Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s12.7

c27.s12.7

Irvine does not say whether the Mughals paid any pension to the minor children and widows of soldiers killed in action as the Marathas did, although Balban had granted to his old veterans a full-pay pension. The principle of helping the children and wives of such men was not unknown to the Muham-madan monarchs. "A rule was established by the Sultan (Mahmud Bigarah) that if an *amir* or any soldier was killed in battle or died a natural death, his *jagir* was confirmed to his son; if there was no son, half of the *jagir* was given to the daughter; and if there was no daughter, a suitable provision was settled upon the dependents, so that there might be no ground of complain."[17] The Emperor Humayun also provided for the widows and orphans of his soldiers, as his step-sister Princess Gulbadan informs us, "To widows and orphans, and kinsfolk of men who had been wounded and killed at Chausa and Kanauj or Bhakkar, or who were in the royal service during those intermissions, he gave pensions, and rations, and water, and land, and servants. In days of His Majesty's good fortune, great tranquillity and happiness befell soldiers and peasants. They lived without care, and put up many an ardent prayer for his long life."[18]