is Srirangapatna. For a short while the city of Srirangapatna was the
capital of the Mysore state, while Tippu Sultan was ruling Mysore.
After the death of Tippu Sultan in 1799 the British shifted thecapital
back to Mysore and placed the child King Krishnaraja Wodeyar III on
the throne of Mysore. Hence there are a number of places of historical
importance associated withthe reign of Tippu Sultan.
Srirangapatna is an island in the river Kaveri, about 14kms from
Mysore. In Srirangapatna is the Dariya Daulat Palace (Summer Palace)
that is set amidst beautiful gardens called Daria Daulat Bagh. Tippu
Sultan popularly known as the "Tiger of Mysore", built this palace in
1784 and ruled Mysore from here for a short time after his fatherHyder
Ali wrested power from the Wodeyars in the middle of the 18th century.
The palace is built in the Indo-Sarcenic style in mostly made of
teakwood. The palace has a rectangular plan and is built on a raised
platform. There are open corridors along the four sides of the
platform with wooden pillars at the edges of the Plinth. The western
and eastern wings have walls the other two wings have recessed bays
with pillars supporting the roof. The four staircases are
inconspicuous, built in the four partition walls that divide the
audience hall into four rooms at four corners with a central hall
connecting the eastern andwestern corridors. The most stunning feature
of the palace is that all the space available on the walls, pillars,
canopies and arches have colorful frescoes. The outer walls ofthe
palace have frescoes of the battle scenes and portraits. The inner
walls are decorated with scrolls of thin foliage and floral patterns.
The wooden ceilings of the palace are pasted with canvas paintedwith
floral patterns.
On the western wall are painting that depict the celebrated victory
achievedby Haider Ali and Tippu Sultan over the English lead by Col.
Bailee in the battle of Pollilur near Kanchipuram in 1780. The panels
on the left wing depict the armies led by Haider Ali and Tippu Sultan
going to battle and on the right wing Col. Bailee is shown seated in a
palanquin troubled, with the English army surrounding him, besieged by
the army of Tippu Sultan.
There is a painting at the extreme top right, of French soldiers led
by Lally,who are looking through a telescope. The top panels shows the
Nizam of Hyderabad and his army of horsemen and elephants arriving a
little too late to help his allies, the English. The eastern wall has
paintings in five rows representing the scenes of Darbars of different
contemporaries of Tippu Sultan including the Hindu Rani of Chitor, the
Raja of Tanjore, the Raja Benares, Balaji Rao II Peshwa, Magadi
Kepegowda and Madakari Nayaka of Chitradurga and Krishnaraja Wodeyar
II.
On the top floor of the Daria Daulat Palace is the Tippu Sultan
Museum. It has a collection of Tippu memorabilia, European paintings
and Persian manuscripts. The museum has the famous painting"Storming
of Srirangapattanam" an oil painting by Sir Robert Ker Porter made in
1800. This historical painting depicts the final fall of
Srirangapatana on 4th May 1799. Tippu's men are seengiving stiff
resistance to the British army and many British officers are clearly
visible in the painting. In background behind the fortwalls are seen
parts of the Palace and the minarets of the mosque. Close by is
Tippu's fort that lies in ruins now. It is in this fort that Tippu
died fighting the British. In the fort are the Jama Masjid and the
Ranganathaswamy Temple. Tippu's Palace the Lal Mahal lies in ruins
nearby. Outside the fort is the Gumbaz that contains Tippu's tomb, his
father Haider Ali's tomb and his mother's tomb
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