ccording to the contemporary inscription on this watercolour,
the gateway was on the north face of Seringapatam,
a short distance from the North-East angle of the palace
and about three hundred yards from the North-East angle
of the fort. At that time, the inner gateway, opposite the
road which still leads to the Mosque
was the most eastern of all the sally ports. The inscription
also suggests that the structure was of little significance:
'It was built about five years ago and is only worthy of
notice as being that part where Tippoo Sultaun was killed.'
In 1804, Lord Valentia, who was staying at Seringapatam
with the officers of the De Meuron Regiment wrote in a letter
of 4th March that 'The Gateway where Tippoo fell has been
destroyed with the inner work: a road is formed in its stead
which will ultimately add much beauty to the town.' At Seringapatam
today, an inscribed stone, standing some distance East of
the Watergate claims to mark
the site of Tipu's death.
Some authors, including Kirmani and Hasan, have suggested
that this gate was shut deliberately on the fateful 4th
May, to block Tipu's escape. Nor would the guards re-open
the gate when ordered to do so. Even the Commandant of the
fort, Mir Nadim, standing on the roof of one of the gates,
ignored Tipu's commands. The omens for that day had not
been favourable, and Tipu himself may have suspected treachery.
His own Diwan, Mir Sadiq, had already approached the Nizam
of Hyderabad, negotiating a reward for himself in return
for betraying his master. The Nizam seems to have kept his
word, because he awarded Mir Sadiq land at Gurramkonda after
the fall of Seringapatam. Mir Sadiq's reputation for extortion
and torture was notorious, both under Haidar Ali and as
one of Tipu's favourite officers - he appears with Tipu
in the Pollilur mural at the Darya
Daulat palace, Seringapatam. However, as Francis Buchanan
relates, Mir Sadiq died the death of a merciless traitor
at the hands of Tipu's followers: 'his corpse lay for some
time exposed to the insults of the populace, none of whom
passed without spitting on it or loading it with a slipper;
for to him they attributed most of their suffferings in
the tyrannical reign of the Sultan'. The artist of this
watercolour, Thomas Sydenham, was an engineer with the Madras
army. During the final assault on Seringapatam, he was attached
to the southern party under Col Sherbrooke, together with
Majors Allan, Beatson
and Dallas. Two of Sydenham's drawings were in the collection
of Colin Mackenzie.
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