The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c5.16

c5.16

(8) *Qumqumah* (Steingass, 989, a bowl, a jug, a round shade, a lantern). — This also was obtained from the Indian rajahs. The *Āīn-i-Akbarī*, i, 50, has *kaukabah* for apparently the same thing (see figure Nº. 2 on plate ix). There is also what looks like the *kaukabah* in a plate in Gentil’s “Mémoires.” The definition of *kaukabah* in Steingass, 1063, corresponds with the figure in the *Āīn*, viz. “a polished steel ball suspended from a long pole and carried as an ensign before the king.” Careri, iii, 182, tells us that he saw a golden ball hanging by a chain between two gilt hands, and adds that “it was a royal ensign carried on an elephant when the army was on the march.”