A little-known 18th-century guerrilla battle, in which Kallar warriors inflicted a devastating defeat on East India Company forces to reclaim looted temple idols, has been thrust into contemporary spotlight by a recent Madras High Court ruling. The judgment has cleared the legal way for a memorial stupa on private land to honour what is considered one of the earliest major anti-colonial resistances on Tamil soil.
The conflict, known as the Natham Kanavai War, unfolded over February to May 1755. Colonel Alexander Heron, leading a column of roughly 1,000 Company troops, was marching through the narrow Natham pass (Natham Kanavai) between Madurai and Tiruchirappalli. The column carried brass idols plundered from the Thirumogur (Koilkudi) temple, an act that had ignited local fury.
The looting was the culmination of a tax-collection expedition led by Heron and his military subordinate, Yusuf Khan (also known as Marudu Nayagam). When the local polygar (chieftain) Lakshmi Nayak refused to pay, British forces attacked. The regional governor, Mayana, fled to the Thirumogur temple for sanctuary.
Though Mayana escaped upon Yusuf Khan’s approach, Colonel Heron proceeded to assault the temple itself, burning its gates and seizing its idols. The Kallar community, traditional worshippers and protectors of the temple, were outraged. Their demand for the idols’ return was met with a ransom demand of 5,000 rupees, an exorbitant sum they could not pay.
Determined to retaliate, the Kallars of Melur planned an ambush. As Colonel Heron’s garrison later retreated through the strategic Natham pass, the warriors executed a meticulously planned attack.
The Kallars then regrouped and waited for an opportunity to retaliate. When Colonel Heron was returning from the expedition at a later date, the Kallars planned an attack on his garrison. Although the news reached Heron and he attempted to counter it by splitting his forces and…
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They felled trees to block the winding gorge and positioned themselves on both flanks. When the elongated British column entered the constricted stretch, the Kallars attacked with traditional weapons, surgically segmenting and assaulting the trapped troops who struggled to deploy muskets and light artillery effectively.
Historical reconstructions and court records describe the encounter as a massacre. Of the approximately 1,000 Company soldiers, only Colonel Heron and about 30 sepoys reportedly survived to reach Tiruchirappalli. The Kallars triumphed, recovering all the stolen idols and reinstalling them in the Thirumogur temple – a victory seen not merely as a military success but as the restoration of Dharma and community honour.
For the Porkudi (war-clan) Kallars and local communities, Natham Kanavai holds profound significance as arguably the first instance on Tamil land where British forces suffered catastrophic casualties, predating the 1857 rebellion by a century. The memory is kept alive through annual victory-day commemorations near Melur, featuring bullock-cart races and gatherings.
The battle’s legacy entered the legal arena when a Melur-based lawyer, Siva Kalaimani Ambalam, petitioned the Madras High Court after local officials denied permission for a memorial stupa on private land dedicated to the fallen warriors.
In a significant ruling, Justice GR Swaminathan held that no prior government consent was required for such a commemorative structure on private property. Drawing parallels to other memorials like the memorial for Stan Swamy, the justice affirmed a community’s fundamental right to preserve its historical memory. This decision has formally paved the way for the construction of the Natham Kanavai War Memorial Stupa.
The judgment has also ignited fresh public discourse on the recognition of localised, pre-1857 anti-colonial struggles often omitted from mainstream historical narratives, reaffirming the right of communities to honour their resistance heritage outside the textbook canon.
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