The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c15.16

c15.16

*Sihbandī*. This was the name for the armed men entertained by local officers when engaged in collecting the land revenue (*Dastūr-ul-ʿAml*, B.M. 6598, fol. 48*b*). Colonel Sir R. C. Temple (“Calcutta Review”, Oct. 1896, p. 406) in an article on the Andaman Sibandi Corps, suggests that this word found its way into Anglo-Indian use from Madras, and that originally it was unknown in Northern India. This opinion seems untenable in the face of the authority above quoted, which belongs to Northern India and is not later than ʿĀlamgīr (1658—1707). The word is also used for local levies by Dānishmand Khān, *Bahādur Shāh-nāmah* (entry of the 12th Shabān 1120 H. = 26th October 1708). Or we may go still farther back, to the year 932 H. (1526), when we find it applied by Bābar to the Indian levies of Ibrāhīm Lodī. See the *Bābarnāmah*, lithographed text, 174; the *bedhindī* of Pavet de Courteille, ii, 163, is an obvious misreading.