Srirangapatnam

About 16 km outside of Mysore is the city of Srirangapatnam, which was in former times the home of Tipu Sultan. This Tipu Sultan was a colorfull personality, some call him the first freedom fighter of India, other call him a despote leader. It is worthwhile to read about his life in wikipedia , for example he was in close correspondence with Napoleon Bonaparte and he was the raw model for the uncle of Captain Nemo of Jules Verne.

Srirangapatnam was Tipu Sultans residence, there was huge fort, surrounded by 3 walls. It was also here were he 24 british soldier were imprisioned in a dungeon for more than 2 years under incrediable circumstance before they were freed by British troops. The picture shows the dungeon, which was totally dark in the 18th century. The canon in the middle is a french canon given to Tipu Sultan by Napoleon

After Tipu Sultan won 3 wars against the British he was finally defeated in Srirangapatnam because he was betrayed by one of his ministers. He left a gate open. By coincidence Tipu Sultan was just on his way from the mosque to his palace when the British troops came in. He was shot death and the little stone on the picture marks the place where he was found. &Hs death was alos the end of the wars because the Indian surrendered shortly afterwards. The Britains completely destroyed his fort and made the Hindu maharascha's of Mysore their Vasalln.

An interesting story one the side. Tipu Sultans sword was recently bought by one of the richest Indians, Vijay Mallja and brought back to India. Normally he would have to pay import taxes on this, but within a week the indian government passed a bill that the import of goods of national importance is tax free :-) You have to know that it is not unusal if a law needs 10 years to pass.