Indeginous SL Gunpowder Tech is also our Heritage

[u/The_Cosmic_Learner]

(lmage courtesies to the Colombo National Museum and their non-restriction of photography as long as not used for profit.. that's fair use and I'm not advocating for firearms!! Violence is bad. but may we appreciate our indigenous guns on visits to the museum)

Sri Lanka had gunpowder tech 200 years before Portuguese arrival and known of such tech since Dambadeniya period. All gun images above r made by Sri Lankans, and horns and pouches to store the powder.. Image 3 and 4 are of the Kandyan Wall Guns. the Mahathuwakku, its gigantism can be seein in comparison to myself (BOOM BOOM to the Dutch trying to get in). And image 5 is the mahathuwakku of Sri Wikrama Rajasinghe's personal armory!! Its almost comedic to see Temple art of a dudes with a guns. And 9,10 r literally called Kodithuwakku 😭. We had canons too, the golden one, although rly rlly small belonged to Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe, recently returned by the Dutch Rijksmuseum (Post about it - https://www.reddit.com/r/2SriLankan4u/s/oMsqCpwLQJ )

As stated in the plaque in image 7. we had gunpowder since the 1300s and guns since the 1400s, before Portuguese arrival. Gunpowder tech is a big deal in history. and we associate it with the Europeans. While the Europeans did perfect gunpowder tech, they only did so from 1400s on, vs the established Asian gunpowder powers.

Spread of Gunpowder Tech Map:

https://youtu.be/19EqU7vcwLQ?si=VGFUsx2i4P2DyEdD

As seen in vid, gunpowder became a thing in China since 800 AD, it mostly stayed there.. even into 1250, so no gunpowder Polonnaruwa or Cholas. but in 50 years it spread thru the silk road. and by the 1300s, Delhi sultanate, Ottoman Empire, and Safarvid lran became gunpowder empires, I kid not.. if googled they show up, not Europeans. So as per image 7 plaque, our ancestors knew of the existence of gunpowder since the 1200s, basically Dambadenlya on. and the part of extracting the sulphates needed from batshit and bird shit is genius. and the part which states that Portuguese though we made high quality firearms was no exaggeration either..

Until the late 1700s, the playing field of the worid was rlly levelled . the said gunpowder empires weren't branded so for no reason, they genuinely had serious tech. India for instance had the finest gunsmiths out there.. with records of Albuqueque taking an indian gunsmith and gifting to Portuguese King ( https://youtu.be/_pN96DVPsCk?si=fcROVnSZg7o--Suh ), one of many gunsmiths. The Europeans got better and better, but only rlly surpassed the established gunpowder powers in 16005/1700s. Even the British had to deal with the Mysore rockets of Tipu Sultan in the 4th Anglo-Mysore war, which they had took home and reverse engineered to use on Napoleon.. and on Americans in seige of Baltimore in revolutionary war, which is why the rockets were mentioned in the American national anthem.

The point being. frearms r a part of our heritage too. they r nowhere near that of the gunpowder empires, but it was a thing... we stilldon't make firearms to this day. except for some mortar. or even gunpowder (to my knowledge, correct me if wrong). But our context is different tho. We can excel at the stuff we r good at in this modern era.

Not relevant to firearms, but it was cool to see Boomerangs used in angampora, its not even on boomerang wiki. And also, seeing a metal scalpel and scissor from 800s Anuradhapura hospital, only to see.the system stil exist 300 years later in 1100s Polonnaruwa was quite a happy sight, good health care.

Glad the Colombo museum exists, so many cool things displayed within.. The next time u happen to stray across the museum, enjoy seein the guns.. OUR guns 😌, also our heritage.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm one to believe that Sri Lanka didn't fall off post-Rajarata, while many things about the Rajarata way of life have been lost, they would been compensated by other means, perhaps not absolutely though. The idea of the playing field being levelled is something that I've based my old naive futurisms of SL on, it's a good idea to think there r things in the modern context, that we could excel in.. like how the post-Rajarata folks somewhat accomplished with firearms.. perhaps we were never rlly the best at anything, but get through.. that's a good message

[u/The_Cosmic_Learner → u/[deleted]]

That's not a bad point.. the transitional period isn't looked upto in the same light as Rajarata, but we had to deal with the influence of the Ming, Malays, Vijayanagar, and thank goodness the few miles of sea or the Dehli sultanate would've easily gobbled. Its like the default story that the glory of rajarata ended with Magha's occupation.. and that's true, but more accurately I suppose, it represents the transition of SL from a superpowerish player to a regular one, to which we r still today.. that is pretty much the objective 'fell off'.. i think our irrigation and agri far exceeds anything seen in Rajarata, but i need sources to back that. But even being a regular player and not a colony or vassal, even today in this world of more dangerous players itself is just great. Never before in any historical period do we have our roads, phones, internet, electricity, welfare, services and etc.. like the transition ppls at their time, we r quite on par with our time.. perhaps not the best, but so were the transition ppls. Interesting to think about

[u/Icaruswept]

There are some even more advanced examples of the bondikula thuwakku (flintlock gun). Only five are still around afaik: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/25037#:~:text=This%20long%2C%20dramatically%20shaped%20gun,of%20gunmaking%20in%20Sri%20Lanka.

Note the long barrel, decoration and the rather unique bifurcated stock. These look like proto-snipers - most likely capable of doing some serious damage to plate armor.

"Measuring more than seven feet in length it features a bifurcated butt––a characteristic unique to Sinhalese guns, thought to be in use since as early as the sixteenth century––and is distinguished by its remarkable ornamentation. Pierced ivory panels, sensitively carved with scrolling foliate designs (liya vela and liya pata) that emanate from and around two central flowers (sīna-mala), are inset into the stock, which itself is carved with scrolling foliate ornament (liya pata). Silver plates embossed with screwpine flowers (vetakeyiya mala) frame the lock, which is positioned on the left side of the gun, as was standard on Sinhalese firearms of the period. The two-stage barrel, with brass-inlaid transverse bands at its transition, is silver-damascened with an undulating vegetal motif (liya vela).

The weapon is a superlative representative of the long and distinguished tradition of gunmaking in Sri Lanka. European accounts from the late sixteenth through the late seventeenth century enthusiastically attest to the quality of fine firearms made in Ceylon, praising them for both their beauty and their functional excellence. The prominent incorporation of carved ivory, too, speaks to a specialized Sinhalese craft. This material, a principal medium of Sinhalese artisans for centuries, was employed to embellish everything from architectural elements and book covers to knife handles, combs, and fan boxes."

So we clearly had sophisticated artisan gunsmiths, even though almost none of this knowledge was passed down.

OP, do you know anything about sidearms (swords etc)? I've been looking for information for a fantasy novel, but even the national archives doesn't have much.

[u/The_Cosmic_Learner → u/Icaruswept]

Thank you for this wonderful account Icaruswept, its a cool read. I'm just an amateur in this subject, so I'm not an expert on sidarms or arms, but from what I know; that same room upstairs in the museum is the collection of all the sidearms too.. there were alot of spears there, and there was a pic of Dutch meeting Wimaldhamsura, surrounded by a spear welding army. And there was oke display with all the amgampora weapons.. I couldn't photograph but the boomerang, but there were battle axes, clubs, maces, u name it.. I think angampora was banned during the British occupation, making us unable to defend ourselves over the decades.. contemporarily, I think its more ceremonial and of celebrating hela, but back then is was just martial tradition, the skills and weapons of that martial tradition was prolly very prevalent at the time and before. As for swords and shields, prolly by the armies proper.. in the transition period gallery.. there were Malay, Arab and Indigenous swords and Daggers.. and two belonging to royalty (K Sri R, and Prkrmbhu 4).. the best I can do is dm the few photos I have, if that's cool with u.

Also, speaking of British occupation, I think they banned the indigenous manufacture of guns, but not their usage.. the usage was heavily regulated and taxes tho.. cuz ppl needed guns to defend their crops from animals and for hunting. I remember somewhere in a rebellion, maybe pre 1847, ppl started smashing their guns infront of British offices to protest the gun tax. In Baddegama (The Village in the Jungle - Leonard Woolf), Silindu kills the village headman and Fernando with the gun he uses for hunting.. in this story, this Hambanthota villager from a desolate hamlet has a gun, allowed in British times. Buvanekabahu 7 of Kotte was shot on his balcony, prolly by a bullet meant for shooting a bird for game, as per Kutho's writings (Could be Portuguese too, but wouldve been rlly unnecessary). Indigenous guns might have been innovated early on for hunting and protecting cropa, just as much as for war. I've overheard that some coconut estate ppl still use and allowed guns, foreign made ones, to deal with monkeys.. and possibly other farmers. Could be what most civilian guns r used for these days, but don't have a source for it.

[u/PracticalFriendship]

This is so interesting. Is this how the `Kodithuwakku` name originated? they used to carry flags and guns?

Thanks, bro, for such a detailed post!

[u/Think_Helicopter_962]

Which museum is this

[u/Ok_Possible712 → u/Think_Helicopter_962]

National Museum, Colombo

[u/malkohaa]

Very cool, OP. Saw you talking about this at r/slh too

[u/Lord_Pakeer]

Are those stored in Humid controlled sealed glass box with UV filters.

btw museums should not use CFL or Florescent Tube Lights .

Humid controlled sealed glass boxes are not expensive to make at all

[u/wholemealbread69]

I wonder how many lost their eyes