He left his eldest son, Tipu Sultan, an extensive kingdom bordered by the Krishna River in the north, the Eastern Ghats in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west.

[13] His father, Fath Muhammad, was born in Kolar, and served as a commander of 50 men in the bamboo rocket artillery (mainly used for signalling) in the army of the Nawab of Carnatic.

[13] Hyder Ali was born in Budikote, today in Kolar district, Karnataka; he was Fath Muhammad's fifth child, and the second by his third wife Razia Bibi, a sister of sufi pir Ibrahim Saheb, whose ancestors were Arab Nawayath.

[26] In 1757, to resist the invasion of the Zamorin of Calicut – an East India Company ally at the time, the Palakkad Raja sought the help of Hyder Ali.

Because of the ongoing conflicts with the Marathas the Mysorean treasury was virtually bankrupted, prompting the queen mother to force into exile Nanjaraj, who had assumed the position of dalwai upon his brother's death in 1758.

[42] He renamed the capital Haidernagar, and began styling himself Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur, a title that had been bestowed on him by Salabat Jung as reward for his taking of Sira.

[53] Hyder's army also included Catholic soldiers, and he allowed Christians to build a church at Seringapatam, where French generals used to offer prayers and priests used to visit.

[57] Since Savanur was a tributary of the Marathas, the Peshwa, Madhavrao I, countered with a strong force and defeated Hyder near Rattihalli and in decisive Battle of Jadi Hanwati .

He took advantage of this opportunity to engage in a sort of house cleaning: the raja's palace was plundered, and its staff reduced to the point where virtually everyone employed there was also a spy for Hyder Ali.

In 1766 Mysore began to become drawn into territorial and diplomatic disputes between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the East India Company, which had by then become the dominant European power on the Eastern Indian coast.

The Nizam, seeking to deflect the company from their attempts to gain control of the Northern Circars, made overtures to Hyder Ali to launch an invasion of the Carnatic.

This diplomatic manoeuvring resulted in the start of the First Anglo-Mysore War in August 1767 when a company outpost at Changama was attacked by a combined Mysore-Hyderabad army under Hyder Ali's command.

Hyder Ali moved on to capture Kaveripattinam after two days of siege, while the British commander at Changama, Colonel Joseph Smith, eventually retreated to Tiruvannamalai for supplies and reinforcements.

[66] With the onset of the monsoon season, Hyder Ali opted to continue campaigning rather than adopting the usual practice of suspending operations because of the difficult conditions the weather created for armies.

[84] Hyder Ali was then foiled in an attempt to prevent the arrival of a second British column at the allied camp; the strength of these combined forces convinced him to retreat from Bangalore toward Gurramkonda, where he was reinforced by his brother in law.

[85] He also attempted diplomatic measures to prevent a siege of Bangalore, offering to pay ten lakhs rupees and grant other land concessions in exchange for peace.

[88] The severity of the conflict convinced Colonel Smith that he would be unable to effectively besiege Bangalore without first inflicting a major defeat on Hyder Ali in open battle.

En route to Erode Hyder Ali overwhelmed one contingent of British, who were sent as prisoners to Seringapatam when it was established that one of its officers was serving in violation of a parole agreement.

In summarising Hyder Ali's conduct of the war, biographer Lewin Bowring notes that he "evinced high qualities as a tactician and the sagacity of a born diplomatist.

Beginning in 1770 he sent ambassadors to Abu Hilal Ahmad bin Said in Muscat and Karim Khan in Shiraz, then the capital of Persia, seeking military and economic alliances.

When the war broke out in 1779, Azelars noted that the Brahmans and their allies made every possible effort to halt progress of the newly rebuilt navy based at Bhatkal.

[116] The alliance planned to make virtually simultaneous attacks on British holdings all throughout India, while the Marathas agreed to honour Hyder's claims to territories he currently held north of the Tungabhadra River and reduced the amount of tribute he was required to pay under earlier agreements.

[117] However, diplomatic actions by Governor Warren Hastings and the Company successfully convinced both the Nizam and the Marathas not to take up arms, and Hyder ended up fighting the war on his own.

The movement in August of Sir Hector Munro with a force of over 5,000 from Madras to Kanchipuram (Conjeevaram) prompted Hyder to lift the siege of Arcot and move to confront him.

[121] Tipu and Hyder surrounded Baillie's force, and compelled the surrender of about 3,000 men in the Battle of Pollilur on 10 September; it was the first effective use of rocket artillery and made a strong impression upon the British.

[123] Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, Governor Hastings had sent General Sir Eyre Coote south from Bengal to take charge of British forces opposing Hyder.

[127] The economic devastation wrought by these attacks was so severe that Tanjore's economy did not recover until the start of the 19th century; the era is referred to in local folklore as the Hyderakalam.

[129] This failed, and in late August the two armies met again at Pollilur, chosen by Hyder as a place to make a stand, because it was the site of his victory over Baillie the previous year.

[22] The British learned of his death within 48 hours of its occurrence, but the dilatory attitude of Coote's replacement, James Stuart, meant that they were unable to capitalise on it militarily.

At the 1780 Battle of Pollilur, during the second war, Colonel William Baillie's ammunition stores are thought to have been detonated by a hit from one of Hyder's rockets, contributing to the British defeat.