Cite
MLA
“Siege of Arcot.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-arcot-1751/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Arcot. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-arcot-1751/
After a general assault failed on 14 November, Raza Sahib raised the siege and Clive kept Arcot.
01A raid on the capital
In 1751 Chanda Sahib and the French had Muhammad Ali shut up in Trichinopoly. Clive proposed a stroke at Arcot, Chanda Sahib’s own capital, which had been left lightly held. He marched from Madras with a small force of Europeans and sepoys through a thunderstorm and entered Arcot without a fight on 1 September 1751, the garrison having fled. As he hoped, Chanda Sahib sent his son Raza Sahib with a large part of the siege army to recover it.
02Fifty days
The fort’s walls were long and decayed, its ditch shallow. From 23 September Raza Sahib battered it with French guns and opened breaches, while Clive’s men, short of food, held them at night. Murari Rao’s Marathas, hovering nearby, and a relief column from Madras put pressure on the besiegers. On 14 November, the day of Muharram, Raza Sahib sent elephants with iron-plated heads at the gates and stormed the breaches. The attack was beaten off, and that night the besiegers withdrew.
Arcot broke the spell of French success in the Carnatic and began Clive’s rise; the British later counted it as the start of their power in India.
