Painting showing Tipu Sultan's victory over British in Battle of Pollilur being auctioned in UK

Fine arts company Sotheby is all set to auction an early 19th-century painting of the Battle of Pollilur this Wednesday at the 'Arts of the Islamic World & India' event, reported the Times of India.

The painting, a 10 m wide panoramic extending over 10 sheets of paper produced between 1799-1820 by Seringapatam locals which portrays the battle won by Tipu Sultan against the British, is worth about Rs. 5-8 crore. This painting, one of the only three, is the second painting of the Second Anglo-Mysore War of 1780 being sold at Sotheby’s.

The painting shows the battle fought between the East India Company and Haidar Ali, Tipu Sultan, Mysore’s rulers. It captures the moment when “two of the East India Company’s ammunition tumbrils explode”, wrote TOI.

The Times of India quoted historian William Dalrymple as saying that this painting is “arguably the greatest Indian picture of the defeat of colonialism that survives”. The historian added, “Tipu Sultan was probably the most effective opponent that the East India Company ever faced. Tipu showed that the Indians could fight back, that they could win, that they could use European tactics against the Europeans and defeat them. The first time that a European army is defeated in India is the Battle of Pollilur. There is no picture of an 18th century battle in India surviving and this is the great masterpiece and it is in a near-perfect condition. You can see every individual face, the horror, the excitement, bloodlust.” Dalrymple went on to say that Tipu Sultan “identified the British as dangerous outsiders, and with his defeat of the Company at Pollilur did more than any other ruler of the time to stop them taking over the country”.