SARVAI PAPADU 17 century.. 18 century

 SARDAR SARVAI PAPADU OR PAPANNA GOUD. He rose to eminence from very humble beginning in   todays Telanga during the rule of Aurangzeb in 17 century and 18 century beginning. He was from the local community of toddy tappers.There are various versions about his place of birth, It is believed that he was born at Tatikonda or  shapuram near Warangal in 1650. He was brought up by his mother Sarvamma having lost his father early. He refused to be a toddy tapper the hereditary profession and as he grew up became very dynamic  and managed some wealth from his widowed sister  and acquired arms. He inspired locals against oppression by Muslim governor of Deccan and raised an army from oppressed class of society and fought bitter battles with mughal forces in Telangana. He built forts at khila shapur near jangaon 70 km from Hyderabad, sarvaipeta, tatikonda,cherial, vemulakonda and huzurabad. Shapur was his capital. He captured the very strong mighty hill fort at Bhongir at 40 km from Hyderabad, even warangal fort once the capital of Kakateeya kings and finally the Golconda fort  at Hyderabad too. He had sway over present day districts Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and part of Hyderabad dist and ruled with impunity for 30 years. He took up welfare measures and protected downtrodden and looted zamindars. He was considered as a Robinhood .Muslim historians portrayed him as an highway robber. He convincingly defeated Muslim forces and Bahadur shah I (son of Aurangzeb), the mughal emperror declared him as a ruler and gave him robes of honor and a farman.. However, his adversaries prevailed over the mughal emperor to withdraw the farman as Papadu was from very low caste of Toddy Tappers   and a large army was sent against him. Many battles were fought and his capital khila shapur was surrounded. Papadu escaped but was betrayed by a close relative to Muslims at Huzurabad. He was tortured and beheaded as per Muslim historians in1710 while local folklore states he committed suicide with a dagger. Papadu shines brightly in the minds of local folklore. His life had been described by two European historians who saw him during his life time(.Metcalf, Barbara Daly; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2002), A Concise History of India  Cambridge University Press). He was contemporary of shivaji maharaj. History books overlooked his achievements and local present day rulers turned a Nelson's eye towards him as he was against feudal community in Telangana like Doras and reddys in villages who exploited the poor to maximum. A statue of papadu is erected in the   village Khila shapuram and also on Bhongir hill  fort which he conquered. Ballads sing  the life history of Papadu. A telugu movie was also  produced  on Papadu with Suman as the hero.  The  fort built at shapuram was in bad state as was not being maintained well and last year during rains ,a portion of a large bastion collapsed  and timely repairs would have averted the  damage. Now the state govt is on the job of restoring the fort to its glory as it is a protected monument.This is a granite fort in which papadu fitted many cannons and fought several battles successfully.All efforts are being made by the Goud  society in telangana to give a proper place to papadu in history of Telangana and India.