Mysorean invasion of Malabar

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Mysorean invasion of Malabar
Part of Anglo-Mysore Wars
Aerial view of Palakkad Fort, Malabar
Date 1766–18 March 1792 Location South India Result Mysore victory Territorial changes Mysore annexes the Malabar Coast
Belligerents
Kingdom of Mysore Arakkal Kingdom Supported by: French East India Company	Travancore Zamorin of Calicut Kingdom of Kottayam Supported by: East India Company

The Mysorean invasion of Malabar (1766–1792) was the military invasion of the Malabar region of Kerala, including the territories of the Zamorin of Calicut, by the then-de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, Hyder Ali. After the invasion, the Kingdom of Cochin to the south of Malabar became a tributary state of Mysore.

The invasion of Malabar was motivated by a desire for access to the ports bordering the Indian Ocean.^[1] The Mysore invasion gave the East India Company the opportunity to tighten their grip on the ancient feudal principalities of Malabar and convert Travancore into only a protected ally.^[2]

By the late 18th century, the small kingdoms had been absorbed or subordinated by three large states: Travancore, Calicut (ruled by Zamorins), and the Kingdom of Cochin.

The Kingdom of Mysore, ruled nominally by the Wodeyar family, rose to prominence in India after the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire and again after the Mughal Empire. In 1761, Ali took control of Mysore by overthrowing the then-prime minister of Mysore, and became its de facto head. He made the Mysorean king Krishnaraja Wodeyar II a prisoner in his own palace.^[3] He turned his attention towards expansion, which included the capture of the Kingdoms of Bednur (Ikkeri or Keladi),^[4] Sunda, Sera, and Canara. In 1766, he descended into Malabar and occupied the Kingdoms of Chirakkal (former Kolathunad), Kottayam, Kadathanad, Calicut, Valluvanad and Palghat. The king of Cochin accepted his suzerainty and paid him tribute annually from 1766 to 1790.^[5] Faruqabad, near Calicut, was the local capital of the Mysorean-ruled area.

Ali's 1767 attempt to defeat Travancore failed; a second effort by his son Tipu Sultan in 1789–1790 triggered the Third Anglo-Mysore War.^[6] Only Travancore stood outside the Muslim Mysore authority in the area.^[7]

In the Treaty of Seringapatam (1792), Tipu ceded half of his territories, including Malabar, to the East India Company and their allies, and paid 3.3 crores (33 million) rupees as indemnity. By 1801, Richard Wellesley created the Madras Presidency by attaching Malabar and the Carnatic territories seized from Mysore. The Company asked Travancore to pay all the expenses of the Third Anglo-Mysore war on the rationale that the war was undertaken in its defence. The treaty of 1795 reduced the status of Travancore from friend and ally of the East India Company to protected ally. The king was forced to entertain a subsidiary force far beyond his capacity to subsidise. The Company also claimed a monopoly on the country’s black pepper trade.^[2]