What could a bow shoot, besides arrows? Stones or pellets.

Pellet bows propel a pebble or clay pellet from a silk pouch on a double string.

The artistry is both in making the bow and string and in the shooting technique, or khatra. On releasing the string and pellet, archers must immediately move the bow—and the hand holding it—out of the path of the projectile, to avoid painful injury.

Pellet bows were used to hunt small game, on the ground or in flight.

Pictured is a bamboo galalee, goolal, or gulal, from mid-1800s Lahore, India. This bow has double strings of thin bamboo strips and blackened thread, joined in the centre by a sling attachment, for hurling clay pellets or stones. It's painted in green and gold, with ivory mountings.

This weapon was displayed in the India Museum from 1879, then transferred down the road in 1955 to the South Kensington, later the Victoria & Albert, then to the V&A's East Storehouse.

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