BHANGIAN DI TOP, or the gun belonging to the Bhangi misl, known as Zamzama, is a massive, heavyweight cannon weighing 80 pounds, measuring 14 feet 4.5 inches in length, with a bore aperture of 9.5 inches. It was cast in Lahore in copper and brass by Shah Nazir under the orders of Shah Wali Khan, the wazir of Ahmad Shah Durrani. In English literature, it has been immortalized by Rudyard Kipling as Kim’s gun. It is perhaps the largest specimen of Indian cannon casting, celebrated in Sikh historical annals more as a marvel of ordnance than for its effectiveness in battle.
Despite its limited battlefield use, it was described as “a fire-raining dragon” and “a gun terrible as a dragon and huge as a mountain.” The casting of this gun cost the Durrani invader almost nothing. A jizya or capitation tax was imposed on the Hindu and Sikh families of Lahore in 1760 by Shah Wali Khan, requiring each family to contribute a copper or brass vessel for the cannon’s manufacture. Afghan and Indian ordnance makers worked under Shah Nazir’s supervision, casting the metal into this legendary gun, which, according to local chronicles, was completed before 1761.
The gun was deployed during the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. However, being too cumbersome to move, Ahmad Shah left it with Khwaja Ubaid, the governor of Lahore. In 1762, the Bhangi chief, Hari Singh, attacked Lahore and captured the cannon, which subsequently became known as Bhangian di Top. It remained in the possession of Bhangi sardars Lahina Singh and Gujjar Singh until 1764, when Charhat Singh Sukkarchakkia, who had assisted the Bhangis in the capture of Lahore, claimed it as his share of the spoils.
Charhat Singh transported the cannon to Gujranwala with the help of 2,000 soldiers. Soon afterward, the Chattha chiefs of Ahmadnagar wrested the cannon from the Sukkarchakkia sardar. A feud arose between the two Chattha brothers, Ahmad Khan and Pir Muhammad Khan, over its possession, leading to a bloody battle in which two sons of Ahmad Khan and one son of Pir Muhammad Khan were killed. Gujjar Singh Bhangi, who sided with Pir Muhammad Khan, took the cannon to Gujrat.
In 1772, the Chatthas recovered the gun and moved it to Rasulnagar. It was captured by Jhanda Singh in 1773 and carried to Amritsar. In 1802, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh occupied Amritsar, the cannon fell into his hands. Chroniclers like Sohan Lal Suri and Bute Shah note its use by the Bhangis in the Battle of Dinanagar against the Kanhaiya and Ramgarhia forces. Ranjit Singh employed the Zamzama in campaigns at Daska, Kasur, Sujanpur, Wazirabad, and Multan.
During the Multan siege of 1810, the gun was transported on a specially built carriage, but it failed to fire. In April 1818, it was again deployed at Multan but proved ineffective against the citadel’s thick walls. Severely damaged during these operations, the cannon was brought back to Lahore and deemed unfit for further use. It was placed outside Delhi Gate, Lahore, where it remained until 1860.
By 1864, Maulawi Nur Ahmad Chishti noted in his Tahqiqati Chishti that the gun stood in the Baradari of Wazir Khan’s garden, behind the Lahore Museum. Following British occupation of Punjab, several legends surrounded this relic of Sikh and Afghan struggles. In 1870, it was moved to the entrance of the Lahore Museum, then located in Tollinton Market. When the museum’s current building was constructed, the cannon was relocated further west, opposite the University Hall. Repaired in 1977, the Zamzama now rests opposite the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Punjab University, Lahore.
The cannon bears two Persian inscriptions. The front inscription reads: “By the order of the Emperor [Ahmad Shah] Durr-i-Durran, Shah Wali Khan wazir made the gun named Zamzama or the Taker of Strongholds.”
The longer, versified inscription at the back praises its size and invincibility, calling it “a destroyer even of the strongholds of the heavens.” A chronogram within the verses poetically exclaims: “What a cannon! ‘Tis a mighty fire-dispensing dragon!”
References:
- Suri, Sohan Lal, Umdat-ut-Twarikh, Lahore, 1885–89.
- Hasrat, B.J., Life and Times of Ranjit Singh, Nabha, 1977.
- Khushwant Singh, Ranjit Singh: Maharajah of the Punjab, Bombay, 1962.
- Muhayy-ud-Din, Ghulam (alias Bute Shah), Twarikh-i-Panjab (MS in the Dr. Ganda Singh Collection, Punjabi University, Patiala).
