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Mumbai, July 20 (UNI) Britishers may have given India much
in terms of revolutionary ideas and thinking, including the railways,
paving way for modernization in the country, but ample historical
evidence has brought to light a few amazing facts, one of which being
that guns and gun-power were in use in Bengal in the beginning of
the 15th century much before the Britishers brought it to India.
The 'Shukraniti' medieval Indian
text, describes how gun powder can be prepared using saltpetre,
sulphur and charcoal in different ratios for the use of different,
types of gnus, says Dr. Vijay Bedekar, the President of Thane-based
Institute of Oriental Study.
Dr. Bedekar, who along with
Dr R P Kulkarni authored a book Glimpses of Chemistry in ancient
and Medical India. Which was released recently, had traced the origins
of gunnery in India after almost eight months of through research.
Ancient text reveals that while
gunpowder was known as 'Agnicurna', the guns were called 'Nalastra'.
One such combination of 'Agnicurna'
as stated in the text consists of five parts of saltpeter, one part
of sulphur and one part of charcoal to be dried in the sun. It is
finally grinded into a powder which becomes gun-powder.
Following the release of the
book at the recently-concluded International Chemistry Olympiad,
Dr. Bedekar told UNI here that besides the art of making gunpowder,
'Shukraniti' also descries in detail about guns, which were available
during those times.
'Shukraniti' suggests that the 'Nalikas' are of two kinds, large
and small - the smaller ones are 112.5 cms long, have a stock of
tough wood and a barrel of a bamboo with a bore of three-fourth
of an inch.
The small 'Nalikas' are carried
by infantry and cavalry. The larger 'Nalikas', has no wooden stock
- were made of steel and other metals ands was carried on wheels,
according to Dr. Bedekar.
The small shot for smaller
arms is made of lead or other metals, and the shots for larger guns
are made of iron.
For this the gunpowder is composed
of four, five or six parts of 'Suvarchi Lavana' (salt petre), one
part of sulphur and one part of Charcoal of plant arka (calotropis
gigantea linn), Snuhi and other trees burnt in a pit so as to exclude
air.
The mixture is soaked in sap
of akra and rasuna (garlic), died in Sun and redacted to a coarse
powder like granulated sugar.
Dr. Bedekar points out that
there are many kinds of 'Agnichurma' known to experts, and they
are composed of varied proportion of charcoal, sulphur, salt petre,
regular, orpiment, clax of lead, cinnabar, iron fillings, zinc dust,
shell -lac, blue vitriol and resin of pines to name a few. Some
even give out white light like that of moon.
Says Dr. Bedekar, "All
these things are there in our history books. What is lacking today
is a structured course on history of science in India. It is high
time that policy makers realize this and devise such courses for
universities and colleges.
Talking about his book, he
said that they have tried to incorporate several facts of the ancient
chemistry in India that is not known today.
The practical knowledge of
chemistry is useful in many branches of human activity, namely,
to prepare medicines, to purify metals from their ores and to prepare
alloy and make gold from base metals, preparation of glass among
others. Indian chemistry mainly flourished as a branch of medicine."
Dr. Bedekar added.
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