kept in the General State Archives at the Hague. These contain letters, proceedings, resolutions and other papers, which were regularly sent from the different settlements to Batavia, to Holland, and to one

7 VIII another. Most of these may be found in the hundreds of volumes of the "Overgekomen brieven", i.e. Letters sent from Batavia, Malabar, Ceylon, and so on. In addition, use has been made of some unpublished English records kept in the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Bodleian Library. I cannot claim to have stringently followed the Hunterian system in the spelling of geographical and personal names. In some cases I have preferred a spelling which, while being familiar to English eyes, stands nearer to the Dutch spelling of the name (e.g. Cranganore instead of Kranganur or Kodungalur), in a few others I have even kept to the Dutch spelling because the English equivalent, as far as I know, does not exist (e.g. the name of Cochin's chief minister). On the whole, however, the spelling of names is in accordance with Hunter's system, and I do not anticipate that the exceptions will lead to misunderstandings. I should like to express a word of thanks to Dr. T. G. P. Spear, Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, who acted as supervisor during my period of research for the Ph. D.-degree at Cambridge University. Although I am afraid that the subject of my thesis lay somewhat outside the field of his main interest in Indian history, his guidance and kindness have meant a great deal to me. I am also grateful to the staffs of the General State Archives at the Hague, the University Libraries at Cambridge and Leyden, the Bodleian Library, and to Mr. Stanley C. Sutton, Librarian of the India Office Library and his staff. The atmosphere of extreme friendliness and helpfulness in this treasure-house of orientalism is most stimulating to research. I further wish to thank Mrs. Th. H. J. de J osseiin de J ong at Leyden who was so kind as to look through the manuscript at an earlier stage and to suggest valuable corrections in the English. In this respect I also owe words of thanks to my wife who, besides, has always been a source of encouragement during the period in which this study was prepared. The mistakes which critical eyes are bound to find in the English are mine, but I take comfort in the hope that these errors will not prevent the reader from grasping what is really meant. Finally, my respectful thanks are due to the Board of the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde for its decision to publish this work in its series of Monographs. Amsterdam, May JAN VAN LOHUIZEN.