The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c13.12

c13.12

*Field Pieces*. We come now to the second class of light artillery, that of field pieces mounted on wheeled carriages. Of the further subdivision of this branch into ordinary field artillery and artillery of the stirrup we have already spoken. I have not come across any description of the pieces in purely Moghul times, but Fitzclarence, 88, writes thus of those taken from the Mahrattas at Jabalpur in 1817. "They were of cast brass with iron cylinders, two of them three and two six-pounders, but they are so thick that till I looked at the bore I thought they were six and nine. Six tumbrils with their bullocks fell into our hands, with much ammunition and great stores of balls, grape and chain-shot. They appeared to be very careless with their powder, as large quantities of it lay loose near the guns... The carriages of the guns and tumbrils have hands painted on them in red, and the only explanation I could get of the emblem, used here as well as on the colours, is that it is meant for *pūjah* (worship)"¹.