Palaiyakkarars, or Poligar, (as the British referred to them) in Tamil Nadu refers to the holder of a small kingdom as a feudatory to a greater sovereign. Under this system, ''palayam'' was given for valuable military services rendered by any individual. The word ''pālayam'' means domain,a military camp, or a small kingdom. This type of Palayakkarars system was in practice during the rule of Pratapa Rudhra of Warangal in the Kakatiya kingdom. The system was put in place in Tamilnadu by Viswanatha Nayaka, when he became the Nayak ruler of Madurai in 1529, with the support of his minister Ariyanathar. Traditionally there were supposed to be 72 Palayakkarars.The majority of those Palaiyakkarar, who during the late 17th- and 18th-centuries controlled much of the
Telugu region as well as the Tamil area, had themselves come from the
Yadhavar,
Kallar,
Maravar and
Vatuka,
pala ekari communities.
The Palaiyakkarar of
Madurai Country were instrumental in establishing administrative reforms by building irrigation projects, forts and religious institutions. The Palaiyakkarar who worshipped the
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...
Kali did not allow their territory to be annexed by
Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
.
Their
wars with the
British East India Company after the demise of the
Madurai Nayakas is often regarded as one of the earliest struggles for
Indian independence. Many captured Palaiyakkarar commanders were either executed or banished to the
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...
by the British.
Puli Thevar,
Veerapandya Kattabomman, the
Marudu brothers,
Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone,
Chinna Alagumuthu kone
Chinna may refer to:
* Earl "Chinna" Smith (born 1955), Jamaican guitarist
* Chinna, Dalmatia, an ancient Illyrian settlement
* ''Chinna'' (1994 film), a 1994 Kannada film
* ''Chinna'' (2005 film), a 2005 Tamil-language film
* Chinna (Telugu act ...
,
Maruthanayagam,
Dheeran Chinnamalai,and
Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy were some notable Palaiyakkarar who rose up in revolt against the British rule in
South India. Their wars against the British East India Company predates the
Indian rebellion of 1857 in
Northern India by many decades but is still largely given less importance by historians.
Role
The Polygar's role was to administer their Palaiyams (territories) from their fortified centres. Their chief functions were to collect taxes, maintain
law and order, run the local
judiciary, and maintain a battalion of troops for the king.
They served as regional military and civil administrators. In turn they were to retain of the revenue collected as tax, and submit the remaining to the king's
treasury. The Polygars also at times founded villages, built dams, constructed tanks and built temples. Also the rulers taxed regions according to the cultivable and fertility of the land. Often several new rainwater tanks were erected in the semi-arid tracts of western and southern Tamil Nadu.
Their armed status was also to protect the civilians from robbers and
dacoits who were rampant in those regions and from invading armies which often resorted to pillaging the villages and countryside.
Polygar Wars
The Polygar Wars were a series of wars fought by a coalition of Palaiyakkarar's against the British between 1798 and 1805. The war between the British and
Veerapandiya Kattabomman is often classified as the First Polygar war (1799), while the Second Polygar War 1800–1805 against the British was fought by a much bigger coalition over the whole of western Tamil Nadu headed by
Dheeran Chinnamalai and
Maruthu Pandiyar brother of the
Sivaganga.Final polygar war1847 against the British fought by Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy at kovelakuntla (Koilakuntla)
The Polygars often had artillery and stubbornly resisted the storming of their hill forts. The British columns were exposed throughout the operations to constant harassing attacks and had usually to cut their way through almost impenetrable jungles while being fired on from under cover on all sides. It took more than a year to suppress the rebellion completely.
After a long and expensive campaign the British East India Company finally defeated the rebelling Polygars, some of whom were executed while others were banished to the
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...
. Of the Polygars who submitted to the British, some of them were granted
Zamindari status, which had only tax collection rights and disarmed them completely.
References
Further reading
* Rao, Velcheru Narayana, and David Shulman, Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Symbols of substance : court and state in Nayaka period Tamil Nadu (Delhi ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998) ; xix, 349 p.,
6p. of plates : ill., maps ; 22 cm. ; Oxford India paperbacks ; Includes bibliographical references and index ; {{ISBN, 0-19-564399-2.
* Rajaram, K. (Kumarasamy), 1940–. History of Thirumalai Nayak (Madurai : Ennes Publications, 1982) ; 128 p.,
leaf of plates : ill., maps ; 23 cm. ; revision of the author's thesis (M. Phil.--Madurai-Kamaraj University, 1978) Includes index ; bibliography p. 119–125 ; on the achievements of Tirumala Nayaka, fl. 1623–1659, Madurai ruler.
* Balendu Sekaram, Kandavalli, 1909–. The Nayakas of Madura by Khandavalli Balendusekharam (Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Sahithya Akademi, 1975) ; 30 p. ; 22 cm. ; "World Telugu Conference publication." ; History of the Telugu speaking Nayaka kings of Pandyan Kingdom, Madurai, 16th–18th century.
* K. Rajayyan, A History of Freedom Struggle in India
* K. Rajayyan, South Indian Rebellion-The First War of Independence (1800–1801)
* M. P. Manivel, 2003 – Viduthalaipporil Virupachi Gopal Naickar (Tamil Language), New Century Book House, Chennai
* N. Rajendran, National Movement in Tamil Nadu, 1905–1914 – Agitational Politics and State Coercion, Madras Oxford University Press.
*D. Sreenivasulu, "Palegars or factionists, they call the shots in Rayalaseema", ''The Hindu'' (online) 24 January 2005.
External links
The Hindu:Madurai 72 Bastion Fort today Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra
Medieval India
*
Madurai Nayak dynasty
Noble titles
Positions of authority
Tamil history
Titles in India
Polygar Wars