The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s1.23

c11.s1.23

In the 18th century the kinds of arrows in use among the Pathans of Farrukhābād (Journal A. S. B., XLVII, 332) were 1) *Lais*, Shakes., 1809, twig, practising arrow, 2) *qalandara*, 3) *kohar-tarāsh*, 4) *ghera*, broad-headed, 5) *nuktah*, or perhaps *na-kaṭṭa*, headless arrow, lit. non-cutting; compare Egerton, 137, note preceding N°. 710, as to the blunt, heavy arrow used in Sind, 6) *thūth*, or perhaps better, *thonṭh*, Shakes. 743, H. for beak, bill, 7) *ankrī-dār*, with a bent head, shaped like a saddle-maker’s needle (*ankrī*, a hook), i. e. barbed. In his time (1780—1807) Captain Williamson, 87, found some very broad arrow heads in use in the west of Bengal, towards Bahār. There was one of crescent shape more than four inches across at the barbs. Though they did not penetrate easily, yet when they happened to graze a limb, they cut desperately. When discharged among bodies of troops they were found to do amazing mischief. The following names of arrows are found in *Dastūr-ul-Inshā*, 228, 1) *gherah*, broad-headed, 2) *do muhānah*, two pointed or barbed, 3) *taraḥ-i-māh*, fullmoon or circular head, 4) *taraḥ-i-ḥalāl*, crescent shaped head, 5) *taraḥ-i-bādām*, almond-shaped head, 6) *taraḥ-i-toko*?, 7) *siḥ-bhālah*, three-spear headed, i. e. trident-shaped, 8) *taraḥ-i-khornī*, 9) *taraḥ-i-khār*, thorn-shaped, 10) *taraḥ-i-khākī*, Shakes. 974, epithet of a kind of arrow, what kind he does not say. James Fraser, *Nadir Shah*, 143, note, thus describes the arrow used for practising at the earthen target described a little further on. “The arrows for this exercise have the iron part quite round, about four fingers long, of the size of the reed until near the point, where they are somewhat thicker, from which part they taper gradually to a sharp point. The length from the thickest part to the point is from a quarter to one inch.”