Palghat

Palghat occupied one of southern India's most important passages through the Western Ghats. The broad gap connected the Malabar coast with the Tamil interior, allowing people, animals, and goods to move between regions otherwise divided by mountains. Its value lay in this access as much as in the settlements themselves. Merchants, soldiers, and religious communities used routes through the gap, while agriculture benefited from the varied landscapes on either side of the hills.

In 1757 the local ruler sought help from Hyder Ali of Mysore against the Zamorin of Calicut. Hyder took advantage of the opening, and Palghat's fort was rebuilt in 1766. Mysore and British forces contested it repeatedly before the British captured it in 1790. The subsequent Mysore wars brought Malabar under the East India Company. The passage remained a meeting ground between the Malayalam-speaking coast and the Tamil interior.