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{{about|the 1780 battle|the 1781 battle|Battle of Pollilur (1781)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Battle of Pollilur
| partof = the [[Second Anglo-Mysore War]]
| image = Battle of pollilur.jpg
| image_size = 250
| caption = [[Mural]] of the Battle of Pollilur on the walls of Tipu's summer palace.
| date = 10 September 1780
| place = Pollilur, [[Kanchipuram]], India
| result = Mysore victory
| combatant1 = [[File:Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg|25px]] [[British East India Company]]
| combatant2 = [[File:Flag of Mysore.svg|25px]] [[Kingdom of Mysore]]
| commander1 = [[William Baille]]{{POW}}
| commander2 = [[Tipu Sultan]]<br>[[Hyder Ali]]
| strength1 = 3,853<ref>{{cite book|last=Gott|first=Richard|title=Britain's Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt|year=2000|publisher=Verso Books|location=London|isbn=1-84467-738-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNoz_F_wQPkC&pg=PA76|access-date=8 February 2012|page=76}}</ref> to 7,000<ref name="dalrymple_2005">{{cite journal|last=Dalrymple|first=William|title=ASSIMILATION AND TRANSCULTURATION IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INDIA: A Response to Pankaj Mishra|journal=Common Knowledge|date=1 October 2005|volume=11|issue=3|pages=445–485|doi=10.1215/0961754X-11-3-445|author-link=William Dalrymple (historian)|quote=As late as 1780, following the disastrous British defeat by Tipu Sultan of Mysore at the Battle of Pollilur, 7,000 British men, along with an unknown number of women, were held captive by Tipu in his sophisticated fortress of Seringapatam.}}</ref>
| strength2 = 2,000–3,000 {{nowrap|[[cavalry]] & [[rocket]]-men}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jaim|first=H M Iftekhar|author2=Jaim, Jasmine|title=The Decisive Nature of the Indian War Rocket in the Anglo-Mysore Wars of the Eighteenth Century|journal=Arms & Armour|date=1 October 2011|volume=8|issue=2|pages=131–138|doi=10.1179/174962611X13097916223244|s2cid=161374846|quote=Captain Munro noted: 'Around two or three thousand horse and rocket-men kept hovering round our main army, in order to conceal his enterprise from us'.}}</ref>
| casualties1 = 3000 killed,<ref name="jasanoff_157">{{cite book|last=Jasanoff|first=Maya|title=Edge of empire: lives, culture, and conquest in the East, 1750-1850|year=2005|publisher=Knopf|location=New York|isbn=1-4000-4167-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zgpAAAAYAAJ|edition=1.|page=157|quote=Some three thousand Company soldiers were killed, while Baillie and two hundred Europeans, fifty of them officers, were carried off to Seringapatam in chains.}}</ref> <br> 200<ref name="jasanoff_157"/> to 7,000<ref name="dalrymple_2005"/> captured
| casualties2 = Unknown
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Second Anglo-Mysore War}}
}}

The '''Battle of Pollilur''' (a.k.a. Pullalur), also known as the '''Battle of Polilore''' or '''Battle of Perambakam''', took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near Conjeevaram, the city of [[Kanchipuram]] in present-day [[Tamil Nadu]] state, India, as part of the [[Second Anglo-Mysore War]]. It was waged between two forces commanded by [[Tipu Sultan]] of the [[Kingdom of Mysore]], and Lt. Colonel [[William Baillie (East India Company officer)|William Baillie]] of the [[British East India Company]]. The army of the East India Company surrendered and suffered a high number of casualties. It was the worst loss the East India Company suffered on the subcontinent until [[Battle of Chillianwala|Chillianwala]]. [[Benoît de Boigne]], a French officer in the service of [[66th Punjabis|6th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry]], wrote, "There is not in India an example of a similar defeat".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Political History of Carnatic under the Nawabs|last=Ramaswami|first=N.S.|publisher=Abhinav Publications|year=1984|location=New Delhi|pages=225}}</ref>

Tipu prevented Lt. Col. Baillie, from joining his detached force, consisting of two companies of European infantry, two batteries of artillery, and five battalions of native infantry, from [[Guntur]], joining Hector Munro at Conjeevaram, while Tipu's father Hyder Ali continued the siege at [[Arcot]]. Of the 3853 men under Baillie's command, only 50 European officers and 200 men were taken prisoner after the "general massacre". Baillie was taken to [[Seringapatam]]<ref name=Naravane>{{Cite book |last=Naravane |first=M.S. |title=Battles of the Honorourable East India Company |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |year=2014 |isbn=9788131300343 |pages=173–174}}</ref> (Srirangapatnam near Mysore in the present-day Karnataka state).

Pullalur was also the site where the king of Badami Chalukya, Pulakesin II fought the Pallava king, Mahendravarman I, in the 7th century.<ref name=":0" />

==Aftermath==
[[File:Rocket warfare.jpg|thumb|left|The Battle of Pollilur, where the forces of [[Hyder Ali]] effectively used [[Mysorean rockets]] and [[rocket artillery]] against closely massed British forces.]]

Baillie and many of his officers were captured and taken to the Mysore capital at Seringapatam. After British reinforcements from Calcutta arrived, [[Eyre Coote (East India Company officer)|Eyre Coote]] was able to stabilise the situation and counter-attack.
A [[Battle of Pollilur (1781)|second battle]] was fought a year later in the same area where Coote defeated Haider Ali's forces.

==Rockets==
The [[Mysorean rockets|Mysore rockets]] used during the battle were much more advanced than the [[British East India Company]] had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). After Tipu Sultan's eventual defeat in the [[Fourth Anglo-Mysore War]] and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the [[Congreve rocket]], which was soon put into use in the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref>Roddam Narasimha (1985). [http://www.nal.res.in/pdf/pdfrocket.pdf Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750-1850 A.D.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303205010/http://www.nal.res.in/pdf/pdfrocket.pdf |date=3 March 2012 }} National Aeronautical Laboratory and Indian Institute of Science.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Tipu Sultan]]
*[[Hyder Ali]]
*[[Mughal weapons]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam (2004).JPG|Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam (2004)
</gallery>

<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:Narrow Passage at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG|Narrow Passage to Colonel Baillie's Dungeon, Seringapatam (2004)
</gallery>

<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:Memorial Plaque at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG|Memorial Plaque at Baillie Dungeon, [[Seringapatam]]
File:Signboard at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG|Signboard at Baillie Dungeon, [[Seringapatam]]
File:Old Signboard at Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG|Old Signboard at Baillie Dungeon, [[Seringapatam]]
File:Baillie Dungeon, Seringapatam.JPG|Stones to which prisoners were tied to, Baillie Dungeon, [[Seringapatam]]
</gallery>

<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:William Baillie Memorial, Seringapatam.JPG|William Baillie Memorial, [[Srirangapatna|Seringapatam]]
File:Plaque of the William Baillie Memorial, Seringapatam.JPG|Plaque of the William Baillie Memorial, [[Srirangapatna|Seringapatam]]
</gallery>

==External links==
*[http://materiaislamica.com/index.php/Battle_of_Pollilur_(1780) "Battle of Pollilur (1780)"] - A detailed historical analysis (and its importance in world history)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070907180951/http://www.tipusultan.org/wars2.htm#2 Tipu Sultan website]
* Wilson, W. J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BlkIAAAAQAAJ&dq=Baillie%20Madras&lr=&pg=PA7#v=snippet&q=Baillie&f=false History of the Madras Army, Volume 2]

{{coord missing|Karnataka}}

[[Category:Conflicts in 1780|Pollilur 1780]]
[[Category:Battles of the Second Anglo-Mysore War|Pollilur 1780]]
[[Category:1780 in India]]

Battle of Pollilur (1780) - Revision history

Sera: expanded content

>Faizanun at 01:33, 20 February 2021