The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s1.25

c11.s1.25

Shooting an arrow into the air is said by Portuguese writers to have been a recognized mode of declaring war in the Vijyanagar state and Malabar. The particular instance is of 1537 at Diū, where Bahādur of Gujarāt ordered an arrow to be shot into the air as a declaration of war—Whiteway, “Portuguese in India”, 249, note 1, on the authority of Castanheda, ii, 16 (reprint of 1833) and Correa, iv, 708, “Lendas da India”, 4 vols., 1858—61. I have not met with mention of this practice in any native author, and Major J. S. King informs me that he knows of none. Perhaps it was of Hindu origin.