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Cool/Interesting Stories in History
2017-01-26 02:50:01 Post No. 2276947
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2017-01-26 02:50:01 Post No. 2276947
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Title says it all, cool / fun history stories. I'm a great-gamefag so I'll share you guys a story I posted here a while back on the training of the first Pundits. If you don't know what the Great Game is then here's a general overview from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game
>"The Great Game" is a term used by historians to describe a political and diplomatic confrontation that existed for most of the nineteenth century between Britain and Russia over Afghanistan and neighbouring territories in Central and Southern Asia. Russia was fearful of British commercial and military inroads into Central Asia, and Britain was fearful of Russia adding "the jewel in the crown", India, to the vast empire that Russia was building in Asia. This resulted in an atmosphere of distrust and the constant threat of war between the two empires.[1][2][3]
Many parts of Central Asia and Tibet were unexplored, blank spaces on the map. The British, who were wary of a possible Russian invasion were always looking to fill these spaces and make sure that there wasn't a place where the Russians could easily invade India from. However, by the 1860's it became more and more apparent that these areas were dangerous. Wary, warlike tribes would arrest, sometimes even kill Europeans on sight. Disguise had worked up until then, but it was quickly becoming ineffective. This is where the Pundits come in. The Pundits were natives of the Indian subcontinent that were used to gather information, they were essentially a hybrid of explorers and spies. In places where it was thought to dangerous to send Europeans to, the Pundits were used to gather intel and report on the geography and diplomatic proceedings happening in nations neighboring British India. They were especially wary of Russians and any news pertaining to them, for it was the Russians who were expanding towards India, the 'jewel in the crown'.
Now, for the story of the first Pundits:
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>>2276947
So the British-Indian Government faced the problem of getting surveys of these dangerous areas in Afghanistan, Tibet, and some parts of Central Asia. This Captain named George Montgomery(If you've read Kim, Montgomery is the inspiration for Colonel Creighton) comes along. He has the brilliant idea of using natives to penetrate these areas. Now it was dangerous for anyone to be found making maps/surveys of these areas, regardless of race. It was just thought that Indians had a better chance of staying hidden since they were more common in these areas.
Now it was time to figure out where these surveyors would come from. It was decided to use people from this clan of Hindus called the Rawats who lived near Tibet. They were a mix of North Indian Rajputs and Tibetans. Rawats had a good understanding of Tibet because an ancestor of theirs helped drive the Chinese out of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasavorar holy places to Buddhists and Hindus alike. They were given more free reign near the usually closed off Tibetan border. They also looked and spoke Tibetan, which would make matters a bit easier for them.
So two people were chosen, Nain and Mani Singh Rawat(they were cousins). They were taken to Dehra Dun, the headquarters of the Survey Of India(A British-Indian Government project that made maps and surveys of the Indian Sub-Continent). They went through 2 years of vigorous training. Some things were easier than others, reading sextants, compasses, and thermometers. Others were more complicated. To determine altitude they boiled water(The lower the boiling temperature, the higher the altitude). They were also trained in having a constant stride length, even when going up steep hills. Nain's was measured to be 31 inches, which meant approximately 2000 steps per mile.
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>>2276953
Nain and Mani were put in the disguise of a Buddhist Monk, not an uncommon site in the mountains of Tibet. This gave them a lot of places to store the heavy measuring equipment they needed to hide. One example is the rosary, which was used by the Pundits as a way to measure the distance they had traveled. The Buddhist rosary holds a total of 108 beads on it. Montgomery decided to cut off 8. This would leave an even 100 beads, and the difference in beads was small enough so as to not attract suspicion. Every hundreth pace, the Pundit would slip a smaller bead. Every tenth bead was slightly larger than the rest. These larger beads represented 1000 paces, or roughly half a mile. Since every Pundit had a constant stride length there would be little variation.
The staff of the first Pundits' disguise held thermometers. The prayer wheels held compasses as well as coded notes rather than the usual prayers. A strongbox held their sextants. There were also various hidden pockets in their clothing to hide other objects. The later Pundits would branch out more in their disguises. They would become traders or Muslim pilgrims. They were also heavily trained in the art of lying and cover stories, for any slip of the tongue could mean death. Many would travel for years before returning. Some would never return.
Nain and Mani failed on their first attempt to Tibet. Though Mani would fail on their second attempt, Nain would succeed in reaching Lhasa, being the first person to record it on British Maps. He told accounts of the various crops, and trade routes of Tibet. In total, he traveled 1200 miles. He would be the first person of Asiatic descent to be awarded the gold medal by the Royal Geographic Society.
There's a few other cool stories about the Pundits, but much of it is hidden due to the nature of their job. I'll quote Kim here to get the point across: "We of the Game are beyond protection. If we die, we die. Our names are blotted from the book. That is all."
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This was such a great thread a few months ago. Please continue with the re-post.
also bump
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nice story, thanks
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>>2277021
Doing that thread was a lot more time consuming than it looked. Nowadays I post short stories I know on the Great Game whenever it seems relevant to the discussion. Maybe I'll be able to do it in a few months, though as I understand it a lot of people didn't like that thread taking up space for so long.
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Does anybody happen to have a link for Hopkirk's "Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia" or "Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia?" I read the Great Game and hunger for more.
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>>2278249
I have the Lenin one, will post later.
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>>2277047
>though as I understand it a lot of people didn't like that thread taking up space for so long
WHAT?
Hell no. This is good quality /his/tory. PROCEED.
Ignore those losers who just want to post another Hitler dindu thread.
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>>2276947
Here's a good one from Aztec times during the rule of Moctezuma the first.
>The aztecs started out as a poor huntergatherer band
>settled in a swampy island with no resources
>the Mexica start to become very adept at war, and essentially become a city full of mercenaries for local wars.
>overthrow their rulers in a bloody civil war, the Aztec emperor promises that if this war fails, the people of the city can murder and eat all of the nobility inside.
>moctezuma in power now
>conquer and secure territory from the valley of mexico to the gulf coast.
>rich as fuck now, with a massive sprawling metropolis as the capital.
>Moctezuma sends an expedition of soldiers and priests north to find the Aztec traditional homeland.
>after months of travel, the expedition reaches Aztlan, their original homeland.
>go to the elders there and bring them gold and jewels to show off wealth.
>elders aren't impressed, they say that the empire is doomed.
>only one way to save their empire, according to the tribesmen.
>a peculiarly large tribe elder asks for some of the gold, but the aztecs were unsure of how much to give.
>tribal elder asks for 3.50.
>at this point, the aztec priests take a few steps back and notice the elder is 10 stories tall and sitting in a pond.
>it was the goddamn lochness monster again.
>aztecs go home, tell Moctezuma they never found their homeland and never bring it up again.
>empire destroyed in less than 50 years.
>tfw should have given him the money.
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>>2279038
it's been a while, thanks
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>>2278585
Great I'd prefer to read that first anyway.
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>>2279038
W-what
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>>2279038
nice.
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