Our tale unfolds in the mighty Vijayanagara empire ruled by the incomparable King Krishnadevaraya.
The King was taking stock of the readiness of his armed forces to wage war against his chief rival Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur, who had provoked him for several months with guerilla attacks on the frontier settlements. The Sultanate would conduct raids with lightning speed and retreat before the army could be mobilized.
Krishnadevaraya knew that the enemy was not just motivated, but also cunning. They hadn’t openly declared war yet against Vijayanagara, but resorted to proxy war with mercenaries to deny their involvement. He took the counsel of the wise Tenalirama to buttress the ponderous army of heavy swordsmen and spearmen with faster cavalry archers, who could rapidly gain ground and rain arrows upon the fleeing enemies.
The Chief Armourer Gaurava, who was in charge of supplying armour, spears and swords for the soldiers, needed to ramp up production of iron arrowheads to provide for the newly enlisted cavalry archers. The enemy was growing bolder each day and Vijayanagara needed to give them a fitting reply soon.
The traditional method of open sand casting which required a lot of hammering to finish the arrowhead profile wasn’t suitable for use now. Hence, Gaurava opted for the quicker method of investment casting with which he could make wax profiles of the arrow heads, cover them in a plaster mould and then pour iron into it to get the arrow heads.
While Gaurava got this process in place, the results were not very encouraging. His problem was that the arrows had a lot of chipping and other defects owing to improper sealing of mould which caused molten metal to ooze out, resulting in a lot of rework and rejections.
Gaurava tried different methods of sealing but to no avail. The wise Tenalirama who happened to visit the despondent Gaurava, patiently listened to his problems and suggested that he try the fine river clay in place of the ordinary clay being used by him. Tenali proposed that the fine clay would provide an airtight seal to all his travails.
Gaurava, took up this idea and within a few trials, was able to successfully seal the moulds with river clay. With this new process, he could produce perfect arrowheads through casting in the first attempt without any rejections or rework required, thus meeting the requirement well within the stipulated time.
Adil Shah, confident over the muted response from Krishnadevaraya, had mobilized his main army to attack Vijayanagara. They were in for a rude shock as King Krishnadevaraya was fully prepared with a big contingent of cavalry archers. The battle was a massacre of the Sultanate forces, who had no answer to the hail of arrows. King Krishnadevaraya secured yet another victory, thanks to the creative thinking of Tenalirama and the effective execution by Gaurava.
King Krishnadevaraya recognized the contribution of Gaurava to the victory by awarding him a hundred gold coins and appointed him the Chief Engineer. Gaurava was also made in charge of training a team of workers to make arrowheads using the new process, ensuring that Vijayanagara will be ready for even more formidable adversaries.
Lessons Learned
From this story, we can see how we can find inspiration from diverse sources, and use them to come up with innovative solutions to address our problems that can deliver beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.