• The Kongu country comprising Salem, Coimbatore, Karur and Dindigul formed part of the Nayak kingdom of Madurai but had been annexed by the Wodayars of Mysore.
• After the fall of the Wodayars, these territories together with Mysore were controlled by the Mysore Sultans.
• As a result of the Third and Fourth Mysore wars, the entire Kongu region passed into the hands of the English

• Velu Nachiyar employed her intelligence gathering agents to discover where the British stored their ammunition.
• One of her followers Kuyili, doused herself in oil, set herself alight, and walked into the storehouse.
• She also employed another agent, her adopted daughter Udaiyaal, to detonate a British arsenal, blowing herself up along with the barracks.
• Velu Nachiyar formed a woman's army

• Colonel Baillie, who was to join the force led by Hector Munro, was badly wounded in a sudden attack by Haider.
• This forced Munro to move Madras. Haider captured Arcot (1780).
• Now on request from Madras government Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of the Battle of Wandawashi, was sent from Calcutta to besiege Madras by sea.
• Having scored a victory against Haider, Coote proceeded to Pondicherry.

The Treaty of Mangalore was signed in March 1784, according to which both parties agreed to give up their conquests and release the prisoners.

• The death of Haider due to cancer in 1782, the signing of Treaty of Paris (1783) at the end of American War of independence, and the protracted siege of Mangalore enabled the English to be aggressive against Tipu.
• Karur and Dindigul were captured by Colonel Lang, Colonel Fullerton seized Palghat and Coimbatore but this advance on Srirangapatnam was pre-empted by Tipu with his proposal for peace