The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c17.15

c17.15

The Persians in the Moghul service did not think much of Indian horsemanship, judging from the following passage of an anonymous memoir written about the middle of the 18th century. "As a rule the people of India do not know how to ride, and horsemanship is unknown in Hindūstān. In addition, they use their utmost efforts to efface from horses all the qualities of the horse, and make it epileptic and mad. Their movements are not regulated by an intelligible principle, and it is impossible for them to be under the rider's control. I am a good rider and relying on my skill, I have often mounted Indian horses barebacked, in the belief that they would not be too much for me; and yet, when I have wanted to go east, they have carried me north, south, or west, and vice versa. If one wants to control the speed of the horse and make him travel at the speed one wishes, the beast either stands up on his hind legs or jibs, or hugs a wall till he crushes his rider or kills him in some other way. His paces are accompanied by jumps wholly unnatural". (*Tārīkh-i-Faraḥ Bakhsh*, trans. W. Hoey, i, App. p. 7).