R E D Is C O V E R in G T Ip U

Susan Stronge REDISCOVERING TIPU SULTAN’S TREASURY TREASURY Few stories in the annals of British involvement in India are as dramatic as their storming of the citadel of the mier of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, in 1799. The legacy of the event as preserved in the arts of British India, and even more so in those of Britain itself, is very marked. Western artists in India produced paintings and drawings of the key sites in the campaign, the monuments and fortifications of the region, and portraits of its leading characters, reproductions of which were disseminated widely in Britain as engravings.1 At home, artists used their imagination to depict the discovery of the body of Tipu Sultan in the immediate aftermath of the siege, and the siege itself was SULTAN'S re-enacted in London as an entertainment by Astley’s, the precursor of the modern circus.2 A huge panorama of the Siege of Seringapatam was created by the young Scottish artist Robert Ker Porter in 1800, its details taken Trom the most authentic and correct Information relative to the Scenery of the Place, the Costume of the Soldiery, and the various Circumstances of the TIPU Attack.’ It was exhibited in London to enthusiastic crowds.3 Yet these events, which produced such a range of artistic responses from the side of the victors, were responsible for the almost complete obliteration of evidence of the ruler’s own much more varied artistic patronage during his brief reign, which had begun in 1782. Over the last decades, scholars have systematically tracked down material dispersed from the royal treasury at Tipu Sultan’s Capital known to him as Srirangapatan, or simply ‘Patan’, and to the British as Seringapatam, but discoveries are still to be made.4 One such is a pair of finials in the Victoria and Albert Museum made of heavily cast silver, thickly gilded and with chased decoration (fig. 1). Never previously associated with Tipu Sultan, their distinctive form and ornamentation leave no doubt as to their provenance, as will be seen. Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan was the son of a Muslim military adventurer, Haidar Ali, whose outstanding talents soon made him indispensable to the Hindu mier of REDISCOVERING Mysore, a kingdom that had been independent since its foundation in 1578, in the wake of the disintegration of the great Vijayanagar empire. Haidar was one of the first military commanders in the subcontinent to employ Europeans to serve in his army and, more crucially, experts who brought the latest, very advanced, Western weapons technology and techniques of army discipline. In the confused political conditions of the mid-18th century, when regional boundaries and alliances were constantly changing due to the disintegration of the Mughal empire, military engagements were frequent and the opportunities to expand, or lose, territory were many. When Haidar Ali successfully led the Mysore army to repel an attack by the Marathas in 1758, he was regarded as the saviour of the state and by 1761 had become mier in all but name.5 151 Figure i Pair of finials, silver, cast and gilt with chased decoration, Victoria and Albert Museum, IPN 2599 &A. Courtesy of the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum When Tipu Sultan was born, Haidar Ali ensured that he was given the Standard education of a Muslim prince in India at the time, meaning that he was necessarily familiar with Arabic, but also read the classics of Persian literature; in addition, he was proficient in Urdu and Kannada. Tipu Sultan’s literary interests were reflected in the contents of his library, which also contained some of his own compositions.6 As soon as he was old enough, he began to join his father on the battlefield, increasing his military prowess until he was able to take command of particular campaigns himself. Together they extended Mysore’s borders. This made conflict with the British East India Company at the time almost inevitable, given the expansionist tendencies of the Company, their awareness that the increasing stability and wealth of Mysore would threaten their own interests in the subcontinent, and the presence of the French - their arch-enemy - in the Mysore army. Anglo-Mysore wars Four wars took place between Mysore and the British between 1766 and 1799. The first ended in 1769 with Haidar dictating peace terms to the British forces near their settlement of Fort St George, Madras. A second conflict took place in 1780, ending in 1784 after enormous losses on both sides, and the capture by the Mysore army of British officers. Some would survive their years of captivity to publish reminiscences of the misery of life in captivity. Haidar Ali had died during this conflict, at the end of 1782, and Tipu Sultan was nominated his legitimate successor. He took formal power, though acknowledging the nominal supremacy of the almost powerless Mughal emperor, as other regional miers also did. A third conflict with the British under the command of Lord Cornwallis ended in disaster for Tipu Sultan in 1792, when he was forced to make peace and cede half of his kingdom to the British, while handing over two of his small sons as hostages to ensure that he kept to his part of the agreement. The final phase began in 1798 with the arrival of Lord Mornington as the new Governor-General. His expansionist aims for his country's presence in the.

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