The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c20.19

c20.19

*Military Music and the Naubat.* The beating of drums, accompanied by the playing of cymbals and the blowing of trumpets, at certain fixed intervals (*naubat*), was one of the attributes of sovereignty. The place where the instruments were stationed, generally at or over a gateway, was the *naubat* or *naqqār khānah*, the latter name coming from *naqqārah*, one kind of drum used. Details will be seen in the *Āīn*, i, 51. As I read that passage, there would seem to have been nine *naubat* in the twenty four hours, but generally they are spoken of as recurring at the end of each of the eight watches (*pahr*) into which that period was divided. The number is differently stated by different writers. Haji Mustapha, *Seir*, i, 3 note 31, after saying that in its origin this music was a mark of sovereignty, though later usurped by all provincial governors, goes on, “It played four times by day and once by night, and also to announce good news”. Others speak of only three *naubat*. Fitzclarence, 192, writes “the continual beating of the *naubat*, or great drums, is one of the highest signs of rank and power; over the gate of every palace is a gallery or balcony where this noisy instrument is beaten at certain hours in the day and night. One of them (i. e. a drum) is always carried on an elephant before the commander of a native army. At Murshidābād, when I was there, the Nawāb had them continually beaten. Four gates to his palace had each a *naubat*, and each of them sounded a quarter of each hour and made the most horrid din imaginable”. As to the beating of kettle drums on the march there is a passage to the same effect in Captain J. Williamson “Oriental Field Sports”, p. 79.