ipu's Lal Bagh Palace, at the east end of the
island,
no longer survives. Lady Clive described it as 'very beautiful
all over in white and gold,' but Tipu never lived in it
after 1792, because it had been inhabited, during the Third
Mysore War, by Lord Cornwallis and his British soldiers.
At the west end of the island, within the Fort, was another
palace.
Buchanan was not impressed
by this palace, which he described in 1800 as 'a very large
building, surrounded by a massive and lofty wall of stone
and mud, and outwardly �. of a very mean appearance.' Today,
only vestiges of it remain, but the charming Darya Daulat
palace still stands, with its classical
Persian
garden and water channels,
pigeoncotes
and
arched entrance. A description
of the palace in 1822, by Rev. Hoole, captures the airy
elegance of Tipu's architecture: 'This Palace or Banqueting
House, now in ruins, was 30 years ago the most superb in
this part of India. The walls were plastered with chunam,
firm and bearing a polish equal to plaster of Paris. On
this white ground, a regular pattern of (the) appearance
of rich porcelain and superior to the best paper used for
rooms in England. The four principal appartments open with
their full width to the court or garden.'
The Indian artist probably depicts here the Lal Bagh Palace, guarded
by Tipu's
'tiger' soldiers. The splendid
floor carpet was perhaps the 'singular and elegant carpet 27 feet
square from Tippoo's Palace' that was included in Phillip's sale
of General Carnac's possessions, 6-10 June 1804.
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