Purnaiya served as Diwan of Mysore under the young Krishnaraja Wadiyar III following the death of Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam in 1799, effectively administering the state under British oversight for over a decade. The British restored the Wadiyar dynasty precisely because they wanted a compliant buffer — Purnaiya, already a seasoned administrator who had served Tipu himself, was the mechanism through which that arrangement functioned. Coinage issued under his administration reflects this transitional moment, neither fully colonial nor traditionally sovereign.
The KM#187 attribution places this among a small cluster of issues tied directly to Purnaiya's tenure, which ended with his retirement in 1810.
Purnaiya served as Diwan of Mysore under the young Krishnaraja Wadiyar III following the death of Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam in 1799, effectively administering the state under British oversight for over a decade. The British restored the Wadiyar dynasty precisely because they wanted a compliant buffer — Purnaiya, already a seasoned administrator who had served Tipu himself, was the mechanism through which that arrangement functioned. Coinage issued under his administration reflects this transitional moment, neither fully colonial nor traditionally sovereign.
The KM#187 attribution places this among a small cluster of issues tied directly to Purnaiya's tenure, which ended with his retirement in 1810.