Cite
MLA
“Mysore Invasion of Malabar.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/mysore-invasion-of-malabar-1766/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Mysore Invasion of Malabar. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/mysore-invasion-of-malabar-1766/
Haidar overran Malabar; the Zamorin died in the burning of his palace at Calicut, the northern rajas submitted or fled to Travancore, and Cochin became a tributary of Mysore.
01Down the coast
Bednur gave Haidar the Kanara coast in 1763. Three years later he marched south into Malabar, invited by the Ali Raja of Kannur, an old rival of the Kolathiri raja. The small Nair kingdoms of the north, Kolathunad, Kadathanad and Kottayam, could not stand against his guns and cavalry. Their rajas submitted or fled south, many of them to Travancore, where Marthanda Varma’s successor Dharma Raja gave them shelter.
02The Zamorin’s end
The Zamorin of Calicut tried to buy peace and could not meet Haidar’s demands. Rather than fall into his hands, he shut himself in his palace in April 1766 and set it on fire, dying inside. Haidar took Calicut and pressed on to Palakkad, and the Raja of Cochin agreed to pay him tribute. Once Haidar left, the Nairs rose behind him, and Mysore had to fight for Malabar again and again for the next quarter century.
Mysore rule over Malabar lasted until the Treaty of Seringapatam in 1792, when the coast passed to the Company; only Travancore in the south stayed out of Haidar’s hands.
