Tipu Sultan

Karnataka > Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan (1782-99) continued his father's anti-British policy, and he dreamt of driving the British out of India. He sought the assistance of Napoleon, the French ruler and also the rulers of Turkey and Afghanistan. Tipu was a scholar and a bold general. He introduced sericulture in Mysore Kingdom; and took firm steps to establish industrial centres producing quality paper; steel wires for musical instruments, sugar and sugar candy. He was very keen on promoting overseas trade and initiated State trading and founded stores not only in different centres of his kingdom but also at Kutch, Karachi and Basrah in the Middle East. He had a curious mind and was keen on introducing novel things in every walk of life. But his ambition of driving the British failed and he died in 1799, fighting against the British. Mysore fell into the hands of the British who handed over parts of it to the Marathas and the Nizams, their allies in this venture, and crowned the Hindu prince, Krishnaraja Odeyar III, as the ruler over Mysore kingdom, whose territories considerably reduced. They secured the territory to the north of the Tungabhadra by defeating the Peshwa in 1818, and became masters of Karnataka. Kodagu (Coorg) a small princely tributary state, was also annexed by them in 1834 by dethroning its ruler Chikkavirarajendra.