The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c5.5

c5.5

(4) Kettledrums. — As one of the attributes of sovereignty, kettledrums were beaten at the head of the army when the emperor was on the march; and in quarters they were beaten every three hours at the gate of his camp. The instruments in use, in addition to the drums, will be found in the *Āīn-i-Akbarī* (Blochmann, i, 51). As a mark of favour, kettledrums (*naqqārah*)¹ and the right to play them (*naubat*) might be granted to a subject. But he must be a man of the rank of 2000 *suwār* or upwards. As an invariable condition, moreover, it was stipulated that they should never be used where the emperor was present, nor within a certain distance from his residence. Marching through the middle of Dihli with drums beating was one of the signs by which Sayyad Ḥusain ʿAlī Khān, Amīr-ul-Umarā, notified defiance of constituted authority, when he returned from the Dakhin in 1719, preparatory to dethroning the Emperor Farrukhsīyar. The drums when granted were placed on the recipient's back, and, thus accoutred, he did homage for them in the public audience hall. In Lord Lake's case the investment was thus carried out: "Two small drums of silver, each about the size of a thirty-two pound shot, the apertures covered with parchments, are hung round the neck of the person on whom the honour is conferred, then struck a few times, after which drums of the proper size are made." — Thorn, "War," 356. There is on record another instance of miniature drums being used in this way, as a symbol. When conferring on him the right to the *naubat*, Aḥmad Shāh (1748—1754) gave such drums to Dāīm Khān, a favorite chelā of Aḥmad Khān, Bangash, of Farrukhābād. (“Bangash Nawābs,” Journal A. S. B., 1879, p. 161.)