Sword and tiger of Tippu-unniyarcha

Sword and tiger of Tippu

1-Tipu Sultan had lost his sword in a war with the Nairs of Travancore during the Battle of the Nedumkotta, in which he was defeated. The Nair army under the leadership of Raja Kesavadas again defeated the Mysore army near Aluva.

2-The Maharaja,Dharma Raja, gifted the famous sword to the Nawab of Arcot, from where the sword went to London. The sword was on display at the Wallace Collection, No. 1 Manchester Square, London.

3-At an auction in London in 2004, the industrialist-politician Vijay Mallya purchased the sword of Tipu Sultan and some other historical artifacts, and brought them back to India for public display after nearly two centuries.

4-Tipu was commonly known as the Tiger of Mysore and adopted this animal as the symbol of his rule. It is said that Tipu Sultan was hunting in the forest with a French friend. He came face to face with a tiger. His gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He reached for the dagger, picked it up, and killed the tiger with it. That earned him the name "the Tiger of Mysore".

5-He even had French engineers build a mechanical tiger for his palace. The device, known as Tipu's Tiger, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

6-Not only did Tipu place relics of tigers around his palace and domain, he also had the emblem of a tiger on his banners and even on some arms and weapons. Sometimes this tiger was very ornate and had inscriptions within the drawing, alluding to Tipu's faith.

7-Historian Alexander Beatson reported that "in his palace was found a great variety of curious swords, daggers, fusils, pistols, and blunderbusses; some were of exquisite workmanship, mounted with gold, or silver, and beautifully inlaid and ornamented with tigers' heads and stripes, or with Persian and Arabic verses".

8-There is also a recent finding that the popular legendary woman warrior Unniyarcha was a contemporary of Tipu Sultan and in fact Tipu had captured her in war and taken her to Mysore in 1790 May and forced her to be one of his wives.

9-The finding was made by writer Manantheri Bhaskaran who claims to be Unniyarcha's relative (4th generation grandson of Unniyarcha's brother).