The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c10.s1.9

c10.s1.9

*Guptī*. In the *Āīn*, i, 110, this is N°. 3, and was a straight sword having a walking stick as its sheath, the name being from H. *gupt*, concealed. See also figure 3 on plate xii of the same volume. Egerton’s entries are N°. 516, 517, 518, 519 (p. 117), 641, 642 (p. 131). The head or handle in Blochmann’s figure shows that the sword-stick and the fakir’s crutch were closely allied in appearance, and might at times be united. The crutch is depicted in Egerton, p. 47, and again on plate xiii (opposite p. 126) N°. 639 (p. 131), which is however only of dagger length. One of these crutches played a conspicuous part in the battle of Jājau in June 1707, A‘zam Shāh, one of the contenders for the throne, whirling his crutch frantically, as he stood up on his elephant to urge on his troops. Jonathan Scott, II, part IV, 34, note 4, calls it “a short crooked staff, about three feet in length, not unlike a crozier, used by fakeers to lean on when they sit, and often by persons of rank as an emblem of humility.”