Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c9.s2.17

c9.s2.17

V.A. Smith says that Akbar did not maintain a large standing army. According to him the strength of Akbar's army "equipped by the State and paid directly from the Treasury", could not have exceeded 25,000 men. However, on the testimony of Monserrate he himself writes that at the time of his expedition to Kabul (1581), Akbar had 45,000 cavalry, besides 5000 elephants and an unnumbered host on foot.⁵¹ The military character of the Mughal government of Akbar is vouched by all, and yet the estimates of the standing army of the Mughal emperors from Akbar to Aurangzeb have wide variations. Had it been so large as has been made out by some scholars, "we should arrive at so huge an army that it should have been impossible for the country, however heavily taxed, to meet such an expense".⁵² The standing army was not large because, according to Abul Fazl, "the zamindars of the country furnish more than four million, four hundred thousand men, as shall be detailed below".⁵³ These details are given in the Third Book of the *Ain-i-Akbari*. From the detailed Tables provided - a laborious work only a scholar like Abul Fazl could produce - it appears that a quota of troops to be provided to the Mughal emperor on demand by every Raja or Zamindar was fixed in the same manner as was the revenue amount. The Rajput forces were thus completely merged with the Mughal army. Or, it was like the Subsidiary Alliance of the Raj days. Jahangir writes that from "this Subah (of Ajmer) in time of war 86,000 horses and 304,000 Rajput foot are provided".⁵⁴ From Malwa, "when needful there are obtained from it about 9,300 horse and 4,70,300, footsoldiers, with 100 elephants".⁵⁵ This system continued under Jahangir and Shahjahan making the Mughal empire the strongest empire in the world till Aurangzeb's bigotry alienated the Rajputs and weakened the Mughal army and the empire.