TIPU’S frantic efforts to win colonial backing from the French, Dutch and Ottoman Turks all ended in disappointment. Nonetheless, for nearly two decades he enjoyed remarkable military success against the British and their Indian allies. Sometimes those allies fought alongside Tipu; the threat of Tipu made London more cooperative, and though he ran Mysore as an Islamic stronghold Tipu could be a benefactor of his Hindu neighbours when diplomacy demanded.

Between them, Tipu and his father fought four stubborn wars against the British, but General George Harris eventually defeated Tipu at Seringapatam in 1799.*

Seeking stability and reconciliation, Harris interviewed and was profoundly impressed by Tipu’s Hindu right-hand man, Purniya. He reappointed Purniya as Mysore’s chief administrator, and made him tutor to the young king, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III. Purniya was as gifted in peacetime as Tipu had been in war, and Mysore flourished thereafter as one of British India’s most progressive, peaceful and cultured states.