The Eleventh Poona Rifles was a detachment of the British Army led by Phillip James Blumburtt. Mostly made up of Indian soldiers, the Rifles also contained a number of British troops. They arrived in Pankot during the liberation of its palace from the control of Thuggee high priest Mola Ram.
History[]
In 1935, the Eleventh Poona Rifles were stationed in Allahabad, India under the command of captain Phillip James Blumburtt. The detachment's juristiction covered an area that included the princely states of Pankot and Rampur.[1]
When rumors that the Thuggee cult, long thought to have been supressed by British forces was resurgent in Pankot reached the ears of Blumburtt,[1] he led[2] an eighty-man contingent[1] of the Rifles to Pankot Palace under the guise of a routine inspection tour.[2] The arrival of the troop at Pankot was seen at sunset by Indiana Jones.[3]
Indiana Jones and his friends discovered Thuggee activity beneath the palace whose servants included the youthful Pankot maharajah Zalim Singh who was under the thrall of a concoction called the Black Sleep of the Kali Ma. Short Round helped the maharajah regain control of himself and Singh sought out Blumburtt and the Rifles.[2]
They arrived just in time to help Jones defeat the Thuggee presence when the soliders engaged in a shootout over a ravine near the palace.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Many sources (including Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide, The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones, and the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Sourcebook)[4][5][1] refer to the "Eleventh Puma Rifles", but history records the regiment as named here. (Poona—or Pune—is a city in western India.) Other sources, such as The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones and Top Trumps: Indiana Jones, use the historically accurate name.[6][7]
A regiment of the British Indian Army's Auxiliary Force, the Poona Rifles served in the First World War. However, no designation of '11th' was used in the British Indian Army regarding a rifles regiment. Following a reorganisation of the British Indian Army in 1922, the 11th (ranked) regiment was the 11th Sikh Regiment, which had no connection to Poona.
Appearances[]
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom junior novel
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom comic
- LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Non-canonical appearance)
Sources[]
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Illustrated Screenplay
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Sourcebook
- The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
- Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
- The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
- Top Trumps: Indiana Jones
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Sourcebook
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom comic
- ↑ Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
- ↑ The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
- ↑ The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
- ↑ Top Trumps: Indiana Jones