Cite
MLA
“Battle of the Adyar (San Thome).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-adyar-1746/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Battle of the Adyar (San Thome). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-adyar-1746/
A small French force crossed the Adyar and routed the Nawab’s much larger army.
01The Nawab claims Madras
Anwaruddin Khan, Nawab of Arcot, had forbidden the Europeans to fight in his territory, and Dupleix had promised him Madras if the French took it. When Dupleix kept the town, the Nawab sent his son Mahfuz Khan with an army to besiege it. A French sortie in early November scattered part of his force with artillery fire. Mahfuz Khan fell back to San Thome, south of Madras, and held the line of the Adyar river.
02The crossing
A relief column from Pondicherry under the Swiss engineer Louis Paradis, of a few hundred French soldiers and sepoys, reached the Adyar. Without waiting for help from Madras, Paradis led his men through the river under fire, formed them on the far bank and fired volley after volley into the Nawab’s cavalry and foot, then charged with the bayonet. The army broke and fled through the streets of San Thome. Orme, the English historian of these wars, marks it as the moment the Europeans learned their power.
The Adyar convinced Dupleix that a few drilled companies could make and unmake Indian rulers, the idea behind his intervention at Ambur three years later.
