The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.314

v4.c20.314

Finally, the general laxity of discipline converted the army into a mob. Drill was unknown and a soldier’s training, which he might undergo or not, as he liked, consisted in muscular exercise and in individual practice in the use of the weapons with which he was armed. He mounted guard or not as he liked, the punishment for absence, not invariably inflicted, consisting in the loss of a day’s pay. There was, indeed, no regular punishment for military crimes. An infuriated commander might occasionally expose officers and men guilty of cowardice to the ridicule of their comrades by mounting them on asses and parading them through the camp, but even this grave crime frequently went unpunished, and Aurangzīb himself habitually overlooked as matters of course acts of treason, cowardice and deliberate neglect of duty before the enemy.