Muhammad Yusuf Khan (born Maruthanayagam Pillai)[1] was a commandant of the British East India Company's Madras Army.

Local legends state that he survived two earlier attempts at hanging, and that the Nawab feared Yusuf Khan would come back to life and so had his body dismembered and buried in different locations around Tamil Nadu.

Maruthanayagam Pillai was born in 1725 in the village of Panaiyur in a Hindu family of Vellalar caste, in what is now Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, India.

Being too restless in his youth, Yusuf Khan left his native village, and later lived with the company of his martial arts master and converted to Islam.

The East India Company quickly installed Muhammad Ali as the Nawab of Arcot and most of Chanda Sahib's native forces defected to the British.

[3][4] Under Major Stringer Lawrence, Yusuf Khan was trained in the European method of warfare and displayed a talent for military tactics and strategy.

Yusuf Khan was held in very high esteem even after his death in battle and in the opinion of the British he was one of the two great military geniuses India had ever produced (the other being Hyder Ali of Mysore).

John Malcolm said of him almost fifty years later, "Yusuf Khan was by far the bravest and ablest of all the native soldiers that ever served the English in India".

[citation needed] When Muhammad Ali was installed as the Nawab of Arcot, he owed a significant debt to the British East India Company, to whom he had granted the tax collection rights of the Madurai kingdom.

In 1755, Colonel Heron led an expedition against the Poligar of Kumaravadi, Lackenaig (Lakshmi Naik), whose Governor Mayana had taken refuge at the temple of Kovilkudi in Tirumbur Village.

This action by Colonel Heron was condemned by the Madras Council of the East India Company as unworthy of an English officer, considering the potential prejudice it might cause among the natives towards England.

Yusuf Khan arrived with as little as 400 troops, defeating Barkadthullah's large army, forcing him to flee to Sivaganga Zamin with the fakir likewise expelled.

His departure was the signal for wilder anarchy, and company's garrison in Madurai could only collect taxes from the country directly under its walls in order to support themselves.

[citation needed] The Company later sent Yusuf Khan back, renting both Madurai and Tinnevelly to him for one lakh (100,000 rupees) per annum.

Yusuf Khan by the spring of 1759 began cutting roads through the woods to pursue bands of armed robbers plaguing the countryside.

[citation needed] During this time Yusuf Khan battled with Puli Thevar, a Polygar of Nerkattumseval (a small town to the south-west of Madurai), who was rebelling against the Nawab and the British.

Also during this time, Yusuf Khan successfully repulsed an attempt by the Dutch to capture of the town of Alwartirunagari and chased them back to their ships anchored at Tuticorin.

Sivaganga's Minister and General came to Madurai to meet Yusuf Khan, and was rudely warned that certain territories would be annexed for failure of payment.

When Governor Saunders in Madras (now Chennai) called Khan Sahib for a meeting, he refused evoking the wrath of the East India Company.

By now, Delhi's shah and Nizam Ali of Hyderabad – the Arcot Nawab's overlords – proclaimed Yusuf Khan as the rightful legal governor of Madurai and Tirunelveli.

The Tanjore, Travancore, Pudukkotai, Ramnad, and Sivaganga kingdoms joined with the British and the Arcot Nawab to attack Yusuf Khan.

[citation needed] The Madurai fort,[11] which Yusuf Khan had defended from sieges in 1763 and 1764 was demolished at the end of the nineteenth century.

In 1808, a small square mosque was erected over the tomb in Samattipuram, on the left of the road to Theni, at Kaalavaasal, a little beyond the toll-gate, and is known as Khan Sahib's Pallivasal.

According to local tradition, Marcia died soon after her husband's demise and the little boy was brought up in strict secrecy by Srinivasa Rao (Yusuf Khan's Dewan) at Alwarthirunagari.

Srinivasa Rao might have felt that the little boy had better chances of surviving where the people were kindly disposed towards Yusuf Khan for repelling a Dutch invasion.

[citation needed] Tradition has many stories to tell of Yusuf Khan,who is said to have started his life as an ordinary peasant and by his military genius rose to the pinnacle of royal power when he became the ruler of the land, only to fall by the treachery of his comrades.

[15] Indian actor Kamal Haasan in 1997 started shooting the movie Marudhanayagam portraying Maruthanayagam Pillai in English, French, and Tamil languages.