Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan, also known as The Tiger of Mysore (December 10, 1750, Devanahalli – May 4, 1799, Srirangapatnam), was the first son of Haider Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakr-un-nissa. He ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from the time of his father's death in 1782 until his own demise in 1799. Tipu was a learned man and an able soldier. He was reputed to be a good poet. He was also a strongly religious man, and practised the Shia branch of Islam. He built a church, the first in Mysore, at the request of the French. He was a noted linguist, Islamic patriot and a freedom fighter.

He helped his father Haider Ali defeat the British in the Second Mysore War, and negotiated the Treaty of Mangalore with them. However, he was defeated in the Third Anglo-Mysore War and in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War by the combined forces of Britain and of Mysore's neighbours. Tipu Sultan died defending his capital Srirangapatnam (frequently anglicized to Seringapatam), on May 4, 1799.

Sir Walter Scott, commenting on the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, wrote: "although I never supposed that he (Napoleon) possessed, allowing for some difference of education, the liberality of conduct and political views which were sometimes exhibited by old Haidar Ally, yet I did think he (Napoleon) might have shown the same resolved and dogged spirit of resolution with induced Tippoo Saib to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand."

Early life

Tipu was born at Devanahalli, in present-day Kolar District, some 45 miles east of Bangalore. The exact date of his birth is not known; various sources claim various dates between 1749 and 1753. According to one widely accepted dating, he was born on Nov 20, 1750 (Friday, 20th Zil-Hijja, 1163 AH). His father, Haider Ali, was the de-facto ruler of Mysore. His mother, Fakr-un-nissa (also called Fatima), was a daughter of Muin-ud-din, governor of the fort of Cuddapah.

His rule

His army largely consisted of Hindus – Hindus like Poornia, Naniah, Kumaraswamy and Krishna Rao (commander-in-chief of Tipu's army) served under him and held high positions in the administration. In short, Tipu was an enlightened ruler, the sheet-anchor of whose state policy was the well-being of all his subjects irrespective of caste, creed or class. He took his stand on the bedrock of humanity, regarding all his subjects as equal citizens worthy to live in peace, harmony and concord.

He also laid the foundation of the famous Brindavan Gardens, built roads, public buildings, and ports along the Kerala shoreline. His trade extended to Sri Lanka, Afganistan, France, Turkey, Iran etc. Under his leadership, the Mysore army proved to be a school of military science to Indian princes. The serious blows that Tipu inflicted on the British in the First and Second Mysore Wars affected their reputation as an invincible power. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the President of India and the father of Indian nuclear technology, in his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture in Bangalore (Nov. 30, 1991), called Tipu the innovator of the world’s first war rocket. In fact, two of these rockets, captured by the British at Srirangapatana, are displayed in the Woolwich Museum Artillery in London.

Religious Persecution

There are several articles available that paint Tipu Sultan as a religious persecutor of Hindus. However, Tipu's Prime Minister and the Commander of his army were Hindus, and there is credible evidence such as grant deeds and correspondence between his court and temples, of his having donated jewellery and deeded land grants to several temples.

When the monastery of the Sringeri Shankaracharya was pillaged, ironically enough, by Maratha soldiers, who profess the Hindu religion, in 1791-92, the incumbent Shankaracharya petitioned Tipu for help. A series of about 30 letters written in Kannada, which are correspondence between Tipu Sultan's court and the Sringeri Shankaracharya exist, documenting this. One of the letters even has a sanskrit quote about evildoers committing crimes with a smile, only weeping when they are brought to justice for their crimes.

A book by Prof. Irfan Habib, a Muslim, researches this extensively. and this is commented although not corroborated in an article in Tattvaloka, the magazine published by the Sringeri monastery.

Description

Alexander Beatson, who published a volume entitled 'View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with the late Tippoo Sultaun' on the Fourth Mysore War, described Tipu Sultan as follows: 'His stature was about five feet eight inches; he had a short neck, square shoulders, and was rather corpulent: his limbs were small, particularly his feet and hands; he had large full eyes, small arched eyebrows, and an aquiline nose; his complexion was brown, and the general expression of his countenance, not void of dignity.'

He was called the Tiger of Mysore as there is a native story that Tipu was hunting in the forest with a French friend, and when he met a tiger face to face, at that very instant his gun did not work and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He tried to reach the dagger, which was lying on the ground, and with the help of the dagger he killed the tiger, so henceforth he was called the Tiger of Mysore. His flag colour was the tiger replica. Tipu was also very fond of innovation. Alexander Beatson mentioned, for instance, that Tipu was 'passionately fond of new inventions…In his palace was found a great variety of curious swords, daggers, fusils, pistols, and blunderbusses; some were of exquisite workmanship, mounted with gold, or silver, and beautifully inlaid and ornamented with tigers' heads and stripes, or with Persian and Arabic verses.' Tipu's Tiger, an automaton representing a tiger savaging a European soldier, was made for him. During Tipu's reign, a new calendar, new coinage, and seven new government departments were introduced as well as innovations in the use of rocket artillery.

Proclamations

The following proclamations were issued by Tipu:

'Religious tolerance is the fundamental tenet of the Holy Quran…' (1787)
'Agriculture is the life blood of the nation…' (1788)
'There can be no glory or achievement if the foundation of our palaces, roads and dams are mingled with the tears and blood of humanity…' (1789)

He is often quoted as having said "It is far better to live like a lion for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years".

Early Military Career

He was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employment of his father, Hyder Ali (also transliterated as Haider Ali). He was aged 15 when he accompanied his father Hyder Ali to war against the British in the First Mysore War in 1766. He commanded a corps of cavalry in the invasion of the Carnatic in 1767, aged 16, and he distinguished himself in the First Anglo-Maratha War of 1775–1779.

Second Mysore War

He was put at the head of a large body of troops in the Second Mysore War, a few years later, and defeated Braithwaite on the banks of the Kollidam in February 1782. Although the British were defeated this time, Tipu Sultan became convinced that the British were a new kind of threat in India. Upon becoming Sultan after his father's death in 1782, he worked to check British advances through a series of alliances. At first he attempted to secure pacts with the Marathas and Mughals.

Fourth Mysore War

Napoleon's landing in Egypt in 1798 was intended to threaten India, and Mysore was a key to that next step. Although Horatio Nelson crushed Napoleon's ambitions at the Battle of the Nile, three armies - one from Bombay, and two British (one of which included Arthur Wellesley the future 1st Duke of Wellington) - nevertheless marched into Mysore in 1799 and besieged the capital, Srirangapatnam in the Fourth Mysore War. On May 4 1799, the armies broke through the defending walls and Tipu Sultan was killed in the fighting.

Rocket Artillery in War

A military tactic developed by Tipu Sultan and his father, Hyder Ali was the use of mass attacks with rocket brigades on infantry formations. Tipu wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahidin in which 200 rocket men were prescribed to each Mysorean 'cushoon'. (Mysore had 16 to 24 cushoons of infantry). The areas of town where rockets and fireworks were manufactured were known as Taramandal Pet (roughly translated as "Galaxy Bazaar").

The rocket men were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance of the target. In addition, wheeled rocket launchers capable of launching five to ten rockets almost simultaneously were used in war. Rockets could be of various sizes, but usually consisted of a tube of soft hammered iron about 8" long and 1½ - 3" diameter, closed at one end and strapped to a shaft of bamboo about 4ft. long. The iron tube acted as a combustion chamber and contained well packed black powder propellant. A rocket carrying about one pound of powder could travel almost 1,000 yards. In contrast, rockets in Europe not being iron cased, could not take large chamber pressures and as a consequence, were not capable of reaching distances anywhere near as great.

On 2nd May, 1799, during the siege of Srirangapatnam, a shot struck a magazine of rockets within the fort at Seringapatam causing it to explode and sent a towering cloud of black smoke, with cascades of exploding white light, rising up from the battlements. After the fall of Srirangapatnam, 600 launchers, 700 serviceable rockets and 9,000 empty rockets were found. Some of the rockets had iron points or steel blades bound to the bamboo, while some had pierced cylinders, to allow them to act like incendiaries.

Rockets were also used for ceremonial purposes. When the Jacobin Club of Mysore sent a delegation to Tipu, 500 rockets were launched as part of the gun salute.

A study of similar Maratha rockets (at the Battle of Panipat (1761), the British saw salvos of up to 2,000 fired simultaneously against them) at the Royal Woolwich Arsenal led to the publication of A Concise Account of the Origin and Progress of the Rocket System in 1804 by William Congreve, son of the arsenal's commandant. Congreve rockets find mention in the Star Spangled Banner.

Jacobin Club in Mysore

Many historians have regarded Tipu's rule as one that fostered secular and liberal views. An interesting aspect of Tipu's life was that he was a founder-member of the Jacobin Club. While accepting the membership, he said of France, "Behold my acknowledgement of the standard of your country, which is dear to me, and to which I am allied; it shall always be supported in my country, as it has been in the Republic, my sister!". He was named as "Citizen Tipu Sultan",

In fiction

Philip Meadows Taylor wrote a novel entitled Tippoo Sultaun, a Tale of the Mysore War, published in 1840.
He was killed by Richard Sharpe in the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell.
"Tippoo Sahib" (Tipu-Saíib in French) is the uncle of Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.
His life and adventures were the central theme of a short-running South Indian television series titled "The adventures of Tipu Sultan" and a more popular national television series titled "The sword of Tipu Sultan".
A famous Muslim history novelist Naseem Hijazi wrote a novel "Muazam Ali" and "Aur Talwar Toot Gaye"(And The Sword Is Broken) which describes Tipu Sultan's wars.

Descendants

Tipu's family were sent to Calcutta by the British. Noor Inayat Khan is said to be one of Tipu's descendants, who died in France under German occupation.

Sword of Tipu Sultan

Recently during an auction in London, Vijay Mallya purchased the sword of Tipu and other articles and was displayed to the public after nearly 2 centuries.

External links

Kings of Mysore | People of Karnataka | Muslim generals | 1750 births | 1799 deaths

Tipu Sultan | Tipû Sâhib | ಟೀಪು ಸುಲ್ತಾನ್ | Tippo Sahib | ٹیپو سلطان

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