Seringapatam Medal

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The Seringapatam Medal, also known as the Sri Ranga Pattanam Medal, was a campaign medal given by the Honourable East India Company to British and Indian soldiers who helped win the Battle of Seringapatam in 1799. This battle ended the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and led to the death of Tipu Sultan, with Mysore becoming a princely state under British influence.

Commissioned in 1801, the medal was meant to reward all ranks who contributed to the victory, including those who joined the campaign but did not fight. It was the first HEIC campaign medal awarded to both Indian and British troops on the same basis, and even Swiss mercenaries like the Regiment de Meuron were eligible. The original medals were minted in England in 1801–02 and sent to India in 1808 for distribution to dignitaries and troops from the Bombay and Madras presidencies.

Medal wear and materials varied by rank. Gold was for the highest-ranking commanders and dignitaries, silver-gilt for intermediate officers and senior HEIC officials, silver for more junior officers, bronze for native commissioned and senior non‑commissioned officers and for European sergeants, and tin or pewter for corporals and other ranks. A second issue was struck in Calcutta in 1808 for Bengal Presidency, but the Calcutta version followed different practices in metal assignment for native officers and other ranks.

The medal was usually worn on the left chest with a pale orange ribbon that suggested the tiger stripes of Tipu Sultan’s emblem; some officers used a blue-edged red ribbon, and some native soldiers wore a yellow cord. There was no official clasp, though some recipients added an unofficial “Seringapatam” clasp.

About 53,900–54,000 medals were awarded in total. The design, by Conrad Küchler, shows on the obverse the British lion trampling a tiger (Tipu’s emblem) with an Arabic inscription translating to The Victorious Lion of God and the date of the fort’s capture, IV MAY MDCCXCIX. The reverse depicts the storming of Seringapatam Fort with the sun overhead and a Persian inscription.

The original medals measured about 48 mm in diameter; the Calcutta copies were smaller (about 46 mm) and of somewhat poorer workmanship. Although worn with pride, formal permission to wear the medal came later: 1815 for HEIC officers and 1851 for the British Army.