It was in the early 1840s. Uncertainty loomed over Surpur, a small feudatory ruled by Nayaks (Bedas) under the suzerainty of the Nizam of Hyderabad. On the one hand, the province was in financial crisis owing to the huge amount of money paid to the Nizam government. On the other hand, the in-fighting for power had intensified following the death of Raja Krishnappa Nayak, the ruler of Surpur, in 1841.
When Raja Krishnappa Nayak died, his son Venkatappa Nayak was just seven. Though widow Rani Eshwaramma took over the reins, Raja Krishnappa Nayak’s younger brother Pidda Nayak was trying to capture power and the queen was struggling hard to retain power. It was at this turbulent time that the Nizam of Hyderabad appointed Philip Meadows Taylor as his political agent and sent him to Surpur.
Little formal education
Born in 1808 in England’s Liverpool as the eldest of five sons, Philip Meadows Taylor had little formal education. In 1823, Taylor’s family circumstances forced him to drop out of school to work as a clerk for West India merchants operating out of Liverpool. He could not continue in the job for a long time. Later, Taylor’s father made the acquaintance of a Bombay merchant named Baxter, who agreed to take Taylor as an assistant.
Talyor came to India at the age of 16 to work at Baxter’s small retail shop. Later, he joined the army of Hyderabad. His dedication, hard work, and ability to associate with the local people and learn local languages gave him better and more challenging positions in Hyderabad State. He held such posts as Superintendent of Bazaars and Assistant Superintendent of Police. Taylor has narrated his experiences of those years in his autobiography, The Story of My Life.
The entry of Talyor in Surpur in 1841 as a political agent of Nizam of Hyderabad turned out to be crucial in the history of Supur principality as Taylor not only doused the crisis and restored stability and order but also served the state as an efficient and pro-people administrator for next 12 years until Raja Venkatappa Nayak ascended the throne in 1853 at the age of 19 years.
Many initiatives
In the period of 12 years, besides quelling rebellion, Taylor took many measures to improve the administration, especially in the areas of revenue, police, education, judiciary and agriculture.
Taylor built many tanks across Surpur region under Nayak’s control that covered parts of present-day Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadgir and Raichur districts and provided irrigation facilities to the farmers. Because of the tanks he built at Kachaknur, Bohnal, Sirwal and Jewargi, farmers began cultivating paddy in large tracts of land in the area. He was the man who introduced and encouraged cotton cultivation in the region. Raichur, later, became Asia’s second-largest cotton market because of Taylor’s encouragement for cotton cultivation in the region. He started many schools. He offered help to people who were hit by drought. He was so popular with his people-friendly administration that he was fondly called “Mahadev Baba” by local people.
Taylor’s residence, which is now called Taylor’s Manzil, built out of his own funds on the top of a granite hill around Surpur town, demonstrates his taste and aesthetic sense. The Bungalow continues to amuse visitors with its unique architectural style and engineering techniques. There are four rooms and as many as 27 doors in the Bungalow. When any door of the building is closed or opened, all the doors shake.
Just opposite to it is the rock top where Taylor used to sit and watch Surpur, the capital of Surpur Samsthan. From the Taylor’s Seat, as it is known these days, the entire Surpur town, surrounded by the rocky hill range, is visible.
A painter, writer too
Meadows Taylor was also a painter, photographer, writer, historian and more. He is regarded one of the earliest hobby archaeologists of India who put Gulbarga on the global map of archaeology by discovering the megalithic settlements in Jewargi, Andola, Chikkanahalli, Kollur and other places. His archaeological discoveries were recognised by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) which paid tribute to Taylor in its The Story of Indian Archaeology, 1784-1947 by Sourindranath Roy.
Taylor was a writer too. His novels, namely, Confessions of a Thug, Tipoo Sultan, Tara, Ralph Darnel, Seetha and A Nobel Queen, give a vivid picture of Indian culture to the West. His autobiography was edited and published in 1878 by his daughter posthumously. Meadows Taylor had a great interest in drawing. His sketches of Charminar, Bidar Fort and other monuments are widely appreciated.
In 1832, Meadows Taylor married Mary Palmer, Eurasian granddaughter of General William Palmer who was the first military secretary to Warren Hastings, the British colonial administrator who, along with Robert Clive, was credited with laying the foundation of the British Empire in India. William Palmer later served as East India Company’s Resident at Hyderabad. It is said that he built the magnificent Bungalow on the top of a hill range around Surpur, which is popularly known as Taylor’s Manzil, for his ailing wife Mary Palmer as she needed a peaceful place to spend her last days. She died in 1844 at the age of 36. She was buried at the colonial cemetery near Lingasugur in Raichur district. Her tomb is still maintained by the local civic administration.
In 2012, Alberto Taylor, a dentist in California and the great-grandson of Meadows Taylor visited Surpur. “I don’t feel like a tourist in a new country. I can feel the connection between me and the people of this region,” he had said.
In his letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Yadgir, Alberto Taylor recalled the contributions of his great-grandfather to the region and appreciated the district administration for maintaining Taylor’s Manzil. He also drew the attention of the administration towards the poorly maintained road to Bohnal village where Meadows Taylor had built a tank and the pathetic state of the guest house that Taylor built there.
Raja Venkatappa Nayak
After Raja Venkatappa Nayak took over the charge as the ruler of Surpur in 1853, Meadows Taylor left Surpur. Trained under Meadows Taylor, Raja Venkatappa Nayak grew into a good ruler. It is said that Meadows Taylor taught English and other streams of knowledge to Raja Venkatappa Nayak.
When the First War of Independence broke out in 1857, Raja Venkatappa Nayak joined hands with the rebel leaders such as Peshwa Nanasaheb who challenged the British. His soldiers attacked the British army near Surpur on February 7, 1858, and killed many soldiers in the British army.
The next day, the Surpur fort was attacked by the British army. A huge army under the leadership of Colonel Hues also arrived from Madras. Since Surpur did not have a big army and firepower, it could not withstand the aggression of a massive British army. Raja Venkatappa Nayak managed to escape from the Surpur fort and reached Hyderabad seeking help from the Salar Jung family, the nobles under Nizams. However, he was captured and handed over to the British. He was later tried and sentenced to capital punishment which was later commuted to life imprisonment.
When Meadows Taylor met Raja Venkatappa Nayak in the jail, the latter reportedly said, “I am not a coward. If I am sentenced to death, I must not be hanged like a criminal, but killed at the mouth of a cannon.”
“Raja Venkatappa Nayak died in mysterious circumstances. He was found dead with bullet injuries. Some said it was suicide and others said that the British shot him dead. But his body was not brought back to Surpur. Nobody knows where he was buried,” says Bhaskar Rao Mudbool, a lawyer from Shahapur who studied the history of Surpur and the contributions of Meadows Taylor.
“Many monuments in Surpur are destroyed as they were not protected. Taylor Manzil will also meet a similar fate if the administration does not have a proper plan to protect it. If it is turned into a museum and library, which would shed light on Surpur history, it would be helpful to researchers to know the region in the 19th century,” Mudbool says.
