The Kingdom of Mysore was founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. The kingdom was ruled by the Wodeyar family. It initially served as a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire. As the Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1565) declined, the kingdom became independent. The Wadiyar dynasty was located in Indian subcontinent that ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from 1399 to 1950, with a brief interruption in the late 1700s.
Over the course of its time, several rulers ruled over the kingdom of mysore. However, among them all, Tipu Sultan is the most well known & decorated in the Indian History. The kingdom of Mysore was handed to him by his father. The hereditary rulers of the Mysore were relegated to nominal heads but they were rulers themselves. In 1796, when the Wodeyar king (who was a boy) died of Small Pox, Tipu Sultan crowned himself king. He was the king of Mysore till 1799 when he was killed in Srirangapatna.
From a very early age, he was exposed to politics and military by his father and that helped him to grow into the most influential leader of the country. He was born to Hyder Ali and his Fatima Fakhr Un Nisa. They named their baby Fath Ali but often called him Tipu after the local saint Tipu Mastan Aulia. Tipu Sultan's full name was Sultan Fateh Ali Khan Shahab.
He learnt shooting, riding and swordsmanship at a very young age, that is the reason he, at the young age of 15, captured the family of the Malabar chief with a force that was only two to three thousand people strong. During his reign, one of the major goals of Tipu Sultan was to destroy ruin Hindu temples in Malabar, and let Islam establish and thrive. Historians William Logan has mentioned in the “Malabar Manual” that Thalipparampu and Thrichambaram temples of Chirackal Taluqa, Ponmeri Temple of Badakara, and Thiruvangatu of Tellicherry were among the major temples smashed by Tipu Sultan.
He’s commonly known as the Tiger of Mysore and adopted this animal as the symbol of his rule. It is said that Tipu Sultan was hunting in the forest with a French friend. He came face to face with a tiger. His gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He reached for the dagger, picked it up, and killed the tiger with it. That earned him the name "the Tiger of Mysore". He will always be remembered as one of the most powerful rulers India ever had.
