The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c20.20

c20.20

In addition to the fixed periods at which the imperial drums were beaten and the music played, it would seem that music and drum beating accompanied the march of the emperor (Fitzclarence, 138). The intention to make a march was announced by the beating of kettle drums, as was done for instance by Prince ʿAlā Gohar in 1171 H., *Tārīkh-i-ʿĀlamgīr Sānī*, fol. 155b. Or as Manucci asserts, ii, 68, a trumpet was sounded for the same purpose. If the emperor were not present, the commander, if entitled to this high honour, caused his own drums to be beaten, and as Horn, 17, remarks, the sound of these drums was a sign that some great noble was in command and that probably the army under him was a large one. The drums were also beaten at the opening of a battle. We are told by one writer of the year 1169 H. (1756), *Tārīkh-i-ʿĀlamgīr Sānī*, fol. 49a, that a horn was blown at night in the emperor’s camp to indicate a halt for the next day. We read of one noble who kept in his service one hundred horn-blowers (*karranāī*), so that when a fight was trembling in the balance, they should all blow together and inspire the other side with dread. (*Maʿāsir-ul-umarā*, i, 514). After a battle the drums and trumpets were also employed by the victors to announce their victory; and even on ordinary occasions a noble was preceded by music. In 1757 Anquetil Duperron, *Zend Avestā*, i, xliv, after being presented to Sirāj-ud-daulah, speaks of the Nawāb coming out to visit the mint, and “nous entendîmes un bruit affreux de tymbales, de trompettes, entremêlé de coups de fusils et de cailletoques”. This picture taken on the spot must represent, as I take it, the usual practice.