Cite
MLA
“Siege of Tellicherry.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-tellicherry-1779/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Tellicherry. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-tellicherry-1779/
Reinforced from Bombay, the garrison broke out in January 1782, routed the besiegers and captured their commander.
01A pepper port under blockade
The English had held Tellicherry since 1705 by grant of the Kolathiri Raja of north Malabar, and it was the Company’s main factory for pepper and cardamom on that coast. Haidar Ali had conquered Malabar in 1766. When the British took the French port of Mahe nearby in 1779, Haidar treated it as an attack on his own protectorate, and his commander in Malabar, Sardar Khan, closed in on Tellicherry. The town could still be supplied by sea from Bombay, but by land it was shut in.
02Abington’s sortie
Through 1780 and 1781 the garrison held its lines while Haidar’s main armies fought in the Carnatic. Late in 1781 Major Abington arrived from Bombay with reinforcements. On 18 January 1782 he attacked the Mysore lines, broke them and took Sardar Khan prisoner; the Mysore commander died of his wounds soon after. Abington then marched south and took Calicut. Several Malabar chiefs rose against Mysore rule, until Tipu Sultan came west to restore it.
Holding Tellicherry gave the Company a foothold on the Malabar coast that it used against Mysore in every later war.
