Kittur
At the 2011 census, it was a village under Sampagaon C D Block with a location code number 598110.
History
Kittur was known as Geejaganahalli in the 12th century. In 1746, Kittur came under the Maratha Empire when it was handed over to them by the Nawab of Savanur. In 1782, Mallasarja, the most powerful of the rulers of Kittur ascended the throne. His only son predeceased him, and so on his death in 1816, his second wife, Chennamma succeeded him to the throne. She is famous for her campaigns against the British East India Company. On the outskirts of the town lie the ruins of the palace within a fort. The palace was the residence of the Rani Chennamma.
In the 18th century, Kittur was ruled by the Marathas, until the Third Anglo-Maratha War, when it came under British suzerainty.
In connection with a disputed succession to this chiefship in 1824, St John Thackeray, Commissioner of Dharwad, was killed in a battle when approaching the Kittur fort. Later another unit stormed Kittur and captured Queen Chennamma, who was imprisoned in Bailhongal Jail where she died. Rani Chennamma became a legend.
Her death was followed by subsequent revolts by her general Sangolli Rayanna, who also waged several campaigns against the British East India Company. He was later hanged in 1831.
The town lends its name to the fictitious coastal town in the 2008 novel Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (Belagavi District has no coast, which rules out the real Kittur being the setting).
See also
References
- ^ "Census Data Handbook 2011" (PDF). Retrieved 25 May 2024.
- ^ Neela Manjunath (2009). Heritage Series - Kittur (PDF). Department of Archaeology, Museums & Heritage, Bangalore. p. 21.
- ^ Chitnis, Krishnaji Nageshrao (1 January 1994). Glimpses of Maratha Socio-economic History. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 9788171563470.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kittur". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 841. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the