Cite
MLA
“The Cattle War (Perumal Naik’s War).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/cattle-war-1756/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). The Cattle War (Perumal Naik’s War). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/cattle-war-1756/
The Danish post at Tillali was overrun and the Danes fell back into Tranquebar, giving up their hope of more land around it.
01A herd and a village
The Danes had held Tranquebar, with Fort Dansborg on the beach, since a treaty with the Nayak of Thanjavur in 1620. In 1750 the Thanjavur court mortgaged them four small villages nearby, redeemable at any time. Perumal Naik, the Raja’s new officer in the district, quarrelled with them over these lands, and on 17 June 1756 his men drove off a Danish herd. A sepoy party sent to recover the cattle was beaten back. Governor Krog answered by seizing the village of Anandamangalam and fortifying its temple.
02Tillali
Thanjavur gathered troops and demanded the village back. The Danes stayed and pushed a small detachment forward to Tillali, hoping for help from the French at Pondicherry; the French relief column was stopped by the English before it arrived. Early on 30 June Perumal Naik’s men, joined by regular troops of Thanjavur, stormed Tillali and killed nearly the whole post, including its captain, Hesselberg. After more skirmishing the Danes left Anandamangalam and withdrew to Tranquebar. The Thanjavur troops went home in July, and Krog resigned that year.
After 1756 the Danes gave up trying to grow their territory on the Coromandel coast, and Tranquebar stayed a trading town until it was sold to the British in 1845.
