THE NmrRAKiSlKA. 



11 



well acquainted with gunpowder and that they possessed 

 firearms. Though ample evidence has been produced for 

 proving the existence of guns and gunpowder in ancient 

 India, still it would be of great importance if the existence 

 of firearms could be traced to the earliest, or the Vedic period 

 of Indian history. And this can be done. The words 

 mtaghni and surmi, which are synonymous, occur in the 

 black Yajurveda, and the latter word in the Rgveda. The 

 earliest commentator of the Krsnayajurveda, Bhattabhaskara, 

 as well as the 400 years later Vidydranyasvdmi — the priestly 

 name of Say anamadhava— explain it as a blazing tube made 

 of metal. 



The sixth verse of the seventh anuvaka, of the fifth prasna 

 in the first kanda of the Krsnayajurveda is as follows : " This 

 is the surmi which has a hole like an ear, with it the gods killed 

 the Asuras by hundreds. As the sacrificing priest kindles 

 with this surmi-like verse (mantra) the firewood, he throws 

 also on the enemy this sataghni-like mantra, which resembles 

 the thunderbolt of Indra." 



Bhattabhaskara, who lived about one thousand years ago, 

 explains in his Taittinyabhasya, which goes by the name of 

 Jndnayajna, the surmi as a flaming pillar made of metal. This 

 metallic cylinder is defined by the adjective karnakdvatt, 

 which in its turn is explained to signify having a hole inside 

 and blazing on the inside and outside. Further on the mtaghni 

 is declared to be identical with surmi. Bhattabhaskara refers 

 to this explanation when commenting afterwards on a similar 

 Yedic passage (Krsnayajurveda V, 4, 7, 3). 



Vidydranyasvdmi } s Scholia in his Taittiriyaveddrtliapra- 

 learn coincide with the above explanation, having most 

 likely borrowed it of Bhattabhaskara. He says karnakdvati 

 means "having a hole and therefore surely blazing." 

 Vidyaranyasvami's interpretation of this passage in the 

 Yajurveda is the more important, as it is also applicable to 

 the Rgveda, where (VII, 1, 3) the word surmi occurs in the 



