Srirangapatna - Places of Interest

Srirangapatnam or Srirangapatna is a small town 19 Km from Mysore city in Mandya district of Karnataka state of South India. It has got religious, historic and cultural importance. The entire city is enclosed by Kaveri River to form as an island. Once it was the capital for the King Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan popular as ‘Tiger of Mysore’. The town can be reached from Bangalore or from Mysore and well connected by Trains and buses. The town got its name after the famous temple located at this place Sri Ranganathaswamy.

Important places to visit in Sriragapatnam:
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple: This an oldest temple of Sri Ranganathaswamy Swamy (Vishnu) constructed by Ganga dynasty in 9th century and later improvements were done by Hoysala and Vijayanagar kings architecturally about three centuries later. It has been dedicated at three places as Adi Ranga at Srirangapatna, Madhya Ranga at Shivasamudra and Antya Ranga at Srirangam. The Pachima vahini of Kaveri Srirangapatna is very pious and the people immerse the ashes of the departed in the Kaveri River and perform the last religious rights and pray for an eternal peace of the souls.

Fort of Tipu Sultan:
The legendary capital of Tipu Sultan the ‘Tiger of Mysore’ is located here it recollect the history. It is said to be one of the strongest fort in India and an important monument. It is from here Tipu attacked the British soldiers with his legendary sword. Betrayed by his own men Tipu died within the fort (Tipu’s Palace). An obelisk stands in the fort to mark the place where he was killed. After defeating Tipu the British captured the fort. Tipu’s residence was also constructed within the palace but the British after capturing the fort completely demolished it. Now barely we can see only few remains to remember there was a palace once upon a time. There are also four dungeons in the fort to captivate the prisoners. A launch pad for launching missiles during wars can also be seen here.

Daria Daulat Bagh:
It is the favorite summer palace of Tipu Sultan constructed in the year 1784. It contains paintings, engraving, arms that depict the glorious victories and the conflicts of Tipu Sultan. The structure was constructed with teak wood with beautiful wall paintings. But it is sad to note that most of the paintings are not maintained at all and totally neglected. The Government should take responsibility to maintain them to preserve for generations to recollect the glorious victories of Tipu.

Museum:
A museum with famous paintings depicting the victories of Tipu painted by well known painters, Tipu’s turban, a striped shirt, a necklace and a belt studded with precious stones with a sword attached can be seen in the museum. Various medals made up of bronze, silver and copper released by British to commemorate the victory over Tipu are also can be seen in the museum.

Gumbaz:
These are tombs constructed beautifully between 1782- 1784 for burial of Tipu sultan, his father Hyder Ali and his mother Fatima Begum in the midst of Lalbagh garden with a wide platform, verandah and well polished pillars all round. Gumbaz was constructed with fine workmen ship in a great artistic way with ivory inlaid doors, carved stone windows and inscriptions. The walls are covered with Tipu’s favorite tiger stripes. In the verandah some more tombs were laid to the family members of Hyder.