This Mahommedan soldier-adventurer, who, followed by his son Tippoo, became the most formidable Asiatic rival the British ever encountered in India, was the great-grandson of a fakir or wandering ascetic of Islam, who had found his way from the Punjab to Gulburga in the Deccan, and the second son of a naik or chief constable at Budikota, near Kolar in Mysore.
The production of gold in India is practically confined to the Kolar gold fields in Mysore.
Modern mining at Kolar dates from 1881, but there are extensive old workings showing that much gold had been extracted under native rule.
Up to the end of 1903 the total output of the Kolar mines reached the value of £19,000,000.
The Cauvery Falls have been utilized for an electric installation, which supplies power to the Kolar gold-mines and light to the city of Mysore.