The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c26.1

c26.1

In India the art of fortification remained in the same state as it was in Europe before the introduction of the regular systems. The Indians placed their reliance more on a strong profile than on a judicious plan; and they never realised the importance of the maxim that every work of a fortress should be flanked by some other (Lake, 11). Blacker holds that nothing proved more forcibly their ignorance of the attack and defence of fortified places than their manifest superiority when acting on the defensive. A native army scarcely ever succeeded in taking a place which attempted resistance: it was generally reduced to terms through the distress caused by the force lying around it. On the contrary, some very vigorous defences had been made, prolonged by determined defence of the breach and by bold sallies to the trenches. Mining had found its way to some but not to all parts of India; but there were few instances of its being practised with effect (Blacker, “War”, 23). In the *Mujmil-ut-tārīkh ba‘d Nādirīyah*, p. 78, line 7, it is stated that the Afghans had a practise before commencing a siege of killing a dog and throwing it in the direction of the fortress. I have never seen this mentioned elsewhere, and one does not quite see what was symbolized by the act.