01Kongu against the Company
He was born in 1756 into a landholding family near Kangeyam, in what is now Tiruppur district. The Kongu country was then under Mysore, and he and his men fought alongside Tipu Sultan’s army in the wars against the Company. After Srirangapatna fell in 1799 and the Company took Kongu, he refused to accept it. He trained his men in the use of firearms with French help, built a fort at Odanilai, and joined the southern league of the Marudhu brothers and Oomaithurai, planning an attack on Coimbatore in 1800.
02Odanilai to Sankagiri
Tamil Nadu remembers his fights with Company columns on the Kaveri in 1801, at Odanilai in 1802 and at Arachalur in 1804. In the end he was taken by betrayal, the account goes, through his own cook, and brought to the hill fort of Sankagiri with his brothers. They were hanged there on 31 July 1805, the day of Aadi Perukku. A memorial stands at Odanilai, and the state marks the day each year.
