Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) had a
wonderful library. We are fortunate in having an account of the books that he maintained
in his library near his Lal Mahal palace in Srirangapatna, near Mysore
The library was fortunately
not burnt when the British defeated Tipu in the fourth and final Anglo-British
war if 1799 and overran Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799.
What the British forces did
was that they emptied the library of almost all of its books, journals,
chronicles, maps, drawings and other items. They then took away these items either
back home to England or to their
libraries and houses in Madras , Calcutta
and even Bombay
A few of Tipu’s books formed
part of the collection of the library of
the Governor-General of India in Calcutta and then the Viceroy’s library first
in Calcutta and in Delhi after the capital of India was shifted from Calcutta
to Delhi in 1917.
What was Tipu’s library like?
How was it different from other libraries.
Unlike Hyder Ali, Tipu was
educated. Though Hyder was unlettered, he encouraged his people-family, friends
and relatives Tipu included, to learn and write.
Tipu, as was his personality,
was diverse in his reading habits. He liked books on the Koran as he did on
military strategy. His library also had books on gardening and horticulture.
When the British managed to
raid his library on May 4 and May 5, 1799, they indexed 44 different volumes on
the holy Koran or Quaran, 41 commentaries on Koran and each of them by
different authors, 35 books on prayers, 46 on tradition, 115 books on Sufism,
24 books on ethics, 95 texts on law and jurisprudence, 19 on arts and sciences,
118 on history, 53 letters, 190 works on poetry, seven on mathematics, 20 on
astronomy, 29 on lexicography, 45 on philosophy, 23 on Hindi and Dekhani
poetry, 62 on physics, four on Delhani prose, two on Turkish prose and 18
fables and stories.
Many of the manuscripts were earlier
in the possession of the Adil Shah Kingdom of Bijapur, the Qutb Shah dynasty of
Golconda
Tipu was fluent in several
languages such as Kannada, Hindustani, Persian, Arabic, French and English and
he had books on each of these languages in his library.
Tipu was highly possessive of
his books. He often read them and some he read over and over again. He made it
a practice to put his signature and stamp on every book he read. When the
British looted his library, they found that most of the books in the library
bore his signature and stamp.
The signatures were artistic
and put in an intricate and unique style. Many books bore the signature Nabi
Malik, another name of the Sultan.
When the British decided to make
an inventory of the library, they appointed Kirk Patrick, as its supervisor. He
went over almost every book in the library and also made a mote of the books on
which Tipu had signed. He found Tipu’s wittings to be much superior to others. Some of the comments and
writings that Tipu had jotted down were exceptionally lucid and compact.
Kirk Patrick indexed at least
2000 books in the library. This loot was divided between the Cambridge
and Oxford Universities
in England and the College
of Fort William in Calcutta and the Royal
Asiatic Society, Calcutta
Some books came into the
possession of Robert Orme, the historiographer of the East India Company who had
collected a large number of manuscripts, books and letters during his career
and requested the East India Company to create ‘a repository for Oriental
Writings.
That Tipu loved Sufism is without
doubt. He had great respect for them and he often read about Sufism. He also
encouraged Sufis to reside in his kingdom. His respect for the Sufis grew
manifold when two Sufis fought alongside him in the battle of Bangalore
Charles Stewart in his book, “A
descriptive catalogue of the oriental library of the late Tippoo Sultan”, lists 115 books on Sufism in Tipu Sultan’s
library. He also says that the library had 190 books on poetry, 118 on history and 90 on the Koran and Hadith.
He also records in the book
that after the fall of Srirangapatna, Marquis Wellesley, the Governor-General
of India, ordered that the Mysore manuscripts in
the library be transferred to the library of the college on Fort William
in Madras
One of the most valuable
books in the library of Tipu was the illuminated Koran. As can be guessed and
expected, the British took it away to England University of Cambridge
Another Koran is in the possession
of Oxford University
This is among the books that
the East India Company gave the Bodleian, Cambridge University Library and the
Royal Asiatic Society.
This manuscript is open at
the highly adorned carpet pages. Written in the centre of the decoration is the
first chapter of the Koran. Above are two sarlawhs, is the literature saying: “This
is the opening chapter of the Book which was revealed at both Mecca
and Medina
Other books in the library
included Su' al-o- Jawab-i-Dara Shikoh Wa Baba Lal, a treatise detailing the
conversation between Prince Dara Shikoh, the Mughal prince and brother of
Aurangzeb and Baba Lal Das of Kaithal on the life and doctrines of Hindu Faqirs
or Hindu mendicants.
Another book was Kashf
al-Mahjub, the oldest systematic work on the theoretical and practical
doctrines of Sufism by Abul Hasan Ali bin Uthman bin Ali al-Hujwiri.
The history section of Tipu’s
library had books such as Tawarikh-i-Firuz Shahi by Shams-i-Siraj Afif,
Akbarnama and Ain-I Akbari by Abul Fazal, Majmu’a-i-Khuwrrami and Shah Jahan
Nama by Bahadur Singh, the Alamgir Nam-the tale of Aurangzeb’s first ten years
as the Mughal Emperor and even a book on Bahadur Shah, the son of Aurangzeb.
Tipu also had in his library accounts
of the countries of Iran, Afghanistan and European countries and he had books such
as Tarikh–i-Alam Ara–Ara-i-Abbasi, a history of the life and region of Abbas of
Safawi dynasty of Iran by Iskandar and the Ketab Timouryeh and Tarikh Shah
Rookh which deal with Timur Lang: Rozet al Jenat on the history of the City of Heart:
Abdallah Naheh which deals with the history of the Usberg Tartars.
The Tabkat Akberry is a manuscript
that deals with the history of India :
Tarelh Bahmani a history of the Bahmani kings of Gulbarga
The Tarikh Rozet al Suffra, a
work in Persian, dealt on the Prophet and the first four Khalifs.
Thus, we see that Tipu has a
fairly vast and diverse collection of books covering a range of subjects. Tipu
owed his knowledge of the arts and his education entirely to his father, Hyder
Ali.
Though he was unlettered, Hyder
made special arrangements to ensure that Tipu received good education.
An expert calligraphist, he wrote
more than 45 books himself or he got it written under his supervision. Tipu was
a bibliophile and he get good religious books read out to him at lunch or dinner
time.
He went to bed in his hammock
with a book in hand. He also built up a rare and comprehensive personal library
in the palace, which contained an exquisite collection of rare books on
different subjects. The books were looked after by a librarian.
He established a separate department
for binding books. After binding the
books, the name of Allah, Muhammad, members of the Holy Prophet’s family and
the rightly guided caliphs were printed on the title page. Then, on the top and
bottom of the book were inscribed the words, Sultanat-e-Khudadad.
In 1785, he received a book in French from Europe about the science of medicine. He ordered that the
book be translated. The same year, he set up a university in Srirangapatnam called
Jamia-i-Umoor where both religious and modern education were imparted
simultaneously. A rare Persian translation of Mahabharata prepared on the order
of Emperor Akbar under the supervision of Abul Fazal, was also part of Tipu’s library.
Apart from the University, Tipu
asked the Qazis and the Imams of mosques to set up a madarsa in each mosque,
where education was imparted to children and the details of the children and
their books were to be made available to the Sultan. If a child bunked school, the Taluqdar of the area was supposed to ensure
that the child was present in the madarsa.
Today, the 
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