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The Complete History of CoorgKODAGU • ಕೊಡಗು
Mist over the forested ridges and valleys of Kodagu in the Western Ghats

KODAGU • COORG • ಕೊಡಗು

The Complete History of Coorg

A digital archive of Kodagu — a small highland country in the Western Ghats with its own dynasty, language, martial tradition and contested past. Every claim here is labelled by the kind of evidence behind it, and every page cites its sources.

Explore the timelineOpen the historical atlas
EVENTS
26
SOURCES
63
ERAS
7
SPAN
3000 BCE –

Where to begin

Four ways into Kodagu

The archive is organised as a museum would be: chronology, geography, community and language.

History

From Iron Age megaliths to the 1956 merger, era by era.

Open the timeline

Historical atlas

Forts, temples, battle sites and settlements, mapped.

Open the map

Kodava culture

Okka and ainmane, ancestor veneration, festivals, land.

Meet the community

Kodava Takk

A Dravidian language, its documentation and literature.

Read about the language

Chronology

Seven eras

Kodagu's past is usually told in these stretches. The timeline lets you filter within and across them.

  1. c. 3000 BCE – 300 BCE

    Prehistoric & Megalithic

    Neolithic celts and Iron Age megalithic burials place people on these ridges long before any written record of them.

  2. c. 300 BCE – 900 CE

    Ancient & Early Historic

    Sangam-era Tamil literature supplies the earliest possible textual glimpses; epigraphy begins to speak from the ninth century.

  3. c. 900 – 1600 CE

    Medieval Overlordship

    Gangas, Cholas, Changalvas, Kongalvas and Hoysalas exercise varying degrees of authority over the hill tracts.

  4. c. 1600 – 1834

    The Haleri Kingdom

    A branch of the Keladi–Ikkeri Nayakas establishes a dynasty at Haleri and rules Kodagu for over two centuries.

  5. 1763 – 1799

    The Mysore Conflicts

    Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan repeatedly invade, occupy and lose Kodagu; the period leaves deep and contested memories.

  6. 1834 – 1947

    British Kodagu

    Annexation, coffee, revenue settlement, missionary scholarship and the making of a colonial province.

  7. 1947 – present

    Independence & After

    Coorg becomes a Part C State, merges into Mysore in 1956, and becomes Kodagu district of Karnataka.

Turning points

Moments worth knowing first

  • c. 3000 – 1200 BCE

    Scholarly Interpretation

    Neolithic tool-users in the Kodagu uplands

    Polished stone celts recovered from surface and habitation contexts in Kodagu indicate Neolithic activity in the district.

  • c. 1200 BCE – 300 CE

    Documented

    Iron Age megalithic burial traditions

    Dolmenoid cists, cairn circles and menhirs cluster across eastern Kodagu — more than forty burial clusters are reported in one recent survey.

  • c. 300 BCE – 300 CE

    Uncertain

    Possible Sangam-era references to the hill country

    Classical Tamil literature refers to western hill peoples and territories that some historians read as including the Kodagu tract.

  • 9th century CE (reported 2024)

    Documented

    Sixty-nine inscriptions reveal an epigraphic Kodagu

    An Archaeological Survey of India documentation drive reported 69 stone inscriptions in Kodagu, the earliest from the ninth century, including evidence of Chola influence and now-lost temples.

See all 26 events

Method

History, tradition and the difference between them

How evidence is weighedBibliography
Old books, manuscripts and papers stacked on a desk

The archive rests on printed and archival sources, from 19th-century accounts to modern scholarship.

Commissioned illustration for this project.

Illustrative image, not a historical photograph.

Stone ramparts of Madikeri Fort under a bright sky

Madikeri, the Haleri capital, and its much-rebuilt fort.

Commissioned illustration for this project.

Illustrative image, not a historical photograph.