Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 2.8.2

2.8.2

To that son he had long been compelled to resign all authority, and the military commanders, as well as the officers of the State, were instructed to yield implicit obedience to the orders of Dara. It is not surprising, therefore, that this Prince was enabled to assemble a numerous army, finer than perhaps had ever trod the plains of Hindoustan. The lowest calculation makes it amount to one hundred thousand horse, more than twenty thousand foot, and eighty pieces of cannon; besides an incredible number of camp-followers, and those bazar dealers, so necessary for the support of an army in peace as well as in war, and who, I suspect, are often included by historians in the number of combatants, when they speak of immense armies of three or four hundred thousand men. Unquestionable it is, that the force under Dara's command was sufficient, in point of physical strength, to overwhelm two or three such armies as Aureng-Zebe's, whose utmost number could not exceed forty thousand men of all arms, and these harassed and nearly worn out by long marches under a vertical sun. Yet, notwithstanding this disparity of numbers, no one seemed to presage success to Dara; the only troops on whose fidelity he could depend being with the army under Soliman-Chekouh, and the principal Omrahs having manifested symptoms of disaffection to his interests. His friends, therefore, earnestly recommended him not to hazard an engagement.