Palakkad Fort: What Actually Happened (Facts + Sources)
Palakkad Fort’s present form dates to 1766, when Hyder Ali rebuilt it in stone; his son Tipu Sultan later strengthened and used it, which is why it’s popularly called Tipu’s Fort. Hyder first entered Malabar in 1757 at the request of the Palakkad Raja to stop the Zamorin’s invasion; he sent Makhdoom Ali Khan with troops and artillery, forced the Zamorin back, and extracted terms. Control of the fort then swung between Mysore and the British: briefly taken in 1768, again in 1783, and finally in 1790, when the British renovated it as a base for operations that culminated at Srirangapatna. Official/government and standard histories do not name a specific architect for Palakkad Fort; French military engineers were active in Mysore’s fortification works (e.g., Srirangapatna), but no reliable, named engineer is recorded for Palakkad itself.
