Colonel Mark Wilks

Mark Wilks came as an young officer to India, to work in East India Company in 1782. He rose in ranks and was a colonel during the Mysore war of 1799. Later he was the Resident of Mysore state between 1805-1808. He fully utilised this opportunity to study the previous records and write a comprehensive history of Mysore state from the early days - from the origin of Wodeyars to the fall of Tippu Sultan in 1799. Hence Col. Mark Wilks may be considered the first Historian of modern Karnataka.

He was liberally helped by Dewan Purniah and his assistant Bachche Rao, in collecting Kaifiats (dynastic records) preserved since the reign of Chikkadevaraya (1672-1704). Many Palegars (local chieftains) had their family-history written in Persian language. Mark Wilks also used Col. Mackenzie's unique collection of manuscripts and inscriptions and British factory records preserved at Fort St. George in Madras (now Chennai). These sources provided him authentic historical information.

Those were early years of British reign. Imperialism had not strengthened its sway and many British officers like Col. Sleeman and Col. Wilks were appreciative of Indian traditions and have left an accurate and authentic account behind. Wilks had participated in the Mysore war of 1799 and knew the men and events first hand.

From the boundary of Kannada speaking region specified by Wilks in "History of Mysore", it is clear that the Mysore State controlled by him was much vaster than the present day Karnataka. From Bidar to Adoni, Gutti, Anantpur, all in present day Andhra-Pradesh now, Coimbatore, Pollachi, in Tamilnadu and Palghat-Nileswar, presently in Kerala, Kannada language and culture existed.

Wilks was highly appreciative of local self rule existing in Karnataka at that time. "Bara Baluti" or twelve representatives of different vocations like agriculture and other crafts from village community, participated in running the village administration. This interpretation of Ayagara system, described by Wilks was bodily lifted by other historians in following years. Battles and local skirmishes, victories and defeats did not affect villages. The victors did not interfere in local administration and business went on as usual. Villages were like small republics, self governing and self sufficient. Mysore ryots (farmers) were hard working, pragmatic and ever prepared to tackle natural disasters. Wilks knew Purniah closely and was able to study Hyder Ali's traits first hand. His assessment of Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan deserves special mention. "Hyder was an improving monarch and exhibited few innovations. Tippu was an innovating monarch and made no improvements. Hyder was seldom wrong and Tippu, seldom right in his estimate of character" was his observation. Another of Wilks's famous comment is "Hyder was born to build an empire Tipu was born to loose it!"

The book Mark Wilks wrote has a very long title. Historical sketches of the South India in an attempt to trace the "History of Mysore" from the origin of the Hindoo Government of that state, to the extinction of the Mohammadan dynasty in 1799, founded chiefly on Indian Authorities collected by the author, while officiating for several years as political Resident at the court of Mysore.

This book was published in three volumes between 1810-1817 A.D. and was reprinted in 1930 by the Government of Mysore. After his return to England, Col. Wilks had an eventful term in St. Helena. Napoleon was kept as a prisoner there and Wilks was the Governor for a short while. He was sympathetic and respectful to the defeated emperor. Napoleon used to remember him often when Wilks' successor accorded shoddy treatment. Mark Wilks had wit