The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s2.3

c11.s2.3

The barrels of Akbar's matchlocks were of two lengths, 66 inches and 41 inches. They were made of rolled strips of steel with the two edges welded together. Both the barrels, (*nāl*, literally, pipe, tube, Steingass, 1378) and the stocks (qundāq, T. id. 970) were profusely decorated with the surface ornament for which India, like the rest of the East, is so justly celebrated. The longer of the two weapons could only have been used, I should say, by a man on foot. Part of the matchlockman’s equipment was a prong or tripod, called shākh-i-tufang, on which the gun was placed when about to be fired (Mirāt-ul-Iṣṭilāḥ, fol. 178a). Ashob, fol. 182b, calls them sih-pāyah, i. e. three footed or tripods. Seaton says, i, 207, that the prong was sometimes attached to the weapon. According to Bernier, 217, the prongs were of wood.