Farrukhi – A capital shortlived
Posted by Labels: Calicut capital, Farokhi, Feroke - Tipu, Ferokhabad, Mysore SultansTipu Sultan’s new Malabar Capital and the Farrukhi mint
There is some mystery involved
in the town of Feroke, and its antiquity boasts of it being the capital of Tipu’s
Malabar, though quite short lived. The first hint of the town’s name comes from
Tipu’s own writings about his dreams, where he mentions of a particular dream
involving white elephants (and later, a second one dealing with a bear) from
China while returning from Farrukhi (near Calicut) and camped near Salamabad
(Satyamangalam near Coimbatore). More precisely, in history it is named as
Paramukku, a desam in Beypore amsham about 6 miles distant from Calicut town
wherein 1788 Tipu apparently built a fort and projected the founding of a new
capital. It is indeed cryptic and we have only very little information on the
establishment of Feroke and its instilment as a Malabar capital in the amsam of
Nelluru. Let’s take a look at what we have.
But before Tipu’s arrival in
Malabar, the region boasted an ancient habitat. Let us check out that story.
The person who brought it to fame was one Madam Blavatsky. Helena Blavatsky was
a very interesting person and deserves more than an article to just introduce
her. If you did not know her already, she was a Russian occultist, philosopher,
and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. Theosophy according
to her was reviving an "Ancient Wisdom" which underlay all the
world's religions. In 1880 she and her American husband friend Olcott moved to India,
where the Society was allied to the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement and
were later headquartered in Adayar. The couple became the first Westerners to
officially convert to Buddhism. Theosophy spread rapidly in India but
experienced internal problems after Blavatsky was accused of producing
fraudulent paranormal phenomena. In 1885 she moved back to Europe and published
many works, with “The Secret Doctrine’ as one of them.
In Secret Doctrine, she stated -
E. Biot, a member of the Institute of
France, published in his Antiquites de France, Vol. ix., an article showing the
Chatam peramba (the Field of Death, or ancient burial ground in Malabar), to be
identical with the old tombs at Carnac -- "a prominence and a central tomb."
. . . "Bones are found in them (the tombs)," he says, "and Mr.
Hillwell tells us that some of these are enormous, the natives (of Malabar)
calling the tombs the dwellings of Rakshasas (giants)." Several stone
circles, "considered the work of the Panch Pandava (five Pandus), as all
such monuments are in India, so numerous in that country," when opened by
the direction of Rajah Vasariddi, "were found to contain human bones of a
very large size." (T. A. Wise, in "History of Paganism in
Caledonia," p. 36).
Let us not dwell too much on it
now and go to another period, when Tipu Sultan following on his father Hyder’s
heels, decided to move his administrative headquarters to Feroke. Was it
because the old Samoothiri Kovilakom had been burnt down to ground after the
Zamorin immolated himself in 1766?
In English and Mysore records
you will find the town variously mentioned or transliterated as Ferokhi,
Furkhy, Farrukhi, Furruckabad or Ferrockhee, Feroke cutchery or Ferokhabad. The
translations and origins of the name Feroke are also varied while some
historians believed it was from a man of fame named Umar Farukh while others
insist it is Feroke meaning ‘prosperous town’. In Tipu’s writings, he calls it
Farrukhi. Some others explain that Farrukhi means happiness. Tipu also had a
coin mint established in the area, after destroying the Zamorin’s mint at
Calicut.
The joint commissioner’s report
mentions Tipus visit in April 1788 as when the decision was taken to move the
capital to Feroke. On the occasion of
this visit which Tippoo made to Malabar as sovereign, he projected the removal
of its capital from the old seat of it at Calicut, to a much preferable station
between seven and eight miles from its mouth (which is better adapted to become
a seaport than any other within the province), where he laid the foundation of
a fort and city, on which he bestowed the name of Furrukabad or Ferokhia, and
compelled the natives of Calicut, much against their inclinations,(though
apparently with the wisest political intentions) to remove thither: but since
the war in 1790, they have all returned to their former abodes, so that hardly
a vestige now remains of the new capital.
An analysis of the Farokhi
Pagoda (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 52) coin reveals the
following summary- This coin is known as the "Farokhi pagoda" and,
according to Hawkes, "is supposed to
have been so called by Tippu in honor of a new sect of this name." Others
state that it was so designated from the circumstance, that Farokhi was a title
of one of Muhammad's successors. Marsden (Vol. II, p. 717) observes regarding
the term "on some of the copper money we shall find it to stand,
apparently, for the name of a place, otherwise called New Calicut." At first I was inclined to adopt the last
suggestion, and there seems little doubt that in some cases the words Farokhi
patan do indicate that the coin was struck at a fort near Calicut, which,
according to Wilks, was called "Ferrockhee." In other instances this
cannot be the case. Thus on the hun described by Marsden, Part II, p. 716, the
place of mintage given along with the word Farokhi is Hyder Nagar (Bednur).
Probably the term was originally adopted as a pious token of respect for one of
Muhammad's successors, and subsequently in some cases did double duty by
expressing this and also the place of mintage.
The English reports of Tipu’s
rule (though it should not be believed as such) are not flattering. They state
- Calicut, having with other parts of Malabar cast off the yoke of Hyder, was,
in 1773, reconquered by the Mysorean ruler, whose forces were, however, in
1782, driven out by the British. Tippoo Sultan retook the place in 1789, and
treated the inhabitants with a studied and detestable cruelty, thus described
by Bartolomeo, who was then in the vicinity: "He was preceded by 30,000 barbarians, who butchered every person who
came in their way, and by his heavy cannon, under the command of General Lally,
at the head of a regiment of artillery. Then followed Tippoo Sultan himself,
riding on an elephant, and behind marched another corps, consisting of 30,000
men also. The manner in which he behaved to the inhabitants of Calicut was horrid.
A great part of them, both male and female, were hung. He first tied up the
mothers, and then suspended the children from their necks. The cruel tyrant
caused several Christians and heathens to be brought out naked, and made fast
to the feet of his elephants, which were then obliged to drag them about till
their limbs fell in pieces from their bodies." Such of the men as were not
immediately massacred, whether Brahmins or Christians, were forcibly subjected
to the initiatory rite of Mahomedanism, or at best had the option of submitting
thereto or being hanged. The foreign merchants and factors were expelled; and
with the view of utterly ruining it, the cocoanut trees and sandal-trees in the
adjoining country were cut down, and the pepper-vines torn up by the roots.
The
city was almost completely demolished, and most of the materials taken to
Nellura, six miles to the south-eastward, where they were used to build a fort
and town called by Tippoo Sultan, Furruckabad, or Fortunate Town, "a
fancy," says Colonel Wilks, "which afterwards nearly proved fatal to
his troops, by leaving them the choice of a ruin or an unfinished work as
points of retreat and rendezvous." In the latter part of 1790, the
Mysorean force, having been concentrated in the neighbourhood of Calicut, was
attacked by a British detachment commanded by Colonel Hartley, and totally
defeated ; Tippoo's general was made prisoner with 900 of his men, and 1,500
more laid down their arms at the "fortunate town," whither they had
been pursued by the conquerors. Under the treaty concluded in 1792, which
deprived Tippoo of half his dominions, Calicut fell to the share of the
East-India Company, and was formally incorporated with the British dominions.
After this event the scattered survivors of the population returned and rebuilt
their dwellings; and Buchanan, at the time of his visit in 1800, found the
number of houses considerable, and the prosperity and population rapidly on the
increased.
Before its
apparent destruction by Tipu, the town of Calicut apparently contained between
6,000 and 7,000 houses. When the province of Malabar was conquered by the
English, in 1790, the former inhabitants of Calicut returned to their old
abode. In 1800 Calicut again contained more than 5,000 houses. The new town of
Feroke, had thus, a short lifespan of only twenty four months - from May 1788
to December 1790.
I had covered the last battle at
Feroke in an earlier blog, but catching up to Mahtab Khan who had retreated to
Feroke, Mahtab Khan had retreated to
Ferokabad, and the Colonel resolved to pursue him, and accordingly marched next
morning, 11th December, but as he approached the place, he heard that Mahtab
Khan had fled the night before with 200 men, and all the treasure loaded on
elephants, towards Tambercherry Pass. Fifteen hundred men laid down their arms
as our Troops entered Ferokabad, Beypore, and all the vessels in the Calicut
Harbour submitted, and six thousand inhabitants. Colonel Hartley's success will
be followed with the most important advantages. The whole country is now
reduced from Tellicherry to Cochin, and the Zamorin again put in possession of
his hereditary dominions. He has sent out his Nayrs to clear the country of
Tippoo's adherents.
Now having seen what the English
had to say and the very little the Mysore rulers mentioned, let us go on to
study the antiquity of Nellura. In fact there are some doubts that the
Paramukku fort was built by Tipu. A study by S Nalapat states - Paramukku (The corner of Parappanad) now
called Feroke after Tipu named it as Ferokabad with a ferry (Beypuram ferry)
and 2 miles above it in Ernad is the field with megalithic remnants of old
Cheranad, Ernad families and ancestors. Beads and urns were excavated here. The
agate beads and urns are ancient settlement remnants of the people. Captain
Gillham found a very ancient fortress at the mouth of Beypore River the walls
strongest at west and northwest and north angles where foundations were 13’ across
and 2’-3’ deep commencing on coarse sand and shelly bottom. Southwest it is of
laterite stones and chunamb, and there are small portions of masonry and
concrete leveling. Who made that fort, a Parappanad Raja maybe? The
assumption that it was Tipu’s fort was by the British and not quite proven.
In reality, only a well and a
small building for storing magazine were constructed at the site. The remnants
of the fort built in laterite at Paramukku, Kottasthala, was declared an
archaeological monument in 1991 under the Protected Monuments Sites and Remains
Act of 1968. A well with a 12-metre diameter can be found in the compound with
two mini wells inside this huge well. There is a long tunnel that leads from
the premises of the fort to the river. Tipu’s dream of founding a new capital had to be
abandoned after he was compelled to retire to Coimbatore due to the approaching
monsoon. But it is certain that his administrative officers lived
in Farrukhi during 1788-1790. Tlpu
himself visited Malabar early in 1788 and made a stay of several months, during
which arrangements were made for transferring the seat of government from
Calicut to Feroke. Calicut was taken by British troops towards the close of
1790, and by the treaty of Seringapatam in 1792, the Malabar district came under
the jurisdiction of the East India Company. The usual spelling of the mint-town
is that given above, but on some of the coins it is 'Kallkut'.
From Tipu’s letters we can see
that in his communications during 1786 concerning Athan Gurukkal (who together
with other Malabar Moplahs are not considered as Muslims by Tipu!), Arshad Beg
is addressed as Faujdar of Calicut and Abdul Kareem as Sipahdar of Calicut. By
1788, he is seen to be writing to Husain Ali khan, faujdar of Farrukhi and
later Muhammad Ali, Second Diwan of Farrukhi , confirming that the move/change
of capital took place in 1788 and remained so in 1789. In his 1789 letter to Badruzzaman
Khan, he states “Seven months ago [that
is in August 1788] we proceeded in splendor for the purpose of settling the
country of Farrukhi (Calicut), when calling together all the Nairs and
Mopillas, we made enquiry respecting the state of the receipts and
disbursements of the rayats; and having ascertained the same, remitted a third
part of the amount which they had been accustomed to pay to the Sarkar,
delivering at the same time to every one of the rulers or chief men of the
country, a Hukm-namah (or mandate) to the following effect………In 1790, he
writes to Syed Abdullah “Through the
divine favour, and with the assistance of the refuge of prophesy (Muhammad) the
whole of the infidels inhabiting the districts of Farrukhi (Calicut) have
received the honour of Islamism [that is, have become Musalmans].
About the mint at Farrukhi, the
following is stated by Sanket and Kapoor - One
of the major mints during Mysorean rule over Malabar was Kozhikode (Calicut).
This mint struck gold and silver coins, generally fanams and rupees, as well as
copper coins. Coins have been recorded bearing dates 1195 AH to 1201 AH
(1215AM) which coincides with 1780-1787 AD. However in 1788 AD the mint in
Calicut was closed and destroyed and the Mysorean administration centre in
Malabar was moved to Farukhabad (Farrukhi). This newly founded mint took over
the tasks of the earlier Calicut mint. Gold fanams and copper paisas were struck
here. The last date recorded on coins from this mint is 1218 AM (1790 AD). The
fort at Farrukhi was taken by Colonel Hartley, after the defeat of Tipu’s army
under Husain Ali and the mint ceased was shut down.
Quoting Bhandare & Stevens, Farrukhi is the name was given to the place
now known as Feroke situated on the south bank of the Beypore River, about
seven miles to the south of Calicut. In 1788, Tlpu Sultan, no doubt prompted;
by similar reasons to those which led to the destruction of the town of Mysore,
demolished Calicut and commenced the erection of a fort a few miles away,
around which in course of time it was, hoped a new Calicut would arise. The
fort was still unfinished on 10th December 1790, when it was taken by Colonel
Hartley, after the defeat of Tipu's army under Husain All. The designation of
this mint is no more intelligible than are most of Tipu's newly invented names,
but in this case it has persisted to the present day, thus affording a solitary
instance of the term which he adopted coming into general use.
During
the Mysore occupation, currency m Calicut is seen to have undergone a drastic
change Initially, Tipu ordered a variant of the gold 'Vira Raya' Fanams to be
struck there This variety is inscribed with a Persian letter he and called the
'Bahadun Vira Raya' Fanam In tune with Tipu's currency reforms after he ascended
the Mysore throne in 1782, he introduced a Paisa-Rupee-Pagoda system in Calicut
He also opened a new mint in the region at Feroke (Farrukhi), located near Calicut,
which, during the later part of his reign, became the principal mint for copper
and gold While gold and copper issues of both Calicut and Feroke under Tipu
(namely fanams and paisas) are fairly numerous, silver is exceedingly rare for
these mints This phenomenon was probably an outcome of the large issue of
French and British silver fanams in the preceding years
 |
| Tipu's fort - Feroke |
PP Mohammed Koya writing about
Feroke states that the fort building started in April 1788, and the view from
atop the Mammally hill, 105 ft above provided a clear view of Kallayi, Beypore,
Calicut, Chalium etc. proving that it was a strategic selection for a capital
and a fort at Nallura. The fort was situated in a 9 acre area. Farrukhi was notable
for the imprisonment of Ayaz Khan and the hanging of the Mangat Achan. The
nearby Pettah housed the trade establishments and the ‘jivahani parambu’ was
where hangings took place. A mosque in that vicinity was where Tipu met the
Kondotty Thangal. It appears that there are still some Hanafi Deccani Muslim
families living in the area, remnants of Tipu’s soldiers and administrators
from Mysore. Later it became a camping area for British soldiers and was known
as Paramukku. The area behind the fort was the Kottapadam. Other place names
connected to this fort are Kottakadavu, Kottakkunnu, Kottasthala and Kottakkal
Puzha. It was later acquired by one Hofman, then the commonwealth works and
later Dr TP Muhammad.
So much for a capital of the
Mysore sultan, which remained a work in progress..
References
The coins of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan – JR Henderson
A Unique Over-struck Paisa of Tipu Sultan - Purnanand Sanket, Mohit
Kapoor
Dreams of Tipu Sultan –
Original letters of Tippoo Sultaun – asiatic annual register, For
the Year 1810-11.
"Bombay Billys" The British Coinage for the Malabar
Coast - A reappraisal By Drs. Shailendra Bhandare & Paul Stevens (Oriental Numismatic
Society Newsletter # 172, 2002)
Kozhikode Muslimgalude Charitram – PP Mohammed Koya
History of paganism in Caledonia – Thomas A Wise
Rock cut cave tombs of Feroke – A Aiyappan (Quarterly Journal of
the Mythic Society Vol.23)
The secret Doctrine - Blavatsky
Fort photo courtesy Kallivalli.blogspot
9 comments:
Thank you Maddy .....hope you will some day consider collating and publishing your posts as a treatise on Malabar history. I feel indebted to you for the sheer passion and effort you have put forth in dusting out our historical facts for all to read. Till few years back History was just confined to the halls of university to be transmuted into some dissertation to satisfy the faculty trends on the time. What you have done to Malabar history is akin and more to what William Dalrymple has done to Indian History. Thank you.
Thanks Maxbinder..
I will certainly try and get it all together, in steps. My plan is to start next year. and, readers....your encouragement is the most important part of it.
Hi Maddy - one little correction - Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were not married and were not romantically linked. Friends only - perhaps you could say teacher and student.
Thanks Walt
So corrected, apologies....
Awesome stuff ! Just what I was always looking for and never knew where to find ! My father is from Feroke and my mother from Calicut, and I've always had a lot of questions and fascination about the history of the region. Back in school, they never taught this kind of history and coming across your blog is like discovering a treasure trove. I shall be spending a number of days going over it :)
Your articles seem to be very well researched and written. Kudos !
-Akhil
Could you elaborate on why Tipu conquered Kerala and how is it not explained as a Genocide? Do you know how much of ethnic cleansing was done in that short period? Just because he faced tough resistance from British he fought agianst them, and now he's celebrated as "freedom fighter" as well. I don't understand the purpose of glorifying him. I am keeping religion out of equation so do not read on that lines.
Thanks Akhil
you will find plenty to read here..
glad you enjoyed this...
Kiron...
Yes, Tipu and Hyder did upset the entire social fabric of the Malabar at that time (not Kerala) and a lot of misdeeds were done by them. For us from Malabar, he was therefore no hero..But there is still no complete & authentic record of the Mysore Sultan's rule and British records are somewhat tainted..
On the other hand, if you view the British as the enemy, then anybody who was against them is a friend of sorts, perhaps that is the reason why some support Tipu.
"On the other hand, if you view the British as the enemy, then anybody who was against them is a friend of sorts, perhaps that is the reason why some support Tipu." - I can see where they come from, but it is a flawed logic. By that logic, Hitler would be a freedom fighter too, since he fought the British. Tipu is certainly no Freedom Fighter. He fought to save his realm from a bigger invader, not for the "freedom" of his country.
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