Tipu Sultan

"To Sheikh Kuttub dated 1st December 1788. I am happy finding the report you have sent. Whoever has come in your hands, all above age of twenty should be hung on trees. If they hide in nooks and corners and forests, to find them out, instruct Dilkhan to split his force in to three."

"To Siyad Abdulla, Dated 18th January 1790. With the grace of God and help from Muhammad, we have almost entirely converted the non-believers. A few are remaining in areas near to Kochi. I have decided to make them too Mohammadans. I have considered this as a religious war."

"Tipu Sultan is probably the Muhammadan monarch who most systematically engaged in the work of forcible conversion.... early in 1789 Tipu Sultan prepared to enforce his proclamation (for conversion of Hindus) with an army of more than twenty thousand men.... Thousands of Hindus were accordingly circumcised and made to eat beef... most of the Brahmans and Nayars who had been forcibly converted subsequently disowned their new religion."

"Tipu was not happy with the social conditions of the day. There was wide disparity between different castes. The rigidity of the caste system was intensely high at the time. As far as land relations were concerned, the jagirdari system was prevalent. In Kerala, for example, there were communities where women did not cover the upper part of their bodies. Tipu was concerned about the inequalities in society. Tipu was in contact with the French during the time of the French Revolution. He was aware of events in Europe and was attracted to the maxims of the revolution, which called for equal rights for everyone in the world: liberty, equality and fraternity. He referred to himself as “Citizen Tipu” and saw himself as a revolutionist. In Srirangapatnam, he had a club consisting of 59 French soldiers and himself. In this club, everyone was equal, including the king. Through his friends among the French, he was aware of social movements in Europe. He was influenced by three European movements: Renaissance [Italy], Reformation [Germany] and Revolution [France]. He wanted to blend the salient features of these movements in his reign. Tipu was aware of the role of the French in the American War of Independence [1775-1783]. The French offered crucial support to the Americans. They went to America, fought the war for American independence and came back. Likewise, Tipu was under the assumption that Napoleon would drive the British out of India and go back. That did not happen. That was the reason for his embassy to Louis XVI in 1787 and the invitation to Napoleon in 1798. Tipu Sultan was the first Indian ruler to envisage state control of trade and industry. He established manufacturing and trade centres in several parts of his kingdom and also in Muscat, Jeddah, Basrah and Pegu. Tipu Sultan conceptualised a system of state capitalism that was far ahead of his times. Mysore silk, which has become a recognised industry in Karnataka, had its roots in Tipu’s success in introducing sericulture. Tipu’s army also had iron-cased rockets that were far more advanced than what the East India Company was equipped with at the time. He is also credited with forming a navy with the intention of fighting sea battles as opposed to the merchant navies that other rulers had. He undertook a series of reforms such as the abolition of the jagirdari system. The English saw Tipu as an impediment to their plans of conquering India. The early British sources on Tipu were the ones written by soldiers who had been imprisoned by him during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. This formed the basis for prejudiced accounts of Tipu’s reign that cast him as a despot. There was a constant campaign against Tipu by the English. No one in India had humiliated and dictated terms to the English as Tipu and Hyder had done. The intensity and hostility had gone to such a level that the English regretted that their language was not copious enough to find sufficient epithets to condemn him with."

"From the foregoing it is quite evident that Tipu vouched a decided hatred against the Christians only after the siege of Bangalore because they rendered both active and pecuniary help to the English who were his enemies, and this infuriated Tipu to such an extent that in his frenzy he resorted to savage Persecution and forcible conversion of the Kanara Christian, to be Mohammedan religion and he makes use of religious pretext to justify their captivity at Seringapatna in 1784."

"Major Allan, who knew the Sultan at firsthand, observed, It is impossible that Tippoo could have been loved by his people. The Musselmen [Musalmans] certainly looked up to him as the head of their faith; by them, perhaps, his death is regretted but they could not have been attached to him, by affection. (cited in Rao, 1948, p. 1025).... Major Alexander Allan (1764-1820) reports on Tipu’s murdering the European captives on April 28, 1799, the very day he was negotiating with Lieutenant-General Harris for peace terms. “Of the real character of this Prince,” Allan writes, we hitherto have been ignorant! But now it will be placed in its true light. That he was suspicious, vindictive, cruel and hurried away by the sadder impulse of passion, to which he was subjected even without any apparent provocation, is certain and probably it will be found that he was more deficient in military talents, and others as essential to govern an extensive kingdom than has been generally imagined. (cited in Rao, 1948, Vol. 3, p. 1025)"

"It is difficult to pinpoint the areas worked during 1400.,..-1800.but there is ample evidence that active mining for reef gold was going in many of the gold fields of southern India. such as Bellara, Kabligatti, Wynad and elsewhere, during the reign of Vijayanagar Kings (1336-1560) and later during the regime ofTipu Sultan."

"The most charitable assessment of Tipu Sultan after a survey of these sources is to call him the tyrant of Mysore. His seventeen-year long regime was primarily a tenure of military and economic terror as far as Hindus were concerned. He razed entire cities literally to the ground and depopulated them.... The intensity of Tipu’s raid was so terrifying that hundreds of temple priests fled to Mangalore along with their families. Worship came to a permanent halt in several temples. Some temples were covered with leaves in order to conceal their presence. The Maletirike Bhagavati temple at Virajpet is a good example of this. Equally, the renowned Omkareshwara temple in Madikeri was about to meet the same fate—the then ruler at Madikeri panicked at the approach of Tipu, removed its tower and replaced it with a dome so that it resembled a mosque from afar. The temple continues to retain this appearance till date."

"When the British defeated Tipu Sultan in 1799, they were astonished by the quality of his cannons. Nearly 927 cannons were captured after the fall of Srirangapatnam in 1799. Out of these, nearly 400 brass cannons were manufactured in Tipu's foundries (one located at Bangalore and two in Seringapatna). His cannons were cast by the 'cast-on' construction in which the inner core was held in position using iron chaplets. Water powered boring machines were used in Tipu's arsenals and this produced perfect finish to his guns ". Although some French technicians were employed by Tipu Sultan, as noted by Francis Buchanan, the foundries of Tipu Sultan were operated by the Indian engineers. Most of the cannons that were captured by the British were melted and reused (i.e. recast) as British cannons. Therefore, we have lost valuable evidences of how the wonderful cannons of Tipu Sultan looked like, but for few surviving models. For example, at the Rotunda museum in Woolwich in England is displayed a wonderful cannon of Tipu Sultan seized during the British capture of Srirangapatnam'. His remarkable cannons reveal iconic tiger motifs (on the muzzle, trunnion ends, cascable and tiger stripes) apart from inscriptions providing the date of manufacture and the engineer responsible for the manufacture of the cannon. Several of Tipu Sultan's cannons are still preserved in the museum at Srirangapatnam and they need to be studied."

"First a corps of 30,000 barbarians who butchered everybody on the way, followed by the Field-Gun Unit under the French Commander, M. Lally. Tipu Sultan was riding on an elephant behind which another army of 30,000 soldiers followed. Most of the men and women were hanged in Calicut. First mothers were hanged with children tied to the necks of their mothers. That barbarian Tipu Sultan tied the naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move about till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces. Temples and Churches were ordered to be burnt, desecrated and destroyed. Christian and Hindu women were forced to marry Muhammadans and similarly their men were forced to marry Muhammadan women. Those Christians who refused to be 'honoured' with Islam, were ordered to be killed by hanging then and there. The above version of the atrocities was obtained from the sorrowful narration by the victims who escaped from Tipu's army and reached Varapuzha (near Alwaye) which is the centre of Carmichael Christian Mission. I myself helped many victims to cross the Varapuzha river by boats."

"During the end of the 18th century the Peshwas continued to purchase cannions from the English, and Tipu Sultan switched over from purchase to manufacture of guns. Buchanan might have thought that the Indians would remain non-violent and docile for ever. Forty-six years later, the Nation which had produced Sivaji and Tipu Sultan, used gunpowder against the British during its first struggle for independence."

"As soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions."

"Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English."

"To show his ardent devotion and steadfast faith in Muhammaddan religion, Tipu Sultan found Kozhikode to be the most suitable place. It was because the Hindus of Malabar refused to reject the matriarchal system, polyandry and half-nakedness of women that the 'great reformer' Tipu Sultan tried to honour the entire population with Islam."

"For thirty years, first Haidar Ali, Tipu’s father, then Tipu himself, had been at the forefront of the British public’s consciousness…. So by the time he died at the hands of General Harris’s troops, as they besieged his island capital in 1799, Tipu Sultan was probably the most famous Indian, if not villain, in the United Kingdom."

"He likewise issued a proclamation, prohibiting all marriages in the kingdom of Mysore until such time as the wedding of his son should take place, being determined to celebrate that day by the consummation of 25,000 marriages at his own charge. To be ignorant of every other feature in the character of this extraordinary man, and to be informed of this circumstance alone, would certainly inspire a high opinion of his munificence, liberality, and philanthropy, but the moment we are told that he tarnished all the glory which accompanied such a splendid act, by a piece of contemptible, fanatical, and tyrannical despotism, compelling 100,000 of his defenceless Hindoo subjects to embrace Mahometism on the same day, our admiration changes into merited detestation. It is his constant and favourite practice to insult and persecute the Hindoos on the score of religion: he has demolished many of their temples and sanctified places of worship, particularly a much-revered pagoda near the bazaar of Seringapatam, where he found, it is asserted, 150,000 coined pagodas, buried under the stone out of which the oval was hewn. He frequently orders calves to be brought before the doors of their temples, and sheds the sacred blood under the very nose of the offended deity. Such as are acquainted with the enthusiastic attachment of the Hindoos to their ancient religion and its rites, and their veneration for both, will guess at the extreme horror with which such frightful sacrileges must fill them, and will easily be persuaded that Tippoo, as I have once observed, is detested by the majority of his subjects..."

"In the Tamil land and in Malabar, he earned the sobriquet of “a Brahman-killer and a despoiler of south Indian temples”."

"[Lewin Bowring mentions a “remarkable proclamation” that Tipu issued in 1786, ]…calling upon all true believers to ‘extract the cotton of negligence from the ears of their understanding,’ and, quitting the territories of apostates and unbelievers, to take refuge in his dominions, where, by the Divine blessing, they would be better provided for than before, and their lives, honour, and property remain under the protection of God,” and that he had resolved that the “worthless and stiff-necked infidels, who had turned aside their heads from obedience to the true faith, and openly raised the standard of unbelief, should be chastised by the hands of the faithful, and made either to acknowledge the true religion or to pay tribute. As, owing to the imbecility of the princes of Hind, that insolent race (presumably the English) had conceived the futile opinion that true believers had become weak, mean, and contemptible, and had overrun and laid waste the territories of Musalmans, extending the hand of violence and injustice on the property and honour of the faithful, he had resolved to prosecute a holy war against them."

"Tipu…had no compunction in cutting [the prisoners’] throats, or strangling and poisoning them; while…numbers of them were sent to die of malaria and starvation on the fatal mountain of Kabaldrug [Kabbaladurga]. The English prisoners were specially selected as victims of his vengeance, not omitting officers of rank such as General Matthews; while, in direct contravention of the treaty made at Mangalore in 1784, he did not scruple to retain in captivity considerable numbers of Europeans. Many of these, particularly young and good-looking boys, were forcibly circumcised, married haphazard to girls who had been captured in the Coromandel districts, and drafted into the ranks of the army, or compelled to sing and dance for the amusement of the sovereign... those who conspired against him were put in a cage… [and] were allowed half a pound of rice a day, with salt, but no water, so they soon expired under this frightful ordeal.. There were other punishments nearly equally dreadful, such as making men bestride a wooden horse on a saddle studded with sharp spikes. On a spring being touched the horse of torture reared, and the spikes penetrated the unfortunate wretches. A more common mode of punishment was to bind tightly the hands and feet of condemned men, and then to attach them by a rope to the foot of an elephant, which, being urged forwards, dragged them after it on the rough ground, and painfully terminated their existence. Some again were ruthlessly thrown into the dens of tigers to be devoured."

"Many of them are from Hindustan Proper, and many are daughters of Brahmans or Hindu Princes, taken by force from their parents. They have all been shut up in the zenana when they were young; and have been carefully brought up to a zealous belief in the religion of Mahomet. I have sufficient reason to think that none of them are desirous of leaving their confinement; being wholly ignorant of any other manner of living, and having no acquaintance whatever beyond the walls of their prison."

"‘He [Tipu] rivalled Mahmud of Ghazni, Nadir Shah, and Ala-ud-din the Pathan Emperor of Delhi surnamed the Khuni or the Bloody, all of whom were famous for the number of infidels slaughtered by their orders. For this very zeal for the faith, notwithstanding the cruelties which attended his persecutions, the name of Tipu Sultan was long held in reverence by his co-religionists in Southern India—a proof how readily crimes that cry to Heaven are condoned when the perpetrator of them is supposed to have been animated by a sincere desire to propagate the faith which he professed.’"

"Therefore we have to conclude that he did not necessarily make use of the rebellions as lame excuses for expansion of Islam or Hindu persecution and that the only instance of conversion of the Malabar Hindus was due to other than religious reasons."

"[Colonel Fullerton was serving in the British army, which was rendering assistance to the Rajas of the Malabar and petty chieftains in Tamil Nadu. Some of his observations and experiences have been recorded in Colonel Castell’s History of India. Colonel Fullerton’s report to his superiors with respect to his unit’s battle with Tipu is very revealing. ]7There a very steep fort at a town near Coimbatore. Near it was a Shiva temple made entirely of black stone. Tipu fell upon this temple which contained beautiful Hindu sculptures, destroyed it completely, and looted all the gold, ornaments, and valuables in it... Fullerton continues: This temple was extremely sacred to the Hindus. Tipu had despoiled this temple so badly that it had greatly enraged the Hindus. Until then, nobody had done an iota of harm to the temple."

"According to Dhanagare: Tipu Sultan, who was both more ruthless and more ambitious than his father, Hyder Ali, resumed the invasion of Malabar in the 1780s, persecuting and forcibly converting the Hindus. Moplahs seized this opportunity to further their economic interests, as well as improve their numerical strength."

"Mussulmans were exempted from paying the housetax and taxes on grain and other goods meant for their personal use and not for trade. Christians were seized and deported to the capital, and their property confiscated. Converts to Islam were given concessions such as exemption from taxes...[Tipu] removed Hindus from all administrative posts and replaced them with Mussulmans with the exception of Diwan Purnaiah..."

"[M.H. Gopal’s excellent Tipu Sultan’s Mysore: An Economic Study published in 1971 echoes McLeod:] Even in the Revenue Code…Tipu exhibited his communal tendencies. Mussulmans were exempted from paying the house tax, and taxes on grain and other goods meant for their personal use and not for trade. Christians were seized and deported to the capital, and their property confiscated. Converts to Islam were given concessions such as exemption from taxes… If a person who converted to Islam was a peasant, he was entitled to a 50% tax rebate on his agricultural income. He was completely exempt from house tax. Lands seized from various persons as well as Government lands were given to Qazis and other Muslim officers as “Inaam” (gift). Lands were freely gifted away for the purpose of constructing Mosques. On the other hand, lands given to temples and Brahmins were taken back... Another evil which later assumed huge proportions was the appointment of inexperienced people as officers and the lenience with which he sometimes treated them. In 1785 he ordered his Diwan of Bangalore not to take rigid measures to recover the balance due from Mir Futah Ali, the talukdar of Chikkaballapur, but to realise it gradually as the officer “has never before exercised the functions of that office, and…he is…a stranger and inexperienced in business.”"

"Unfortunately, there are no memorials erected anywhere in Kodungallur, or Trichur, or Alwaye to honour Dharma Raja who gave shelter in his state to thousands of Hindus escaping from the Islamic brutalities of the fanatic Tipu Sultan; or Ayyappan Marthanda Pillai who was the architect of the historic Nedumkotta; or Raja Keshavadas under whose direct command a comparatively small army humbled and defeated the invading army of Tipu Sultan; or scores of valiant Hindu soldiers who laid down their lives to protect their country and faith. The most despicable and shameful act of the anti-Hindu secularist government of Kerala since Independence was that instead of honouring the legendary heroes of the land, a memorial in the form of a flagstaff was erected near the historic Trichur Palace to perpetuate the memory of the Islamic bigot Tipu Sultan who was instrumental in the forcible mass circumcision and killing of Hindus, destruction of Hindu temples, and devastation of the Malabar, Trichur, Alwaye and Kodungallur regions."

"Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, had been everyone’s icon. The recent efforts of the Hindu right to project him as a Muslim bigot show that their political stakes in him have changed."

"'Accompanied by an army of 60,000, Tipu Sultan came to Kozhikode in 1788 and razed it to the ground. It is not possible even to describe the brutalities committed by that Islamic barbarian from Mysore.""

"Tipu succeeded to a large kingdom that was bounded in the north by the river Krishna, in the south by the state of Travancore and the district of Tinnevelly [Tirunelveli], in the east by the Eastern Ghats and in the west by the Arabian Sea."

"Tipu proclaimed: "It is our constant object and sincere intention that those worthless and stiffnecked infidels (Hindus) who have turned aside their heads from obedience to the true believers, and openly raised the standard of infidelity should be chastised by the hands of the faithful and made either to acknowledge the true religion or to pay tribute."...He proclaimed that his commanders should serve Islam: "Promoting the prosperity and advantage of the people of Islam and the overthrowing of unrighteous infidels, you will do whatever may be in your power to increase the lustre of the firm religion of Mohammed.... He was out to humuliate the Hindus and glorify Islam: "By the blessings of Allah and the aid of the Prophet, the forces of the accursed, having experienced a signal defeat and chastisement, have turned their faces to flight, and the troops of Islam are victorious over the enemies of the faith. Thus the army of the accursed infidels has been trodden underfoot by the hoofs of the horses of Islam and rendered vile and miserable, while the religion of Mohammed has been thereby made to flourish. You, Sir, will, therefore, apply with all your heart the best means of advancing the religion of Mohammed and of administering to the support of Islam.".... He wrote to Zaman Shah, the king of Afghanistan, that "we should come together in carrying on a holy war against the infidels, and for freeing the region of Hindustan from the contamination of the enemies of our religion (Hindus)"."

"Tipu, after a feeble resistance in the field, retired into Seringapatam, and, when his capital was stormed, died fighting bravely in the breach, 1799. Since the battle of Plassey no event had so greatly impressed the native imagination as the capture of Seringapatam, which won for General Harris a peerage, and for Wellesley an Irish Marquisate. The silk-worm is said to have been introduced into Mysore by Tipu Sultan, and for many years continued to prosper. But recently the Mysore worms have been afflicted by an epidemic."

"'In consequence, the Hindus of Malabar had to suffer the most severe enormities the world had ever known in history' ... "When the second-in-line of Zamorins, Eralppad, refused to cooperate with Tipu Sultan in his military operations against Travancore because of Tipu's crude methods of forcible circumcision and conversion of Hindus to Islam, the enraged Tipu Sultan took a solemn oath to circumcise and convert the Zamorin and his chieftains and Hindu soldiers to Islamic faith.""

"Tipu Sultan died a heroic death fighting the British. He was also a pioneer in the development and use of Mysore rockets in warfare. This technology was later adopted by the Europeans."

"Among the galaxy of heroes and heroines of Indian history the personality of Tipu Sultan will ever shine with a rare lustre. He was the only Indian Ruler who had the courage to challenge the British and had the distinction of dying on the battle field fighting the British and their allies. More than 200 years back Tipu Sultan visualised the birth of a free country. He was inspired by the French Revolution and wanted to put into reality the concepts of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity."

"Tipu's proclamation created universal resentment and the whole country rose in rebellion. Fearing forcible conversion about 30,000 Brahmins alone fled to Travancore. The Kottayam and Kadattanand Rajas sought the English East India Company's protection. Calicut was attacked in November, 1788. Tipu's officers laid hands on the Karanavappad of Manjeri. The Nairs of Calicut and South Malabar headed by Ravi Varma and other princes of the Padinjare Kovilakam turned in despair on their oppressors. Tipu set 6,000 troops under M. Lally to raise the siege, but Ravi Varma could not be driven out of the field. Earlier, in 1789, Tipu himself came down to Malabar via the Tamarasseri Ghat to enforce his proclamation at the point of his sword. General orders were issued to his army that 'every being in the district without distinction should be burned, that they should be traced to their lurking places, and that all means of truth and falsehood, force or fraud should be employed to effect their universal conversion'. The Kadattanad Raja's fortified palace at Kuttipuram was surrounded and 2,000 Nairs, forced to surrender after a resistance of several days, were circumcised and regaled with beef. Several. Rajas and rich land owners fled to Travancore where the Dharma Raja rendered them all help to rehabilitate themselves in their new surroundings. The poor Nairs, however, retreated into the jungles and were relentlessly pursued by Mysorean troops. From their jungle homes the Nairs could engage themselves in a kind of guerrilla warfare against the enemy forces. Hence Tipu organised a regular and systematic Nair hunt with the help of his soldiers. He then proceeded to Cannanore and after celebrating the marriage of his son with the daughter of the Ali Raja, marched along the coast of Chowghat to overawe the native population by a show of his power. From there he retired to Coimbatore after making arrangements for the administrative reorganisation of the province and leaving a permanent army of occupation to frighten the population into passive submission.""

"Oh Shiva! Shiva Lingam (idol) has gone (destroyed) from the temple, and also the Lingam (manliness) from the land:"

"Tipoo knew his will to be a law the propriety of which… would never be questioned or doubted by any of his slaves… He probably measured the sentiments in question by a different standard from that with which we estimate them. Thus the various murders and acts of treachery which we see him directing to be carried into execution, were not criminal, but on the contrary just, and even meritorious, in his eyes."... "The Koran taught him that it was not necessary to keep faith with infidels, or the enemies of the true religion, in which case it was not difficult for him to persuade himself that it was right to include all who opposed or refused to cooperate in his views for the extension of that religion; or, in other words, for his own aggrandisement."

"Lieutenant-Colonel William Kirkpatrick (1756-1813) writes that once the Sultan ordered his brother-in-law Burhanuddin Khan to mount an assault on a region including “every living creature in it, whether man or woman, old or young, child, dog, cat, or any living thing, else, must be put to the sword” (Kirkpatrick, 1811, Letter # 85 dated July 10, 1785, italics in original). Kirkpatrick (1811) writes further, “Colonel Munro [Sir Hector, 1726-1805] assures me, that it is an absolute fact that on one occasion he [Tipu] ordered all the male population of a particular village which had given him offence, to be castrated” (p. 3, translator’s “Observations” on Letter # 1 dated February 17, 1785)."

"[The British Colonel, historian, and scholar, William Kirkpatrick who discovered more than 2000 letters (written in Farsi in Tipu’s own handwriting) at the Srirangapattana fort after Tipu’s death makes a devastating assessment of Tipu’s character and personality:] The importance of these letters…consist[s]…in the vivid illustration which they afford of the genius, talents, and disposition of their extraordinary author, who is here successively and repeatedly delineated, in colors from his own pencil, as the cruel and relentless enemy; the intolerant bigot or furious fanatic; the oppressive and unjust ruler; the harsh and rigid master ; the sanguinary tyrant; the perfidious negotiator; tile frivolous and capricious innovator; the mean and minute economist; the peddling trader; and even the retail shop-keeper…the various murders and acts of treachery, which we see him directing to be carried into execution, were not criminal, but…just, and even meritorious, in his eyes. They might… in a great degree, proceed from a disposition naturally cruel and sanguinary: but, perhaps, an intolerant religious zeal and bigotry were not less active motives to them…the Sultan does not appear to have possessed a sufficient stretch of thought upon any subject…to enable him to discuss it, either with logical force or precision. A consecutive train of argument was a thing of which he nowhere seems to have had an idea… Arrogance and vanity were, undoubtedly, among the most prominent features of the Sultan’s mind."

"…there stood a Hindu temple, the area or space round which was large. The Sultan, therefore, in his infancy being like all children fond of play, and as in that space boys of Kinhiri Brahmin castes assembled to amuse themselves, was accustomed to quit the house to see them play, or play with them. It happened one day that a Fakir (a religious mendicant) a man of saint-like mind passed that way, and seeing the Sultan gave him a life bestowing benediction, saying to him, 'Fortunate child, at a future time thou will be the king of this country, and whey thy time comes, remember my words-take this temple and destroy it, and build a Masjid in its place, and for ages it will remain a memorial of thee.' The Sultan smiled, and in reply told him, 'that whenever, by his blessing, he should become a Padishah, or king, he would do as he (the Fakir) directed.' When, therefore, after a short time his father became a prince, the possessor of wealth and territory, he remembered his promise, and after his return from Nagar and Gorial Bundar, he purchased the temple from the adorers of the image in it (which after all was nothing but the figure of a bull, made of brick and mortar) with their goodwill, and the Brahmins, therefore, taking away their image, placed it in the Deorhi Peenth, and the temple was pulled down, and the foundations of a new Masjid raised on the site, agreeably to a plan of the Mosque built by Ali Adil Shah, at Bijapur, and brought thence."

"Kirmani writes: [The Fakir said:] ‘Fortunate child, at a future time thou wilt be the king of this country, and when time comes, remember my words: take this temple and destroy it, and build a Musjid in its place, and for ages it will remain a memorial of thee.’ The Sultan smiled and in reply told him, ‘That whenever, by his blessing, he should become a Padishah, or king, he would do as he [the fakir] directed.’ When, therefore, after a short time his father became a prince, the possessor of wealth and territory, he remembered his promise, and after his return from the Nuggur and Gorial Bunder [Mangalore], he purchased the temple from the adorers of the image in it (which after all was nothing but the figure of a bull, made of brick and mortar) and with their goodwill and the Brahmins, therefore taking away their image, placed it in the Deorai Peenth [Gunjam gate], and the temple was pulled down, and the foundations of a new Musjid raised on the site, agreeably to a plan of the mosque, built by Ali Adil Shah, at Beejapoor, and brought from thence."

"Mir Hussein Kirmani (1980) points out that “the Sultan had a great aversion to . . . Hindus and other tribes,” built a mosque in every town, and appointed a muezzin, a moula, and a kazi to each (pp. 154-155)"

"Tipu’s biographer, Kirmani, gloats about how Tipu ‘appointed a detachment of his troops to ravage the country [Malabar] of his enemies, and they accordingly lighted up the fire of oppression in all the towns and villages in that neighbourhood.’35 In an almost poetic flourish, Kirmani exults: When they marched into that country, they committed many cruel acts, they lighted up such a fire of plunder, that at once they burned up everything it contained. From the hoofs of their horses, the mountains and plains were all trodden to dust, and even the rocks, trees and stones, deep sighs arose and wailing. After the whole country had been swept by the bosom of devastation, and when a host of the refractory and rebellious has been carried away by the whirlwind of desolation, those who remained being subdued, placed the ring of servitude in their ear of their lives [the ear-ring that they were made to wear after circumcision and conversion], and with their hands tied together submitted."

"As the Sultan had a great aversion to Brahmuns [sic], Hindus and other tribes, he did not consider any but the people of Islam his friends, and therefore, on all accounts his chief object was to promote and provide for them. He accordingly selected a number of Mussulmans who could scarcely read and write, and appointed them Mirzas of the treasury departments and placed one over each of the other accountants to the end that the accounts might be submitted by them to him in the Persian language, and in the extent of his dominions, in every Purgana by his orders was placed an Asof [Magistrate] and in the towns yielding a revenue of five thousands . . . pagodas, one Amil (collector), one Serishtadar, one Ameen and one Mujmoodar, all Mussulmans."

"The Lahore Staff College publication on Tipu recounts his official edict to destroy Hindu temples in his dominions as follows:He [Tipu] issued an edict for the destruction of all the Hindu temples in his dominions excepting those of Srirangapattana and Melukote…he resolved to destroy every monument of the former Government to which end he caused the ancient fort and city of Mysore to be razed, and removed the stones of the temples and palace to a neighboring hill where he laid the foundation of a new fort which he named Nuzerbad. But in the furiousness of his wrath, he spared not the works of the greatest public utility, in the destruction of the celebrated reservoir of Yadavi Nudi because it recorded the wisdom, riches and power of the ancient Hindu sovereigns. (Emphasis added)"

"Tippu’s soldiers, therefore daily exposed the heads of many Brahmans in sight of the fort. It is asserted that the Zamorin, rather than witness such enormities (and to avoid further killing of innocent Brahmins), chose to abandon Palghautcherry (Palghat Fort)."

"It had been confirmed from Calicut that "200 Brahmans had been seized and confined, made Mussulmen, and forced to eat beef and other things contrary to their caste.""

"It was at Kuttippuram, the head-quarters of the Kadattanad family, that this force surrounded 2,000 Nayars with their families in an old fort which they defended for several days. At last finding it untenable they submitted to Tippu’s terms which were “a voluntary profession of the Muhammadan faith, or a forcible conversion with deportation from their native land. The unhappy captives gave a forced assent, and on the next day the rite of circumcision was performed on all the males, every individual of both sexes being compelled to close the ceremony by eating beef.”"

"The noon-tide came with baleful light, The Sultan’s corpse in silence lay; His kingdom, like a dream of night, In silence vanish’d quite away. [...] In Vishnu’s lotus-foot alone Confide! His power shall ne’er decay, When tumbles every earthly throne, And mortal glory fades away."