The Battle of Pollilur (a.k.a. Pullalur), also known as the Battle of Polilore or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near Conjeevaram, the city of Kanchipuram in present-day

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

state, India, as part of the

Second Anglo-Mysore War The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in ...

. It was fought between an army commanded by

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...

of the Kingdom of Mysore, and a

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 South ...

force led by William Baillie. The EIC force suffered a high number of casualties before surrendering. It was the worst loss the East India Company suffered on the subcontinent until Chillianwala.

Benoît de Boigne Benoît Leborgne (24 March 175121 June 1830), better known as Count Benoît de Boigne or General Count de Boigne, was a military adventurer from the Duchy of Savoy, who made his fortune and name in India with the Marathas. He was also named presid ...

, a French officer in the service of 6th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry, wrote, "There is not in India an example of a similar defeat".

Background

Tipu prevented Baillie from joining another EIC force, consisting of two companies of European infantry, two batteries of artillery, and five battalions of native infantry from Guntur led by Hector Munro at Conjeevaram, while Tipu's father

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the at ...

continued the siege at

Arcot Arcot (natively spelt as Ārkāḍu) is a town and urban area of Ranipet district Ranipet district is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu, India, formed by trifurcating Vellore district. The Government of Tamil Nadu has announced its prop ...

Battle

Baillie's men, suffering desertions and uncoordinated leadership, formed a defensive square on a patch of high ground, with William Baillie leading a final stand. Cut off from both Conjeevaram and the stronghold of Fort St. George in Madras where a larger EIC force remained encamped, Baillie's men were caught in a double envelopment movement, encircled and routed. Of the men under Baillie's command, only 50 European officers and 150 men were taken prisoner after the "general massacre". Baillie was taken to

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 ...

(Srirangapatnam near Mysore in the present-day Karnataka state). Pullalur was also the site where the king of Badami Chalukya, Pulakesin II fought the Pallava king, Mahendravarman I, in the 7th century.

Aftermath

Baillie and many of his officers were captured and taken to the Mysore capital at Seringapatam. After British reinforcements from Calcutta arrived,

Eyre Coote Eyre Coote may refer to: *Eyre Coote (East India Company officer) (1726–1783), Irish soldier and Commander-in-chief of India *Eyre Coote (British Army officer) (1762–1823), Irish-born general in the British Army * Eyre Coote (MP) (1806–1834), ...

was able to stabilise the situation and counter-attack. A

second battle The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

was fought a year later in the same area.

Rockets

The Mysore rockets used during the battle were much more advanced than the

had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). At Pollilur, Mysore rockets restricted the British vanguard movement, skimming along the surface, lacerating troops, and in one specific instance, shattering an Ensign’s leg. After Tipu Sultan's eventual defeat in 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 ...

and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the

Congreve rocket The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve in 1808. The design was based upon the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Second, Third, ...

, which was soon put into use in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

.Roddam Narasimha (1985)
Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750-1850 A.D.
National Aeronautical Laboratory and Indian Institute of Science.

Gallery

File:The Battle of Pollilur - early 19th-century.jpg,

commissioned ''The Battle of Pollilur'' for the

Daria Daulat Bagh Daria Daulat Bagh (literally "Garden of the Sea of Wealth') is a palace located in the city of Srirangapatna, near Mysore in southern India. It is mostly made of teakwood. Srirangapatna is an island in the river Kaveri, about 14 km from ...

to monumentalize his victory; early 19th-century, gouache on paper, 10 sheets of paper on canvas, mounted on restoration fabric, 962 × 200 cm,

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individu ...

. File:Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam (2004).JPG, Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam (2004) File:Narrow Passage at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG, Narrow Passage to Colonel Baillie's Dungeon, Seringapatam (2004) File:Memorial Plaque at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG, Memorial Plaque at Baillie Dungeon,

File:Signboard at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG, Signboard at Baillie Dungeon,

File:Old Signboard at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG, Old Signboard at Baillie Dungeon,

File:Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG, Stones to which prisoners were tied, Baillie Dungeon,

File:William Baillie Memorial, Seringapatam.JPG, William Baillie Memorial,

File:Plaque of the William Baillie Memorial, Seringapatam.JPG, Plaque of the William Baillie Memorial,

References

External links

"Battle of Pollilur (1780)"
- A detailed historical analysis (and its importance in world history)

* Wilson, W. J
History of the Madras Army, Volume 2
{{coord missing, Karnataka Pollilur 1780 Pollilur 1780 1780 in India