GHR Srirangapatna Run T-shirt

Srirangapatna was the capital of Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali, de facto rulers of Mysore State towards the latter part of the 18th century. Situated on the river island of the Kaveri it was scene of much prosperity and later, many battles between the British East India Company and Mysore State and their respective allies.

The Go Heritage Run – Srirangapatna 2017 Run T-shirt is representative of all things Tipu Sultan – his familiar headgear, his sword (which was brought back to India in 2004) and his quite commonly used tiger stripe motif.  About that tiger stripe motif: Tipu Sultan was known to have adopted tiger symbolism extensively and it was visible “on his arms, both large and small, on the uniform of his soldiers, on his coins, as wall decoration, on his flags, and, in probably the most spectacular example, on his throne, which displayed a massive gold tiger head with crystal teeth. The stripe was also stamped on the bindings of his books and served as the watermark on his paper“. 

Also on the run T-shirt and not quite representative of Tipu Sultan – but on it anyway – are a bunch of runners making their way across the island of Srirangapatna! And you can too – learn more about the run here.

Sources: Sakti and Barakat: The Power of Tipu’s Tiger. An Examination of the Tiger Emblem of Tipu Sultan of Mysore,  Kate Brittlebank, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (May, 1995), pp. 257-269.