1876.] R- Maclagan— 0» Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 



45 



The compilation which Halhed published under the above title, Code of 

 Gentoo Laws, in 1781, was made from twenty Sanskrit works. It was com- 

 piled by eleven Brahmans whom he calls a set of the most experienced lawyers. 

 They were selected, under the orders of Warren Hastings, from all parts of 

 Bengal for the purpose. The compilation, when complete, was translated 

 into Persian, under the supervision of one of these Brahmans, and from the 

 Persian was translated into English by Mr. Halhed. In the compilation 

 itself no indication is given of the particular book (out of the twenty men- 

 tioned collectively at the beginning) from which each passage is taken. 

 And in the translator's Preface no references are given to the authorities for 

 his own comments ; but he speaks of " the number of enquiries necessary 

 for the elucidation of almost every sentence," which " give him in some 

 measure a right to claim the conviction of the world upon many dubious 

 points, which have long eluded the nicest investigation."* This is all we 

 get from him. The passage relating to fire-arms is in the second section of 

 the preface to the Code, or " the qualities requisite for a magistrate", and 

 it says " the magistrate shall not make war with any deceitful machine, or 

 with poisoned weapons, or with cannon and guns, or any other kind of fire- 

 arms."! This is clearly from the Institutes of Manu. And what Manu 

 says about it is this, " Let no man engaged in combat smite his foe with 

 sharp weapons concealed in wood, nor with arrows mischievously barbed, 

 nor with poisoned arrows, nor with darts blazing with fire." J This appears 

 to be the original passage which in the hands of the Bengal Pandits took 

 the form given by Halhed. And it can be assigned approximately to the 

 ninth century B. C. There is nothing here to indicate anything else than 

 primitive fire darts of the kind used in other countries. Mr. Talboys Whee- 

 ler, in a note relating .to a description in the Mahabharata of a variety of 

 arms, says that, in the original, mention is made, among other weapons, of 

 " arrows, producing fire", and he says " The Brahmans in the present day 

 point to the fire-producing arrows as proofs that the ancient Hindus were 

 possessed of fire-arms." § There are other ancient notices of war missiles or 

 engines which (with more reason than this specific mention of arrows) 

 have given occasion to this belief, but there is nothing to indicate what 

 they were. " From the frequent mention of the Agni-astra, or fire-arms", 

 Babu Eajendralala Mitra has observed, " it is to be inferred that the Hin- 

 dus had some instruments for hurling shells or balls of burning matter 

 against their enemies ; but no description of any such has yet been met 

 with." || The Mahay antra, or great engine, and the Satayhni, or centicide, 



* Introduction, p. xi. 



t P. cxiii. 



t Institutes of Manu, translated by Sir W. Jones, VII, 90. 



§ History of India, I, 88. 



|| Antiquities of Orissa, I, 121. 



