Srirangapatna

Srirangapatna is a medium-sized town (c150k population in 2011) situated around 30 minutes north of Mysore by road and is eminently suitable for an afternoon excursion from that city – which is what we did way back in 2004. It didn’t get added to India’s T List until 2014 and we were certainly NOT betting on even the possibility of a UNESCO future! No, we visited because of its significant role in the history of British imperial expansion in India…….. “The Battle of Seringapatam, 1799”

Now that event is not of course the reason for its addition to India’s T List. The UNESCO description finds plenty to say about the history of this 7.2sq km island in the River Cauvery before it even reaches the period of the battle. The Cauvery is another of India’s “Holy Rivers” and, among others along its banks, Sriringapatna (“SRP”) is a significant Hindu pilgrimage site with its Ranganthaswamy Temple dating back to the 9th C. The fort, located in a highly defendable location surrounded by the river on 3 sides, was first built in the late 15th C by the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire (they of Hampi!) to consolidate its defenses against the Muslim Deccan Sultanates further North (Whose own “Monuments and Forts” are also on the T List!). The decline of that Empire (including the destruction of Hampi by the Sultanates in 1565) allowed the feudal family of the area to take over in 1610 and they made SRP …