science

Mughal weapons

Mughal weapons is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mughal weapons rather than just read about it. In short: Mughal weapons significantly evolved during the ruling periods of its various rulers. 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.

Key takeaways

Mughal weapons belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mughal weapons to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mughal weapons from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mughal weapons significantly evolved during the ruling periods of its various rulers. 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.

Arms Under the Mughals, the most important centers of production of military equipment were Delhi and Lahore.

Most cavalrymen mainly depended upon the short arms (kotah-yaraq) for close quarter combat. They are classified into five categories: swords and shields, maces, battle-axes, spears and daggers. Weapons used for long range attacks were the bow and arrow (Kaman & Tir), the matchlock (Banduq or Tufanq) and the pistols. Rockets were also used by the artillerymen (Topkanah).

Each man had to be supplied with his own weaponry, usually bringing spears, axes or single-edged swords. The great number of weapons that a man carried is graphically described by Fitzclarence, about an officer of his guards. 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. A shield of buffalo hide with gilt bosses is hung over his back. His arms are two swords and a dagger, a brace of English pistols (flintlocks), and he has his matchlock carried before him by a servant."

Swords Swordbelts were generally broad and handsomely embroidered. On horseback they were worn on a belt hanging over the shoulder. Otherwise a man carried his sword by three straps hanging from a waist-belt.

Types of blades:

Talwar was the principle blade of the Mughal infantry. By the 18th century it would later be carried by Sepoy. Shamsher - A curved weapon similar to a scimitar. Purely a cutting weapon due to its shape and the small size of the grip. Dhup - A straight sword. It was adopted from the Dakhin, this straight sword had a broad blade four feet long and a cross hilt. Considered an emblem of sovereignty and high dignity, it was displayed on state occasions carried in a velvet wrapping by a man who held it upright before his master. It also lay on the great man's pillow when he was seated at a darbar, a public transaction of business. This kind of sword was conferred as a distinction on successful soldiers, great nobles, and court favourites. It was made of steel. Khanda - A straight sword. It was apparently identical to the dhup. Sirohi sword - A scimitar. This sword had a slightly curved blade, shaped like a Damascus blade, slightly lighter and narrower than the ordinary talwar. They were made in Sirohi with Damascus steel. Pata - A narrow-bladed, straight rapier with a gauntlet hilt. Often used in performances. Gupti - A straight sword concealed in the sheath of a walking stick . The head or handle and a fakir's crutch was closely allied in appearance with the crutch of dagger length and the weapon appearing like a short crooked staff about three feet long. It was used by persons of rank as an emblem of humility. Zulfikar - It was a very vital sword in Mughal era, specially used by Mughal emperors (After emperor Aurangzeb) and generals in the battlefield to break the opponent fighter's sword or short dagger by its own divided blade during fighting and that made to killing enemy more easier on that weaponless situation. This sword was the personal sword of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb which was in service for first 10 years of his reign. But it was discontinued around 1670 as part of the emperor's austerity measures.

Shields

A shield always accompanied a sword as part of the swordsman's equipment. Carried on the left arm, or when out of use, slung over the shoulder, shields were made of steel or hide and were generally from 17 to 24 inches (430 to 610 millimetres) in diameter. If made of steel they were often highly ornamented with patterns in gold damascening while hide shields bore silver or gold bosses, crescents, or stars. Some types of shields were made of sambar deer, buffalo, nilgau, elephant, or rhinoceros hide, the last being the most highly prized. Brahman soldiers wore shields made up of forty or fifty folds of silk painted with colors. Types of shields

Chirwah and Tilwah— These shields were carried by the shamsherbaz, or gladiators, groups of whom always surrounded the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542–1605) on the march. Fencing Shields— Small circular shields of cane or bamboo sometimes called dal (pronounced dhaal) because their shape resembled a lentil. The quaint maru or singauta, was made from a pair of antelope horns tipped with steel and united at the butt-ends. Sainti were classed as parrying shields.

Ceremonial Mace

The mace (gurj), a short-handled club with three large round balls at the end, usually formed part of the weaponry of any Mughul warrior of considerable rank. Another variety, the shashbur, or "lung-tearer", had a single round-shaped head while similar weapons included the dhara, gargaj and khandli phansi. The 2 feet (0.61 m) long dhara had a six-bladed head and octagonal steel shaft and came from Kolhapur. The garguz had eight-bladed heads and basket hilts or was seven-bladed with a basket hilt. Its length varied from 2.4 to 2.10 inches (61 to 53 mm). The khundli phansi was 1 inch (25 mm) long and had a head of open scroll work. The flail was a weapon that may be classed as a mace, along with the pusht-khar, or "back-scratcher", made of steel in the shape of a hand. The khar-i-mahi, or "fish backbone", had steel spikes projecting from each side of a straight head. The weapon called the gujbag was the common elephant goad or ankus.

Battle-axe

If the head was pointed and had two cutting edges, the axe was called a zaghnol, or "crow's beak". A double headed axe with a broad blade on one side of the handle and a pointed one on the other was styled a tabar zaghnol. An axe with a longer handle, called tarangalah, was also used. The shafts of the tabar ranged from 17 to 23 inches (430 to 580 mm) in length with a head from 5 to 6 inches (130 to 150 mm) one way and 3 to 5 inches (76 to 127 mm) the other. Some heads were crescent shaped with one of the shafts hollow for storage of a dagger. A 'Basolah' looked like a chisel while highly ornamented silver axes were carried by attendants for display in the audience hall.

Spears

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mughal weapons

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mughal weapons claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mughal weapons before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mughal weapons ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mughal weapons

In research: Mughal weapons appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mughal weapons in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mughal weapons is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Indian inventions, Indo-Persian weaponry, Military of the Mughal Empire, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mughal weapons outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mughal weapons in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mughal weapons means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mughal weapons out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mughal weapons in simple terms?

Why does Mughal weapons matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mughal weapons?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mughal weapons.