The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c6.2

c6.2

*The Bakhshī.* — This officer's title is translated into English sometimes by Paymaster-General, at others by Adjutant-General or Commander-in-Chief.¹ None of these titles gives an exact idea of his functions. He was not a Paymaster, except in the sense that he usually suggested the rank to which a man should be appointed or promoted, and perhaps countersigned the pay-bills. But the actual disbursement of pay belonged to other departments. Adjutant-General is somewhat nearer to correctness. Commander-in-Chief he was not. He might be sent on a campaign in supreme command; and if neither emperor, vicegerent (*wakīl-i-muṭlaq*), nor chief minister (*wazīr*) was present, the command fell to him. But the only true Commander-in-Chief was the emperor himself, replaced in his absence by the *wakīl* or the *wazīr*. The word *Bakhshī* means 'the giver,' from *bakhshīdan*, P. 'to bestow,' that is, he was the giver of the gift of employment in camps and armies (*Dastūr-ul-Inshā*, 232); or might it not better be connected with another meaning, "to divide into shares, to distribute," making *Bakhshī* to equal "the distributor, the divider into shares?” In Persia the same official was styled ‘The Petitioner’ (*‘āriẓ*). This name indicates that it was his special business to bring into the presence of the emperor anyone seeking for employment or promotion, and there to state the facts connected with that man’s case. Probably the use of the words *Mīr ‘Arẓ* in two places in the *Āīn-i-Akbarī* (Blochmann, i, 257, 259) are instances of the Persian name being applied to the officer afterwards called a *Bakhshī*. The first *Bakhshī* (for there were four) seems to have received, almost as of right, the title of *Amīr-ul-umarā* (Noble of Nobles); and from the reign of *‘Ālamgīr* onwards, I find no instance of this title being granted to more than one man at a time, though in Akbar’s reign such appears to have been the case (*Āīn*, i, 240, Blochmann’s note).