Golundauz of Madras Horse Artillery

Coloured lithograph drawn and coloured by W Hunsley. From a series 'Natives of the Madras Army'.

A 'golundaz' was an Indian gunner. The term translates as a thrower of balls, from the Persian words 'gol', meaning ball, and 'andakhtun' which means to throw. By the mid-1830s the East India Company's Madras Army had three battalions of artillery and one regiment of Horse Artillery on strength, with their headquarters at Dum Dum.