The Battle of Seedaseer was a battle of the

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99. This was the final conflict of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British captured ...

on 6 March 1799 at Seedaseer (near present-day Siddapura,

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

), a hill and pass on the border of the

Coorg Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

and

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

country seven miles from

Piriyapatna Periyapatna is a Town located in Peiriyapatna taluka of Mysore district. The town is divided into 23 wards in which elections are held every 5 years. Location Periyapatna is located at . It has an average elevation of 849 metres (2769& ...

and with a view almost as far as

Seringapatam Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...

Battle

Lieutenant-General James Stuart and the

Bombay Army The Bombay Army was the army of the Bombay Presidency, one of the three presidencies of Presidencies and provinces of British India, British India. It was established in 1662 and governed by the East India Company until the Government of India A ...

of 6,500 under his command advanced from

Cannanore Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a Cities in India, city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city a ...

, aiming to cross the Western Ghats and converge at Seringapatam with the larger

Madras Army The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Government ...

advancing from the east. He then took up a defensive position on the Anglo-Mysore frontier to await further orders from General Harris, placing his right brigade in an advanced position at Seedaseer on 2 March so as to better receive Harris's orders. This was under Lieutenant-Colonel Montressor and was made up of what are now the 1st and 2nd

Maratha Light Infantry The Maratha Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It traces its lineage to the Bombay Sepoys, raised in 1768, making it the most senior light infantry regiment in the Indian Army. The class composition of the regiment ...

battalions and the now-defunct 1st Bombay Pioneers. He kept his other 2 brigades, the main body of his force, at Siddapura and Ahmootenaar 8 to 12 miles from Seedaseer. Receiving news of a possible Mysorean march Stuart reinforced the advanced position with one more battalion of sepoys. This advance was Tipu's main force moving to destroy the Bombay Army (whilst a small Mysorean force held off the Madras Army), and reached Seedaseer at 9am on 6 March 1799. Stuart led the Left Brigade there as reinforcements by 2pm, forcing Tipu to withdraw. The place where this battle took place was in the jagir of Nawab Subhan Khan, father of Nawab Qutub Ali Khan. This place was taken over by Government of India after Police action in 1948.

Estimation

The Governor-General wrote in his despatches to the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

's directors "I am confident that your most honourable Court will be of the opinion that the conduct and success of the Army of Bombay on that day t Seedaseerhas seldom been equalled and never surpassed.", and the battle's anniversary has been celebrated annually ever since as "Seedaseer Day" with regimental sports and, in the case of the 2nd Battalion, with a

pageant Pageant may refer to: * Procession or ceremony in elaborate costume * Beauty pageant, or beauty contest * Latter Day Saint plays and pageants, run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or by members local to the area of the pageant * ...

of episodes during the battle in replicas of the 1799 uniforms.

References

External links

*http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/indianinfantry/103rdmahratta.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20081013133631/http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/digital/seringapatam/letter.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20081120194931/http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/digital/seringapatam/other/stuart1799.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20110726145613/http://www.burmastar.org.uk/mli_chapter_9.htm {{coord missing, Karnataka Seedaseer History of Karnataka Seedaseer Seedaseer 1799 in India