The Tiger of Mysore

You look at your watch or i suppose your phone, and do you see that you have a few hours before you're scheduled to meet a friend in a pub where you'll sit by a fireplace drinking mold wine, and so to kill the time before your perfect English evening, and to lessen the chill just starting in your toes, you dip through the beautiful ornate stone entrance way to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Cromwell Road. The Vienna Museum has an eclectic but gorgeous permanent collection, showcasing objects

from across centuries. One exhibit has theatrical costumes from decades of shows. There are robes in McLellan ware performing Shakespeare. An original puppet from the London production of war Horse. One room is dedicated exclusively to cartoons or designs for tapestries from the Renaissance master Raphael, but a slightly less

showy room. If you turned left walking through the main hallway would bring you to room forty one, in which the museum houses its artifacts from South Asia, and in which you'd see what is, in my estimation, one of the most interesting single objects on display in the entire museum. In the center of room forty one, behind a protective glass wall, stands in artifa act called Tippoo's Tiger. It's a carved wooden tiger from the seventeen hundreds, almost life sized,

nearly six ft long. The tiger is beautifully painted with patterned stripes in black and gold that look almost like Paisley. A hidden compartment on the side of the tiger reveals a small organ that's still playable with keys. Beneath the tiger is a second wooden figure. It's a man being mauled to death by the tiger. If you turn a crank on the figure, the man's arms move and he makes dying moans. He's identified by the museum as a European, but the intent was almost certainly that he was British.

The automatone tiger was one of the prized possessions of the Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysor at the end of the eighteenth century. Tippoo Sultan, who fought against the encroaching power of the British East India Company during a series of Anglo Mysore Wars. Tippoo was one of the few Indian leaders to achieve decisive victories in battles against the British, and he became known as the Tiger of Mysore. His emblems were all tiger themed and stripes decorated many

of his weapons and banners. That the wooden tiger, formerly belonging to the Tiger of Mysoor, now sits behind glass in a British museum, feet away from where they sell tea and SCons for a genteel picnic in the museum's courtyard seems to me something a little beyond irony, a metaphor for the impact of imperialism disguised behind civility and well maintained museum facilities. But before you begin raising the banner for Tippoo Sultan, he was also a complicated figure

whose own legacy is currently be debated. In the present day Indian state of Carnatica. It would be easy to saunter through the Victoria and Albert Museum, note the interesting centuries old autonomouton, and continue walking along without fully understanding who the man was who had had the strange mechanical animal built. Neither fully hero nor fully villain. Tippoo Sultan is one of history's most enigmatic military leaders, the prince of a dying nation who roared before his ultimate defeat.

I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Tippoo Sultan was born on the first of December in seventeen fifty one, just six years before the East India Company would begin its company rule in India on behalf of the British Empire. He was born in Devon Holly, which is located to the north of present day Bangalore. He was the eldest son and ostensible heir to a man named hyder Ali.

Though hyder Ali was a Muslim in a predominantly Hindu population, he rose to his position as the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysor through his incredible tactical victories, ultimately through his military prowess, he overthrew the kingdom's Hindu

leadership and became the sultan himself. Hyder was illiterate, and so it was important to him that his son and heir be given a princely education, first so that Tippoo would be able to eventually lead the Kingdom of Mysore confidently, but also so that he would be able to communicate effectively with the European allies, whose help he would need

to push back the encroaching British powers. So from a young age, Tippoo was taught not just how to read, but also everything there was to know about military history and political strategy. By the time Tippoo was seventeen, his father trusted him with actual power. Tippoo became his father's right hand man, learning on the job about ruling and

expanding kingdom and about fighting enemies domestic and foreign. Tippoo led forces into battle against the British during the conflict that's now known as the Second Anglo Mysore War, which began in seventeen eighty. It was during that conflict, when Tippoo was thirty one years old, that his father died, and so Tippoo became the Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore. There would ultimately be four Anglo Miso Wars within a period of a few decades. At the end of the

seventeen hundreds. The second would be Tippoo's most resounding victory. Aided by French allies, Tippoo successfully invaded and raided a camp held by British powers, ultimately ending the conflict with a treaty that seated no land to the British. During the Battle of paul Lore in seventy Tippoo shocked the East India Company by using rockets against them that were

more advanced than the British had ever seen. Now, I am quite literally not a rocket scientist, but my understanding is that in Layman's terms, these new rockets, rather than use paper tubing to hold the propellant, used iron casings, which made them able to fly further and higher and fly with more force. These rockets, which were all tipped with a spear, were slightly less accurate than earlier, more rudimentary rockets, but fired in a large group, they completely

overwhelmed the British. Using his rockets, Tippoo won the battle and helped end the second Anglo Mysore War. In France, Louis the sixteen recognized Tippoo as an important ally, and the two were in frequent communication, with Tippoo sending representatives and dignitaries to French court at Versailles. It was also during this period that the legend of Tippoo as the

Tiger of Mysor began to take hold. According to the story that was frequently told, retold, and perhaps ultimately fictionalized, Tippoo was hunting in a forest with a French friend of his when they came upon a tiger stand very still. Tippoo warned his friend, and for a few moments, both he and the frenchman stood in terrified silence, waiting to see if the tiger would lose interest and stroll away. It didn't. The tiger pounced on the frenchman, killing him instantly.

Tippoo reached for his gun, which found that it was jammed and wouldn't fire, which put Tippoo in a very vulnerable bull position. When the tiger turned its attention toward him, the tiger lunged tip who was able to fight the animal off and pull a dagger from somewhere on his belt, which he used to stab and kill the tiger. From that time on, Tippoo used the motif of the tiger

in almost all of his personal regalia. He was truly the Tiger of Mysore, not just because of his military prowess, but because of the way he shaped and modernized the kingdom. During his reign, Tippoo introduced new coinage, a new calendar, and seven new government departments. He continued to advance and develop rocket technology, and he worked closely with French engineers to build one of his most unique possessions, the wooden

automaton tiger pouncing on a European soldier. This symbolism doesn't require much of an explanation, but Europeans weren't Tippoo's only enemies. Mysore, in the south of India, was a comparatively smaller power on the Indian subcontinent, and one of their largest threats

was from the Maratha Empire. One of Tippoo's most important military victories was the defeat of the Marathas in seventeen eighty seven, but they would continue to be formidable rivals, especially during what would be known as the Third Anglo

Mysore War beginning in seventeen eighty nine. Now, if you're a long time listener of this podcast, you might be aware of something that was happening in France in seventeen eighty nine, a little revolution that might have slightly distracted the political powers that be from honoring alliances with foreign allies. The New French Republic actually debated how they would tell Tippoo that his friend Louis the sixteenth wouldn't actually be answering his letters anymore. And so for the Third Anglo

Mysore War, Tippoo went without French help. The British allied with the Marath Empire and roundly defeated Mysore in swallowing up half of Tippoo's kingdom in a single gulp. But things were about to get much much worse. To get into what happened during the Fourth Anglo Mysore War, first we have to discuss a bit of propaganda that still persists today, a story that's still fully in place in multiple Wikipedia articles and has been echoed across the Internet

without any independent verification. This is how the story goes. After the fall of the monarchy in France, the New French Republic decided that they would spread the good word of the doctrine of Republicanism to their ally, the Kingdom of Izor in Southern Asia, and so in sevente an emissary from France named Francois Rapot arrived and with Tippoo, Sultan and the French soldiers who are already stationed in

Mysor collectively began the Jacobin Club of Mysoor. During the first ceremony, Tippoo announced that he would henceforth be known as Citizen Tippoo, and the crowd joyfully proclaimed that they hated all kings except him, even more sinister than Jacobins in India. For the British, Napoleon had just invaded Egypt. Clearly he was gearing up for a full scale invasion

to push Britain out of Asia. The British decided that their only logical move would be a preemptive attack, so they launched a full invasion on all four sides of Mysore. With more than doubled the soldiers that Tippoo had at his command, the British invaded the capital city of Sarangapatam,

killing Tippoo in the conflict. They would continue to annex most of the MisOr Kingdom, leaving just the pocket core of the kingdom to be ruled in name at least by the Hindu dynasty that had been overthrown by Tippoo's father. But here's the slightly sticky part. There's no evidence of Tippoo Sultan ever joining, let alone founding, a Jacobin Club.

And yet the threat of the Jacobin Club a revolutionary cell within Asia was a central element of the East India Company's propaganda that permitted them to make a preemptive invasion. Francois Rapad, that's so called agent of the French Republic. He had absolutely no connection to the French government whatsoever. According to actual sources, he was a pirate whose ship ran aground, and then he claimed to be the emissary of the French so that he would be welcomed by

Tippoo Sultan. The documents that the East India Company circulated before their invasion as their so called smoking gun of republicanism may very well have been forged. But even if they weren't, the actual documents themselves, detailing repelled speeches to local French soldiers, make no mention of the word Jacobin at all. The only time Jacobin appears is on the

East India company's title page, which they added. Throughout this period, in England and the entire British Empire, Tippoo was vilified as a tyrant and a religious extremist in plays and cartoons. It's actually become a little complicated, at least in terms of my research trying to tease out exactly how religiously tolerant tip Who actually was. He was a Muslim leader

in a predominantly Hindu territory. Some sources claim that he was a large secular ruler and they celebrate him, especially in the context of his anti imperialist victories, but other sources claim that he forced the local population to convert to Islam and imprisoned those who didn't, and that he destroyed local temples. There's currently a debate and controversy in the modern day Indian state of Karnatica as to how

Tippoo Sultan should be taught in schools. I think, as with almost all historical figures, it's worth taking a nuanced approach to Tippoo Sultan and his accomplishments, such as they were. He built up local infrastructure and mysore, building roads, developing the silk industry, formalizing the government's departments and introducing a coinage system. He valiantly fought off British imperialism for decades.

But also he was almost certainly cruel and or bigoted in the places that many of the effective rulers in the eighteenth century were when it came to religion. I don't think he was a saint or a monster. I think the adage that history is told by the victors is certainly true, and in this case the victors were the British and the formerly ruling Hindu dynasty, and so a lot of contemporary writing about Tippoo Sultan needs to

be taken with a grain of salt. On May fourth sev during the fourth and final Anglo mice Or War, Tippoo Sultan was killed by an unknown British soldier while he was defending the capital city of Sri Ranabatana from the British troops who had breached the walls. Tippoo's French advisers had urged him to leave the city, to escape through secret passageways, and to live to fight another day defending other forts, but Tippoo Sultan would not abandon his capital.

When the raid was over and the smoke lifted, the British found Tippoo's body among his soldiers. The British raided the fort, pillaging Tippoo's palace and taking his treasures for themselves. General Cornwallis himself claimed a ring and a dagger, among other effects that eventually made their way to the British Museum in London. The British would meant a coin celebrating their victory, a lion pouncing on a tiger meant to represent their empire defeating the mighty Tippoo Sultan hero to

some enemy, to others, tiger to all. That's the story of Tippoo, Sultan and Mysor. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about what happened to his personal effects. It's a present day question as to whether or not the British Museum should be able to house the artifacts that were, in effect trophies that they claimed from their imperialistic invasions all over

the world. Some people argue that treasures like the Parthenon marbles that were removed by the Earl of Elgin should actually be displayed in the country in which they were discovered. When it came to those particular sculptures, known colloquially as the Elgin Marbles. UNESCO actually offered to help mediate the dispute between Greece and the British Museum, although the British Museum actually declined, arguing that UNESCO is meant to only

mediate between countries. Their perspective, I'm sure, is that they've been dutiful custodians and that the display of artifacts from all all over the world, visible together in one central hub, is an important and powerful educational tool. But Tippoo Sultan's artifacts would eventually return to their homeland. In two thousand four,

the Indian billionaire VJ. Malia purchased the sword Tippoo used in his final battle and Tippoo's personal ring from the British Museum and brought them back to India, he believed their rightful home. One quick note before we leave, and as I'm sure you're tired of me talking about, I wrote a book. It's called Anatomy, a Love Story, and it's a novel that comes out January. If you wanted to pre order a copy, that would mean the world to me. If you're a fan of spooky, slightly macabre stories,

you're absolutely going to love it. I put everything that I love in a Noble Blood story and everything I've learned researching that period of history into this book. If you want a signed copy, they're doing them through book Soup, and I'll also be sending signed book plates and pins through the website, where I also sell Noble Blood merch. Df t b A dot Com. D f t b a dot Com is where there's a variety of Noble Blood merch for you to enjoy, and eventually, I hope

books of Anatomy a Love Story. And finally, we have just begun a series on the Patreon called Rain on Me, where I'm joined by one of my closest friends, Karamadanqua, and we go through the beautiful disaster that is the c W show Rain about Mary, Queen of scott So if you're interested in watching along with us and hearing our takes on that truly disastrous, but beautiful and sort

of amazing show, subscribe on the Patreon now. As always, thank you so much for listening and the best support anyone could give this show is just continuing to listen and be with me as we you know, keep learning and growing. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is

produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the show over at Noble blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M