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In March 2012 the British National Army Museum in London conducted a poll to declare “Britain’s most formidable foes” of the British Empire, an empire which was know, at one time, as one in which Sun never sets, because of its geographic spread. Among the 20 contrasting personalities and enemy commanders that share a common trait of giving the British forces a tough time was two Indian rulers – Tiger of Mysore, Tipu Sultan and Jhansi Ki Rani, Lakshmi Bai. Rani Lakshmi Bai, was the only woman on the list of 20 from which top 5 was to be selected. She was one of the leading figures of 1857 revolt and a symbol of resistance to the rule of the British East India Company in the subcontinent.

The list of enemy commanders included French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, First US President George Washington, Irish Republican leader and soldier Michael Collins, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Boer War Commander Louis Botha, Japanese World War II General Tomoyuki Yamashita who oversaw the fall of Singapore, Turkey’s first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Afghanistan’s Crown Prince Muhammed Akbar Khan, Zulu warrior and victor of Isandlwana Ntshingwayo kaMahole etc who were formidable foes, since modern British army came into being in the 17th century. 

The results of the online poll conducted on March 30, 2012 was declared on April 15, 2012 and George Washington, who led the US victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War named the greatest foe. In the second place was Irish leader Michael Collins, followed by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, German Field Marshal during World War II Erwin Rommel, and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first President of Turkey.

The reason for this introduction is not for validation from International sources but just to prove a point that even the biggest enemies respected Tipu Sultan and his military valour. No one in the 18th century made the hearts of the English quake with fear as much as Tipu Sultan. There is no doubt that both Tipu Sultan and his father, Haider Ali, brought the British East Indian Company nearer to ruin than any other Indian foes had brought it. For nearly 40 years, they halted the triumphant march of the British through southern India, refusing to make their peace with these foreign invaders, as most other rulers of the ertwhile Princely States did. This refusal to submit or compromise saw Tipu Sultan die on the battlefield in 1799, and there were celebrations even in London.

In the days following Tipu’s defeat, British soldiers looted an estimated £16,00,000 of ‘prize money’, consisting of coins, jewels, richly worked cloth, furniture and carpets. These were distributed to the rank-and-file and colonels alike. After the plunder, the British feared the sultan’s possessions might become powerful symbols of martyrdom, so Arthur Wellesley intervened to prevent the auctioning of Tipu’s extensive wardrobe to stop them falling into the hands of the “discontented Moormen of this place.” Tipu is said to have two great passions, a fascination for tigers and a hatred of the British. An almost life-size model of a tiger mauling a European solider, taken from Srirangapatana, is kept at Victoria & Albert Museum at London.

Soon after, a medal was issued in honour of that victory, depicting the British lion mauling the Mysore tiger. It is no surprise that the British were so quick to rewrite the life and times of this implacable enemy. Clashing interpretations of contemporary accounts have produced a figure hailed as both a national hero and a brutal tyrant. The early colonial accounts, produced by the British, is responsible for driving the popular image of Tipu Sultan as a tyrant. Demonised by some, championed by others, Tipu Sultan remains a towering and controversial figure in Indian history.

The Beginning

The Wodeyars, who ruled Mysore were a feudatory house under Vijayanagar Emperor. Yaduraya Wodeyar established the Wodayar dynasty in 1399, ruled Mysore under the Vijayanagara Empire. He took advantage of weakening Vijayanagar Empire and became independent in 1423 and remained so until 1799.

From Raja Wadiyar’s death in 1617 to that of Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar in 1704 (there were four rulers in between) the kingdom was ruled by the surviving descendants of Yaduraya, but none could beget legal heirs. With Dodda Krushna Raja Wodeyar, who ruled from 1714 to 1732, Yaduraya’s direct lineage came to an end. What followed was a succession of nominal rulers adopted by the surviving queens to continue the tradition and from then on Army commanders known as dalvoys virtually ruled the kingdom. 

Some believe in the folklore that it is because of the curse of Alamelamma, a staunch devotee of Sri Ranganayaki and queen of Tirumala, the then Viceroy of Vijayanagara. In 1610, Raja Wadiyar, the ninth ruler of the dynasty, had conquered the fort of Srirangapatna from Tirumala, who retired to Talakad with his two wives. After Tirumala’s death Alamelamma donated her jewels to the temple of Sri Ranganayaki. The temple authorities requested Raja Wadiyar to give them the custody of the jewels, as was the normal practice. 

Raja Wadiyar thought these jewels were of no value to Alamelamma, as she was now a widow, didn’t have children and she would no longer need them. Raja Wadiyar sent emissaries to Malangi, where Alamelamma was staying, with a request to return the jewels. Only a pearl-studded nose ring was returned by Alamelamma. Raja Wadiyar then sent his army to Talakad to ask her once again and, if she refused, to seize them by force. To escape the wrath of the Mysore army, Alamelamma uttered the legendary curse “Talakadu Maralagali, Malangi Maduvagali, Mysuru Doregalige Makkallilade Hogali” and jumped into a whirlpool in the river Kaveri at Talakadu with the rest of the jewels and escaped unscathed. The curse, as passed down in folklore over the last 400 years, is translated as “May Talakad turn into a barren expanse of sand, may Malangi turn into a whirlpool, may the Mysore Rajas not have children for all time to come.” 

By 1935, Mysore was ruled by adopted Wodeyar King, Chikka Krishnaraj Wodayar II. He reigned under the control of dalvoy of Mysore Devarajaiya Urs, who was Sarvadhikari (Chief Minister) from 1724 to 1746. After the decline of the dalvoy‘s power and eventual death, Hyder Ali, dalvoy of Dindigul, came to be considered the Sarvadhikari of Mysore. 

Born around 1720, Haider Ali lost his father, a mercenary officer who died on campaign, at a very early age. Haider had followed his father’s path, becoming an officer for Wodeyar dynasty. By 1755 he distinguished himself militarily, leading charge to Coimbatore, Dindigul, Trichy and other southern territories of Mysore. By 1961 he grew indispensable to the ruling family, whom he later sidelined much like the earlier Sarvadhikari Devarajaiya Urs, and became the de facto supreme ruler of Mysore. The king and his eldest son and successor Nanjaraja Wodeyar though executed many plots to regain power, but was not successful.

Haidar Ali was shrewd enough not to dispense with the Wodeyars who had been ruling Mysore since 1399. The Maharajas remained titular puppet – orders would go in their name, trophies of war were submitted to their feet, yet everyone knew where the real power rested. Tipu Sultan though, had no reason for such diplomacy and dispensed with this appendage. He assumed complete sovereignty over Mysore, which became Sultanat-e-Khudadad, or the Kingdom of God, and he, its Sultan. The members of the Wodeyar royal family, led by the matriarch Rani Lakshmi Ammanni, who was carrying on low-intensity conspiracies against the usurpers, were put under house arrest.

Haider Ali subjugated the petty local chieftains and grew Mysore into a powerhouse within the Indian peninsula. Allied with the French, Haider Ali held off the British advance for two decades and fighting the First and Second Anglo-Mysore Wars. Tipu Sultan, Haider’s eldest son born in 1951 at Devanahalli near Bangalore, and brought up in Dinduigul by his mother Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa till 10 years of age, had became his father’s right arm. He was instructed in military and political tactics by French officers in the employment of his father. At age 15, Tipu accompanied his father against the British in the First Mysore War in 1766–1769. He commanded a corps of cavalry in the invasion of Carnatic in 1767 at age 16. He also distinguished himself in the First Anglo-Maratha War of 1775–1779.

Under the reigns of Haider and Tipu, Mysore overtook Bengal Subah as India’s dominant economic power, with highly productive agriculture and textile manufacturing. Mysore’s average per-capita income was five times higher than subsistence level, i.e. five times higher than $400, or $2,000 per capita. In comparison, the highest national per-capita incomes in 1820 were $1,838 for the Netherlands and $1,706 for Britain.

Napoleon Bonaparte, the French commander-in-chief, sought an alliance with Tipu Sultan. Across the globe the American War of Independence was being fought against the British under the leadership of George Washington. Washington too had allied with the French. Even though US made peace with Britain in 1783, the American fascination with Haider and Tipu lived on. During those times the Mysore’s rulers were familiar references in American newspapers, poems and every day conversations.

Mysorean Rocket Technology

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, was fascinated by Srirangapatna’s historic connection with modern missiles. In his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture on November 30, 1991, in Bangalore, he called “Tipu Sultan the innovator of the world’s first war rocket”. During his tenure as President, he was keen on preserving the Rocket Court (the laboratory where Tipu tested his rockets) and developing it as a museum.

Later in his  book “Wings of Fire”, Kalam makes a crucial statement about how important Tipu was to the development of rockets. “When Tipu Sultan was killed, the British captured more than 700 rockets and subsystems of 900 rockets in the battle of Turukhanahally in 1799, these rockets had been taken to England by William Congreve and were subjected by the British to what we call ‘reverse engineering’ today. There were, of course, no GATT, IPR Act, or patent regime. With the death of Tipu, Indian rocketry also met its demise – at least for 150 years,” wrote Kalam.

Hyder Ali was an innovator in the military use of rockets, which were used against positions and territories held by the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. On September 10, 1780 Mysorean Rockets was introduced by Haider Ali. It was made up of bamboo filled with gun powder. Tipu Sultan expanded the Mysorean rockets technology, made it iron-cased, improved the range up to 2 kms and deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of Pollilur and Siege of Srirangapatana. On September 10, 1780 Tipu and Hyder surrounded Colonel William Baillie’s force, and compelled the surrender of about 3,000 men in the Battle of Pollilur. It was the worst defeat of British troops in India to date.

Haider Ali deployed as many as 1,200 specialised troops in his army to operate rocket launchers. These men were skilled in operating the weapons and were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance to the target. The rockets had twin side sharpened blades mounted on them, and when fired en masse, spun and wreaked significant damage against a large army. 

Haider Ali had died on December 6, 1782, during the Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780 – 1784). Tipu was at the leading the charge in the Malabar Coast. Tipu, who was now 31, came to inherit a formidable burden from his dad. Tipu successfully concluded the Second Anglo-Mysore War. As monarch of Mysore from 1782 to 1799, he, like his father relentlessly opposed British expansionism in India and proved a major barrier against British interest in South India. Tipu greatly expanded the use of Mysorean rockets after Hyder’s death, deploying as many as 5,000 rocketeers at a time. 

Tipu the Administrator

Tipu was a restless moderniser, someone who worked to bring his kingdom into the future and resist foreign encroachment. A master military strategist is eclipsed by the doubts cast on his myriad economic and social experiments. Ironically, there is plenty of archival materials on this historical figure, produced by enemies, friends, victims, captives, perpetrators of conquest, employees and hagiographers, topped off by the copious writings by the sultan himself.

Tipu Sultan oversaw many economic and administrative experiments. Most of Mysore’s revenues came from the cultivation of the local land, so the sultan’s first priority was to ensure that a good proportion of the revenues due from land were actually collected. The state coffers would need to be well stocked to keep his vast army, some 1,00,000 men, at its height, ready for engagement. He also commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin.

The administration divided land according to their yield, and taxed accordingly. There were graded taxes for cash crops like sugarcane, and wet or irrigated lands were taxed at four times the rate for dry or rain-fed lands. He imported silk worms from Bengal and Muscat to begin what would become famous as Mysore silk. He encouraged cultivation of cash crops like betel nuts and sandalwood. He instituted a state monopoly of precious commodities, such as sandalwood, pepper, cardamom, elephants and timber. He maintained and enlarged local breeds of cattle under the amrit mahal, or sultan’s cattle department, unique to Southern India.

Tipu encouraged the establishment of state-run factories at Bangalore and Srirangapatana, Bedanore, Chitradurga, Chennapatna and Chickballapur, for the production of everything from cotton and silk cloth, from paper and glass and sugar, from cannons to guns and muskets. 30 factories were established in Mysore, and 17 elsewhere. Tipu had a long- standing alliance with the French and employed European workmen in his factories and establishments.

Tipu Sultan was certainly an absolutist ruler. He strove to change and alter not just the economy and administration, but also the habits and culture of those who came under his rule in Mysore and beyond. The folk ballads of Mysore, or ‘lavanies’, remember the man for his many prohibitions that intended to produce a more ‘civilised’ people. Tobacco and liquor were prohibited in Mysore, and attempts made to ban prostitution and trafficking.

Tipu sought to bring temples, mosques, chattrams (feeding houses) and dargahs (tombs of saints) under a new bureaucratic regime to reduce corruption and mismanagement, but also to garner resources for his war economy. And in addition to introducing new weights and measures, Tipu Sultan inaugurated his rule in 1784 with a completely new calendar.

Tipu fought the Third and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars, as well as myriad battles with hostile neighbours on all sides, notably the Marathas to the north west, and the kingdom of Hyderabad to the north east. Tipu Sultan had sent emissaries to foreign states, including the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, Marathas, Hyderabad and France, in an attempt to rally opposition to the British.

At the end of the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792), Tipu was corralled into ceding nearly half of his territory to the British and its Indian allies; was placed under a crippling debt; and gave two sons as hostages to the British until the debt was paid.

It was in the Fourth Anglo Mysore War (1798-99) that Tipu was killed. His end came on May 4, 1799 during the Siege of Srirangapatana by combined forces of the British, Nizam of Hyderabad, Marathas and the Nairs. With their most formidable foe vanquished, the Britain had regained its honour, which neither the British people nor the Indians were allowed to forget. In the days following Tipu’s defeat, British soldiers looted an estimated £1,600,000 of ‘prize money’, consisting of coins, jewels, richly worked cloth, furniture and carpets.

Why the Vilification

Judging characters of the past by the yardsticks and definitions of today is being grossly unfair to them. In our zeal to define the rulers, they might not be freedom fighters but just defenders of their kingdom and their interest, we have thrust Tipu (as well as other rulers like Sivaji, Akbar, Ashoka etc) to the scrutiny of “Secularism”, “Communalism” and “Nationalism” – terms that were non-existent in 18th century India.

The British too vilified Tipu for more than 200 years. As part of its “divide and rule policy” the British always tried to convince the Hindus that the Muslims were despots and religious invaders. This narrative worked perfectly for the British, who wanted to be seen as a rectifier of the historical harm inflicted by the Muslims, the invaders.

Tipu Sultan was positioned as a religious bigot who brutalised communities in his newly conquered dominions, notably the Catholics of Canara, the Coorgs, and the Nairs of Malabar – all of whom he identified as treacherous betrayers, before giving orders for conversion. Accounts of Tipu’s tyranny include destruction of temples, massacres of Brahmins, and conversion and castrations of different castes, as well as the dislocation of large numbers of people to different parts of his domain.

Though these are exaggerated memories, there is a kernel of truth that has been admitted by even his warmest biographers. Yet the governor general of India, Sir John Shore, reluctantly noted in his minute of February 18, 1795: “during the [British] contest with [Tipu], no person of character, rank or influence, in his hereditary dominions, deserted his cause.” Tipu Sultan also understood that he was a Muslim king of a predominantly Hindu domain, and many of his more severe actions were tempered by his recognition of the need to retain his legitimacy. While he supported the rebuilding of Sringeri Mutt after it was destroyed by the Marathas, Tipu adopted a virulent and repressive policy elsewhere.

Tipu Sultan was steadfast in his fight against the British Empire. He referred to the British as ‘infidels’ and ‘faithless Christians’ who did not stoop to treachery and collusion to make their territorial gains. In contrast, he was more circumspect and respectful of the French, his allies.

In 1763 the taking of Bednore included several ports on the Malabar coast, including Mangalore. Hyder used these ports to establish a small navy. To approach Mangalore he had to cross the Coorg. The Kodavas extremely inept in gorilla warfare, were always in conflict with the Mysore Kingdom. Tipu Sultan made a number of attempts to suppress their rebellion in the 1780s. Kodava captives were forcibly deported, some of them were converted and some were killed. The estimated numbers of the captives vary according to different sources, from 500 (according to Punganuri) to 85,000 (according to B. L. Rice). Shocked by the polyandry that was practised in Coorg, Tipu ordered that this practice be stopped.

Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan had amicable relations with the Christian population in Mangalore, which had long been under Portuguese influence and had a sizeable Roman Catholic population. Mysore army also included Native Catholic soldiers, and they allowed Christians to build a church at Srirangapatana, where French generals used to offer prayers and priests used to visit. After the 1784 conquest to recapture Mangalore, Hyder was informed that the Mangalorean Catholics had helped the British in their conquest of Mangalore. As a punishment much against the Portuguese officers advice of death for the Christian treachery, Haider increased tax burden. Many Mangaloreans (not just Christians) disliked him for the heavy tax burden imposed on them.

In 1783, the British again recaptured the Mangalore fort on the orders of the Bombay Government. Tipu became infuriated with the Christians of Canara for two reasons. Firstly, when French soldiers laid down their arms because of the Peace of Paris (1783) treaty, the Christians refused to fight for Tipu. Secondly, the Christians lent the sum of Rs. 3,30,000 to Brigadier-General Richard Matthews to fight Tipu.  Tipu and the British East India Company signed the Treaty of Mangalore, thus bringing an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War. After receiving highly exaggerated reports about the role of the Christians and their help to the British during the war, Tipu banished over 60,000 Syrian Christians from Canara.

When Tipu was unable to capture the Pradhans of Rani Lakshmi Ammanni, who were carrying on negotiations on her behalf with the British, he ordered the public hanging of around 700 members of the pradhan community, the Mandyam Iyengars – men, women and children – in broad daylight, and that too on Diwali. So much so that to this day some Mandyam Iyengars observe Diwali as a day of mourning.

In 1766, when Tipu Sultan was just 15 years old, he got the chance to apply his military training in battle for the first time, when he accompanied his father on an invasion of Malabar. After the Siege of Tellicherry in North Malabar, Hyder Ali started losing his territories in Malabar. Tipu came from Mysore to reinstate the authority over Malabar. In his repeated attacks on Malabar, Tipu devastated the warrior Nairs with his atrocities and religious intolerance. Tipu was flabbergasted by the bare-breastedness of the people of Malabar after he won control, and he decreed that the women be covered. The treasures found in Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is believed to be collection of valuable objects including gold thrones, crowns, coins, statues, ornaments, diamonds and other precious stones, from the north Kerala Kings send for safe keeping to the Travancore Kings, to protect from Tipu’s raids.

Tipu did not hesitate to refer to the Nizam of Hyderabad, a fellow Muslim ruler who deserted him in his hour of need to align with the British, as Hajjam, a derisory reference to his caste. During the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War the Nizam of Hyderabad supplied a column consisting of ten battalions and more than 16,000 cavalry. Of the Marathas, who also sided with the British, his choice of insult was not religious so much as questioning their prized masculinity.

The initial Muslim invaders who came into India no doubt broke a lot of Hindu temples, like for instance, Mahmood Ghazni who broke the Somnath temple. However, their descendants (Eg. Akbar, who was not an invader, though his grandfather Babur was) who became local Muslim rulers in India, far from breaking temples used to give grants to temples and celebrated Hindu festivals like Holi and Diwali. The descendants of those invaders who became local Muslim rulers ruled over populations of which about 80-90% were Hindus. They knew that if they broke temples there would be revolts and turmoils which no ruler wants. So in their own interest almost every one of the local Muslim rulers fostered communal harmony, they gave land grants to build Hindu temples, they celebrated Hindu festivals, E.g. the Mughal Emperors Aurangzeb, the Nawabs of Avadh, Murshidabad, Arcot.

Tipu Sultan’s had many Hindu officials in his government. His Prime Minister or “Mir Asaf” was Punaiya; his Commander-in-Chief was Krishna Rao; his Minister of Post and Police was Shamaiya Iyengar and his brother Ranga Iyengar was also an officer; his chief agents at the Mughal court was Moolchand and Sujan Rai and his chief “Peshkar” was Suba Rao.

The Editor of Mysore Gazetteer Prof. Srikantaiah has listed 156 temples to which Tipu regularly paid annual grants. There is such evidence as grant deeds, and correspondence between his court and temples, and his having donated jewellery and deeded land grants to several temples.

Between 1782 and 1799 Tipu Sultan issued 34 “Sanads” (deeds) of endowment to temples in his domain, while also presenting many of them with gifts of silver and gold plate.The Srikanteswara Temple in Nanjangud still possesses a jewelled cup presented by the Sultan. He also gave a greenish linga; to Ranganatha temple at Srirangapatna and donated seven silver cups and a silver camphor burner. This temple was hardly a stone’s throw from his palace from where he would listen with equal respect to the ringing of temple bells and the muezzin’s call from the mosque.

To the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale he gifted four cups, a plate and spitoon in silver.B.A. Saletare has described Tipu Sultan as a defender of the Hindu dharma, who also patronised other temples including one at Melkote, for which he issued a Kannada decree that the Shrivaishnava invocatory verses there should be recited in the traditional form. The temple at Melkote still has gold and silver vessels with inscriptions indicating that they were presented by the Sultan. Tipu Sultan also presented four silver cups to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale.

Tipu sent 30 respectful letters with grants to the Shankaracharya of Shringeri (‘History in the Service of Imperialism’ which is a speech given by Prof. B. N. Pandey in the Rajya Sabha in 1977). Though the concept of secularism was not discovered then these Kings were almost all secular rulers, who foster communal harmony, mostly by necessity.

These facts were deliberately suppressed by the British from our history books, the whole game being divide and rule to create communal hatred and make Hindus and Muslims fight each other. The British policy was to make Hindus and Muslims inimical to each other. For instance, Dr. Pandey has mentioned that in 1928 when he was a Professor of History in Allahabad University some students came to him with a book written by one Professor Harprasad Shastri, Professor of Sanskrit of Calcutta University in which it was mentioned that Tipu Sultan told 3000 Brahmins to convert to Islam otherwise they will be killed, and those 3000 Brahmins committed suicide rather than becoming Muslims.

On reading this Professor B. N. Pandey wrote to Professor Harprasad Shastri asking him the source of his information? Prof. Shastri wrote back that his source of information was the Mysore Gazetteer. Then Prof. Pandey wrote to Prof. Shrikantia, Professor of History in Mysore University asking him whether it is correct that in Mysore Gazetteer it is mentioned that Tipu Sultan told 3000 Brahmins to convert to Islam. Prof. Shrikantia wrote back that this is totally false, he had worked in this field and there is no such mention in the Mysore Gazetteer, rather the correct version was just the reverse, namely, that Tipu Sultan used to give annual grants to 156 Hindu Temples, he used to send grants to the Shankaracharya of Shringeri, etc. Far from being communal, Tipu was thoroughly secular.

Relationship with Shringeri Mutt

During the Third Anglo-Mysore War, in 1791,  Parshuram Bhave (Bhau), the Maratha General marched on Tipu’s richest province, Bednur. Here, Maratha horsemen under the command of Raghunathrao Patwardhan plundered the Shringeri Monastery of all of it’s valuables, killed and wounded many people and desecrated and committed sacrilege at the Holy shrine of Sri Sharada Devi.

Shocked by the Maratha vandalism, the then Jagadguru of Shringeri, Sri Sacchidananda Bharati III was forced to leave the place and live at Karkala, another temple town about 50 miles south of Shringeri. Helpless and despondent in the face of this aggression, the first ever recorded sack of the temple town, The Shankaracharya petitioned Tipu Sultan for help.

Tipu Sultan expressed his indignation and grief at the news of the raid and wrote to the Shankaracharya : “People who have sinned against such a holy place are sure to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds at no distant date in this Kali age in accordance with the Sanskrit verse: “Hasadbhih kriyate karma rudadbhir-anubhuyate” (People do evil deeds smilingly but suffer the consequences crying).”

Tipu Sultan immediately ordered his army to repulse the Maratha invaders, and sent to the Jagadguru Shankaracharya a letter dated July 6, 1791, which is given below: “The Honourable Shankaracharya Shringeri Shri Sacchidananda Swamigal, bestowed with Shrimat Param Hansa.

We received your letter and have understood the gravity of the matter. We have noted that the cavalry of the Maratha king attacked Sringeri and beat the Brahmins and the other people, removed the idol of the Goddess Sharda Ammanavaru (Mother) and also looted the valuables belonging to the Shringeri Matt.

We have also noted that four disciples belonging to the Shringeri Matt had to take shelter at Karkala and that the idol of Shringeri Sharda Ammanavaru was consecrated in ancient times, and if this idol has to be consecrated again, the support of the government is needed. The reconsecration of the deity will be performed along with mass feeding by requisite amount provided by the Government.

Those who have committed such atrocities will suffer the consequences as stated in the Sanskrit shloka ‘People do evil smiling but will suffer the penalty in torments of agony – Hasadhvi Kriyathe Karma Raudhrir Anubhuyathe’.

On hearing of the attack, the Sarkar has sent an elephant with it’s Mahavat, Ahammed. The Asaf of the city has been ordered to get a palanquin made for the Matt and pay 200 rahathis in cash and 200 rahathis for paddy for the consecration of the idol of Sri Sharada Ammanavauru, and carry out appropriate measures for the consecration of the idol of the Ammanavaru idol. He shall send me a report immediately.

We are sending a heavy sari (worked in gold) and a blouse piece for the Goddess Sharada Ammanavaru, and a pair of shawls for you. Please write on receiving them. An order is sent to the Asaf of the town to deal with the problems of the Matt. Contact him.“.

This particular incident that transpired during the Third Anglo-Mysore War is well documented and known to historians and laymen alike. A bunch of about 30 letters written in Kannada, which were exchanged between Tipu Sultan’s court and the Sringeri Shankaracharya were discovered in 1916 by the Director of Archaeology in Mysore.

Tipu’s close relationship with Shringeri did not begin with the sack of Shringeri by the Marathas but had begun much earlier in 1785 when Tipu issued a ‘Nirupa’ – Decree regranting the Shringeri Matta with a new ‘patte’ or ‘document’ which confirmed that Shringeri would continue as time honoured ‘Sarvamanya’ and free from all trouble. ‘Sarvamanya’ meant that the territory under it’s jurisdiction was tax free and it would enjoy all rights with regard to taxation and law within it’s territory.

Just prior to the actual sacking of the town and Matta, Tipu had been exchanging letters (April, June 1791) with the Jagadguru assuring him that the Mysorean army was in battle with the enemy who had ‘transgressed the boundaries of his kingdom and assaulted the people’. Tipu firmly believed that the blessings of the Shankaracharya would result in bringing happiness and prosperity in his kingdom.

In one of such letters Tipu writes that it is because of saints like the Shankaracharya in his kingdom that there is prosperity, there are good rains and harvests, etc.

Fall of Srirangapatana

Tipu’s fortunes were waning by the late 1780s as the forces of the Marathas and the Nizam moved to the British camp, while French support was becoming less and less reliable. The Governor General at the time, Lord Cornwallis, had the armies of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay at his command, and recognised Tipu as a “prince of uncommon ability and of boundless ambition” who threatened Company possessions in India; he felt compelled to curb him.

Cornwallis pressed a harsh treaty on Tipu following the Third Anglo-Mysore War, but it was his successor, Richard Wellesley, who was determined to end the house of Mysore, and isolated Tipu before organising his defeat.

The breach and storming of the island fort of Srirangapatana, which had long withstood enemy attacks, was enabled in part by the treachery of Tipu’s own men. Even at this penultimate hour, the British underestimated the warrior who had determined to die fighting. When the fort was taken, troops combed the palace for the ‘Tiger’, and found him under a heap of corpses, sword still in his hand.

In order to scrub the place of any trace of this fallen hero, and to prevent discontents from grouping around the memory of a valiant Tipu, the British decided to revive a dynasty that had long been forgotten, the Wodeyars (with a British Commissioner to advise him on all issues). The Kingdom of Mysore shift the capital from Srirangapatana to Mysore and became a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with British India.

The island capital Srirangapatana, soon became a pilgrimage site for British soldiers to relive their victory. Two of Tipu’s palaces were then dismantled; only one summer palace and his mausoleum were allowed to remain.

Tipu’s Family

The ‘Mysore Family‘, as Tipu’s descendents were called, his 12 sons and relatives, a group of 300 people, were dispatched first to Vellore Fort and then after the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny or First War of Independence to distant Calcutta and given residence in Tollygunge, then a distant jungle suburb. This was done to prevent the family from becoming a rallying point of revolt against British rule.

Today, that once illustrious lineage is in danger of extinction. Even more tragic is the fact that Tipu Sultan’s descendants have been reduced to abject penury and been forced to take up menial jobs to survive. This is despite the fact that they continue to be heirs to one of the country’s biggest and richest Muslim trusts, the Prince Ghulam Mohammed Trust, which owns the choicest pieces of real estate in Calcutta, including the Tollygunge Club and the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.

Seven sons have no surviving male heir. Of the other five, the descendants of only two, Mooniruddin and Ghulam Mohammed, are traceable. While Mooniruddin’s descendants earn their livelihood as small-time businessmen, the survivors of Ghulam Mohammed’s lineage live in squalid poverty in a stinking haveli.

Moral of the story – All people who have visited Srirangapatana would have seen an ancient Vishnu temple, built around 1000 known as the Ranganath Swamy Temple near Tipu’s palace. That is the biggest proof on the mischief with history our political class is playing.  Deliberately our history books have been falsified so that the mind of a child at an impressionable age, is poisoned and this becomes very difficult to remove, at a later age. The idea is to make a Hindu child start hating Muslims, and a Muslim child start hating Hindus.

If you look at history up to 1857 there was no communal problem at all in India. A composite culture had developed in India by then. Hindus used to participate in Eid and Muharram, and Muslims used to participate in Holi, Diwali etc. There is no greater injustice than teaching our children half-truths; unless, of course, that is a deliberate state policy.