The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c22: Chapter XX

The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c22

Language: English

Chapter XX

c22.1

The ranging of an army in order of battle was known as *ṣaff ārāstan*, from *ṣaff*, a row, rank, or file; another phrase for the same thing is *parrah bastan* (Ashob, fol. 134*b*). Dr. Horn, 59—70, has worked out this section so fully, that what I have to say must be in a great measure a reproduction of his remarks. He shows that the Moghul tactics were founded on the rules laid down in Taimūr’s ordinances (Davy and White, 228 and foll., Horn, 136—151). When a great battle was imminent, it was the duty of the first Bakhshī, the *Bakhshī-ul-mamālik*, to draw up a scheme of attack, dividing the force into divisions, assigning to each its position and naming the leaders of each. The proposed distribution was laid before the Emperor and his approval obtained. The day before the battle the Bakhshī also caused musters to be made, and an abstract of this present-state was laid before the emperor. For instance, we read in Dānishmand Khān, entry of the 28th Shawwāl 1120 H., that Zu,lfiqār Khān, the first Bakhshī, drew up a plan for the battle against prince Kām Bakhsh, and presented it to the emperor for approval.

c22.2

The order of battle was then, roughly speaking, as follows. First came the skirmishers. Next was placed the artillery in a line, protected by rocket-men and sheltered by a rough field-work, possibly the guns being also chained together. Behind the guns stood the advanced guard; a little behind it were the right and left wings. Then, at some distance, was the centre, where stood the emperor on his elephant, having a little way in front of him an advanced guard (*iltmish*) and on each side of it two bodies, thrown a little way ahead, called the *tarah*. Behind the centre was the rear-guard (*chandāwul*), having in its charge the baggage and the women. I would beg a reference to the diagrams in Horn, 60, 63, 65, 66, 73. One book, B.M. 6599, fol. 164*a*, has the following disposition:

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c22.4

As the names for these different parts of an army in battle array differ a good deal, it will be as well to set them out somewhat at length. The words *sol-yan* and *sol-qul* for the left, and *ong-qul* for the right wing of the centre, as introduced by Bābar (P. de Courteille, “Mémoires”, ii, 17, Horn, 60), seem to have dropped out of use. We hear nothing of them in the later histories.

c22.5

*Qalāwurī*. This word is employed in the *Mirāt-i-Aḥmadī*, fol. 186a, in the sense of men guiding or showing the way to an army. Steingass, 983, defines it as “road-guides, horsemen who guard the flank, spies, scouts”.

c22.6

Iftāl. From a passage in John Surman’s Diary, C. R. Wilson, “Early Annals”, ii, 2nd part, 26, this word seems to have been used for an advanced force or vanguard: “Meer Jumlah has arrived att Attayah (Iṭāwah) and his Aftally consisting of 12,000 horse att Shasadpore (Shahzādpur)”. Steingass, 80, has, Iftāl: “dispersed, scattered, rent, torn”.

c22.7

Skirmishers. Qarāwal is defined by Steingass, 962, as T. a sentinel, watchman, spy, guard, the vanguard, a gamekeeper, a hunter. In peace these men were the imperial huntsmen; in war, they were sent ahead as scouts and skirmishers.

c22.8

Vanguard. This was called either Harāwal or muqaddamah-ul-jais. The former word harāwal, harol, or arāwal is defined by P. de Courteille, 10, 515, as “troupe qui marche en avant de l’armée pour l’éclairer, troupe envoyée en avant pour soutenir l’avant garde”. Steingass, 1494, has “vanguard, running footmen”. Muqaddamah-ul-jais is the Arabic phrase, meaning “front-part of the army (jais)”, and is often used instead of harāwal. Horn, 60, speaks of certain families among the Moghuls having hereditary claims to certain positions. In India the right to fight in the vanguard was conceded, from the time of Akbar, to the Bārhah sayyads, and the fact is often referred to in later times as one of their best titles to honour. In the Bādshāh-nāmah, i, 214, line 8, I find ʿAbd-ul-ḥamīd speaks of troops sent ahead of an army by the name of manqalah. The expression is not very common; I have met with it once spelt manqalā in Khūshḥāl Chand, Berlin Ms. 495, fol. 1127b, and several times in the Maʿāsir-ul-umarā (written c. 1155 H., 1742), as for instance on p. 543 of vol. i. It is used in Tārīkh-i-ʿAlamgīr Sānī, on fol. 105b. It is said to have also the form manghalāe, the latter a Moghul word meaning “forehead, front” (Steingass, 1331, 1333).

c22.9

*Advanced post of the Vanguard.* This body was named *jūzah-i-harāwal*, literally “chicken of the vanguard”, Horn, 61, who refers to Budāonī, ii, 231, line 4.

c22.10

*Right Wing.* There are five names for this part of the army, two Arabic, one Chaghatāe, and two Persian. They are (1) *maimanah*, (2) *anṣār-i-maimanah*, (Dastūr-ul-Inshā, 233), (3) *baranghār*, (4) *dast-i-rāst*, (5) *ṭaraf-i-yamīn* (Khāfī Khān, ii, 876).

c22.11

*Left Wing.* In the same way the left wing is referred to by five different names, the *maisarah*, A. *anṣār-i-maisarah* (Dastūr-ul-Inshā, 233) *jaranghār*, Ch., *dast-i-chap*, P., and *jānib-i-yasār* (Khāfī Khān, ii, 876). *Jaranghār*, the form used in India, should be more correctly *juwānghār* (Horn, 39, P. de C., 157, 289), but *jaranghār* does not seem to be merely a mistake of the press, as Dr. Horn suggests, for we have it in the dictionaries (Steingass, 359).

c22.12

*Advance guard of the Centre.* This bore the Chaghatāe name for the number sixty, that is, *iltmish*, (P. de C. 31). Possibly it may have originally consisted of this number of men, and the name having been once adopted, it was retained regardless of the actual number of men employed. Khāfī Khān, ii, 876 spells, *yaltmish*.

c22.13

*The Centre.* This division was known either by the Chaghatāe word *qūl* (P. de C. 433) or the Arabic words *qalb*, literally “heart”, and *ghol*, “troop”, “assemblage”. For example, Khāfī Khān, ii, 876 uses *qūl* and the *Risālah-i-Mḥd. Shāh*, fol. 113*b*, uses *ghol*. *Qūl* also means slave in Chaghatāe. Perhaps the centre was called by this name, because it was formed out of the personal retainers or slaves of the leader or sovereign. Another name for the centre is *qamargah*, *Mirāt-i-Aḥmadī* (circa 1170 H.) fol. 177*b*. This word is more usually applied to the circle within which game was driven by troops used as beaters. It was also a term of fortification (see farther on under “Sieges”). It was in the centre that the leader took up his station with his standards displayed.

c22.14

*Wings of the Centre.* These were called *taraḥ*. P. de Courteille, “Dict.” 382, translates this word as used in Bābar’s “Memoirs”, ii, 167, Text, 344, by the word “reserve”. Horn assigns to the *taraḥ*, which he also calls the reserve, a position on each side, but somewhat in advance, of the centre itself. In this position these troops would seem rather to be the advanced guard than the reserve of the centre. Khāfī Khān, ii, 876, distinguishes into *taraḥ-i-dast-i-chap* and *taraḥ-i-dast-i-rāst*.

c22.15

*Rear guard.* The name of this was *chandāwul* (P. de C. 288) literally, water-carriers, people belonging to the rear guard (Steingass, 400). In its charge was the baggage of the army (*bahīr-o-bangāh*). Horn, 61, says the correct form is *chaghdaul*, referring to Babar 131, line 1, and 184, line 10. This form is not used by Indian writers of later date, nor is it in P. de Courteille, “Dictionnaire”. It is found on p. 395 of Steingass.

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*Sāqah.* The rear of any division of the army or of any camp was called its *sāqah*, Ashob, fol. 182*a*, Steingass, 642.

c22.17

*Nasaqchī.* From the time of Nādir Shāh’s invasion, we hear a good deal of the *nasaqchī*. This word, which seems to have passed then into Indian usage, is from *nasaq*, order, arrangement. The *nasaqchī* was an armed man employed to enforce orders; and there were several thousand of them in Nādir Shāh’s camp. Military punishments were inflicted through them, and one of their duties was to stand in the rear of the army and to cut down every one who dared to flee. Their arms were a battle-axe, a sabre, and a dagger (*khanjar*), Seir, i, 340, note 286. Their signs of office, Ashob says, fol. 263*a*, were a staff or baton carried in the hand, and on the head a *tabal*, تبل, of moulded brass, three sided, in shape like the deeply ribbed or winged fruit of the *kamrakh* (Averrhoa carambola).

c22.18

*Taulqamah* (تولقمہ) or *Taulghamah* (تولغمہ). This is a Chaghatāe word used to denote the troops posted in ambush to turn the enemy, or the action of turning the flank of the enemy (P. de C. “Dict.”, 243). Horn refers to it in several places (22, 23, 60, 73, 75). It was a manœuvre executed by Bābar (P. de C. “Mémoires”, i, 194) and is described by him as a sudden onslaught accompanied by a discharge of arrows, and followed by as sudden a retreat. From this passage Horn holds *taulqamah* to be the name of a manœuvre rather than of a particular part of the army. But in his diagram on p. 73, showing the position taken by Bābar before the battle of Pānīpat, he places a *taulqamah* on both the right and the left of the two wings. Thus the word must be accepted in both senses, namely as a manœuvre and as a section of the battle array. Khāfī Khān, ii, 876, when setting forth the divisions of Nizām-ul-mulk’s army before the fight with Sayyad Dilāwar ‘Alī Khān, 19th June 1720, says “Fatḥullah Khān, Khostī, and Rāo Raghubā, Binālkar, with a force of 500 horse were appointed the *taulqamah*”. This bears out the use of the word as one of the divisions of an army when in battle array. The manœuvre was one employed by Aḥmad Shāh, Abdālī, without giving it this name, see p. 233. *Qazāqī* (p. 240) was also a movement of much the same sort.