Title: PERIYA MARUTHU: The Lion of Sivaganga and the Roar for Indian Freedom

Subtitle: The Epic Saga of the Warrior King Who United South India and Issued the Subcontinent’s First Declaration of Independence

More than fifty years before the uprising of 1857 shook northern India, the dense forests and fortified plains of Tamil Nadu roared with an unyielding war of liberation. At the absolute vanguard of this monumental struggle stood Periya Maruthu—a master of indigenous warfare, sovereign ruler of Sivaganga, and the supreme military pillar of the grand South Indian Confederacy.

From his youth in the martial cradle of Mukkulam to the bloody battlefields of the Second Polygar War, Periya Maruthu lived by an unbroken code of ancestral honor. When the British East India Company struck down his King at Kalayarkoil in 1772, he led an eight-year resistance in exile, serving as the protective shield and decisive sword arm of Queen Velu Nachiyar in her historic campaign to reclaim the throne.

Together with his visionary brother Chinna Maruthu, he forged a transformative chapter in Indian statecraft and military strategy:

The supreme field general who turned the dense barrier forests of Kalayarkoil into an impenetrable natural fortress against European siege artillery.

The elder statesman who united historically feuding palayams, forging a pan-Indian military confederacy spanning Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka alongside legendary titans like Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Oomaithurai, Gopala Nayaker, and Dheeran Chinnamalai.

The revolutionary leader who authored and proclaimed the historic Tiruchirappalli Proclamation of June 1801—affixing the subcontinent’s first formal declaration of universal independence to the gates of Srirangam and the citadel of Tiruchirappalli.

The unconquered martyr who faced the British gallows at Tiruppattur with towering dignity, choosing the ultimate sacrifice for his motherland over dishonor and foreign subjugation.

Richly detailed, deeply fact-filled, and powered by relentless narrative momentum, PERIYA MARUTHU brings to life the extraordinary story of a true giant of India’s anti-colonial resistance.

A soaring tribute to brotherhood, sovereignty, and fearless patriotism, this book immortalizes the warrior whose life and sacrifice lit the eternal flame of Indian independence.