Tipu Sultan
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Artworks about Tipu
The Battle of Pollilur
Naomi Canton, March 28, 2022: The Times of India
From: Naomi Canton, March 28, 2022: The Times of India
London: A 10m wide panoramic early nineteenth century painting of the Battle of Pollilur that historian William Dalrymple has described as “arguably the greatest Indian picture of the defeat of colonialism that survives” is going under the hammer at Sotheby’s.
The artwork, the centrepiece of the “Arts of the Islamic World & India” auction, is estimated to be worth between £500k and £800k (Rs 5-8 crore) and currently belongs to a private collection in the UK. Only three such paintings exist, depicting the battle won by Tipu Sultan on September 10, 1780, as part of the Second AngloMysore War. One of these paintings was sold at Sotheby’s in 2010 for £769,250. The battle represents the triumph of Haidar Ali, the ruler of Mysore, and his son Tipu, against the British troops of the East India Company. Tipu Sultan commissioned a painting of the battle as a mural for his palace, Daria Daulat Bagh, in Seringapatam , in 1784. This painting, which extends over 10 large sheets of paper, focuses on the moment when two of the East India Company’s ammunition tumbrils explode. Haidar is seen with Tipu, who is in a tiger-striped shirt and sniffing a rose with sangfroid as he surveys the carnage. An injured S cottish officer, Colonel William Baillie, can be seen carried in a palanquin. The panorama shows all the go re of the battle, “including heads flying off when someone is decapitated”.
“Tipu Sultan was proba- bly the most effective opponent that the East India Company ever faced. Tipu showed that the Indians could fight back, that they could win, that they could use European tactics against the Europeans and defeat them. The first time that a European army is defeated in India is this Battle of Pollilur. There is no picture of an 18th century battle in India surviving and this is the great masterpiece and it is in anear perfect condition.
You can see every individual face, the horror, the excitement, bloodlust,” Dalrymple said.
The British portrayed Tipu as “an aggressive Muslim monster” and “savage barbarian” but, according to Dalrymple, he was a farsighted ruler who “identified the British as dangerous outsiders, and with his defeat of the Company at Pollilur did more than any other ruler of the time to stop them taking over the count ry”. Kristina Sanne, an expert in Islamic and Indian art, said, “In the past 15 y ears there has been a rise in collecting artefacts relating to Tipu Sultan in the Middle East and India. The previous painting sold in 2010 had been heavily restored, unlike this one”. The painting was produced after the battle, some time between 1799 and 1820, by local Indian artists in Seringapatam.
Events before his birth
Abdali invaded in 1748, Tipu was not born
The Times of India, Nov 08 2015
Manimugdha Sharma
Historians hit out at BJP for painting Tipu anti-national The Karnataka govern ment's decision to observe the birthday of Mysore ti ger Tipu Sultan has stirred a debate with the Sangh Parivar slamming it and those on the other side of the ideological spectrum supporting it.
On Friday , BJP dismissed the legendary ruler as an anti-national, with its Mysuru legislator, Go Madhusudan, decrying the move to set up a university in Tipu's name. “Let's not forget the recorded fact that he invited Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali to wage a war against India.This shows he was an anti-national and doesn't deserve to be venerated,“ he had said.
However, the BJP didn't realise the fallacy of its claim. The first time Abdali invaded India in 1748, Tipu was not even born. When Abdali defeated the Marathas at Panipat in 1761, Tipu was only a 10-year-old child and a hostage of Khande Rao, the Mysorean general who had hatched a plot with the Wodeyar queen's mother to oust Hyder Ali, then the subedar of Dindigul. In fact, it was the Maratha defeat that had helped Tipu's father to seize power in 1761.
Tipu Sultan did, however, seek an international alliance with Abdali's grandson, Zaman Shah Durrani, France, Iran and the Ottoman Empire to throw out the British.
Aghast by this portrayal, historian Dilip Menon said, “Tipu is a complex figure, but one of the best 18th-century monarchs in India.However, there were also stories of orced conversions of Hindus and destruction of temples, which to modern eyes fit too well into a Muslim monarch in a Hindu society frame. Interestingly, the ideal monarch, Ashoka, self-confessedly killed hundreds of thousands of Hindus in war before converting to Buddhism. So will the BJP reject Ashoka? History means knowing context and not subscribing to polarising myths.“
Military historian Mandeep Singh Bajwa was angry at this “lack of understanding“ of Tipu.“Instead of making these empty noises, they should be studying the administration and warfare of Hyder Ali and Tipu ,“ he said.
Achievements
Tipu Sultan’s Mission to Constantinople
May 28, 2006
REVIEWS: Chronicling history
Reviewed by S.G. Jilanee
AMONG the Muslim rulers of India, those who had their capital in northern India such as Delhi or even Murshidabad are more widely known than those in the South: Bijapur, Golconda, Hyderabad and Mysore, for example.
Among the latter, however, the names of Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan outshine all others. Haider Ali, son of Fath Khan, “a soldier of fortune,” rose by the dint of his own prowess to become the ruler of Mysore like Sher Shah in northern India.
But it was his illustrious son, Tipu Sultan (1782-99), whose exploits have immortalised his name. Besides being a super-eminent general, he was also a visionary like his father. It was Haider Ali who, side by side with his wars, also conceived the idea of building a strong navy. He entered into treaties with the rulers of Oman and Persia and established a factory at Muscat on the pattern of the East India Company.
Tipu Sultan carried his mission forward both on the battlefield and the diplomatic front with greater vigour. In the latter area, he attempted to extend relations further. Thus, in 1786 he sent an embassy to Constantinople. The embassy’s principal objective was to establish commercial relations with the Ottoman Empire. Another one was to secure confirmation of Tipu’s title to the throne of Mysore from the Caliph and use him for military assistance in the war that Tipu was fighting with the British.
Khwaja Abdul Qadir, one of the two secretaries of the mission, kept a meticulous diary of events on the orders of Tipu Sultan under the title of Waqai-i-Manazik-i-Rum which would translate as “Chronicle of the stages (in the mission) to Constantinople” (because Constantinople was known as Rum among the Muslims).
The book comprises events from the time the mission sailed from the port of Seringapatam up to the point when it started from Basra for Constantinople
It is a rare manuscript which Prof Mohibbul Hasan, who taught history at the Calcutta, Aligarh Muslim and Srinagar universities, with great pains, collected and with greater effort edited, translated into English and published in the form a book under the same title. However, this unique document which was found among Tipu Sultan’s papers after the capture of Seringapatam, comprises events from the time the mission sailed from the port of Seringapatam up to the point when it started from Basra for Constantinople. The remaining portion of the diary describing the journey beyond this point is not available. The Waqai is a rich source of information not only about Tipu Sultan’s commercial and military ambitions and his administrative acumen but also about the Indian merchants settled in the Persian Gulf and their role in the local economic life.
Yet, the Waqai provides invaluable information on the commercial, social and political situation in the places visited. It also describes places such as Basra, Muscat and Kharg Island in great detail. Apart from the prices of commodities, the author has also recorded rituals such as Muharram and the legend of Khwaja Khizr’s combat with a witch. There also are some interesting anecdotes, such as the description of one of the chiefs of the mission, Lutf Ali Khan, wandering through the streets of Basra seated in a palanquin and buying small trinkets.
Value is added by a historical background, which throws light on the contemporary political situation both inside India and in the Persian Gulf. The book is interesting both for the casual reader and the serious student of history.
Waqai-i Manazil-i Rum: Tipu Sultan’s Mission to Constantinople
By Khwaja Abdul Qadir
Edited By Mohibbul Hasan Aakar Books,
28-E, Pocket-IV, Mayur Vihar Phase-1,
New Delhi-110 091 India
Tel: 011-22795505.
Email: aakarb@del2.vsnl.net.in
ISBN 81-87879-56-4
99+168pp. Indian Rs750
Controversies
The 2015 controversy over the Tipu Jayanti
Oneindia, 13th Nov, 2015
Karnataka has been hit by a massive protests at different parts of the state. Two Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers died when pro and anti-Tipu Sultan groups clashed in Kodagu district on Nov 10.
Tipu Sultan, a controversial king, was also known Tiger of Mysore. He was the son of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore and ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from 1783 to 1799.
Tipu died at the age of 48 and was succeeded by Krishnaraja Wodeyar III. Despite his several works which helped Karnataka to become a developed state, Tipu faced criticism for his atrocities towards Hindus, including the conversion of Hindus to Islam.
Why controversy over Tipu Sultan irked protesters suddenly?
Karnataka government-led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah earlier in 2014 announced that Nov 10 will be celebrated as Tipu Jayanti. Many people were disappointed with the announcement and vowed to disrupt the programme. Despite several warnings by Sangh Parivar outfits in Karnataka, the state government organised the event on Nov 10, 2015. It was Tipu Sultan's 266th birth anniversary.
Why was Girish Karnad dragged into the controversy?
Jnanpith winner Girish Karnad, a noted artist, landed in the controversy with his statement on Tipu Sultan. Karnad suggested that Bengaluru airport should be named after Tipu Sultan. His statement irked many, especially the Vokkaligas as currently the airport is named after Kempe Gowda, one of its eminent member from 16th century.
Death threat to Karnad
After facing criticism, Karnad apologised for his statement. He also clarified that it was his personal opinion and he did not intend to hurt anyone's sentiment. Meanwhile, an unidentified person on Twitter threatened Karnad. The person claimed that Karnad too will face death like MM Kalburgi. Police, who do not want to take any risk, tightened security for Karnad.
Legacy
Manimugdha Sharma, The sword over Tipu's Legacy, November 15, 2015: The Times of India
It is not fair to reduce all that the tenacious Mysore sultan did down to basic binaries, say historians
This is not the first time Tipu Sultan's legacy has come under fire. Every time the state, an individual or a group has tried to honour the Mysorean monarch, there have been fierce protests. In 1989, the makers of the popular TV serial The Sword of Tipu Sultan were dragged to court for celebrating a man who had killed many non-Muslims in Malabar and Coorg. Last year, there was trouble when Karnataka sent a Tipu Sultan tableau for the Republic Day parade.
Despite the BJP's current stance, the Yeddyurappa government in 2012 had planned to procure rare documents belonging to Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan from Britain to establish Karnataka's claim over Belgaum. The state has an on-going dispute with Maharashtra on the subject.“By focusing on just one aspect of his rule or personality , we are doing great disservice to a man who lived in a different time, a rather troubled time,“ points out military historian Mandeep Singh Bajwa. “With the three dominant forces of the time -the Marathas, the Nizam, and the British -ganging up against him, he held out with steely resolve. That's also something to be celebrated -the tenacity in the face of fire, both literally and metaphorically . You cannot apply modern standards of democracy and liberty on him and his rule,“ he says.
This debate, argue historians, is a reflection of the Sangh Parivar's penchant for “reducing everything down to easy binaries“. They point out that Tipu was a man and a ruler way ahead of h i s t i m e , not a caricature of a bigoted Muslim king.
Tipu was a remarkable man in many ways. He and his father Hyder Ali actually gave the world the war rocket. Tipu even wrote a whole manual titled Fathul Mujahideen, on the use of this formidable weapon, which had directly contributed to the British defeat at Pollilur in 1780. The British, after Tipu's fall in 1799, took away his rockets to Britain, improvised them and developed the Congreve rocket. They used it both against the US in the War of 1812 and Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.
Tipu's engineers made for him some of the best muskets, pistols, cannons, sabres and other weapons of war. One of Tipu's inscribed sabres was a spitting image of the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre used by the British with great success in the Napoleonic Wars. The Duke of Wellington, who defeated both Tipu and Napoleon, had high praise for the former's weapons and cavalry .Tipu's cavalry would later become the Mysore Lancers, and heroes of the First World War.
Tipu built several roads and bridges apart from buildings, and also laid the foundation of a damming project on the Cauvery, which was finished only in the 20th century and is today known as the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam.The thriving sericulture industry in Karnataka today is also a Tipu legacy . The British, after Tipu's death, were surprised to see the average Mysore peasant economically better off than a Madras peasant directly under Company rule. They were also surprised to find `Tipu's Tiger', an automated toy that had a tiger mauling a British soldier shrieking and writhing in pain -a fantastic piece of technology of the time and a testament to Tipu's hostility towards the British.
Despite being an absolute monarch, he supported the French Revolution. He was made a member of the Jacobin Club.Tipu also planted a Tree of Liberty in his capital--actions for which the French called him Citizen Tippoo. Even Napoleon Bonaparte corresponded with him and had promised to liberate India from the British yoke.While that didn't happen due to Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of the Nile, this alliance alarmed the British so much that they decided to finish him off.
“Tipu was the most consistent in his fight against the British.Unlike the Marathas and the Nizam, he never became their ally , which should be celebrated,“ says historian Tripta Wahi.
Tipu's army did commit atrocities during his Coorg and Malabar campaigns. These were amplified by the British as they mounted a propaganda war on him, and at times by Tipu himself, through lofty claims about conversion. “Religion was and is the handmaiden of politics. Tipu used religion against those who had allied with his enemies. Even Ranjit Singh converted the majestic Badshahi Masjid in Lahore into a horse stable. Tipu was no different,“ says Wahi.
On politics
Social balancing of politics
The Times of India, Nov 16 2015
Tipu kept alive social balancing of politics followed by Deccani rulers
Was Tipu Sultan a patriot who should be celebrated or a bigot who committed atrocities in the name of religion? As a controversy rages over the 18th century ruler of Mysore, TOI invites eminent historian Seema Alavi to assess the life and rule of Tipu
The controversy over Tipu's “secular“ vs “bigot“ profile is not new. It was triggered in 1990 as well. But at that time through school text books and a popular serial aired at prime time not merely Tipu, but his political context and social engineering had caught the imagination of the country .History textbooks viewed him in his historical context and upheld his image as the quintessential proto-nationalist. And for the average Indian he become a household figure with Sanjay Khan's popular serial, `The Sword of Tipu Sultan', that projected him as the brave son of Mysore who died fighting the English East India Company in 1799. Both Khan's serial as well as history textbooks successfully used his life to shape the narrative of secular India rather than judging him by modern yardsticks.
They highlighted Tipu in the 18th century political and military culture where conquest, war and alliances were not necessarily fought along networks of rigid social identities. This was a culture in which not just in Mysore but also all over the sub-continent military preparedness, the mastery of the art of war and diplomacy , shifting alliances cutting across caste, region and religion defined politics. Balancing conflict with cooperation was the mantra of the ideal King. So it was not scandalous for Tipu to go to war against the Hindu raja of Coorg (1785), and enjoy victories over the Marathas (178687) and at the same time continue to have a large number of Hindu officers and soldiers in his administration and army . His most trusted lieutenant was the Brahmin, Puraniya, who had also served his father Haidar Ali.
In this careful social balancing of politics Tipu was not unique. He was only continuing the long tradition of Deccani and South Indian rulers (Hindus and Muslims) who over the centuries had intermarried with, employed, gone to war with, forged alliances and co-existed with followers of diverse ethnic and religious profiles.
On religion
Tipu Sultan's complex, multi-layered legacy, Nov 10, 2017: The Times of India
HIGHLIGHTS
Tipu Sultan, like rulers of his time whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian, behaved contradictorily, especially when seen through a modern lens. What he did, like rulers of other religions of the time, was fight expansionist wars or avenge battle defeats. He didn't fight 'religious wars' in the strict sense of the phrase. Here's a look at Tipu's complex legacy, now being used by political parties to polarise communities:
-On the one hand, Tipu would brutally attack a region killing many of its residents who happened to be Hindu, and on the other hand, he would donate generously to Hindu temples.
-Tipu is said to have killed and persecuted Hindus in Coorg, but then he is said to have done the same with the Muslim Moplahs of Malabar - he apparently persecuted them too.
-He is said to have killed Catholics in Mangalore but he is also said to have ordered the construction of the first-ever church in what is now Mysuru. Read also: This is how political parties have reacted to Tipu Jayanti celebrations over the years
- Tipu is said to have destroyed temples in Kodagu and in Malabar. But then - and this is documented - he donated to the Srikanteshwara temple at Nanjangud, and to the Sringeri monastery established by the Shankaracharya.
- Meanwhile, Hindu temples were not spared by Hindu rulers just because they themselves were Hindu. Case in point: the Hindu Marathas attacked the Tirupati shrine in 1759.
-Tipu fought four wars with the British on the one hand. (Some call him India's first freedom fighter.) On the other hand, he celebrated 'Bastille Day' with the French (who were against the British).
Anti-Hindu or Progressive?
The Times of India, Nov 07 2015
Tipu's b'day bash divides opinion
Some term warrior anti-Hindu, others progressive
BJP legislator from Mysuru, Go Madhusudan, is against setting up of a Tipu varsity, claiming that Tipu had offered support to Afghan ruler Ahmed Khan Abdali in waging war against India.“This shows he was an anti national and doesn't deserve to be venerated,“ he said. Historian Talakadu Chikkarange Gowda debunks theories that the ruler killed Hindus for refusing to convert to Islam. “In 1781, Peshwa Parasuram Bahu pillaged Sringeri Shankaracharya's mutt. It was Tipu who came to the mutt's rescue." he said. He also pointed to temples in the vicinity of Tipu's palaces in Mysuru or Bengaluru. “I agree there are lapses on his part. But one mistake should be overlooked for the 99 other welfare measures he brought in, he added. Barkur Udaya, assistant professor, department of history , Mangalore University , said the anti-Tipu brigade is only reiterating Britishers' view of him as a traitor.
Relationship with other kingdoms
Tipu Sultan and the Kodavas
Source: www.oneindia.com (OneIndia News)
Oneindia , 12th Nov, 2015
Why Kodavas won't bow to Tipu Sultan
Almost everyone in Kodagu consider Tipu to be a tyrant who tricked them into surrendering when he realized he was losing the battle against them.
History records that the Kodavas and Tipu Sultan have had a bitter rivalry always. Tipu wanted to capture Kodagu as he felt he could use it as a gateway to Mangalore which has a port.
Not just Tipu, but his father Hyder Ali too made several attempts to capture Kodagu. Various attempts by father and son were a failure as they found it hard to battle in Kodagu which has vast tracts of land and mountains which was very familiar to the locals.
The Kodavas who pride themselves for contributing immensely to the Indian army thanks to Field Marshal K C Kariappa and General K S Thimmaiah were good at guerrilla warfare which gave them an advantage of Tipu's army.
A Wikipedia entry suggests that the Kodavas despite being outnumbered 1:3 always managed to defeat the Tipu army. There were a couple of times that Tipu and his army managed to reach Madikeri, the capital of Kodagu, but was beaten. The Kodavas has sworn never to bow to the Sultan.
However, Tipu once managed to capture Kodagu on one ocassion and is said to have uttered the words, "if you ambush my men, I will honour you all with Islam."
The Kodavas did not take this lying down and beat Tipu and drove him back to Mysore.
A change of plan and treachery:
Tipu by now realized that his war was going nowhere and beating the Kodavas was not easy.
He decided to offer his hand of friendship. The Kodavas made a grave error in trusting Tipu. The Kodavas were in fact happy to offer their hand of friendship as the battle against him was being won, but at a huge cost and the warriors were tired.
The Kodavas are said to have welcomed Tipu. However, they were caught completely off guard when Tipu's men launched an attack against the Kodavas who were unarmed. He took many as prisoners.
Tipu had even sought the help of the Nawab of Kurnool to launch the attack.
Several thousand Kodavas were captured and taken to Srirangapatana where it is believed they were forcibly converted.
Stories of conversion and torture have been narrated by the Kodavas who were in captivity of Tipu.
Various historians have given different figures about the number of Kodavas who were converted. Figures range between 60,000 to 85,000.
Sporting gun
UK bans its export
May 30, 2023: The Times of India
From: May 30, 2023: The Times of India
London : Arare 18th century decorated gun made in India for Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, and valued at around £2 million, has been barred from export to allow time for a UK-based institution to acquire it for the public study of a “fraught period” in the India-UK history and in the hope that it can be put on public display in the UK.
UK arts and heritage minister Stephen Parkinson took the decision last week to impose the export ban on the “Flintlock Sporting Gun” following advice from the Reviewing Committee on the Export ofWorks of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The 14-bore gun, dated between 1793 and 1794, was designed for shooting game and is signed by its maker Asad Khan Muhammed.
This British colonial-era firearm is said to have been “presented to General the Earl Cornwallis”, who previously fought Tipu Sultan between 1790 and 1792. “This superbly executed sporting gun was presented to General Earl Cornwallis, victor of the war against Tipu in 1790-92. Tipu’s personal emblems are ubiquitous, from the tiger with brass-inlaid eyes carved into the hardwood stock to the stylised tiger stripes inlaid in silver along the blued steel barrel. One of the silver mounts depicts a tiger attacking European soldiers,” noted Christopher Rowell, a member of the reviewing committee. “The mechanism allows two shots to be fired from the single barrel without reloading, revealing the probable influence of itinerant French gunmakers. Tipu’s court was sophisticated and its workshops produced a variety of fine metalwork. ”
“This firearm is a significant antiquity as well as an illustration of the interconnected history between Britain and India,” said Parkinson. “I hope that it can be shared with the widest possible public and used to deepen our understanding of a fraught period which shaped both our nations,” he said. The decision on the export licence application for the gunwill be deferred for a period ending on September 25 following which any offers will be considered by the unnamed owners of the gun. PTI & IANS
Swords
May 2023 auction
Manimugdha S Sharma, May 28, 2023: The Times of India
From: Manimugdha S Sharma, May 28, 2023: The Times of India
When Tipu Sultan’s capital Srirangapatnam fell on May 4, 1799, the invading forces of the East India Company seized, among other things, one of his ceremonial swords. It was presented to Major General David Baird, who had commanded the successful final charge that breached Srirangapatnam’s walls. The bestowal was especially significant because Baird had been Tipu’s prisoner for three years and was ill-treated in his dungeon.
For the next 204 years the sword remained in the Baird family until they gave it up for sale to the auction house Dix Noonan Webb (now Noonans) in 2003. It soon made headlines in India because liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought it in September that year.
Mallya’s Sword Auctioned Again?
On May 23 this year, another UK-based auction house, Bonhams, sold the ‘Bedchamber Sword of Tipu Sultan’ to an unnamed buyer for the equivalent of Rs 143 crore (£14 million) in London. On its website, Bonhams says: “The sword was presented to Major General David Baird, by the army ‘as a token of their high esteem of his courage and conduct in the assault which he commanded and in which Tippoo Sultaun was slain’. ” This is also the English inscription on the sword.
Bonhams does not say how it got hold of the sword. Nor does it mention the 2003 auction at Noonans. Does it mean there are two different Tipu swords? But since the sword has been traced to David Baird in both instances, this possibility would arise only if Baird had been presented with two of Tipu’s swords after the fall of Srirangaptnam.
A recent report in the UK-based media outlet, The Art Newspaper, however, suggests the Noonans and Bonhams swords are the same. It says the ‘Bedchamber Sword’ “remained in Baird’s family until 2003, when it was auctioned at Dix Noonan Webb in London for £150,000”. Public historian Nidhin Olikara is convinced that the sword auctioned byBonhams last Tuesday is Mallya’s sword. “Newspaper reports of that time attested to Mallya acquiring a sword of Tipu presented to David Baird, matching all features of the bedchamber sword, including the type of the blade as well as the invocations on the hilt and the parasol mark on the blade,” he says. Olikara’s work on Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan has been published by the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Details Of Both Swords Match
Although Mallya bought his Tipu sword on September 19, 2003, he didn’t display it in Bengaluru until April 7, 2004. Perhaps, he was hoping to make politicalcapital out of the event as he was the national working president of Janata Party at the time, and the Karnataka assembly elections were days away. He had already given the sword’s purchase a nationalistic spin – a son of India had brought back the stolen treasure of another great son of India.
On April 8, 2004, TOI wrote about the sword’s link with David Baird. It said the words ‘shamshir-i malik’ or ‘the king’s sword’ were inscribed on the sword; it had a calligraphic hilt and was 36 inches long unsheathed. The sword had a disc-shaped pommel with a gold loop, and its hilt “canted slightly forward”.
A description of the Tipu/Mallya sword on the Noonans sitesays it had the words ‘O! Patron, O! Victor, O! Defender, O! Helper and O! Supporter’ inscribed on its hilt. The Arabic calligraphy of the sword sold on May 23 by Bonhams also reads: ‘Ya Nasiru! Ya Fattahu! Ya Nasiru! Ya Mu’inu! Ya Zaheer! Ya Allahu!’. It’s the same inscription!
Also, the Noonans catalogue published at the time of the 2003 auction contains images of the sword that are identical to the sword sold by Bonhams.
Wasn’t Mallya’s Sword Lost?
In 2018, some Indian news outlets reported that Mallya had given away the sword as it brought him bad luck, and that it was missing. That was Mallya’s version. After this fresh sale, there is speculation in art circles that Bonhams may have got the sword from Vijay Mallya himself. Bonhams has thus far maintained a discreet stance regarding the identity of the sword’s buyer, and did not respond to an email query regarding the sword’s potential connection to Vijay Mallya. The writer is a Killam Doctoral Scholar in History at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Why Is The Sword Special?
The Noonans catalogue says this single-edge straight sword is of great importance because calligraphic hilts were “amongst the rarest type of hilt from the Indian subcontinent” and they involved extremely high standards of manufacturing detail. The hilt is decorated in the koftgari style by inlaying gold with steel
Did Tipu Use It In Battle?
No, it was a ceremonial/state sword. Tipu was not carrying it while defending the breach of his capital. It was found hanging in his bedchamber by East India Company troops ransacking his palace after his death
Where Was It Made?
Tipu’s ‘Bedchamber Sword’ “is probably of Mughal manufacture”. Its blade was made in the style of 16th-century German blades that were imported into India
Are Its Inscriptions A Call To Jihad?
No, none of the sword’s inscriptions is a call to wage jihad and murder Hindus. The meaning of only one Farsi inscription on the spine is in doubt. It could be either shamshir-i malik (sword of the king) or shamshir-i mulk (sword of the realm)
What Do The Orb And Parasol Signify?
High-quality German blades of the 16th century came with an orb mark. Mughal sword makers not only copied this mark but also added a golden Mughal imperial parasol to it, to signify the highest quality of blade meant for the emperor.
BAIRDS DID NOT FORGET TIPU
After the fall of Srirangapatnam in May 1799, Colonel Arthur Wellesley presented Tipu’s ‘Bedchamber Sword’ to Major General David Baird, who had commanded the final charge that breached the city’s walls. As this was a breach of protocol (Wellesley was Baird’s subordinate), Lieutenant General Harris re-presented the sword to Baird.
In time, Wellesley became more famous than both Harris and Baird. As the future Duke of Wellington, he proved Napoleon’s nemesis at Waterloo. The sword remained with the Baird family until 2003 when they gave it up for auction. But even today their family’s coat of arms has a Mysore tiger (Tipu’s) on it.
2023: 2 more swords up for auction
Naomi Canton, Oct 22, 2023: The Times of India
In May this year, Tipu Sultan’s bedchamber sword sold for a record Rs 143 crore at an auction at Bonhams in London. Now, two more of Tipu’s swords, seized by the British as war trophies in 1799, have resurfaced and will go under the hammer at Christie’s.
Two weeks after the fall of Seringapatam in 1799, on May 17, a ‘Committee of Prize’, appointed by the victorious Anglo-Indian army, presented several of the most important items from Tipu’s armoury to senior British civil and military personnel and the British royal family. These two swords were gifted to Charles Cornwallis, who was appointed governor-general and commander-in-chief of India in 1786. His descendants now need cash to pay for the restoration of their massive stately home, Port Eliot, near the southern coast of Cornwall. The 6,000-acre private estate is the ancestral seat of the Eliot family. Jemima, the granddaughter of Charles Cornwallis, had married Edward Eliot in 1803. The house has been continuously inhabited for over 1,000 years.
Up for auction now are the sword and scabbard taken from Tipu’s personal armoury (lot 100), which is estimated to fetch £1.5m to £2m (Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore). And a “gem-set and enamelled sword and scabbard” (lot 101), also from his personal armoury, estimated at £80,000 to £120,000 (Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore).
There are two other known swords almost identical to lot 100, with hilts culminating in a tiger’s head and covered in similar inscriptions as the Tipu swords, conveying the concept of victory in war. One was presented to Edward Clive, the son of Robert ‘Clive of India’, governor of Madras from 1798 to 1803. It is now in Powis Castle in Wales. And the other was presented to King George III and is in Windsor Castle. “Three of the most important people active in India at the time got these swords. These were clearly regarded as the most important weapons,” said Sara Plumbly, head of the Islamic and Indian Art department at Christie’s.
Cornwallis led the British forces during the Third AngloMysore War (1789-1792). In 1792 it was he who encouraged the ruler of Mysore to sign a peace treaty in which half of the territory of Mysore was handed over to the East India Company and its allies. He also famously took two of Tipu’s sons, Abdul Khaliq and Moin-ud-Din, as hostages to ensure that the Tiger of Mysore would adhere to the agreed terms.
“I think the strong likelihood is that this sword was given to Cornwallis via the Committee of Prize, when the treasures of Tipu Sultan were divided up amongst members of the East India Company and the people who had been involved in the conflict,” Plumbly added.
The proceedings of the Committee of Prize say that “the war turban of Tippoo Sultan, with a sword worn by him, and the sword of Moriah Row, be presented to Marquis Cornwallis through the commander-in-chief as a mark of their respect (sic).” Lord Cornwallis’s was one of the names listed at the top in the proceedings, signifying his importance.
Moriah Row may refer to Murari Rao, a famous Maratha general, and ally of the British who fought against Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. It is possible that one of the swords gifted to Cornwallis was taken by the troops as booty and then given as part of the dispersal following Tipu’s death.
Given that Tipu Sultan’s bedchamber sword sold for £14m (Rs 143 crore) at Bonhams in May, these two swords are expected to go for a lot more than their estimates. But the buyer is not expected to be an Indian.
“There is quite a strong demand in a number of Middle Eastern institutions for objects relating to Tipu, so I think that is more likely,” said Plumbly. “There are also private collectors, largely based outside of India, who might be interested.”
“The last biggest Indian buyer for Tipu Sultan was Vijay Mallya but no one, as far as I know, has shown interest from India since then. It is more likely to be bought by someone in the Middle East,” said Kristina Sanne, an independent Indian and Islamic art consultant. “There are a growing number of museums being developed in the Middle East. They are having to start from scratch in some countries and this would be a highlight for any museum collection, especially in the Middle East. These swords are exceptional because they have remained in private hands for so long and you can trace them back to the fall of Seringapatam. Documented provenance is something museums are so focused on.”
Former MP Vijay Mallya – now a fugitive living in London – bought a sword associated with Tipu Sultan from a small auction house in London in 2003 for £188,000 (Rs 1.89 crore). However, when his Kingfisher Airlines got into trouble in 2010, Hindu priests told him to dispose of the sword, saying it was bringing him bad luck as it had been used to behead people. Mallya, a practising Hindu, gave it away in 2016 to an employee of his father, who had worked for the family for 45 years. He claims he tried to gift it to the Karnataka government, but they said they had nowhere to securely keep it.
Tiger : The life of Tipu Sultan
Arshia Sattar , The Tiger King , “India Today” 15/8/2016
If you live outside southern India, it's likely that Tipu Sultan was a single chapter in your history book where he appeared as a regional satrap with ideas well beyond his station, a man who indulged in rose gardens and silk worms and whose betrayal by the Maratha Confederacy was a mere footnote in the early battles against the British, as they went from being a trading company to an occupying force. You may be forgiven for thinking that Tipu was just that fellow with a magnificent moustache whose favourite toy was a mechanical tiger tearing out the throat of a British soldier. And, yes, recently someone brought his sword back from England. But in the south, Tipu is a real and insistent presence-his ghost haunts Karnataka, appearing at regular, if infrequent, intervals. We're not sure what to do with this local warrior, this sometimes son of soil, sometimes alien oppressor. You can receive death threats from neighbouring Maharashtra if you suggest that, like Shiva ji, Tipu fought 'outsiders' in the name of his own people. If you call for a commemoration of his birthday, a Tipu Jayanti in Karnataka, riots break out among people whose ancestors he killed. You can't even name Bengaluru's international airport after him, even though Tipu was born in the village, Devanahalli, where the airport now sits. It is clear that many of the problems pertaining to honouring Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, have to do with the fact that he is Muslim. In these times, it is impossible to think of someone like him as an incipient 'freedom fighter', one who saw the dark horizon of colonialism and tried to build local alliances to protect the autonomous kingdoms in the region. There is a long tradition of critical assessment that demonises Tipu as an upstart usurper of the Wodeyar throne, an opportunist who signed a treaty with the French against the British, a vicious tormentor of his enemies, particularly non-Muslims. Equally, such popular dramatised histories as Praxy Fernandes's The Tigers of Mysore, Bhagwan Gidwani's The Sword of Tipu Sultan (the basis for Sanjay Khan's television serial of the same name broadcast on Doordarshan in 1990) and Girish Karnad's play The Dreams of Tipu Sultan have sought to present him as a humane and far-sighted monarch and, in doing so, have reached for the man behind the Tiger.
Recently, though, more and more historians are leaning towards the idea that Tipu might well have been a visionary in more ways than one-politically, economically and perhaps even socially. Certainly, his sense of a world beyond the subcontinent and how it might serve his ambitions is being noted. Historian Kate Brittlebank's Tiger fits snugly into this category of reassessment. She starts by reminding us how Tipu was seen by the British in the 18th century-as a savage barbarian who took pleasure in torturing and killing his English prisoners, "the most feared Indian of his times". This was a necessary part of the depiction of other races and cultures at the time, building up to the dehumanisation of Oriental and African peoples from which the colonial project drew its moral authority. Brittlebank also wants us to see Tipu as a product of this period-as righteous or cruel as any other contemporaneous ruler might have been. But despite this seeming even-handedness of perspective, it is clear that she carries a torch for Tipu. She, too, seeks the father, the husband, the son not perceptible in court and private documents, but from what we know about human beings and how they behave in adversity as well as times of triumph. This is an interesting position for a historian to take, combining so-called facts with emotional and psychological information derived from our own experiences.
To that end, it is disappointing that Brittlebank deals with possibly the most shattering moment in Tipu's public and private life-the handing over of his young sons as hostages to the British until he could pay war reparations-in a scant few lines. As a father, his heart must have broken at this parting and as a monarch, what could be more humiliating than this separation from his sons? Brittlebank offers sympathy for the father that Tipu was but does not speculate further about how this moment might have affected Tipu the monarch's behaviour, his later motivations and how the incident might have determined his later actions.
As Karnad did in The Dreams of Tipu Sultan, Brittlebank mines an extraordinary document of the king's recorded dreams, which gives anyone who cared to decipher it centuries later a chance to glimpse what his anxieties and fears might have been through the meaning of his dream images. Here, Brittlebank speculates more freely and parses one of Tipu's dreams in which a man, with whom the king has been bantering, turns into an attractive bare-breasted woman. She reads this to indicate Tipu's own love for women and his tendency to be flirtatious and light-hearted with them as against a more callous and brutal attitude believed to have prevailed during his lifetime. Brittlebank's general conclusion is that these recorded dreams (from the last few years of Tipu's life) were intended as aids to the magical and superstitious practices that Tipu believed would ensure his victory over the British.
In the end, though, I must say, it is an odd book. It is short, with appendices and references at a concise 163 pages of text. It tells us nothing more and nothing new about Tipu. For those who know little about him, this book is not enough, and for those who know something, the book is unsatisfying. Having said that, I was utterly delighted that Brittlebank led me to the metonymic (and startlingly modern, in that sense) nature of Tipu's babri, the tiger stripe that emblazoned his clothing, his banners and eventually his mausoleum. The single bold slash gestures towards the whole animal and, further still, to Tipu himself. What a graceful and effective shorthand to stamp both fear and authority.
Nonetheless, I have to wonder whether the length of the book and its survey/round-up tenor has something to do with Juggernaut's commitment to their app, which encourages one to read on their phone rather than in print. For me, this implies a nod of approval to shorter, punchier reads, rather than to expansive works which can be read slowly. Unexpectedly for a book such as this, the volume contains a few lushly reproduced images. These may reflect the drive towards the app, contributing to a rich digital read. But like the text itself, what we see in the images is entirely standard and well-known, adding nothing either to depictions of Tipu and his life or to our knowledge of the marvellous objects that were looted from his fort and palace after he was killed.
I suppose one could see Tiger as a ready reckoner on Tipu Sultan. It has information, context, a stated position, all of which are good things. Certainly, Brittlebank's research and knowledge cannot be faulted. If you like your history in little bites, this book is for you.
Vokkaliga chieftains Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda
N S Rangaraju’s authoritative conclusion
N S Rangaraju, a retired professor of ancient history and archaeology at Mysore University, earlier told The Indian Express, “Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda were soldiers of Hyder Ali who actually saved and protected Tipu and his mother from the clutches of the Marathas in one of the wars. However, during the fourth Anglo-Mysore War — during which Tipu died — it was a treaty between one Lakshmamanni, the British, Marathas, and the Nizams that led to the meticulous planning of the attack against Tipu, including the time, place and other strategies. Tipu’s army was powerful and impenetrable … no two individuals could have killed him effortlessly.”
Nirmalananda Swamy, who leads the Adichunchanagiri mutt in Mandya, told [right wing] leaders [in March 2023] not to speak on the issue without any evidence. “Such claims will lead to confusion and doubt. There are several issues concerning the community that can be raised. We can’t sideline these and just highlight their pet claim,” he said.
