A rare letter alerting the East India Company’s top military officials to the revolt of the Marudu Brothers of Sivaganga against the British has been discovered in the Government Archives in Chennai.
It was a communiqué about Srirangam Prakadanam (declaration) or Jamputheevu Prakadanam made by the Marudu Brothers on June 16, 1801, urging people to revolt against the British. Jamputheevu, also known as Navalamtheevu, is another name for India as it is surrounded by seas on three sides. The discovery marks the 222nd anniversary of the declaration.
“Wherever you find any of the low wretches, destroy them and continue to do so until they are exported. Whoever serves the low wretches will never enjoy eternal bliss after death, I know this,” says the declaration of the younger Marudu brother, who calls himself the “servant of the great Rajahs, but the implacable enemy of the European low wretches”. The declaration was posted up on Nawab’s palace in the Tiruchi fort, and on the walls of one of the ‘Poligars’ (Palayakars) at Srirangam.
The copies of it, described as “inflammatory papers”, were removed and Chief Secretary to the Governor J. Webbe wrote a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Agnew, who was commanding the forces in southern districts, about the declaration.
The British officials translated the declaration verbatim and enclosed it with the letter to Agnew. The letter, dated July 10, was discovered by G. Prakash, Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research; K. Vijayaraj, who is in charge of the archives; and R. Chitthanai, a staff member. “I am really grateful to Mr. Prakash and others who were able to trace the papers that tell the valiant struggle of the Marudu Brothers against the British,” said former IAS officer M. Rajendran.
The notice by Marudu Brothers was given “to the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vysyas, Sudras and Musselmen [Muslims] in the Island of Jamboo/in the Peninsula of Jamboo Dweepa.” It said, “Whoever reads this or hears of its contents, let him make it public.” “Everyone who shall not write it and circulate it as mentioned before, let him be held as guilty of the enormous crime of having killed a ‘Karam Pasu’ (a black cow) on the banks of the Ganga and suffer all the punishments of hell,” the declaration warned.
Brothers defeated
But the British pre-empted the Marudu Brothers. Four months after the declaration, they waged a war, defeated the brothers and hanged them at Tirupattur on October 24, 1801.
