Less-known facts are now emerging about a well-planned fort that was designed to be part of Farokhabad, the capital of Malabar at Feroke near Kozhikode, as envisioned by the Mysore king Tipu Sultan.
These are coming to light in the course of the excavations by the Kerala State Archaeological Department in the area. Historical documents such as William Logan’s Malabar Manual, the Joint Commissioner’s ‘Report on Malabar’, and Mohibbul Hassan’s A History of Tipu Sultan say that Tipu planned to build the fort on the south bank of the Chaliyar river between 1786 and 1790. But its construction could not be completed. A report by the department says that this was the only fort in Kerala built entirely by Tipu.
“The main structures found inside the fort earlier were a bungalow built by the Basel Mission, a laterite chamber, a helical step-well and a rock-cut cave of the early Iron Age. Through systematic exploration, we have now uncovered bastions, ramparts, moats, arsenal remains, and ditch wells,” K. Krishnaraj, field survey assistant who is heading the excavations, told The Hindu.
