The second edition of Twelve Views of Places in the Kingdom of Mysore (published in 1805), a collection of drawings and paintings by Robert Hyde Colebrook, says the following about this work: ‘Sewan-Droog is one of the most stupendous rocks in the country, and as a fort has been generally deemed impregnable. It lies 19 miles from Bangalore, in a direct line, bearing S. 82˚. W. This place is surrounded on all sides by extensive woods and thickets, inhabited by tigers and other wild beasts. Several rills of clear water issue from the foot of the rock, and discharge themselves into a small river in the vicinity. Tanks or reservoirs have been constructed on the hill itself, some of which have been hewn out of the solid rock.’

Painted four decades after the event, Wilkie’s version of the finding of Tipu’s body was created to reinforce the crucial role played by Sir David Baird, at the insistence of his widow. Baird is shown standing on a step at the entrance, raising one hand to command attention while the other, holding his sword, points to Tipu’s limp body, laid out below. Tipu’s body is curiously shapeless below the waist, as though he had literally been deflated. But the most telling detail here is the grilled window beneath Baird’s feet, a reminder to the audience that Baird had been held prisoner at Srirangapatna for four years by Haider Ali after the Battle of Pollilur.

To depict the family lamenting over Tipu’s corpse, Henry Singleton returned to a more neoclassical composition and mood. Once safely dead, Tipu could be associated pictorially with the heroes of classical antiquity affording some dignity, being shown as a man who deserves to be mourned. The body, laid out on a couch, is surrounded by wailing women and children, whose hysterical gestures raise futile protests against the event, even as the stillness and solemnity of serious-minded men confirm it as certain.