Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 2.7.5

2.7.5

The word Ragipous signifies Sons of Rajas. These people are educated from one generation to another in the profession of arms. Parcels of land are assigned to them for their maintenance by the Rajas whose subjects they are, on condition that they shall appear in the field on the summons of their chieftain. They might be said to form a species of Gentile nobility, if the land were inalienable and descended to their children. From an early age they are accustomed to the use of opium, and I have sometimes been astonished to see the large quantity they swallow. On the day of battle they never fail to double the dose, and this drug so animates or rather inebriates them, that they rush into the thickest of the combat insensible of danger. If the Raja be himself a brave man, he need never entertain an apprehension of being deserted by his followers: they only require to be well led, for their minds are made up to die in his presence rather than abandon him to his enemies. It is an interesting sight to see them on the eve of a battle, with the fumes of opium in their heads, embrace and bid adieu to one another, as if certain of death. Who then can wonder that the Great Mogol, though a Mahometan, and as such an enemy to the Gentiles, always keeps in his service a large retinue of Rajas, treating them with the same consideration as his other Omrahs, and appointing them to important commands in his armies?