Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan, also known as the The Tiger of Mysore (December 10, 1750, Devanhalli – May 4, 1799, Srirangapatnam) was the second son of Haider Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakr-un-nissa. He ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from the time of his father's death in 1782 until his own demise in 1799. Tipu was a learned man and an able soldier. He was reputed to be a good poet. He was also a strongly religious man, and practised the Sunni branch of Islam. He was also a fanatic muslim and massacred thousands of Hindus, and considerable number of Christians in North Kerala, Coorg, Mangalore, and other parts of Karnataka. He destroyed about 8000 temples and churches in his invasion of Malabar and converted thousands of terrified villagers to Islam under the thread of death. His atrocities are the stuff of legend in North Kerala to this day. He continued the war against the British begun by his father. He helped ensure the defeat of the British in the Second Mysore War, and negotiated the Treaty of Mangalore with them. However, he was unsuccessful in preventing his neighbours allying themselves with the British, and was defeated in the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars by their combined forces. He died defending his capital Srirangapatnam, on May 4, 1799.

Rocketry in War

A military tactic developed by Tipu Sultan and his father, Hyder Ali was the use of mass attacks with rocket brigades on infantry formations. Tipu wrote a military manual called 'Fathul Mujahidin' in which he described 200 rocketmen as being assigned to each Mysorean 'cushoon'. The areas of town where rockets and fireworks were manufactured were known as Taramandal Pet (roughly translated as "Galaxy Place").

Related Topics:
Military tactic - Hyder Ali - Rocket - Fathul Mujahidin - Cushoon - Taramandal Pet

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A study of similar Maratha rockets (about 2,000 of which were fired simultaneously at the battle of Panipat by the Marathas) led to the publication of A Concise Account of the Origin and Progress of the Rocket System in 1804 by William Congreve.

Related Topics:
Panipat - Maratha - 1804 - William Congreve

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