The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c10.s1.12

c10.s1.12

*Fencing Shields*. Following the *ḍhāl* or shield the *Āīn*, i, 111, has Nº. 49, the *kherah*, كهرہ, but there is no figure of it. I presume that this is the same word as گروہ, *girwah* (Shaks., 1695) or گروہ *garwah* (Steingass, 1081), both meaning a shield. I can find no word *kherah* in the dictionaries, but it might be *gherā*, घेरा, a round, a circle (Shakes. 1759), with allusion to the form of a shield. Again Nº. 50 *Pahrī*, (*Āīn*, i, 111) is described by Blochmann, p. xi, as a plain cane shield. It is shown as Nº. 42 on plate xiii. This must evidently be *Pharī*, फरी, Hindi for a small shield of cane or bambu (Shakes. 580). The quaint implement, *mārū* or *singauta*, made of a pair of antelope horns tipped with steel and united at the butt-ends, Egerton, p. 111 and p. 133, also the *sainti* (id. 118 and plate x), may be classed as parrying shields.