sparten

http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-566526-0
The Mughals conqured India through firearms (Battle of Panipat) and for two centries forth their cannon remained the best in the world. This book examines the Mughal Firearm periord and the reasons for the decline in the firearms technology, a decline that would lead to Nadir Shahs choir boys and then worse, the Brits.

From the site
Gunpowder is widely recognized as an important technological factor behind political and even social change. This book surveys the history of gunpowder and firearms in India, tracing their arrival in the thirteenth century from China and in the late fifteenth century from Europe and examining the role played by the Mongols and the Portuguese in this transmission. Alongside this narraive of the diffusion of firearms, the book looks at their impact on the nature of the regional states in the fifteenth century and on the Mughal empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The hypothesis of "gunpowder empires" advanced by Hodgson is tested by a study of the development of muskets and the increasing potency of musketry. The book goes on to consider the growing obsolescence of the Mughal firearms from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards, as seen in the failure of Mughal artilery against the Persians at Qandahar (1652-3) and Karnal (1739). Simultaneaously, it examines the extent of the dissemination of muskets among peasant communities and relates this development to the growing militancy of certain sections of the rural population and the subsequent decline of the Mughal empire.

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"Any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy, which qualifies life for immortality." ~ George William Russell

lemontree

This is an interesting topic. I'll see what I can dig up on this.

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Cheers!...on the rocks!!

sparten

Looking forward to it sir!

lemontree

History states that use of gunpowder in the battlefield was first introduced to the sub-continent by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat in April 1526. The enemy he fought was Ibrahim Lodhi (the sultan of Delhi), who did not have guns. The sound of the cannons frightened the war elephants of Ibrahim Lodhi and the animals trampled their own soldiers in fear. Ibrahim Lodhi died fighting and Babur won the battle. It was gunpowder that established the Mughal Empire.

However, some scholars of history claim that Sultal Sikandar (the idol breaker) had destroyed the Kashmiri temple with gun powder, which they claim could have been supplied by Timurlane (during is invasion of India). Tamaelane was an idol breaker himself and it is reported that Sikandar and Timurlane had met and exchanged presents, and the scholars believe that Sikandar must have received “saltpeter” from Timurlane. The Turks were known to have used metal cannons during the siege of Constantinople in 1422 AD.

Although gunpowder made its appearance in India about 150 years after its first appearance in Europe. It was the Mughals (Turko-Mingols) who developed light artillery earlier than the others. Under the Mughals gunpowder, canons and muskets were produced in large numbers to meet military needs.

The Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) had a gunpowder factory in Pulicat (south India) some time in 1620, that supplied the VOC with gunpowder in India and south-east asia.