46 R. Maclagan— On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons, [jj a j 



lie refers to as being mentioned in the ancient books but not described. 

 Bohlen # alludes to the mention in the Puranas of a kind of cannon ; but 

 he does not give the name, or any definite reference. 



Colonel Tod says, " We have, in the Poems of Chand, frequent indis- 

 tinct notices of fire-arms, especially the " nal-gola", or tube-hull ; but whe- 

 ther discharged by percussion or the expansive force of gunpowder is dubi- 

 ous. The poet also repeatedly speaks of " the volcano of the field", giving 

 to understand great guns ; but these may be interpolations, though I would 

 not check a full investigation of so curious a subject by raising a doubt. "f It 

 can scarcely be questioned now, however, that the doubt was justly raised. 

 The interpolation (if this is the right mode of explaining the passage) has 

 a sort of parallel in a picture, described by M. Lalanne, inserted in ' Le 

 Livre de la Vie et Miracles de Monseigneur S. Loys', in which picture " les 

 sarrasins, d'un cote, se defendent avec des especes de mousquets a meche, et, 

 de 1'autre, le navire royal porte une rangee de canons." % 



Some kind of fire missile is believed by Prof . H. H. Wilson to be in- 

 tended in a passage in the MaJid-ndtak or Hanumdn-ndtaJc, to which he thus 

 refers in his outline of the play. " In the opening of the thirteenth Act, 

 Havana levels a shaft at LaJcsftmana, given him by Brahma, and charged 

 with the fate of one hero : it should seem to be something of the nature of 

 fire-arms, a shell or a rocket, as Hanuman snatches it away, after it has 

 struck Lakshmana, before it does mischief. Havana reproaches Brahma^ 

 and he sends JVdreda to procure the dart again, and keep Hanuman out of 

 the way."§ There is not much here to show the kind of missile, except 

 that it does not seem to have been anything like a shell or rocket. The 

 play belongs to the tenth or eleventh century. Of the nature of " the 

 Agneya weapon, one of the celestial armoury, or the weapon of fire", men- 

 tioned in another Hindu drama, the JJttara Rama Charitra, there is only 

 the indication given in the " fiery blaze" attributed to it ; by which, as in 

 the other case, some kind of burning arrow is probably meant. || 



While there is no very distinct indication of the nature of the machines 

 or missiles thus referred to in ancient Hindu books, the idea of fire-carrying 

 arrows seems to have been familiar in India, as elsewhere, from early times; 

 and the use of such fire-arrows, discharged from a bow or by other means, 

 is seen to range over a long period. In the Ayodhyd Mdhdtmya, of which 

 a translation has lately been published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal,^" it is related that on a certain occasion the Baja Kusha, getting 



* Das Alte Indien, II, 63, 64. 



f Annals of Rajasthan, 7, 310. Note. 



% Beefier ches sur le Feu Gregeois, 55. 



§ Hindu Theatre, Vol. III. Appendix, 58. 



|| Id,, Vol. II, Uttar. Mam. Char. 92. 



II J. A. S. B., Part I. 1875, pp. 137, 138. 



