Mughal Administration c13.s2.4

c13.s2.4

In Mughal India the case was worse. The dilatoriness and dishonesty of the clerks of the military pay-office were the despair of the soldiery. Shihabuddin Talish, an officer under Mir Jumla and Shaista Khan in Bengal (1659—1665), draws a vivid picture of the trouble which the soldiers had to undergo on this account. He writes, "I strongly hope that some one would fully and freely report to the Emperor the distress among the soldiery and the fact of their being harassed and crushed by the oppression of the thievish clerks......The army is treated by the Hindu clerks and drowsy writers as more degraded than a fire-worshipping slave and more unclean than the dog of a Jew." Then follow graphic details of how the stipend-holders "had to flay themselves in the *kachari* before they could get their dues." [Bodleian MS. 589, *f.* 129*b*-131*a*.]