Vellore and Vellore fort

Once You manage to get out of the Katpadi rAILway sTation after negotiating the TTEs, the more than average friendly autowallah will literally take ur luggage burden and for a mere cost of around rs100 transport u from there across a bridge over a dreadedly dry Palar river basin and deposit u in the center of the Vellore town, which is mainly located today around the CMC Hospital. People from all over India know Vellore as their last hope to get a cure for many a disease. Not far away from the hospital stands the Vellore fort that once controlled regions including Chennai and Tirupathi as its provinces.The fort was built by a chieftain under the Vijayanagar empire. Bommi simha(Chinna Bommi Nayak ) around 1556. It has transferred hands from the Vijayanagar empire to Bijapur sultanate, annexed by the Marathas, captured by the British and many others. In 1806, the fort witnessed a Sepoy Mutiny but the British managed to keep this a secret for many years. Tipu Sultan's FAMILY was kept cative here by the British.the last king to rule over the fort was the king of KANDY(srilanka), who according to sources was of telegu origin.
The fort contains a temple, a mosque and a church.

Jacques de Coutré was a European traveller in the region during 1610's and noted the Vellore Fort as following…
“We arrived in the city of Belur(vellore), which is also walled, with two walls of stone, and is more than two leagues in circuit, with very deep moats full of water. It seemed to be almost two cities. I have never seen a city that was so fortified and which had such lovely walls and bastions as this one. We prize the cities of Antwerp and Flanders, but neither can compare in their fortifications or loveliness to this city”