A 150 years of forgetfulness is a long time in almost medieval conditions, especially after a king was hanged, his kin killed, fort razed, land ploughed and planted with castor or strewn with salt to make it desolate. And, with the name of his town expunged from the revenue registers, plus the very mention of his name being made equivalent to sedition, is like pouring acid (not just salt) on to a bare wound.

The East India company did all the above, and yet, Veerapandiya Kattabommu rose like a colossus 150 years later to take his pride of place among those who understand and value the idea of liberty.

The bravery of Kattabommu and his pursuit of freedom are never in doubt. However, a look into the facts and circumstances of the period is important from a historical perspective. This is especially since we know the level to which the British went to make people forget him, and the fact that he is considered the greatest freedom fighter ever from the Tamil region.

“A race of rude warriors, habituated to arms and Independence,” was how the late colonel James Welsh described the ‘Southern Poligars’ who ruled this part of the country in the eighteenth century. The Poligars were holders of estates called Palayams, which literally meant an “armed camp”. They were supposedly the guardians of the 72 bastions of the fort in Madurai, but in reality, the land was divided into provinces for better revenue management.

This system was followed by the Vijaynagara empire when it destroyed the Madurai sultanate, and by the Nayaks who succeeded them. Some of these 72 quasi-feudal palayams, each ruled by a Palayakkarar, were very small. There is also an account which says their sizes were roughly 33 villages each.

Besides rendering military services, a Poligar had to pay annual tributes to the British Raj. In return for these, the Poligar was entitled to collect taxes from the inhabitants of his estate and to exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction.

A large part of the Carnatic, south of the Kaveri, remained under the sway of the Poligars. The powers of the Poligar rajas continued to increase throughout the Nayak period and, by the end of the seventeenth century, some of the more dominant princes such as of Ramnad, Sivaganga, and Pudukottai had become virtual rulers. There were also smaller Palayams, and Panchalankurichi was one of them.

The ramparts of their forts, comprised of mud and baked in the punishing sunlight of the southern districts, outlived severe tests by the British artillery.

The Nawab of Arcot, who inherited the Palayakkarar system from the Nayakas, had a bohemian lifestyle funded by loans from British lenders at exorbitant interest rates. Heavily in debt, the Nawab was forced to cede the revenue-rich Tinnevelly district, including areas ruled by his Poligar vassals, to the East India Company. The Palayakkarars were not in line with British ambitions and emerged as a force to be reckoned with during the second half of the eighteenth century. The British, however, found the existence of a parallel authority prejudicial to their interests.

Puli Thevan, a Poligar who ruled Nerkattumseval, was notable for being one of the earliest to oppose British rule in India 100 years before the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. Sadly, he was decimated in a war against the colonisers. Subsequently, a local legend surfaced, peddling the belief that he had mysteriously “vanished” into a temple. Exasperated by this twist in history, the British resorted to publicly hanging their enemies thereafter.

The Appearance of Kattabommu

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the British enjoyed relative peace with the Palayakarars. It was then that Kattabommu, the Poligar of Panchalankurichi, could not completely pay his dues. His arrears of tribute amounted to 3,310 pagodas of which repayment of only 1,080 pagodas to the Crown remained. On 18 August 1798, Jackson, the collector of Trichinopoly, despatched an order directing Kattabommu to meet him at Ramnad in two weeks.

When Kattabommu arrived on time, he found Jackson had left on a tour of the district. Despite this humiliation, Kattabommu followed Jackson for 23 days in a journey spanning 400 miles through the latter’s route and reached Ramnad again.

Kattabommu, in spite of his quasi-royal status, was made to stand before the collector for three hours. When Jackson instructed Kattabommu to stay in Ramnad till he (Jackson) obtained certain clearances from Fort St George in Madras, the Poligar assumed he was being arrested and made a break for it. A British soldier, Clarke, was killed in a scuffle that ensued. Kattabommu’s vakeel (legal advisor) was slow to react to the situation and was left behind in the escape attempt. Oomathurai (the deaf and dumb brother of Kattabommu) was instrumental in saving the Poligar.

Post-this, Kattabommu did not want to escalate tensions. He had a company lobbyist in Nellai to whom he sent word for guidance. Subsequently, he was advised against rash adventure and asked to address letters to Governor Edward Clive, professing his loyalty to the Crown.

Kattabommu attributed the scuffle at Ramnad to the “rashness of Jackson” and requested the release of his vakeel. Fort St George, too, did not wish to risk unpleasantness because the Mysore wars had occupied its attention. Edward Clive later invited Kattabommu to submit to the Company. Assuring a fair investigation into the Ramnad incident and the Crown’s intent to remove all causes of suspicion, he suspended Jackson from office and released the vakeel from confinement.

Kattabommu appeared before the Committee of Enquiry, which upon a thorough probe into the circumstances that culminated in the clash at Ramnad, concluded that Kattabommu had indeed been humiliated. Jackson was condemned and Kattabommu was acquitted. But Panchalankurichi was required to make a provision equal to that of the salary of Clarke, who was killed in the scuffle, towards compensation for his family.

The British Grudge

But the British were not the ones to keep quiet. Vengefully, they held a grudge against Kattabommu. When Tipu Sultan was defeated, and their entire resources freed up, they turned their guns on the Palayams.

This time, the Company’s Major Bannerman wrote to Kattabommu to “meet him” regarding his arrears. When Kattabommu evaded the meeting, saying he had no auspicious date available, the British closed in on Panchalankurichi fort with all their might.

Six pounder guns were ordered to blow open the south gate, and a combined detachment of the Company and Ettayapuram, a neighbouring vassal, decided to attack the northern face of the fort.

The troops of the Poligars, directed by Oomathurai, held their ground with determination and threw back the hostile columns. Sustaining heavy losses and overwhelmed with despondency, Team Kattabommu ordered reinforcements from Palayamkottai. But realising that the fort was beyond repair, Kattabommu ordered a general evacuation. He was chased for a long distance and was finally captured by Raja Sri Vijaya Raghunath Tondaiman Bahadur, the king of Pudukkottai. There are records which state that the king was gifted control over Kilanilai fort in lieu of this service.

After a hasty trial, Kattabommu was hanged from a tamarind tree in Kayathar. His last moments are ironically recorded only by the enemy. Major John Bannerman wrote to the Madras Government saying: