The name translates to "the city of SRI-RANGA", the main deity of this temple town. In the year 1133, Sriranganathaswam Vishnu temple served as a refuge for the philosopher Ramanuja. The Vijayanagars built a fort here in 1454, and in 1616 it became it became the capital of the Mysore Wadiyar Rajas. However, Srirangapatnam is more famously associated with Hyder Ali, who deposed the Wadiyars in 1761, and even more so with his son Tipu Sultan, who used to worship there though he was a muslim by faith. During his seventeen-year reign which ended with his death in 1799, at the bloody battle of "Seringapatnam"; Tipu posed a greater threat than any other Indian ruler to British plans to dominate India. Tipu and his father were responsible for transforming the small state of Mysore into a major Muslim power. His burning life-long desire to rid India of the hated British invaders naturally brought him an ally in the French. He obsessively embraced his popular name of the "Tiger of Mysore", surrounding himself with symbols and images of tigers; much of his memorabila is decorated with the animal or its stripes. Tipu's Srirangapatnam was largely destroyed by the British, but parts of the fort area in the northwest survive, including gates, ramparts, the grim dungeons, and the domed and minareted Jami Masjid mosque.