Indians For Guns

Hello,

I run a website about the Martini-Henry, and recently received a message from a reader who sent me this photo of a marking on a weapon's buttstock he recently acquired.

I was wondering if you folks could possibly give me an English translation for this? My suspicion is that it's a unit marking, but don't really know for certain.

Thanks in advance!

Jason

The inscription is pronounced Mahasoo in Hindi our national language.

Jason

I ran a google search for mahasu and several hits said that its a name of a deity.

A search for mahasoo said that its the old name for Shimla (Simla) a hill station that was (I think) summer capital during British rule.

Very likely to be a rifle owned by some unit from Shimla.

Ofcourse, the real experten here will chime in when its daybreak here.....

Cheers.

M

Fantastic info. Thank you kindly!

The script is of course Devnagri and I'd guess it's not a word but an abbreviation or an acronym. The first letter is slightly chipped so it could either be (listed in order of probability, based on shape of other letters in the markings):

म हा सू
i.e.
M H S (acronym)
Ma-haa-su/ Ma-haa-soo (if taken to represent a word)

OR

प हा सू
P H S (acronym)
Pa-haa-su/ Pa-haa-soo (if taken to represent a word)

OR

स हा सू
S H S (acronym)
Sa-haa-su/ Sa-haa-soo (if taken to represent a word)

-- 23 Feb 2010 12:37 pm --

BTW I do believe that these would be issue/ re-issue marks

mundaire wrote:म हा सू
i.e.
M H S (acronym)
Ma-haa-su/ Ma-haa-soo (if taken to represent a word)

mundaire wrote:BTW I do believe that these would be issue/ re-issue marks

Any other markings? I am sure there are plenty.

What calibre is it? If only the rifle could speak.

longlever wrote:Hello,

I run a website about the Martini-Henry, and recently received a message from a reader who sent me this photo of a marking on a weapon's buttstock he recently acquired.

I was wondering if you folks could possibly give me an English translation for this? My suspicion is that it's a unit marking, but don't really know for certain.

Thanks in advance!

Jason

Script.jpg

Most likely it's from Napalese Armoury. After the defeat of Napalese Army by British forces during the Anglo-Napalese war of 1814-1816 the British Indian Govt signed a treaty (Treaty of Sugauli) with Nepal surrendering Sikkim, Kumaon & Garhwal to British India. Also the British were to arm the Napalese Army with modern British small arms in return of raising 2 Gurkha Regiments -namely Sirmour & Nasiri Battalion. The first batch of these small arms were flintlock BlunderBuss. Around 1860's the napalese armoury was given rights to manufacture some .577 Snider-Enfield Rifles, later around early 1880's they were also allowed to manufacture Peabody pattern .577/.450 Martini-Henry Rifles in limited quantity at their state arsenals.