83 Facts About Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan, commonly referred to as the Tiger of Mysore, was the Indian Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India.

Tipu Sultan introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including a new coinage system and calendar, and a new land revenue system, which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry.

Tipu Sultan expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin.

Tipu Sultan deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of Pollilur and Siege of Srirangapatna.

Tipu's father, Hyder Ali, had risen to power and Tipu succeeded him as the ruler of Mysore upon his death from cancer in 1782.

Tipu Sultan won important victories against the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

Tipu Sultan negotiated the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore with them, ending the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

The treaty required that Tipu Sultan pay 4.8 million rupees as a one-time war cost to the Marathas, and an annual tribute of 1.2 million rupees, in addition to returning all the territory captured by Hyder Ali.

Tipu Sultan sent emissaries to foreign states, including the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and France, in an attempt to rally opposition to the British.

Tipu Sultan was named "Tipu Sultan" after the saint Tipu Mastan Aulia of Arcot.

Tipu Sultan was his father's right arm in the wars from which Hyder emerged as the most powerful ruler of southern India.

Tipu Sultan's father, Hyder Ali, was a military officer in service to the Kingdom of Mysore who had become the de facto ruler of Mysore in 1761 while his mother Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa was the daughter of Mir Muin-ud-Din, the governor of the fort of Kadapa.

Tipu Sultan was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employment of his father.

Tipu Sultan commanded a corps of cavalry in the invasion of Carnatic in 1767 at age 16.

In 1779, the British captured the French-controlled port of Mahe, which Tipu Sultan had placed under his protection, providing some troops for its defence.

Tipu Sultan seized all the guns and took the entire detachment prisoner.

Tipu Sultan realised that the British were a new kind of threat in India.

Tipu Sultan then worked on to check the advances of the British by making alliances with the Marathas and the Mughals.

In 1780, Tipu Sultan crowned himself Badshah or Emperor of Mysore, and struck coinage.

In 1767 Maratha Peshwa Madhavrao defeated both Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and entered Srirangapatna, the capital of Mysore.

However Tipu Sultan wanted to escape from the treaty of Marathas and therefore tried to take some Maratha forts in Southern India, which were captured by Marathas in the previous war.

Tipu Sultan stopped the tribute to Marathas which was promised by Hyder Ali.

Tipu Sultan would pay an annual tribute of 12 lakhs, for an agreed period of 4 years to the Marathas.

In return, Tipu Sultan would get all the region that he had captured during the war.

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.

Tipu Sultan came from Mysore to reinstate the authority over Malabar.

In 1789, Tipu Sultan disputed the acquisition by Dharma Raja of Travancore of two Dutch-held fortresses in Cochin.

Tipu Sultan counter-attacked, regaining much of the territory, although the British continued to hold Coimbatore itself.

Tipu Sultan then descended into the Carnatic, eventually reaching Pondicherry, where he attempted without success to draw the French into the conflict.

Tipu Sultan harassed the British supply and communication and embarked on a "scorched earth" policy of denying local resources to the British.

The allied army was well-supplied, and Tipu Sultan was unable to prevent the junction of forces from Bangalore and Bombay before Srirangapatna.

Tipu Sultan paid the amount in two instalments and got back his sons from Madras.

In 1794, with the support of French Republican officers, Tipu Sultan allegedly helped found the Jacobin Club of Mysore for 'framing laws comfortable with the laws of the Republic'.

Tipu Sultan planted a Liberty Tree and declared himself Citizen Tipoo.

The death of Tipu Sultan led British General Harris to exclaim "now india is ours".

Tipu Sultan was buried the next afternoon at the Gumaz, next to the grave of his father.

The death of Tipu Sultan was celebrated with declaration of public holiday in Britain.

Tipu Sultan introduced a new calendar, new coinage, and seven new government departments, during his reign, and made military innovations in the use of rocketry.

Tipu Sultan managed to subdue all the petty kingdoms in the south.

Tipu Sultan was one of the few Indian rulers to have defeated British armies.

Tipu Sultan's father had expanded on Mysore's use of rocketry, making critical innovations in the rockets themselves and the military logistics of their use.

Tipu Sultan deployed as many as 1,200 specialised troops in his army to operate rocket launchers.

Tipu Sultan greatly expanded the use of rockets after Hyder's death, deploying as many as 5,000 rocketeers at a time.

In 1786 Tipu Sultan, again following the lead of his father, decided to build a navy consisting of 20 battleships of 72 cannons and 20 frigates of 65 cannons.

Tipu Sultan ordered that the ships have copper-bottoms, an idea that increased the longevity of the ships and was introduced to Tipu by Admiral Suffren.

Tipu Sultan laid the foundation for the construction of the Kannambadi dam on the Kaveri river, as attested by an extant stone plaque bearing his name, but was unable to begin the construction.

Tipu Sultan sent an expert to Bengal Subah to study silk cultivation and processing, after which Mysore began developing polyvoltine silk.

Tipu Sultan was considered as pioneer of road construction, especially in Malabar, as part of his campaigns, he connected most of the cities by roads.

Immediately after his coronation as Badshah, Tipu Sultan sought the investiture of the Mughal emperor.

Tipu Sultan earned the title "Nasib-ud-Daula" with the heavy heart of those loyal to Shah Alam II.

Disheartened, Tipu Sultan began to establish contacts with other Muslim rulers of that period.

Tipu Sultan was the master of his own diplomacy with foreign nations, in his quest to rid India of the East India Company and to ensure the international strength of France.

In 1787, Tipu Sultan sent an embassy to the Ottoman capital Constantinople, to the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid I requesting urgent assistance against the British East India Company.

Tipu Sultan requested the Ottoman Sultan to send him troops and military experts.

Furthermore, Tipu Sultan requested permission from the Ottomans to contribute to the maintenance of the Islamic shrines in Mecca, Medina, Najaf and Karbala.

Tipu Sultan maintained correspondence with Hamad bin Said, the ruler of the Sultanate of Oman.

Tipu Sultan was said to be enchanted by the item to such an extent that he resolved to introduce its production in his kingdom.

Tipu Sultan sent a return journey to China, which returned after twelve years.

Tipu Sultan appointed judges from both communities for Hindu and Muslim subjects.

Tipu Sultan passed a decree for all women to cover their breasts, which was not practised in Kerala in the previous era.

Tipu Sultan's treasurer was Krishna Rao, Shamaiya Iyengar was his Minister of Post and Police, his brother Ranga Iyengar was an officer, and Purnaiya held the very important post of "Mir Asaf".

Between 1782 and 1799 Tipu Sultan issued 34 "Sanads" of endowment to temples in his domain, while presenting many of them with gifts of silver and gold plate.

Tipu Sultan gave a greenish linga; to Ranganatha temple at Srirangapatna, he donated seven silver cups and a silver camphor burner.

Tipu Sultan expressed his indignation and grief at the news of the raid:.

Tipu Sultan immediately ordered the Asaf of Bednur to supply the Swami with 200 rahatis in cash and other gifts and articles.

Tipu Sultan presented four silver cups to the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale.

Tipu Sultan does seem to have repossessed unauthorised grants of land made to Brahmins and temples, but those which had proper sanads were not.

Tipu Sultan got Runmust Khan, the Nawab of Kurnool, to launch a surprise attack upon the Kodavas who were besieged by the invading Muslim army.

The coinage of Tipu Sultan is one of the most complex and fascinating series struck in India during the 18th century.

Tipu Sultan introduced a set of new Persian names for the various denominations, which appear on all of the gold and silver coins and on some of the copper.

At the beginning of his first year, Tipu Sultan abandoned the Hijri dating system and introduced the Mauludi system, based on the solar year and the birth year of Muhammad.

Tipu Sultan was a pioneer in the development and use of Mysore rockets in warfare.

Tipu Sultan patronised art forms such as Ganjifa cards, effectively saving this art form.

Tipu Sultan had lost his sword in a war with the Nairs of Travancore during the Battle of the Nedumkotta, in which he was forced to withdraw due to the severe joint attack from the Travancore army and British army.

Tipu Sultan was commonly known as the Tiger of Mysore and adopted this animal as the symbol of his rule.

Tipu Sultan's gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him.

Tipu Sultan reached for the dagger, picked it up, and killed the tiger with it.

Tipu Sultan even had French engineers build a mechanical tiger for his palace.

The device, known as Tipu Sultan's Tiger, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

In October 2013, another sword owned by Tipu Sultan and decorated with his babri surfaced and was auctioned by Sotheby's.

Tipu Sultan [Tipu] was a king of Mysore and fought against the British [as] a freedom fighter.

One of them, Sindh Sahiba, was quite renowned for her beauty and intelligence and whose grandson was Sahib Sindh Tipu Sultan known as His Highness Shahzada Sayyid walShareef Ahmed Halim-az-Zaman Khan Tipu Sultan Sahib.

Tippu Tipu Sultan used many Western craftsmen, and this gun reflects the most up-to-date technologies of the time.