War in Ancient India c6.s2.14

c6.s2.14

The Nālikā⁵⁴ is a hand gun or musket rightly piercing the mark. It was straight in form and hollow inside. It discharged darts if ignited. As has been already said, Śukrācārya speaks of two kinds of nālikas, one big and the other small. The small one, with a little hole at the end, measured sixty angulams (i.e., distance between the thumb and the little finger) dotted with several spots at the muzzle end. Through the touch hole or at its breech which contained wood, fire was conveyed to the charge. It was generally used by foot-soldiers. But the big gun had no wood at the breech and was so heavy that it had to be conveyed in carts. The balls were made of iron, lead or other material. Kāmandaka uses the word nālika in the sense of a firing gun as a signal for the unwary king. Again in the Naiṣadha, a work of the mediaeval period, there is a beautiful stanza where the two brows of Damayantī are compared to the two bows of the god of love and goddess of love, and her two nostrils to the two guns capable of throwing balls. Thus there is clear evidence of the existence and use of firing guns in India in very early times.