Pudukkottai
Pudukkottai is a city in the
southern Indian state of
Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of
Pudukkottai District.
The present-day district of Pudukkottai was part of the
Pandya kingdom. Over the centuries, the district was ruled by a succession of
South Indian dynasties which included the
Cholas,
Pallavas and
Hoysalas. The district became a part of the
Vijayanagara Empire in the
14th century. The
Vijayanagara empire fought many wars with the Muslim
Deccan sultanates to its north, and in
1565 the allied sultanates decisively defeated Vijayanagara at the
Battle of Talikota. The defeat weakened the Vijayanagara Empire, and regional governors, called
Nayaks, became
de facto local rulers in much of
Southern India. Pudukkottai was ruled by the Nayaks of
Madurai from the mid-
16th century to the mid-
17th century.
The Thondaiman dynasty
Raghunatha Raya Tondiman, founder of the
princely state of Pudukkotai, was a distinguished general and had served as a governor of
Thirumayam under his brother-in-law, Maharaja Regunatha Kilavan Setupati of
Ramnad. In appreciation of his services, the Maharaja conferred upon him an extensive
fief in
1686, comprising of the fort of Pudukkotai and surrounding lands.
In later centuries, the Thondaiman rulers, while nominally feudatories of the
Ramnad state, often pursued an independent foreign policy, a trend common in all parts of
India at that time. Certainly the most consequential of such ventures was their alliance with the
British in the
18th century, first against the
Nawab of
Arcot and later against the
Kingdom of Mysore. Pudukkotai finally came under formal British protection in
1763. This was arguably unavoidable, since the Thondaimans were much menaced in that period by a resurgent
Mysore ruled by
Hyder Ali and
Tipu Sultan. Tipu Sultan had sought to leverage the power of the
French against his
British adversaries, and Pudukkotai, in common with its neighbours such as
Thanjavur and
Travancore, found it expedient to ally with the
British.
Princely state: Pudukkottai became a
princely state of
British India under the political authority of
Madras Presidency. The state had an area of 1100 sq mi (3000 km²) and in
1901, a population of 380,000. The
Rajas of Pudukkotai were entitled to a 11-gun salute.
Post-independence: The last Thondaiman raja of Pudukkottai acceded to newly-independent India in
1948, and the state became a division of
Tiruchirappalli district of
Madras State. The state was reorganised twice in the succeeding decade, taking its present form in
1956; it was renamed Tamil Nadu in
1968. On
January 14,
1974, the present district of Pudukkottai was formed from parts of
Tiruchirappalli and
Thanjavur districts.
*
Pudukkottai District web site*
Genealogy of the Tondaiman dynasty*
Zion College of Engineering and Technology, Pudukkottai
