Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/213

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TIPÚ'S RAGE FOR INNOVATIONS
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'the resplendent presence,' and 'our prosperous person,' while his army was denoted as 'the holy camp.' The same inflated ideas of his royal dignity appear in the titles which he gave to his government, such as 'the God-given state,' 'the Lion of God government,' 'the Haidarí rule,' &c. But he was very chary of bestowing titular honours on his own chief officials, whose respectful salutations he never deigned to acknowledge. In addressing even great foreign potentates, such as the King of France, he used expressions only suitable when writing to an inferior. The climax of his arrogance was reached when he ordered the 'Khutbah,' or daily prayer in the mosques, to be read in his own name, instead of that of the Mughal Emperor.

He had a rage for innovations, and was constantly changing the names of places, and altering well-established customs. To natives of India who, like most Orientals, delight to 'stand in the old paths,' many of the changes introduced by the English, though in themselves generally beneficial and often laudable, are distasteful in the extreme. The fanciful innovations of Tipú were the effect of mere caprice. He must needs alter the territorial divisions of his dominions, calling the coast districts the 'Yam Súba,' the ancient Malnád the 'Taran Súba,' and the plain country the 'Ghabra Súba.'

In like manner innumerable changes were made in the names of places, the town of Devanhalli, where he was born, being called Yusafábád, the abode of