English: Photographer: Tripe, Linnaeus

Medium: Photographic print Date: 1858

This photograph of a view of the Virabhadra Drug, taken by Linnaeus Tripe in 1858 and published in an album entitled 'Photographic Views of Ryakotta and other places, in the Salem District...with descriptive notes, by J.A.C. Boswell, Esq., M.C.S.' (Madras, 1858). In this place existed one of Tipu Sultan's forts or 'droog', meaning fortified hill. Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), the eldest son of Aider Hali, ruler of Mysore, was the most powerful enemy of the British at the time of the East India Company. The four Anlgo-Mysore Wars were fought between him allied with the French and the British who formed an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marhattas. These campaigns ended with the defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799. The numerous forts and palaces he built were destroyed by the British after his death. Tripe was in charge of one of the battalions of the 12th Madras Native Infantry, a regiment funded in 1824 and stationed in Madras. In 1855, Tripe was commissioned to take photographs for the British East India Company and the Madras Presidency which resulted in six albums.