Coorg Forts

There were mainly five forts in Coorg - the Fort at Mercara, and the forts at Kushalnagar, Beppunad, Bhagamandala and Palupare which are no more in preservation.

Mercara Fort is still in pretty good preservation. The fortress was originally built by Muddu Raja Wodeyar in, 1680 or thereabout, and then consisted probably of mud walls, but it was rebuilt with stone by Tippu Sultan, who called it Jaffarabad. It was held by his generals till 1790, when Jaffar Ali Beg evacuated the place and left it with all its guns and ammunition to the Raja, Dodda Vira Rajendra. The entrance on the east is intricate and circuitous and guarded by three successive gates, which close in the space that is now occupied by public buildings. On the left side of the third gate there is a shrine erected against the wall, dedicated to Ganapati. Within the Fort itself, there is in the centre the palace, to the left and in front of it the English church, to the right the quarter-guard and armoury, and behind the palace the powder magazine. The English church stands near the place which was formerly occupied by a temple dedicated to Virabhadra but which was demolished in 1855.

The Fort at Kushalnagar (Fraserpet) was built by Tippu Sultan. It was taken by the Coorgs in June 1789 under Dodda Vira Rajendra, who sacked and burnt the place. When in 1846-1848 the fine bridge over the Kaveri was constructed, the ruins of the Fort supplied excellent building material. The Fortress at Armeri in Beppunad was razed to the ground in August 1789. Bhagamandala Fort, where Tippu seized some 5,000 Coorgs with their families, whom he sent into Mysore in 1785 and forcibly coverted to Islam, was invaded by Dodda Vira Rajendra in 1790 and taken after five days' siege. The Raja himself fired the first cannon from the hill of Mumbaratu. During the bombardment three copper tiles of the devastana were destroyed by a cannon shot, but Dodda Vira Rajendra replaced them by four tiles made of silver. The Papare Fort (Palu-Pare) on the Kire river, a tributary of the Lakshmantirtha, in Hatgatnad in Kiggatnad taluk, in which there are also the ruins of a temple, is said to have been built by Kolli-Ninga and Benne-Krishna of the Bedar or hunter tribe. It was destroyed by Tippu Sultan's armies.

Source: Mysore and Coorg, Vol. III by Lewis Rice