The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c13.5

c13.5

1) *Gajnāl*, 2) *Hathnāl*. The words mean literally “elephant barrel” from H. *gaj* and H. *hāthī*, elephant, and P. *nāl*, a tube or gun-barrel; for the former Steingass, 1017, has the alternative form *kajnāl*. They are mentioned in the *Āīn*, i, 113, and were thus called because they were carried on elephants backs. From the *Jauhar-i-ṣamṣām* (Fuller’s translation, fol. 50) it would seem that each elephant carried two *gajnāl* pieces and two soldiers. We are led to infer that they were fired from the back of the elephant. But perhaps the gun was placed on the elephant for transport only, and dismounted before it was discharged. In any case, the practice of using elephants for such a purpose soon ceased to be common, as we seldom find any trace of it in the later reigns. The word *narnāl*, literally “male-barrel”, quoted by Horn, 28, from the *Āīn*, i, 113, I have never met with in any of the later writers. It was Akbar’s name for matchlocks which one man could carry.