Denkanikottai

Denkanikottai stands in the hilly country of Baramahal, south of the Mysore plateau. Its name recalls a fort, one of the strongholds that gave the surrounding region its military importance. In the seventeenth century the rulers of Mysore contested Baramahal with local powers, and Denkanikottai was among the places brought under Mysore control in 1654. The district later passed to Haidar Ali, whose expanding state made these hill forts part of a wider struggle for southern India.