Photo 1000/31(3181)

Genre: Architectural Photography

General view, with an Indian man standing beside the muzzle to indicate scale. India Museum no. 1423. Received from Captain Lyon, 7 February 1871. Duplicate print at Photo 1001 (3181).

532. - There were formerly six gates to the ancient city, the Makkah being on this the Western side, but this building has been converted into a hall of justice and treasury, and a small gate made by Gokla is now used as an entrance, the distance from the Ibrahim Rozah is nearly half a mile. There is an open space before the walls, which latter measuring by the counterscarp of the ditch, extend eight miles, and though decayed in many places there is not a complete breach in any part of them.

Immediately on entering the city the visitor should turn to the left, and following the walls of the city, at a short distance from the gate, he will mount some steps and find himself on a round tower called Bujr-i-Sharzah or Lion's tower where is the celebrated gun, called malik-i-maidan or monarch of the plain, said to be the largest piece of ordinance in the world. It is made of gong metal, which is smooth, and admits of a high polish. Its dimensions are as follows, diameter at breech 4 ft 10 in, at muzzle 5 ft 2 in, diameter of bore 2 ft 4, length 14 ft 3 in. The muzzle is wrought into the form of a Dragon's mouth. The following are two of the inscriptions on it. 'There is no God but God and none besides him', 'Mahomet Bin Hassan Rumi made this.' While another inscription near the steps proclaims that 'during the reign of Ali Adil Shah to whom by the favor of Murtaza God granted a distinguished victory, this bastion was in five months made firm as a mountain, through the fortunate efforts of Majils Shah, at which time an angel in delight gave the date of the year saying that the sharzah was without an equal.' The last words give the date A. H. 1079 - A. D. 1668. The most absurd stories of the terrible effect produced by its fire are current among the natives, and there is a small tank just behind it, into which it is said the gunner after igniting the fusee was obliged to plunge headlong, to escape the certain death which the concussion would have caused. On the 5th of January 1829, The Rajah of Sattarah ordered the gun to be loaded with eighty pounds of powder and fired. Many of the inhabitants left the city in fear, but the explosion though loud was nothing very extraordinary.