Mughal Administration c13.s4.2

c13.s4.2

The Turks, as the so-called Pathan and Mughal rulers of Delhi really were by race, were originally a nomadic people and they retained the essential characteristics of nomads to the end, though thinly veiled under the pomp and institutions of empire. Such a tribe migrates from pasture to pasture, conquers fresh lands and accumulates plunder and slaves under the leadership of their chieftain and with the solidarity of a family and an army in one. Their chieftain is the patriarch of the clan, and the individual members of the tribe (or, more correctly, the heads of the different families) are merely the limbs of the great trunk of the tribe. They derive their strength from the tribe and render up their acquisitions to it as the property of the tribe. The tribe might gain accessions to its number from outside by marriage (as among the Brahuis) or by the adoption of slaves, but the newcomers are made a part and parcel of the tribe as if born to it.