हिंदीOn this day

Battle of Sholinghur

VictorEast India CompanyLieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote
1781vs
Kingdom of MysoreHaidar Ali

Below the hill of Sholinghur, crowned by its Narasimha temple, Coote caught Haidar Ali’s army in the act of forming up and beat it. It was the last of the three big field battles of 1781.

Date: 27 September 1781Where: Sholinghur, Ranipet district, Tamil NaduType: Battle
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Sholinghur.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-sholinghur-1781/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Sholinghur. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-sholinghur-1781/

Result

Coote surprised Haidar’s army near Sholinghur and drove it off; the road to besieged Vellore was opened.

01Marching for Vellore

After the drawn second battle at Pollilur in August 1781, Coote turned west to relieve Vellore, whose garrison was running out of food. Haidar shadowed him and took up a position near Sholinghur, the town below the hill shrine of Yoga Narasimha. On the morning of 27 September Coote came on the Mysore army sooner than Haidar expected, while it was still taking ground.

02The rout and the honour

Coote attacked at once. Haidar’s cavalry charged several times but could not break the Company’s lines, and the Mysore army fell back with heavy loss and withdrew from the northern Carnatic. Coote resupplied Vellore. Over a century later, in 1889, the Indian Army made Sholinghur a battle honour for the regiments that had fought there. After independence it was listed among the honours earned against Indian rulers that are not celebrated.

Why it matters

Sholinghur ended Haidar’s hold on the northern Carnatic and kept Vellore in Company hands.

Places near the battlefield 8

Yoga Narasimha Temple, Thirukkadigai (Sholinghur)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Yoga Narasimha Temple, Thirukkadigai (Sholinghur)

A ghatika is twenty-four minutes, and the temple says that one ghatika on this hill is worth a lifetime of prayer elsewhere. Narasimha sits here in yoga at the top of 1,305 steps, and Hanuman faces him from the smaller hill.

TiruttaniStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Tiruttani

The hill where Murugan rested, his anger calmed, after the war with Surapadman, and where he wed Valli. One of the six Padai Veedu, it is where Muthuswami Dikshitar sang his first kriti; S. Radhakrishnan was born in the town in 1888.

Vilwanatheswarar Temple, TiruvallamStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Vilwanatheswarar Temple, Tiruvallam

A temple on the Ponnai river whose walls hold records from the Pallava age, among them one of the earliest inscriptions to speak of the Tevaram singers. Sambandar sang it.

Manikandeswarar Temple, Tirumalperu (Thirumalpur)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Manikandeswarar Temple, Tirumalperu (Thirumalpur)

Tirumal is Vishnu and peru is what he gained: here, says the temple’s katha, Bhagwan Vishnu worshipped Shiva with a thousand lotuses and offered his own eye, and received the Sudarshana chakra. Appar and Sambandar sang it.

Vijayaraghava Perumal Temple, ThiruputkuzhiStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Vijayaraghava Perumal Temple, Thiruputkuzhi

Here Shri Rama performed the last rites of Jatayu, the vulture king who fell fighting Ravana. Pul is a bird, kuzhi a pit: the name of the village is the grave of Jatayu.

Jalanatheeswarar Temple, Takkolam (Tiruvural)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Jalanatheeswarar Temple, Takkolam (Tiruvural)

Tiruvural, the shrine of the spring, sung by Sambandar. Near it in 949 CE the Chola crown prince Rajaditya fell on his elephant fighting the Rashtrakuta Krishna III.

Vadaranyeswarar Temple, Tiruvalangadu (Ratna Sabha)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Vadaranyeswarar Temple, Tiruvalangadu (Ratna Sabha)

The Ratna Sabha, hall of gems, among the five sabhas of Nataraja: here Shiva danced against Kali and won with the Urdhva Tandava, and here Karaikkal Ammaiyar sang at his feet to the end of her life.

Jalakandeswarar Temple, Vellore FortRebuilt
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Jalakandeswarar Temple, Vellore Fort

A Vijayanagara temple inside the moated Vellore Fort, famous for the carving of its kalyana mandapa. It stood without worship for long years while the fort passed from hand to hand, and puja was restored in 1981.