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Siege of Nargund (1778)

VictorKingdom of MysoreHaidar Ali
1778vs
Nargund chiefship, a Maratha dependencyVenkatrao Bhave

The hill fort of Nargund belonged to a Brahmin family, the Bhaves, who held it under the Peshwa. Haidar Ali took it in 1778 as he swept up the Maratha country south of the Krishna.

Date: 1778Where: Nargund, Gadag district, KarnatakaType: Siege
Photo: Pragya Sharan · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Cite

MLA

“Siege of Nargund (1778).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-nargund-1778/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Nargund (1778). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-nargund-1778/

Result

Nargund fell to Haidar, who left Venkatrao Bhave in place as a tributary.

01The fort and its chief

Nargund stands on a long rocky hill above the black-soil plain north of Gadag. The Bhaves held it as a small chiefship under the Peshwas. After the defeat at Saunshi the Maratha forces in the region could not protect it, and Haidar’s army closed on the fort in 1778. Venkatrao Bhave held out for a time, but with no relief coming from a divided Pune he gave in.

02A tributary under Mysore

Haidar did not remove the family. Venkatrao kept Nargund on condition of paying a yearly tribute to Mysore. His loyalty stayed with Pune, and when Tipu Sultan demanded more tribute after Haidar’s death, Venkatrao turned back to the Marathas. That brought Tipu’s second siege of Nargund in 1785, and with it the Maratha–Mysore war. The Bhave family held Nargund until 1858, when its last chief, Bhaskarrao Bhave, rose against the British and was hanged.

Why it matters

Nargund’s capture carried Mysore’s border up towards the Krishna and set up the quarrel that started the war of 1785.

Places near the battlefield 5

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.

Badami (Vatapi)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Badami (Vatapi)

Vatapi, capital of the Chalukyas, set in red sandstone cliffs around the Agastya lake. Its four cave temples hold some of the earliest dated Hindu sculpture in the Deccan.

Banashankari Temple, Cholachagudda (Badami)Rebuilt
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Banashankari Temple, Cholachagudda (Badami)

The Devi of the Tilakaranya forest near Badami, kuladevi of the Chalukya kings, worshipped as Shakambhari who fed the world with vegetables in a time of famine. Her January jatra is among the largest in north Karnataka.

Mahakuta TemplesStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Mahakuta Temples

A walled group of early Chalukya Shiva temples round a spring-fed tank in the hills near Badami, still in worship after fourteen centuries. A pillar inscription of about 600 CE records the grants of the Chalukya king Mangalesha.

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.