In 1780, Linga Raja, his father and ruler of the Coorg Kingdom died while Dodda Vira Rajendra was still young.
Hyder Ali, the king of Mysore saw this as an opportunity and took possession of the Coorg Kingdom until, as he said "the princes (Dodda Vira Rajendra and his brother) would come of age".
[2][3] Noticing the successes of Dodda Vira Rajendra, the Government of the British East India Company offered him an alliance against Tipu Sultan in October 1790.
Faced with a powerful opponent in the Kingdom of Mysore, Dodda Vira Rajendra accepted the offer and allied with the British.
[2][3] Dodda Vira Rajendra allowed the British Bombay Army to pass through Coorg, on its way to Srirangapatna, Tipu Sultan's capital.
[4] Dodda Vira Rajendra compiled a literary work Rajendraname, which records the history of the Coorg rulers from 1633 to 1807.