வீரமங்கை வேலுநாச்சியார் | Veeramangai VeluNachiyar

Velu Nachiyar was the princess of Ramanathapuram and the only child of King Chellamuthu Vijayaragunatha Sethupathy and Queen Sakandhimuthathal of the Ramnad kingdom. Nachiyar was trained in many methods of combat, including war match weapons usage, martial arts like Valari, Silambam, horse riding, and archery. She was a scholar in many languages and was proficient in languages like French, English and Urdu. She married the king of Sivagangai, with whom she had a daughter. When her husband, Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar was killed in a battle with EIC soldiers, she was drawn into the conflict. She escaped the battlefield with her daughter. During this period, she formed an army and sought an alliance with Hyder Ali with the aim of launching a campaign against the East India Company in 1780. When Velu Nachiyar found the place where the EIC stored some their ammunition, she arranged a suicide attack on the location, blowing it up. Nachiyar reinherited the kingdom of her husband, and ruled it for ten more years. In 1790, the throne was inherited by her daughter Vellacci. She granted powers to her daughter with the Marudu brothers to help with the administration of the kingdom in 1780. Velu Nachiyar died a few years later, on 25 December 1796.