By Srinidhi Murthy

Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India, located in the southeast of our country. The kingdoms and empires of Tamil Nadu have played a major role in the history of British colonization in India and the region has a proud history of many freedom fighters who fought bravely against the British Empire in the freedom movement.

 Age of Empires

Ancient Tamil Nadu was home to three monarchical kingdoms, known as the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas. In the early centuries, the Pallava dynasty ruled a large portion of South India, with Kanchipuram as their capital, around the 7th Century. The Pallavas were replaced as the dominant kingdom by the Chola Dynasty. Raja Raja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola built the famous Brihadeeswara Temple of Thanjavur. However, the Chola dynasty also witnessed a decline with the rise of Pandyas in the 13th Century. There are records that Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, mentioned that the Pandya empire was the richest empire in existence during that period. The Cheras, who were in conflict with both the Cholas and the Pandyas, ruled parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Around 1370, Tamil Nadu saw the rise of the Vijayanagara empire. The Vijayanagara empire thrived for the next two centuries until its defeat in the Battle of Talikota by the Deccan Sultanate in 1565.

The Impact of Anglo-French Conflict

In 1739, the French occupied the......