The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c15.14

c15.14

Amazons. At the end of the 18th century the Nizām at Haidarābād had two battalions of female sepoys, of one thousand each, which mounted guard in the interior of the palace, and accompanied the ladies of his family whenever they moved. They were with the Nizām during the war against the Mahrattas in 1795, and at the battle of Kurdlah did not behave worse than the rest of his army. They were dressed as our sepoys used to be, and performed the French drill with tolerable precision. The corps was called the *Zafar-paltan* or victorious battalion, and the women *gārdanī*, a corruption of the word “guard”¹. The pay was five rupees a month (Blacker, 213, note). This Nizām seems to have had a penchant for female warriors. Möor, “Narrative”, 117, tells us of an Italian lady, a dancer, who so entranced him, that he conferred on her a title and placed a battalion under her command. She now learnt the manual exercise and evidently took her military position *au grand sérieux*. Soon afterwards a foreign male dancer arrived, and the lady was directed to appear in *ā pas de deux*. Full of her new dignity, she objected; and as the Nizām insisted, she resigned her command and retired to Poona.