the British Origin of Palayams and Palayakkarars After the decline of Vijayanagara Empire, Nagama Nayak who arrived as a viceroy to Madurai and his son Viswanatha Nayak asserted themselves as independent rulers of Madurai and Tirunelveli. Under the able guidance of prime minister Ariyanatha Mudaliyar, all the little kingdoms of the former Pandian Empire were classified and converted into palayams. Viswanatha Nayak constructed a formidable fort around Madurai city, which consisted of seventy two bastions. Each of them was placed under a chief.
The origin of the Palayakkarar (poligari) system dates back to the 1530s. It is believed that this system was practiced earlier in Kakatiya kingdom of Warangal. The literal meaning of Palayakkarar is the holder of a camp as well as the holder of an estate on military tenure. Prior to the enforcement of this system Servaikarars and Talayaris collected fees for police work.
After the creation of palayams, the Servaikarars turned Palayakkarars and subordinated Talayaris to their authority. A Palayakkarar was bound to pay a fixed annual tribute or supply troops to the king and to keep order and peace over a particular area. In order to enable him to perform these duties and attend to other services, a certain According to the treaty of Srirangapatnam, the Tipu was to give up half of his dominions, pay three crores of rupees as indemnity, and pledge two of his sons as hostages. The allies, Marathas and British, were given equal shares of the indemnity and of the ceded territories.
The English got Malabar, Dindigul and Barmahal. Tipu lost Coorg (Kudagu), whose raja became a feudatory to the Company. Tipu’s power was greatly reduced. And after their stay at Madras as hostages the boys returned to Srirangapatnam on May when their father had paid all the dues to the English.
Tipu could hardly forget his humiliation and the heavy territorial and monetary losses suffered. The Mysore king Chamaraj IX died in . Tipu resolved not to observe the formality of appointing a king. Synchronizing with this resolve came the announcement of the French colonial Governor of