During the reign of Vijayaramaraju, the king of Vizianagaram Zamindari, the East India Company, which had a treaty with the previous king, tried to impose increased peskas (taxes) and reduce the size of the army. When the king refused to pay, the British attacked Vizianagaram on August 2, 1793, captured him and sentenced him to exile with a pension. The raja refused the orders and went to Padmanabham in Visakhapatnam, with an army of over a thousand warriors.

On July 10, 1794, the British invaded Padmanabham under Colonel Pendergast. In a battle that lasted just one and a half hours, the British, equipped with rifles and cannons, defeated the king, losing just 13 soldiers. The Rajah was killed and the British took full control of the Vizianagaram kingdom.