The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c13.3

c13.3

*Artillery of the Stirrup.* The Stirrup (*rikāb*) was a figurative expression for the emperor’s immediate entourage. To be at Court was to be *ḥāẓir-i-rikāb*, “present with the Stirrup”. The artillery called by this name consisted in Bernier’s time (*Travels*, 218, 363) of “fifty or sixty small field-pieces, all of brass; each piece mounted on a well-made and handsomely painted carriage containing two ammunition chests, one behind and one in front, and ornamented with a variety of small red streamers. The carriage with the driver was drawn by two fine horses, and attended by a third horse, led by an assistant driver as a relay. The light artillery is always intended to be near the king’s person, and on that account takes the name of the artillery of the stirrup. When he resumes his journey in the morning and is disposed to shoot or hunt in game preserves, the avenues to which are guarded, it moves straight forward and reaches with all possible speed the next place of encampment, where the royal tents and those of the principal omrahs have been pitched since the preceding day. The guns are there ranged in front of the king’s quarters, and by way of signal to the army, fire a volley the moment he arrives”. Sendhiah in later days imitated this practice, but called such guns his “orderly” artillery (Broughton, 109). But after ‘Ālamgīr’s reign and until European ideas were introduced towards the end of the 18th century, I do not find mention anywhere else that cannon were dragged by horses. Either oxen or elephants were used, to the exclusion of horses.