Haidar ali and tipu sultan

TIPU SULTAN

TIPU SULTAN

CHAPTER I

TIPU’S ACCESSION TO THE THRONE

TIPU SULTAN, on the death of his father, now assumed the sovereignty of Mysore. Born in 1753 at Devanhalli, the place where Haidar first distinguished himself, he was named after a Musalman devotee at Arcot, for whom Haidar had a special veneration. His mother, Fakhr-un-Nissa, was a daughter of Mir Moin-ud-din, for some years Governor of Kadapa. When the time of her delivery was nigh, it is said that she paid a visit to the shrine of the holy man, to obtain a blessing, and gave her child the name which he afterwards bore⁵³.

When it became apparent that Haidar’s end was approaching, his ministers, Purnaiya and Krishna Rao, took every precaution to conceal the gravity of his malady from the army. Immediately after his death, express messengers on fleet camels were despatched to apprise Tipu of the event, and to urge his return with all speed, while Haidar’s body, having been embalmed, was forwarded privately to Kolar in a coffin resembling a chest containing valuable spoil. Matters were so well arranged that the secret of the demise was kept for many days, not only from the English, but from his own army, only his most trusty officers being made acquainted with the occurrence. The troops marched westward, Haidar’s closed palankeen being carried with the army as if containing an invalid. If any suspicion were aroused by his not showing himself, no open demonstration of incredulity took place.

Meanwhile Tipu, who received intelligence of his father’s death in the short space of four days, broke up his camp near Panniani, and proceeded by forced marches towards the main army, which had halted on the Pennar river awaiting his arrival and the junction of French troops. His appearance in the camp was hailed with joy, and he at once assumed the control of affairs, having at his disposal at least 90,000 troops, and a vast treasure hoarded at Seringapatam. Had the Madras Government at this juncture adopted energetic measures, it is probable that the defeat of the Mysore army would have ensued. But the veteran Sir Eyre Coote had been compelled by ill health to resign his command, and the Madras authorities, though aware of Haidar’s death and of the difficulty which had arisen owing to the want of a leader for his troops, allowed a month to elapse before they ordered a force to the front to engage the enemy.

CHAPTER II

CAPTURE OF BEDNUR BY GENERAL MATTHEWS –

ITS RECOVERY BY TIPU
WHEN the Bombay Government heard that Colonel Humberstone was threatened in Malabar by Tipu’s army, they despatched General Matthews with a small force to relieve him from his precarious position, and to effect a diversion by seizing the territory held by Mysore on the coast. This expedition had accomplished with success the reduction of Rajamandrug and Honawar⁵⁴ in North Kanara, taking also several of Haidar’s ships, when intelligence of that chief’s death induced the Bombay authorities to send peremptory orders to General Matthews to seize Bednur. Having embarked his small force, Matthews landed at Kundapur, and in three days reached the foot of the Hosangadi Pass. The ascent from this to Haidargarh at the top of the ghat, a distance of about eight miles, is tremendously steep, rough, and stony. Great boulders obstruct progress, with here and there a piece of slippery pavement in the worst parts of the defile. One gigantic rock is called the ‘Ane Jeri,’ from a tradition that an elephant was thence precipitated over the precipice. Modern skill has made this and several others of the old Mysore passes practicable for carts. At the time referred to, although thousands of bullocks yearly traversed it, the natural difficulties were so great, that had it been resolutely defended, Matthews could not possibly have reached the summit. But Colonel Macleod, who had joined him from Panniani, had in his small detachment His Majesty’s 42nd regiment, to whom from early associations hills and rocks were doubtless no serious obstacle. These gallant men, followed by the native troops, carried at the point of the bayonet one breastwork after another with little loss, although some of the batteries were armed with numerous guns, and defended by thousands of the enemy.

Bednur fortress was at this time governed by Shekh Ayaz or Haiyat Sahib, a Nair of Malabar, who had been forcibly converted to Islam, and for whom Haidar had an extraordinary affection on account of his fidelity and trustworthiness. Tipu, however, resenting this partiality, had a personal dislike to him, and had sent orders to supersede him in his post. But before his successor, Lutf Ali Beg, could reach his destination, Ayaz, distrusting his sovereign’s intentions towards him, and despairing of holding his own against the English, surrendered the fort and town of Haidarnagar to Matthews.

It is not clear what advantage the Bombay Government expected to gain by the temporary occupation of a district so far removed from any support, and in the heart of an inaccessible country. To Tipu it was of supreme importance to recover possession of it before reinforcements could be forwarded to the English general. He accordingly assembled a considerable army, and, dividing his troops into two columns, despatched one of them to cut off all communication with the coast, and with the other invested the town of Haidarnagar. In the meantime, Shekh Ayaz had fled with an immense treasure, and succeeded in making his way to Bombay. The English troops, being only 1,600 in number, of whom 400 were Europeans, were totally insufficient to defend the extensive fortifications, erected at different places in the heavy jungles which surrounded the town. Indeed Tipu experienced little difficulty in forcing the positions they held, and compelling the garrison in the fort to surrender. He had the mortification, however, to find the treasury empty. So irritated was he at this unexpected result that, although Matthews had capitulated on condition that his troops should be permitted to withdraw unmolested to the coast, the conqueror placed him, with many other officers and men, in irons, and sent the party to Seringapatam where it is said Matthews was constrained by starvation to eat poisoned food, of which he died⁵⁵. It was asserted that Tipu was partly urged to commit this breach of faith owing to a detachment of Matthews’ force having cruelly put to death the inhabitants of Anantpur, an outlying town in the Bednur territory. But Wilks, who had ample means of ascertaining the real facts, declares in his history that the allegation was entirely devoid of truth.