Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c12.37

c12.37

The number of men employed in connection with sports and amusements was in aggregate very large. A numerous staff was employed specially for hunting and shooting, another for hawking, another for pigeon-flying. All Muslim rulers and nobles had pigeon-boys - Alauddin Khalji alone had 50,000 of them.⁶⁵ Provision was made for training the fighting instincts of a variety of animals down to frogs and spiders.⁶⁶ The stables swarmed with animals and men. The number of animals in the stables may be judged from the fact that Sher Shah employed 3,400 horses for royal postal communications in the Kingdom, and maintained about 5,000 elephants on an average.⁶⁷ An elephants in the royal use had seven men to attend on it. Terry tells how Jahangir assigned four attendants to each of the dogs brought to him as presents from England.⁶⁸