on 29 December 1782, at the age of 32. Tipu Sultan was bornin November
1750 and was called the 'Tiger of Mysore'. Tipu Sultan was the first
son of Hyder Ali and his second wife, Fatimaor Fakhr-un-nissa. Tipu
wasnamed as Sultan Fateh Ali Khan Shahab or Tipu Saheb.Apart from
being a brilliantruler, Tipu was also a scholar, poet, soldier and a
staunch Muslim.
After his enthronement, Tipu was immediately immersed in the struggle
against the English, continuing the war that had begun under his
fatherand in which he had already taken a vigorous part. Tipu occupied
the throne at a time when Mysore was fighting the crucial Second
Mysore War with the British. The war ended in 1784 when Tipu Sultan
and the English signed the Treaty of Mangalore . As per the treaty,
both sides agreed toreturn the territories and the prisoners captured
during the war. A war with the Marathas and the Nizam soon followed
(1785-87) ending with military successes but with rather
disadvantageous terms of peace. This was apparently because of Tipu's
anxiety that these two powers should not combine with the English,
whom he consistently regarded as his principal enemy.
From his accession Tipu treated himself as an independent sovereign,
notneeding any diploma of inferior office from the Mughal court at
Delhi . He, thus, dropped the name and title of the Mughal emperor
from his coins, and started using the title 'Padshah' for himself from
January 1786. Tipu could now claim parity with full-fledged
sovereigns, likethe Sultan of Turkey and the King of France, both of
whom personally received his ambassadors in 1787 and 1788. While these
embassies might not have resulted in any substantial material support
for him, inrespect of either military resources or commercial
advantage, the diplomatic stature gained by him certainly reinforced
his prestige at home.
Though the titles of 'Padshah' or 'Zill-i Ilahi' (Shadow of God) were
usedby the Mughal emperors, but Tipu gave to his sovereignty a colour
of religious militancy, which was not at all present in the Mughal
imperial polity of the eighteenth century. Tipu would not put his own
name on the coins he minted; rather the coin legends invoke God as the
all-powerful Sovereign, andbring in the name of Muhammad the Prophet,
and of Hyder.
Tipu Sultan was a lover of art and culture. His palace at
Srirangapatnam is known for its superb ornamentation. He minted a vast
variety of coins fromdifferent mints. During his reign, French
craftsmen worked in Mysore. One such artisan produced a wooden toy
showing a tiger attacking a Britisher. The toy is now in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, London. Like his father, Tipu too was buriedat
Srirangapatnam. Tipu Sultan was a tolerant ruler in the tradition of
Islamic tolerance.
Tipu Sultan's reforming zeal touched every department of life,
including coinage and calendar, banking and finance, weights and
measures, agriculture and industry, trade and commerce, morals and
manners as well as social and cultural life. He built many strong
forts such as the Doorg in Nilgiris to defend his kingdom. He had a
quest for seeking knowledge. His personal library consisted of more
than 2000 books in different languages. He hada dignified personality
and impressed the people he came into contact with. He was an
enlightened ruler who treated his non-Muslim subjects with tolerance
generally. He conferred liberal grants to Singeri, Srirangapatnam and
Mangalore temples.
The innovative ideas of Tipu Sultan enabled Mysoreto gain importance
even in the international spheres.
Tipu Sultan proceeded actively to rebuild the navythat Hyder had
established.His major interest was in building ships which could be
used for trade, though, being armed for defence, as was usual with
merchant ships of the time,these could also be used in naval action.
This embassy, really consisting of a board of four officers, had both
diplomatic and commercialobjectives. Moreover, Tipu was also looking
beyond the Indian Ocean, and wished to open his own direct shipping
line to Europe. In 1787, he proposed to send to Francea ship with four
hundred Indians aboard along with his embassy.
Apart from the constructiveoperations of Tipu also hadto undergo
several critical situations that took place due to his relation with
theBritish. In 1783 Tipu directed the compilation, through Zainul
Abidin Shustari, of a manual of military organization and tactics, he
significantly titled it Fathul Mujahidin, the Victory of Holy
Warriors. This Holy War was to be directed against the English.
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