KING OF THE DAY. Kattabomman yadav Veerapandiya Kattabomman yadav was born to Jagaveera Kattabomman yadav and Arumugattammal on January 3, 1760. He had two younger brothers Dalavai Kumarasami and Duraisingam. Veerapandiyan was fondly called ‘Karuthaiah’ (the black prince) and Dalavai Kumarasami was nicknamed ‘Sevathaiah’ (the white prince) and since Duraisingam was a good orator he was nicknamed ‘Oomaithurai’ meaning the dumb (speech impaired) Prince. The name could be attributed as VEERAM in Tamil means Bravery and Veerajakkadevi a Hindu God worshiped by his family. Ancestors Azhagiya Veerapandiapuram (Ottapidaram of today) was ruled by Jagaveera Pandiyan. He had a minister Bommu, also a brave warrior, who had migrated from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu during the Vijaynagar times. He was known as Gettibommulu in Telugu after the god Sastha Ayyanam Swamy to describe his strength and fighting qualities which over a period of time, became Kattabomman in Tamil. Kattabomman ascended the throne after Jagaveera Pandiyan, who had no issue, as Adi Kattabomman, the first of the clan of Kattabomman. Panchalankurichi Legend has it that during a hunting trip into the forests of Salikulam (close to Azhagiya Pandiyapuram) one of the Kattabommans was amazed to see a hare chasing seven hounds. Believing that the land possessed the power to instil courage in his people, he built his fort there and named it Panchalankurichi. On February 2, 1790, Veerapandiyan, 30, became the king of Panchalankurichi as Veera Pandia Kattabomman supposedly the 47th ruler of the region and the 5th ruler from the Kattabomman clan and a Palya-karrar (or Polygar) of the Madurai Nayak kingdom. Role of Palayakkarars Following its collapse in the mid-16th century, the Tamil governors of the Vijayanagara Empire broke away from the empire and established independent kingdoms. The old Pandiya country came to be governed by Naicker rulers in Madurai, who in turn divided their territories into 72 Palayams. These 72 Palayams were franchised to Palayakarrars (Tamil word) or Polygars or Poligars (a British Term), who had to administer their territories, collect taxes, run the local judiciary, and maintain a battalion of troops on behalf of the Naicker rulers of Madurai. Their function was a mixture of military governance and civil administration. The regional/local chieftains and rulers who were earlier subordinates to the Madurai Kings became Polygars (or Palaya-karrar). Dispute origins The Nayak rule in Madurai which controlled the entire West Tamil Nadu after two centuries came to an abrupt end in 1736 when Chanda Sahib of Arcot seized the Madurai throne from the last queen of Madurai in an act of treason. Chanda Sahib was later killed after the Carnatic Wars and the territory came under the Nawab of Arcot. The Palaya-karrars of the old Madurai country refused to recognize the new Muslim rulers driving the Nawab of Arcot to bankruptcy, who also indulged in lavishes like building palaces before sustaining his authority in the region. Finally the Nawab resorted to borrowing huge sums from the British East India Company, erupting as a scandal in the British Parliament. The Nawab of Arcot finally gave the British the right to collect taxes and levies from the southern region in lieu of the money he had borrowed. The East India Company took advantage of the situation and plundered all the wealth of the people in the name of tax collection. They even leased the country in 1750’s to a savage warrior Muhammed Yusuf Khan (alias Marutha Nayagam), who defeated and killed many of the Polygars and later got himself killed by the Arcot - British forces. Many of the Polygars submitted, with the exception of Katta-bomman and a few others who formed an alliance with the Maruthu Brothers of Sivagangai. Major Events Kattabomman refused to pay his dues and for a long time refused to meet Jackson Durai the Collector of the East India Company. Finally, he met Jackson at Ramalinga Vilasam, the palace
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:28:37 +0000
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