A fort in the midst of a forest was a secret training ground for cavalry and elephants

In the early 1700s, King Chellamuthu  Vijayaragunatha  Sethupathy was gifted 200 horses by a Muslim businessman from Thondi. He built a fort in a dense tropical thorn forest, about 70 km from Ramanathapuram. Here, Sankarapathi, one of Hyder  Ali’s commandants, trained these horses. Impressed by the tutelage, the king named the fort after him

​In the early 1700s, King Chellamuthu  Vijayaragunatha  Sethupathy was gifted 200 horses by a Muslim businessman from Thondi. He built a fort in a dense tropical thorn forest, about 70 km from Ramanathapuram. Here, Sankarapathi, one of Hyder  Ali’s commandants, trained these horses. Impressed by the tutelage, the king named the fort after him