Influence of Nationalist Struggle
Nationalist historians have put forward the ideal image of Kattabomman as “the first patriot”, the organizer of the first struggle of the Indian freedom movement, sixty years before the Mutiny. In 1801, another rebellion broke out led by Kattabomman’s brothers Sevatiah and Umai. The rebels made themselves strong in Tirulneveli, where they reoccupied Panjamlamkurichi and rebuilt the forts that had been destroyed two years earlier. The polegars joined hand with the Marudu brothers in Sivaganga (q.v.) and soon virtually the whole of the Carnatic was up in arms again. The military campaign that put down the revolt is known as the Second Polegar War. Panchalamkurichi fell again, this time after a most stubborn resistance, and the leaders of the revolt were hanged (the Marudu brothers, Kattabomman’s brothers) or deported. “The fort of Panjalam Kurichi was razed to the ground, the site was ‘ploughed over and sown with castor seed’ and even the name of the place was expunged from all registers of the district.” The Panchalamkuricihi palayam, which in 1799 had contained 104 villages, was split between the polegars of Ettaiyapuram and Maniyachi “in recognition of the good services rendered by these two chieftains during the rebellion.” “The present representative of the family … receives a small pension from Government and is entertained in most places by the members of his caste with the honours generally shown to a zamindar. … His adherents speak of him as a ‘zamindar’ and his residence as aranmanai, pay for his visitations and take their disputes to him for decision.”
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