BY THE ANCIENT HINDUS. 



233 



were placed fireworks and fire weapons, and men were 

 always stationed there to keep guard." This statement is 

 very important, and if substantiated would be of the greatest 

 weight in this inquiry; but none of the Sanskrit Manu- 

 scripts of the Mahabharata which I have searched contains 

 this Sloka. However the above mentioned statement appears 

 to rest on good authority, as the Sukranlti declares, that the 

 wall of a fortress " is always guarded by sentinels, is provided 

 with guns and other projectile weapons, and has many strong 

 bastions with proper loop-holes and ditches/' 122 



In the second stavaka of the Bharatacanipu composed by 

 Anantabhatta, some three hundred years ago, we find the 

 following simile : " The fierce warrior who killed his enemy 

 with heaps of leaden balls, which emerge quickly from the 

 gun lighted by a wick, is like the rainy season which 

 killed the summer with hailstones which descend quickly 

 from the rows of black clouds lighted by lightning." 123 



"While the verse just quoted from the Bharatacampu 

 reveals an intimate knowledge of firearms, yet its apparent 

 recentness may be alleged as an objection against its being 

 produced as an authority for the existence of firearms in 

 India at an early period. To obviate such further objections 

 a sloka will now be given from an undoubted early poem, 

 the Naisadha which describes the adventures of Nala and is 

 generally ascribed to one Srlharsa, a Brahman, who must 

 not be confounded with Sriharsa, the king of Kasmira. Its 

 date goes back to the twelfth century, i.e., before the introduc- 

 tion of firearms into Europe. The verses in question run 

 as follows : " The two bows of Bati and Manmatha are 



122 See The History of India, Vol. I, pp. 405 & 422 ; and read Appendix. — 

 Compare also Sukranlti I, 238 and 255. 



238. Yamikai raksito nityam nalikastraisca samyutah 

 Subahudrdhagulmasca sugavaksapranalikah. 



123 See Kalambudalinalikat ksanadiptivarttyam 



sandhuksitat sapadi sadhvaninissaradbhih ; 

 varsasmasisagulikanikaraih. kathoraih 

 gharmabhiyatim avadhit ghanakalayodhah. 



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