The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c24.30

c24.30

*Slain and wounded.* Plundering of the slain and wounded seems to have been universal; the camp followers were those chiefly concerned, but the fighting men were not above lending a hand. In reading the memoir of Colonel Skinner’s life, a man half Indian by blood and wholly so by education, one is struck with his exultation over a piece of valuable plunder, and his obvious belief that it was a legitimate source of income. The dead bodies left on a field of battle do not seem to have been usually buried, they were left to lie as they fell; but once or twice we are told of their being collected in great pits, which were styled *ganj-i-shahīd*, or martyr store-houses. For an instance, see Rustam ʿAlī, *Tārīkh-i-Hindī*, fol. 217b. The wounded seem to have been left mostly to their fate; there was no organization for their succour, nor any attempt to heal their wounds; this was left to their relations or friends.