Mughal Administration c6.s5: § 5. The Bakhshi or Paymaster.

Mughal Administration c6.s5

Language: English

§ 5. The Bakhshi or Paymaster.

c6.s5.1

Every officer of the Mughal Government was enrolled as a commander of so many horsemen.

This title was only a convenient means of calculating his salary and status. It did not mean that he had actually to maintain so many horsemen in his service. Thus, theoretically even the civil officers belonged to the military department, and therefore the salary bills of all officers had to be calculated and passed by the paymasters of the army. These paymasters (*bakhshis*) were increased in number with the growth of the empire, till at the end of Aurangzib's reign we have one chief Bakhshi, called the *Mir Bakhshi* or Imperial Paymaster and popularly as the First Bakhshi, with three assistants called the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Bakhshis.

c6.s5.3

Each field army of the Mughal empire was placed under a general appointed for the occasion, being usually a prince of the blood (if available), under the guardianship of a senior noble when the prince was a mere youth. Though on several occasions we have officers invested with the title of *sipah-salar* or 'commander of troops,' it was only a mark of honour and they did not really command the *entire* Mughal army. The Emperor was the only commander-in-chief.

c6.s5.4

The artillery branch was, however, placed in charge of an officer called the *Mir Atish* or, popularly, *darogha-i-topkhanah*. Not only the artillerymen but also the musketeers were under his command. As the artillery of the Turks of Europe was much more advanced and efficient than that of the Mughal Emperors, the latter tried to get for their Mir Atish any good officer of the Turkish empire or even Persian that they could secure. On the whole, the Indian Muhammadans were remarkably incompetent in handling artillery, and this department was filled with Turkish and Feringi gunners and cannon-founders, while the musketeers were mostly recruited from certain Hindu tribes, such as the Bundelas, the Bahelias, and the men of Buxar. Each province and field army had its own special chief of artillery.

c6.s5.5

I shall not discuss the military department any further, as it has been fully treated in William Irvine's *Army of the Indian Moghuls*.