Ancient Steel Archery Bows
Deon Melchior
Down through the ages different countries have done experiments with steel for a bow-making material. It is said that the Indians were the first people to have overcome the obstacles presented by steel and made a weapon that, although it did not have the cast and range of its predecessor (the composite bow) was all the same a real and workable bow.
India is a nation that is highly inventive with weapons, and was especially so during the era from about 269 to 237 BCE. During this period, many of the weapons the nation produced were entirely made of metal. There was also an all-metal arrow with the name "Naraca". So it's not surprising that the metal bow should eventually come about in that nation. Why were they made in the first place? India at a very early date had a well organized and large army with large, well-maintained armories. The steel bow would have made a highly desirable weapon. Dutifully greased, it would have stored better than any other type of bow, and could have been used right away.
V. R. Dikshitar has written that "steel was the new invention and the old things were cast aside for the new". He is assuredly talking about the Mughal period, which is when the steel bow was used quite a lot.. The composite bow went out of favor at the time of Shah Jehan in 1650 AD. The Mughal period began around 1526 AD, making this period the one where the transition from composite bows to steel bows took place according to many historians.
But, digging deeper into history, we read in the Indian work the Visnudharmottara that bows are made of bamboo, horn, and metal. The Agnipurana also mentions wood, horn, and steel as bow materials and tells us of the steel bow that "It must have a small grip, and its middle portion is said to resemble the eyebrow of a lady. It is usually made in parts, or together, and inlaid with gold". There is a pretty good amount of evidence that steel bows were extensively used in the waging of war. There's really nothing else that they would have been good for anyway. A good number of the Mughal miniature paintings depict archers on horseback in battle scenes using steel bows.
Whether the final form and all of its variations on the theme was purely Indian we may never discover. There were Persian craftsmen and armorers who worked at the Mughal Court. It is said that the Persians used a straight steel bow for exercising. So, the concept would not have been new to them at all. However, we have no records of their having used steel bows in war.
The steel bow was a close copy of the composite bow. However, certain unique features can be seen right away. The steel bow never had the extreme recurvature that the composite did in its original state Instead it has the shape and form of a composite that has "opened out" to a certain degree. In addition, the recurvature is mainly of a design which could not be reproduced in an amalgamation of horn, sinew, and wood.
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