Nose is considered to be an important part of the human body and it is through this organ man breathes. Not only this is physiologically important but also significant from the point of beauty. Our poets are fond of referring to long and pointed nose as a sign of beauty immaterial of the sex. Thick nose (gedde mugu) is considered ugly.
The Chola sculptures are generally considered as examples of beauty because of their sharp nose. From all these, it becomes clear that nose occupied an important place in our personality. In the Hindi speaking belt, cutting the nose is an idiom which symbolises insulting a person (nak katna).
The antiquity of this practice is attested to by the epic Ramayana in which Lakshmana chops off the nose of Surpanakhi, the sister of Ravana. In fact this is a turning point in the epic.
In the history of Karnataka, many wars have been fought in which chopping off the nose was resorted to by the victorious army. The best example is that of a war between Kanteerava Narasaraja Wadiyar and Bijapur Sultan Ranadulla Khan. The Khan laid a siege to Srirangapattana in 1638 AD. The Mysore army had become famous for bravery and also for the intimidation through chopping off the noses of enemy soldiers.
In fact some highly alert soldiers were specially selected and given training in the act of cutting the nose. The army of Khan had suffered a defeat and hence they ran away and secretly occupied many nearby villages to invade again. The Mysore army came to know of this and chased them away. The army chief Nanjaraja (Dalavoy) with the help of his trusted men went to Maddur, Channapatna, Arakere, Melkote, Kikkeri, Nagamangala, Chamundi hill etc., dragged the soldiers of Khan's army and chopped off their noses.
It is said that twelve thousand of Khan's soldiers were involved in this single operation. The aftermath is more interesting. The nose - cut soldiers met the Sultan and described their agony. The Sultan felt sorry and rewarded them by grant of land and reserved a colony for their houses. Funnily, this Mohalla was named nose - cut colony!
Another battle is the Periyapattana battle. Again the Sultan's soldiers were defeated and their noses were cut off. The Mysore Wadiyar army had specialised in the technique of nose - cutting. This was evident in another battle. This time, the victim was Nayak of Madurai. In the first battle, Chamaraja Wadiyar defeated the Madurai Nayak. Later Kanteerava Narasaraja invaded Madurai and created great havoc. During their march to Madurai (1656 AD), they cut off the noses of Madurai soldiers, even of men and women. They collected all these cut noses in gunny bags and sent them to Wadiyar as a war trophy. This incident is famous in history as the hunt of noses.
This has been confirmed by a foreign traveller by name Nelson who was an eye witness. Another foreign traveller (Italy) Manucci while travelling in Madurai - Mysore area has stated that he was surprised to see a large number of people without nose.
Kesare is a part of Mysore city. A battle was fought here between Vijayanagar Tirumalaraya and Bettada Chamaraja Wadiyar. The Mysore soldiers had kept a special type of roundish knife secretly with them and cut off the noses of the enemy and won the battle. These soldiers were so swift that they suddenly fell on the enemy soldiers and even before they could realise what was happening, their noses were cut off.
Some of these adept soldiers were given the titles like, “expert nose – cutter”, “adept in nose – cutting” etc. The famous king Raja Wadiyar defeated the chief of Karugahalli in 1595 AD, imprisoned him and finally chopped off his nose.
An incident of cutting off the nose is reported from far off Kashmir also. The Moghul emperor Shahjahan invaded Srinagar which was being ruled by a Hindu king (Rana). The Moghul army had to make a treaty with the Rana and allowed their noses to be cut. The soldiers requested that their heads be cut off instead of their noses. But Rana refused. This has been recorded by the Italian traveller Manucci. Even the Moghul soldiers who invaded parts of north Karnataka had to lose their noses.
That this practice was ancient is attested to by Kautilya in his Arthashashtra. He has prescribed the punishment of cutting the nose and ears for the theft of pet animals and also for adultery. In the tenth century, this punishment was common in Kashmir. Here the nose - cutters were women.
A cook who was suspected of poisoning had his nose chopped off before his wife as a punishment. This punishment was in vogue even during the days of the Sultans of Delhi. The nose of the General Yaklakhi was cut off in public. Even Babur seems to have resorted to this as a punishment, for those who refused to join his army.
Many Kannada literary works also contain references to this practice. Some of these works refer to the methods of curing the wound caused by the cutting of the noses. The doctors used to remove the skin from the forehead and paste it at the place of the nose and applied some herbal medicines, and reconstructed the nose. The Italian traveller Manucci seems to have met some men who had repaired nose.
Our city's famous Plastic Surgeon Dr. Jayaram confirmed that Sushruta has referred to this Plastic Surgery in his work. That means plastic surgery of the nose was known to ancient Indians in general and physicians of Karnataka in particular.
It seems that there was a temple in Tamil Nadu and cut - noses were offered as naivedya to the deity.
The temple had appointed persons to bring the cut-noses for this purpose. Thus the practice of chopping off the noses has an interesting history.
This narration is based on Dr. Tamil Selvi's article on this topic published in Itihasa Darshana in Kannada. Those who want to know more should read this excellent article.
