Coorg has been a portion of the British dominions since 1834, when the last Rajah was deposed. The old Rajahs were not Coorgs, but Hindu Lingayets, a peculiar sect whose members wear a small god round their necks, in a little silver coffer.[468] The family had certainly reigned in Coorg since 1633; and Dodda Virappa, who died in 1734, fixed the seat of government at Mercara, and was the greatest prince of his family. He repulsed a simultaneous invasion of the Mysore Rajah and the Nairs of Malabar, and afterwards reigned in peace for eighteen years. Hyder Ali invaded and overran the country several times, but in 1788 the young Rajah Viraraja rallied the people round him, disputed every inch of ground against Tippoo's invading army, and made an alliance with the English in Malabar. On the fall of Tippoo a treaty was signed between the East India Company and Viraraja of Coorg, who died in 1807, leaving the country to his favourite daughter Devammaji. His brother Lingaraja, however, usurped the throne. He was a monster of cruelty, and, dying in 1820, was succeeded by his still more brutal son Viraraja, who massacred all his father's friends, together with the poor young princess Devammaji. Her sister, who had married a Coorg, escaped into British territory. It would be too revolting to recount all the atrocities of the last Rajah of Coorg; but at length the patience of Lord William Bentinck was exhausted, and in April 1834 General Fraser entered Mercara, and deposed him. Coorg has since been governed by an English Superintendent, under the orders of the Commissioners of Mysore.

The Kodagas or Coorgs are a tall, muscular, broad-chested, well-favoured race of mountaineers, numbering about 25,000, with a population rapidly increasing since the deposition of the Rajah.[469] They are of Dravidian origin, and speak a dialect of Canarese; but a colony of Brahmins early settled in the country, and endeavoured to mould the traditions of the Coorgs into harmony with their own legends. These are embodied in the Cauvery Purana, where there is a romantic account of the origin of that important river, which rises in the mountains of Coorg.

In the Mahabharata it is related that the amrit or drink of immortality, which had been lost in the waters of the Deluge, was recovered by the Suras and Asuras, gods and demons, by churning the ocean. The Asuras are then said to have stolen it, and it was finally restored to the gods by the maiden Lopamudre, who charmed the Asuras by her beauty. The fair damsel then resolved to become a river, and thus pour herself out in blessings over the earth. But the sage Aghastya, so famous in the history of Madura, was enamoured of her, and she at length so far yielded as to consent to be his wife, on condition that she should be at liberty to forsake him the first time he left her alone. One day he went to a short distance to bathe, when Lopamudre immediately gratified her early longings, by jumping into Aghastya's holy tank, and flowing forth as the river Cauvery. The sage, on his return, ran after her, but the only consolation that was left to him was to explain to his beloved the course she ought to take in flowing towards the eastern sea.

The Cauvery Brahmins, as persons of that caste are called in Coorg, wear the sacred thread, and perform poojah to Amma, the goddess of the river. They number about forty families, but are fast dying out. They are often very rich, and are employed in the pagoda, or as clerks in the Superintendent's office. The Coorgs themselves, the inhabitants of this mountainous district, are divided into thirteen castes.[470] They generally retain the old devil-worship of the Scythic or Dravidian race from which they are descended, and are addicted to the use of charms and sorceries. They marry at a ripe age, but the wives of brothers are considered as common property. All the men wear a silver-mounted dagger, secured round the waist by a silver chain; and the women, who are often very pretty, wear a white cotton cloth round the head, with the ends hanging half-way down the back. The men are an independent, hard-working race, tall, with comparatively fair skins. They are very keen sportsmen, and most of them possess a gun, the boys practising with pellet-bows.

Coorg consists of a succession of lofty wooded ridges and long deep valleys, forty miles broad by sixty long, between lat. 12° and 13° N. It is bounded on the north by the river Hemavati, on the south by the Tambacheri pass, on the west by Malabar and South Canara, and on the east by Mysore. South of Mercara the country appears covered with forest, wave upon wave of wooded mountain ranges rising one behind the other, the highest peak of all having its summit partially bare of trees, and covered with rich herbage. The elevations above the sea are as follows:—

Tadiandamol (the highest peak)5781feet
Pushpagiri (another peak)5682
Mercara4506
Virarajendrapett3399
Fraserpett3200

The river Cauvery drains about four-fifths of the surface of Coorg, while about a dozen streams, issuing from the same hill region, traverse Malabar and South Canara. From the end of December to the end of March rain is very scarce, but the valleys are seldom without fogs more or less dense in the evenings and mornings, and heavy dews are frequent. During these months a dry east wind prevails, which has long ceased to carry rain with it from the Bay of Bengal. Towards the end of March clouds begin to collect, and the air grows moister. In April and May there are thunderstorms and frequent showers, with a warm and moist climate. In the end of May the clouds in the western sky grow in strength; and in June rain prevails, descending at times softly, but generally with great violence, accompanied by heavy gusts of westerly wind. In July and August the rain pours down in floods day and night, to such a degree that a flat country would be deluged, but Coorg, after being thoroughly bathed, sends off the water to the east and west by her numerous valleys. The yearly fall of rain often exceeds 160 inches. In September the sun breaks through, in October a north-east wind clears the sky, in November showers fall over Coorg, being the tail of the north-east monsoon, and December is often foggy.[471] The following table will give an idea of the annual temperature of Mercara,[472] the extremes ranging from 52° to 82°, and the average being 60°:—

Mercara, the Capital of Coorg
1836-37.
MONTH.Mean Temperature.Rainfall in Inches.Prevailing Wind.
6 A.M.10 A.M.
January5669None.N.E.
February6074None.E.N.E.
March64761.3Variable.
April65780.2Variable.
May63727.6N.W.
June626820.8W.N.W.
July626423.7W.N.W.
August606324.7W.N.W.
September62677W.N.W.
October63680.5W.N.W.
November60701.5E.N.E.
December58700.07N.E.

An immense quantity of rice is cultivated in the Coorg valleys, and largely exported, but scarcely any dry grain is raised. In 1853 the rice harvest was said to have been worth seven lacs of rupees. The Coorgs pay so much on the seed sown, as a land-tax, besides a small house-tax, and the cardamom sales yield about 35,000 Rs.[473]

Coffee cultivation was only commenced in Coorg about six years ago, but its extension both amongst natives and Europeans has since been very remarkable. There are now more than a dozen plantations owned by Europeans, chiefly near the road leading down the ghaut from Mercara to the port of Mangalore, and several thousand acres are already under cultivation. Mr. Mann, the largest proprietor, has upwards of 800 acres planted with coffee-trees. The natives too have shown great enterprise in undertaking a cultivation previously unknown to them, and there is now scarcely a hut to be seen without its little coffee-garden. All the plantations on the eastern side of Mercara, excepting one, belong to natives; and close to the town I observed a small clearing where a Coorg was hard at work building himself a hut, cutting away the jungle, leading a small stream into new channels for purposes of irrigation, and planting the slopes of two hills with coffee.