The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c12.5

c12.5

Bābar seems to have had in use pieces of considerable size (Horn, 26). In his memoirs (P. de C., ii, 253) he describes the founding of a cannon at Āgrah under the direction of his head of the artillery, Ustād Qulī Khān. "Around the mould they had erected eight furnaces for melting the metal. From the foot of each started a channel which ended in the mould. As soon as I had arrived, the holes to allow the flow of metal were opened. The fused metal rushed into the mould like boiling water. After a time, before the mould was full, the fused metal from the furnaces began to flow very slowly, either because their size or the amount of material had been wrongly calculated, Ustād Qulī Khān, in a state that cannot be described; wished to fling himself into the very midst of the melted copper. I made much of him, ordered him a robe of honour, and thus succeeded in calming him. A day or two afterwards, when the mould had cooled down, it was opened. Ustād Qulī Khān, overwhelmed with joy, sent me word that the bore (*āme*) of the piece had no fault and that a chamber could easily be made in it. The body of the cannon was then uncovered and a certain number of artificers were set to finish it, while he busied himself with the preparation of the chamber". From ii, 269, it seems that this chamber was cast separately, and the gun was then tried, and fired a ball for a distance of sixteen hundred paces. On another occasion, ii, 324, a large cannon was fired, the ball went far, but the piece burst and eight men were killed¹. At a much later period the art of founding could not have greatly advanced, for we find that De la Flotte, i, 258, speaking of the 18th century and the Dakhin, asserts that Indian cannon were not founded, but built up of iron bars bound together, and held in place from distance to distance by thick rings of the same metal. Again Anquetil Duperron, “Zend Avesta”, I, xlvi, speaking of the force commanded in 1757 by Rajah Dulab Rām, one of Nawāb Sirāj-ud-daulah’s officers, says “l’artillerie consista en gros “canons faits de bandes de fer battu”. Writing much later, in 1818, Fitzclarence, 255, says “The artillery in use among the natives is generally an iron cylinder with molten brass cast round it”. Elsewhere, 251, he remarks that in their first attempts to make cannon the Indians employed bars of iron hooped together. In one instance he saw an improvement on this. It was at Dihlī that he found a piece made of iron wedges placed as radii, and then hooped together so as to form the gun.