हिंदीOn this day

Siege of Dharwar

VictorMaratha army with a Company detachmentParashuram Bhau Patwardhan; Captain John Little
1790vs
Mysore garrisonBadr-uz-Zaman Khan

Dharwar was the first big action of the Maratha share in the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Parashuram Bhau and a small Bombay detachment sat before the fort for seven months, and it fell only when Bangalore’s capture left it without hope of relief.

Date: 18 September 1790 – 3 April 1791Where: Dharwad fort, KarnatakaType: Siege
Photo: Aakash.gautam · CC BY-SA 3.0
1 min read WhatsApp
Cite

MLA

“Siege of Dharwar.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-dharwar-1790/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Dharwar. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-dharwar-1790/

Result

After a siege of 29 weeks the Mysore garrison surrendered the fort on terms on 3 April 1791.

01The Patwardhans before Dharwar

Dharwar commanded the road from the Maratha south country into Mysore’s northern districts. Parashuram Bhau Patwardhan of Sangli, the Peshwa’s commander in the region, opened the siege on 18 September 1790. With him was a Bombay detachment under Captain John Little. The fort was strong, low and broad, with a wet ditch, and Badr-uz-Zaman Khan defended it with skill. Assaults failed and the siege dragged on through the cold season.

02Surrender on terms

Edward Moor, an officer with Little, later wrote a full narrative of the siege. Neither side could force the issue. What ended it was news from the east: Cornwallis had stormed Bangalore on 21 March 1791, and Tipu could send no army north. The garrison marched out on 3 April with the honours of war. Parashuram Bhau then moved on into the Tungabhadra country, and his men took a string of forts through 1791.

Why it matters

Dharwar returned to the Marathas and opened the way for Parashuram Bhau’s march to Shimoga.

Places near the battlefield 5

DharwadStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Dharwad

A fort town on the edge of the Malnad that changed hands between Vijayanagara, Bijapur, the Mughals, the Marathas and Mysore, and in 1824 was the seat of the collector Thackeray, whose attempt to seize Kittur ended in his death at Rani Chennamma’s gates.

Kittur FortRuined
Company rule and the war of 1857

Kittur Fort

The fort of the Desais of Kittur, where Rani Chennamma refused in 1824 to hand her state to the Company and her men killed the Collector of Dharwad at the gates. It fell that December; its ruins now hold a museum.

Renuka Yellamma Temple, SaundattiStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Renuka Yellamma Temple, Saundatti

The hill shrine of Renuka, mother of Parashurama, above the Malaprabha near Saundatti, with the biggest Devi fairs of north Karnataka. It was long linked to the devadasi custom, which Karnataka abolished by law in 1982.

Bailhongal, Samadhi of Kittur ChennammaStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Bailhongal, Samadhi of Kittur Chennamma

The town near Kittur where Rani Chennamma was held prisoner in the fort after the Company took her capital in December 1824, and where she died on 21 February 1829. Her samadhi stands in a small garden in the town.

Halasi (Palashika)Standing
The Gupta Age

Halasi (Palashika)

The Palashika of the early Kadamba kings, from which they issued copper-plate grants to Jain monks in the fifth century. Later a seat of the Goa Kadambas, it keeps the Varaha-Narasimha temple with its inscription of 1169.