CARNATIC, a large district of Southern India, now included in the presidency of Madras. Though no longer recognized as a political or administrative division, it is of great historic importance. It extended along the eastern coast about 600 miles in length, and from 50 to 100 miles in breadth. It was bounded on the N. by the Guntoor circar, the limit being the small River Gundezama, which falls into the sea at Muntapilly, and thence it stretched southward to Cape Comorin. It was divided into the Southern, Central, and Northern Carnatic. The region south of the River Coleroon which passes the town of Trichinoρoly, was called the Southern Carnatic. The principal towns of this division were Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tranquebar, Negapatam, and Tinevelly. The Central Carnatic extended from the Coleroon River to the River Pennar; its chief towns were Madras, Pondicherry, Arcot, Vellore, Cuddalore, Pullicat, Nellore, <fcc. The Northern Carnatic extended from the River Pennar to the northern Emit of the country; and the chief towns were Ongole, Carwaree, and Samgaum. The Carnatic, as above defined, comprehended within its limits the maritime provinces of Nellore, Chingleput, South Arcot, Tanjore, Madura, and Tineveíly, besides the inland districts of North Arcot and Trichinopoly. The population of this region consists chiefly of Brahmanical Hindus, the Mahometans being but thinly scattered over the country. The Brahmans rent a great proportion of the land, and also fill different offices in the collection of the revenue and the administration of justice. Throughout the country they appropriate to themselves a particular quarter in every town, generally the strongest part of it. The country in former times was the scene of unremitting violence and strife between the ...numerous chieftains and petty potentates, among whom it was divided; and forts and fortresses accordingly crown almost all the elevated points. They are built of a square form; from the long period of internal tranquillity which the country has enjoyed, they are now rapidly falling into decay. Large temples and other public monuments of civilization abound. The temples are commonly built in the middle of a square area, and enclosed by a wall 15 or 20 feet high, which conceals them completely from the public view, as they are never raised above it.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, the Carnatic or Carnata seems to have been formed part of the Panja or Pandion kingdom; but about the middle of the 11th century it passed under the power of the Bclalas, a family of Rajput race, which at that time was making itself supreme in Southern India. Of the greatness of this dynasty the ruins of Bisnagar, their capital, still give striking witness; but it succumbed before the mightier Mahometan potentates.
The Carnatic was first invaded by this new power in 1310 a.d., when they defeated the Hindu sovereign and conquered the country, which, after being divided between the kingdoms of Bijapore and Golconda, became ultimately tributary to the sovereigns of the Deccan. In the 17th century it was overrun by the armies of Aurungzebe; but it was again dismembered from the Mongol empire in 1717, when Nizam ul-Mulk obtained possession of the Deccan and the south of India. In 1743 he appointed Anwar ud-Deen nabob of the Carnatic, with his capital at Arcot; in 1754 a competition for the government arose; and after a long and tedious war, in which the English and the French took different sides, Mahomet Ali was left in possession of that portion of the Carnatic which was the fruit of the successes achieved by the British. Central Carnatic was laid completely waste by Hyder Ali, but was again reconquered by the British in 1783. In 1801 all the possessions of the nabob of the Carnatic were transferred to the British by a treaty, the conditions of which were, that a revenue of several lacs of pagodas should be reserved to the nabob annually, and that the British should undertake to support a sufficient civil and military force for the protection of the country and the collection of the revenue. On the death of the nabob in 1853 it was determined to put an end to the nominal sovereignty, a liberal establishment being provided for the family.
The Southern Carnatic, when it came into the possession of the British, was occupied by military chieftains called polygars, who ruled over the country, and held lands by doubtful tenures. They were unquestionably a disorderly race; and the country, by their incessant feuds and plunderings, was one continued scene of strife and violence. Under British rule they have been reduced to order, and their forts and military establishments have been destroyed.
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