If anyone asks which was the most emotional moment of my recent Mysore tour, then surely it was my visit to the spot where the body of the great Tipu Sultan was found after the 4th Anglo-Mysore War. It was a sunny early afternoon in September when we reached Srirangapatana (previously known as Seringapatana). After visiting the Ranganathaswamy Temple, Colonel Bailey’s Dungeon, and the WaterGate, we reached the particular spot. The area, marked by a board from the Archaeological Survey of India at its entrance, is a roofless patch of land that is enclosed on all sides by low-height grills. When you cross the entry gate and reach almost the center, there stands a marble stone tablet. On the tablet, it reads, “The body of Tipu Sultan was found here.” After reading this line, it felt as if my heart had skipped a beat, something very precious had just dropped from my hand. I sat down near the stone tablet, gazed at it, and put my hand on the ground. I rubbed the platform near the stone tablet with my right palm a few times. The image of a painting where the lifeless body of Tipu Sultan was being checked by a few English officials and shoulders peeped into my mind. My eyes were moist. A deep sigh escaped me, as if it was trying to push out all the heaviness and burden inside my chest. I sat there silently for a few minutes. The picture of the handover of Tipu’s sons after his death, to English officials appeared in my thoughts, which I had seen in the Jaganmohan Palace a few hours before.
The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798–1799) was the final conflict between Tipu Sultan, the then ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, and the British East India Company. The Anglo-Mysore Wars were actually a series of conflicts between Mysore and the East India Company in the 18th century. The First (1767-1769), Second (1780-1784), and Third (1790-1792) Anglo-Mysore Wars had all been fought over control of southern India, with Tipu Sultan succeeding his father, Sultan Hyder Ali, as ruler of Mysore after his death in 1782. After the Third War, which was started after Tipu’s attack on Travancore, a British ally; he was forced to cede significant territories to the British under the “Treaty of Seringapatana” (1792). He also surrendered two of his sons as hostages due to his inability to pay an indemnity of 330 lakhs of rupees. However, he remained hostile towards British expansion. He sought to strengthen his position through alliances with France and other European powers, but the British feared that Tipu’s growing influence would challenge their control of India. To curb Tipu’s influence in southern India, the British formed an alliance with the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad, both of whom had previously been rivals of Tipu.
The intention of these alliances was to isolate Tipu and prevent him from gaining support. Hence, the fourth war broke out in 1798. The British forces advanced into Mysore. Tipu Sultan put up a strong resistance, but he faced overwhelming odds. The British-led coalition of the Marathas, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the East India Company outnumbered and outgunned his forces. Despite Tipu’s tactical brilliance and the fortifications of his capital, Seringapatana, the British made significant progress. Even though the troops of the British and their alliances outnumbered Tipu’s army, it was never easy for the British army to defeat him. The people of Mysore used to call him “The Tiger of Mysore.” Many historians believe that the downfall, defeat, and death of Tipu were attributed to treachery by some of his key advisors and officials (but there is also a second line of thought: that the stories of betrayal and treachery associated with the defeat of Tipu Sultan lack factual reporting; rather, they are rumors). Mir Sadiq, his prime minister; Sayad Sahib and Quamaruddin, two prominent military commanders; Mir Nadim, the commandant at Srirangapatna; and Mir Miran Purnaniya (Purniah), his finance minister, were a few within his administration who are believed to have acted against him by secretly aiding the enemy. Mir Sadiq and Purnaniya allowed the British army to enter his fort via WaterGate, the secret door of Tipu Sultan’s fort. Tipu was residing in a small room, near that gate. However, on 4th May 1799, his body was recovered around 200 meters from this spot, where today we find the marble stone tablet.
The scenes from the Anglo-Mysore War series are painted on the tall walls of Dariya Daulat Bagh, located about 1.2 to 1.5 km from Watergate. Dariya Daulat Bagh, which means “Garden of the Sea of Wealth,” is located in Srirangapatna, around 14 km from Mysore city. This place is often referred to as the “Summer Palace” by locals. This palace was built by Tipu Sultan in 1784 in the Indo-Saracenic style and is mostly made of teak wood. It has a rectangular plan and is built on a raised platform. The platform is surrounded by open corridors on all four sides, with wooden pillars at the edges of the base. The walls, pillars, canopies, and arches are adorned with vibrant frescoes in the Mysore painting style. The outer walls of the palace feature frescoes depicting battle scenes and portraits, while the inner walls are decorated with scrolls of delicate foliage and floral designs. The wooden ceilings of the palace are covered with canvas painted with intricate floral patterns. On the western wall, there are paintings depicting the famous victories won by Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan over the British. The eastern wall features five rows of paintings illustrating scenes from the darbars of Tippu Sultan’s contemporaries, including the Hindu Rani of Chittor, the Raja of Tanjore, the Raja of Benares, Balaji Rao II Peshwa, Magadi Kempegowda, Madakari Nayaka of Chitradurga, and Krishnaraja Wodeyar II.
Inside the palace is the Tipu Sultan Museum. It has a collection of Tipu’s swords, rifles, silk dresses, silver bowls, and also European paintings and Persian manuscripts. The museum has the painting “Storming of Srirangapatna,” an oil painting by Sir Robert Ker Porter made in 1800. This historical painting depicts the final fall of Srirangapatana on 4 May 1799. Nearby, the ruins of Tipu’s Palace, the Lal Mahal, can be found. Which was within this fort that Tippu Sultan died while fighting the British. The fort also houses the Jama Masjid and the Ranganathaswamy Temple. In the garden of the summer palace, one can find huge trees that are 240 or 200 years old. The most attractive is an enormous Mahogany (Swietenia) tree that stands tall and distinctive on the left side of the path while exiting the palace garden. It instantly draws the attention of visitors. I couldn’t stop myself from hugging the gigantic tree trunk. It took me around 41 seconds to complete a circle around the great Mahogany tree to videograph it. I stood silently under the tree and tried to look around the entire garden, inhale the fresh air, and touch the trunk again with the thought in my mind that, maybe at some remote moment, around 240 years ago, the Tiger of Mysore had touched it with his firm, strong, and heroic hands, so it is still standing erect and undisturbed on this ground. I hugged the tree again with a silent prayer in my mind: you people (trees of the garden and on the entire planet) stay safe and untouched from the ill intentions of mankind!)
On the day after the death of Tipu Sultan and the end of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, on May 5, 1799, Tipu Sultan was buried at the Gumbaz or Gumbad-e-Sahi. The British, while allowing his body to be buried next to his father’s and mother’s graves, provided full military honors. His body was carried in a procession accompanied by English soldiers, the Grenadier Division, officials, and the people of Seringapatana, with his son Abdul Khaliq as the chief mourner. Many British officers, including Lieutenant Richard Bayly of the 12th Regiment, described how a heavy thunderstorm struck Seringapatana while his body was being buried. In his reports, Lieutenant Richard Bayly mentioned, “I must relate the effects and appearance of a tremendous storm of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning that ensued on the afternoon of the burial of Tippoo Saib. I had returned to camp excessively indisposed. About five o’clock, a darkness of unusual obscurity came on, and volumes of huge clouds were hanging within a few yards of the earth in a motionless state. Suddenly, a rushing wind, with irresistible force, raised pyramids of sand to an amazing height and swept most of the tents and marquees in frightful eddies far from their site.” He also mentioned, “I have experienced hurricanes, typhoons, and gales of wind at sea, but never in the whole course of my existence had I seen anything comparable to this desolating visitation. Heaven and earth appeared absolutely to have come in collision, and no bounds were set to the destruction.” From his lines, one can understand that even after a series of conflicts, wars, and the resistance of Tipu Sultan, the enemy British army and its officials had great respect for the brave fighter.
The Gumbad-e-Sahi, which is located around 3 km from Dariya Daulat Bagh, was built by Tipu Sultan between 1782 and 1784 to serve as a mausoleum for his father, Hyder Ali, and mother, Fakr-Un-Nisa. In the past, the Gumbaz was surrounded by a cypress garden, which is said to have had different species of flowering trees and plants collected by Tipu Sultan from Persia, Ottoman Turkey, Kabul, and French Mauritius. The Gumbaz is designed in the Islamic style, with a large rectangular garden that has a path leading to the mausoleum. In the middle of the garden, the Gumbaz stands on an elevated platform. The dome is supported by 36 sharply cut black granite pillars. The doors and windows have latticework cut through the same black granite material. The walls inside are painted with tiger stripes as a tribute to the great hero of Mysore. The original carved doors of the mausoleum have been removed and are now displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The present doors, made of ebony and decorated with ivory, were gifted by Lord Dalhousie. In 1855, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India, visited Seringapatam on his way to the Nilgiris. He found most of the monuments in a state of neglect and on the verge of destruction. He then ordered the renovation and restoration of those buildings. Along with the replacement of the doors of the Gumbaz-e-Sahi and the restoration of the murals in the Daria Daulat Bagh, he also approved a sum for the annual maintenance of the associated monuments of Seringapatam.
Inside the mausoleum, the middle grave is that of Hyder Ali, to his east is Tipu Sultan’s mother, and to his West Tipu Sultan is buried. Many of Tippu’s relatives are buried outside the mausoleum in the garden. On the southern side of the veranda outside are the graves of Tipu’s sister, daughter, infant daughter and son-in-law. On the East side is the black grave supposedly of Tipu’s foster mother Madina Begum. Many of Tippu’s relatives are buried outside the mausoleum in the garden. Next to the Gumbaz is the Masjid-E-Aksa, which was also built by Tippu Sultan. There is another mosque known as the Masjid-e-Ala, often called Jama Masjid, which was built by Tipu Sultan in the year 1784 in Srirangapatna. It was the mosque where Tipu Sultan used to pay his Namaz and is located around 1.5 km from Ranganathswani Temple. One can halt near this mosque on their way from Tipu Sultan’s place of death to Dariya Daulat Bagh.
It was late in the afternoon when we were about to leave Gumbad-e-Sahi. The sun was in a hurry to set down at the far west end of the horizon. Its rays had already started to lose their sharpness and brightness. Before putting her last step outside of the Gumbaz premises, my mum paused for a while and looked back at the mausoleum. I could see the picture of Tipu Sultan’s grave, lying still under the cover of a green chadar, which had zari work and roses on it, and the large tiger skin paintings on the walls in her eyes. I remembered how she asked us, the sister duo, to bow before Tipu Sultan’s grave inside the Gumbaz; she herself also did the same. She whispered, “Rarely are such brave heroes born in history!”
