The Historical Landscape
Documentary Record of The Baba Budan Hills
The history of the Baba Budan Hills survives in several different forms: long-standing traditions, government records, Inam proceedings, petitions, inscriptions, archaeological reports, administrative files and judicial records.
These sources do not all carry the same evidentiary weight. This history therefore follows the surviving documentary record while clearly distinguishing earlier traditions from events directly evidenced by contemporary or later official material.
Before the Surviving Archive
The Hills Before the Documentary Trail
The Baba Budan Hills possess a historical memory considerably older than many of the government records that now survive. Later official records preserve traditions concerning earlier grants, religious associations and the institutional history of the hills.
One important nineteenth-century Inam record states that earlier Inams were understood, on the basis of information and documents then presented by the Inamdar, to have originated under the chiefs of Anegondi. The original Anegondi grant itself has not presently been located in the surviving collection.
Source caution: the Anegondi connection is preserved in a later official record. It should not be represented as though the archive presently contains the original medieval grant.
Baba Budan and the Coffee Tradition
Syed Budan Shah Khadri son of Syed Jamal Shah Khadri grand son of Syed Ismail Shah Khadri from the lineage of Ali bin Abu Talib famously known as Baba Budan became inseparably associated with the mountain range that bears his name and with the historical memory of coffee cultivation in the region. Later gazetteers and historical accounts record a tradition that the coffee plant was introduced into Mysore by Baba Budan many generations earlier.
The association between Baba Budan and the beginnings of coffee cultivation became one of the most enduring traditions of Chikmagalur. The archive, however, distinguishes this broader historical tradition from later embellished versions of the story where contemporary documentary evidence has not yet been established.
Historical method: the well-known coffee tradition is preserved in later historical literature. Specific details should be evaluated according to the evidence available for them.
Inam, Purnaiyya and the Changing Land Settlement
Nineteenth-century Inam material preserves an account of an important administrative transition. The record states that earlier Inams were resumed during the administration of Purnaiyya and that other lands were subsequently assigned in substitution.
This later official record is important because it links the older Inam tradition with the documentary land-administration history that becomes increasingly visible during the nineteenth century.
Evidence distinction: the archive presently possesses the later record describing this earlier administrative history, rather than the original Purnaiyya order itself.
The Documentary Turn
The Record Becomes Clearer
From the nineteenth century onward, the history becomes increasingly visible through identifiable administrative records: surveys, Nirups, Inam proceedings, land transactions, government orders and petitions.
These documents allow the history of the hills to be reconstructed with greater precision. They also reveal that land administration, institutional management, coffee cultivation, succession and government supervision were interconnected but distinct subjects.
For that reason, this archive does not treat every reference to land, management or succession as proof of private ownership or of an unrelated legal proposition. Each document is interpreted according to its own purpose and context.
Nineteenth-Century Record
From Survey to Settlement
A growing documentary trail records the lands, coffee cultivation, institutional administration and government dealings connected with the Baba Budan Hills.
An early point in the surviving nineteenth-century documentary sequence.
Later preserved or referenced orders illuminate government dealings concerning coffee and associated lands.
A substantial administrative file forming part of the surviving Inam documentary record.
A surviving record documents a transaction concerning the Yemme Khan coffee garden.
Records earlier traditions and administrative history concerning the Inam lands.
Government proceedings continue the documentary history of the Inam settlement and administration.
Administrative files record succession proposals and disputes concerning particular lands and claims.
A court proclamation concerning coffee-bearing land forms part of the late nineteenth-century record.
Sajjada, Succession and Muzrai Administration
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a substantial body of petitions and government proceedings concerned succession, institutional management and claims by persons describing themselves as Hakdars or members of different branches.
Government proceedings in 1902 recognised Syed Murthuza Basha Khadri in succession to Syed Ghouse Shah Khadri alias Khan Bahadur in relation to the Sajjada or management of the institution. Subsequent enquiries examined competing claims, the administration of the Inams and the relationship between the institution, its manager and persons claiming participation in income or profits.
Later files—including the 1912–14 enquiry, the 1925–26 succession material and the renewed claims considered in 1930—show that these questions continued to receive administrative attention.
Important distinction: succession to an office, authority to manage an institution and a claim to participate in income are separate questions. The archive does not treat one as automatic proof of another.
Archaeology and Epigraphy
The 1932 Mysore Archaeological Department report provides a different kind of historical evidence. It records the cave and associated features of the Baba Budan Hills and documents Persian inscriptions as well as a Kannada inscription connected with a silver staff.
Among the recorded Persian inscriptions is one referring to Syed Meeran Shah Khadri, son of Syed Jamal Shah Khadri, and another associated with the Bhandarkhana entrance. The report also records the inscription on a silver staff associated with the Dattatreya Peetha.
The archaeological report is especially valuable because it records physical and epigraphic evidence rather than relying solely upon later narrative tradition.
Epigraphic caution: the archaeological investigators themselves observed that an inscription carrying an early date was not contemporary with that date and appeared palaeographically later.
The Late Mysore Period
The Revised Mysore Muzrai Manual of 1934 records the institution under the heading “Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy’s Darga” and describes it as an important institution visited by pilgrims. It also records the Sajjada, the associated Inam villages and an annual cash grant.
The surviving files then lead into the succession questions of the 1940s. A 1941 petition raised objections and historical claims, while later government proceedings record the succession of Syed Peer Mohammed following the death of his predecessor.
Government material records Peer Mohammed’s installation in July 1943 while he was still a minor, together with administrative arrangements concerning management and his education.
Source distinction: allegations made in petitions are preserved as the claims of their authors. They are not treated as established genealogy or historical fact unless independently supported.
A Major Transition · 1955
The End of the Inam Tenure
The Mysore (Religious and Charitable) Inams Abolition Act, 1955 marked a fundamental change in the legal framework governing religious and charitable Inam lands.
The legislation abolished the special Inam tenure and provided for vesting in the State subject to the statutory scheme concerning occupancy and other qualifying rights.
Later administrative and judicial records discuss the consequences of this transition in relation to the institution and refer to Tasdik arrangements. Those later findings are important evidence of the post-abolition history, but they are not substitutes for the original Baba Budan-specific vesting, occupancy and compensation proceedings where those primary records have not yet been recovered.
Post-Inam Administration
Administration and Litigation in the Modern Period
From the 1960s onward, the surviving history increasingly appears in administrative orders and judicial proceedings. The archive presents these events chronologically while distinguishing the contents of later judgments from the primary records they describe.
Wakf Administration
Later judicial records describe the inclusion of the institution in a Wakf list during the 1960s and the Wakf Board’s subsequent assumption of management in 1973. Where the original instruments are not presently held in the archive, these events are identified as later officially recorded references.
Judicial Proceedings
Litigation resulted in a District Court decree in 1980 and subsequent appellate proceedings. Later judgments reproduce or summarise important parts of this judicial history. The archive distinguishes the operative decisions from individual arguments and isolated findings within the litigation.
Muzrai Enquiry
High Court directions led to an administrative enquiry concerning historical practices and management. The Assistant Commissioner’s report and the Endowment Commissioner’s subsequent order became important parts of the later administrative record.
Fresh Consideration
The Karnataka High Court set aside the earlier administrative order and directed fresh consideration, beginning another phase of enquiry and litigation.
Reports & Government Action
Further proceedings included an Endowment Commissioner report, Supreme Court directions, later committee consideration and a State Government decision. Findings made in these later reports are identified as findings of those authorities rather than automatically treated as primary evidence of earlier centuries.
High Court Proceedings
In 2021 the Karnataka High Court quashed the challenged 2018 Government Order and remitted the matter for reconsideration. In March 2023, the Division Bench dismissed the subsequent appeal, leaving the result of the 2021 order undisturbed.
The Archival Principle
History Through Documents
Historical archives contain more than facts. They contain petitions, allegations, official decisions, remembered traditions, administrative findings, inscriptions, later reproductions and judicial interpretations.
Baba Budan Archives therefore identifies what kind of source is being used before drawing a conclusion from it. A nineteenth-century petition is presented as a petition. A later judgment describing an earlier order is identified as a later judicial reference. An original government file is distinguished from both.
This method allows the documentary record to remain visible—including its gaps, disagreements and unresolved questions—rather than forcing every surviving source into a single predetermined narrative.
Continue the Research
Explore the Evidence Behind the History
The detailed chronology, archive catalogue and individual document pages preserve the records behind this historical narrative.