Cite
MLA
“Coorg War.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/coorg-war-1834/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Coorg War. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/coorg-war-1834/
Two Company columns were thrown back, but the Raja surrendered at Madikeri on 10 April 1834 and Coorg was annexed.
01Four columns into the hills
Coorg had been an ally of the Company against Tipu. Its last Haleri raja, Chikka Virarajendra, quarrelled with the Company in the 1830s, which charged him with misrule and with sheltering its enemies. In February 1834 Brigadier-General Lindesay assembled a force in Mysore and on the Malabar side. Because the roads were poor, he split it into four columns to enter Coorg from different directions and converge on the capital, Madikeri, which the British called Mercara.
02Somwarpet and the surrender
On 3 April 1834 the northern column under Colonel Waugh came up against a stockade at Somwarpet and was driven back with heavy loss by Kodava fighters led by Mathanda Appachu. Another column suffered the same fate. But other columns were advancing, and the Raja’s ministers opened talks. On 6 April the British agent was led into the Madikeri fort, and on 10 April the Raja, who had been at his Nalknad palace, came in with his family and surrendered. He was deposed and sent to Vellore and then Benares, and Coorg was annexed in May 1834.
The Coorg War ended the Haleri dynasty; the Kodavas, who had fought well in it, kept their right to bear arms under British rule.
