The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c14.8

c14.8

In dealing with artillery, the subject falls naturally under three heads, 1) Manufacture, 2) Artillery in use, 3) Arsenals or Magazines. It is doubtful how far in later times the Mīr Ātash was concerned in the casting of guns or the provision of stores. The Top-khānah was classed as one of the workshops, or kārkhānajāt, belonging to the Imperial Household, which were in charge of the imperial Khānsāmān, or Lord Steward; and as Dāroghah of the Topkhānah, used in this sense, the Mīr Ātash must have been a subordinate of the Lord Steward. But in course of time, as the artillery branch developed, the office of Mīr Ātash grew in importance, until he was the equal or more than the equal of his nominal superior, the Khānsāmān, and as commander of the artillery in use he must have been wholly independent of that official.