Dheeran Chinnamalai - A Great freedom fighter from Tamilnadu
Dheeran chinnamalai (1756 - 1805)a brave Indian freedom fighters from Tamilnadu. He fought many battle with Haider Ali, then Mysore king and the British army. Dheeran chinnamalai was such a bold man who never experience the fear. It was not an easy job to enter into his province of kongu nadu. The British able to identify him only because of the leaked information from his own disloyal cook. He fight for his motherland till the last breath.
Dheeran chinnamalai is a by born brave man of Kongu nadu in Tamilnadu. He was born on 17th April, 1756 in the place called melapalayam near the district of erode. Kongu nadu was under the care of Great chinnamalai. He fought many battle with the East India company. Even in the ancient time, he had a strong army to face all such atrocities of British. Before his period, the kongu nadu was under the control of Haider Ali, father of Tipu sultan, who was a king of Mysore. When he became the king of kongu nadu then he refused to pay the tax to Haider Ali due to which a clash went on in between Chinnamalai and Haider Ali. A war breakout in between the Haider Ali and chinnamalai in which the great chinnamalai won the battle. His army men were trained all kinds of marshal art which helped them during the war like situations.
After the death of Haider Ali, Tipu sultan became the king of Mysore and he made a good relation with the great chinnamalai. Both of them planned unitedly to oppose the British. As a preparatory measure they managed to get their army french guerrilla training by which they can easily faced the British and defeated at the cauvery river war during 1801. By nature the great chinnamalai was a brave man to handle the British army single hand at any time. Anticipating the continuous threat form the British he made a fort at the Kongu nadu at the boundary of his province.
Finally, after frustrating, the British intensified their attack towards chinnamalai with canon. That made him a major setback for his victory. He shifted his residence leaving the fort as it is, he entered into the karumalai forest (dense forest) at the palani region. His own cook leaked the secret place of his position in the forest to British. Taking this opportunity the British captured and hanged him in a tamarind tree on July 31, 1805 from this date the era of dheeran chinnamalai came to an end. We all should salute him for his great contribution in the freedom struggle for Indian independence.
In the memory of his bravery and sacrificing his life for the sake of his motherland, a statue of Dheeran chinnamalai installed at Odanilai village near Arachalu, Tamilnadu.
