Death of the Nabob of the Carnatic by Paul Philippoteaux

Anwaruddin Khan (1672 – 3 August 1749), also known as Muhammad Anwaruddin, was the first Nawab of Arcot of the second dynasty. He belonged to a family of Qannauji Sheikhs. He was a major figure during the first two Carnatic Wars. He was also

Subedar Subedar ( ) is a military rank in the militaries of South Asia roughly equivalent to that of a warrant officer. Historically classed in the British Indian Army as a Viceroy's commissioned officer, the rank was retained in the Indian Army an ...

of Thatta from 1721–1733. He also defeated the

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

on several occasions.

Life

Nawab Anwaruddin Khan was born at Gopamau, a place in the Hardoi district of

Awadh Awadh (), known in British Raj historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a historical region in northern India and southern Nepal, now constituting the North-central portion of Uttar Pradesh. It is roughly synonymous with the ancient Kosala Regio ...

, in 1672. He was the son of Haji Muhammad Anwar ud-din Khan. His official name at the height of his power was ''Amin us-Sultanat, Siraj ud-Daula, Nawab Haji Muhammad Jan-i-Jahan Anwar ud-din Khan Bahadur, Shahamat Jang, Subadar of the Carnatic''. He went to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and enlisted in the imperial army and soon rose to a high position. He was the Yameen-us-Sultanat (right-hand man) of Asaf Jah I (a.k.a. Nizam-ul-Mulk, Mir Qmar-ud-din Khan Siddiqi), the first

Nizam of Hyderabad Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I wh ...

. He was also the Governor of Eloore and Rajamundry after 1725, Minister of

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Faujdar Faujdar under the Mughals was an office that combined the functions of a military commander along with judicial and land revenue functions. The term faujdar contained pre-Mughal origins. During those times, the term referred to a military offic ...

of Korah and Jahanabad. He was granted the titles of Anwar ud-din Khan Bahadur by Emperor

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

'Alamgir, Shahamat Jang by Emperor Shah Alam I, and Siraj ud-Daula by Emperor Muhammad Shah. He was sometimes Naib-wazir of the Empire, Faujdar of Srikakulam, Rajamahendravaram and Machlipatnam in 1724 and Nazim of Hyderabad from 1725–1743. Muhammad Anwaruddin was appointed to Faujdar of Chicacole, Naib Subadar and

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

of the Carnatic during the minority of Saadatullah Khan II on 28 March 1744. After the death of, Anwaruddin was appointed by the nizam as his representative and Nawab of the Carnatic in July 1744. Thus he became the founder of the Second Dynasty of the Nawab of the Carnatic. Anwaruddin maintaining a cordial relationship with the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

would come into conflict with the French after the death of Nizam-ul-Mulk in 1748. In 1746, the French and the English fought to achieve supremacy over each other in India in the

First Carnatic War The First Carnatic War (1744/1746–1748) was the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession and the first of a series of Carnatic Wars that established early British dominance on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. In this co ...

. The Carnatic region became the arena of their action. In 1746, the French captured the British post at

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

, and threatened but were unable to take that at

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is a heavy industries hub and a port city, and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important city and port during the Britis ...

. Muhammad Anwaruddin had warned both parties against attacking each other, but the French had disregarded his warning, and

Joseph François Dupleix Joseph Marquis Dupleix (; Unknown – 10 November 1763) was Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive. Biography Dupleix was born in Landrecies, on January 23, 1697. His father, François Dupleix, a wealthy '' fermier gén� ...

, the French governor-general, had placated him by offering him Madras. However, after its capture, Dupleix rescinded the offer, and Muhammad Anwarudding sought to capture it from them. He sent an army of 10,000 men under his son Mahfuz Khan. They fought against the 300-man French force in the Battle of Adyar on the banks of the

Adyar River The Adyar River, which originates near the Chembarambakkam Lake in the Kanchipuram district, is one of the three rivers that winds through Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and joins the Bay of Bengal at the Adyar estuary. The long river contributes ...

, and lost. The decisive French victory demonstrated the effectiveness of well-trained European forces in combating poorly trained Indian troops. Muhammad Anwaruddin received overtures for support from both from the English and the French, but supported the English. The French wanted to reduce the growing influence of the English in the Carnatic, so they supported Husayn Dost Khan, alias Chanda Sahib, as the rightful Nawab of the Carnatic against Muhammad Anwaruddin. While the British and the French supported their respective candidates for the Nawabship, they also took sides in the conflict over succession to the

. After the death of Nizam-ul-Mulk in 1748, there arose a rivalry between Nasir Jung, his second son, and Muzaffar Jang, his grandson. Muzaffar Jang came to the south with a strong force and allied himself with Chanda Sahib and the French. The aging Nawab Muhammad Anwaruddin, supported by the English, met the French army at Ambur on 3 August 1749 and was killed in the battle at the age of 77. He was mentioned as the oldest soldier to die on battlefield in "Ripley's Believe It or Not," although erroneously described as 107 years old at the time. Ripley stated that the Nawab died of gunshot wounds but that has not been independently verified.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anwaruddin Muhammed Khan 1672 births 1749 deaths Nawabs of the Carnatic 18th-century Mughal Empire people People from Hardoi

Life

See also

References