Tumkur

Tumkur stands on the Karnataka plateau amid a country of fortified hills and settlements. Local chiefs held the surrounding districts under Vijayanagara, and later Mysore rulers extended their authority northward through this region. Nearby Sira became the capital of a Mughal province, while the hill forts of Maddagiri and Devarayanadurga guarded approaches across the plateau.

An inscription of 1675 records Tumkur among the places taken by Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar of Mysore. His campaigns brought a chain of hill strongholds under his control and widened the northern reach of his kingdom. Sira and its immediate surroundings remained outside Mysore for longer, until Haidar Ali conquered it in 1761. After Tipu Sultan’s defeat in 1799, the territory passed to the restored Wodeyar rulers under British supremacy.