Tipu Sultan, SHERE MYSORE

The famous historian Colonel Mark Wilkes writes that Tipu Sultan was younger than his father Haider Ali. They were black. The eyes were big. He looked normal and wore light clothes and asked his roommates to do the same. They were mostly seen riding horses. He considered horse riding to be a great artist and he was also skilled in it. He really disliked travelling in a dolly.

 

A glimpse of Tipu Sultan's personality can also be found in a book kept in the British Library, An Account of Tipu Sultan's Court, the details of which were given by his secretary Muhammad Qasim to an English historian after his death. It says that 'Tipu was of medium height, his forehead was wide. He had grey eyes, a high nose and a thin waist. His moustache was short and his beard was perfectly clean

 Tipu Sultan, bigoted jihadi or tolerant ruler?

 He has a painting in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, wearing a green turban.

 It has a ruby ​​and a string of pearls. He is wearing a green robe with a lion-like striped waistband. A sword is hanging inside the red sheath in a belt in his arm. 45,000 British troops attack Saranga Patam

 On February 14, 1799, 21,000 troops under General George Harris marched from Vellore to Mysore. On March 20, a contingent of 16,000 soldiers joined him near Amber. It also included a contingent of 6,420 troops under General Stewart's command near Connor. Together they invaded Tipu Sultan's Saranga Patam fort. The famous historian James Mill writes in his book The History of British India that "these were the same Tipu Sultans whose half of the empire was occupied by the British six years ago." The land they had left earned them a little over Rs 10 million a year, while the total foreign exchange received by the British in India at that time was   900,000. Gradually they besieged the fort of Saranga Patam and on May 3, 1799, attacked it with artillery and pierced its front wall.

 Tipu's army betrayed

Another historian, Lashington, writes in his book Life of Harris: "Although the hole was not very large, George Harris decided to send his troops inside the fort through it." In fact, they had no choice. His army was hungry. Harris later admitted to Captain Malcolm that the British guard at my tent had become so weak that he would have fallen if he had been pushed. On the night of May 3, about 5,000 soldiers, including about 3,000 British, hid in the trenches so that Tipu's army could find out about their activities. As the time for the attack approached, Mir Sadiq, the man who had betrayed Tipu Sultan, called back the soldiers under the pretext of paying them. Another historian, Mir Hussain Ali Khan Kirmani, in his book, History of Tipu Sultan, quotes Col. Mark Wilkes as saying, "Nadeem, a Tipu commander raised the issue of salaries." So the soldiers stationed near the hole in the wall followed him. At that moment, the British attacked from behind. Meanwhile, Saeed Ghaffar, a very loyal commander of Tipu, was killed by British artillery. Kirmani writes that as soon as Ghaffar died, the treacherous soldiers from the fort started waving the white handkerchief of the British. It was decided that when this was done, the British army would attack the fort. As soon as the signal was received, the British army started advancing towards the river bank which was only a hundred yards away. The river was only 280 yards wide and had water up to the ankles and up to the waist. Major Alexander Allen writes in his book 'An Account of the Campaign in Mysore' that 'although the advancing British army could easily have been targeted by artillery from the fort, They managed to enter through the hole in the fort wall and hoisted the British flag.

 Tipu's army

 After capturing the hole, the British army split into two. The army advancing to the left facing severe difficulties from Tipu Sultan. Colonel Dunlap, who led the contingent in a hand-to-hand confrontation with Tipu's army suffered a severe sword wound to the wrist. Tipu's troops then managed to stop the columnist from advancing. Tipu Sultan himself had joined the war to strengthen his army. Dunlap was replaced by Lieutenant Farquhar. But they too soon died. On the morning of May 4, Tipu rode his horse to inspect the hole in the fort wall and ordered repairs. Then they went for a bath.

 "Early in the morning, his astrologer informed him that the day was not good for him," Kirmani writes. Therefore, they should stay with their army till evening.

 

After bathing, Tipu distributed money among the poor
 

He gave an elephant, a sack of sesame seeds and two hundred rupees to a priest of Chenapatna. Tipu gave the other Brahmins a black goat, a garment made of black cloth and ninety rupees, as well as a vessel full of oil. Earlier, he saw his shadow in the oil in an iron pot. His astrologer had said that doing so would avert the trouble that would come upon him.

They returned to the palace and had dinner. He had just started eating when he was greeted by his commander Saeed Ghaffar News of the death of Ghaffar was leading an army guarding the western end of the fort.

Lt. Col. Alexander Bateson writes in his book A View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tipu Sultan:

He washed his hands and mounted his horse and went out to the place where the hole in the wall was. But even before their arrival, the British had hoisted their flag there and started moving towards other parts of the fort.

 

Tipu was shot and the horse was killed
 

"In this battle, Tipu fought most of his battles on foot, like ordinary soldiers," Bateson writes. But when the courage of their soldiers began to wane, they mounted their horses and tried to encourage them.

 "If Tipu wanted, he could have run away from the battlefield," writes Mark Wilkes. At that time the commander of the fort Mir Nadeem was standing on the roof of the gate of the fort but he did not pay any attention to his Sultan.

 Tipu had been injured by then.

 As Tipu approached the inner gate of the fort, a bullet struck him in the left chest. His horse was also killed. His comrades tried to take him out of the battlefield on a dolly but failed. Because by then there was a pile of corpses. Major Alexander writes that at that time his bodyguard Raja Khan advised him to tell the British but Tipu did not approve. He chose the path of death instead of being imprisoned by the British. Betson writes of Tipu Sultan's last moments: "Then some British soldiers entered the inner gate of the fort. One of them tried to snatch Tipu's sword belt. By then, Tipu had bled profusely and had almost fainted. Even then, they attacked the soldier with their swords. He then struck another British soldier on the head with the same sword. Meanwhile, another British soldier attacked Tipu. He wanted to snatch the jewels and the sword from them. At the time, they could not see who had wielded the sword

The British did not know that Tipu Sultan was dead. They went inside the palace to look for them. It turned out that Tipu was not there. A Tipu general took them to the spot where Tipu had fallen. There were corpses and wounded soldiers lying around.

In the light of the torch, Tipu Sultan's dolly appeared.

Below him, Tipu's bodyguard Raja Khan was lying injured. He pointed to where Tipu had fallen. Major Allen later wrote, "When Tipu's body was brought before us, his eyes were open. His body was so hot that for a moment Colonel Wellesley and I felt as if he were not alive. But when we saw their pulse and laid our hands on our hearts, our doubts vanished. He had three wounds on his body and one on his forehead. A bullet entered his right ear and sank into his left cheek. He was dressed in the finest white linen cloth with a silk knot wrapped around his waist. She did not have a turban on her head and looked as if she had fallen during the war. There was no jewellery on the body except for one arm. The bracelet was actually a silver talisman with something written in Arabic and Persian.

 General Baird ordered Tipu's body to be placed in his dolly. A message was sent to the court that Tipu Sultan was no more in this world. His body was kept in his court all night.

 

Buried next to Haider Ali's grave
 

The next evening, Tipu Sultan's body left the palace. His body was carried by his personal staff. He was accompanied by four British companies.

according to documents in the UK's National Library of Scotland, the Journal of the War with Tipu states that "Prince Abdul Khaliq was walking right behind his funeral."

 Behind him were important court officials. The streets through which the funeral procession passed were crowded on both sides. People were lying on the ground paying homage to the funeral. People were crying out loud. He was buried in Lal Bagh next to the grave of his father Haider Ali.

 After that, five thousand rupees were distributed to the participants of Tipu Sultan's funeral. "As the night wore on, the atmosphere became more gloomy when a strong wind blew with thunder," Batson wrote. Two British soldiers were killed and several others were injured in the storm.

 Sword of Tipu Sultan

 After the death of Tipu Sultan, Saranga Patam was badly looted by the British troops.                          Yet the Tipu's throne, the elephant's silver seat, the gold and silver plates, the jewels' locks and swords, the expensive carpets, the finest silk fabrics and twenty boxes full of jewels did not fall into the hands of ordinary soldiers.                                                                                                                                  No damage was done to Tipu's excellent library, which contained more than 2,000 books on history, science and hadith in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hindi.                                                                              A diamond star and Tipu's sword were presented to Valles Lee by the British Army. In his book An Account of the Campaign in Mysore, Major Alexander Allen writes that Harris gifted another Tipu's sword to Beard, and the lion's head attached to the Sultan's throne was sent to Windsor Castle's treasury. ۔One by one the swords of Tipu Sultan and Morari Rao were sent to Lord Cornwallis as a memento. Until then, the British had not faced a king like Tipu in India. After Tipu, there was no one left to challenge the British in the war

 "After the defeat of Tipu, the whole kingdom of the East fell at our feet," wrote Pat Abir, a British journalist, in his book Rise and Progress of British Power in India.