Veerapandiya Kattabomman

Veerapandiya Kattabomma Karuthayya Nayakudu (also known as Kattabomman) was an 18th-century Palayakarrar ('Polygar') chieftain from Panchalankurichi of Tamil Nadu, India. His ancestors migrated to Tamil Nadu from areas in present day Andhra Pradesh during the Vijayanagara period. Also known as Kattabomma Naicker he was among the earliest to oppose British rule in these regions. He waged a war with the British six decades before the Indian War of Independence occurred in the Northern parts of India. He was captured and hanged in 1799 CE. His fort was destroyed and his wealth was looted by the British army. Today his native village Panchalankurichi in present day Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu and some polygars families migrated to vedal village in Kanchipuram District, India is a historically important site.

Fight against British

Kattabomman refused to accept the sovereignty of British East India Company and opted to fight against them.In 1799, he was captured by the British and hanged at Kayattar in Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu. His younger brother, Umaidurai and other relatives were arrested and prisoned at Palayamkottai. In February 1801, Umaidurai escaped and mobilised local people to form an army and continued his fight till October 1801 when he and his companions in fight Chinna and Periya Marudu of Sivagangai were defeated and hanged by British. The Panjalankuricci fort "was razed to ground, the site was ploughed over and sown with castor seed..

Legend and folklore

In subsequent years, a good deal of legend and folklore developed around Kattabomman and the Marudu Brothers. Kayatharu, where Kattabomman was executed has remained a place of political pilgrimage.

In his Tinnevelly Gazetteer of 1917, H. R. Pate notes the presence, in Kayatharu, of "a great pile of stones of all sizes, which represents the accumulated offerings by wayfarers of the past hundred years. Folk songs recalling the heroism of the Poligar leaders remain alive in Tamil Nadu to this day..."

The popular Tamil slang for a traitor or committing treason is Ettapa or Ettapan, courtesy the Ettayapuram Polygar whom the British later conferred the title of Raja. But it is disputed whether Ettapan ever committed a treason at all because Kattabomman was arrested by the King of Pudukottai. The Campa Cola ground in Chennai belongs/belonged to Ettappan family. In recent times, there is an outcry over the unflattering portrayal of Ettappan in the 1959 Tamil language film, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, in which legendary Tamil thespian, Sivaji Ganesan, played the titular character.