Vol. VII, No. 2.) Inscribed Guns from Assam. 47 
[V.S.] 
The smaller Persian inscription is incised on a tiny plate of 
brass rivetted near the muzzle of the gun, and is quite unde- 
cipberable. The gun is made of a thick spiral ware, similar to 
that already described by me in the pages of this Journal.! 
(6) Tbe other gun shown in the photograph is a field 
piece and bears four Persian letters without any diacritical 
marks as in the inscriptions mentioned above, thus :— 
It measures about 9 in length. 
7) The Brass Gun of Gadadharasimha.—This gun is at 
present in the Industrial Section of the Indian Museum to 
which it was transferred by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 
1867. They are said to have been presented by Capt. Butcher. 
The gun seems to be a field piece and measures 4’ 52” in length 
The muzzle is shaped like a lion’s head and its diameter is 
43”. The barrel of the gun bears two different inscriptions, 
one in Persian and the other in Sanskrit. The Persian inscrip- 
tion is a long one and consists of a main inscription and three 
small ones. It refers to the reign of the Mughal Emperor 
Jahangir. The inscription has been deciphered by Maulavi 
Khair-ul-Anaim of the Hare Schoo]. A complete restoration of 
the whole inscription he believes to be impossible. The follow- 
ing proper names with the exception of the reigning emperor 
are to be found in the inscription :—Hakim Haidar Ali, Sher 
Muhammad, Billardas Karigar, Khanzad Khan Dilawarjung, 
Akhwand Maulana. The third line of the main inscription 
contains the date of the regnal year 21 of the Emperor. The 
smaller inscriptions contain the following details :—-the weight 
is four garis and the gun belongs to the detachment called 
Muhammadi-risalah. The officer superintending the casting of 
the gun was Sayyid Ahmad, who was the Aragdar to the Em- 
peror. The serial number of the gun in the Mughal artillery 
seems to be 619, which is given at the bottom of the inscrip- 
tion. Near the trunnions appear the English numeral 419 and 
near the breach the word ‘‘ Bundoolaw’’ has been incised by 
means of a sharp instrument. The Sanskrit inscription occurs 
on the barrel of the gun in the space between the trunnions 
and the breach. It runs as follows :— 
(1) Sri-Sri-svargga-nairayanadeva-Saumares 
(2) Gadddharasimhena-javanam jitva Guvaka- 
(3) hattyam-idam-astram priptam Sake 1604 
i.e., 1596. The Muhammadans recovered Gauhati in 1679,* 
and it was retaken by Gadadharasimha in 1681. Suminarily the 
history of the gun seems to have been that it was cast in the 
twenty-first year of Jahangir and was employed most probably 
y the Muhammadans in one of their expeditions against 
Gauhati and was left by them at that place. It was re- 
! Above vol, v, p. 465. 
2 Gait’s History of Assam, p. 157. 
