The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c17.19

c17.19

*Hunting.* The nearest approach to army manœuvres was when the army or a division was ordered out to take part in a royal hunt. This subject is touched on by Horn, 69. One branch of the army combined two functions; in peace they were huntsmen, in war, skirmishers. These were the *Qarāwal*, with the *Qarāwal Begī*, or Chief Huntsman, at their head ². Horn, 69, refers to two descriptions of a royal hunt, namely, Budāunī, iii, 92, and Erskine, “History”, ii, 286. I add another from Anand Rām, *Mirāt-ul-Iṣṭilāḥ*, fol. 184a. *Shikār-i-qamrghāh* (or *qamrgāh*), also *shikār-i-jargāh*, is called in Hindī *haṭā-jorī* ³. For this hunt a king gives orders, through his huntsmen (*qarāwal*), to his governors and the zamīndars and cultivators (ryots) to surround a wide space full of game. This was closed in on daily till the area was very small. Then the ruler and his friends arrived, entered the enclosed space, and hunted the game. As this was a privilege (*qūruq*) of kings, no one else, not even a great noble, was allowed to practise it. This method was also followed in Īrān; in India it was given up after the middle of ‘Ālamgīr’s reign.