Mughal weapons

During its conquests throughout the centuries, the military of the Mughal Empire used a variety of weapons including swords, bows and arrows, horses, camels, elephants, some of the world's largest cannons, muskets and flintlock blunderbusses.

He was a petty officer of the Nizam's service, who commended his escort: "Two very handsome horses with superb caparisons belong to this jamadar, who is himself dressed in a vest of green English broad cloth laced with gold, and very rich embroidered belts.

Cavalry troops generally used a lance with other types of spears used by foot soldiers and guards surrounding the emperor's audience hall.

Mughal field artillery, although expensive, proved an effective tool against hostile war elephants and its use led to several decisive victories.

The standard Mughal kaman (bow) was about 4 feet (1.2 metres) long and generally shaped in a double curve with a grip covered in velvet.

Several strings of thick catgut lined the Mughal bow on its concave side (convex when strung) to give it elasticity and force.

The ends were fashioned to represent snakes' heads with the horn left plain, while the wooden back was decorated with rich intermingled arabesques of gilded birds, flowers or fruit.

After construction, they were covered with a size made of animal fibres then wrapped in a thin layer of fine tow before the application of a final coat of paint and varnish.

A Bow string holder consists of a broad ring made of precious stone, crystal, jade, ivory, horn, fishbone, gold or iron in accordance with an individual's rank.

During the mid-18th century Indian rulers began using flintlock (tufang-i chaqmaq) and were increasingly being trained in European style and formation by foreign companies.

The set consisted of a powder flask, bullet pouches, priming horn (singra), matchcord, flint and steel with the whole ensemble attached to a belt often made of velvet embroidered in gold.

For instance, it was with a shot from a pistol that in October 1720 a young Sayyad, related to Husain Ali Khan, killed that nobleman's assassin.

The Mughal military employed a broad array of gunpowder weapons larger than personal firearms, from rockets and mobile guns to an enormous cannon, over 14 feet (4.3 m) long, once described as the "largest piece of ordnance in the world.

[9] Possession of mobile field artillery is seen by some historians as the central military power of the Mughal Empire and distinguished its troops from most of their enemies.

[2] In battle the Mughals mainly used their artillery to counter hostile war elephants, which made frequent appearances in warfare on the Indian subcontinent.

However, although emperor Akbar personally designed gun carriages to improve the accuracy of his cannons, Mughal artillery proved most effective in frightening the other side's elephants on the battlefield.

The Bengali forces that fought at the Battle of Plassey owed a degree of loyalty to the "Great Moghul" they owned metallic silver lustre cannons which were placed upon specially designed bullock.