Haider Ali

Karnataka > Haider Ali

The defeat of the Marathas at Panipat in 1761 helped Haider to follow an aggressive policy. He merged the Keladi Kingdom with Mysore and extended Mysore in all directions. He successfully used cavalry on a large scale. Mysore came to have 80,000 square miles of territory under him. Haider built the palace at Bangalore, strengthened its fort and began the Lalbagh Garden. He built the Dariya Daulat palace at Srirangapattana and laid a fine park all-round it. He challenged the British in Tamilnadu and defeated them. But he was humiliated by Maratha Peshwa Madhavarao more than once. Haider allied himself with the French against the British. In the meantime Haider Ali captured and annexed the Chitradurga Principality from the Madakari family of Chitradurga in 1779. But he died at Narasingarayapet, near Arcot, while fighting against the British in 1782.