Indian Antiquary Vol 08

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 74

54
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
wicket was shut upon them; in attempting to disarm them, they mangamoed, that is, ran a muck; they drew their cresses, killed one or two Frenchmen, wounded others, and at last suffered themselves, for supporting this point of honour."Voyage to Mergui, p. 77.
"These acts of indiscriminate murder are called by us mucks, because the perpetrators of them during their frenzy continually cry out amok, umok, which signifies kill, kill."-Stavorinus, Voyages, transl. by Wilcocke, vol. I. p. 291.
P. Paolino (Voyage, p. 407) says that the Amouchi' took opium dissolved in lemon-juice or other acid solvent.
1873"They (the English).
. crave
governors who, not having bound themselves before-hand to run amuck,' may give the land some chance of repose."-Blackwood's Magazine, June 1873, p. 759.
1875"On being struck, the Malay at once stabbed Arshad with a kriss; the blood of the people who had witnessed the deed was aroused, they ran amok, attacked Mr. Birch, who was bathing in a floating bath close to the shore, stabbed and killed him."-Letter from Sir W. D. Jervois to the Earl of Carnarvon, Nov. 16, 1875.
1876-"Twice over, while we were wending our weary way up the steep hill in Galata, it was our luck to see a Turk 'run a-muck'.... Nine times out of ten this frenzy is feigned, but not always, as for instance in the case where a priest took to running a-muck on an Austrian Lloyds' boat on the Black Sea, and, after killing one or twe passengers and wounding others, was only stopped by repeated shots from the captain's pistol". ..-Barkley, Five Years in Bulgaria, pp. 240-241.
1877. (Here follows a passage from the Times of February 1877 describing running a muck in London, also an extract from the Overland Times of India describing a similar scene at Meerut, dated August 31st, 1877.)
(To be continued.)
A BIG GUN.
The great gun at Lahor, called Zamzamah or the Bhangianwati top, was cast A.D. 1761 by Shah Wali Khân, Vazir of Ahmad Shah Diviâni. After the departure of Ahmad Shâh the gun was left in the possession of the Sikh sardârs of the Bhangi misi (whence its name, Bhangianwati top). It came to be regarded as a talisman of supremacy among the Sikhs. Eventually Ranjit Sing possessed himself of it, and it was used by him at the siege of
[FEBRUARY, 1879.
Multân in A.D. 1818. From that date it used to stand at the Delhi Gate of Lahor, until removed in 1860. The gun now stands near the Central Museum, facing the Sadr Bâzâr, in which position it was placed on the occasion of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to Lahor, in February 1870. The inscription on the gun is as follows:
By order of the Emperor (Ahmad Shah) Dur-iDuran
Shah Wali Khân, the Wazir, made this gun, named
Zamzamah, the taker of strongholds. The work of Shah Nazir.
In the reign of the Emperor possessing dignity like Feridun,
Dispenser of Justice robed in Equity
(In the reign of) his present Majesty Ahmad Shah Dur-i-Duran.
A Prince occupying a throne mighty as Jamshid's
There was issued unto the Chief Vazir, From the threshold of His Highness,
An order to have cast, with every possible skill A gun terrible as a dragon and huge as a
mountain.
[Yea, the order was given] to his heavenenthroned Majesty's devoted servant, Shah Wali Khân Vazir.
So in order to effect this great achievement The Master-workman called up his endeavours, Till with consummate toil was cast This wondrous gun Zamzamah,
A destroyer even of the strongholds of heaven, Under the auspices of His Majesty.
I inquired of Reason for the date of this gun; Reason angrily replied,
"If thou wilt give thy life in payment,
I will repeat to thee the date."
I did so, and he replied,-" What a gun is this? The form of a fire-raining dragon."
The last lines give the chronogram of the date of the gun-1174 A. H. or 1761 A.D. The letters in the words have a numerical value according to the "Abjad" system.-Correspondent of States
man.
Ganesa Venkatesa Joshi, of Nasik, appeals to our contributors, especially in southern India, for materials for the history of Hinduism. "If access could be secured to the archives at Śringiri (on the Tungâbhadra)," he is informed, "ample information might be obtained on the subject."
1 See passage from Marsden above.