The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c4.s2.27

c4.s2.27

*Saqatī* and *Bartarafī*. — The first word is from *saqat shudan* ‘to die’ (applied to animals, Steingass, 687), and may be translated casualties. The other word means setting aside or rejecting, in other words to cast a horse as unfit. We find the groundwork of the *saqatī* system in the *Āīn-i-Akbarī*. Blochmann, i, 250. In later times there were the following rules for regulating pay in such cases. First it was seen whether the man was *dūaspah* (paid for two horses) or *yakaspah* (paid for one horse). In the first case, (1) if one horse died (*saqat shavvad*) or was cast (*bar taraf shud*), the man was paid at the *yakaspah* rate; (2) if both horses died or were turned out, the man obtained his personal pay for one month, and if after one month he had still no horse, his personal pay was also stopped. In the second case, that of a *yakaspah*, if there were no horse, personal pay was disbursed for one month; but after one month nothing was given (B.M. 1641, fol. 41*a*).