Place · Mysorean laterite fort · India
Palakkad Tipu Fort
Also known as Hyder Ali's mud fort, Hyder Ali's mud fort (1766), Palakkad
Rebuilt by Haidar Ali in 1766 in laterite blocks with a wet ditch and a square bastioned plan, to hold the Palakkad gap — the one easy break in the Western Ghats and the only straightforward road between the Tamil country and Malabar. It anchored Mysore's hold on Kerala until the Company took it in 1790.
- Date
- 1766 · 1790
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 10.782, 76.654
Worth knowing
The gap is also why Palakkad is the windiest district in Kerala and why the Bharathappuzha and the railway both run through it; the wind farms on the ridge above exist for the same geological reason as the fort below. The fort's interior is now a municipal ground, a library and a Hanuman temple.
Connections (1)
- Route adjacencyKodagu (Coorg)
Palakkad guards the one easy gap in the Western Ghats between the Tamil country and Malabar, and Madikeri commands the forested block to the north of it. Haidar Ali rebuilt the first and took the second, because Mysore's access to the Malabar coast and its pepper depended on holding both. The Company's Malabar campaigns of 1790 ran along exactly the same two lines.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Palakkad Fort”. Malabar District Gazetteer (1908); Archaeological Survey of India, Thrissur circle records.
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