TIPPOG

SAHIB (1753—1799)  , sultan of Mysore, son of Hyder Ali (q.v.), was born in 1753 . He was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employment of his father . In 1767 in the invasion of the Carnatic he commanded a corps of cavalry, and he distinguished himself in the Mahratta War of 1775-79 . On the outbreak of the first Mysore War in 178o he was put at the head of a large body of troops, and defeated Brathwaite on the banks of the Coleroon in February 1782 . He succeeded his father in December 1782, and in 1784 concluded peace with the British, and assumed the title of sultan . In 1787—88 he subjugated the Nairs of Malabar, and in 1789 provoked British invasion by ravaging the territories of the raja of Travancore . When the British entered Mysore in 1790, he retaliated by a counter-invasion, but was compelled by Cornwallis's victory near Seringapatam to cede half his dominions (March 16, 1792) . The British having deemed it necessary to renew hostilities in March 1799, he was shut up in Seringapatam and finally killed during the storm (May 4, 1799) . Tippoo was of cruel disposition, and inferior in military talents to his father . See L . B . Bowring, Haidar All and Tipu Sultan (" Rulers of India series," 1893) .