The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c3.24

c3.24

That is, with 1000 men there would be 2000 horses. The pay of the men with the extra horses was higher, but not in proportion. Thus, a one-horsed man received 8000 D. or Rs. 200 a year (Rs. 16 10a. 8p. per mensem), while the two- or three-horsed man got 11,000 D. or Rs. 275 a year (Rs. 22 14a. 8p. per mensem). In some places we find other rates of pay recorded. For instance, Bahādur Shāh enlisted Aḥadīs, men a little superior to common soldiers, at Rs. 40 a month (Dānishmand Khān, second Ṣafar of the second year, i. e. 1120 H. = 22nd April 1708). A century later, as Fitzclarence tells us, “Journal,” 73, 142, the rate was Rs. 40 a month in the Dakhin, and R. 22 in Hindūstān. Service in the cavalry was socially an honourable profession; thus a common trooper was looked on as being, to some extent, a gentleman, and such men, even when illiterate, often rose to the highest positions.