The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s4.11

c8.s4.11

What did the Muslim army look like? There are excellent pen-pictures by Fakhr-i-Mudabbir in his *Adab-ul-Harb* and Amir Khusrau in his *Khazain-ul-Futuh*, besides of course many others. Similarly, there are descriptions of the Rajput army. Padmanabh, in his *Kanhadade-Prabandh* (written about the middle of the fifteenth century) has this to say about the Rajput warriors: They bathed the horses in the sacred water of Ganga. Then they offered them Kamal Puja. On their backs they put with sandal the impressions of their hands They put over them five types of armour, namely, war armour, saddles acting as armour, armour in the form of plates, steel armour, and armour woven out of cotton. Now what was the type of Kshatriyas who rode these horses? Those, who were above twenty-five and less than fifty in age, shot arrows with speed and were the most heroic. (Their) moustaches went up to their ears, and beards reached the navel. They were liberal and warlike. Their thoughts were good They regarded wives of others as their sisters. They stood firm in battle, and struck after first challenging the enemy. They died after having killed first. They donned and used (all the) sixty-six weapons. If any one (of the enemy ranks) fell down they regarded the fallen person as a corpse and saluted it. Similar descriptions are found in the *Pachanika* of Achaldas and other books.¹⁵⁴