Gunpowder has always been one of the most important integrated tools in artillery to gain an upper hand in consolidating authority. Ever since its creation in around the 13th- 14th century (as found in textual sources), gunpowder has come to be wielded by various empires including the Bahamanis, Ottomans, and even Mughals. The first serious study of the early history of gunpowder in India was made by Elliot in 1840. Elliot said that saltpetre, which is one of the main ingredients of gunpowder, can be present in explosives that have been mentioned in the Ramayana in Bhagavad Gita. However, PK Gode doesn’t agree and doubts whether the textual evidence can be taken for something that happened in ancient India. Fifty years later, pyrotechnic formulas have been found in the Sanskrit treatise, Kautuka-Chintamani.
Talking about the Indian subcontinent, gunpowder may have been introduced in North Western India by the Mongol invaders. According to available evidence, one of the earliest forms of the use of gunpowder in military operations, namely mining, became common in India only in the second half of the 16th century. The earliest siege operation of the use of mines by an Indian empire in destroying the forts is of Belgaum in 1472 by the Bahmani forces. The introduction of new skills from Europe and the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 16th century was an important stepping stone in the history of firearms and gunpowder in India. These influences came in waves, that is, one by one. It started with the landing of the Portuguese at Calicut in 1498 and the Mughal’s involvement in the same with Babur’s occupation of Delhi and Agra and most importantly, the first battle of Panipat (1526). The wrought-iron technique and improvement in the casting of bronze/brass and also upgrading to matchlocks were the most important skills borrowed from Europe.
Abul Fazl in Ain-i Akbari describes two ways of making wrought iron barrels for muskets and for carbines. Babur, in Baburnama, mentions three distinct types of artillery pieces used by him in the subcontinent- Kazan, Firingi, and Zarbzan. Under Babur, kazan denoted heavy mortars while the term zarbzan was meant for lighter cannons. Through the information that is available in the academic books written on gunpowder, it seems that the cannon always had an edge in the comparative accuracy of the aim. If I am to cite examples, then a mortar made in Agra in 1527 had a range of 1219 metres. According to Haidar Dughlat (Babur’s cousin and a Chagatai Turco-Mongol military General), Humayun’s mortars in 1540 could strike anything that was visible at a distance of 5.5 km. This actually meant an increase in the range of about five times since Babur which shows us how gunpowder technology has been improved considerably.
Coming to the early successes of the Mughals which actually led to the establishment of their authority, took just three battles.The triumph of Babur over Ibrahim Lodhi in 1526, Bayram Khan over Hemu in 1556, and Babur’s defeat of Rana Sanga at Khanwa in 1527 established Mughal predominance in the field. The battles of Panipat and Khanwa established the successful working of the cannons on an open field. The effective use of firearms in open battle was perhaps made for the first time by Babur in the first battle of Panipat when he adopted what he calls the ‘battle plan’ of the ghazis of Rum (the Ottomans). We also get to know about Babur’s strategies on the field from Baburnama where it is mentioned that the cannons were placed in the front and left from the centre of the army. The large troop stood behind this barricade at Panipat. At Khanwa, the zarb-zan carriages in which the cannons were wheeled helped the tufangchis (commanders) in deployment along the stretch of the army and became the barricade where they weren’t covered by carts. This was to provide continuous coverage to tufangchis.
As we saw in the battles of Panipat and Khanwa, how the firearms have been used, it resulted in their ever-increasing importance and more so in efforts to stock up artillery as well as musketeers by the Mughals. Babur took extra efforts in 1528 to expand the number of cannons he had access to as well as the power of the tufangchis and topchis under his command. Even after taking into consideration Mughal losses, Humayun reportedly had 5000 tofangchis, 700 zarb-zans, and 21 heavier guns with him at the time of the Battle of Kannauj.
The increasing use of cannons and zarb-zans was the result of the impact of European artillery on the manufacture of artillery in India, as we have already seen before. This was before the introduction of more variety of light cannons in the second half of the 16th century and the reorganisation of Mughal artillery under Akbar. The opening lines of the section on Akbar’s artillery in the Ain-i Akbari describe it as “a wonderful lock for securing the august edifice of royalty and a pleasing key to the door of conquest”. This shows the significance of gunpowder artillery which became a factor in the strengthening of central power and territorial expansion into the subcontinent.
The second daftar of Ain-i Akbari, which covers military and civil administration, does not include Abul Fazl’s depiction of gunpowder artillery. It is mentioned in the first daftar, which is concerned with the royal family as well as the ministries and organisations in charge of maintaining or creating content for the court. This suggests that the whole production of weapons, including artillery, took place in the imperial home. Evidently, the presence of these weapons and their contingents was not required of the aristocracy. Akbar produced a large number of light cannons with a wide variety thanks to the technology of creating wrought iron barrels, which is known to have reached North India by the 1540s.
The spread of this new skill affected the Mughal empire in two contradictory ways. On one hand, the addition of a large variety of less costly but viable light cannons to the Mughal’s artillery strengthened their striking power against enemy forts. At the same time, this very development in time increased the military clout of the zamindars owing to the acquisition of low-cost wrought iron cannons and handguns. This especially helped them to strengthen the defences of the forts. Thus, the Mughals consolidated their authority over the subcontinent through the use of gunpowder and firearms.
