The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c8.6

c8.6

Thus it seems to me a hopeless task to attempt, as Dr. Horn does, p. 39, following Blochmann (*Āīn*, i, 244—7), to build up the total strength of the army from the figures giving the personal (*zāt*) rank of the officers (*manṣabdārs*). The difficulty would still exist, even if we had sufficiently reliable accounts of the number of such officers on the list at any one time. For we must remember that the number of men kept up by any officer was incessantly varying. On a campaign, or on active employment in one of the provinces, either as its governor or in a subordinate position, an officer kept up a large force, generally as many as, if not more than, he could find pay for. On the other hand, while attached to the Court at Dihli, his chief or only duty might be to attend the emperor's public audience twice a day (a duty which was very sharply enforced), and take his turn in mounting guard at the palace. For duties of this sort a much smaller number of men would suffice. If we reckoned the number of men in the *suwār* rank, for whom allowances at so much per man were given by the State to the *manṣabdār*, we might obtain a safer estimate of the probable strength of the army. But for this also materials fail, and in spite of musterings and brandings, we may safely assume that very few *manṣabdārs* kept up at full strength even the quota of horsemen (*tābinān*) for which they received separate pay. In these matters the difference between one noble and another was very great. While one man maintained his troops at their full number, all efficiently mounted and equipped, another would evade the duty altogether. As, for instance, one writer, Khūshḥāl Chand, in his *Nādir-uz-zamānī* (B.M. Or. 1844, fol. 140*a*) says: Lutfullah Khān Ṣādiq, although he held the rank of 7,000, "never entertained even seven asses, much less horses or riders on horses." In Muḥammad Shāh's reign he lived quietly at home at Pānīpat, 30 or 40 miles from Dihli, his attention engrossed by his efforts to get hold of all the land for many miles round that town, and passing his days, in spite of his great nominal rank, like a mere villager.