A Tiger Burns Bright

A NEW BOOK AND EXHIBITION ON THE CONTROVERSIAL TIPU SULTAN SEPARATE MONARCH FROM MYTH

- Sonal Shah

A few years ago, Delhi Art Gallery acquired a seminal work, 'The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultan', painted in England after the death in 1799 of the Tiger of Mysore, that near-mythical, often controversial leader who led one of the most successful campaigns against the British East India Company in the four Anglo-Mysore wars. An engraving of the painting was one of the most widely circulated images of these battles between British troops and Tipu's forces, sometimes allied with the French. Like most depictions of Tipu's life and his encounters with the British, it was painted by an artist who conjured up a fantastical tableau without much first-hand knowledge of the setting.