The Zamzama gun
A giant bronze cannon cast for Ahmad Shah Abdali, captured by the Bhangi misl, used by Ranjit Singh at Multan in 1818, and made famous as 'Kim's gun' by Rudyard Kipling.
The Zamzama is a huge bronze cannon, some four metres long with a bore of about twenty-four centimetres, cast in Lahore in 1757 for Ahmad Shah Abdali's governor, and used by Abdali at Panipat in 1761.
It was captured by Hari Singh Bhangi in 1762 and became known as the Bhangian wali Toap, the Bhangis' gun. Ranjit Singh took it when he took Amritsar and used it at the siege of Multan in 1818, where it was damaged. It was then placed at the Delhi Gate of Lahore.
It now stands on a platform on the Mall in Lahore outside the museum, and is famous as 'Kim's gun' from the opening of Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim, in which the boy sits astride it.
More arms & armour
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Photograph of people seated near the Zamzama GunWikimedia Commons ↗