हिंदीOn this day
Destroyed

Vasudevanallur

A town at the foot of the Western Ghats whose fort was one of Puli Thevar’s strongholds in his twelve-year war against the Nawab of Arcot and the Company. Little of the fort survives.

Built: Palaiyakkarar fort of the 18th centuryWhere: Tamil Nadu (Tenkasi district)9.24° N, 77.41° E
  1. 1755 CE
  2. 1761 CE
  3. 1767 CE
Photo: Pragya Sharan · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Puli Thevar’s western league

From 1755 Puli Thevar of Nerkattumseval refused tribute to the Nawab of Arcot and drew the western palaiyakkarars of the Tirunelveli country into a league against him and his Company allies. Vasudevanallur, under the hills not far from Nerkattumseval, was one of the forts of that league, with mud and stone walls and a garrison of the chief’s men. When Muhammad Yusuf Khan, the Company’s commandant, set out to reduce the western chiefs, Vasudevanallur and Nerkattumseval were both besieged.

02The last stand of 1767

Nerkattumseval fell in 1761 and Puli Thevar escaped. When Yusuf Khan himself turned against the Company and was hanged in 1764, Puli Thevar came back and took his lands again. In 1767 a Company force under Donald Campbell marched on his forts once more and took them. Puli Thevar slipped away, and the records lose sight of him after that. The forts were pulled down. Tamil Nadu remembers him at Nerkattumseval, where his palace ruins and a memorial are kept, and the people of Vasudevanallur count their town among his.

The life of this place

  1. 1755 CEPuli Thevar refused tribute and formed the western league.
  2. 1761 CENerkattumseval fell to Yusuf Khan after the siege of Puli Thevar’s forts.
  3. 1767 CEA Company force under Donald Campbell took Puli Thevar’s forts for the last time.

People

Puli ThevarWarrior
fought 1755–1767 CE

Puli Thevar

Palaiyakkarar of Nerkattumseval

Nearby

NerkattumsevalRuined
Company rule and the war of 1857

Nerkattumseval

The seat of Puli Thevar, the palaiyakkarar who from 1755 refused tribute to the Nawab of Arcot and the East India Company and was among the first in the south to fight them. His mud-and-stone fort fell to Yusuf Khan’s guns in 1761.

Sankaranarayanar Temple, SankarankovilStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Sankaranarayanar Temple, Sankarankovil

The temple where Devi Gomathi did tapas to see Shiva and Vishnu as one, and was shown Sankaranarayana, half Shiva and half Vishnu. Its Aadi Thabasu festival recalls that darshan every July–August.

Kutralanathar Temple and the Chitra Sabha, CourtallamStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Kutralanathar Temple and the Chitra Sabha, Courtallam

The Chitra Sabha, hall of pictures, among the five sabhas of Nataraja, stands a short walk from the Kutralanathar temple at the foot of the Courtallam falls; its walls are covered with painted scenes from the Puranas and Itihasa.

Andal Temple, SrivilliputhurStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Andal Temple, Srivilliputhur

The birthplace of Andal, the only woman among the twelve Alvars, who wore the garland meant for the Bhagwan and married Ranganatha. Its tall gopuram appears on the emblem of Tamil Nadu.