The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c20.26

c20.26

Whenever the emperor passed, it was the etiquette for princes, nobles, and chiefs to come out to the edge of their camp and present a gold coin or other offering. There are numerous instances of the practice in the historians such as Dānishmand Khān and Kāmwar Khān; and Bernier, 382, also speaks of it. The custom was observed by Herr Kötelär, the Dutch envoy, when he was in Bahādur Shāh’s camp at Lāhor in 1712. The practice spoken of by Bernier of entering the camp sometimes on one side, sometimes on another, was the *taghaiyur-i-rāh dādan* (*Mirāt-ul-Iṣṭilāḥ*, fol. 80), a custom either founded on superstition or devised as a precaution against assassination.