User:Vprajkumar/Sandbox/History of Vellore

19th Century

Vellore was a famous fortress in the palmy days of the Karnatic. It was built in 1500 by the Vijayanagar princes, and hither, half a century later, came the Rdyas of that house, retiring before the allied Sultans of Bijapur and Golconda. From 1570 to 1646, the Rayas of Vellore and Chandragiri were great potentates, from whom the European settlers sought leases and other favours. In the latter year, the Muhammadan sovereigns, following up the train of conquest begun at Talikot, possessed themselves of these two great fortresses. In 1677, Sivaji the Great captured Vellore after four and a half months' siege ; and in 1710, when it was, according to Orme, the strongest fortress in the Karnatic, it was given

by Dost AH to his son-in-law, whose son, Murtiza. Ali, murdered Sabdar AH here in 1741. For more than twenty years the fort was the strong- hold of Murtiza AH, who defied the authority of his relative and lawful chief the Nawab of Arcot and his English allies. The latter marched against the town in 1756, but retired without making any serious effort.

Murtizd AH held the fort till 1760, when again an English force appeared before its walls, retiring at the earnest entreaty of the hiladdr. A few years later, however, it was occupied by an English garrison; and in 1768, was threatened by Haidar Ali. In 1780, Haidar regularly invested the place, which held out against overwhelming numbers and innumerable difficulties. A dozen times in the course of the siege there was not rice for three days' consumption, and all the energies of the Madras Government and of Sir Eyre Coote were devoted to throwing in supplies. Wilks says: ' Haidar had, after the capture of Arcot in the preceding year, allotted the largest portion of his army and his best battering train for the siege of Vellore. This fortress, nearly an exact square, still exhibiting in its antique battlements for matchlocks and bows and arrows the evidence of no modern date, was built according to the ideas of strength which prevailed at the period of its erection, when the use of cannon was little understood, close to a range of hills, to favour the introduction of supplies, or the eventual escape of the garrison ; and thus situated, it is also commanded by those hills, a defect which its Marhattd and Muhammadan conquerors remedied in part by fortifying the points which overlooked it. These points, as the use of artillery came to determine the defence of places, became accordingly the keys of the fort below; for although surrounded by a rampart of masonry which might be deemed Cyclopean, and a wet ditch of great breadth, the possession of these points would command in flank and reverse (although at too great a distance for certain effect) three faces of the fort, and would leave but one face affording good cover. The arrangements of the siege, directed by French officers, were judiciously directed to two simultaneous operations, the principal hill fort being the primary object, while approaches and batteries from the west were pushed on to the proper positions for breaching the south-western face of the lower fort and enfilading that next to the hill, which, in the event of success in the primary object, would alone afford adequate cover to the garrison from the fire of the hill.' The assault, which was most gallantly and persistently delivered, was repulsed, and the siege reduced to a blockade, which the garrison, although reduced to the greatest straits, withstood for two years, till finally it was raised by the advance of an army from Madras and Haidar's death.

In 1791, Vellore was the basis of Lord Cornwallis' march on Bangalore. After the fall of Seringapatam (1799), the family of Tipu were detained here; and to their intrigues has been attributed the revolt of the Sepoys at Vellore in 1806, when all the officers and other Europeans were massacred. The revolt was promptly put down by Colonel Gillespie, and the Mysore princes removed to Bengal. Besides its imposing and picturesque fortress, which contains many interesting buildings, Vellore possesses a handsome Vishnuvite temple with some good carving. Chanda Sahib's mosque is also deserving of mention. The town, although hot, is healthy. The municipality has done much to improve it, and spends annually about .£4500 on various works, raising taxes at the rate of 6|d. a head. The population includes nearly 10,000 Musalmdns, and 450 Europeans and Eurasians. The garrison consists of one Native infantry regiment, about 700 strong.