R. Maclagan— On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 



41 



torians of India/ 9 on the early use of gunpowder in India.* General Briggs 

 had observed, in his translation of Firishtah, that in some manuscripts the 

 words top (cannon) and tufang (musket) have been written, in place of the 

 naff (naphtha) and Miadang (arrow) of other copies. A confirmation of the 

 reading top and tufang, Sir H. Elliot says, is given by Wilken, who found 

 this in two copies he had consulted, in which the roar of the cannon also is 

 mentioned. " He considers it not improbable that Greek Fire was used by 

 Mahmud. Dow boldly translates the word as guns"f Sir H. Elliot ob- 

 serves, with reference to Firishtah's account generally, that it does not ap- 

 pear on what authority he rests his statement, as the earlier historians who 

 notice this important engagement do not mention either naff or top. % But 

 he adds that from the mention of the use of naphtha ten years later, in an 

 action near Multan, and from the circumstance of naphtha being found in 

 abundance in the country near the scene of the first engagement in question, 

 it is probable that if any combustibles were used on that occasion, they were 

 composed of naphtha. The fact that the fire missile alarmed the elephant, 

 would give no indication that it was of any remarkable or unusual kind* 

 And the noise (gada) is mentioned in those versions of Firishtah which speak 

 of naphtha and arrows, as well as in those which use the words top and 

 tufang. § It seems to have proceeded from the missile itself, not from the 

 discharge of it. There need not be difficulty in supposing that the noise 

 was of the nature of an explosion, if naphtha alone was used, or naphtha 

 with other combustibles, thrown in shells, cases, or tubes, as elsewhere. 



* P. 340. 



f The ordinary form of the passage in Firishtah is — 



Dow's version is— " On a sudden the elephant upon which the prince of Lahore, who 

 commanded the Indians in chief, rode, took fright at the report of a gun, and turned 

 his face to flight." And he says in a foot-note, " According to our accounts there were 

 no guns at this time, but many eastern authors mention them, ascribing the invention 

 to one Lockman." (Dow's History of Hindostan, I, 46.) He gives no references to any 

 of these eastern authors. 



X It may be noticed, however, that the Kit db-i- Taming one of the histories referred 

 to by Sir H. Elliot in this passage, speaks in another place (not relating to this engage- 

 ment) of the use of dtash-didah ban, or fire-eyed rockets, which, an English translator 

 remarks, " may have encouraged the idea that artillery was known in Mahmud's age/ 5 

 (Kitdb-i-Yamini, translated by the Eev. J, Eeynolds, page 279.) 



§ Maurice, writing of this battle, says, " A species of fire weapon seems to have 

 been in use at that time in Asiatick battles ; and the sudden explosion of one of those 

 instruments of destruction, close by the elephant on which the prince of Lahore, the 

 generalissimo of the army, rode, &c, &c. " "Which seems to be Dow repeated, with a 

 slight variation, and evading his "bold" use of the word gun. (Modern History of 

 Hindostcm, 7 ? 253.) Dow's translation was recent at the time Maurice's book was written. 



