Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s2.t6.3

v1.c15.s2.t6.3

Briggs, who accepts the veracity of the above narrative,⁴ comments thus on the passage: "If any reliance is to be placed on Molla Dawood Bidury, the author of Tohfut-oos-Sulateen, guns were used at this time by the Hindoos; and in a subsequent passage, it is remarked that the Mahomedans used them for the first time during the next campaign. But I am disposed to doubt the validity of both these statements. From the latter passage it seems possible, indeed, that the Mahomedans might have procured guns from the West in 1368, because they are said to have been used eighteen years previously by Edward III at the battle of Cressy, though it is very improbable; and Ferishta, in stating it to be the first time the Mahomedans employed them, also observes, that Toorks and Europeans, skilled in gunnery, worked the artillery. That guns were in common use before the arrival of the Portuguese in India, in 1498, seems certain from the mentioned made of them by Faria-y-Sousa, who represents the Moorish vessels in India, in 1502, bearing down upon the vessel of Peter de Ataide, called the 'St. Peter, into whom she passed her shot, and then made away, and was pursued and taken off the bay of Cananor.' . . .¹ Faria-y-Sousa, who accompanied the early Portuguese in India, writes in chap. ix., p. 99. ibid.: 'The Moors of Sumatra, Malacca, and the Moluccoes (by which last appellation he means those princes bearing the title of Moolk, that is, the several princes of the Deccan) were well disciplined, and much better stored with artillery than we that attacked them, A.D. 1506'. All these circumstances, however, do not lead to the conclusion that the Hindoos had guns before they were introduced from the West by the Mahomedans, who adopted their use from Europe".²