The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c17.9

c17.9

Drill. There seems to have been no drill for soldiers, as such, and no training in combined movements of any sort. The individual, on the other hand, paid the minutest attention to the training of his body, and exercising himself with all his weapons. For this there were the series of movements practised daily, known as *kasarāt*. In 1791 an English visitor to the Nizam’s camp near Kaḍapah (Cuddapah) writes to the following effect, Ouseley, “Or. Coll”, 1795, i, 21—32, “the traces of order, discipline, and science are so faint as to be scarcely discernible, except in the outward appearance of the men, the management of their horses, and their dexterity in the use of the spear and sabre, which individually gives a martial air”. He adds that the men exercise at home with dumb bells or heavy pieces of wood; and he also describes the *kasarāt* movements. There were in addition the clubs called *mugdar*, the chain bow or *lezam*, Egerton 147, 150-1, N°. 808, and single-stick play. In this last, a stick covered with a loose sheath of leather was held in one hand and a small round buckler in the other, Egerton, 148, quoting from Mundy (3rd ed. 1858, p. 165, 191, 310, 322). The stick is called *gudkā*, *gadkā* or *gadgā*, a little club, from *gadā*, a club (Shakes. 1689). An account will be found in Briggs, “Ferishta”, iii, 207, of *yak-ang-bāzī*, play with one single-stick or sword, and *do-ang-bāzī*, with sword and shield, or two swords, one held in each hand. There were also wrestling bouts, which usually took place in the rainy season. For mounted men there were tent-pegging and shooting at bottles: and the archers had their daily shooting at an earthen mound or target.