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Tyrant is straight translation of the title Sultan! Peter Parley wrote in 1825. What things did you expect to change between Seringapattan and penning of Parley's tales?

To call a King who is slaughtered when defending his country from a foreign invasion as a 'tyrant' is kind of incongruous...don't you think. Reminiscent of the same strategy which is deployed in almost a predictable fashion even in our times...

Re: Tipu the 'Tyrant' ... ...Well, to be fair, he was hardly a model democrat , now was he ? Tipu Sultan was a ruler in the mold of his own times ~ an 'enlightened' despot... his reputation as a far-sighted and noble leader of men and of his own Mysorean nation has been, in my opinion, greatly exaggerated in India over the course of the last half-century and it is easy to understand why ~ his resistance to the British sits comfortably within the post-colonial patriotic, 'Indian' narrative that has been constructed since 1947. Having said that, he was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, and the EIC went to great lengths to demonise him in the popular imagination, both at home and abroad ~ don't forget that Seringapatam was the last stage in almost thirty years of Anglo-Mysorean conflict and Tipu was a long-standing thorn in the British side ~ and so he was already percieved as an 'enemy' ~ but it was still thought necessary to launch what we might , in modern terms, call 'a propaganda offensive' against him, and to paint him as the 'tyrant' in no uncertain terms .... Interestingly, much attention was drawn to his "unrelenting, unmanly, unprecedented cruelty of mind [ that] vented itself in a rooted antipathy and inveterate hatred toward Europeans [and who] urged his neighbours as a necessary duty of their Religion to league against all Christians and the Enemies of the Mohometan faith"* .... Such anti-western, 'Jihadist' rhetoric sounds uncannily familiar today, does it not ? The British were also worried about Tipu's military potential and prowess ~ his army was quite as advanced as anything the EIC could put into the field, and in some respects its superior, especially in terms of ballistics ( Tipu used 'rockets' which scared the living daylights out of the British)... but, in the final analysis, I come back again to the point that I made yesterday (below) ~ Tipu's links with the French could not and would not be tolerated by the British, with whom they were at war in Europe, and for this reason, more than any other, Tipu, it was decided, would have to be destroyed. The Battle of Seringapatam can be seen as something of a watershed in terms of British Imperial expansion, and how the Indian sub-continent eventually came so firmly under British control ~ for it marked, more than any other single encounter up until that point (even more so than the Battle of Plassey ~ which was not really a 'battle' at all) the transition of the EIC from an essentially commercial operation (although it was, of course, already the paramount authority in Bengal and elsewhere at this time) into an active political power in its own right ~ and one that was prepared to use military force to protect and consolidate its own interests. * Maya Jasanoff 'Edge of Empire' (2006) p.153

We have to accept that history is a merciless master...and its always the best (meaning powerful, mighty, cunning etc.) man who wins. Ironically, Tipu is equally admired abroad today and is seen less as a controversial character and more as... a historical figure there than here. If one were to open a historical museum dedicated to Tipu Sultan in South India today...one can only imagine the number of protests it would evoke. More so because he was cruel not just to the British...but also to many of his own countrymen. The list of his atrocities is fairly large. But all said...he was a fearless patriot with uncommon vision and imagination and great capacity for innovation. Probably the only Indian King who kept the British on their toes till his very end.

... Very true ... ... However ~ I would be surprised if many people in Britain had ever even heard of Tipu Sultan today ~ so I'm not sure how 'admired' he is internationally, RBSI... in his own time the British held a grudging respect for him ~ as a worthy and implaccable foe ~ and one who died bravely in battle, a quality that has always been esteemed ... but .... he was also a 'King' (as you say) who had usurped his own crown (or rather his father had) and that was a factor that also got up the British nose ~ with their reverence for 'organic' (rather than forced or seized) traditions and the 'legitimacy ' of ruling elites, Tipu was seen as an imposter ... the British, of course, put the Wodeyar family back on the Mysorean throne after the fall of Seringapatam ( even if they were merely puppets) , because this chimed with their own sense of lineal justice.

A TV serial (Door Darshan) on Tipu's life made by Sanjay Khan was quite a rage some 25 years ago. I don't think people would oppose a Tipu museum. But who wants museums in India any way?

The Dept of Archaeology, Govt. of India, has established a museum of Tipu in Daria Dowlat, Srirangapatna.