TIPU SULTAN

[hafeezanwar]

TIPU SULTAN

This chapter only describes the death scene of Tipu Sultan, the tiger of Mysore. It does not cover his other great successes and war victories which he fought bravely against the British kingdom. The red flag on his tomb, over his grave in Srirangapatnam reminds every one that the tiger’s life of one minute is better than the jackal’s life of 1000 years. The future generations will remember this great martyr, who is still living in the hearts of the people and will remain in their heart always, as the martyr never die and remain alive always. It is said that there is a divine help and food available for them. Due to such greatness and martyrdom, daily great number of people are visiting his grand tomb to shed their tears and to pay respect and tribute to this great warrior of the world history.



Tipu Sultan reached the door of Fort of Srirangapatnam with his bodyguards and troops on 4th May 1799 for the fourth Mysore war. Due to his appearance there was a great encouragement for his soldiers who were fighting inside of the north gate and outside of fort walls. They attacked with great force on the army of the enemy. The Sultan got down from his horse and joined the first line of the military group. Immediately he was in the middle of many Mysorean military groups, safe and protected. The soldiers were fighting without care of their lives. By this time the British army had occupied their positions at the fort walls. The firing from the upper side was causing difficulties to the soldiers of Sultan who were fighting on the ground. The officers who were treacherous were absent from duty on that front, but this was not a problem for the soldiers of Sultan because the leader of their respect and freedom was with them. They forgot that the enemy had finished his journey of weeks and months in the shortest possible time and they had entered Srirangapatnam due to misdeeds of treacherous. So, it was not war but it was a treachery against the brave pillar of India, who stood against the colonial powers in India when all the local rulers had supported them. The soldiers of Sultan forgot that there was a rain of bullets on them and they also knew well that their great leader, who showed them the great way in their lives for freedom and respect, was at the door of the death. Sultan was wounded severally. The wounded soldiers of Sultan were feeling happy with their wounds on their chests. They were watching the brave face of the death. The blood of the Sultan was falling on the soil of Srirangapatnam. When the second bullet hit the Sultan there was weakness on the face of the tiger of Mysore, but he was still fighting bravely and many of his soldiers were also fighting with him without caring for their lives. Inside the trench there were large number of dead bodies of the enemy. Thousands of British, who were wounded severally, were dying. The firing from two sides on the walls of fort was very severe. Regarding the Mysorean soldiers, number of death crossed thousands. When the condition of Sultan became very serious due to wounds, then his bodyguards told the Sultan, “His Highness; now there is no other way except to surrender ourselves to the enemy?”

The Sultan replied, “No, for me the tiger’s life of one-minute is better than the jackal’s life of 1000 years.”

After some time, the Sultan and his officers rode on their horses and the Mysorean soldiers followed them. But when they reached the northern gate of the Fort they saw that some of the positions were in the control of the British enemy. A large number of soldiers, children, old persons and women were trying hard to go out of the Fort, but the British were pushing them inside the Fort with their guns and were forcing them to go to the backside of the Fort. When they saw the Mysorean army coming towards the gate, they started firing them. The firing was also started from the walls of Fort and a bullet hit the Sultan’s horse. It died on the spot. The Sultan fell on the ground and his turban also fell on the ground near him. But the Sultan was very brave, he tried and with great difficulty he was making himself stand when suddenly a bullet hit his chest. He fell on the ground again. A British soldier tried to open the belt of his sword but the Sultan was still alive and he did not allow the soldier to take out the sword. It was an insult to the Sultan. He fought bravely and hit the soldier with his sword with his full force, but the soldier opposed with his gun. The Sultan’s sword hit the gun and it broke into two pieces. That soldier then raised his gun up, pointed it towards his head and made the fire. The sun of Mysore, who had shown the beautiful stages of freedom to the people of Mysore, had set. After three hours of sun set the British army captured the city of Srirangapatnam and its Fort. The army of Hyderabad then entered the city under the command of Mir Alam. Inside the city, there were dead bodies of about 12 thousands soldiers of Mysorean army, but the success of the British and the Nizam’s army was incomplete, because they could not find the dead body of the great Tipu Sultan. They searched each and every corner and place of the palace. With the help of treacherous they searched the houses of the faithful soldiers and friends of the Sultan. The young prince was frightened. The wounded and helpless persons were asked about the Sultan. The soldiers of Sultan who were on the different fronts were also asked about the body of Sultan but they could not reply in this matter. The soldiers who had seen their Sultan falling from the horse on the ground could not reply them correctly even though they were offered money and wealth. Some of the Sultan’s soldiers thought that Sultan was alive and was under the pile of dead bodies. They waited for the proper time to take out the Sultan from it. Others thought that he was dead but they did not pointed his dead body so the enemy could not find his dead body. There were rumours that the Sultan was dead and his faithful followers had taken away his dead body. Some believed that Sultan had not died but he was wounded and disappeared and will come back again.He had left Srirangapatnam after the first attack between British and Hyderabad army troops and had reached prince Fateh Haider. He will make his head quarter at saraya or chital durg and will continue his attacks from there. These news not only created confusion among the army troops of British and Hyderabad but also to the treacherous who had sold the freedom of Mysore for the promises of land and wealth from their foreign lords. They were very much worried about their future when they had seen the fate of Mir Sadiq and Moin-ud-Din.

In the midnight, Mir Qamar-ud-Din, Pornia, and Badar-Uz-zaman were sitting in front of the palace of Sultan and were talking with English army officers. Some soldiers were around them and were holding torches in their hands. At that time Mir Nadeem came over and cried, “Now I got the correct information about Tipu Sultan that his dead body is there in front of north gate of the Fort under the pile of other dead bodies. So please follow me upto there.” All of them followed him and they reached that place where there were many dead bodies. On the order of British officers, all dead bodies were checked one by one. When they were doing so, one English soldier touched the hand of a corpse when his hand hit with some hard metal and the turban from corpse head had fallen down. The black long hair covered the face were open. The English soldier explained the details to his officer. When they brought the torches closer, they found a women’s corpse who was wearing golden bracelets in her hands. They found another women’s corpse, which was badly injured with many bullets. Pornia took torch from the soldier, carefully watched that woman and recognised her. The English officers asked him, “Are you able to recognise her?” Pornia said, “Yes, she is an orphan Hindu girl and her father was died in the last war. The Sultan had adopted her as his daughter.” “And who is another woman?”, asked English Officers. “I do not know about her. May be she belongs to the royal family.”, replied Pornia. After some time all the corpses were checked. When they saw the body of Sultan Tipu they were silent. Sultan’s dress was full of bloodstains but his face was full of grandeur and grace. In his hand was handle of his broken sword and his dress was same like his other army officers but his turban was different from others. Sultan’s turban fell down from his corpse. Badar-uz-Zaman had taken that turban. One English officer asked him, “Is this Tipu Sultan?” Mir Qamar-ud-Din replied in low voice, “Yes, congratulations for the victory.” One English soldier cried, “He is alive.” So some persons pointed their guns towards the body of Tipu Sultan. One English officer came forward, checked the pulse of Sultan, put his hand on the chest of Sultan and said, “He is dead.” Badar-uz-Zaman looked at the Sultan’s turban, touched it to his eyes with great respect and said, “We are his murders and not all of you. We had murdered him and our coming generations will put flowers of respect on his grave.” The English officer told Qamar-ud-Din that they are grateful to him and asked him to do arrangement to send the corpse in palki to the palace. He informed General Harris. After some time there were slogans of victory from all the corners of the Fort and with great joy and happiness the English soldiers moved to the houses of Mysorean people for plundering and looting. The other groups of British army, who were searching the Sultan, also followed them in looting and plundering the people’s properties and killing the innocent men and women. That night turned into a black night for the inhabitants of the Mysore city. There were cries from thousand of daughters of this nation but there was no reply for it. Due to the misdeeds of Mir Sadiq and others, all such things happened. The mother who had nourished with her milk to Mir Sadiq, the treacherous, was also ashamed. No house of Srirangapatnam was safe and secure from the brutality of the English army. The treacherous, who had helped Mir Sadiq, Pornia, Qamar-ud-Din and Moin-ud-Din were then thinking that they had not only sold away the freedom of Mysore but also they had sold the respect and value of their daughters and women. The soldiers of Sultan killed Mir Sadiq and Mir Moin-ud-Din before they received their reward of treachery from their foreign lords. Their souls must be watching the misdeeds of British army doing wrong in their houses for whom they had made the way of entry to the city of Srirangapatnam. Their daughters and women were in distress condition due to the misdeeds of the drunkard soldiers. Those women cried and appealed as follows.

I am wife of Mir Sadiq. I am his sister. I am his daughter. This is the house of Mir Moin-ud-Din and he was friend of Lord Welsly. General Harris knew him very well and you can see his corpse in the other room. The people had killed him because he was a friend of the British army, so you should not do harm to the families of the faithful persons to East India Company and to the daughters and women of the nation. I am son of Mir Moin-ud-Din and these are my sisters and this is my wife, please take me to General Harris. But there was no reply from the soldiers except their laugh and cruel misdeeds. The soldiers of Sultan’s army, who were disappointed with the result of war, started protecting their houses against the cruel deeds of the British soldiers who were drunk and were very busy in the evil deeds of looting and plundering. There was stream of Blood in the streets and bazaars of the city.

On the next day, at about four O’clock, the Sultan’s funeral procession started and was followed by prince, officers and four companies of the British army. The faithful wounded soldiers of the Sultan and other persons were ahead and were holding the sultan on their shoulders. There was lot of fear and terror in the city due to looting and plundering which took place in last night. Streets and bazaars were vacant. When the funeral procession left the Fort all men, women and children from all the communities joined it with heavy heart. On the way the number of people increased and their fear and terror decreased gradually. They were considering themselves as the most unfortunate people and were thinking that the Sultan’s corpse is their guard. The men of Srirangapatnam wept loudly and women untied their braids in the grief of the Sultan’s death. When the funeral procession left the Fort, the wind was very slow at that time and there was too much humidity in the atmosphere. The people were watching a dangerous storm on the horizon. After some time a black storm covered the entire sky. When the procession reached Lal Bagh and the qazi finished the funeral prayer, the corpse was placed respectfully in the grave. At that time there was severe thundering in the sky. People were very afraid of it. The British army was ordered for the gun salute but the sound of the guns was not heard clearly because of the thundering of clouds. It seemed that the sky was making ‘arrangement’ to welcome the soul of great Tipu Sultan.

The darkness in the atmosphere and the thundering of lightening increased and due to this the houses and doors started shaking in the city. General Meadows, Major Beatson and Ellen had descried this black storm in their diaries in which they had written that lightening had fallen on some parts of city of Srirangapatnam as well on the British army camp of Bombay in which two soldiers were dead and a large number of soldiers were severally wounded. The treacherous, who were in the procession under the custody of the British soldiers, were very afraid of this. Immediately after the funeral started the heavy rain and the streets and bazaars of Srirangapatnam were full of water. After some time some officers and soldiers of the Mysorean army noticed the flood in the river Kaveri. An old army officer wept loudly and said, “I have not seen such a flood in the river Kaveri in the first week of May ever in my life. Oh! Treacherous of Mysore, you should have waited for one more day as the God was willing to help us but you have missed that chance. On that day if you had not opened the doors of Srirangapatnam then we could have defeated the enemy without wasting our single bullet.” He then said, “Oh! My friends, for this day the Sultan was waiting. How unfortunate we are that the clouds which would have witnessed our success, they are washing the tears of our defeated soldiers.”



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Translated from Urdu to English by

Muhammed A. Hafeez, B.COM.

H.NO. 16-11-16/1/21,

SALEEMNAGAR COLONY,

AL-MADINA COTTAGE,

FIRST FLOOR , Hyderabad-36,

(India)

EMAIL : [e-mail]

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Reference book:

Nasim Hijazi’s Urdu novel ‘Aur Talwar Toot Gai’.

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