Monitor Cliff Scalers

October 7, 2009 6:59 AM

In the book I'm currently reading, City of Djinns, is this intriguing passage:

"Centuries earlier, one class of Marathars had perfected a technique for scaling the cilff faces that had protected the hill forts of Central India: they trained giant monitor lizards – which in the Deccan grow to over five feet long – to climb up sheer rock faces; and so firm and fast was the lizards' grip on the cliff's cracks and crevices, that the Maratha assault troops were able to tie ropes around the reptiles' bodies and clamber up behind them."

I know that the gap between myth and reality in Indian reality/history/mythology is often slim, so I ask, does anyone have some concrete (or similar) instances/or the likelihood of this story being real?

posted by tellurian to society & culture (6 comments total)

I had heard this on some Discovery channel or History channel program. Then again, that could have simply been repeating the statement from this book, but I would think that at least they thought it was true if they repeated it.
posted by Eicats at 7:19 AM on October 7

This guy appears to have done it. And here.
posted by amanzi at 7:32 AM on October 7

This is almost as awesome as that crystal cavern that was an FPP recently.
posted by odinsdream at 7:36 AM on October 7

"A persistent myth that has little support from zoology or history"
posted by Phanx at 8:01 AM on October 7

The Military System of the Marathas corroborates. But then, even serious historians are apt to fall for really good stories without necessarily considering the likelihood of the subject matter being true. Happens all the time.

On the subject of training monitor lizards....
posted by IndigoJones at 8:22 AM on October 7

Thank you, amanzi for the great second link (as someone commented there, "Made. Of. Fucking. Win.") and Phanx for the science.
posted by tellurian at 3:17 PM on October 7