The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c5.7

c5.7

(5) *Flags and Ensigns.* — The flags and ensigns displayed, along with a supply of spare weapons, at the door of the audience hall and at the entrance to the emperor’s encampment, or carried before him on elephants, were called collectively the Qūr (Pavet de Courteille, “Dict.,” 425, ceinture, arme, garde), and their charge was committed to a responsible officer called the Qūr-begī. An alternative general name sometimes employed was māhī-o-marātib (Fish and Dignities), or more rarely, the panjah (literally, Open Hand). It is, no doubt, the Qūr which Gemelli Careri describes thus (French ed. iii, 182): “Outside the audience tent I saw nine men in red velvet coats embroidered with gold, with wide sleeves and pointed collars hanging down behind, who carried the imperial ensigns displayed at the end of pikes. The man in the middle carried a sun, the two on each side of him had each a gilt hand, the next two carried horse-tails dyed red. The remaining four, having covers on their pikes, it could not be seen what it was they held.”