The spot where Tipu’s body was found is near the northern edge of the fort. 300 m north of Srirangapatna fort. A stone-walled gateway area on the side of the road leading from Masjid-e-Ala towards the Water Gate has been identified as the area where Tipu’s body was found.
The place where Tipu’s body was found is about 127 km from Bangalore. It is about 27 km from Mandya city and just 15 km from Mysore city. Mysore Railway Station is only 16 km away and Srirangapatna is 01 km away.
Three armies arrived in Mysore in 1799 from the British, one Bombay and two British, with Arthur Wellesley as the British General Commandant. He besieged the capital Srirangapatna in the Fourth Mysore War. The British captured Tipu’s capital, Srirangapatna, after a month-long siege. Tipu was killed in battle by Arthur Wellesley on 4 May 1799 and his death ended the Fourth Mysore War (1799). Tipu Sultan’s death was marked by jubilation in Britain with the declaration of a public holiday.
The next afternoon he was buried at Gumaj next to his father’s tomb at Gumbaj. There were over 60,000 soldiers of the British East India Company, approximately 4,000 Europeans and the rest Indians. Tipu Sultan’s forces were only about 30,000. Tipu’s original name was Mir Fateh Ali Bahadur and later he was popularized as Tipu. Tipu’s military advisers told Sultan to escape through secret passages, saying that “It is better to live a day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep (ಕುರಿಯಾಗಿ ಸಾವಿರ ವರ್ಷ ಬದುಕುವುದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಹುಲಿಯಾಗಿ ಬದುಕುವುದು ಉತ್ತಮ).
The Gumbaj in Srirangapatna is a Muslim mausoleum at the center of the landscaped garden, containing the tombs of Tipu Sultan (west side), his father Hyder Ali (centre) and his mother Fakhr-un-Nisa (east side).
