Cetbang (originally known as bedil, also known as warastra or meriam coak) were cannons produced and used by the Majapahit Empire (1293–1527) and other kingdoms in the Indonesian archipelago. There are 2 main types of cetbang: the eastern-style cetbang which looks like a Chinese cannon and is loaded from the front, and the western-style cetbang which is shaped like a Turkish and Portuguese cannon, loaded from the back.Averoes, Muhammad (2020). Antara Cerita dan Sejarah: Meriam Cetbang Majapahit. Jurnal Sejarah, 3(2), 89 - 100.
Etymology The word "cetbang" is not found in old Javanese, it probably comes from the Chinese word chongtong (銃筒), which also influenced the Korean word 총통(chongtong). The term "meriam coak" is from the Betawi language, it means "hollow cannon", referring to the breech.Museum Nasional (1985). Meriam-Meriam Kuno di Indonesia. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. It is also simply referred to as coak.
Cetbang in old Javanese is known as bedil. It is also called a warastra, which is synonymous with bedil. Warastra is an old Javanese word, it means magic arrow, powerful arrow, awesome arrow, or superior arrow.
In Java, the term for cannon is called bedil, but this term may refer to various types of firearms and gunpowder weapon, from small pistol to large siege guns. The term bedil comes from wedil (or wediyal) and wediluppu (or wediyuppu) in the Tamil language. In its original form, these words refer to gunpowder blast and saltpeter, respectively. But after being absorbed into bedil in the Malay language, and in a number of other cultures in the archipelago, that Tamil vocabulary is used to refer to all types of weapons that use gunpowder. In Javanese and Balinese the term bedil and bedhil is known, in Sundanese the term is bedil, in Batak it is known as bodil, in Makasarese, badili, in Buginese, balili, in Dayak language, badil, in Tagalog, baril, in Bisayan, bádil, in Bikol languages, badil, and Malay people call it badel or bedil.
Description There are 2 main types of cetbang:
Eastern-style cetbang
Its predecessors were brought by the Mongol-Chinese troops to Java, so they resembled Chinese cannons and hand cannons. Eastern-style cetbangs were mostly made of bronze and were front-loaded cannons. It fires arrow-like projectiles, but round bullets and co-viative projectilesA type of scatter bullet—when shot it spews fire, splinters and bullets, and can also be arrows. The characteristic of this projectile is that the bullet does not cover the entire bore of the barrel. Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 9 and 220. can also be used. These arrows can be solid-tipped without explosives, or with explosives and incendiary materials placed behind the tip. Near the rear, there is a combustion chamber or room, which refers to the bulging part near the rear of the gun, where the gunpowder is placed. The cetbang is mounted on a fixed mount, or as a hand cannon mounted on the end of a pole. There is a tube-like section on the back of the cannon. In the hand cannon-type cetbang, this tube is used as a socket for a pole. The arrow-throwing cetbang would have been useful in naval combat, especially as a weapon used against ships (mounted under the bow gun shield or apilan), and also in a siege, because of its projectile ability to explode and as incendiary material.
Western-style cetbang The western-style cetbang was derived from the Turkish prangi cannon that came to the archipelago after 1460 CE. Just like prangi, this cetbang is a breech-loading swivel gun made of bronze or iron, firing single rounds or scatter shots (a large number of small bullets). In order to achieve a high firing rate, 5 chambers can be alternately reloaded.
For the rear-loading cetbang, the smallest may be about long, and the largest about . Their calibers range from . They are light, mobile cannons, most of them can be carried and shot by one man, but they are not fired from the shoulder like a bazooka because the high recoil force could break human bones. These gun are mounted on swivel yoke (called cagak), the spike is fitted into holes or sockets in the bulwarks of a ship or the ramparts of a fort. A tiller of wood is inserted to the back of the cannon with rattan, to enable it to be trained and aimed.
Cetbang can be mounted as a fixed gun, swivel gun, or placed in a wheeled carriage. Small-sized cetbang can be easily installed on small vessels called penjajap and lancaran. This gun is used as an anti-personnel weapon, not anti-ship. In this age, even to the 17th century, the Nusantaran soldiers fought on a platform called balai (see the picture of a ship below) and perform boarding actions. Loaded with scatter shots (grapeshot, case shot, or nails and stones) and fired at close range, the cetbang would have been effective at this type of fighting.
History
Majapahit era (ca. 1300–1478)
Cannons were introduced to Majapahit when Kublai Khan's Chinese army under the leadership of Ike Mese sought to invade Java in 1293. History of Yuan mentioned that the Mongol used a weapon called 炮 (Pào) against Daha forces.Schlegel, Gustaaf (1902). "On the Invention and Use of Fire-Arms and Gunpowder in China, Prior to the Arrival of European". T'oung Pao. 3: 1–11.Lombard, Denys (1990). Le carrefour javanais. Essai d'histoire globale (The Javanese Crossroads: Towards a Global History) Vol. 2. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Page 178.Reid, Anthony (1993). Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. This weapon is interpreted differently by researchers, it may be a trebuchet that throws thunderclap bombs, firearms, cannons, or rockets. It is possible that the gunpowder weapons carried by the Mongol-Chinese troops amounted to more than 1 type.
Thomas Stamford Raffles wrote in The History of Java that in 1247 saka (1325 CE), cannons have been widely used in Java especially by the Majapahit. It is recorded that the small kingdoms in Java that sought the protection of Majapahit had to hand over their cannons to the Majapahit. Majapahit under Mahapatih (prime minister) Gajah Mada (in office 1331–1364) utilized gunpowder technology obtained from Yuan dynasty for use in the naval fleet.
The neighboring kingdom of Sunda was recorded using bedil during the battle of Bubat of 1357. Kidung Sunda canto 2 stanza 87–95 mentioned that the Sundanese had juru-modya ning bedil besar ing bahitra (aimer/operator of the big cannon on the ships) in the river near Bubat square. Majapahit troops situated close to the river were unlucky: The corpses could hardly be called corpses, they were maimed, torn apart in the most gruesome way, the arms and the heads were thrown away. The cannonballs were said to discharge like rain, which forced the Majapahit troops to retreat in the first part of the battle.Berg, C. C., 1927, Kidung Sunda. Inleiding, tekst, vertaling en aanteekeningen, BKI LXXXIII : 1-161.
Ma Huan (Zheng He's translator) visited Java in 1413 and took notes about the local customs. His book, Yingya Shenlan, mentioned that cannons are fired in Javanese marriage ceremonies when the husband was escorting his new wife to the marital home to the sound of gongs, drums, and firecrackers. Haiguo Guangji (海国广记) and Shuyu zhouzi lu (殊域周咨錄) recorded that Java is vast and densely populated, and their armored soldiers and hand cannons (火銃—huǒ chòng) dominated the Eastern Seas.
Because of the close maritime relations of the Nusantara archipelago with the territory of west India, after 1460 new types of gunpowder weapons entered the archipelago through Arab intermediaries. This weapon seems to be cannon and gun of Ottoman tradition, for example the prangi, which is a breech-loading swivel gun.
Majapahit decline and the rise of Islam (1478–1600)
When the Portuguese first came to Malacca, they found a large colony of Javanese merchants under their own headmen; they were manufacturing their own cannon, which is deemed as important as sails in a ship.Furnivall, J. S. (2010). Netherlands India: A Study of Plural Economy. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. Duarte Barbosa recorded the abundance of gunpowder-based weapons in Java ca. 1514. The Javanese were deemed as expert gun casters and good artillerymen. The weapon found there include one-pounder cannons, long muskets, spingarde (arquebus), schioppi (hand cannon), Greek fire, guns (cannons), and other fire-works. When Malacca fell to the Portuguese in 1511 A.D., breech-loading swivel guns (cetbang) and muzzle-loading swivel guns (lela and rentaka) were found and captured by the Portuguese. In 1513, the Javanese fleet led by Pati Unus, sailed to attack Portuguese Malacca "with much artillery made in Java, for the Javanese are skilled in founding and casting, and in all works in iron, exceeding what they have in India".
De Barros and Faria e Sousa mention that with the fall of Malacca (1511), Albuquerque captured 3,000 out of 8,000 artillery. Among those, 2,000 were made from brass and the rest from iron, in the style of Portuguese berço (berso). All of the artillery had its proper complement of carriages which could not be rivaled even by Portugal. Afonso de Albuquerque compared Malaccan gun founders as being on the same level as those of Germany. However, he did not state what ethnicity the Malaccan gun founders were. Duarte Barbosa stated that the arquebus-maker of Malacca was Javanese.Reid, Anthony (1989). The Organization of Production in the Pre-Colonial Southeast Asian Port City. In Broeze, Frank (Ed.), Brides of the Sea: Asian Port Cities in the Colonial Era (pp. 54–74). University of Hawaii Press. The Javanese also manufactured their own cannon in Malacca. The Javanese handled much of the productive work in Malacca before 1511 and in 17th century Pattani.
Wan Mohd Dasuki Wan Hasbullah explained several facts about the existence of gunpowder weapons in Malacca and other Malay states before the arrival of the Portuguese:
No evidence showed that guns, cannons, and gunpowder were made in Malay states. No evidence showed that guns were ever used by the Malacca Sultanate before the Portuguese attack, even from Malay sources themselves. Based on the majority of cannons reported by the Portuguese, the Malays preferred small artillery.
The cannons found in Malacca were of various types: esmeril (1/4 to 1/2-pounder swivel gun, probably refers to cetbang or lantaka), falconet (cast bronze swivel gun larger than the esmeril, 1 to 2-pounder, probably refers to lela), medium saker (long cannon or culverin between a six and a ten-pounder, probably refers to meriam),Lettera di Giovanni Da Empoli, with introduction and notes by A. Bausani, Rome, 1970, page 138. and bombard (short, fat, and heavy cannon). The Malays also had 1 beautiful large cannon sent by the king of Calicut.