Tipu and some curves

About Tipu Sultan's summer palace

Tipu’s Summer Palace in the Fort High School area of Bangalore is in a large enclosure right adjacent to the National Heritage Site of Sri Venkataramana Temple. The soothing chants of the temple weave in and out of the summer palace, as we wander through it. He must have heard them too?

sri venkataramana temple - bangalore

The land available is vast yet Tipu’s summer palace is very small.

Tipu Sultan's summer palace

A little hall has four flights of steps leading to rooms. The rooms open out to the central area that has two tiny balconies. Tipu Sultan must have stood there as he gazed upon subjects who came to speak with him. The rooms are actually very small, while the garden is huge and lovely. Today we cram a 15 square house into a 30x40 plot! All this makes this small palace so beautiful and so beautifully frugal… considering that Tipu was an emperor.

Do you think he had a thing with curves?

I mean look at his handsome moustache!

tipu sultan - painting

His empire stretched from the curves of the Malabar coast to the undulations of the Bellary plains…. (too much? OK read the rest..)

His library had more than 2000 books so he must be a lover of Arabic, Urdu and Persian writing. This inscription at his summer palace declares it as: Abode of Happiness and Envy of Heaven. (Arabic writing is curvy…OK not as much as Malayalam… but still)

abode of happiness & envy of heaven

Teak flute-pillars contrast with white designs, arches catch the light,

exquisite painted patterns nestle on walls, calligraphic writings adorn windows…(this is definitely curvy)

arches that catch the light

He invented and fired rockets from canons and reached a target 2 km away, this was a record even by French and British standards of that time. (imagine the trajectory…gotcha)

The sword of Tipu … that was brought back by Vijay Mallya

The sharp dagger that he used to kill a tiger that attacked him… he was called The Tiger

Are just more curves

... And Tipu had four wives.

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Tipu Sultan was a brave and tactful commander.....taught me my daughetrs as they struggled to learn the longest answer in the socials book in class 2