The Cotiote War (Kottayathu war) refers to a series of continuous struggles fought between the Cotiote king,

Pazhassi Raja Pazhassi Raja () (3 January 1753 – 30 November 1805) was known as Kerala Varma and was also known as Cotiote Rajah and Pychy Rajah. He was a warrior Hindu prince and de facto head of the kingdom of Kottayam, otherwise known as Cotiote, in ...

Kerala Varma, and the

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 ...

across a span of thirteen years between 1793 and 1806. Pazhassi Raja aimed to preserve the independence and unity of his kingdom while the East India Company were determined to annex and dismember it. His own desire for independence and sense of betrayal by East India Company on their earlier promise to respect his country’s independence combined with constant exhortations of two of his noblemen,

Kaitheri Ambu Nambiār, also known as Nambiyār, is a sub-group of the Indian Nair caste. Many were jenmi Jenmi is the term used to refer to the landed aristocracy of Kerala. They formed the landowning nobility as well as the landed gentry of the regi ...

and Kannavath Sankaran, led to outbreak of Cotiote War. It is the longest war waged by East India Company during their military campaigns on the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

– much longer than

Anglo-Mysore Wars The Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Kingdom of Mysore#Under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, Sultanate of Mysore on the one hand, and the British East India Company (r ...

, Anglo-Maratha Wars, Anglo-Sikh Wars and

Polygar Wars The Polygar Wars or Palaiyakkarar Wars were wars fought between the Polygars ('' Palaiyakkarars'') of the former Tirunelveli Kingdom in Tamil Nadu, India and the British East India Company forces between March 1799 to May 1802 or July 1805. T ...

. It was one of the bloodiest and hardest wars waged by East India Company in India – Presidency army regiments that operated suffered losses as high as eighty percent in 10 years of warfare. Cotiote army waged guerrilla warfare, chiefly centred in mountain forests of

Aralam Aralam is a village and Grama Panchayat in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. Demographics As of 2011 Census, Aralam had a population of 29,328 people which constitutes 14,438 males and 14,890 females. Aralam village spreads ov ...

and

Wynad Wayanad () is a district in the north-east of Indian state Kerala with administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, the southern ...

, and larger zone of conflict extended from Mysore to the Arabian Sea, from Coorg to Coimbatore. Warfare peaked in early 1797, 1800 to 1801, and 1803 to 1804 and due to constant reverses, Bombay regiments were withdrawn and instead Madras regiments were deployed with an increase in number of troops - from 8,000 in 1803 to 14,000 in early 1804. Cotiote War ended within months of the death of Cotiote leader, Pazhassi Raja in a skirmish on 30 November 1805. Following this war, kingdom of Cotiote was annexed into district of Malabar in the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

. The East India Company military had 6,000 men in the beginning which was increased to 8,000 in 1800 and to 14,000 in 1804 - Arthur Wellesley was in charge of operations between 1800 and 1804. Cotiote army manpower is not exactly known - estimates vary between 2,000 and 6,000. Cotiote army was well equipped with fire-locks, but ran short of musket ammunition after 1799 and so used bows and swords widely. 10 years of war had caused 80 percent loss in the East India Company ranks - both European officers and Sepoys. But no estimate is available about death roll in Cotiote armies.

References

{{British colonial campaigns Battles involving the British East India Company History of Kerala 1790s in India 1800s in India 1792 in India 1806 in India Colonial Kerala