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First Anglo-Mysore War

VictorKingdom of Mysore (with Hyderabad until 1768)Haidar Ali
1767vs
East India Company, the Nawab of Arcot and their alliesColonel Joseph Smith

The first of four wars between Mysore and the Company. Haidar lost the battles but won the peace, appearing outside Madras with his horse and dictating terms.

Date: 1767 – April 1769Where: Mysore plateau and the Carnatic plainsType: Campaign
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
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Cite

MLA

“First Anglo-Mysore War.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/first-anglo-mysore-war-1767/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). First Anglo-Mysore War. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/first-anglo-mysore-war-1767/

Result

After losing the field battles, Haidar Ali raided to within a few miles of Madras and forced the Treaty of Madras (April 1769), which restored conquests on both sides and bound the Company to help him if attacked.

01Coalition and battles

The war grew out of a scramble over the Northern Circars. The Nizam, first allied with the Company, changed sides and joined Haidar in 1767. Their armies came down into the Carnatic and were beaten by Colonel Smith at Chengam and Tiruvannamalai, and they failed at the siege of Ambur. Early in 1768 the Nizam made peace. The Company then went over to the attack, taking forts on the plateau and Mangalore on the coast.

02Haidar at the gates of Madras

Haidar won back Mangalore and the plateau forts during 1768 and then turned the war around. Leaving his main army behind, he rode with a picked body of horse through the Carnatic and in March 1769 appeared a few miles from Madras. The Madras council, frightened for its town and its trade, made peace on his terms on 4 April 1769: each side returned what it had taken, and the two promised to help each other against attack.

Why it matters

When the Marathas attacked Mysore in 1771 the Company did not keep its promise of help, and Haidar never trusted it again; the result was the far bloodier war of 1780.

Places near the battlefield 6

Chamundeshwari Temple, Chamundi HillStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Chamundeshwari Temple, Chamundi Hill

The family goddess of the Wodeyars on the hill above Mysuru, the city named after the buffalo-demon she killed. On Vijayadashami her murti rides through the city on the golden howdah of the Dasara elephant.

SrirangapatnaStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Srirangapatna

An island in the Kaveri, sacred to Ranganatha as the first of the five Rangas along the river. It was the Wodeyar capital from 1610, then the seat of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, who died here in the siege of 4 May 1799.

Srikanteshwara (Nanjundeshwara) Temple, NanjangudStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Srikanteshwara (Nanjundeshwara) Temple, Nanjangud

The Dakshina Kashi on the Kapila (Kabini) river, where Shiva is worshipped as the lord who swallowed the poison from the churning of the ocean. Its towering gopura is one of the tallest in Karnataka.

Keshava Temple, SomanathapuraStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Keshava Temple, Somanathapura

A complete late Hoysala temple of three star-shaped shrines, built by a general in 1268 in the village he founded. Its sculptors signed their work.

Melukote (Tirunarayanapura)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Melukote (Tirunarayanapura)

The hill town where Ramanujacharya lived for about twelve years in the Hoysala country. Its festival murti, the tradition says, he brought back from Delhi himself.

TalakadRuined
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Talakad

The old Ganga capital on a bend of the Kaveri, fought over by Cholas and Hoysalas, now half swallowed by sand. Its five Shiva temples are dug out for the Panchalinga Darshana held at long intervals.