Sankagiri Fort

Sankagiri Fort with a long history is presently a declared monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.

History

Dheeran Chinnamalai was the son of Rathina Sakarai, an adopted son of Kotravel Kaminda Mandradiyar (1708 - 1731), a Chieftain ruler in Kongu region. A valiant warrior, Dheeran won many a battle against the East India Company’s Army.

Colonel Maxwell, who even humbled Tippu Sultan, could not win Dheeran and this was recorded in his chronicles. In 1801, Dheeran beheaded Maxwell and exhibited it in many towns in the Kongu region.

A victory pillar erected to commemorate this victory stands till date at Arachalur. In 1802 the Company sent another army under Col Harris who had also won Tippu. But Tippu, single handedly, went armed with hand grenades and threw them at against Harris’s horse. The horse turned its way back. Others too, following Harris turned back. The Army then made sudden intrusion into Dheeran’s native village and destroyed all the houses there. Beating a temporary retreat, Dheeran camped at Karumalai near Palani. But he was betrayed by the cook Nallappan to the British. The Company’s soldiers captured Dheeran and court-martialled him at Sankagiri Fort, where he was subsequently executed.

tructure

It has 10 fort walls around this hill (up to top), the last fort wall was built by British, this is the treasury fort for kongu mandalam (Salem, Erode, Coimbatore, Namakkal, Karur and Dindukal), all the tax money and gold was secured in this fort by British. It was an important military base for Tippu and later the British army, because one side of the hill is climable and the other side is too steep to climb. This hill having death well, grannery, 2 oil godown, explosive godown, two masjith, one long cave with masjith entrance, 2 varadharaja perumal temple, many wells and 2 official buildings, each cemetery for British, Muslim and army soldiers and officers.