Polygar

<h2 id="role">Role</h2>
<p>The Polygar's role was to administer their Palaiyams (territories) from their fortified centres. Their chief functions were to collect taxes, maintain <a href="/facts/Law_and_order_(politics)/pjKtwSx7">law and order</a>, run the local <a href="/facts/Judiciary/CvMkSB6T">judiciary</a>, and maintain a battalion of troops for the king.
</p><p>They served as regional military and civil administrators. In turn they were to retain 1⁄4 of the revenue collected as tax, and submit the remaining to the king's <a href="/facts/Treasury/jYghG2HN">treasury</a>. 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.
</p><p>Their armed status was also to protect the civilians from robbers and <a href="/facts/Dacoits/eqKG6N8L">dacoits</a> who were rampant in those regions and from invading armies which often resorted to pillaging the villages and countryside.
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<h2 id="polygar-wars">Polygar Wars</h2>
<p class="note">Main article: <a href="/facts/Polygar_Wars/5lHJgxDq">Polygar Wars</a></p>
<p>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 <a href="/facts/Veerapandiya_Kattabomman/G9BPxHGE">Veerapandiya Kattabomman</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Dheeran_Chinnamalai/g0LpnegF">Dheeran Chinnamalai</a> and <a href="/facts/Maruthu_Pandiyar/LjsXzE59">Maruthu Pandiyar</a>, brother of the <a href="/facts/Sivaganga/ARpbv6J6">Sivaganga</a>. A final Polygar War in 1847 against the British was fought by Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy at Kovelakuntla (Koilakuntla)
</p><p>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.
</p><p>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 <a href="/facts/Andaman_Islands/w2CR0mhH">Andaman Islands</a>. Of the Polygars who submitted to the British, some of them were granted <a href="/facts/Zamindar/66zChwor">Zamindari</a> status, which had only tax collection rights and disarmed them completely.
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<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li>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., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 22 cm. ; Oxford India paperbacks ; Includes bibliographical references and index ; <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-19-564399-2.</li>
<li>Rajaram, K. (Kumarasamy), 1940–. History of Thirumalai Nayak (Madurai : Ennes Publications, 1982) ; 128 p., [1] 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.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>K. Rajayyan, A History of Freedom Struggle in India</li>
<li>K. Rajayyan, South Indian Rebellion-The First War of Independence (1800–1801)</li>
<li>M. P. Manivel, 2003 – Viduthalaipporil Virupachi Gopal Naickar (Tamil Language), New Century Book House, Chennai</li>
<li>N. Rajendran, National Movement in Tamil Nadu, 1905–1914 – Agitational Politics and State Coercion, Madras Oxford University Press.</li>
<li>D. Sreenivasulu, "Palegars or factionists, they call the shots in Rayalaseema", <i>The Hindu</i> (online) 24 January 2005.</li></ul>
<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060925185343/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/04/01/stories/2006040100700400.htm">The Hindu:Madurai 72 Bastion Fort today </a></li>
<li><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=pfAKljlCJq0C&dq=madurai+72+bastion&pg=PA202">Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra </a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6. <a href="978-0-521-79842-6" target="_blank">978-0-521-79842-6</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Cpolitical history of carnatic under the nawabs. 1984. p. 44. <a href="https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory0000nsra/page/44/mode/1up" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory0000nsra/page/44/mode/1up</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
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Polygar open-in-new

Polygar