Old warhorse defending the 'Red Fort' in Tipu's forgotten land

CENTURIES of war have left their mark on Palakkad.

- RAVI SHANKAR

It was through the Palghat pass that Tipu Sultan chased the East India Company's forces to Calicut. It was through it that he returned to Mysore upon hearing of his father Hyder's passing.

Had he succeeded in driving the English to the Arabian Sea in the late 1700s, India's history might have been different. Tipu's grim legacy in Palakkad is his fort: a black granite mass which ironically houses the local jail. Palakkad was once the red fort which the Communists had held for six consecutive terms until 2019, the Congress party's VK Srikanthan wrested it.

Palghat, which lies in the cradle of the Western Ghats, is a realm of legend. The purplegreen mountains, their silhouettes fading softly into a sky laminated by the summer sun of Malabar, the endless emerald stretch of paddy fields and the black palmiras arching their slender trunks against the winds that race down through the Palghat Pass have witnessed centuries of strife.