Veerapandiya Kattabomman and the Poligar Resistance at Panchalankurichi in Kovilpatti Taluk: A Historical Study
Keywords:
Veerapandiya Kattabomman; Panchalankurichi; poligar system; palayakkarars; Kovilpatti Taluk; East India Company; Second Poligar War; Madras Presidency; anti-colonial resistance; Tirunelveli history..Abstract
Panchalankurichi, one of the historic palayams (chieftaincies) situated within present-day Kovilpatti Taluk of Thoothukudi District, occupies a central place in the early history of anti-colonial resistance in South India. It was here that Veerapandiya Kattabomman, poligar of Panchalankurichi, organised a determined and ultimately unsuccessful stand against the revenue demands and political authority of the English East India Company between 1795 and 1799, nearly six decades before the wider uprising of 1857. This article traces the administrative background of the poligar system in the Tirunelveli-Thoothukudi region, the specific chain of events that led to armed conflict between Kattabomman and the Company’s forces at Panchalankurichi, his capture and execution at Kayathar and the subsequent Second Poligar War of 1801. Drawing on available historical accounts, the article situates Panchalankurichi’s resistance within the broader colonial and administrative history of Kovilpatti Taluk and assesses its long-term significance as an early episode of organised opposition to British rule in the Madras Presidency.
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