A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c16.s1.19

v1.c16.s1.19

From the circumstantial details given above, especially of the method of preparing the charcoal, one is naturally led to suspect that the lines relating to gunpowder as quoted above are later interpolations. The suspicion is further enhanced when it is borne in mind that in the Polity of Kāmandakī, an ancient work of undoubted authenticity, there occurs no reference whatever to firearms nor is there any in the Agnipurāna in which the subject of training in the use of arms and armours takes up four chapters, archery forming the leading element.¹