The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c24.29

c24.29

*Statistics of Losses.* Dr. Horn devotes one section of his work (xiii, pp. 113—115) to the subject of losses in battle. Here again, as in the question of the total number present, or the strength of particular divisions, I agree with him that to obtain any idea of the numbers of killed or wounded is exceedingly difficult, historians either omitting to mention them, or if they do so, contradicting each other irreconcilably. After a battle no attempts were made to ascertain the losses or count the slain. Any statements that we may meet with are thus mere guesses, and we may be quite certain that they are much exaggerated for the defeated, and much diminished for the victorious army. From these causes such statements are quite worthless, and can form no basis for the calculation of percentages, or such-like strict arithmetical treatment. Incidentally, we learn from passing allusions the severity of the losses in a battle, or the number of the slain in some special group of those who were present. Thus, after the battle of Jājau, fought on the 18th June 1707, we are told that the defeated fugitives made off towards Gwāliyar “and so many lost their lives on the way at the hands of Jāt plunderers and the Rohelahs of Dholpur, that the ravines leading to the Chambal were encumbered with decaying bodies” (Kāmwar Khān). Another writer, Khūshḥāl Chand, fol. 373a, tells us that the loss on both sides in this battle is said to have amounted to ten thousand men. As to losses among a particular group, or of men from one town, we have an instance in the *Tabṣirat-un-nāzirīn* of Sayyad Muḥammad, Bilgrāmī, who informs us, under the year 1163 H., that thirty seven men from Bilgrām lost their lives on Naval Rāe’s side, when he was attacked by Aḥmad Khān, Bangash, near Khudāganj. Scattered notices of this sort might be collected. But of what value would they be? They might enable us to say whether the fighting had been severe or not. But as we do not know the total strength and have only vague accounts of the losses, how can any minute calculations be made? The figures, such as they are, for nine battles in the time of Bābar and Akbar will be found collected in a table on p. 115 of Dr. Horn’s essay. De la Flotte, i, 258, who knew something of the south of India between 1758 and 1760, is of opinion that battles were much less bloody than in Europe.