GINGEE, a town of the Carnatic, and capital of the above district, and a celebrated fortress, which stands on a stupendous rock, and is impregnable by all the ordinary modes of attack. It is said to have been built or improved on an old foundation of the Chola kings, by the son of Vijaya Runga Naik, the governor of Tanjore, in 1442. It was successively strengthened by the Mahomedan kings of Bijapore, who possessed it from 1669 to 1677, and by the Maharrattas, who held it in the year 1698. At this period it was besieged and taken by Zulfiqar Khan, the imperial general, who appointed Rajpoot governors. They affected independence, and assumed the rank of rajahs. In 1750 it was taken by surprise during a night attack by the French under M. de Bussy; but it surrendered to the British after the capture of Pondicherry in 1761. Like all the other hill forts in India, it is reckoned very unhealthy; and the French are said to have lost about twelve hundred of their number during the ten years they held possession of it; on which account it is garrisoned during the peace by a small number of native troops. Long. 79. 34. E. Lat. 12. 15. N.