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| Gold ring worn by Tipu at the time of death.1799,Srirangapatnam,India. hamariweb.com |
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| Tipu Sultan of Mysore,India, tmilnews.com |
Lord
Wellesley (20 June 1760 - 26 September 1842), an Angelo-Irish politician and colonial administrator, was the fifth Governor-General of India (1798-1805) and made a name for himself during his stint in India In 1799, he invaded the fort of Srirangapatna of the Mysore kingdom south India with his troop and after a long and tough sea-saw battle (4th and last Angelo-Mysore war - 1798-1799), he came out victorious after the death of highly spirited warrior Tipu Sultan. He portrayed Tipu as as a cruel tyrant and had to be killed. Tipu's war campaign in Malabar and Coorg turned to be violent against non-Muslim communities. In 1799, he got the Irish peerage title of Marquess Wellesley and also served as Foreign Secretary in the British Cabinet and as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
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| .Srirangapatna, Karnataka. nativeplanet.com |
Wellesley, became commander of the British army to fight against the Mysore kingdom.. Tipu Sultan of Mysore was a menace to the British rulers who were unable to establish their hegemony down south because of persistent resistance offered by Tipu. On getting secret reports from his spices/secret agents in 1798 that Tipu Sultan had a plan to collaborate with the French forces to confront the British and an agreement was in the offing, He made up his mind to get into swift action against Tipu.
Following the invasion of Mysore in February, 1799, on 4 May 1799, finally, he led
a well-trained British army against the ruler of Mysore who was a competent and a highly spirited warrior and who had a huge, powerful and well-trained army, besides an effective troop in charge of rocketry. In the early wars, the powerful Mysorean rockets gave nightmares to the British. Obviously, it was a challenge for the British commander to overcome Tipu right on his home ground.
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| place where Tipu died at Srirangapatna fort.1799. en.wikipedia.org |
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| Srirangapatna Gumbaz (musoleum).Karnataka. tripadvisor.in |
Above image: Gumbaz (Mausoleum) Srirangapatna, Karnataka. Here lie the mortal remains of Tipu, his father Hyder Ali and Tipu's mother Fatima begum. Architecture: Indo-Persian...................
The British army had to come up with a better strategy to pull a
victory over Tipu as they were dealing with a shrewd and dangerous enemy. Any wrong move meant the British forces would be finished for good. Using the help of some whistle blowers, at last Lord Wellesley and his other army men defeated
Tipu Sultan, in the decisive battle at Srirangapatnam, near Mysore,
Karnataka in 1799. Tipu died from a final gunshot wound he received from a British soldier when injured Tipu was being taken by his men to a secret place. While on war mission he used to wear a heavy,
oval shaped 41.2 gm gold ring with the name RAMA (Hindu God's name)
in raised Devanagari inscribed on it. When Tipu's body was found by the English soldier Wellesley checked out weather Tipu was dead or not. At last he had the gold ring removed
from the slain king and kept it as a token of his big victory in Southern India.
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| Richard Wellesley (Duke of Wellington). wikipedia. |
Later back in England, he gave the ring as a wedding gift to his favorite niece Emily with Fritz Roy Somerset, Wellesley's military officer and close confidant. Wellesley had a close and personal relationship with him for several years and they together fought wars in Crimea and Waterloo(1825), Belgium in which he defeated Napoleon, thus becoming the "conqueror of the conqueror of the word."
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| Tipu Sultans gold ting.indiatvnews.com |
Above image: This Tipu Sultan's heavy gold ring removed by Richard Wellesley from his slain body at Srirangapatna (1799) at the 2014 auction by Christie's in central London, got 10 times its estimated price, according to Christie's website. An interesting fact is in 2012 Christie's listed it for sale at an auction, but withdrew it from sale for unknown reasons. .
Presently
valued at 10,000.00 to 15,000.00 pounds this gold ring is one of the items
put up for auction at Christie's auction house. on May 24, 2014 by Somerset's great grand son
Baron Raglan! The well attended auction fetched 140,500 pounds –
a fabulous sum for the owners. Outie surprising that "a ring bearing the name of a Hindu god would have been worn by the great Muslim warrior". Some of the other artifacts,
treasures dated from 1858 were also auctioned. The heavy ring was sold to an
undisclosed bidder for 10 times above the actual rate.
Neither
the public-spirited Indian philanthropist nor the Indian government
bought this rare, unusual ring worn by Tipu Sultan - who put up a
brave fight against the mighty British forces - before dying on the
battle field. ''Private European'' is the only detail the auction
house has disclosed regarding the identity of the buyer.
It is a quite well known fact
that the decedents of the former East India company's officials - Governors, Viceroys and others, who had a long stint in India during early colonial rule or later under the Raj,
in order to pass through their financial difficulties, put up for auction the
old artifacts, gold jewels, gemstones and other valuable collections
(once plundered by their great great grand fathers in India). Invariably, they get a bundle out of their hoardings to tide over their family's financial mess.!! Thanks to the peerage bestowed on their forefathers and their wheeling dealing in a far off land. Glad the valuable Indians treasures looted by the English company's officials centuries ago became
so handy
as to
save the English gentlemen's face during their hardscrabble
days.
Ref: http://www.indiabells.com/news/tipu-sultan-s-ring-auctioned-in-london
https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/tipu-sultan-s-ring-auctioned-in-london-17294.html
( reedited: Feb. 03,2021)
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