Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan
Ruler of Mysore
Reign	1782 - 1799
Predecessor	Hyder Ali
Father	Hyder Ali
Mother	Fakhr-un-nissa

Sultan Fateh Ali Tipu, also known as the Tiger of Mysore (November 20, 1750, Devanahalli – May 4, 1799, Srirangapattana), was the first son of Haidar Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-nissa. He was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore from the time of his father's death in 1782 until his own demise in 1799. Tipu Sultan was a learned man and an able soldier. He was reputed to be a good poet. He was a devout Muslim, but was also appreciative of other religions. At the request of the French, for instance, he built a church, the first in Mysore. He was proficient in the languages he spoke . He helped his father Haidar Ali defeat the British in the Second Mysore War, and negotiated the Treaty of Mangalore with them. However, he was defeated in the Third Anglo-Mysore War and in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War by the combined forces of the English East India Company, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Mahratta Confederacy, and to a lesser extent, Travancore. Tipu Sultan died defending his capital Srirangapattana, on May 4, 1799.

Sir Walter Scott, commenting on the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, wrote: "Although I never supposed that he [Napoleon] possessed, allowing for some difference of education, the liberality of conduct and political views which were sometimes exhibited by old Haidar Ally, yet I did think he [Napoleon] might have shown the same resolved and dogged spirit of resolution which induced Tippoo Saib to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand."

Early life

Tipu Sultan's summer palace at Srirangapatna, Karnataka

Tipu Sultan was born at Devanahalli, in present-day Kolar District, some 45 miles east of Bangalore. The exact date of his birth is not known; various sources claim various dates between 1749 and 1753. According to one widely accepted dating, he was born on Nov 10, 1750 (Friday, 10th Zil-Hijja, 1163 AH). His father, Haidar Ali, was the de-facto ruler of Mysore. His mother, Fakhr-un-nissa (also called Fatima), was a daughter of Shahal Tharique, governor of the fort of Cuddapah.

His rule

During his rule, Tipu Sultan laid the foundation for a dam where the famous Krishna Raja Sagara Dam across the river Cauvery was later built. He also completed the project of Lal Bagh started by his father Haidar Ali, and built roads, public buildings, and ports along the Kerala shoreline. His trade extended to countries which included Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, France, Turkey, and Iran. Under his leadership, the Mysore army proved to be a school of military science to Indian princes. The serious blows that Tipu Sultan inflicted on the British in the First and Second Mysore Wars affected their reputation as an invincible power. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, in his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture in Bangalore (30 November 1991), called Tipu Sultan the innovator of the world’s first war rocket. Two of these rockets, captured by the British at Srirangapatna, are displayed in the Woolwich Museum Artillery in London. Most of Tipu Sultan's campaigns resulted in remarkable successes. He managed to subdue all the petty kingdoms in the south. He defeated the Marathas and the Nizams several times and was also one of the few Indian rulers to have defeated British armies.

Religious policy

As a Muslim ruler in a largely Hindu domain, Tipu Sultan faced particular problems in establishing the legitimacy of his rule, and in reconciling his desire to be seen as a devout Islamic ruler with the need to be pragmatic to avoid antagonising the majority of his subjects. His religious legacy has become a source of considerable controversy in the subcontinent, as in Pakistan some groups proclaim him a great warrior for the faith or Ghazi, while in India some Hindu groups revile him as a bigot who massacred Hindus. There are several historians who claim that Tipu Sultan was a religious persecutor of Hindus and Christians. In 1780 CE he declared himself to be the Padishah or Emperor of Mysore, and struck coinage in his own name without reference to the reigning Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.

While no eminent scholar has denied that, in common with most rulers of his period, Tipu Sultan’s campaigns were often characterized by great brutality, some historians have said that the brutality was not exclusively motivated by religion, and it did not amount to a consistent anti-Kafir policy. Brittlebank, Hasan, Chetty, Habib and Saletare, amongst others, argue that stories of Tipu Sultan's religious persecution of Hindus and Christians are largely derived from the work of early British authors such as Kirkpatrick and Wilks, whom they do not consider to be entirely reliable. A. S. Chetty argues that Wilks’ account in particular cannot be trusted, Irfan Habib and Mohibbul Hasan argues that these early British authors had a strong vested interest in presenting Tipu Sultan as a tyrant from whom the British had "liberated" Mysore. This assessment is echoed by Brittlebank in her recent work where she writes that Wilks and Kirkpatrick must be used with particular care as both authors had taken part in the wars against Tipu Sultan and were closely connected to the administrations of Lord Cornwallis and Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley.

Mohibbul Hasan casts some doubt on the scale of the deportations and forced conversions in Coorg in particular, and says that the English versions of what happened were intended to malign Tipu Sultan, and to be used as propaganda against him. He argues that little reliance can be placed in Muslim accounts such as Kirmani’s "Nishan-e Haidari"; in their anxiety to represent the Sultan as a champion of Islam, they had a tendency to exaggerate and distort the facts: Kirmani claims that 70,000 Coorgis were converted, when forty years later the entire population of Coorg was still less than that number. According to Ramchandra Rao "Punganuri" the true number of converts was about 500. A Mogul general, known only by his initials, M.M.K.F.G., wrote an account of Tipu Sultaun's life, which was corrected by one of Tippoo's sons, wherein he asserts that the Sultan, in his wars against the Maharaja of Travancore, had 10,000 Hindus and Christians killed and 7,000 transported back to Seringapatam, where they were circumcised, made to eat beef and forced to convert to Mohammedanism. A more solid proof may be had from the destruction meted out to numerous lesser temples, especially in the Sultan's southern domains, in the late 1780s. An outstanding example of this may be seen in the ruins of the temple in the hill-fort of Dindigul which has none of the presiding deities in the sancta sanctora, besides having other reliefs disfigured.

The portrayal of Tipu Sultan as a religious bigot is disputed, and some sources suggest that he in fact often embraced religious pluralism. Tipu Sultan's treasurer was Krishna Rao, Shamaiya Iyengar was his Minister of Post and Police, his brother Ranga Iyengar was also an officer and Purnaiya held the very important post of "Mir Asaf". Moolchand and Sujan Rai were his chief agents at the Mughal court, and his chief "Peshkar", Suba Rao, was also a Hindu. There is such evidence as grant deeds, and correspondence between his court and temples, and his having donated jewelry and deeded land grants to several temples, which some claim he was compelled to do in order to make alliances with Hindu rulers. 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.

In 1791 some Maratha horsemen under Raghunath Rao Patwardhan raided the temple and monastery of Sringeri Shankaracharya, killing and wounding many, and plundering the monastery of all its valuable possessions. The incumbent Shankaracharya petitioned Tippu Sultan for help. A bunch of about 30 letters written in Kannada, which were exchanged between Tippu Sultan's court and the Sringeri Shankaracharya were discovered in 1916 by the Director of Archaeology in Mysore. Tippu Sultan expressed his indignation and grief at the news of the raid, and wrote:

"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 verse: "Hasadbhih kriyate karma ruladbhir-anubhuyate" (People do [evil] deeds smilingly but suffer the consequences crying)."

He immediately ordered his "Asaf" of Bednur to supply the Swami with 200 "rahatis" (fanams) in cash and other gifts and articles. Tippu Sultan's interest in the Sringeri temple continued for many years, and he was still writing to the Swami in the 1790s CE. In light of this and other events, B.A. Saletare has described Tippu Sultan as a defender of the Hindu Dharma, who also patronized 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. Tippu Sultan also presented four silver cups to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale. Tippu Sultan does seem to have repossessed unauthorised grants of land made to Brahmins and temples, but those which had proper "sanads" were not. It was a normal practice for any ruler, Muslim or Hindu, to do on his accession or on the conquest of new territory.

It is hard to reconcile these two very different profiles of Tippu Sultan, but the truth, it seems, lies somewhere between the two. It seems that when corresponding with other Islamic rulers such as the Amir of Afghanistan or the Ottoman Sultan, Tippu Sultan presented himself as an archetypal Islamic ruler, converting the infidel by the sword, and this was also the external image he presented to the British. The late 18th century CE was a turbulent period in South India, and it seems that, in common with the Marathas, the Nizam, the British, and the French, Tippu Sultan also sometimes instructed his army to loot, pillage and kill civilians for real or suspected disloyalty. He carried out forced conversions of Hindus and Christians. Nonetheless, in his internal policies, he was conciliatory and tolerant, patronizing Hindu temples and relying heavily on Hindu subordinates. For his royal emblem he chose the tiger, which was religiously neutral and could appeal to both Hindus and Muslims. Some historians including Surendranath Sen and H. H. Dodwell say that Tippu Sultan was neither a benevolent pioneer of religious tolerance nor a religious ideologue and Islamic fanatic, but a wily, ruthless, but above all, a pragmatic ruler operating in a time of great political instability and of constant threats to his rule coming from all sides.

Yaar Mohammad - Tippu's Lion

Yaar Mohammad was born in 18th century, in a Muslim Rajput family to Shah Mohammad, a Sufi sanit. He joined the Army of Mysore and soon became one of the favorite generals of Tippu Sultan. Seeing his patriotic and dauntless behavior, Tippu Sultan made him his Commander-in-Chief. He fought dauntlessly in the Battle of Seringapatam (1799), but after Tippu's death, and later the fall of Mysore, he had to run away. However, he managed to evade capture by the British. After the fall of Mysore, he was declared one of the most wanted Mysore officers. They tried their best to capture him, dead or alive, but couldn’t succeed. General Yaar Mohammad's family members and relatives were killed by the British, however, he, along with his father Shah Noor Mohammad and son Ilahi Baksh, escaped. They spent the rest of their lives as fugitives. General Yaar Mohammad died in early 19th century. His descendants still live in Punjab today.

Description

Alexander Beatson, who published a volume entitled "View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with the late Tippoo Sultaun" on the Fourth Mysore War, described Tippu Sultan as follows: "His stature was about five feet eight inches; he had a short neck, square shoulders, and was rather corpulent: his limbs were small, particularly his feet and hands; he had large full eyes, small arched eyebrows, and an aquiline nose; his complexion was fair, and the general expression of his countenance, not void of dignity".

Daria Daulat Bagh

He was called the Tiger of Mysore. It is said that Tippu Sultan was hunting in the forest with a French friend. He came face to face with a tiger. His gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He reached for the dagger, picked it up, and killed the tiger with it. That earned him the name "the Tiger of Mysore". He had the image of a tiger on his flag. Tippu Sultan was also very fond of innovations. Alexander Beatson has mentioned that Tippu Sultan was "passionately fond of new inventions. In his palace was found a great variety of curious swords, daggers, fusils, pistols, and blunderbusses; some were of exquisite workmanship, mounted with gold, or silver, and beautifully inlaid and ornamented with tigers' heads and stripes, or with Persian and Arabic verses". Tipu's Tiger, an automaton representing a tiger attacking a European soldier, made for Tippu Sultan, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. During Tippu Sultan's reign, a new calendar, new coinage, and seven new government departments, were introduced as well as innovations in the use of rocket artillery.

Proclamations

The following proclamations were issued by Tippu Sultan:

• "Agriculture is the life blood of the nation…" (1788 CE)
• "There can be no glory or achievement if the foundation of our palaces, roads and dams are mingled with the tears and blood of humanity…" (1789 CE)

He is quoted as having said: "It is far better to live like a Tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years".

Early Military Career

Tippu Sultan was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employment of his father, Hyder Ali (also spelled as "Haidar Ali"). At age 15, he accompanied his father Haidar Ali against the British in the First Mysore War in 1766. 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.

Second Mysore War

Tippu Sultan led a large body of troops in the Second Mysore War, in February 1782, and defeated Braithwaite on the banks of the Kollidam. Although the British were defeated this time, Tippu Sultan realized that the British were a new kind of threat in India. Upon becoming the Sultan after his father's death later that year, he worked to check the advances of the British by making alliances with the Marathas and the Mughals.

Tippu Sultan had defeated Colonel Braithwaite at Annagudi near Tanjore on 18 February 1782. The British army, consisting of 100 Europeans, 300 cavalry, 1400 sepoys and 10 field pieces, was the standard size of the colonial armies. Tippu Sultan had seized all the guns and taken the entire detachment prisoners. In December 1781 Tippu Sultan had successfully seized Chittur from the British. Tippu Sultan had thus gained sufficient military experience by the time Haidar Ali died in December 1782.

The Second Mysore War came to an end with the Treaty of Mangalore. It was the last occasion when an Indian king had dictated terms to the mighty British, and the treaty is a prestigious document in the history of India. []

Battle of Pollilur

Mural of the Battle of Pollilur on the walls of Tippu's summer palace, painted to celebrate his triumph over the British.

The Battle of Pollilur took place in 1780 at Pollilur near the city of Kanchipuram. It was a part of the second Anglo-Mysore war. Tippu Sultan was dispatched by Haidar Ali with 10,000 men and 18 guns to intercept Colonel Baillie who was on his way to join Sir Hector Munro. Out of 360 Europeans, about 200 were captured alive, and the sepoys, who were about 3800 men, suffered very high casualties. Sir Hector Munro, the victor of the Battle of Buxar, who had earlier defeated three Indian rulers (the Mughal emperor Shah Alam, the Nawab of Oudh Shuja-ud-daula, and the Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim) in a single battle, was forced to retreat to Madras, abandoning his artillery in the tank of Kanchipuram.

Fourth Mysore War

"The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultaun" by Henry Singleton c 1800.

After Horatio Nelson had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile in Egypt in 1798 CE, three armies, one from Bombay, and two British (one of which included Arthur Wellesley, the future first Duke of Wellington), marched into Mysore in 1799 and besieged the capital Srirangapatnam in the Fourth Mysore War. There were over 26,000 soldiers of the British East India Company comprising about 4000 Europeans and the rest Indians. A column was supplied by the Nizam of Hyderabad consisting of ten battalions and over 16,000 cavalry, and many soldiers were sent by the Marathas. Thus the soldiers in the British force numbered over 50,000 soldiers whereas Tippu Sultan had only about 30,000 soldiers. The British broke through the city walls, and Tippu Sultan died defending his capital on May 4.

The mausoleum housing Tippu's tomb. Tippu's flag is in the foreground.

The tomb of Tippu Sultan at Srirangapatna. Tippu's tomb is in the foreground and on the sides are his parents'

Place on the banks on Cauvery River in Srirangapatnam where Tippu’s body was found. Presently it is a protected monument by Archeological Survey of India.

A close-up view of the battleground where Tippu’s body was found. The plaque was placed by the archaeological department.

An info board at Tippu’s death site narrating (in Kannada (top), English and Hindi (bottom) ) the last moments of Tippu.

Rocket Artillery in War

A military tactic developed by Tippu Sultan and his father, Haidar Ali was the use of mass attacks with rocket brigades on infantry formations. Tippu Sultan wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahidin in which 200 rocket men were prescribed to each Mysorean "cushoon" (brigade). Mysore had 16 to 24 cushoons of infantry. The areas of town where rockets and fireworks were manufactured were known as Taramandal Pet ("Galaxy Market").

The rocket men were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance of the target. In addition, wheeled rocket launchers capable of launching five to ten rockets almost simultaneously were used in war. Rockets could be of various sizes, but usually consisted of a tube of soft hammered iron about 8" long and 1½ - 3" diameter, closed at one end and strapped to a shaft of bamboo about 4ft. long. The iron tube acted as a combustion chamber and contained well packed black powder propellant. A rocket carrying about one pound of powder could travel almost 1,000 yards. In contrast, rockets in Europe not being iron cased, could not take large chamber pressures and as a consequence, were not capable of reaching distances anywhere near as great.

Haidar Ali's father, the Naik or chief constable at Budikote, commanded 50 rocketmen for the Nawab of Arcot. There was a regular Rocket Corps in the Mysore Army, beginning with about 1200 men in Haidar Ali's time. At the Battle of Pollilur (1780), during the Second Anglo-Mysore War, Colonel William Braille's ammunition stores are thought to have been detonated by a hit from one of Haidar Ali's Mysore rockets resulting in a humiliating British defeat.

In the Third Anglo-Mysore War of 1792, there is mention of two rocket units fielded by Tipu Sultan, 120 men and 131 men respectively. Lt. Col. Knox was attacked by rockets near Srirangapatna on the night of 6 February 1792, while advancing towards the Kaveri river from the north. The Rocket Corps ultimately reached a strength of about 5000 in Tipu Sultan's army. Mysore rockets were also used for ceremonial purposes. When the Jacobin Club of Mysore sent a delegation to Tippu Sultan, 500 rockets were launched as part of the gun salute.

During the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, rockets were again used on several occasions. One of these involved Colonel Arthur Wellesley, later famous as the First Duke of Wellington and the hero of Waterloo. Arthur Wellesley was defeated by Tipu's Diwan, Purnaiya at the Battle of Sultanpet Tope. Quoting Forrest,

"At this point (near the village of Sultanpet, Figure 5) there was a large tope, or grove, which gave shelter to Tipu's rocketmen and had obviously to be cleaned out before the siege could be pressed closer to Seringapatam island. The commander chosen for this operation was Col. Wellesley, but advancing towards the tope after dark on the 5 April 1799, he was set upon with rockets and musket-fires, lost his way and, as Beatson politely puts it, had to "postpone the attack" until a more favourable opportunity should offer. Wellesley's failure was glossed over by Beatson and other chroniclers, but the next morning he failed to report when a force was being paraded to renew the attack.

"On 22 April [1799], twelve days before the main battle, rocketeers worked their way around to the rear of the British encampment, then 'threw a great number of rockets at the same instant' to signal the beginning of an assault by 6,000 Indian infantry and a corps of Frenchmen, all directed by Mir Golam Hussain and Mohomed Hulleen Mir Mirans. The rockets had a range of about 1,000 yards. Some burst in the air like shells. Others

called ground rockets, on striking the ground, would rise again and bound along in a serpentine motion until their force was spent. According to one British observer, a young English officer named Bayly:

"So pestered were we with the rocket boys that there was no moving without danger from the destructive missiles ...". He continued: "The rockets and musketry from 20,000 of the enemy were incessant. No hail could be thicker. Every illumination of blue lights was accompanied by a shower of rockets, some of which entered the head of the column, passing through to the rear, causing death, wounds, and dreadful lacerations from the long bamboos of twenty or thirty feet, which are invariably attached to them'."

During the conclusive British attack on Seringapatam on 2 May 1799, a British shot struck a magazine of rockets within the Tipu Sultan's fort causing it to explode and send a towering cloud of black smoke, with cascades of exploding white light, rising up from the battlements. On the afternoon of 4 May when the final attack on the fort was led by Baird, he was again met by "furious musket and rocket fire", but this did not help much; in about an hour's time the Fort was taken; perhaps in another hour Tipu had been shot (the precise time of his death is not known), and the war was effectively over.

After the fall of Seringapatam, 600 launchers, 700 serviceable rockets and 9,000 empty rockets were found. Some of the rockets had pierced cylinders, to allow them to act like incendiaries, while some had iron points or steel blades bound to the bamboo. By attaching these blades to rockets they became very unstable towards the end of their flight causing the blades to spin around like flying scythes, cutting down all in their path.

These experiences eventually led to the Royal Woolwich Arsenal's beginning a military rocket R&D program in 1801, their first demonstration of solid-fuel rockets in 1805 and publication of A Concise Account of the Origin and Progress of the Rocket System in 1807 by William Congreve , son of the arsenal's commandant. Congreve rockets were soon systematically used by the British during the Napoleonic Wars and their confrontation with the US during 1812-14. These descendants of Mysore rockets find mention in the Star Spangled Banner.

Jacobin Club in Mysore

Tippu Sultan was a founder-member of the Jacobin Club. While accepting the membership, he said of France, "Behold my acknowledgement of the standard of your country, which is dear to me, and to which I am allied; it shall always be supported in my country, as it has been in the Republic, my sister!". He was named as "Citizen Tippu Sultan",

In fiction

• In Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo is described as a nephew of Tippu Sultan.
• Tippu Sultan's life and adventures were the central theme of a short-running South Indian television series "The Adventures of Tipu Sultan", and of a more popular national television series "The Sword of Tipu Sultan".
• Naseem Hijazi's novels Muazam Ali and Aur Talwar Toot Gaye (And The Sword Broke) describe Tippu Sultan's wars.
• Wilkie Collins novel The Moonstone contains an account of Tippu Sultan and the Fall of Seringapatam in the prologue.
• In The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe, Munchausen vanquishes Tippoo near the end of the novel.
• Sharpe's Tiger is a novel in which Napoleonic soldier Richard Sharpe fights at the Battle of Seringapatam, later killing the Tipu Sultan.

Family and Descendants

back and front cover of Book written by his decedents whose picture can be seen here on the back cover

Tippu Sultan had four wives and 25 other consorts, by which he had 16 sons and at least 8 daughters, including:

1. Shahzada Hyder Ali Sultan Sahib (1771-30 July 1815), desc

2. Shahzada Abdul Khaliq Sultan Sahib (1782-12 September 1806, desc

3. Shahzada Muhi-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1782-30 September 1811), desc

4. Shahzada Muiz-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1783-30 March 1818), desc

5. Shahzada Miraj-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1784?-?)

6. Shahzada Muin-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1784?-?)

7. Shahzada Muhammad Yasin Sultan Sahib (1784-15 March 1849), desc

8. Shahzada Muhammad Subhan Sultan Sahib (1785-27 September 1845), desc

9. Shahzada Muhammad Shukru'llah Sultan Sahib (1785-25 September 1837), desc

10. Shahzada Sarwar-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1790-20 October 1833), desc

11. Shahzada Muhammad Nizam-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1791-20 October 1791)

12. Shahzada Muhammad Jamal-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1795-13 November 1842), desc

13. Shahzada Munir-ud-din Sultan Sahib (1795-1 December 1837), desc

14. His Highness Shahzada Sir Ghulam Muhammad Sultan Sahib, KCSI (March 1795-11 August 1872), desc

15. Shahzada Ghulam Ahmad Sultan Sahib (1796-11 April 1824)

16. Shahzada.............Sultan Sahib (1797-1797)

Tippu Sultan's family was sent to Calcutta by the British. Noor Inayat Khan, who was a major in the British Indian army, is said to be one of Tippu Sultan's descendants who died in France under German occupation.

Sword of Tippu Sultan

Tippu Sultan had lost his sword in a war with the Nairs of Travancore in which he was defeated. The Maharaja, Dharma Raja, gave the sword to the Nawab of Arcot, from where the sword went to London. The sword was on display at the Wallace Collection, No. 1 Manchester Square, London. At an auction in London in 2004, the industrialist-politician Vijay Mallya purchased the sword of Tippu Sultan and some other historical artifacts, and brought them back to India for public display after nearly two centuries.

See Also

• Mir Sadiq
• Yaar Mohammad

Further reading

• Robert Home, Select Views in Mysore: The Country of Tipu Sultan from Drawings Taken on the Spot by Mr. Home, Asian Educational Services,India, ISBN-10: 8120615123

• George Taylor, Coins of Tipu Sultan, Asian Educational Services,India, ISBN-10: 8120605039

• Lewin Bowring, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan and the Struggle with the Musalman Powers of the South, Asian Educational Services,India, ISBN-10: 812061299X

• Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan and the Struggle with the Mohammadan Powers of the South, Cosmo (Publications,India), ISBN-10: 8177554352

• Hasan Mohibbul, History of Tipu Sultan,Aakar Books, ISBN-10: 8187879572

• Hasan Mohibbul, Tipu Sultan's Mission to Constantinople,Aakar Books, ISBN-10: 8187879564

• Irfan Habib,State and Diplomacy Under Tipu Sultan: Documents and Essays, Manohar Publishers and Distributors, ISBN-10: 818522952X

• Confronting Colonialism: Resistance and Modernization Under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan (Anthem South Asian Studies), Anthem Press, ISBN-10: 1843310244

• Gidwani Bhagwan S. The Sword of Tipu Sultan: The Life and Legend of Tipu Sultan of India, Allied Publishers 1978

• Robin Wigington, Firearms of Tipu Sultan,1783-99, J.Taylor Book Ventures, ISBN-10: 1871224136

• Mohammad Moienuddin, Sunset at Srirangapatam: After the death of Tipu Sultan, Orient Longman, ISBN-10: 8125019197

• Samuel Strandberg, Tipu Sultan: The Tiger of Mysore : or, to fight against the odds, AB Samuel Travel, ISBN-10: 9163073331

• Shamsu Agha, Tipu Sultan", "Mirza Ghalib in London";, "Flight Delayed", Paperback, ISBN-10: 0901974420

• B Sheik Ali, Tippu Sultan, Nyasanal Buk Trast, ISBN-10: B0000D7EYZ

• Sayyid Amjad °Ali Ashahri, Savanih Tipu Sultan, Himaliyah Buk Ha®us, ISBN-10: B0000E7D9O

• Sajjad Hashimi, Tipu Sultan, Maktabah-yi Urdu Da®ijast, ISBN-10: B0000E7D9T

• Anne Buddle, Tigers Round the Throne, Zamana Gallery, ISBN-10: 1869933028

• Richard Hamilton Campbell, Tippoo Sultan: The fall of Seringapatam and the restoration of the Hindu raj, Govt. Press, ISBN-10: B0000CQQQ7

• P.Chinnian, Tipu Sultan the Great, Siva Publications, ISBN-10: B0000CQCC5

• B. N Pande, Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan: Evaluation of their religious policies (IOS series), Institute of Objective Studies, ISBN-10: B0000CP9E3

• Mahmud Khan Mahmud Banglori, Sahifah-yi Tipu Sultan, Hamalayah Pablishing Ha°us, ISBN-10: B0000CRNMH

• Faiz °Alam Siddiqi, Sultan Tipu Shahid, Buk Karnar, ISBN-10: B0000CROC4

• Kate Brittlebank, Tipu Sultan's Search for Legitimacy: Islam and Kingship in a Hindu Domain, OUP India, ISBN-10: 0195639774

External links

• Biograpy at nationalgalleries.org.uk
• Review of Tipu Sultan:Villain or Hero? - IndiaStar Review of Books
• Biography
• Dedicated to life and works of Tipu Sultan
• Tipu Sultan Portal
• Rule of Tipu Sultan
• Bangalore best
• Bharath Rakshak
• India history
• The Sword of Tippu Sultan

• The Tiger of Mysore - Dramatised account of the British campaign against Tipu Sultan by G. A. Henty, from Project Gutenberg