हिंदीOn this day

Capture of Chingleput

VictorEast India CompanyRobert Clive
1752vs
French garrisonFrench commandant of the fort

With a force of raw recruits, Clive took the French post at Covelong and then the strong fort of Chingleput, clearing the country south-west of Madras.

Date: 1752Where: Chengalpattu fort, Tamil NaduType: Siege
Photo: Pragya Sharan · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Cite

MLA

“Capture of Chingleput.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-chingleput-1752/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Capture of Chingleput. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-chingleput-1752/

Result

After a short siege the French garrison gave up the fort on terms.

01A fort on the Palar

Chingleput, on the Palar south-west of Madras, was a Vijayanagara-era fort with a lake on one side and swampy ground around it. The French held it as a post on the road between Pondicherry and the country behind Madras. In 1752 the Madras council gave Clive a scratch force of newly landed recruits and sepoys to clear these posts. He first took Covelong on the coast, then marched inland on Chingleput.

02The surrender

Clive’s recruits were so green that some ran at the first shot, and he had to steady them under fire. He brought up guns from Madras and opened a breach in the outer wall. Before he could storm the inner works, the French garrison, cut off from Pondicherry, asked for terms and marched out. It was Clive’s last action before illness sent him home to England in 1753.

Why it matters

Chingleput became a Company stronghold covering Madras, and held out against Haidar Ali’s armies in later wars.

Places near the battlefield 8

Gnanapureeswarar Temple, Tiruvidaichuram (Tiruvadisoolam)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Gnanapureeswarar Temple, Tiruvidaichuram (Tiruvadisoolam)

Idaichuram, the pass between the hills, now Tiruvadisoolam near Chengalpattu. Sambandar sang it; the sage Gautama and Sanatkumara are said to have worshipped here.

Kachabeswarar Temple, TirukkachurStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Kachabeswarar Temple, Tirukkachur

Where Bhagwan Vishnu as the Kurma (tortoise) worshipped Shiva, and where Shiva begged food in the village to feed a hungry Sundarar.

Vedagiriswarar Temple, TirukazhukundramStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Vedagiriswarar Temple, Tirukazhukundram

The eagle hill: a temple on a rock said to be the Vedas themselves, where for centuries a pair of kites came at noon to be fed by the priest. All three Tevaram singers sang it.

Sthalasayana Perumal Temple, Thirukkadalmallai (Mamallapuram)Rebuilt
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Sthalasayana Perumal Temple, Thirukkadalmallai (Mamallapuram)

At Mamallapuram Vishnu lies on the ground itself, with no serpent bed, because he lay down where a tired sage left him. Bhoothath Alvar, one of the first three Alvars, was born here.

Shore Temple, MahabalipuramStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram

Rajasimha’s granite temple on the sea at the Pallava port of Mamallapuram, with two Shiva shrines and a reclining Vishnu between them. It has faced the waves for thirteen centuries.

Pancha Rathas and Arjuna’s Penance, MahabalipuramStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Pancha Rathas and Arjuna’s Penance, Mahabalipuram

Five temples, an elephant and a lion, each carved from a single outcrop of granite in the reign of Mamalla. Near them, the great relief of the Descent of the Ganga covers a whole rock face.

Tirumagaraleeswarar Temple, TirumagaralStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Tirumagaraleeswarar Temple, Tirumagaral

The Lord who appeared to a Chola king as a golden monitor lizard and vanished into an anthill; the linga is said to have the shape of the lizard’s tail. Sambandar sang his Vinai Theerkum padigam here.

UttaramerurStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Uttaramerur

A village of Vedic scholars where inscriptions of the Chola king Parantaka I, cut in 919 and 921 CE, set out in detail how the village assembly was to be chosen by lot from qualified candidates. They are among the oldest written rules for local self-government anywhere.