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Saturday, Jul 22, 2006

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Missiles of Mysore

R. Krishna Kumar

Tipu Sultan's and Srirangapatana's legacy lives on

Srirangapatana: It is a slice of military history waiting to be revealed. This sleepy town on the banks of the Cauvery in Karnataka was the bedrock of early rocket science and missile technology of sorts that had the British on the run.

Local village residents are oblivious of it but military historians and the Archaeological Survey of India have identified a few sites as those from where Tipu Sultan launched his missiles and sent the enemy scampering.

Almost two centuries before Sriharikota and Chandipur-on-Sea became synonymous with rocket-launching and missile-testing, this temple town was making strides in the field of rockets and missiles. This riverine island that was the capital of the Mysore kingdom that defied British Raj, made such progress in rocket science in an age when high speed travel was defined by the galloping pace of an Arabian stallion and the geographical perspective of the masses did not extend beyond the neighbouring kingdoms.

But now that the Government is keen to document the scientific achievements of India to celebrate its intellectual and scientific heritage and draw inspiration from it, the contributions of Tipu Sultan and his father Haider Ali are being recognised and spoken of at length in various fora. Dr. A.S. Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Controller, Research and Development, of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who is also the chief executive officer and managing director of BrahMos Aerospoace, made a visit to sites associated with Tipu's rockets on Thursday.

It is now recognised by Indian scientists who have worked on the subject that Tipu Sultan's Mysore kingdom was the first to apply scientific principles to test and perfect rocket and missile technology. The Tiger of Mysore had 27 brigades or Kushoons and thus Tipu's army was the first to have a rocket brigade in modern times. These rockets were extensively used in 1792 and were the cause of the British setback. In fact, some of the rockets fired by Tipu's men are preserved in the Artillery Museum at Woolwich in London. Tipu's rockets had a range of nearly 2 km.

Indian defence scientists have now averred that Srirangapatana is the birthplace of modern rocket science and technology and after the initial breakthrough achieved in 1792, the next important milestone was the launch of the V2 rockets by Germany during the Second World War. Experts say the casings were made of steel and used swords as war heads while packed gunpowder was used as the propellant.

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