The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c18.6

c18.6

*Commissariat.* In an Indian army the commissariat was left very much to take care of itself. The imperial kitchen fed a certain number of palace servants and some armed guards, matchlockmen, and artificers. There was also a charitable kitchen kept up, at the emperor’s expense, and called the *Langarkhāna*. In the same way, a chief distributed cooked food to the men more especially attached to his person. Outside these limited circles, every man was left to provide for himself, buying from day to day enough for his daily wants from the numerous dealers, or *banyas*, who followed the army. These men’s huts or shops were erected in long double lines, so as to form temporary streets. These are the so-called *bāzārs* or markets (Bernier, 381). Each great leader had his own bazars, and in these were to be found not only dealers in grain, but merchants and artificers of every sort and kind.