The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c13.29

c13.29

At times the leather nose-bags (*tobrah*) were, however, put to strange uses, as can be seen in the *Tārīkh-i-Ḥusain Shāhī*, fol. 39*a*. At the end of 1760, during one of the encounters which preceded the crowning victory of Pānīpat, Shāh Pasand Khān, generalissimo of Aḥmad Shāh, Durrānī, was seated on the edge of a well, cleaning the blood from his sword, when Shujāʿ-ud-daulah’s retinue passed by. On the Nawāb congratulating him, the general asked, “How many infidels thinkest thou we have slain?” “At the least five thousand”, replied the Nawāb. The Afghān said jokingly, “Give me one rupee each for them, and I will make over to thee twenty thousand heads”. Then he shouted to his troopers, and each man as he rode up emptied the heads out of his nose-bag at the feet of the Nawāb. There were from two to four in each bag.