What is the military-device referred to by the term manjaniq?

Correct — D, A device for throwing stones (mangonel). Manjaniq is the Arabic and Persian name for the mangonel, a siege engine that hurls stones. The word travelled a long way to reach India: Greek manganikon gave Late Latin manganum and Arabic al-manjaniq, and the machine and its name came into the subcontinent with the Turkish armies. Mechanically it is a traction engine — a beam pivoted on a frame, with a sling at the long end, worked by a team hauling down on ropes at the short end — which is why medieval sources describe crews rather than a single operator. It was used in sieges to batter walls and, more effectively, against the defenders on them, alongside archers and slingers. The key thing to be clear about is what it is not. The manjaniq is emphatically not gunpowder artillery. It is a machine that stores energy in human muscle and the swing of a beam, and it belongs to the era before cannon; in the wider Islamic world the counterweight trebuchet superseded it during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Option (a) fails for exactly this reason.

• (a)A device for loading field-guns with gunpowder — The central trap, and the one worth understanding. The manjaniq is pre-gunpowder — a mechanical stone-thrower. Gunpowder artillery is a later technology that arrives in India well after the manjaniq was in use.
• (b)Preparing cavalry for rapid charge — Not a device at all, but a manoeuvre. The term names a machine used in sieges, which is the opposite end of medieval warfare from a cavalry charge in the field.
• (c)A bolting device for strengthening the gates of forts — Reverses the machine's role. The manjaniq is used by the besiegers against the fort, not by the defenders to reinforce it.

Before gunpowder, breaking a fortified place meant either starving it out, undermining its walls, or battering them with machines. The manjaniq is the best known of those machines in the medieval Islamic and Indian world. In its usual traction form a long beam pivots on a tall frame; a sling holding the stone is fixed at one end while a crew hauls sharply on ropes at the other, whipping the beam over and releasing the stone. Later the counterweight trebuchet, which substitutes a falling mass for the pulling crew, gave greater range and consistency and displaced it.

This block of the paper is drawn from the history of military technology, and the questions reward knowing which era a device belongs to. The single most useful discrimination is mechanical versus gunpowder. Anything driven by tension, torsion, counterweight or a hauling crew is pre-gunpowder; anything involving powder, barrels or shot is later. Once that line is clear, option (a) here disqualifies itself on the word 'gunpowder' alone, and options (b) and (c) fail because neither describes a device that throws anything. It is also worth carrying the vocabulary: the same machine appears in Persian chronicles of the Delhi Sultanate as an instrument of siege warfare, and CDS has now asked about it twice in four years, so it is squarely part of the expected syllabus rather than an exotic detail.

• Manjaniq — al-manjaniq in Arabic — is the name of the mangonel, a stone-throwing siege engine.
• The word descends from Greek manganikon through Late Latin manganum into Arabic, and reached India with the Turkish armies.
• It is a human-powered traction engine: a crew hauls on ropes at the short arm to whip a sling at the long arm.
• It was used in sieges against walls and, most effectively, against defenders, alongside archers and slingers.
• It is not gunpowder artillery; the counterweight trebuchet superseded it in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
• CDS asked the same term in 2022-II Q64, where the official key is 'Catapult'.

• Reading any medieval military term as gunpowder-related; the manjaniq predates cannon entirely.
• Assuming an Arabic or Persian loanword must describe something the defenders used — this is a besieger's machine.
• Confusing the manjaniq with the arradah or other named engines of the same family; for exam purposes it is the stone-thrower.

As a straight term-to-definition item, exactly as here and as in CDS 2022-II. Occasionally folded into a statements question on medieval military technology.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The manjaniq of medieval warfare was superseded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries chiefly by

  • (a)the matchlock musket
  • (b)the counterweight trebuchet
  • (c)the battering ram
  • (d)the field cannon

  Answer(b) the counterweight trebuchet — substituting a falling mass for the hauling crew gave greater range and consistency.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following medieval military devices did NOT depend on gunpowder?

  • (a)Manjaniq
  • (b)Field gun
  • (c)Matchlock
  • (d)Rocket

  Answer(a) Manjaniq — a mechanical stone-thrower powered by a hauling crew, belonging to the era before gunpowder artillery.