When the young, still barely 32 years old, Tipu Sultan rose to power in Mysore following the death of his father at the end of 1782, he was probably the most powerful single man in all of India, backed by the formidable Mysorean army, freshly victorious from the Second Anglo-Mysore War, and with ambitious plans for naval and territorial expansion. He was also, unlike his father, the formal king of Mysore, having assumed the Persian title of padisha and sidelined the the Mysorean raja, Chamaraja Wodeyar IX, the boy-king of Mysore, who remained raja but without the fiction of continuing to be in charge. Unlike Hyder Ali, who owed his rise to the Mysorean rajas and carefully respected them, Tipu was not so restrained.
Trying to determine the character of Tipu Sultan is a difficult endeavor, since he was inherently a difficult man to pin down. To start with, European sources on Tipu Sultan could disagree enormously: some insisted that he worked sparsely, devoting much of his day to studying religion, others speak of him working almost constantly, up to 16 hours a day. Beyond these obvious disagreements, there were also obvious tensions in his character, a man who was by all accounts deeply religious and highly Islamic, with his library possessing no fewer than 44 Korans - but also intensely educated in modern science and technology, with the same library also boasting no fewer than 19 books on arts and sciences, 7 on mathematics including a translation of Euclid's Elements, 20 books on astronomy (although given the focus on astrology in the era, there was no contradiction between an interest in astronomy and religion), 62 on physics, 45 on philology, 95 jurisprudence books, 118 on history, in addition to a significant number on ethics, sufism, and theology. His father Hyder Ali having been illiterate, he put great stress upon his son receiving a proper education, and this lust for learning and knowledge never left Tipu.
And so too, although engaged in near-constant war or hostility with the British, he also engaged British mercenaries and used British prisoners of war to translate large numbers of British books into his languages - of which he spoke Persian, Kannada, Arabic, Hindi/Urdu, Tamil, and various other Indian languages. He was an autocrat, but praised the American revolution. He embraced Islamic tradition, but also was intensely curious about European gadgets and machinery, delighted with microscopes, telescopes, and glasses, and wanted to learn about all of the newest European devices.
This was also reflected in his diplomatic interests abroad, within the first few years of him gaining the throne, with outreach to the Ottomans, the French, and the British, all of whom either received or were supposed to receive embassies. His relative degree of friendship was obvious: the embassy to the Ottomans spoke of the unity of Muslims against the infidels, adopted fraternal and adoring tones, and sought closer commercial ties, up to and including a mutual transfer of port concessions with Basra being leased to the Mysoreans and paid for, while the Ottomans would receive their own chosen port in India.
As it turned out, the embassy was something of a disaster: with four ships (the Fakhru'l Marakib, Nabi Bakhsh, Fat'h Shahi Mu'izzi and the galliot, Surati) dispatched and the better part of a thousand men, multiple ships burned down or sank, supply problems led to starvation and all of the elephants died en route, a Mysorean soldiery detachment supposed to demonstrate their martial prowess was refused access by the Ottomans unwilling to accept so many armed men in Istanbul, the trade of ports was rejected point blank, and with the Ottomans anxious for British support against the Russians, the proposed friendship was brushed aside. Tipu also had hoped to import coal, showing his interest in new science, and was under the impression it was common in Arabia, which it was… not. Furthermore attempts at importing Turkish craftsmen and machines ran into the problems that the Turks themselves were dependent upon the Europeans for many of them.
Although less grandiose, the embassy to France was more successful. Some of its plans, such as for a major French army to be sent to Mysore and paid for and commanded by the Mysoreans, were rejected in the context of the impending bankruptcy and outbreak of revolution, as well as inherent command, logistics, and political problems, but the Mysoreans made a good impression, especially with their gift giving of robes and fine Indian clothing to many high members of the French court. Furthermore, the object of importing French craftsmen, especially shipwrights, was genuinely taken positively and resulted in the dispatch of both French arms and skilled advisers. The Mysorean delegation greatly enjoyed their stay in Paris, fascinated by new French technologies, amazed by balloons that were taking to the sky of Paris in demonstrations of the Montgolfier brothers’ inventions, and found ice skating in the fields of La Glacière enchanting, almost ethereal, in what was otherwise a thoroughly horrific winter for the poor men of southern India.
The mission to England was given briefs castigating the British for their anti-Mysorean politics, calling them infidels, tyrants, traitorous, etc. and it’s probably for the best that it never made its way to Britain’s shores.
While Tipu was definitively an autocrat, factions and divergent factions within Mysore of course existed. In addition to the regular petty officials scheming for power and influence, a key element was the royalist faction aiming for a restoration of the Wodeyar dynasty, and led by Maharani Lakshmammanni, dowager queen. Although her formal power in the machinery of the state was minimal, she had started tentative negotiations with the British from as early as 1760, which escalated to a new scale when she sent her pradhan, or chief minister, Tirumala Rao, in 1776 to attempt negotiations with the British following Hyder Ali’s overruling of her preferences to choose his own choice, Chamaraja Wodeyar IX as raja. For such a dangerous mission, especially in Mysore where the paranoid Hyder Ali had an extensive network of informers and spies who gave rise to the line that even the walls and doors had ears, nomadic women playing the dolu drum were recruited as state informers (and occasionally to look out for comely women for Haidar’s harem) and where the Bechina Chavadi department was quite blithely charged with both postage and espionage, she promised him that upon restoration of the legitimate dynasty he would receive the post of diwan or prime minister, and a magnificent salary of a tenth of state revenue. Tirumala Rao functioned effectively as the representative of the Mysorean royal family with the British, although he was forced to flee the Carnatic, where he had previously been in residence at Tanjore, following the defeat of the British and their protected states. She also had contacts with other potential factions that might help with restoring the Wodeyars, particularly the Nizam and the Marathas.
She was not the only legitimist faction in Mysorean territory: there were also the the exiled Nawab of the Carnatic, Muhammad Ali Khan Wallahjah, who had been forced to flee as Mysorean troops approached Madras during the ending stages of the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Setting up court, alongside his family, in Calcutta, he waited in the wings for the possibility to reclaim his rightful kingdom from the Mysoreans as well as the Nizam.
More broadly, although linked to this, was the Sri Vaishnavas, more commonly known as the Mysorean Pradhans, the particular branch of Hinduism which had enjoyed patronage and support by the Wodeyars and which had helped make the Mysorean capital into an important center of learning and culture. Occupying significant parts of the administration, their loyalty to the regime was dubious, but they were indispensable to the smooth functioning of the state. In 1784 however, fresh from a wildly victorious war and with the spoils of the Carnatic to appoint, and any potential opposition to the regime silenced and military opposition crushed, Tipu was secure indeed upon his throne.
If there is one thing that can be agreed upon, it was that Tipu was proud, firm, and capable of decisive swings of opinion, with a fiery and powerful temper. In war, this firmness and force could serve him well: one of his greatest victories came during the First Anglo-Mysore War, when at the Battle of Mangalore in 1768, he had smashed the British army at Mangalore under General Smith, advancing so quickly that the British were completely unaware of his attack, routed the guards, drove the British fleeing before him, and entered Mangalore with the fleeing refugees and captured the entire British army. This had taken the British general, 46 European officers, 680 European soldiers, and 6,000 sepoys. There’s no doubt that Tipu was a dashing cavalry commander and a brilliant leader of men, widely respected by his troops, and he was at his best when he had the chance to actually fight as a battlefield commander and marshal his martial traits.
What marred this image was a streak of fanaticism in him, in terms of character and to some extent religion. This was not complete: his prime minister for example, was Hindu. He also participated in the Hindu festivities of his subjects, and even favored certain Hindu temples, most importantly the Ranganathaswamy temple in Seringapatam. But he routinely forced rebellious subjects to convert to Islam, tore down other temples, and could be a harsh and brutal man. This was duly exaggerated in British propaganda, but there is no doubt that he was utterly intolerant of any dissent, that he could torture foreign prisoners of war (British prisoners of war in the Second Anglo-Mysore War were routinely treated abysmally) and artisans and torture and assassinate dissidents.
If a comparison could be made to any figure, it might be to Louis XIV - a grand, a great man, but whose intolerance and bigotry drove away many of his subjects who would otherwise have been an important pillar of the state, who waged war after costly war, and who maintained the grandeur of the state on an unparalleled scale. As with Tipu this was married with a real love and affection for his troops, with schemes to support veterans and cripples, although Tipu also added when he could generosity for them in pay. If there was no Mysorean Hôtel des Invalides, it was not for want of good intentions.
Tipu was no modern man: there was no interest in education of the masses, there was no tolerance in him, no pluralism. But he was an educated man, highly intelligent, and as an autocrat, he meant to do what was best for his people - as he saw it. And this was combined with a determination to brook no rivals, and an unbreakable will that intended to carry out his plans. Mysore was to have a strong leader, and her history was to be one of grandeur et misère.
