War in Ancient India c6.s1.16

c6.s1.16

A word may be said about the śataghna or śataghni. Śukra and Vasiṣṭha use this word in the sense of cannon. But it is doubtful whether in earlier times, for instance in the epoch of the Epics, it meant a cannon. Possibly it did not. In its literal sense it meant a machine able to kill a hundred men. It seems to have been a heavy column of stone or timber fixed with iron spikes on the ramparts of fortresses. Kauṭalya refers to it in this sense only. The ancient fortresses of Ayodhyā and Laṅkā had these machines provided on their ramparts.⁴⁵ There is the authority of the Harivaṃśa to indicate that there were smaller types of these machines carried in the hand. But these types do not find mention in the later military literature; the term used there unmistakably refers to cannon. It can therefore be safely concluded that these weapons, guns, and cannon were popular in India at the best before the advent of the Portuguese towards the close of the 15th century.