The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c6.1

c6.1

Single men who resorted to the Court in the hope of obtaining employment in the army, were obliged first to seek a patron. A man generally attached himself to a chief from his own country or of his own race: Mughals became the followers of Mughals, Persians of Persians, Afghāns of Afghāns, and so forth. On this point there were certain customary rules, which are thus stated by Khūshḥāl Chand, Berlin Ms. 495, fol. 1072b. A noble from Māwar-un-nahr recruited none but Mughals; if from Īrān, he might have one third Mughals and the remainder Sayyads and Shekhs, or if he took Afghāns and Rājputs, of the former he might entertain one sixth and of the latter, one seventh of his total number. Nobles who were Sayyads or Shekhs might enlist their own tribe, or up to one sixth they might take Afghāns. Afghāns themselves might have one half Afghāns and the other half Mughals and Shekhzādahs. Rājputs made up their whole force of Rājputs. At times men of high rank who desired to increase their forces would remit large sums of money to the country with which they were specially connected, and thereby induce recruits of a particular class to flock to their standard. For instance, in the reign of Muḥammad Shāh (1719—1748), Muḥammad Khān, Bangash, filled his ranks in this way with men from the Bangash country and with Afrīdī Pathāns. According to a man's reputation or connections, or the number of his followers, would be the rank (manṣab) assigned to him. As a rule, his followers brought their own horses and other equipment; but sometimes a man with a little money would buy extra horses and mount relations or dependents upon them. When this was the case, the man riding his own horse was called, in later parlance, a *silahdār* (literally, equipment-holder), and one riding somebody else's horse was a *bārgīr* (burdentaker). The horses and equipment were as often as not procured by borrowed money; and not unfrequently the chief himself made the advances, which were afterwards recovered from the man's pay. The candidate for employment, having found a patron, next obtained through this man's influence an introduction to the *Bakhshī-ul-mamālik* or *Mīr Bakhshī*, in whose hands lay the presentation of new men to the emperor, and on his verdict a great deal depended as to the rank (*manṣab*) which might be accorded.