Pre-Mughal Cannons of Bengal: A Re-evaluation

Pratna Samiksha, New Series 5, 2014. © Centre for ArchaeologicalStudies & Training, Eastern India, Kolkata, pp. 53-71.

IntroductIon

The history of beginning of the cannons in Greater Bengal is rather complicated. It was in-troduced in the last decade of Husain Shahi rule (from 1494 to 1538 ce) – in the sixteenth century ce. There is a common belief that the cannons were first used in Indian subcontinent during the first battle of Panipat by Babur in 1526 ce. In Bengal earliest reference is found in the Sri Rajmala, that the Bengal Sultan, Husain Shah’s general, used cannons while fighting against Dh-anya Manikya in the early part of the sixteenth century ce (between c.1513 and 1514 ce). In this part of the subcontinent including Bengal lot of experiment were conducted with the develop-ment of cannon.

No complete research on the cannons of this part of the subcontinent is made but a number of papers are available. One may refer the pa-pers published by Stapleton (1909), Banerjee (1911), Sen (1926), Sanyal (1927-28), Sharf-ud-din (1927-28), Mia (1991), Santra (1998), Chatto-padhyay (2013), Kabita Devi and Chattopadhyay (2014). The beginning of Mughal period is con-sidered as the date of its conquest by Akbar in 1576 ce. But the historians have different views about the beginning of Mughal rule in Bengal. According to Abdul Karim, Mughal rule start-ed in Bengal from the reign of Jahangir 1612 ce (Karim 1992: 24, 29). Thus the period from 1576 to 1612 ce in Bengal, cannot be designated as Mughal period.

Pre-Mughal Cannons of Bengal: A Re-evaluation

SABIKuN NAhER, SuRAJIT LAhIRI AND PRANAB K. ChATTOPADhyAy

AbstrAct : The present paper intends to throw light on the cannons of Pre-Mughal Bengal and her neighbourhoods, from introduction of cannons from the from Husain Shahi dynasty to the physical appearance of cannons of the Mughal period. The details of the existing Cannons of Husain Shahi Dynasty, Sher Shah Suris, Bara-Bhuiyans; cannons of Kochbihar, Kamta and Tripura are described here with physical dimension and inscriptions.

Keywords : Husain Shah, Ghiyath-ud-din Mahmud Shah, Sher Shah, Bara-Bhuiyans, Isha Khan, Parikshit Narayan.

Cannon technology reached India from four different sources – Middle Eastern Islamic states, from Central Asia, through contact with the Por-tuguese and from China – both by the sea route as well as over the north-eastern land route (Ba-lasubramaniam 2008: 19).

The cannons of Bengal are chronologically of three types: Pre-Mughal, Mughal including Post Mughal, and Indo-Europeans from seventeenth century onwards. here, the first category includes the beginning of cannons from the Husain Shahi periods and continued prior to fully capturing of Bengal by the Mughals. The geographical boundary of greater Bengal includes the present political state of Tripura, Kochbihar-Kamta. The cannons of its adjoining regions, for instance, Assam are totally different, as Ahoms ruled independently in contemporaneous with the Mughals. The technologically Pre-Mughal cannons are mostly manufactured with brass or bronze along with forge-welded iron. Mughal cannons are forge-welded iron, composite cannons are also known with iron and copper alloys. Indo-Europeans cannons are mostly made with cast-iron.

Pre-Mughal cannons includes that of Hu-sain Shahi dynasty, Afghan rulers (Sher Shah Suris), and Bara-Bhuiyans; the twelve powerful chieftains. We shall elaborate Bara-Bhuiyans, who fought against the Mughals. Bara-Bhuiyans resist-ed Mughal expansion and ruled their respective

EXcavations & EXPLoRations

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territories independently. Cannons of Shah Ja-han and Aurangzeb were discovered in Bengal. A good number of English, French, and Dutch cannons are available in Bengal.

cAnnons of Pre-MughAl PerIod

In this paper, we will include cannons of Husain Shahi dynasty, Afghan rulers (Sher Shah Suris), Bara-Bhuiyans; together with that of Koach Bi-har and Tripura. Pre-Mughal cannons in this paper have been studied from the collection of Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka and Va-rendra Research Museum, Rajshahi. Besides a few cannons of Dhubri and its neighbourhood, Gauripur – now an open air site and the collec-tions of Dhubri District Museum were explored by us. We have also explored Koch cannons of Assam State Museum, Guwahati and cannons of Tripura – preserved at Tripura State Museum, Agartala.

Most important cannons in the Pre-Mughal period is the hoard of Cannons of Dewanbagh or Manohar Khaner Bagh, located near the junc-tion of the Akatia Khal and the Sitalaksha, 11.3 km north-east of Narayanganj. In February 1909 seven brass cannons were unearthed and studied (Stapleton 1909, Sen 1926: 316-17). Those seven cannons were in the possession of the Dewans and are now preserved in Bangladesh National Museum.

begInnIng of cAnnons In HusAIn shahI dynAsty

The period of Husain Shahi dynasty is consid-ered as the golden age in Pre-Mughal Bengal. To begin with, Ala-ud-din Husain was an ordinary soldier who later rose to the position of a Wazir, of Muzaffar Shah of the habshi dynasty of Ben-gal. Ala-ud-din Husain who established Husain Shahi Dynasty, was in the throne of Gaud during Ah 899-945 (1494-1538 ce) (hussain 2003: 176). From numismatic and epigraphic evidences one may note that Ala-ud-din Husain Shah came to thrown in Ah 899 (1494 ce). In his very first year, he sent expeditions to Kamrup and Kamta. Dur-ing this year Sikandar Lodhi of Delhi Sultanate had attacked Bengal. Husain Shah sent his son

Shahzada Daniyal to fight back Lodhi (hussain 2003: 147). There was also a long battle between Husain Shah and Dhanya Manikya (1490-1526 ce) of Tripura. There is material evidence Hu-sain Shah sent cannons to capture Tripura. One of the cannons located at Kaman Choumohani of Agartala city, was captured by Dhanya Man-ikya.

Husain Shah also captured Kamta-Kumrup, but how long he kept in his control is not known. While referring to Rajmala, it appears that the Arakanese King Rosanga took advantage of Husain Shah’s preoccupation with Tripura and occupied Chittagong (hussain 2003: 153). Muk-hopadhyay (1988: 304-5), mentioned that Ḥusain Shah had brought a cannon namely Kuchmardan from Kamta. The capture of Kamta-Kamrum and Jajnagar – Odisha reflected through Husain Shah’s coins first from Ah 899 (1493-94 ce) and last datable to Ah 924 (1518-19 ce) indicate that he was the winner of Kamta-Kamrup (Karim 1993: 315-16). Karim has doubted that it was for his advertising lies proven only and perhaps he captured those areas while serving under his former Sultan. There was fight between Husain Shah and Dhanya Manikya, the latter captured some of the areas of former. Husain Shah sent army to Tripura.

Husain Shah was succeeded by his son Nuxrat Shah. The coins of Nuxrat Shah datable to Ah 922-23, indicate that these were issued as crown prince, before his father’s death (Tarafder 1965: 68). hajo of Kamrup was under his possession during his rule (Mukhopadhyay 1988: 305). In old Assamese history (Purani Assam Burunji) there is reference that during the rule of Suhung Mung, Bengal Sultans first attacked Assam with strength of 20,000 soldiers including cavalry and uncountable naval boats. Those naval boats called nawwara’s are widely used in medieval wars in Bengal and Assam (in Assamese we call it Hiloi-chara-Nao. That cavalry included cannons also. The cannons are all along mentioned in the English translation as in Rajmala, as guns (Nath 1999: 71-5). In real sense the guns are introduced in Mughal periods only. The cannons of Pre-Mughal period thus included as hatnal gun or nornal.

S. NAhER S. LAhIRI P. K. ChATTOPADhyAy

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The first Muslim invasion, as mentioned in the Ahom Burunji, took place in 1527 ce, where Muslims leaded not by name but as Bara Ujir. That invasion seems to be a naval raid, on the river Burai, accompanied by efficient cavalry (Acharyya 1984: 92). In that war, forty horses were captured by the Ahom soldiers. That was the earliest reference in the Assamese Burunji about cannons; the period is contemporary to Nuxrat Shah’s rule. The chronology of Husain Shahi Dynasty is shown in Table 1. The next rul-er was Ala-ud-din Firuz Shah who ascended the throne for about a year in 1532-33 ce.

eArlIest AvAIlAble cAnnon of the HusAIn shahI dynAsty

As regards to the early dated cannon of Bengal, one may mention the cannon of Bangladesh National Museum (Fig. 1). That cannon under review was made of brass/bronze is quite inter-esting in historical context of Bengal. Since the

cannon is a museum piece and we were not al-lowed to take any samples from it only visually that appeared to be a bronze specimen only.

That cannon was brought from Nariya-Shari-yatpur (21°27′30″ N, 92°06′00″ E/21.4583° N, 92.1000° E). The place is under Shariyatpur dis-trict of Bangladesh. The accession number of the cannon under review of the Bangladesh Na-tional Museum is j-2003-250. The inscribed date on those cannon is Ah 945 (1538 ce). however, that date is controversial in historical context. Our identification of that date is correct; Sher Shah reoccupied Bengal in 1539 ce (Tarafder 1965: 88). The date on the cannon is prior to Sher Shah. Moreover muzzle on the cannons of Sher Shah are tiger faced therefore that cannon cannot belong to him. We are safely assumed that the cannon belong to Bengal Sultans, and specifi-cally to Mahmud Shah.

The total length of the cannon (Fig. 2) is 172 centimetre (cm), circumference of the muzzle


fIg. 1. Cannon of Ghiyath-ud-din Mahmud Shah, Bangladesh National Museum.

fIg. 2. Engineering drawing of Cannon of Ghiyath-ud-din Mahmud Shah, Bangladesh National Museum.

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face is 39 cm, diameter of the muzzle face is 17.8 cm, bore of the cannon is 7 cm, and diameter of the vent is 2 cm (Table 2). The cannon is at-tached with a set of trunnion’s – whose length is 7 cm and diameter is 5 cm. The tail-end of the cannon indicates that definitely there was an attachment or rear handle at the back plate for vertical movement of the barrel. From the visual observation, we are sure that the handle was lost.

This unique cannon bears a number of in-scriptions. The major Arabic inscription is writ-ten on the barrel of the cannon in of Thulth type, ‘Farmaish Islam Shahen Shah Al-Sultan Shana 945’ (Figs 3 & 4). The other inscriptions are on the muzzle face, transverse of the major one and three minor inscriptions at the muzzle swell. Ex-cept the major one all are written in shi-kas-teh; scripts. Because of lack of diacritical marks it is rather difficult to read those legends. The second line of incomplete shi-kas-teh inscription reads as ‘… hazam one dan Akbar’. It may be pointed here that word Akbar definitely not be representing the emperor Akbar.

The major inscriptions clearly indicate the date (Ah) 945 – that is 1538 ce. The date is rath-er crucial in the history of Bengal as it highlights the regnal period of Ghiyath-ud-din Mahmud Shah and end of independent Sultans of Bengal.

In his coin he used his epithet as Al Sultan Al Adil Farid Arduniya Abul Muzaffar Sher Shah Sultan. This epithet is different to the epithet used in the can-non under study.

cAnnons of sher shah surI

Sher Shah had a very short rule in the medieval Period of India. yet he had several innovations in cannon technology. For developing his artillery pieces he took all the available copper from the

fIg. 3. Portion of shi-kas-teh inscription in Ghiyath-ud-din Mahmud Shah’s Cannon, BNM.

fIg. 4. The inscription Farmaish Islam Shahen Shah Al-Sultan Shana 945 on Ghiyath-ud-din Mahmud Shah’s Cannon, Bangladesh National Museum.


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market. It is interesting that Sher Shah possessed 4,000 light cannons. Each of which weighed 4 mans within the range of 60-74 kg (Balasubrama-niam 2008: 157). Total utilization of copper by the army was 240-290 tons. The above estima-tion in weight of Sher Shah’s cannon by Balasu-bramaniam is correct, we found the cannons in Varendra Research Museum collection is around 60 kg in weight.

A number of cannons of Sher Shah are avail-able in different parts of this subcontinent. In the Indore Museum collection, there are two can-nons of Sher Shah, measuring 142 cm in length and 150 cm muzzle – one is made of bronze and the other by copper. The cannons bear the dates of 948 Ah. The muzzle of the cannon is shaped to look like the face of a tiger (sherdahan) (Balas-ubramaniam 2008: 73-6). One light cannon of Sher Shah is located at Dhubela Museum, 70 kms from Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh. That cannon has an Assamese legend of Rudra Simha (1679-81 ce).

In Bengal and her neighbourhood the follow-ing cannon specimens of Sher Shah are found and worth mentioning: the unique cannons, dis-covered from Maldah district of West Bengal are displayed in the Varendra Research Museum,

Rajshahi, Bangladesh. One canon was discov-ered near Maldah town and the other from Sher-shahi, Kaliachak police station (Sanyal 1927-28, Sharf-ud-din 1927-28: 1-7). Both the cannons have Persian inscriptions. The cannon length was 142 cm and 154 cm respectively. Saiyad Ahmed Ruhmi was the designer of those two cannons in Ah 948 (1541 ce) in Jannatabad (Gaur). Figs 5 & 6 represent the cannon bearing the accession no. VRM 729 and VRM 475 respectively.

Banerji (1911) reported one cannon of Sher Shah from the courtyard of the palace of Gauripur. The cannon is 132 cm in length and diameter of muzzle is 10 cm. It has a Persian inscription with the name of the maker as Saiyid Ahmad Rumi during the reign of Sher Shah in 1542-43 (Banerji 1911: 44, Balasubramaniam 2008: 111).

In Bangladesh National Museum collection there are four cannons of Sher Shah, obtained from Dewanbagh, Seven canons had been re-ported by Sen (1926) the same canons were fur-ther reexamined (Figs 7, 7A, 8, 8A, 9 & 9A).

One may like to compare the cannons of Sher Shah with that of Babur. In Baburnama, there is reference of his cannons of Babur as Zarb Zans. unfortunately none of Babur’s cannon survives


fIg. 5. Cannon of Sher Shah (Acc. No. 729), Varendra Research Museum.

fIg. 6. Cannon of Sher Shah (Acc. No. 475), Varendra Research Museum.

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fIg. 7. Cannon of Sher Shah (Acc. No. j-2280), Bangladesh National Museum.



fIg. 7A. Muzzle of Sher Shah’s Cannon (Acc. No. j-2280), Bangladesh National Museum.



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today (Balasubramaniam 2008: 157). The strik-ing feature of Sher Shah’s canons is that they have a provision for long handles whereas the others have relatively short handles.

InscrIPtIon on sher shah’s cAnnons

Every cannon of this ruler has the names of Sher Shah and Khwaja Ahmad Rumi along with the year of manufacture. The inscription is in Per-sian, which was read and transliterated into Eng-lish by Sharf-ud-din (1927-28). The last section comprises of a couplet in Persian metre ramal. The scratches in shi-kas-teh script are also seen (Fig. 10).

The cannon inscription clearly mentions that it was built according to the command of Khwaja Basharat Sultani, who was Sher Shah’s governor of Jannatabad (Gaur) (Fig. 11). One cannon of Sher Shah datable to Ah 1542 bears a Bangla inscription below its breach translated as Tarap Raja. According to Rajmala, Isha Khan and prince Rajdhar Manikya led an expedition to Tarap and conquered the Pathan chief, Fateh Khan. It must be the same Fateh Khan who se-cured Sher Shah’s guns either by inheritance or force. It may be he who wrote on one of them; Tarap Raja (Sen 1926: 316). The dimensions of Sher Shah’s cannons are shown in Table 3.



fIg. 10. Inscription of Sher Shah’s Cannon (Acc. No. 729), Varendra Research Museum.

cAnnons of KochbIhAr And KAMtA

Koch dynasty originated from the Khen tribes. Visva Singha was the founder of Koch dynasty

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of Kamtapur kingdom. Visva Singha’s sons Naranarayan and Shukladhwaj (Chilarai) spread the kingdom into North Bengal and Assam, sixteenth century onwards. Later this kingdom was divided into two parts. Shukladhwaj’s son Raghudev Narayan became the governor of eastern part, known as Koch hajo which became an integral part of Assam’s history. The western part of the kingdom became Koch Behar. The next Koch ruler, Parikshit Narayan possessed cannons. One cannon of Parikshit Narayan datable to 1532 saka era, now preserved at the Assam State Museum in Guwahati. This cannon was recovered from Kaklabari of North Kamrup district. The legend on it reads as Sri Sri Parikshit Narayan Karitamidang 2(?) Saka 1532. As there is no Persian script on the cannon, we can presume that it was not a captured one, but made for the ruler. The chronology of Koch rulers are appended at Table 4.

R. D. Banerji (1911) and Ahmed (1990: 139) have made reference to the cannons of Gauripur. Banerji also mentioned that Gauripur zamindar, Prabhat Chandra Barua had two cannons in his possession belonging to Raghudeva Narayan. Of these cannons, the first one, is now located at hawamahal at Matia Bag (Kabita Devi and Chattopadhyay 2014), however, we do not know the whereabouts of the second one at present. From Ahmed, it is known that the barrel of that mentioned cannon was dodecagonal in shape.

Its total length was 138.4 cm and the diameter of muzzle was 14.0 cm. The inscription on that cannon was Sri Sri Raghudeva Narayan Saka 1519. Both that cannons were made with bronze or gunmetal.

cAnnons of dhubrI

The analysed five cannons of this area were stud-ied and tabulated (Table 5). Those are described.

First cannon: As mentioned earlier, the cannon of Raghudev Narayan is one of the oldest can-nons of Eastern India (Fig. 12). The muzzle is shaped as a tiger’s head and the portion behind the trunnion is decorated with parallel ribs of iron. Close to the breach is a vertical projection with a parrot on each side of it. There is a par-rot on lions head also. The total length of the cannon is 223.5 cm and the diameter of muzzle is 27.9 cm. Banerji (1911) had read the inscrip-tion as Sri Sri Raghudeva Narayansya Saka 1514 (Fig. 12A).

From the inscription, we know that the can-non was manufactured in 1514 saka era (1592 ce). That is within the reign of Raghudeva Narayan (1503-1525 saka era). It is interesting to note that first Islamic invasion took place there in 1532 (?) saka era. And according to the inscrip-tion the canon was designed 7 years before the invasion – which clearly represent that technolo-gy of cannon making were known to them much earlier. The cannon was made of gunmetal and

fIg. 11. The inscriptions on two cannons of Sher Shah of VRM after Sharf-ud-din (1927-28).


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decorated with intricate designs. The local peo-ple worship that cannon now.

Second cannon: Dhubri District Museum pos-sesses three cannons. Of these the most impor-

tant is the cannon of Parikshit Narayan (Fig. 13), which was donated by the royal family of Gauri-pur (Kabita Devi and Chattopadhyay 2014). The length of it is 206.3 cm with a bore diameter of 15.2 cm. Swivel is attached to the trunnion, for

fIg. 12. Cannon of Raghudev Narayan, Dhubri, hawa Mahal.

fIg. 12A. Inscription on the cannon of Raghudev Narayan, Dhubri, hawa Mahal.


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fixing with the ground or to the body of the boat on naval cannons. The muzzle of the cannon is shaped like tiger’s head. The breech of the can-non is made of iron. The muzzle is made of brass (or bronze – we have not yet analysed).

It is interesting to note that a tiger headed cannon exist in the Assam State Museum which bears the inscription of Lakshmi Narayan. That

is a brass naval cannon unearthed in 1932, meas-uring 203 cm in length, breech of the cannon was 55 cm in length; diameter is 50 mm and 72.73 kg in weight. The cannon had an inscrip-tion, which reads as Sreekrishna pada nakhachandra prakas manobilas Sri Sri Laksmi Narayan Bhupa nir-mitam saka 1533 (Ahmed 1990: 252).

The most important feature of the present

fIg. 13. Bronze cannon of Parikshit Narayan, Dhubri District Museum.

fIg. 13A. Inscription on the cannon of Parikshit Narayan, Dhubri District Museum.


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cannon of Parikshit Narayan is its inscription (Fig. 13A). The script was very much similar to Fig. 12A as mentioned earlier. The present in-scription is about 53 cm in length and 2.5 cm in height. The marginal line bears the distinct Saka era and most likely Sri Sri **** Narayansya Saka 1527. Based on circumstantial evidence it could be read as Sri Sri Parikshit Narayansya Saka 1527(?).

Based on the above arguments we conclude that the Saka era date is 1527 (1605 ce), which is within the date of reign of Parikshit Narayan (1525-34), which resembled a similar style of writing on cannons by his father Raghudev Narayan, similar to Fig. 12A.

The third cannon was unearthed from a histori-cal site Barundanga, under Golokganj police sta-tion, of Dhubri district. A couple of arms and ammunition was recovered from that locality. This cannon is made of forge welded iron (Fig. 14). The total length of the cannon is 1150 mm. Diameter of the muzzle is 190 mm and its bore is 60 mm. It has no inscription on it. The cannon is attached with an iron swivel with its trunnions, which was used for fixing with the ground or to

the body of the boat, on naval cannons (in As-samese we call it Hiloi-chara-Nao).

The fourth cannon was recovered from Golak-ganj area of the of the Dhubri district. That can-non is made of forge welded iron (Fig. 15). The total length of that cannon is 800 mm. Diameter of the muzzle is 190 mm and its bore is 50 mm. No inscription is found on the cannon. The can-non is not attached with a swivel. The vent is visible.

The fifth cannon in this discussion was recov-ered from some unknown site and preserved in Pramathesh Barua’s Mansion. This cannon, a naval one, is made of bronze and bears a Per-sian inscription (Fig. 16). Though we could not decipher, it could be a Pre-Mughal one. It is 97 cm long.

cAnnons of Bara-Bhuiyans

The activity of Bara-Bhuiyans is quite important in the history of Bengal. The chronologically Bara-Bhuiyans are contemporary to the Mughal capturing of Bengal. Particularly they contin-

fIg. 14. Forge welded iron cannon, Dhubri District Museum.

fIg. 15. Forge welded iron cannon, Dhubri District Museum.

fIg. 16. Bronze cannon with Persian script, Pramathesh Barua’s Mansion.


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ued their power even in the times of Jahangir. During the interregnum between Afghan rule and the rise of Mughal power in Bengal, vari-ous parts of Bengal came under the control of several military chiefs, Bhuiyans and zamindars. There is no doubt that during the mid of Husain Shahi dynasty the administration in Bengal was rather weak and further it weakened during Af-ghan rule. Sher Shah’s very short rule in Bengal and his contemporary’s lack in control or no con-trol ultimately helped to raise local zamindars or chieftains. Both hindus and Muslim chieftains fought for the freedom of Bengal. From records of Akbarnama, Baharistan-i-Ghaibi and its contem-

porary records we come across several names of Bara-Bhuiyans.

the descrIPtIon of the cAnnons Bara-Bhuiyans of bnM: cAnnons of dewAnbAgh

Three Bara-Bhuiyans’ cannons of Dewanbagh are now in the collection of BNM (Table 6). The can-non (no. j-2287), belonging to Isa Khan Masnad-i-Ala bears the Bangla inscription “Sarkar Sriyut Masnadalvi San hizar 1002” (Figs 17 & 17A). This records the date, Ah 1002 (1593-94 ce). The leg-end on it is Masnad-i-Alvi (Karim 1992: 26). Thus Karim has rightly suggested that it was built at

fIg. 17A. Inscription of Isa Khan’s cannon (Acc. No. j-2287), Bangladesh National Museum.

fIg. 17. Cannon of Isa Khan (Acc. No. j-2287), Bangladesh National Museum.


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least three years before the war with Man Singh. Karim has translated this Bangla inscription as “The government of the high born ‘Isa Khan Masnad-i-Ali, in the year 1002 A.h”. (1593-94 ce) (Karim 1992A: 424). Cannon of Isha Khan is shown in Fig. 18 and his hand cannon is shown in Fig. 19.

cAnnons froM trIPurA

The most important cannon in Agartala is pop-ularly known as Husain Shahi cannon (Fig. 20). We could not measure it because of its inacces-sibility. The naval cannons of Tripura State Mu-seum, Agartala, are very similar to the cannons of Isha Khan. It is interesting to note that Isha Khan had close connection with Amar Manikya, the king of Tripura (1578 ce). The State Muse-um has totally five cannons. Out of those one large forged welded iron cannon, is kept in the surrounding garden, which was brought from Amarpur. There is no inscription on it. We could not find any feature which deciphers its date.

Out of four cannons three pieces are kept in the gallery. Two cannons were recovered from Gandachhara, Dholai district Tripura. One is kept in the reserve collection, which was brought from Kamanmura, Jirania police station, West

Tripura (Fig. 21). It is 123 cm in overall length with its barrel measuring 106 cm in length. De-tail measurement of the other cannons of Tripu-ra State Museum is shown in Table 7.

two unPublIshed cAnnons of vArendrA reseArch MuseuM

During our exploration at Varendra Research Museum we have discovered two hand cannons in their collection. With the support of Museum authorities we have studied these cannons. De-


fIg. 18. Cannon of Isa Khan (Acc. No. j-2285), Bangladesh National Museum.

fIg. 19. hand cannon of Isa Khan (Acc. No. j-2289), Bangladesh National Museum.

fIg. 20. Husain Shahi cannon of Agartala.

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tails of these are as follows. The first one is made of iron (VRM 326) from an unknown locality (Fig. 22). The second one (VRM 2750) was ob-tained from Sadarpur-Mirpur, near Kustiya. The cannon specimen shown in Fig. 23 has intricate floral design/s. This typical design is unique in style in this part of the subcontinent. The dimen-sions of these two cannons are shown in Table 8.

MetAllurgy of Pre-MughAl cAnnons of bengAl

The cannons of Pre-Mughal period were built

with casting of brass or bronze; often zinc, tin and lead was used as alloying element. Metallur-gical compositions of the cannons are not avail-able now. In the explored museums there is no portable instrument to get the composition.

But composition of one cannon of Sher Shah of VRM was determined by the Museum author-ities. It contained Cu 84.72, (Zn + Fe) 13.32, and Sn 1.83% respectively. Composition basically in-dicate it is made of brass. The most important cannons of Dhubri belong to Raghudev Narayan which is a composite one. Both brass and bronze

fIg. 23. hand Iron cannon with Floral design, Varendra Research Museum.

fIg. 21. A forge welded cannon at Tripura State Museum.

fIg. 22. hand Brass cannon, Varendra Research Museum.


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Following are the essential components of cannon. These are identified as:Barrel: Large cylindrical container, that which accommodates gun powder.Bore: Diameter of the mouth of cannon, which is more than the size of cannon ball.Breech: Back part of the gun barrel.Muzzle: Mouth of the cannon.Swivel: Device to turn around a central point.Trunnion: Device for vertical movement of the cannon.Vent: hole for lighting the gunpowder in the cannon.

casting and forged iron were used to manufacture cannons of Pre-Mughal Bengal.

conclusIon

The cannons are referred to as guns in the Eng-lish translation of old chronicles, like Rajmala. Those guns are basically cannons. We want to draw attention of historians that the present can-non of Mahmud Shah of Bangladesh National Museum, is so far the earliest dated cannon of Bengal.

We may presume that Mahmud had ordered (Farmaish) the cannon caster when he was in pow-er. The proposed date of delivery could be 945 Ah. We could not find any clue whether it was used in the battle by Mahmud. A few months time was definitely needed for procuring the met-al and finishing the cannons after trial blasting.

The history of cannons of Pre-Mughal Bengal is therefore, partially revealed through this paper.

Before writing the conclusion of our findings, we made a thorough study on the cannons of Parikshit Narayan. The cannon of Parikshit Na-rayan (1603-12) of Nilima Barua Folk Art Mu-seum is 206.3 cm in length but it does not carry the makers name and no trace of Persian legend; on the other hand it includes Bengali or Assa-mese legend. Only its muzzle is tiger-headed. From this two one can conclude that the cannon of Parikshit Narayan is not the same cannon as mentioned by R. D. Banerji. There are two possi-bilities – either the gun founder copied the design of Sher Shah or the inscription of Sher Shah was removed and finished with Parikshit Narayan. This mystery should be unveiled through future studies.


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Table 1: Chronology of Husain Shahi Dynasty

Rulers Ah ce

Ala-ud-din Husain Shah 899-925 1494-1519

Nuxrat Shah 925-938 1519-1531

Ala-ud-din Firuz Shah 939-940 1532-1533

Mahmud Shah 940-945 1533-1539

Table 4: Chronology of Koch Rulers

Rulers Saka date ce

Nara Narayan 1477-1509 1555-1587Lakshmi Narayan 1509-1549 1587-1627Raghu Deva Narayan 1503-1525 1581-1603Parikshit Narayan 1525-1534 1603-1612Vira Narayan 1549-1555 1627-1633

Table 2: Cannon of Mahmud Shah in BNM

Accession no. j-2003-250Origin Nariya- ShariyatpurMetal Bronze/BrassInscription yes

Dimensions in cmTotal length 172.0Barrel length 166.0Back Plate to trunnion 78.0Trunnion length 7.0Trunnion to muzzle 73.0Muzzle face circumference 39.0Bore diameter in cm 7.0Back plate diameter 18.0Trunnion diameter 5.0Vent diameter 2.0Knob diameter 4.0Muzzle face diameter 17.8

Table 3: Cannons of Sher Shah in BNM and VRM

Present Location BNM BNM BNM VRM VRMAccession no. j-2280 j-2281 j-2284 475 729Origin Dewanbagh Dewanbagh Dewanbagh Maldah KaliachakMetal Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze BronzeInscription No yes yes yes yesDimensions in cmTotal length 150.0 148.0 180.0 142.0 154.0Barrel length 127.0 128.0

Back Plate to Trunnion 67.0 61.0 58.0 44.5 45.0Trunnion length 20.5 21.5 20.5 20.5

Trunnion to Muzzle 74.0 78.0 84.0 82.0 82.0Muzzle face circumference

29.0 30.0 29.0 28.0 30.0

Bore diameter 4.5 4.5 4.0 4.5 4.0Back Plate diameter 6.0 6.0

Trunnion diameter 3.5 3.5 3.0 3.0 3.3Vent diameter 1.0 1.5

Knob diameter

Muzzle face diameter 8.5 9.0 8.5 8.5 8.5Weight in kg 56.25 59.87


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Table 5: Cannons in Dhubri and Dhubri District Museum in Centimetre

Raghudev Narayan Parikshit Narayan Naval Naval Naval

Accession no. 201 682 670

Origin Gauripur Barundanga Batertala

Present location PBM NBFMA DDM DDM PBMMetal Bronze Bronze Iron Iron BronzeInscription yes yes No No yes

Dimensions in cmTotal length 221.0 206.3 115.0 79.8 97.0Barrel length 189.5 138.0 94.5 66.3 88.0Back Plate to Trunnion 69.5 46.2 31.4 31.0

Trunnion length 9.0 7.0 13.0 3.5

Trunnion-Muzzle 111.6 87.5 62.0 54.5

Muzzle face diameter 27.2 10 5.9 5.2 6.7Bore diameter 12.0 4 2.5 3.6 2.6Back Plate diameter 29.0 10 5.4 6.5 8.3

Trunnion diameter 8.3 4 1.4 2.4

Vent diameter 1.8 1.4 0.9 0.7 1.0

Knob diameter 19.0 4.5

NBFMA: Nilima Barua Folk Art Museum; DDM: Dhubri District Museum, PBM: Pramathesh Barua Mansion

Table 6: Cannons of Bara-Bhuiyans in BNM

BNM BNM BNM

Accession no. j-2285 j-2287 j-2289Origin Dewanbagh Dewanbagh DewanbaghMetal Iron Iron IronInscription yes yes No

Dimensions in cmTotal length 143.0 138.0 42.0Barrel length 31.0

Back Plate to Trunnion 50.0 52.0

Trunnion length 17.0 18.0

Trunnion to Muzzle 65.5 64.0

Muzzle face circumference 25.0 28.0

Bore diameter 4.0 4.5 4.0Back Plate diameter 8.0

Trunnion diameter 3.0 2.5

Vent diameter

Knob diameter

Muzzle face diameter 8.0 9.0 8.0Weight in kg


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Table 7: Cannons in Tripura State Museums, Agartala

Origin Gandachhara Gandachhara Kamanmura AmarpurDimensions in cm

Total length 117.0 152.0 123.0 279.0Barrel length 76.0 94.0 106.0 178.0Back Plate to Trunnion 26.0 34.0 18.0

Trunnion length 6.0 33.0

Trunnion to Muzzle 53.5 123.0

Muzzle face diameter 9.0 5.5 18.0

Bore diameter 3.5 3.0 5.2

Back Plate diameter 15.0

Trunnion diameter 1.8 33.0

Vent diameter 0.8 0.8 not visible

Knob diameter

Table 8: Two unpublished Cannons of Varendra Research Museum

VRM VRM

Accession no. 326 2750Origin unknown Sadarpur-Mirpur, KushtiaMetal Bronze IronInscription No NoDecoration No Floral design

Dimensions in cmTotal length 49.0 45.0Barrel length 42.0 36.5Back Plate to Trunnion 17.5 13.5Trunnion length 16.0 13.0Trunnion to Muzzle 23.5 22.5Muzzle face circumference 22.0 21.5Bore diameter 3.5 4.0Back Plate circumference 27.0 27.0Trunnion diameter 2.5 1.5Vent diameter 1.0 1.0Knob diameter 3.5 4.5Muzzle face diameter 7.0 6.5


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AcKnowledgeMents: We must acknowledge the kind support of Dr Kabita Devi of Dhubri District Museum; Prof. Paromita Das of Gauhati university; Dr Swapan K. Biswas, Anzalur Rahman, Dr Niru Shamsun Naher, and Dr Shariful Islam of Bangladesh National Museum; and Dr Sultan Ahmed of Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi. We also acknowledge the supports of Tripura State Museum, Agartala. Authors are also thankful to Muhammad yusuf Siddique, Janab S.S.F. Alquadery for their support to read the inscriptions of the Cannons. Ms. Jayati Chatterjee and Jesmin Nahar Jhumur have elaborately drawn engineering drawing for one of that earliest cannon and its inscription. A special thanks to Ishtiaq Sobhan Sourav for taking pictures of cannons of Bangladesh National Museum and Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi. Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi has funded for the documentation of cannons in Eastern India. Prof. K. Krishnan of MS university of Baroda has thoroughly checked the paper and suggested for its improvement. Authors got active support from Ms Punam Barua and Shri Prabir Coomar Barua of Pramatesh Barua Mansion, Gauripur, Dhubri, Assam.

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Pre-Mughal Cannons of Bengal: A Re-evaluation

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