
Indian warrior king's rocket cache found in abandoned well - benbreen
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/27/indian-warrior-king-tipu-sultan-rocket-cache-unearthed-in-abandoned-well
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mdani
Tipu made the first indigenous rocket is a myth. There is ample evidence that
the indigenous rockets were in use in Deccan at least 100 years before Tipu’s
time. History of Aurangzeb’s reign, the Farsi manuscript of Mathir-i Alamgiri
and the official records of the reign called Akhbarat-i Darbar-i Mualla
mention Aurangzeb examining an indigenously made rocket at the siege of Satara
diring his wars in Deccan in 1700 AD. So its sad to see the myth alive and
being reported by British press.

~~~
greglindahl
Can you point out where this article claims Tipu made the first indigenous
rocket? I don't see that said anywhere.

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dzhshnacct
relatedly there is some recent debate and discussion on gunpowder in india vs
china

Indian Gunpowder – the Force Behind Empires

[https://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/indian-gunpowder-
th...](https://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/indian-gunpowder-the-force-
behind-empires/)

h/t

[https://mobile.twitter.com/wiavastukala/status/1022469132871...](https://mobile.twitter.com/wiavastukala/status/1022469132871032832)

~~~
shripadk
Surprisingly this sort of coverup is a common occurrence with any
story/history that originates from Ancient India. And it's not just the
Western authors who did this. Indian archeologists are to also partly take
some blame. The best example is that of the submerged city of Dwarka:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVIsjx5X3QM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVIsjx5X3QM)

If it had been any other country, there would be lot's of excavations
(example: Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt) and in-depth study of the artefacts
recovered. Strangely, most archeological excavations in India start with a lot
of brouhaha and then die down almost immediately. Then rumours spread about
possible cover up (with the involvement of Government officials in pilfering
these historical artefacts and selling them in the black market).

~~~
srean
I will attribute those things to lack of funding, lack of interest of the
general populace, and lack of competence and less to malice or conspiracy (as
it is often made out to be) -- they stabbed us in our back.

Where I went to college in the US there was this house about a hundred odd
years old. They would be absolutely drooling at that 'historic' artifact,
there aren't as many (physical historical artifacts). People had a lot of time
to care and funds to attend to it. Compare that with any run of the mill old
city in India, or compare its capital, Delhi. It would be hard to throw stones
far and not hit constructions that are 100 years old. The city is strewn with
these and people are to busy fighting for their day to day needs. In such a
scenario it is hard for the populace to agree that significant funds need to
be allocated for preservation and restoration.

Add the political agenda to it that selectively directs the attention to
artifacts that fit their agenda -- then this is what you get.

~~~
ajmurmann
I'm not sure this is a good explanation, since the "drooling" over houses that
are merely a hundred years old is pretty much like to the Americas. Yet
discoveries in most of Eurasia and Africa are treated really well in general.

~~~
srean
That's a very interesting point and was hoping HN'ers would add to my
understanding, so thank you. I would be very interested to know how it works,
for example, in Rome where "you cant miss a historical artifact if you throw a
stone" applies with great force.

~~~
ajmurmann
Don't know about Rome but in Germany people see it as part of their heritage
and identity and get excited when new stuff gets discovered

~~~
StavrosK
What do you mean "discovered"? I may be confused, but I thought we're talking
about hundred-year-old houses? In Greek cities, there are villas that are
100-150 years old and beautifully built. We aim to restore those, as they're
beautiful buildings and nice reminders of an earlier era, but they are thought
of as "almost modern". Ancient stuff is anything that's more than two thousand
years old or so, and those definitely have higher significance (although you
can barely dig a hole without finding a bunch of those too).

~~~
srean
My '100 year old house' example was to point out that _even_ for a 100 year
old houses Americans care a whole lot. I think ajmurmann here is talking about
older archeological findings.

Regarding digging, you might find it funny that Indus valley civilization got
discovered thanks to their bricks that the British found while laying railway
tracks in North Western India. Those where being used as free and cheap but
high quality ballast. So its indeed true in some regions one has to take care
to miss.

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godelmachine
>> “the Mysorean, a prototype of British Congreve rockets used in the
Napoleonic wars.”

The Mysorean is a prototype of British Congreve rockets? I thought the Brit’s
adopted rockets ideas from the Mysorean!

~~~
wolfgang42
_> prototype. n. A first, typical or preliminary model of something... from
which other forms are developed or copied._

So, yes?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
"prototype _for_ British rockets ..."

The "of" suggests an interpretation like "based on", I can see how that phrase
could be misinterpreted as an autoantonym.

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baybal2
The Tiger of Mysore had a fine war machine. Were he and Maratha to unite, they
could've canned British few times over.

~~~
fellellor
Maybe true, but that's an alliance that could only be conceived by idle nerds
in the history channel.

It's like saying, were the Nazis and the Soviets to unite they would have
canned the Americans a few times over.

~~~
baybal2
Indeed. In fact, dozens of minor kingdoms submitting without a fight to
British is said to be them preferring British to heavy boot of Marathas or
Mysorees

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swombat
That's no accident though. Divide and Conquer was a core conquest and
governance strategy for the British Empire, one that has left scars across the
world that are still causing conflict today.

~~~
sumedh
> one that has left scars across the world that are still causing conflict
> today.

How about stopping the British blame game and just accept the fact that humans
like to group themselves in a tribe and fight other tribes.

~~~
GW150914
Because some of us can still see the Northern/Republic of Ireland divide and
realize that wasn’t an existing divide, but created entirely by the British?
Then there’s how they handled Israel, but that’s too much of a can of worms to
open here.

~~~
Shivetya
Don't stop with the British, European colonialism is responsible for the
majority of issues we have in the Middle East today. Even African is still
recovering after the mess left there.

