Historians do not agree about the date, but many believe that Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, who remained one of the most implacable enemies of the British in India, was born on this day. After his defeat at Seringapatam at the hands of the combined forces of the British, the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad, and death, his family was exiled to Kolkata.
Tipu’s son Ghulam Mohammad built two identical mosques in the city in memory of his father. Both are known as Tipu Sultan mosques; one is at Dharmatala, which was built in 1842, and the other is at Tollygunge, where Tipu’s family had settled. They lived on a stipend from the British, but used it judiciously to buy land on which the mosques were built.