The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s1.26

c11.s1.26

At the same place Mr. Whiteway mentions the gift of an arrow from the King’s quiver as a security for peace. The King’s quiver was also used as a symbol of authority (Whiteway, loc. cit.). The instance given is from the Mirāt-i-Sikandarī, where Humāyūn in 1537 released Bahādur Shāh’s minstrel, and bound his own quiver round the man’s loins. Clothed with this authority, every prisoner that the minstrel claimed as his relation was released (Bayley, “Gujarāt”, 389). Another instance of this practice is to be found in the Tārīkh-us-Sind of Muhammad Ma‘sūm, under the year 924 H. (1518), where Shāh Beg, Arghūn, gave an arrow to the qāẓī of Taṭṭah (Malet, p. 80).