Indians For Guns

This is a picture of a beautiful Flintlock in very good condition. The decoration is not embossed but an overlay of gold & silver all over, Tiger & Pefowl suggest the theme is Indian
It was specially made for some “Shri Maharajadhiraj Sarj Mansingh Bahadur San 1280.” as enscribed in gold
Friend Bhushan says It is Devanagari Script mostly in use during the late medieval era.
Probably one of the earliest of Indian made high quality firearms of that era.

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Shamsher,

Please upload the image on Flickr and post the URL. You can also embed the image in your posts if the upload site e.g Flickr provides you with an embed URL. Use the same URL in your post and the pic can be viewed within the post itself.

regards

OUP

working on the upload

Check out my prev post.

regards

OUP

done it guys!!

Nice piece.


Cheerio

OUP

Nice, but it's a matchlock and not a flintlock... AFAIK flintlocks were not around in 1280

Cheers!
Abhijeet

your highness (Abhijeet)

Guns, came to india along with Babur. That was 1520AD

The date written on the flint / match lock is 1280.

Can anyone guess if the date the mention is of a hindu calender. it is definatley not the existing christian calander date

Shamsher

i would like to say that devnagri .script is still in use: its the .script hindi, marathi and nepali are writtn in.

Secondly, using the english dates (AD) came into force in british raj as this is the christian way of dating. prior to that was the hijri dates during mughal rule but since this is a hindu weapon, i am sure it should be "vikram samvat" not 'san'.
vikram samvat or "vi. s." (written in devnagri of course) is the hindu method of dating and was extensively used before british raj and is still used in pujas, wedding mantras, death mantras etc etc.

If this was indeed vikram samvat 1280, then this would put the gun in the year 1227.

Also the suffix 'bahadur' to a kings name is a very recent addition going back just a few generations.
However, the number very clearly states 1280; no doubt.
In this case it would lead me to ask you about where u got this gun from.

Shamsher";p="49854 wrote: your highness (Abhijeet)

Guns, came to india along with Babur. That was 1520AD

The date written on the flint / match lock is 1280.

Can anyone guess if the date the mention is of a hindu calender. it is definatley not the existing christian calander date

Shamsher

My bad! I should have realised that the date was not 1280 AD!

Hmm, so if it the year mentioned is Vikram Samvat that would make it 1224-23 AD if it is Shaka it would be about 1358-59 AD and if it's Bangla it would be 1873-74 AD. The Hijri calendar would place the year at around 1863-64 AD.

However, it is most certainly a matchlock and NOT a flintlock. A closer examination of pictures 2 & 4 will show the "serpentine" which holds the burning match.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Dear Shooter
In the late 60es my father had paid a handsome price to his friend A royal highness in Rajsthan, for this and a few more similar matchlocks,
These people have a history & still have their little kingdom there since very early 1600 AD.
Many knowledgeble people and experts who have been visiting us since have guessed this was made in the 1550AD 1570 Period.
Another expert places this at 1590 to 1610 period stating that the overlay was done mostly in that period.
The wooden stock is now black & brittle showing age.
Incidently - this one had a matching pistol almost the size of a modern day single shot .22 with similar decoration, I have no idea where this went. probably lost it with a few other things 20 years ago while shifting.
I shall clean the entire metal parts & post pictures of the tiger & the jungle scenes

So the question - what year was it manufactured still remains unanswered!

Best regards
Shamsher

Shamser,

You have a very nice and historic piece there. I would not clean it too aggressively, maybe using just window cleaner and a soft cloth. I would suggest applying a furniture wax afterwards to provide further protection.

If you could take some more detailed pictures of the lock it would be helpful.

i guessed it was a rajasthan-origin weapon due to the name on the gun.

the calenders used were always vikram samvat.

it could be explained if it was from udaipur/ south rajasthan