Mysore Tipu Sultan's Famous Sword (Revised Post 2014)

Tipu Sultan of Mysore,India.. facebook.com

Tipu Sultan's sword- hilts with tiger theme.mangalorean.com

Tipu Sultan's sword- British museum. itdunya.com

Tipu Sultan's short sword-silver engraved. ancintarms.biz

Tipu Sultan who ruled Mysore till 1799, fought four wars against his arch enemy British India Company who swallowed many Indian land unethically. He never fought wars without his legendary sword specially made for him as per his requirements. In the final war in 1799 fought at his fort he died fighting with his famous sword and a golden ring inscribed ''Ram''.

His swords are prized items and are now part of valuable collections in various museums in England. What was so special about them? Made of Wootz special steel, it is incredibly hard and has razor sharp edge that could easily rip through the opponent’s armor. This type of steel was made from high carbon steel called ''Wootz'' which was produced all over south India. Swords with wootz steel possessed, sharp edge accentuated with a flowing water pattern. Small carbon crystals embedded in the steel created this unique flowing patterns produced in hundreds of smelting furnaces in Mysore.

Tipu Sultan's famous sword,Royal collection. www.flickr.com

Francis Buchanan, who toured across Mysore in 1800, noted the rare technique being used to make wootz steel in hundreds of smelting furnaces in Mysore. It involved in the furnaces, iron was mixed with charcoal and put inside small clay pots. Through an intricate control of temperatures, the smelters produced high grade steel ingots that were used for sword making, not just in India but in West and Central Asia too. Wootz is an anglicized version of the Kannada word ukku, Telugu hukku and Tamil and Malayalam urukku – meaning hardened steel, though lightweight it was very strong.

Buchan further observed..Tipu slept in a hammock suspended from the ceiling of his locked bolted bedchamber with a pair of pistols and this sword by his side .....the blade with inscription ''The Sword of the Ruler''

Michael Faraday, the legendary scientist and discoverer of electricity and electromagnetism, upon his detailed study of Indian Wootz steel concluded it was a fascinating steel product. The Wootz steel making process, widely known in south India, was completely lost by the mid 19th century. With arrival of the British and imports of iron and steel from England, swords and armor making industry slowly died down. British imports impacted the highly skilled Indian artisans' skills in several fields; indigenous technology and workmanship all disappeared after the British took over the control of vast Indian subcontinent.

Seven years after Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought a sword of Tipu Sultan, a majestic saber of the Mysore king fetched 505,250.00 pounds at a Southey's auction here.The 200-year-old sword was estimated to go under the hammer for 50,000.00 -70,000.00 pounds. It at last sold at nearly 10 times that estimate. According to the auction house, there are a very small number of sword hilts, such as the one auctioned, which have a pronounced tiger theme that was a mark of Tipu's ownership.
Another highlight of the auction was a rare Indian bronze cannon cast at the Mysore king's royal foundry. This artifact of 1790 AD was bought by an anonymous buyer at 313,250.00 pounds.

Among other items in the lot were a tent canopy that fetched 121,250.00 pounds, a whooping sum and a rare matchlock carbine that came under the hammer for 91,250.00
The auction fetched 15.4 million pounds, compared to the 1.2 million pounds earned at the first part of the Tipu Sultan auction of 2005.''

Mangalorean News. dated 16th April,2010