Seringapatam

Extra troops were deployed to the games after security provider G4S admitted it was short of staff At Seringapatam their forces were 50,000 strong, the size of a big European army of the time.

I shall retain full sovereignty of Seringapatam, for the company as being a tower of strength from which we may at any time shake Hindostan to its centre, if any combination should ever be formed against our interests.

In the south between the 1760s and 1799 the company fought four wars with the Muslim rulers of Mysore who were French allies, ending in the siege of the island fortress of Seringapatam in 1799 in which Sultan Tipu was killed.

Tipu was finally defeated after the siege of Seringapatam in 1799 and soldiers from the East India Company went, open-mouthed, into his palace and took what they wanted.

The animals are among the more striking items listed in a detailed and hitherto unknown record of the spoils seized by the East India Company following the final defeat of Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam.