The Tippoo Sultan is the main antagonist of the Bernard Cornwell novel Sharpe's Tiger. He is the ruler of the Mysore kingdom.
Biography[]
The Tippoo Sultan was the ruler of Mysore, a proud Muslim leader who nevertheless saw the need to maintain friendly terms with his Hindu subjects. He had won a victory over the British c.1782 and had constructed a throne that he declared he wouldn't sit in until he drove the British from India. He dreamed of expanding his territory into the other Indian kingdoms once the British were gone and had allied with the French against them.
By 1799, the Sultan was involved in a bitter war with the British. He oversaw his troops at the Battle of Mallavelly but the British drove his army back, partly because the Sultan ignored Colonel Gudin's advice to use cavalry. He instead retreated to his fortress of Seringapatam, which the British besieged. He correctly guessed that they would strike at the weak western wall, so prepared a mine to be planted at the point where they were most likely to break through, as well as stationing troops on the surrounding ramparts to fire upon any attackers who got through.
The Tippoo Sultan employed jettis, Hindu strongmen, who executed his enemies by either driving nails into their heads by hand or twisting their necks round. In this manner, he had two British agents, a soldier and a merchant named Ravi Shekhar, killed but kept the captured Colonel McCandless alive. He greeted Private Richard Sharpe and Lieutenant William Lawford when they came to the fort posing as deserters and accepted them into his army, his trust in them aided by the fact Sharpe had been flogged. He ordered Sharpe to kill McCandless to prove his loyalty, but gave him wet powder so the gun failed to fire.
After Sharpe helped fight off a night attack on the fort, the Sultan personally gave him a gold medal. He ordered the British soldiers captured during the attack killed by the jettis to ward off ill omens, but Obadiah Hakeswill betrayed Sharpe and Lawford to save his own skin. The Sultan had salt poured over Sharpe's wounds until Lawford revealed Shekhar had been their contact.
When the British attacked, Sharpe's premature detonation of the mine aided them in entering the force. The Tippoo Sultan personally led his men against the attackers but, faced with larger numbers and British troops entering from all directions, he eventually accepted he would have to flee the city on horseback and regroup at one of his northern forts. However, his escape route was blocked by British troops, including the escaped Sharpe, who fatally wounded the Sultan with a shot to the temple. He placed the Sultan's sword in his hand as he died, telling him he had been killed by another proper soldier.
Trivia[]
- The character is based on the real life ruler of Mysore from 1782 to 1799, who was killed during the British attack on Seringapatam, although the exact details are unknown.
