Fourth Anglo-Mysore War
1799–99 conflict in the Kingdom of Mysore
The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99.
This was the last of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British captured the capital of Mysore. The ruler Tipu Sultan was killed in the battle. Britain took indirect control of Mysore, restoring the Wadiyar dynasty to the Mysore throne (with a British commissioner to advise him on all issues). Tipu Sultan's young heir, Fateh Ali, was sent into exile. The Kingdom of Mysore became a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with British India covering parts of present Kerala–Karnataka and ceded Coimbatore, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada to the British.
Background.
Napoleon Bonaparte's landing in Ottoman Egypt in 1798 was intended to further the capture of the British possessions in India, and the Kingdom of Mysore was a key to that next step, as the ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, sought France as an ally and his letter to Napoleon resulted in the following reply, "You have already been informed of my arrival on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible army, full of the desire of releasing and relieving you from the iron yoke of England." Additionally, General Malartic, French Governor of Mauritius, issued the Malartic Proclamation seeking volunteers to assist Tipu. Horatio Nelson ended any possibility of help from Napoleon after the Battle of the Nile. However, Lord Wellesley had already set in motion a response to prevent any alliance between Tipu Sultan and France.
Invasion and British victory.
Three armies, one from Bombay and two British (one of which contained a division that was commanded by Colonel Arthur Wellesley, the future 1st Duke of Wellington), marched into Mysore in 1799 and besieged the capital, Srirangapatnam, after some engagements with Tipu. On 8 March, a forward force managed to hold off an advance by Tipu at the Battle of Seedaseer.
One notable military advance championed by Tipu Sultan was the use of mass attacks with iron-cased rocket brigades in the army. The effect of the Mysorean rockets on the British during the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars was sufficiently impressive to inspire William Congreve to develop the Congreve rockets for Napoleonic Wars.
During the war, rockets were used on several occasions. One of these involved Colonel Arthur Wellesley. At the Battle of Sultanpet Tope, Wellesley's assault on the first day was soundly repulsed by Tipu's Diwan, Purnaiah. Quoting Forrest,
At this point (near the village of Sultanpet, Figure 5) there was a large tope, or grove, which gave shelter to Tipu's rocketmen and had obviously to be cleaned out before the siege could be pressed closer to Srirangapattana island. The commander chosen for this operation was Col. Wellesley, but advancing towards the tope after dark on the 5 April 1799, he was set upon with rockets and musket-fires, lost his way and, as Beatson politely puts it, had to "postpone the attack" until a more favourable opportunity should offer.
The following day, Wellesley launched a fresh attack with a larger force, and took the whole position without losing a single man. On 22 April 1799, twelve days before the main battle, rocketeers worked their way around to the rear of the British encampment, then "threw a great number of rockets at the same instant" to signal the beginning of an assault by 6,000 Indian infantry and a corps of Frenchmen, all directed by Mir Golam Hussain and Mohomed Hulleen Mir Miran. The rockets had a range of about 1,000 yards. Some burst in the air like shells. Others, called ground rockets, would rise again on striking the ground and bound along in a serpentine motion until their force was spent. According to one British observer, a young English officer named Bayly: "So pestered were we with the rocket boys that there was no moving without danger from the destructive missiles ...". He continued:
The rockets and musketry from 20,000 of the enemy were incessant. No hail could be thicker. Every illumination of blue lights was accompanied by a shower of rockets, some of which entered the head of the column, passing through to the rear, causing death, wounds, and dreadful lacerations from the long bamboos of twenty or thirty feet which are invariably attached to them.
During the decisive British attack on Seringapatam on 2 May 1799, with the help of Marathas and Nizam, a British shot struck a magazine of rockets within Tipu Sultan's fort, causing it to explode and send a towering cloud of black smoke with cascades of exploding white light rising up from the battlements. On the afternoon of 4 May, when the final attack on the fort was led by Baird, he was met by "furious musket and rocket fire", but this did not help much; in about an hour's time the fort was taken; perhaps within another hour Tipu had been shot (the precise time of his death is not known), and the war was effectively over. When the British were on the verge of victory the French allies reportedly told Tipu to flee, but Tipu refused and famously said "Better to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep". The death of Tipu Sultan led British General George Harris to exclaim "now India is ours".
Aftermath.
The victors, rather than partitioning the country, forced Tipu's family into exile and restored control of Mysore to the Wadiyars.
Many members of the East India Company believed that Umdat ul-Umara, the Nawab of Carnatic, secretly provided assistance to Tipu Sultan during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War; and they immediately sought his deposition after the end of the conflict.
The territory of the Nawab of Savanur was split among the English and Maratha forces.
The spot where Tipu's body was discovered under the eastern gate has been fenced off by the Archaeological Survey of India, and a plaque erected. The gate was later demolished during the 19th century to lay a wide road.
In popular culture.
The war, specifically the Battle of Mallavelly and the siege of Seringapatam, with many of the key protagonists, is covered in the historical novel "Sharpe's Tiger" by Bernard Cornwell.
References.
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Works cited.
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Siege of Seringapatam (1799)
Mysorean-British battle
The Siege of Seringapatam (5 April – 4 May 1799) was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British, with the allied Nizam Ali Khan, 2nd Nizam of Hyderabad and Marathas, achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird, among the lesser known allies were the Portuguese in Goa and Damaon. Tipu Sultan, the ruler after the death of his father, was killed in the action. The British restored the Wodeyar dynasty back to power after the victory through a treaty of subsidiary alliance and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III was crowned the King of Mysore. However, they retained indirect control (British paramountcy) of the kingdom's external affairs.
Opposing forces.
The battle consisted of a series of encounters around Seringapatam (the anglicised version of Srirangapatnam) in the months of April and May 1799, between the combined forces of the British East India Company and their allies, numbering over 50,000 soldiers in all, and the soldiers of the Kingdom of Mysore, ruled by Tipu Sultan, numbering up to 30,000. The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War came to an end with the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan in the battle.
British troop composition.
When the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War broke out, the British assembled two large columns under General George Harris. The first consisted of over 26,000 British East India Company troops, 4,000 of whom were European while the rest were local Indian sepoys. The second column was supplied by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and consisted of ten battalions and over 16,000 cavalry. Together, the allied force numbered over 50,000 soldiers. Tipu's forces had been depleted by the Third Anglo-Mysore War and the consequent loss of half his kingdom, but he still probably had up to 30,000 soldiers.
The British forces consisted of the following:
The Indian (sepoy) forces consisted of the following:
Siege.
Seringapatam was besieged by the British forces on 5 April 1799. The River Cauvery, which flowed around the city of Seringapatam, was at its lowest level of the year and could be forded by infantry – if an assault commenced before the monsoon. When letters were exchanged with Tipu, it seemed that he was playing for time. He requested two persons to be sent to him for discussions and also stated that he was preoccupied with hunting expeditions. Tipu Sultan's Chief Minister, Mir Sadiq, is alleged to have been bought over by the British.
The breach.
The Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley, planned the opening of a breach in the walls of Seringapatam. The location of the breach, as noted by Beatson, the author of an account of the Fourth Mysore War, was 'in the west curtain, a little to the right of the flank of the north-west bastion. This being the old rampart appeared weaker than the new.' The Mysorean defence succeeded in preventing the establishment of a battery on the north side of the River Cauvery on 22 April 1799. However, by 1 May, working at night, the British had completed their southern batteries and brought them up to the wall. At sunrise on 2 May, the batteries of the 2nd Nizam of Hyderabad succeeded in opening a practical breach in the outer wall. In addition, the mines that were laid under the breach were hit by artillery and blew up prematurely.
The leader of the British troops was Major General David Baird, an implacable enemy of Tipu Sultan: twenty years earlier, he had been held captive for 44 months. The storming troops, including men of the 73rd and 74th regiments, clambered up the breach and fought their way along the ramparts.
On the night of 3 May some officers crossed over to the glacis, examined the breach and the manner of attacking the fort (Lushington, "Life of Harris", p. 325). It was probably on this occasion that it was arranged between the English officers and Mir Sadiq that the assault should take place at midday( p. 313).
Storming of Seringapatam.
The assault was to begin at 1:00 p.m. to coincide with the hottest part of the day when the defenders would be taking refreshment. Led by two forlorn hopes, two columns would advance upon the defences around the breach, then wheel right and left to take over the fortifications. A third reserve column, commanded by Arthur Wellesley, would deploy as required to provide support where needed.
At 11:00 a.m., on 4 May 1799, the British troops were briefed and whiskey and a biscuit issued to the European soldiers, before the signal to attack was given. The forlorn-hopes, numbering seventy-six men, led the charge. The columns quickly formed, were ordered to fix bayonets, and began to move forward.
As the hour approached, Mir Sadiq withdrew the troops stationed at the breach under the pretext of distributing their pay. There was no one to protest against such a measure. Sayyid Abdul Ghaffar, who was very loyal to the Sultan, was killed by a cannon ball. Immediately after the Sayyid was killed, the traitors made a signal from the fort holding out a white handkerchief to the English troops who were assembled in the trenches, waiting for such a signal p. 313-314).
The storming party dashed across the River Cauvery in water four feet deep, with covering fire from British batteries, and within 16 minutes had scaled the ramparts and swept aside the defenders quickly. The British follow-up columns turned right and left, sweeping along the inside of the walls until they met on the far side of the city.
Death of Tipu.
The column that rounded the northwest corner of the outer wall was immediately involved in a serious fight with a group of Mysorean warriors under a fat officer, which defended every traverse. The officer was observed to be discharging hunting weapons loaded and passed to him by servants. After the fall of the city, in the gathering dusk, some of the British officers went to look for the body of Tipu Sultan. He was identified as the fat officer who had fired hunting weapons at the attackers, and his body was found in a choked tunnel-like passage near the Water Gate.
Benjamin Sydenham described the body as:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />wounded a little above the right ear, and the ball lodged in the left cheek, he had also three wounds in the body, he was in stature about and not very fair, he was rather corpulent, had a short neck and high shoulders, but his wrists and ankles were small and delicate.
He had large full eyes, with small arched eyebrows and very small whiskers. His appearance denoted him to be above the Common Stamp.
And his countenance expressed a mixture of haughtiness and resolution. He was dressed in a fine white linen jacket, chintz drawers, a crimson cloth round his waist with a red silk belt and pouch across his body and head.
He had lost his turban and there were no weapons of defence about him.
Legacy.
All members of the British-led forces who took part in the siege were awarded a medal by the Governor-General of India.
Two cannon captured by the British during the battle are displayed at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, now standing in front of the officers' mess. Tipu's Tiger, an automaton now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, was captured at Seringapatam.
Much of the site of the battle is still intact including the ramparts, the Water Gate where the Tipu Sultan's body was found, the area where the British prisoners were held, and the site of the destroyed palace.
Around 80 men of the Swiss ‘de Meuron Regiment’, who fell during the siege, and their family members are buried in the Garrison Cemetery, Seringapatam.
Depictions in literature.
Wilkie Collins's novel "The Moonstone" begins with the looting of the jewels removed from Seringapatam in 1799 from Tipu's treasury. The siege was also depicted in H.M Milner's play ""Tippo Saib, Or The Storming of Seringatam" in 1823 at the Royal Colburg Theatre on the South Bank, London. The siege and Tipu's death also received considerable attention in France, as Tipu had been viewed as an ally of the French, with the most prominent being Étienne de Jouy's "Tippo-Saëb,tragédie" which premiered at the Comédie-Française in 1813 with Talma in the lead role.
The Battle of Seringapatam is the main conflict in the novel "Sharpe's Tiger", by Bernard Cornwell.
The siege and subsequent looting are depicted in Tania James's 2023 novel "Loot".
References.
Cited sources
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Further reading

Anglo-Mysore wars
Conflicts mainly between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company (late 1700s)
The Anglo-Mysore wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Sultanate of Mysore on the one hand, and the British East India Company (represented chiefly by the neighbouring Madras Presidency), Maratha Empire, Kingdom of Travancore, and the Kingdom of Hyderabad on the other. Hyder Ali and his succeeding son Tipu fought the wars on four fronts: with the British attacking from the west, south and east and the Nizam's forces attacking from the north. The fourth war resulted in the overthrow of the house of Hyder Ali and Tipu (the latter was killed in the fourth war, in 1799), and the dismantlement of Mysore to the benefit of the East India Company, which took control of much of the Indian subcontinent.
The four wars.
First Anglo-Mysore War.
In the First Anglo-Mysore War (1767 – 1769), Hyder Ali enjoyed some measure of success against the British, almost capturing Madras. The British convinced Nizam Mir Nizam Ali Khan to attack Ali. That was temporary, however, and the Nizam signed a new treaty with the British in February 1768. Ali had to contend with a British Bombay army attacking from the west and a Madras army attacking from the northeast. However, Ali's attack towards Madras resulted in the Madras government suing for peace, and the resultant Treaty of Madras.
Second Anglo-Mysore War.
The Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780 – 1784) witnessed bloodier battles with fortunes fluctuating between the contesting powers. Ali defeated William Baillie at the Battle of Pollilur in September 1780, and John Braithwaite at Kumbakonam in February 1782, both of whom were taken prisoner to Srirangapatana. This war saw the comeback of Sir Eyre Coote, the British commander who defeated Ali at the Battle of Porto Novo and Arni. Tipu continued the war following his father's death. Finally, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore on 11 March 1784, which restored the "status quo ante bellum". The Treaty of Gajendraghad in April 1787 ended the conflict with the Marathas. Warren Hastings (1772-1785) was Governor-General of India during the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
Third Anglo-Mysore War.
In the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790 – 1792), Tipu Sultan, now an ally of France, invaded the nearby Kingdom of Travancore, a British ally, in 1789. The British forces were commanded by Charles Cornwallis. The resulting war lasted three years and was a nearly defeat for Mysore. The war ended after the 1792 siege of Srirangapatana and the signing of the Treaty of Srirangapatana, according to which Tipu Sultan had to surrender some part of his kingdom to the British East India Company and its allies.
Fourth Anglo-Mysore war.
The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798 – 1799) saw the death of Tipu Sultan and further reductions in Mysorean territory. Mysore's alliance with the French was seen as a threat to the East India Company, and Mysore was attacked from all four sides. Mysore had 35,000 soldiers, whereas the British commanded 60,000 troops. Nizam Akbar Ali Khan and the Marathas launched an invasion from the north. The British won a decisive victory at the siege of Seringapatam (1799). Tipu Sultan was killed during the defence of the city. Much of the remaining Mysorean territory was annexed by the British, the Nizam, and the Marathas. The remaining core, around Mysore and Seringapatam, was restored to the Indian prince Yuvaraja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III (later Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III) under his grandmother's regency. Members of the Wodeyar dynasty had been in power before Ali became the de facto ruler. The Wodeyars ruled the remnant Kingdom of Mysore until 1947, when it joined the Dominion of India.
Aftermath.
After the Battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), which established British dominion over East India, the Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767 – 1799), the Anglo–Maratha Wars (1775-1819), and finally the Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–1849), consolidated the British claim over South Asia, resulting in the British Empire in India, though resistance among various groups such as the Afghans and the Burmese would last well into the 1880s.
Rockets.
The Mysorean rockets used by Tipu during the Battle of Pollilur were much more advanced than any that the British East India Company had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant. This enabled higher thrust and a longer range for the missile (up to ). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of a number of Mysorean iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.
References.
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Treaty of Seringapatam
1792 treaty ending the Third Anglo-Mysore War
The Treaty of Seringapatam (also called Srirangapatinam or Srirangapatna), signed 18 March 1792, ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Its signatories included Lord Cornwallis on behalf of the British East India Company, representatives of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire, and Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore.
Background.
The war broke out in late 1789 when Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, attacked Travancore, an ally of the British East India Company. After a little over two years of fighting, forces of the company led by Lord Charles, 2nd Earl Cornwallis, along with allied forces from the Maratha Empire and Hyderabad, laid siege in February 1792 to Mysore's capital, Seringapatam (also called Srirangapatinam). Rather than attempting to storm the works at great cost to all sides, Cornwallis entered into negotiations with Tipu to end the conflict. The resulting treaty was signed on 18 March.
Cornwallis had hoped to use the treaty as a wide-ranging peace settlement that would, in addition to reducing or removing the threat of Mysore, prevent conflict between Hyderabad and the Marathas. The Marathas had, however, resisted inclusion of such language.
Terms.
Under the terms of the treaty, Mysore ceded about one-half of its territories to the other signatories. The Peshwa acquired territory up to the Tungabhadra River, the Nizam was awarded land from the Krishna to the Penner River, and the forts of Cuddapah and Gandikota on the south bank of the Penner. The East India Company received a large portion of Mysore's Malabar Coast territories between the Kingdom of Travancore and the Kali River, and the Baramahal and Dindigul districts. Mysore granted the rajah of Coorg his independence, although Coorg effectively became a company dependency.
Tipu Sultan, unable to pay an indemnity of 330 lakhs of rupees, was required to surrender two of his three sons as hostages of war.
Notes.
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Third Anglo-Mysore War
Conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the English East India Company and its allies
The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Confederacy, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Anglo-Mysore Wars.
Background.
Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali before him, had previously fought twice with the forces of the British East India Company. The First Anglo-Mysore War, fought in the 1760s, had ended inconclusively on both sides, with treaty provisions including promises of mutual assistance in future conflicts. British failure to support Mysore in conflicts with the Maratha Confederacy and other actions supportive of Mysore's enemies led Hyder to develop a dislike for the British.
After the British took the French-controlled port of Mahé in 1779, Hyder, who had been receiving military supplies through that port and had placed it under his protection, opened the Second Anglo-Mysore War. This war ended with the last British–Indian treaty with an Indian ruler on equal footing, the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore, which restored the "status quo ante bellum" under terms company officials such as Warren Hastings found extremely unfavourable for the British East India Company. Tipu, who gained control of Mysore after his father's death in December 1782, maintained an implacable hatred of the British, and declared not long after signing the 1784 treaty that he intended to continue battle with them given the opportunity. He refused to free British prisoners taken during the war, one of the conditions of the treaty. Tipu Sultan further strengthened his alliances with Ali Raja Bibi Junumabe II the Muslim ruler and the Mappila Muslim community of a region under the Zamorin of the Calicut empire, thus expanding the Sultanate of Mysore's sphere of influence.
British General Charles, 2nd Earl Cornwallis became the Governor-General of India and Commander-in-Chief for the East India Company in 1786. While he formally abrogated agreements with the Marathas and Hyderabad that violated terms of the 1784 treaty, he sought informally to gain their support and that of the Nizam of Hyderabad, or at least their neutrality, in the event of conflict with Mysore.
Events leading to war.
In 1788, the company gained control of the Circar of Guntur, the southernmost of the Northern Circars, which the company had acquired under earlier agreements with the Nizam. In exchange, the company provided the Nizam with two battalions of company troops. Both of these acts placed British troops closer to Mysore, but also guaranteed the Nizam would support the British in the event of conflict.
Travancore had been a target of Tipu for acquisition or conquest since the end of the previous war. Indirect attempts to take over the kingdom had failed in 1788, and Archibald Campbell, the Madras president at the time, had warned Tipu that an attack on Travancore would be treated as a declaration of war on the company as per the Treaty of Mangalore. The rajah of Travancore also angered Tipu by extending fortifications along the border with Cochin into territory claimed by Mysore as belonging to its vassal state, and by purchasing from the Dutch East India Company two forts in the Kingdom of Cochin, a state paying tribute to Tipu Sultan.
In 1789 Tipu Sultan sent forces onto the Malabar Coast to put down a rebellion. Many people fled to Travancore, a state independent of Mysore and to Cochin, a state paying tribute to Tipu, in the wake of his advance. To follow them, Tipu began in the fall of 1789 to build up troops at Coimbatore in preparation for an assault on the Nedumkotta, a fortified line of defence built by Dharma Raja of Travancore to protect his domain. Cornwallis, observing this build-up, reiterated to Campbell's successor, John Holland, that an attack on Travancore should be considered a declaration of war, and met with a strong British response. Tipu, aware that Holland was not the experienced military officer that Campbell was, and that he did not have the close relationship that Campbell and Cornwallis had (both had served in North America in the American Revolutionary War), probably decided that this was an opportune time to attack.
Early campaigns.
On 29 December 1789, Tipu marched 14,000 troops from Coimbatore and attacked Nedumkotta. The first phase was a defeat for Tipu, when the Travancore forces under Kesava Pillai inflicted severe losses on the Tipu's forces and drove them back. While the Mysorean forces and their allies regrouped, Governor Holland, much to Cornwallis' dismay, engaged in negotiations with Tipu rather than mobilising the military. Cornwallis was on the brink of going to Madras to take command when he received word that Holland's replacement, General William Medows was about to arrive. Medows forcibly removed Holland, and set about planning operations against Tipu while building up troops at Trichinopoly.
Medows' campaign, 1790.
It was May before Medows was prepared to march. In the meantime, Tipu had renewed his attack on Travancore, and successfully breached the Nedumkotta line in late April 1790, despite the heavy losses inflicted by the Tranvancorean army. The Travancorean army made a strategic retreat to the further bank of the Periyar River and regrouped, preparing to contest the crossing of the river. The monsoon rains prevented the Mysorean army from fording the river and as Tipu received the news that the British campaign from Madras began to take shape as a significant threat, he retreated from Travancore.
The plan of attack developed by Medows called for a two-pronged attack, with the main thrust against the Coimbatore district and a diversionary thrust into Mysore from the northeast. Cornwallis was unhappy with this plan, due in part to the lateness of the season (combat being much more difficult during the monsoon season), and the lengthy supply lines from Madras that the plan entailed. However, he was willing to give Medows the opportunity for independent command.
Medows moved out of Trichinopoly in late May. Hampered by weather and equipment problems, his progress was slow. He met little resistance, as Tipu had withdrawn his main forces to the Mysore highlands. On 21 July, Medows entered Coimbatore unopposed, after having taken some of the smaller fortifications in the district by either abandonment or the immediate surrender of the garrison. His only opposition consisted of 4,000 cavalry under Sayed Sahib that Tipu had detached to observe and harass his operations; most of these were eventually driven across the Bhavani River by Medows' cavalry. Further strong points in the district fell, with Palghat and Dindigul requiring significant action to capture.
Although the campaign was successful in gaining complete control of the Coimbatore district, Medows had to divide his forces to hold it, with the largest detachments at Coimbatore, Palghat, and Sathyamangalam. The attack from Bengal, and a third from Bombay, were late in getting started when Tipu made his counterattack.
Tipu's counterattack.
On 2 September, Tipu left Srirangapatnam at the head of a 40,000-man army. Descending the mountain passes beginning on 9 September, he began to move toward Sathyamangalam. While the 2,800-man garrison there withstood an initial assault from Tipu's force on 13 September, Captain John Floyd, the garrison commander, opted to withdraw. Under cover of night, they crossed the Bhavani and headed for Coimbatore. Tipu, slowed by heavy rains, sent 15,000 cavalry in pursuit. These eventually caught up and captured much of Floyd's baggage train, and continued to pursue the weary garrison. That evening, the full force of Tipu's army fell upon them as they camped at Cheyoor. A desperate stand by the infantry repulsed repeated assaults, and only the arrival of reinforcements sent by Medows rescued them.
Tipu then embarked on a campaign of harassing the British supply and communications, while screening the movements of his main force. In early November, he successfully misled Medows, moving much of his army north to attack the smaller Bengal force. This force, about 9,000 men led by Colonel Maxwell, had reached Kaveripattinam and strongly fortified his position. Unable to penetrate the defences, Tipu withdrew to the south on 14 November after learning that Medows was on his trail again. Medows and Maxwell joined forces on 17 November, and pursued Tipu, who had decided to make a move toward Trichinopoly. Unable to do more than pillage the town before Medows arrived, Tipu then moved on to rampage through the Carnatic, destroying towns and seizing supplies as he went. He ended up at the French outpost at Pondicherry, where he attempted to interest the French in supporting his efforts against the British. As France was then in the early stages of its revolution, these efforts were entirely unsuccessful. Medows at this point moved toward Madras, where he turned over command of his army to Lord Cornwallis.
Allied advances.
Tipu sultan had turned the wars against the British, Kerala and the Marathas into a religious war, as evidenced by his personal letters.
He massacred numerous Hindus and Christians, not sparing even the women and children and destroyed numerous churches, Hindu temples and even synagogues. Tipu has been a controversial figure and criticised for his repression of Hindus and Christians. Various sources describe the massacres, imprisonment, forced conversion, and circumcision of Hindus (Kodavas of Coorg and Nairs of Malabar) and Christians (Catholics of Mangalore) and the destruction of churches and temples which are cited as evidence for his religious intolerance. He also reneged on his promises of humanely treating and releasing the prisoners of wars, e.g. in one case noted by a chronicler, he killed a local king who had submitted to him and got his body dragged through the city. Many Christian missionaries also documented his torture of local Christians and destroying their churches and temples.
However, others have pointed out that Tipu's actions against the Hindus of Coorg and Malabar, and the Nairs were in consequence were due to political motives, after they had rebelled "six times" and he had forgiven them, similar to how he punished the Christians of Kanara during the Second Anglo-Mysore War after they had committed treason, rendering invaluable help to the English. In fact, a Maratha raid had destroyed a Hindu temple at Sringeri during the war in 1791, committing sacrilege by plundering the temple and killing or wounding locals, which included locals and Brahamins, leading its Swami to plea for help from Tipu, who quickly dispatched men and funds to help restore the temple.
That Tipu had appointed various Hindus to high posts at court and as officers in his army during the war stands contrary to the claims that he turned the battle into a religious war, and given that Tipu had given grants to numerous temples, and never prevented Hindus from worshipping, funded the construction of a Gopur temple in Conjeeveram during this war, and even participated in and bore some of the costs of the local Hindu festivals which occurred during his stay.
During the summer of 1790, a Maratha army of some 30,000 under the command of Purseram Bhow, accompanied by a detachment of British troops from Bombay, began marching toward Mysore. The first several Mysorean outposts surrendered in the face of the large army, and it made steady if slow progress until it reached Darwar in September. The fort was weakly and indifferently besieged for 29 weeks, with the garrison finally surrendering on 3 April 1791. The army then continued to advance, reaching the Tungabhadra River in early May.
A second army, consisting of 25,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry under the command of Hurry Punt assisted by a detachment of British soldiers from the Madras army, left Poona in January 1791, eventually reaching Kurnool without significant opposition. Hurry Punt went to confer with the Nizam, who had not crossed into Mysore in fear that Tipu's large army would overwhelm his before it could be joined to that of one of the other allies. On receiving word that Cornwallis had captured Bangalore and was moving toward the Mysorean capital, Srirangapatnam, Hurry Punt moved out from Kurnool, and made junction with Cornwallis on 28 May.
The Nizam's army, led by Mahabat Jung, advanced to Koppal, which they besieged in October 1790. Poor-quality cannons impeded the conduct of the siege, which was not successfully concluded until April 1791.
British take the Malabar Coast.
British forces succeeded in taking control of the Malabar Coast late in 1790. One force under Colonel Hartley gained a decisive victory at Calicut in December, while a second under Robert Abercromby routed the Sultan at Cannanore a few days later.
Nawab of Savanur.
Territory associated with the Nawab of Savanur were lost to the Maratha Confederacy. Such events caused mistrust between the English and the agenda of the Peshwa.
First advance on Seringapatam.
Cornwallis' first goal was to take the strong point of Bangalore, which would provide a base for future operations against Seringapatam. He hoped that this would stimulate the allies to step up their activity. Anticipating that Tipu would engage in a scorched-earth campaign in the highlands of Mysore, he made significant arrangements for provisions. To assist in the hauling of supplies and heavy armaments he also retained a significant number of elephants.
Cornwallis took over the main Company army at Vellore on 29 January 1791. A week later he marched west, as if to pass through the Eastern Ghats at that point. This prompted Tipu to abandon Pondicherry and make haste for Bangalore, where he perceived his harem to be at some risk. Although Tipu placed defences on some of the passes, Cornwallis, after a number of feints, turned sharply north, and crossed the mountains at the Muglee Pass on 21 February against no opposition. He then continued to advance, against virtually no resistance, until he was very nearly before the gates of Bangalore on 5 March. Tipu had fortified the city and supplied the garrison, but he stayed with his main force on the outskirts of the Company positions as Cornwallis began siege operations. After six weeks of siege, in which the company had to repeatedly beat off attacks and skirmishes from Tipu, they successfully stormed the citadel.
After securing Bangalore, Cornwallis turned his army north to meet a supply caravan and the Nizam's army, which took place on 12 April about north of Bangalore. Turning back toward Bangalore, Cornwallis found the Nizam's men to be noticeably unhelpful. He had hoped that the addition of native cavalry to the army would assist in offsetting Tipu's advantage in that quarter, but the Nizam's men, commanded by Teige Wunt, were interested in plunder and in living off the army's supplies instead of foraging and scouting against Tipu.
The Company then embarked on a series of operations to secure most of the area around Bangalore before moving on to Seringapatam. When Cornwallis was seeking a ford at which to cross the Cauvery River, Tipu offered him battle at a ford near the village of Arakere. In the ensuing battle on 15 May, Cornwallis flanked Tipu's position and drove him to retreat behind Seringapatam's walls. Since the Marathan forces were apparently not nearby, and it seemed unlikely that Abercromby would arrive with the Malabar forces, and his army was on the verge of starvation, Cornwallis then made the difficult decision on 22 May to destroy his siege train and retreat. Only three days later, the Maratha army arrived, Tipu having successfully prevented most of its messengers from reaching Cornwallis before then.
Cornwallis' retreat to Bangalore exposed the Coimbatore district to Tipu's forces. On 11 June, 2,000 Mysorean forces laid siege to Coimbatore. Lieutenant Chalmers, the garrison commander, ignored orders from Cornwallis to withdraw if attacked in force, and chose to fight, in spite of having less than 300 men and inferior gunpowder. His defence was spirited, and reinforcements from Palgautcherry prompted him to sortie and successfully take the defenders' supply train in August. Eight thousand more Mysoreans then arrived, but Chalmers held out until 6 November. In violation of the agreed terms of surrender Chalmers and his men were taken prisoner.
Second advance on Seringapatam.
Following the allied retreat to Bangalore, the armies of Purseram Bhow and Teige Wunt left the grand army to pursue territorial gains in Mysore's northern territories. Purseram Bhow, desirous of recapturing the Bednore district that Tipu's father Hyder had taken in an earlier war, captured Hooly Honore and Shimoga, although British forces attached to his army did much of the necessary work. Only the threatened arrival of a detachment from Tipu's army prevented him from laying siege to Bednore itself. Bhow did not return to the grand army until after peace negotiations began at Seringapatam.
Whereas the earl's younger brother, Commodore William Cornwallis, was engaged in the naval Battle of Tellicherry, Charles spent the remainder of 1791 securing his supply lines to Madras. To this end he laid siege to Nundydroog in November and Savendroog in December, both of which fell after unexpectedly modest efforts. He also ordered a massive supply operation to ensure that adequate supplies and pay for his army and those of the allies would be available. Spies were sent to infiltrate Tipu's camps, and he began to receive more reliable reports of the latter's troop strengths and disposition.
The relations between Cornwallis and the allies were difficult. The Marathan military leaders, Purseram Bhow and Hurry Punt, had to be bribed to stay with the army, and Cornwallis reported the Hyderabadi forces to be more of a hindrance than a help; one British observer wrote that they were a "disorderly rabble" and "not very creditable to the state of military discipline at Hyderabad".
On 25 January, Sir Cornwallis moved from Savendroog toward Seringapatam, while Abercromby again advanced from the Malabar Coast. While Tipu's men harassed the column, they did not impede its progress. Cornwallis established a chain of outposts to protect the supply line from Bangalore. When the massive army reached the plains before Seringapatam on 5 February, Tipu's began showering the force with rockets. Cornwallis responded with a night-time attack to dislodge Tipu from his lines. After a somewhat confused battle, Tipu's forces were flanked, and he retreated into the city, and Cornwallis began siege operations. On 12 February, Abercromby arrived with the Bombay army, and the noose began to tighten around Tipu. By 23 February, Tipu began making overtures for peace talks, and hostilities were suspended the next day when he agreed to preliminary terms.
Peace.
Among the preliminary terms that Cornwallis insisted on was that Tipu surrender two of his sons as hostages as a guarantee for his execution of the agreed terms. On 26 February, his two young sons were formally delivered to Cornwallis amid great ceremony and gun salutes by both sides. Cornwallis, who was not interested in significantly extending the company's territory, or in turning most of Mysore over to the Mahrattas and Hyderabad, negotiated a division of one half of Mysorean territory, to be divided by the allies, in which the company's acquisition would improve its defences. He later wrote, "If we had taken Seringapatam and killed Tippoo, [...] we must either have given that capital to the Marathas (a dangerous boon) or have set up some miserable pageant of our own, to be supported by the Company's troops and treasures, and to be plundered by its servants." The territories taken deprived Mysore of much of its coastline; Mysore was also obligated to pay some of the allied war costs.
On 18 March 1792, Tipu agreed to the terms and signed the Treaty of Seringapatam, ending hostilities.
Consequences.
A fourth and final war was fought between the British and Mysore in 1799, in which Seringapatam was taken, and Tipu was killed in its defence. The victors, rather than partitioning the country, forced Tipu's family into exile and restored control of Mysore to the Wadiyars.
One notable military advance championed by Tipu Sultan was the use of mass attacks with rocket brigades, called "cushoons", in the army. The weapons used by the cushoons sufficiently impressed the British during the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars to inspire William Congreve to develop Congreve rockets.
Cornwallis was raised to the title of Marquess for his actions in the war, while the native Indian soldiers under his command were awarded the Mysore Medal.
Notes.
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Mir Sadiq
Minister of Tipu Sultan
Mir Sadiq was a courtier who held the post of a minister in the cabinet of Tipu Sultan of Mysore and is famous for his betrayal of Tipu Sultan to the British.
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.
In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1798–99, he betrayed Tipu Sultan during the Siege of Srirangapatana, paving the way for a British victory. During the siege, although the invading English troops were starving, Sadiq withdrew his troops, allowing the British to commence their attack on the fort. He betrayed Tipu, killing Tipu loyalist Ghazi Khan and later arranged to have Tipu trapped behind locked doors. Sadiq was killed by some of the dismayed Mysorean troops immediately following the defeat as he attempted to go over to welcome the British.
Death and legacy.
Following his death, Sadiq's body was mutilated, exhumed and defiled for over two weeks by the angered general public, including women and children, dismayed at his betrayal of Tipu Sultan, forcing the administration to impose "strong measures". Even today, tourists pelt the spot where Mir Sadiq was killed.
Mir Sadiq's mausoleum, also located in Srirangapatna, has regularly been assaulted by shoes thrown by visitors over the years. Presently, it is in a severe state of disrepair, rarely visited, and its lands have been encroached.
Muhammad Iqbal, the notable poet of Indian subcontinent, had condemned Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq as follows:
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Translation:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />"Jafar of Bengal and Sadiq of the Deccan:<br>A stigma on humanity, on religion, and the country."
References.
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Siege of Seringapatam (1792)
1792 siege in Mysore, India
The 1792 siege of Seringapatam was a battle and siege of the Mysorean capital city of Seringapatam (Srirangapatna) at the end of the Third Anglo-Mysore War. An army led by Charles, Earl Cornwallis, consisting of British East India Company and British Army forces, along with allied forces from the Maratha Empire and the Nizam of Hyderabad, arrived at Seringapatam on 5 February 1792, and after less than three weeks of battle and siege, forced Tipu Sultan to capitulate. With his agreement to the Treaty of Seringapatam on 18 March 1792, the war came to an end.
Background.
The prospects for Tipu Sultan, the Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, had declined significantly during the 1791 campaign season of the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Although he had been able to reverse some advances made by forces of the British East India Company forces under General William Medows in 1790, he had lost ground on all fronts in 1791, and only a slash-and-burn policy to deprive his opponents of provisions and forage had prevented company forces under Charles Cornwallis from besieging his capital, Seringapatam. Cornwallis, whose army had been desperately short of provisions, withdrew to Bangalore in May 1791 to resupply his army and wait out the monsoon rains. Tipu took advantage of the British retreat to recover Coimbatore, but he lost several strong points when British forces captured Nundydroog and Savendroog late in 1791, and Britain's allies in the conflict, the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas, also made territorial gains at his expense.
British forces.
The force that Cornwallis assembled at Savendroog in January 1792 consisted of about 20,000 company and British Army troops, a horde of the nizam's cavalry, and an enormous civilian camp that trailed after the marching companies when it left Savendroog on 25 January. After stopping at Outradroog to join with additional Hyderabadi troops, the great army marched on, only mildly harassed by Tipu's cavalry, until its advance guard got about north of Seringapatam on 5 February, where the plains below Seringapatam opened and Cornwallis established a position from which Tipu's defences could be examined. Tipu punctuated the arrival of the British by showering them with rockets in an ineffective yet impressive display of technology. (Tipu's rockets were probably influential on William Congreve, who went on to develop what are now called Congreve rockets.)
In addition to the grand army, Cornwallis had ordered General Robert Abercromby to lead a supporting army of about 6,000 men from the Malabar (western) coast.
Tipu's defences.
The city of Seringapatam occupied an island in the Kaveri River, which at that point flowed roughly west-to-east from the Western Ghats on its way to the Bay of Bengal. The city proper occupied the center of the island, with the western end of the island occupied by a strong stone fortress, and the eastern end by a large walled garden that included Tipu's palace and the tomb of his father, Hyder Ali. Tipu had arrayed army, which Cornwallis estimated to number between forty and fifty thousand, along a roughly semicircular line on the northern shore of the Kaveri that covered the approaches to the island. This line, three to four miles (four to five km) long, was studded with six redoubts, and much of the line was protected by a thick hedge. To the east (Tipu's right) the line was anchored by Karigaut Hill, and the entire line was arranged to be within firing range of either the fort or entrenched positions on the island.
Cornwallis, after inspecting the city's defences on 6 February, decided to attack even though Abercromby's column had not yet reached the area. As long as Tipu's army was outside the city's defences, he could conduct a proper siege, and his opponent's freedom to act might also interfere with the arrival of Abercromby, who would have to cross the Kaveri (a difficult proposition for an army even without hostile forces nearby) to make a junction with the grand army. Cornwallis planned a nighttime attack with three components. General Medows would lead 7 battalions on the right, where he was to drive Tipu's left back toward the fort, while Lieutenant Colonel Maxwell would lead 4 battalions to gain Karigaut Hill on the left. Cornwallis himself would direct 8 battalions in the center with the objective of gaining the river near the eastern end of the fort. If successful, the Mysoreans would be driven onto the island, and either Cornwallis or Maxwell would be able to follow and establish a strong position from which the fort could be besieged. Since the battle was to take place at night, they would be unable to use artillery to provide covering fire, so he ordered the attacks to be made only with musket and bayonet. Cornwallis deliberately excluded the nizam's forces from the action, since he did not trust them to act effectively.
Battle.
Cornwallis did not divulge details of the plan until one hour before the attack. At around 9 pm the three divisions left camp. In the center, Cornwallis advanced to the hedge, which his force reached around 11. By then gunfire from his left indicated that Maxwell's men had already begun their attack on Karigaut Hill, and the sounds had thrown the Mysorean troops in the center into some disorder. Cornwallis ordered his men through the hedge; the British troops closed with the bayonet on the Mysoreans, who fled in near-panic, leaving artillery, tents, and provisions behind. One redoubt gave resistance and was stormed. Maxwell's and Cornwallis' men chased the fleeing Mysoreans as they crossed the bridges onto the island and sought the shelter of the fort. Tipu, from his position in the fort, observed the disaster and then raised the drawbridge to prevent British troops, which were by then intermingled with the Mysoreans, from gaining entry to the fort. While this secured his own position, it left many of his troops at the mercy of the British.
The division of General Medows did not fare quite as well as the other two. Medows strayed too far to the west in the dark, and although he successfully took the westernmost redoubt of the Mysorean line, he was prevented from approaching the island by a series of ravines and swampy ground. This created a gap in the British lines between the center and right, exposing Cornwallis, who had held back from the lines with a single battalion, to personal danger. Tipu sought to exploit this gap in order to recover the camp, and organized an infantry attack against the gap. Cornwallis was able to rally his men and repulse the counterattack, but his hand was grazed by a bullet during the action.
When daylight arrived the field of battle was more clearly visible to all, and Tipu ordered his artillery to begin firing on the British positions. Significantly exposed, Cornwallis withdrew his command to Karigaut Hill, abandoning part of his camp in the process, and leaving a detachment of men in the captured redoubt. This enabled the Mysorean cavalry to roam freely through the area while Tipu's artillery continued to play on exposed British positions. Unable to support the men in the redoubt, Cornwallis had to watch as the Mysoreans made five attempts to storm the redoubt, all of which were repulsed. When night fell, Cornwallis was able to advance and relieve the beleaguered men in the redoubt. Tipu also used the night to withdraw his men entirely from the north shore of the Kaveri, enabling Cornwallis to completely surround the fort.
Siege.
In order to hasten the arrival of Abercromby's force, Cornwallis dispatched companies of Hyderabadi and Marathan cavalry to meet and escort them to the area. On 10 February Abercromby's force arrived in camp, in spite of a sortie led by Tipu personally in an attempt to prevent the meeting from happening. From this point, the siege became a matter of routine, as the British lines slowly advanced on the island toward the fortress. On 23 February Cornwallis inspected the unfinished first parallel. That same day, Tipu sent out negotiators to end hostilities.
Peace.
Although fire ceased on 24 February, peace was not formally agreed until 18 March, when Tipu agreed to the severe terms of the Treaty of Seringapatam. Cornwallis made a preliminary demand that Tipu surrender two of his sons as hostages of war to guarantee Tipu's performance. On 26 February, in a ceremony immortalized in art by Robert Home, who accompanied Cornwallis on the expedition, Tipu's sons, aged seven and eleven, were delivered with great pomp and circumstance to Cornwallis' care.
The treaty terms forced by the victors on Tipu were harsh. Mysore's size was reduced by half, with the company, the nizam, and the Marathas sharing in the spoils. The territories taken by the company were chosen in part to ease the difficulty of defending against future attacks from Mysore, although the final war with Mysore was initiated by the British in anticipation of further military action by Tipu. In that war, Seringapatam was stormed and Tipu died in its defence.
General Medows was apparently distraught over his poor performance in the battle. On 27 February, after meeting with Cornwallis, he returned to his tent, and attempted to commit suicide, firing three bullets into his body with a pistol. He failed in even this, and spent several days in agony. His hopes dashed at ever gaining the command of India, he eventually returned to England. Cornwallis never blamed him for his failures on the night of 6 February.
Notes.
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Maratha–Mysore wars
18th century conflict between the Maratha Empire and the Kingdom of Mysore
The Maratha–Mysore wars were a conflict in the 18th century India between the Maratha Confederacy and the Kingdom of Mysore. Though initial hostilities between the sides started in 1760s, the last battle began in February 1785 and ended in 1787.
Situation in the 18th century.
The 18th century saw a steady decline of the once-dominant power on the whole subcontinent – the Mughal Empire. Apart from the disastrous invasion by the Afsharid ruler of Iran, Nader Shah in 1739, the Mughals were successfully contested by the Marathas. Meanwhile, the British East India Company was asserting its influence in India and was engaged in a series of wars with Mysore which eventually resulted in the region falling under Company rule near the end of the 18th century.
Mysore wars with the British.
Mysore was initially a small kingdom at the beginning of the 1700s. However, able rulers such as Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan transformed the kingdom and westernized the army & it soon turned into a military threat both to the British and the Marathas. Upon Hyder Ali’s death in 1782, Mysore covered 80,000 sq. miles and had a population of approximately 6 million people.
Starting from 1767, the Kingdom of Mysore overall had four major military confrontations with the British (1767–69; 1780–84; 1790–92; and 1799).
Around 1761, the commander in chief of the state of Mysore, Hyder Ali proclaimed himself absolute ruler of the Kingdom and started military campaigns to expand the territory of the state. In 1766, the British East India Company joined forces with the local ruler of Hyderabad against Hyder Ali, but by 1769, the British were left alone in a war with the Mysore Kingdom. In 1769 Hyder Ali made his way to Madras (the location of the Company's government) and demanded a peace treaty.
Maratha–Mysore wars.
After the Second Anglo-Mysore War, the son and successor of Hyder Ali the new ruler of Mysore Tipu Sultan, sought to keep offensive moves by the Marathas at bay. The Maratha had established a military alliance with the ruler of Hyderabad with a common purpose of recovering territories both sides had lost to Mysore during previous conflicts. Much of the desired territory was subject to marches, counter-marches, and sieges of fortified points. The Marathas also attempted to draw the British East India Company into the pending conflict, but a neutrality policy implemented by the new governor-general, Lord Charles Cornwallis made its participation difficult. While the Maratha would later aid the British in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the final conflict between Mysore and the Maratha by themselves happened in January 1787 in the Siege of Bahadur Benda, where Mysore successfully captured Bahadur Fort from the Marathas.
Outcome and aftermath.
The Maratha-Mysore War ended after the final conflict during Mysore's successful siege of Bahadur Benda in January 1787, and the Marathas settled for peace with the kingdom of Mysore, to which Tipu Sultan obliged with the signing of the treaty of Gajendragad in April 1787. Tipu who was desperate to focus on defending Mysore from the British agreed to pay an annual tribute of 12 lakhs per year to the Marathas, to end hostilities with them, which would allow him to focus on his rivalry with the British. In addition to this Tipu agreed to return all territories captured by Hyder Ali from the Marathas.
Tipu Sultan would release Kalopant and return Adoni, Kittur, and Nargund to their previous rulers. Badami would be ceded to the Marathas. Tipu would also pay an annual tribute of 12 lakhs per year to the Marathas. In return, Tipu would get all the places he had captured in the war, including Gajendragarh and Dharwar. Tipu would also be addressed by the Marathas by an honorary title of "Nabob Tipu Sultan, Fateh Ali Khan".
The Marathas however ultimately betrayed Tipu, during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War the Marathas presented their support to the British East India Company and the British went on to take over Mysore in 1799. However sometimes after Tipu's death the Marathas themselves would get involved in conflicts with the British who defeated the Marathas by 1819 in the Anglo-Maratha War leading to the annexation of their territories by the British and end of the Maratha Confederacy in India.
References.
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Mysore (1789–1791)
The battle honour of Mysore commemorates the action of native units of the British East India Company in the Third Anglo-Mysore War of 1789–92.
Tipu Sultan attacked Travancore on 29 December 1789 and this made the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas apprehensive who entered into a "Triple Alliance" with the British. The Third Anglo-Mysore War went on for about two years in three campaigns. Cornwallis, the Governor General took command after the first campaign, captured Bangalore on 21 March 1791 but failed to capture Seringapatnam due to brilliant generalship of Tipu and the rains. Fighting was resumed later and Tipu captured Coimbatore on 3 November. Helped by an Army sent from Bombay, Cornwallis occupied the hill fort of Nandy Droog about north of Bangalore on his line of communication towards Seringapatnam where he reached on 5 February 1792.
Tipu averted a complete disaster and concluded a treaty in March surrendering half his dominions; a large portion went to the Nizam, a portion went to the Marathas, the English acquired Malabar and Coorg on the west coast, Dindigul and adjoining districts. on the south and the Baramahal district on the east.
The honour was awarded to 29 units of the armies of the Bombay and Madras Presidency through order 378 of 1889; only 15 units survive. It was awarded to four units of the Bengal Native Infantry in 1829; these units mutinied in 1857.
The battle honour is considered repugnant.
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Maratha–Mysore War (1682)
War in Southern India
The Maratha–Mysore War (1682) was a series of battles fought between the Maratha Empire and the Kingdom of Mysore in Southern India, both of which were attempting to establish supremacy in Southern India. The Maratha forces were led by Sambhaji and the Mysore forces were led by Chikka Devaraja. The conflict resulted in the defeat of the Mysore forces by Marathas, leading to a conclusion at the Treaty of Srirangapatanam (also called Srirangapatinam or Srirangapatna), where Chikkadevraja paid 1 Crore Honas as a war tribute to Sambhaji.
Background.
Sambhaji's grandfather, Shahaji, had conquered territories in the states of Karnataka, leading to Mohammed Adil Shah, Sultan of Bijapur granting him the title of Jagir of Bangalore. These events began the entry of the Marathas in the Southern India. Shivaji had established Maratha territories in the Southern India in his two-year-long campaign of 1676–78. The Maratha Empire and the Mysore kingdom were the main contenders to dominate the region, and the relationship between the two was generally hostile. In 1681, the Marathas attacked Srirangapatna, but were defeated, though the Maratha Sardar Harji Raje Mahadik defeated the Mysore general Kumaraiya. Both forces had tried to subdue each other resulting in a stalemate. Sambhaji also tried to form a Deccan alliance against the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Chikkadevaraya allied himself with Aurangzeb and executed the Maratha generals Dadaji Kakade, Jaitaji Katkar and Santaji Nimbalkar. This enraged Sambhaji and he attacked the Kingdom of Mysore in June 1682 with his allies Qutb Shahi dynasty and the Nayakas of Hukkeri. Allied forces reached Banavar in June 1682.
Battle of Banavar.
To counter the allied army at Banavar, Chikkadevaraya left Mysore with his strong contingent of 15,000 expert archers. He wanted to attack before the allies settled in the region. Both sides prepared for the battle. And the battle began with small skirmishes.
Soon, Chikkadevaraya realised that the allied forces did not have archers. He arranged his archers in a semicircular formation and started showering arrows on the allied army. The Marathas did not expect this and the arrows started mounting casualties In the allied army. Maratha commanders tried but were unable to stop the rout. Some more reinforcements joined the Marathas during the battle, but they suffered heavy casualties in the battle. The Mysore archers took a break for dinner in the night. Sambhaji decided to retreat to avoid more casualties and he retreated towards Thanjavur.
Battle of Trichinopoly.
Sambhaji rested near Thanjavur for 20 days. He received more reinforcements from Hukkeri and Golconda. His uncle Ekoji I also joined forces with him.
Sambhaji had realised the strength of Mysore forces near their heartland. He decided to draw them away from their stronghold to flat plains near Madurai. He decided to attack and besiege the city of Tiruchirapalli.
The weakened Nayaka of Madurai, Chokkanatha Nayak lived in the fort. He was a vassal of the Kingdom of Mysore. Still, the city had strong defences and a formidable Mysore garrison in the city and on the fort.
Sambhaji wanted to negate the superiority of Mysore archers. During their rest time Sambhaji ordered all the cobblers from neighbouring villages and made leather arrow-proof jackets for his entire army. These leather jackets were coated with a layer of oil to avoid arrows from getting stuck in the jackets. Sambhaji also collected the abundantly available war elephants from the surrounding region. He ordered all the boatmen from the nearby villages to assemble with his army. 300 archers of the Maratha army were prepared to fire lit arrows during the attack.
Tiruchirapalli lied on the opposite bank of the Kaveri river. At the dawn, the Maratha forces crossed the river using the boats collected from nearby villages. The sudden attack of the Marathas surprised the Mysore defenders, they started showering arrows on the Maratha Army. The Maratha leather jackets provided effective protection and negated arrows from the Mysore bowmen. Elephants broke through the main doors in the meanwhile and fierce battle ensued on the streets of Tiruchirappalli. Marathas captured the city by the evening but the Tiruchirapalli Rock Fort was still controlled by the Mysore army.
Meanwhile Chokkanatha Nayak died on the fort. Sambhaji with a force of 10,000 laid siege to the fort after 10 days. The Marathas again adopted similar tactics to negate Mysore archers. The Maratha archers accurately struck lit arrows on the ammunitions depot within the fort resulting in a huge explosion, and collapse of the wall. The Marathas soon entered and captured the fort. The Marathas sacked Tiruchirapalli.
Historian Sadashiv Shivde has mentioned that, this victory was a success point of Sambhaji's military intelligence.
Aftermath.
The defeat at Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) dealt a severe blow to Chikkadevaraya. Several of his allies joined Sambhaji. Sambhaji captured several fortresses in the northern provinces of Madurai. He also held all the province of Dharmapuri and other neighbouring territories. Chikkadevaraya entered negotiations with Sambhaji and brought an end to the war by paying the tribute. According to Maratha sources a treaty was signed at Srirangapatna in which he paid 1 Crore Honas as a war tribute to Sambhaji. However this was a temporary surrender and the conflicts continued in the following years. The Jesuit letter of 1682 describes the precarious position of Chikka Devaraja, 'The power of the king of Mysore begins to grow weak because, violently attacked in his own dominions by the troops of Sambhaji, he cannot sustain and reinforce the armies he had sent to those countries.'

Siege of Mangalore
Event in the Second Anglo-Mysore War
The siege of Mangalore was conducted during the Second Anglo-Mysore War by Tipu Sultan and forces of the Kingdom of Mysore against a British East India Company garrison led by Colonel Campbell. The port city of Mangalore on the west coast of India was besieged from 20 May 1783 until the garrison capitulated on 30 January 1784 after being reduced to starvation; of the original garrison of 700 British soldiers and 2000 Indian troops there were only 850 survivors. The siege was one of the last major actions of the war; Mangalore was where the treaty ending the war was signed in March 1784.

Siege of Seringapatam (1639)
The Siege of Seringapatam in 1639 was a conflict between the Bijapur Sultanate's forces, led by Randaula Khan and the Mysorean army commanded by Kanthirava Narasaraja I. The Bijapur army had laid siege to the Seringapatam Fort, but Kanthirava Narasaraja I mounted a daring night attack on their encampment. The surprise assault overwhelmed the Bijapur forces, resulting in their Defeat. Following this victory, the Mysorean army triumphantly returned to the Srirangapatna Fort.
Background.
Kanthirava Narasaraja I incitement of Elenge Hanuma of Basavapatna and other Wodeyars of Ikkeri against their liege lord, Virabhadra Nayaka, led to a brief but intense disturbance in the region. However, the Ikkeri Nayaka swiftly quelled the rebellion, maintaining his control. Undeterred, Kenge Hanuma traveled to Bijapur, seeking the Sultan's aid. Meanwhile, Channama, a fugitive Wodeyar from Nagamangala, recently conquered by Chamaraja Wodeyar VI, also sought refuge with the Sultan.