Bellari

Bellary stands amid rocky hills on the eastern Karnataka plateau. Its fort rises on a great rocky granite height above the town and was held by the Hande Nayakas, local chiefs whose authority grew in the wake of Vijayanagara. The fort’s commanding position made Bellary an object of contest between Mysore, Hyderabad and the Marathas.

In the eighteenth century the Hande chief sought Haidar Ali’s help against a rival force occupying the town. Haidar expelled the attackers, but the Nayakas became tributaries of Mysore. After the Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1792, the country passed to the Nizam of Hyderabad. In 1800 the Nizam ceded Bellary and other territories to the British, bringing the region into the group known as the Ceded Districts.