TIPPU SULTAN OF MYSORE Most people would not require an introduction to Tippu Sultan son of Hyder Ali and the Sultan of Mysore, who possibly has the most enviable record of one of the most few Indian Rulers who gave the Britishers a run for their money and defeated them in a sustained campaign. Unfortunately the ultimate victory was that of the British who killed Tippu Sultan in Sri Rangapatna in Mysore on the banks of River of Cauvery in a battled that is chronicled in South Indian History as the Battle of Seringapatna. Also Tippu was the first Commander of any army the world over to use Rocketry as a weapon to fight his battles. His bonafides as a leader of Religious Tolerance as preached by the Pseudo-secular intellectuals and historians today are at best questionable. There are records of the father son combination taking over many religious places for the accommodation of his soldiers during their long campaign against the British. As a matter of fact people have told me that he had stationed his army in the Big Mosque and also the Sri Parthasarathiperumal temple in Triplicane. There are anecdotes handed down from generation to generation that he had attacked the Sri Agastheeswarar Kovil in Villivakkam and Sri Margabandhuswamy temple in Virinchipuram. On the outer wall of the last mentioned temple there were cannon ball markings till recently. I do not know if they are still there or they have been covered up in the recent renovations by a people keen on maintaining Tippu’s secular credentials. Tippu Sultan was given the name by his father because he was born after Hyder Ali and his consort Fakhr Un Nissa begum used to visit the Dargah Shareef of Hazrath Tippu Mastan Aulia, a Sufi saint of Arcot near Vellore praying for a son to carry the line. The Hazrath blessed Hyder Ali and his wife and said that they will have children but with the condition that the First born should be given over to God’s service. If I remember what I had read years back Hyder had three sons and two daughters. But the couple conveniently forgot the condition that the First born should be given over to God’s service. Though Tippu trained to be a God’s servant ultimately he became the Sultan. Further Tippu Sultan’s begum was selected by his father from Arcot Royal family and her name was Roshan Begum. She was one of the three wives of Tippu Sultan. Tippu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali stayed in Dindugal where Hyder Ali was the Governor of the Mysore Royalty administering the tax collections on behalf of the King/Queen. It was the Hydar’s improvisations in Tax Collecting techniques that considerably improved tax collections from Dindugal and the area around it. There is a Fort on top of the Hill in Dindugal built by a Vijayanagara Nayak King Muthukrishna Naicker of Madurai which was annexed by Hyder Ali and he operated from that Fort as his head quarters during 1784 to 1790 AD. Hyder Ali built a big Mosque in Dindugal which there even today and Hyder Ali’s sister Ameer Un Nissa Begum was buried in this Mosque. The Mosque is called the Begumpur Mosque on her honour even today. The Mysore Royal family had permitted Hyder Ali to renovate temples and mosques in the area as well as in projects intended to improved the living condition of the local population. Hyder Ali had started some heavy Industries in Dindugal with assistance from the French Engineers; after all, the French were his allies in his campaign against the British. In 1782 Tippu Sultan fought a battle in a place called Annagugi near Thanjavur and this very badly ruined the economy of the area and took a long time, almost a few decades, to recover. That period was marked as Hyder Kaalam (Times of Hyder) which has become a very common name used for signifying very old times in Tamil. The father son team fought the British intruders over a long period in battles at various locations like Arcot, Ambur, Cuddalore, Porto Novo (Parangipettai), Thanjavur, Erode, Dharapuram, Tiruppattur, Ambur, Vaniyambvadi Sholingur, Vandavasi, Kanchipuram et al. During these wars he is said tio have been the first Commander of an army to have used Rocketry and missiles in a battle. In the battles at Tiruppaththur and Vaniyambadi the father son team fought shoulder to shoulder and may be that was the reason they were able capture these two Forts easily. Tippu Sultan is one of the very few Indian Rulers to have fought the British to the limit and was also only King to have defeated them in battle after battle. But finally Tippu Sultan lost out on the Battle of Seringapatna 1790 in what is called the Last Mysore War by the British. There is a head stone in the front open courtyard of Sri Rangapatna Ranganathaswamy temple near Mysore. Finally Tippu was laid to rest buried near his beautiful palace the Dharia Dhaulath at Seringapatna. His two sons and wife along with his Chief Adviser and Minister Purnaiah, a Maharashtrian Brahmin were kept incarcerated in the Vellore Fort by the British and on their death were buried in the Tippu Sultan Bagh near the Dina-Thanthi office at Vellore alongside the famous Christian Medical College Hospital of today. Even Purnaiah a Maharashtrian Brahmin is buried there along with the others, members of the immediate family of Tippu Sultan who were Muslims. The Government of Tamilnadu has proposed to construct a memorial to honour the memory of the Great Soldier Sultan Tippu.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 06:41:24 +0000
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