The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c19.2

c19.2

Camp, description of. The laying out of the emperor's camp, a plan continued to the last, is described in the *Āīn*, i, 47, and is shown with more detail in plate iv. In the centre was the imperial enclosure of canvas screens 1530 yards long, and about one fifth of that distance in breadth. It was divided across in its length into four courts. Over the entrance, which faced in the direction of the next march, was the drum-house (*naqār-khānah*), in the second court was the audience tent, in the third a more private hall, and in the fourth the sleeping tents. Behind was a place for Akbar’s mother, while outside and still more to the rear were the women’s apartments, surrounded on all four sides by guards. Along the outside of the enclosure were ranged on each side the *kārkhānahs*, or departments of the household and arsenal, about ten tents on each side. Still further away and towards each corner, the tents of the guards were erected. Outside the gate of the enclosure were the elephants and horses with their establishments on one side; and the records, the carts and litters, the general of artillery, and the hunting leopards on the other. A description of Jahāngīr’s camp will be found in Cambridge, “War”, Introd. v, who quotes it from Sir Thomas Roe’s journal, the chief impression produced on the ambassador’s mind being that of immense size.