The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c20.27

c20.27

Crossing Rivers. On this subject Horn, 25, quotes P. de Courteille, “Mémoires”, ii, 336, the occasion being Bābar’s boat bridge across the Ganges near Kanauj. The practice was exceedingly common. Any river, if unfordable, was crossed by a temporary bridge of boats, such as are still to be seen in the present day. Horn, referring to Elliot, vi, 363, somewhat emphasizes the fact that elephants could cross such bridges, but this is a matter of every day experience. A special officer, dignified with the name of Mīr Baḥr, Lord of the Sea, was charged with the construction of these bridges and the provision of boats. The description of one of these bridges in Bernier, 380, can hardly be improved upon. “The army crossed by means of two bridges of boats constructed with tolerable skill, and placed between two and three hundred paces apart. Earth and straw mingled are thrown upon the planking forming the foot way, to prevent the cattle from slipping. The greatest confusion and danger occur at the extremities; for not only does the crowd and pressure occur most there, but when the approaches to the bridge are composed of soft moving earth, they become so broken up and full of pits, that horses and laden oxen tumble upon one another into them, and the people pass over the struggling animals in the utmost disorder. The evil would be much increased if the army were under the necessity of crossing in one day; but the king generally fixes his camp about half a league from the bridges of boats and suffers a day or two to elapse ere he passes to the opposite side of the river; when, pitching his tents within half a league from the bank, he again delays his departure so as to allow the army three days and nights at least to effect the passage”. The practice referred to in the last sentence could be illustrated by more than one instance of river-crossing in the reign of Bahādur Shāh (1707—1712).