The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c15.31

c15.31

*Mewātī*. These men are further designated *Tīr-andāz* (archers, lit. “arrow throwers”). Mewāt is the hilly country south and west of the Jamnah, between Agrah and Dihlī (J. Rennell, “Memoir”, cxx). It derives its name from the tribe inhabiting it, the Meos. In the *Āīn*, i, 252, the men from Mewāt are called Mewrahs, and they are described as post-runners and spies. Neither the name nor these duties seem to have belonged to the Mewātīs in the 18th century; though *mewrah* had survived as a name for a post-runner of any kind. From Mewāt, the name of the country, comes the word Mewātī, an inhabitant of Mewāt. They are now Mahomedans and were famed, until our time, for their turbulence. Their depredations made the imperial highway from Āgrah to Dihlī, viâ Mathurā, at all times unsafe; and it was necessary to travel in large parties, or to hire armed men, who were probably themselves Mewātīs, on the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief. A good description of the state of things about 1710 will be seen in Yār Muḥammad’s *Dastūr-ul-Inshā*, p. 130, 131. The E. I. Company’s envoy, Mr. John Surman, who travelled this way to Court in June 1715, mentions in his diary that at Āgrah they were forced to hire an armed guard for their protection (Orme Collections, p. 1694, under date of June 8th).