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Veerapandiya Kattabomman
வீரபாண்டிய கட்டபொம்மன்
The fearless Palaiyakkarar who defied the East India Company
Years
1760 – 1799
Known as
The Polygar of Panchalankurichi
Birthplace
Panchalankurichi, Tamil Nadu
Field
Freedom Fighters
“I shall not pay tribute to the Company — my sword is my answer.”
— Veerapandiya Kattabomman
The Story
Kattabomman inherited the chieftaincy of Panchalankurichi, near present-day Thoothukudi, from his father. When the East India Company demanded arrears of tribute and summoned him to their court at Ramnad, he refused to kneel or to pay — and, insulted by the collector, he defied the Company openly.
The Company sent a force to arrest him, and the Polygar Wars began. Kattabomman, with his trusted comrades — beside his brother Oomathurai and the Maruthu brothers — fought guerrilla campaigns from his fort, defeating Company forces in several encounters before the fortress of Panchalankurichi was stormed.
Betrayed and captured in 1799, he was tried for rebellion and treason and hanged in public at Kayathar on 16 October 1799 — his body displayed as a warning. But the warning backfired: his martyrdom made him a folk hero of the south, and his name became the rallying cry of the Tamil resistance that continued into the 1801 rebellion.
Core Ideas
The Refusal
He defied the Company's tribute and courts.
The Polygar Wars
His guerrilla campaigns of 1799.
The Brothers in Arms
Oomathurai and the Maruthu brothers fought beside him.
The Public Hanging
Executed at Kayathar in 1799.
The Folk Hero
His death lit the southern resistance.
Why it matters today
Kattabomman is honoured with a grand memorial at Kayathar and celebrated in the folk ballads of Tamil Nadu. He is remembered as the first great rebel of the south — a chieftain who chose the gallows over submission.