^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Mysore (British India)

image by Blas Delgado Ortiz
Source: Ziggiotto (1998).

Some facts
The flag
Variant flag
Tippu Sahib's flag
Flag of Tipu Sultan at Srirangapattanam

See also:

Some facts

21 guns
1931 area 26,637 square miles
1931 population 3,523,000

Ed Haynes, 3 April 1996

Mysore - or (since 1973) Karnataka, State, S India; capital Bangalore; 74,037 square miles. Title: Maharajah.
Jarig Bakker, 12 November 1998

The flag

The flag of Mysore was red over brown with arms in the centre. The image above, without arms, is incorrect and this flag was never official. The colours of the flag are defined in French as "rouge brique sur brun" [brick red and brown]. As far as I know the brown is a light maroon (perhaps like the golden shown in Neubecker (1992)) and I speculate that the flag can in fact be red over golden. Remember that some months ago Nozomi Kariyasu travelled to Bangalore (capital of Mysore/Karnataka and he saw many red over yellow flags.
Jaume Ollé, 21 August 2000

Brun is brown, so I would say maroon rather than golden.
Olivier Touzeau, 22 August 2000

Variant flag

image by Sarvagnya, located by Pete Loeser, 8 June 2014
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GBerunda.JPG

The Indian city of Mysore has a rather unusual emblem on its arms and flag with a two-headed bird - see http://www.worldstatesmen.org/mysore.gif.
James Dignan, 8 June 2014

I found that the "double ducks" are actually from "medieval" city of Karnataka. It is the Gandaberunda emblem found in the Mysore Palace and now the official emblem of the Karnataka state in India.

Sources: Political History of Medieval Kamataka ( http://www.ask.com/wiki/Political_history_of_medieval_Karnataka?qsrc=3044) and (http://www.ask.com/wiki/Political_history_of_medieval_Karnataka?qsrc=3044)
Pete Loeser, 8 June 2014

Wikipedia's image of the flag is described by Jaumé Ollé is included on FOTW. Here's a variant featuring Richard's flag (#17-41a) plus the coat-of-arms in the middle, which takes us back to this image, featured on the subsection "Variant flag", by Sarvagnya, located by Pete Loeser, 8 June 2014, which was clearly meant to be as a recreation of the flag, only in different color scheme to Roberts. This same flag is referred to by this website as the State flag.
Esteban Rivera, 23 December 2017

Tippu Sahib's flag

image by Blas Delgado Ortiz

This is the old flag of the Tippu's navy of Mysore (in use c.1784-1799), white with a red border, with five red disks, one in the center, the others in the four corners. Source: Ziggioto (1998)
Jarig Bakker, 6 May 2002

image by Blas Delgado Ortiz

Blas Delgado Ortíz drew this banner from a scan I previously made from Ziggioto (1998). This is one of probably many banners of Tippu Sahib, the Tiger of Mysore (1782-1799).
Jarig Bakker, 31 May 2002

Flag of Tipu Sultan at Srirangapattanam

image from Richard Sambasivam, 18 December 2017

The flag is actually a real waving flag, as seen here: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8353/8328440031_8595a7c0ba_b.jpg (source: flickr.com). Picture caption reads: "Tomb of Tipu Sultan at Srirangapattanam, Mysore, India. Srirangapatna, the historical town of India, located near Mysore city, has many important tourism and historical sites. Gumbaz, the tombs of Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali is one of the most important tourist site in Srirangapatna. Tipu Sultan, the tiger of Mysore, the great warrior who fought with the British empire, built Gumbaz in the midst of Lal Bagh, a beautiful garden. He built tombs for his father Hyder Ali and mother Fathima Begam (Fakr-Un-Nisa) in Gumbaz. The structure is very beautiful standing on a high and wide platform with an open verandah of polished pillars all round. The highlight of the Gumbaz structure are well shaped large dome, ivory inlaid doors, and carved stone windows of fine workmanship. The chamber is painted with the tiger stripes. The flag that represented his kingdom, adorns the front part of the mausoleum."

Here's another image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Gumbaz.jpg (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan). Picture caption reads: "The mausoleum housing Tipu's tomb is another example of Islamic architecture. Tipu's flag is in the foreground."

And here's a better image, with a clearer inscription of the emblem in the middle: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/192/491645588_b1f604398d_b.jpg (source: flickr.com)
Esteban Rivera, 23 December 2017