Army of the Mughal Empire

The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselves, were in the cavalry-based armies of central Asia, its essential form and structure was established by the empire's third emperor, Akbar. The regular forces were mainly recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.
During the 17th century, the Mughal empire possessed the largest military on earth, with its strength numbering 911,400-4,039,097 infantry and 342,696 cavalry. Alternatively, according to the census by Abul Fazl, the size of the army was roughly about 4.4 million, with less than half a million trained as cavalry; and modern India historians suggest there were 26 million personnel.
The Mughals were considered a dominant military force in India, employing their superior engineering to military affairs and logistic mastery. Historians have compared the Mughal army with that of the Roman Empire or the United States Armed Forces in terms of their brute force, while in logistical superiority alone, the Mughals were comparable with the British Army during the Victorian Era. Historian Stephen Morillo also noted that Western scholarship generally overlooked the destructive scale of Asian empires such as the Mughals in their military operations, not unlike the Roman Empire.
British historian Jeremy Black viewed that the Mughal army's struggles until their decline in the wake of Nader Shah's invasion of India reflected the Asiatic military development in the 17th century. Black's evaluation contrasted other modern military historians who opined that the Asian empires' military during the 17th century was influenced by the Military Revolution in Europe.
Other experts such as Irfan Habib and Farhat Hasan noted that Mughal cavalry was practically unmatched in military organization in South Asian conflicts. The superiority of their heavy cavalry discipline and shock charge were a staple of Mughal cavalry. By the period of 16th-17th century, the horses for Mughal empire were imported mostly from the countries of Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Central Asia.
Due to their military patronage of gunpowder warfare, Marshall Hodgson and his colleague William H. McNeill considered the Mughals as one of the gunpowder empires. The Mughal army employed heavy cannons, light artillery, grenades, rockets, and heavy mortar among other weapons. Heavy cannons were very expensive and heavy for transportation, and had to be dragged by elephants and oxen into the battlefield.
The Mughal naval forces were named the Amla-e-Nawara. In Dhaka alone, the Mughal naval fleet contained 768 ships with 933 foreigner crews of Portuguese origin and 8,112 artillery personnel in the eastern part. They maintained fleets of warships and transport ships.
List of conflicts involving the Mughals:
The Mughals originated in Central Asia. Like many Central Asian armies, the Mughal army of Babur was horse-oriented. The ranks and pay of the officers were based on the horses they retained. Babur's army was small and inherited the Timurid military traditions of Central Asia. Babur did not introduce a gunpowder warfare system, because mounted archery remained the vital part of his army. Babur's empire did not last long and the Mughal Empire collapsed with the expulsion of Humayun, and the Mughal Empire founded by Akbar in 1556 proved more stable and enduring. Although the Mughals originated as a nomadic civilization, they became more sedentary as time passed.
The massive army of Mughals were known for their highly disciplined fashion, while also maintain a characteristic of multiethnicities among its personnels. They had absorbed almost all of Northern and Central South Asia. During the height of their military domination in the India region, the adversaries of the Mughal Empire rarely confronted them in frontal battles; the Maratha confederation, Ahmadnagar Sultanates, or the Rajput kingdoms were generally powerless against the Mughals who possessed provisioned cities and camps which were defended with artilleries. They usually resorted to guerilla warfare or Fabian strategy to oppose the technologically more advanced Mughal army. By the reign of Aurangzeb, the Mughal army was mainly composed of native Indian Muslims.
Babur nevertheless laying his foundation of the empire military from the First Battle of Panipat, where he employed the tactic of Tulugma, encircling Ibrahim Lodi's army and forcing it to face artillery fire directly, as well as frightening its war elephants, until his final subjugation of Rajputs in the Battle of Chanderi. The reign of his successor, Humayun was characterized with the conflict against Sur Empire under Sher Shah Suri when after securing his throne, Humayun neutralized threat from Ahmed Shah had to be met. Humayun was victorious annexing Gujarat, Malwa, Champaner, and the great fort of Mandu. Sher Shah, who at first remained in Agra and observed Mughal military organization, as well as their administration, once recorded about how the Mughal empire military functioned. While conversing with a friend, Sher Shah remarked:
In 1535, Humayun was made aware that the Sultan of Gujarat was planning an assault on the Mughal territories in Bayana with Portuguese aid. Humayun gathered an army and marched on Bahadur. However, instead of pressing his attack, Humayun ceased the campaign and consolidated his newly conquered territory, as Sultan Bahadur escaped and took up refuge with the Portuguese. Shortly after Humayun had marched on Gujarat, Sher Shah Suri saw an opportunity to wrest control of Agra from the Mughals. Humayun, faced with the rising threat of the Afghans in the east led by Mahmud Lodi, defeated a force of them at Dadrah in 1532, and besieged Chunar in September 1532, which was under the control of Sher Shah. The siege continued for over four months to no avail. As a result, Sher Shah offered his loyalty to the Mughals on the condition that he remained in control of Chunar, also sending one of his sons as hostage. Humayun accepted and lifted the siege in December 1532, returning to Agra due to the rising threat of Bahadur Shah, the ruler of the Gujarat Sultanate. Humayun did not wish to split up his forces under the command of a noble to continue the siege, as this would split his strength.
The hostility of Sher Shah towards Bengal Sultanate prompted its ruler to request aid from Humayun, who in turn mobilized a Mughal army in July 1537, and advanced to Chunar. Humayun reached the fort in November 1537 and laid siege to it. The siege would last over six months until the fort finally fell despite the attempts from Rumi Khan to make quick work of the city. Sher Shah then led a second invasion into Bengal, seizing Rohtasgarh in March 1538, which he used to situate Afghan families and loot he obtained during the war. Sher Shah followed his victory at Rohtasgarh by besieging Gauda, which fell to the Afghan forces in April 1538. With these victories, Sher Shah held his first coronation. However, Humayun did not wish to leave Bengal in the hands of a hostile state. Following this, Humayun began his march to Bengal against Sher Shah, however the march of the Mughal army would be overwhelmed from poor weather conditions, with rains causing the loss of his baggage between Patna and Monghyr. Humayun eventually reached Gauda and seized it without any opposition on 8 September 1538. Humayun remained at Gaur for months, stuck there due to the weather, as he restored order into the city.
At the same time, Sher Shah drove deep into his territory, seizing Bihar and Varanasi, while also recovering control over Chunar, and laying siege to Jaunpur with other detachments of the Afghan army, extending as far as Kannauj.
Humayun crossed the Karmanasa River, where he could easily be attacked by the Afghans. Sher Shah, seeing the fragile state of the Mughal army, attacked the Mughal army led by Humayun at the Battle of Chausa. The Afghans descended on the Mughals and caught them off guard, and resulted in the complete rout of the Mughals. Humayun barely escaped with his life, and the Mughals suffered over 7,000 dead, with many prominent noblemen killed.
Following his defeat, Humayun returned to Agra, and restored order after disturbances from his brother, Hindal Mirza. Humayun mobilized a large force, and advanced with an army of 40,000, while Sher Shah amassed 15,000. Humayun met Sher Shah at Kannauj, with both armies mirroring each other across the Ganges river. Humayun crossed the river and began skirmishing with Sher Shah's army. Amidst the fighting, Humayun's army saw many nobles hiding their insignia to prevent them from being recognized by the Afghans, with many nobles also fleeing from the battle. The Mughal army was defeated, which led to Humayun fleeing to Sindh. Following this victory, Sher Shah was crowned a second time on 17 May 1540 as Sher Shah, being declared as Emperor of Northern India.
After Sher Shah Suri's successor Islam Shah died in 1554, Humayun gathered a vast army with the help Safavid role in Humayun's army. The vast majority of the army was of the Shi'a faith, as one Shaikh Ahmad described to Humayun, "My king, I see the whole of your army are Rafizi...Everywhere the names of your soldiers are of this kind. I find they are all Yar Ali or Kashfi Ali or Haider Ali and I have, not found a single man bearing the names of the other Companions."
Humayun placed the army under the leadership of Bairam Khan,who led the army through the Punjab virtually unopposed, with The only major battle faced by Humayun's armies was against Sikandar Shah Suri in Sirhind, where Bairam Khan employed a tactic whereby he engaged his enemy in open battle but then retreated quickly in apparent fear. When the enemy followed after them, they were surprised by entrenched defensive positions and were easily annihilated. At the Battle of Sirhind on 22 June 1555, the armies of Sikandar Shah Suri were decisively defeated and the Mughal Empire was reestablished. After Sirhind, most towns and villages chose to welcome the invading army as it made its way to the capital. On 23 July 1555, Humayun once again sat on Babur's throne in Delhi.
During the last stage of the conflict against Sur Empire, Akbar faced Hemu, a minister and general of one of the Sur rulers, who had proclaimed himself Hindu emperor and expelled the Mughals from the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Urged by Bairam Khan, who re-marshalled the Mughal army before Hemu could consolidate his position, Akbar marched on Delhi to reclaim it. His army, led by Bairam Khan, defeated Hemu and the Sur army on 5 November 1556 at the Second Battle of Panipat, 50 miles (80 km) north of Delhi. Soon after the battle, Mughal forces occupied Delhi and then Agra. Akbar made a triumphant entry into Delhi, where he stayed for a month. Then, he and Bairam Khan returned to Punjab to deal with Sikandar Shah Suri, who had become active again. In the next six months, the Mughals won another major battle against Sikander, who fled east to Bengal. Akbar and his forces occupied Lahore and then seized Multan in the Punjab.
In 1558, Akbar took possession of Ajmer, the aperture to Rajputana, after the defeat and flight of its Muslim ruler. The Mughals also besieged and defeated the Sur forces in control of Gwalior Fort, a stronghold north of the Narmada river.
By 1559, the Mughals launched a drive into Rajputana and Malwa Sultanate. However, Akbar's disputes with his regent, Bairam Khan, temporarily put an end to the expansion. Akbar dismissed Bairam Khan following a dispute at court in the spring of 1560 and ordered him to leave on Hajj to Mecca. He was defeated by the Mughal army in the Punjab and forced to submit. Akbar forgave him and gave him the option of either continuing in his court or resuming his pilgrimage; Bairam chose the latter.
In 1560, Akbar resumed military operations. A Mughal army under the command of his foster brother, Adham Khan, and a Mughal commander, Pir Muhammad Khan, began the Mughal conquest of Malwa. The Afghan ruler, Baz Bahadur, was defeated at the Battle of Sarangpur and fled to Khandesh for refuge, leaving behind his harem, treasure, and war elephants. Despite initial success, Akbar was ultimately displeased with the aftermath of the campaign; his foster brother retained all of the spoils and followed through with the Central Asian practice of slaughtering the surrendered garrison, their wives and children, and many Muslim theologians and Sayyids, who were descendants of Muhammad.
In 1564, Mughal forces began the conquest of Garha, a thinly populated, hilly area in central India that was of interest to the Mughals because of its herd of wild elephants. Akbar did not personally lead the campaign because he was preoccupied with the Uzbek rebellion, leaving the expedition in the hands of Asaf Khan, the Mughal governor of Kara. Durgavati committed suicide after her defeat at the Battle of Damoh, while Raja Vir Narayan was slain at the Fall of Chauragarh, the mountain fortress of the Gonds. The Mughals seized immense wealth, including an uncalculated amount of gold and silver, jewels, and 1,000 elephants. Kamala Devi, a younger sister of Durgavati, was sent to the Mughal harem.
In 1570, a deviant Sufism movement which preaching Wahdat al-Wujud grow in Peshawar, which founded by their charismatic leader Pir Roshan. The Roshani movement played an important part in politically in resisting the increasing influence of Mughals in Afghan region as they gained popular supports from the Afghanis. Pir Roshan spent his life in conflict with the Mughals until his death in 1572. His successors continued his struggle against the Mughals, and even captured Ghazni city at one point, prompting emperor Jahangir to deal with the rebellion more seriously, which after constant battles against the sect, the movement eventually weakened and ended.
In 1572, the Mughal Empire annexed Gujarat and acquired its first access to the sea, but local officials informed Akbar that the Portuguese had begun to exert control in the Indian Ocean. Akbar obtained a cartaz (permit) from the Portuguese to sail in the Persian Gulf region. At the initial meeting of the Mughals and the Portuguese during the Siege of Surat, the Portuguese, recognising the superior strength of the Mughal army, chose to pursue diplomacy to resolve their conflict. The Portuguese Governor, upon the request of Akbar, sent him an ambassador to establish friendly relations. Next year at the close of 1573, Akbar sent an armed forces under Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana to pacify the rebellion in Gujarat. The rebels under viceroy Muzaffar soundly defeated and fled to Cambay (Khambhat), as Abdúr-Rahím Khán had been joined by Naurang Khán and other nobles with the Mughal army from Málwa, Thus prompting Muzaffar to fled to Rajpipla. As the conquest of Gujarát was completed in 1573, Akbar returned to Agra with the last Gujarat Sultán Muzaffar Shah III as a captive.
In the end of 1577, as Wazír Khán's management was not successful, the post of viceroy was conferred upon Shaháb-ud-dín Áhmed Khán, the governor of Malwa. Shaháb-ud-dín's first step was to create new military posts and strengthen the old ones.
In 1576, the Mughal army led by Man Singh I fought against the Rajput kingdom of Mewar in the Battle of Haldighati. In this battle, the Mughal infantry line manage to rout the war elephants of the Mewar forces.
From the year of 1578, The Mughal empire engaged in prolonged conflict against local Bengal warlord named Isa Khan, which lasted until 1597. Isa Khan was previously an ally of Mughal enemy, the Karrani dynasty, which helped Isa Khan in his expedition to Chittagong against Udai Manikya, the Maharaja of Tripura.
In 1583, Mughal General Shahbaz Khan Kamboh razed the palace of Isa Khan. In September 1584, the then-subahdar Shahbaz crossed Ganges near Khizirpur and attacked Sonargaon, Katrabo and Egarasindhur. and pursued the defeated Pathan forces under Masum Kabuli up to Bikrampur in Dhaka, the cunning Isa then deluded negotiation of surrender and delayed the attack of Mughal general for several months. However, in 1584, Isa and Masum Khan Kabuli, deploying musket and gunpowder artilleries, launched a counterattack which finally defeated Shahbaz Khan in the naval and land battles of Egarasindur and Bhawal, and even killing one of Mughal general, forcing Shahbaz Khan to retreat into Tandah.
In late 1585, Emperor Akbar sent military expedition under Zain Khan Koka and Birbal to pacify the rebellion of Afghani tribes.
In 1586, on February, the Mughal suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Malandari Pass near the Karakar Pass between Swat and Buner, where the Afghan tribe confederacy under Kalu Khan Yousafzai inflicted more than 8,000-40,000 casualties on the Mughal forces, while their commander, Birbal, was slain in battle. Akbar learned about the disaster 2 days after the battle, and dispatched an army under Rajah Todar Mal on 19 February to exact retribution against the Yusufzais, killing a large number of them and selling many the survivors as slave to Turan and Persia. On the same year, a Mughal general Man Singh had defeated Isa Khan in the battle of Egarasindhur. Furthermore, Mughal Subahdar Shahbaz Khan once again sent his forces against Isa to the south.
In 1591, Akbar faced another rebellion in Gujarat, where this time he faced the alliance of the Gujarat Sultanate, Nawanagar State, Cutch State, and Muli State. Akbar then sent Mirza Aziz Koka to engage them in the Battle of Bhuchar Mori. The Mughal forces soundly defeated the allied force, and Mirza Aziz plundered Nawanangar.
In 1594, Jahangir was dispatched by his father, the Emperor Akbar, alongside Asaf Khan, also known as Mirza Jafar Beg and Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, to defeat the renegade Raja Vir Singh Deo Bundela and to capture the city of Orchha, which was considered the centre of the revolt. Jahangir arrived with a force of 12,000 after many ferocious encounters and finally subdued the Bundela and ordered Vir Singh Deo to surrender. After tremendous casualties and the start of negotiations between the two, Vir Singh Deo handed over 5000 Bundela infantry and 1000 cavalry, but he feared Mughal retaliation and remained a fugitive until his death. The victorious Jahangir, at 26 years of age, ordered the completion of the Jahangir Mahal a famous Mughal citadel in Orchha to commemorate and honour his victory.
In 1597, on August, The Mughal engaged Isa Khan and his ally, Masum Khan Kabuli, in the final battle of their long conflict. At first Isa faced defeat with the Mughals attacking Katrabo, one of Isa's pargana (administrative unit). However, on 5 September, Durjan Singh was killed and the Mughal forces were defeated. Both the army and navy of the Mughal-Koch Bihar alliance were either routed or captured. Sometimes after the battle, Isa Khan his submission, Akbar assigned 22 parganas administrative units under his control.
In 1608, Jahangir posted Islam Khan I to subdue the rebellious son of Isa Khan, Musa Khan, the Masnad-e-Ala of the Baro-Bhuyan confederacy in Bengal. Islam Khan manage to subdue the latter and captured him, allowing the Mughal empire to imprison Musa Khan.
In 1612 At the time of the Mughal invasion of the Greater Sylhet region, Bayazid Karrani II, a member of the Karrani dynasty of Bengal, was among the most powerful leaders of the Eastern Afghani Confederates, independently ruling its eastern half with his capital in Pratapgarh. continuing the struggle against Mughal expansion of the previous generation under Isa Khan. Bayazid was among those who had been granted lands as part of the maintenance of this alliance by the latter's son, Musa Khan. Bayazid formed alliance with Khwaja Usman from Usmangarh (and Taraf) and Anwar Khan of Baniachong. It was in light of this close alliance that Islam Khan I, the Mughal governor of Bengal, dispatched an imperial force against Bayazid so as to prevent the latter from providing aid. Ghiyas Khan was appointed to lead the expedition, though due to his diffidence, command was later entrusted to Shaikh Kamal. He was assisted by officers such as Mubariz Khan, Tuqmaq Khan, Mirak Bahadur Jalair and Mir Abdur Razzaq Shirazi. Mir Ali Beg was made the bakhshi (paymaster) of this Mughal command. The host consisted of four thousand matchlock-men, one thousand picked cavalry of Islam Khan I, one hundred imperial war elephants and the fleet of Musa Khan and his confederates, who had surrendered to the Mughals the previous year. Bayazid's side consisted of the forces sworn to him and his brother Yaqub, as well as several hill-tribe chieftains (likely Kukis). The host consisted of 4,000 Matchlock riflemens, one thousand picked cavalry of Islam Khan I, 100 imperial war elephants and the fleet of Musa Khan and his confederates, who had surrendered to the Mughals the previous year. The intense conflict rages between the alliance with the Mughal force, until Khwaja Usman slain in one of clashes. The death of Khwaja Usman greatly demoralized the Afghan, prompting Bayazid to surrender. Soon after, Anwar Khan also submitted, thus bringing Sylhet for the first time under the control of the Mughal empire.
In 1613, Jahangir imposed a draconian law to extirpate the Koli peoples, who were notorious robbers and plunders living in the most inaccessible parts of the province of Gujarat. A large number of the Koli chieftains were massacred and the rest were hunted far away to the mountains and deserts. 169 heads of such Koli chiefs killed in battle by Nur-ul-llah Ibrahim, commander of 'Bollodo'. In the same year after the Portuguese seized the Mughal ship Rahimi, which had set out from Surat on its way with a large cargo of 100,000 rupees and Pilgrims, who were on their way to Mecca and Medina to attend the annual Hajj. When the Portuguese officially refused to return the ship and the passengers, the outcry at the Mughal court was unusually severe, with Jahangir himself was outraged and ordered the seizure of the Portuguese town Daman. He ordered the apprehension of all Portuguese within the Mughal Empire; he further confiscated churches that belonged to the Jesuits.
In 1615, after a year of a harsh war of attrition, Rana Amar Singh I surrendered conditionally to the Mughal forces and became a vassal state of the Mughal Empire as a result of Mughal expedition of Mewar. In 1615, Khurram presented Kunwar Karan Singh, Amar Singh's heir to Jahangir. Khurram was sent to pay homage to his mother and stepmothers and was later awarded by Jahangir. The same year, his mansab was increased from 12,000/6,000 to 15,000/7,000, practically making his rank equal with his brother Parvez. was further increased to 20000/10000 in 1616.
In 1620, during the conquest of Kangra under Jahangir, whose presence also attended by a Mughal scholar Ahmad Sirhindi, who directly observing the campaign, the Mughal forces had the Idols broken, a cow slaughtered, Khutbah sermon read, and other Islamic rituals performed. Further mark of Jahangir departure from Akbar secular policy were recorded Terry, a traveller, who came and observed India region between 1616 and 1619, where he found the mosques full of worshippers, the exaltation of Quran and Hadith practical teaching, and the complete observance of Fasting during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr celebrations. Aurangzeb, son of Shah Jahan, has let the Mughal empire engaging various military campaign, including the pacification of the Bundela Rajputs in Siege of Orchha in year of 1635.
In 1630, under the leadership of Pir Roshan's great-grandson, Abdul Qadir, thousands of Pashtun tribal alliance consisted of the Yusufzai, Mandanrs, Kheshgi, Mohmand, Afridi, Bangash, and other tribes launched an attack on the Mughal Army in Peshawar.
In 1646, Ustad Ahmad Lahori, led the Mughal army of Shah Jahan to Balkh to fight against the Safavid Iran in the region.
In 1657, on March, the Maratha's forces under Shivaji raided the Mughal army's barracks and made away with battle-hardened Arabian horses and plenty of loot. This was responded by Aurangzeb by sending his general Nasiri Khan to let the punitive campaign, where he manage to inflict defeat to Shivaji's forces in Ahmednagar. Later, Aurangzeb and his army advanced towards Bijapur and besieged Bidar. Aurangzeb's forces used rockets and grenades while scaling the walls. Sidi Marjan was mortally wounded when a rocket struck his large gunpowder depot, and after twenty-seven days of hard fighting, Bidar was captured by the Mughals. Thus, wealthy city of Bidar has annexed by Mughal.
In 1659, Aurangzeb sent his general Raja Jai Singh to besiege the fort of Purandar and fought off all attempts to relieve it. Foreseeing defeat, Shivaji agreed to terms. Jai Singh persuaded Shivaji to visit Aurangzeb at Agra, giving him a personal guarantee of safety. Their meeting at the Mughal court did not go well, however. Shivaji felt slighted at the way he was received, and insulted Aurangzeb by refusing imperial service. For this affront he was detained, but managed to effect a daring escape. Shivaji returned to the Deccan, and crowned himself Chhatrapati or the ruler of the Maratha Kingdom in 1674. However, the Mughal's punitive campaign against the Marathas under Shivaji were interrupted by the civil war between Aurangzeb with his brothers due to the succession issue of the Mughal emperor after the death of Shah Jahan.
In 1662, the Mughal empire manage to subdue the Ahom kingdom under the leadership of Mir Jumla II, who conquered its capital, Garhgaon, and capture 100 elephants, 300000 coins, 8000 shields, 1000 ships, and 173 massive rice stores.
In 1667, the Yusufzai tribe once again revolted against the Mughals, with one of their chiefs in Swat proclaiming himself as the ruler. Muhammad Amin Khan brought a 9,000 strong Mughal Army from Delhi to suppress the revolt. Although the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb was able to conquer the southern Yusufzai plains within the northern Kabul valley, he failed to wrest Swat and the adjoining valleys from the control of the Yusufzai.
In 1669, Hindu Jats began to organise a rebellion led by Gokula, a rebel landholder from Tilpat. By the year 1670 20,000 Jat rebels were quelled and the Mughal Army took control of Tilpat, Gokula's personal fortune amounted to 93,000 gold coins and hundreds of thousands of silver coins. In the end, Gokula was caught and executed. But the Jats once again attempted rebellion. Raja Ram Jat, in order to avenge his father Gokula's death, plundered Akbar's tomb of its gold, silver and fine carpets, opened Akbar's grave and dragged his bones and burned them in retaliation. Jats also shot off the tops of the minarets on the gateway to Akbar's Tomb and melted down two silver doors from the Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb appointed Mohammad Bidar Bakht as commander to crush the Jat rebellion. On 4 July 1688, Raja Ram Jat was captured and beheaded, then his head was sent to Aurangzeb as proof.
Until his death in 1680 Shivaji continues defying the Mughal. and succeeded by his son, Sambhaji. Then, Aurangzeb's third son Akbar left the Mughal court along with a few Muslim Mansabdar supporters and joined Muslim rebels in the Deccan. Aurangzeb in response moved his court to Aurangabad and took over command of the Deccan campaign. The rebels were defeated and Akbar fled south to seek refuge with Sambhaji, Shivaji's successor. More battles ensued, and Akbar fled to Persia and never returned.
In 1683, a Maratha warlord Sambhaji launched conquest of Goa, which almost eliminated the Portuguese presence in that region. However, suddenly Mughal forces appeared and prevented the annihilation of Portuguese in Goa from the Maratha army.
In 1685, the Mughal besieged Bijapur Fort, hwhich was well-defended by 30,000 men led by Sikandar Adil Shah and his commander Sarza Khan. at first, the bombards by Mughal cannon batteries were repulsed by the large and heavy Bijapur guns, such as the famous "Malik-i-Maidan", which fired cannonballs 69 cm in diameter. Instead of capturing territories on open ground, the Mughals dug long trenches and carefully placed their artillery but made no further advancements. The Mughals could not cross through the deep 10-ft moat surrounding Bijapur Fort. Moreover, the 50-ft high 25-ft wide fine granite and lime mortar walls were almost impossible to breach. The situation for the Mughals worsened when Maratha forces led by Melgiri Pandit under Maratha Emperor Sambhaji had severed food, gunpowder and weapon supplies arriving from the Mughal garrison at Solapur. The Mughals were now struggling on both fronts and became overburdened by the ongoing siege against Adil Shahi and the roving Maratha forces. Things worsened when a Bijapuri cannonball struck a Mughal gunpowder position causing a massive explosion into the trenches that killed 500 infantrymen. After 18 months, In 1686, the Mughal managed to annexed Bijapur, after Siege of Bijapur, after Aurangzeb paying every soldiers with gold coins for each bucket of muds thrown into the moat, filling it with even corpses of men and animals, allowing the Mughal forces to storm the fortress. To celebrate this victory, Aurangzeb spread his coins, mounting the throne of Adil Shahi sultan, and also carving the great cannon Malik-e-Maidan. This event caused the commercial treaty between the Purtuguese with Sultanate of Bijapur on October 22, 1576 being annulled.
in 1687, Aurangzeb also attacked the Golconda. In January, the Mughal empire besieged the Golconda Fort , containing the Kollur Mine, for eight months. At the end of the siege, Aurangzeb and the Mughals entered Golconda victorious; the Qutb Shahis of Golconda and the ruler Abul Hasan Qutb Shah submitted to Aurangzeb and handed over several precious gems to the latter including the Nur-Ul-Ain Diamond, Orlov (diamond), Black Orlov, Darya-e-Nur, the Hope Diamond, the Wittelsbach Diamond and the Regent Diamond. The Golconda Sultanate was incorporated as a subah, or province of the Mughal Empire, called Hyderabad Subah.
In February 1689, Aurangzeb's forces captured and executed the successor of Shivaji, Sambhaji, then Aurangzeb drove the Maratha forces south, and further expansion into the Deccan and southern India was achieved during his reign. Then the Maratha's successor Rajaram, later Rajaram's widow Tarabai and their Maratha forces fought individual battles against the forces of the Mughal Empire. Territory changed hands repeatedly during the years (1689–1707) of interminable warfare. As there was no central authority among the Marathas, Aurangzeb was forced to contest every inch of territory, at great cost in lives and money. Even as Aurangzeb drove west, deep into Maratha territory – notably conquering Satara – the Marathas expanded eastwards into Mughal lands – Malwa and Hyderabad. The Marathas also expanded further South into Southern India defeating the independent local rulers there capturing Jinji in Tamil Nadu. In 1690, the Mughal general Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung cooperating with Madurai Nayak dynasty undergoing the Siege of Jinji in conflict against Maratha, where after 8 years, they finally conquered the fort.
Aurangzeb also subsequently facing the rebellion of the Sikh in 1701. At first, the Sikh were incited by Guru Gobind Singh to form khalsa groups of militant movements which faced rejection by local hill chiefs. Then as the Sikh Khalsas fought and defeat those hill chiefs in the Battle of Anandpur (1700), they immediately appealed to Aurangzeb for assistance from Aurangzeb, which responded by sending instructions to the Mughal officials in Punjab to take action against the Sikh. Wazir Khan, the governor of Sirhind, immediately sent his forces, where they subdued the Sikh in the second battle of Anandpur in 1703-1704. Another battle were fought in Chamkaur Sahib where two more sons of Guru Gobind were slain. Then in 1706, another military operation undergoes in Khidrana or Muktsar in effort to further suppress the rebellion, which followed with Guru Gobind move to Talwandi Sabo or Dam Dama.
Aurangzeb waged continuous war in the Deccan for more than two decades with no resolution. He thus lost about a fifth of his army fighting rebellions led by the Marathas in Deccan India. He travelled a long distance to the Deccan to conquer the Marathas and eventually died of natural cause at the age of 88, while still fighting the Marathas.
Indian Historian Pradeep P. Barua also remarked that the successful takeover of Mughal rule in India by the British Raj was not stemmed from the sophisticated British empire's military organization, technology, or fighting skill. but it was rather due to the British Raj could offer political stability with their civil administrations after the decline of Mughal authority in India . Adapted to fighting pitched battles in the northern Indian plains, The Mughal as empire has their army as cavalry based society which sustain itself with huge volume of nutritious grasses supply to feed their mounts, which produced from its vast territories under their rule.
The Mughal emperors themselves maintained a small standing army, Instead the officers called mansabdars provided the bulk of the Mughal armed forces. Under Akbar, there are as many as 1,600 Mansabdars employed. While during the reign of Shah Jahan, Mansabdars were growing into 8,000 officers. Mansabdar officer worked for the government who was responsible for recruiting and maintaining his quota of horsemen, where practically most of Mughal armies were under Mansabdar officers. The rank of Mansabdars were based on the horsemen he provided, which ranged from 10(the lowest), up to 5000. A prince had the rank of 25000. Their salary pays also based on their ranks.
Each Mansabdars were held in responsible by the Mir Bakshi, or the head of Mughal empire's office of military and intelligence administrations. Aside from their obligation to report to the Mir Bakshi's office, Mansabdars also often appointed as Subahdar, or the head of provincial administration which assisted by the provincial officers such as Diwan, Bakhshi, Faujdar, Kotwal, Qazi, Sadr, Waqa-i-Navis, Qanungo and Patwari officers. the Faujdar is the one who helping the Subahdar to Maintaining law and order and Enforcing imperial regulations, while also held commands of number of Thanas or military outposts. These Thanas usually garrisoned with a fix number of Sowar soldiers. According to Jos Gommans, the assessment and appointment of Mansabdar officers were done personally by the emperor. This administrative policies were aimed to govern the heterogenous population of India which consisted with various backgrounds of social strata, ethnics, and religious groups. There were rare cases where foreigner from Europe such as William Hawkins from England appointed as Mansabdar. Hawkins himself has provided records about the details about the administrations of Mansabdar, where during his life, he has recorded about 41 names of Mansabdar officers who commanded about 3,000-5,000 Zat or horsemens.
Furthermore, the administrative positions of the Mughal central government were mirrored at the provincial level. with Bakhshi officers charged with the management and payment of the province's military. The provincial bakhshi often simultaneously served the function of the province's waqia-navis (news writer), and reported on all provincial mansabdars, including its senior officials (such as the subahdar or diwan).The role of provincial bakhshi could face tension from the subahdar or diwan, since the bakhshi's activities kept these officials accountable to the imperial centre.
Meanwhile, personal royal army which under the direct command of the emperor were numbered around 24,000 soldiers. These emperor personal standing armies were called Ahadis, a body of cavalry trooper. Another term for the Mughal emperor personal bodyguards which associated with the Ahadis was the Walashahis(lit. belonging to the king), or imperial bodyguards, which regarded as the most trusted and faithful part of the troops, being directly in the pay of the Emperor. They also serve as cavalrymen, similar to Ahadis. They were chiefly, if not entirely, men who had been attached to the Emperor from his youth and had served him while he was only a prince and were thus marked out in a special manner as his personal attendants and household troops.
The Mughal army generally divided into four branches: the cavalry (Aswaran), the infantry (Paidgan), the artillery (Topkhana) and the navy. These were not divisions with their own commanders, instead they were branches or classes that were distributed individually amongst the Mansabdars, each of whom had some of each of these divisions. The exception to this rule was the artillery, which was a specialized corps with its own designated commander, and was not part of the mansabdari troops. The Mughals also carried on the tradition of harsh execution of mutineers by strapping them into the mouth of cannon and blowing them apart by the cannon shot. This brutal tradition was copied by the British empire military to punish their own mutineers.
The Mughal imperial camp, known as "The exalted camp" or "The victorious camp", were used for military expeditions and royal tours, also served as a mobile, "de facto" administrative capital and also imperial army headquarters, where it is manned hundreds of thousands of people and the 50,000 horses and oxen required to transport tents, baggage and equipment as its challenge. Vincent Smith further writes that the Mughal Camp was like a moving city from one place to other while Jean-Baptiste Tavernier discussing about the mode of travelling in India observed that manner of travelling in India those days is very convenient like Italy or France.
This mobile military capital were constructed by more than 2,000 personnel and labourers sent on ahead of the main imperial party. From the time of Akbar, Mughal military camps were huge in scale, accompanied by numerous personages associated with the royal court, as well as soldiers and labourers. All administration and governance was carried out within, while the Mughal Emperors spent a significant portion of their ruling period within these camps. Akbar's entourage included small camps for journeys or hunting and large camps for royal tours and military campaigns, where it could accommodate 300000 people. It is estimated the large camp were travelling in 16 km perday. however, another estimation has the camp rarely traveled more than 6 km per day and was preceded by agents, scouts and workers who prepared roads and bridges, campsites, arranged the purchase of foodstuffs and fuel and assured the cooperation of local rulers.
As army mansabdars, royal household, domestic servants and others presented a picture of a well-planned city, moving from one place to another place, traveller Niccolao Manucci who witnessed the grandeur has written that the grandeur of Mughal rulers entourage far greater than any European rulers. Abul Fazl, who writes that it would be very difficult to describe a large encampment, while he described, "Each encampment required for its carriage 100 elephants, 500 camels, 400 carts and 100 bearers. It is escorted by 500 troopers, mansabdars, Ahadis besides, there are employed a thousand Farrashes, native of Iran, Turan and Hindustan, 500 pioneers, 100 water-carriers, 50 carpenters, tent makers and torch bearers, 50 workers in leather and 150 sweepers.". While Antoni de Montserrat, who accompanied Emperor Akbar on a Kabul expedition, gives a detailed account of the magnitude of the Imperial Camp. The military marches was travelled in intervals, as the imperial army adopted the Persian traditions of gardens and large and extravagant tents. Persian texts such as Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish, the Code of Hammurabi, Zoroastrian texts such Vendidad and Yasna, and the Book of Genesis was implied in the pavilion structure of those gardens. The pavilions like structures in different Persian type and names used in this mobile encampment, such as emarat, khaneh, qasr, moshkuy, sarai, shabistan tagh, iwan, and kakh, while on the other side, it also contain some permanent structures, and also tents with different sizes and complexities such as khaimeh, khargah, and sardagh.
The massive mobile military encampment administration of emperor Akbar, which followed by his successors, were coincided with the centralization policies which were practiced by the nomadic military style of his predecessor of Central Asian conquerors, such as the Mongols of Genghis Khan, Timur empire, and Babur With the nomadic steppe culture in mind, it is recorded this model of military administration by focusing on highly mobile imperial tourage of their soldiers and followers camps as a way to gain the prestige and loyalty. Babur himself wrote frequently about pitching his camp throughout Hindustan as he advanced. The rationale of military strategy and political necessity—surrounded by raiding nomadic empires was such of mobile technology that allowed Babur to remain elusive to his opponents. Regardless of his defeats in battle, Babur maintained control by monopolizing control of his subjects' movements, deciding which paths they would take as they maneuvered around Hindustan in their struggle for power.
Aside from such military administration semi-permanent building, the Mughal empire also erected permanent military fortresses such as Lalbagh Fort, Allahabad Fort, Red Fort, Balapur Fort, and Purana Qila. Furthermore, the Mughal empire also inherited chain of forts, or qilas, which scattered throughout the Deccan.
Around the 17th century AD, the dynasty was ruling the wealthiest empire in the world, with also the largest military on earth. Mughals had approximately 24 percent share of world's economy and a military of millions of regularly paid soldiers. J. C. Sharman, political scientist, has viewed the Mughal empire as a centralized power of the Indian region and one of Asia's great powers like Ming, in the context of population, riches, and military power that were unheard of in comparison with the contemporary European powers of their time. Stephen Rosen calculated that even the highly conservative estimation for Indian peninsula military available would at least rival contemporary Europe at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1650, as Rosen gave his own estimation of 550,000 personnel, and 105,000,000 in the Western of Ural Mountains, covering Scandinavia, Britain, part of Russia, Spain, and Balkan countries.
The theoretical potential manpower of the Mughal empire in 1647, according to Kaushik Roy from Jadavpur University, could have reached 911,400 cavalry and infantry. However, Kaushik Roy also quoted the accumulation in the imperial revenue of 12,071,876,840 dams has been calculated by Streissand who translated that the Mughal empire military could support about 342,696 cavalry and 4,039,097 infantry in total, while F. Valentijn estimated numbers higher than 4,000,000 in 1707. It further illustrated that during Shah Jahan reign, in 1647, the Mughal army composed of about 911,400 infantry and cavalry, while from 1627-58, there were 47,000 mounted musketeers, foot musketeers, gunners, and archers. Antoni de Montserrat has recorded in his work Mongolicae Legationis Commentarius that the Mughal–Afghan Wars alone, emperor Akbar could muster 50,000 cavalry, 500 war elephants and camels, along with "countless number of infantry". de Montserrat also provided information that the Mughal army under Akbar consisted of multiple ethnicities, such as Persians, Turkmen, Chagatais, Uzbeks, Pashtuns, Gujaratis, Pathans, Rajputs, and Balochis. Dirk H. A. Kolff opined this high estimate of figures were rather essentially an "inventory of military labors" available for hiring in a single operation.
The Ain-i-Akbari chronicle has recorded an estimation of 4 million total number soldier of the Mughal empire, which includes local auxiliaries, which consisted of infantries outside of Mughal controlled territories. According to Indian historian Pradeep Barua, this means 3 percent of Indian population in 1600. Furthermore, Barua asserted this number solely the military service exclusive to the Mughal empire, not another political powers in India. Stephen Peter Rosen also aded the 4,400,000 (Four million four hundred thousand) of Mughal military population as the most pragmatic estimation, since he found out the Ain-i-Akbari census were too conservative it its method as it does not cover the military population of the southern India. Thus, Peter Rosen suggested the realistic number of the overall Mughal military power were above 4,4 million, which was about 4 percent of the Indian population at the time. Far higher estimation came from Abraham Eraly, who quoted Tapan Raychaudhuri work that the raw number of potential bodies of Mughal military personnels, included with the auxiliary forces, had reached 26,000,000 military personnel. Eraly further added the reflection of massive numbers of this Mughal military expenses in the case of Aurangzeb, who has brought about 170,000 cavalry troopers and similar number of infantry and non-combatant personnels, for a campaign in Deccan alone. Eraly also quoted Aurangzeb predecessor, Shah Jahan, who has boasted about 900,000 army command.
Other estimation came from historian Abdul-Hamid Lahori recorded the Mughal military strength in 1647 are 200,000 stipendiary cavalry, 185,000 other cavalry, and 40,000 garrisoned musketeers and gunners. Andrew de la Garza added that these great number of infantry troopers were not simply an unorganized mobs, but rather group of units which designated with different roles and equipments and according to their respective tasks, from heavy shock infantries which acted like Roman legionnaires or Swiss pikemen, to the Shamsherbaz units which served as halberdier, mace fighters, or sword gladiator.
Under the Mughals, the most important centers of production of military equipment were Delhi and Lahore. Karkhanas or workshops in Mughal empire produced various arms, ammunition, and imperial stable-harnesses for the horses in articles of iron, copper and other metals.
The main weapon which used by the Mughal were the sword, spear, and Bow and arrow. The Firangi (/fəˈrɪŋɡiː/) sword, a European style straight sword; Many classical image depictions of Mughal nobles holding firangis, or accompanied by retainers carrying their masters' firangis, which suggested that this kind sword became a symbol of martial virtue and power, and was used until the Indian Mutiny in 1857-58. The Rajput Shamserbaz infantry enlisted in Mughal service were armed with halberd, mace, while some of othem also equipped with Sword-and-buckler set and also two-handed sword similar with western Zweihänder, where they act like central European Doppelsöldner on the offensive.
As India was a very fertile ground for manufacturing technologies before the Industrial Revolution, the adoption of muskets and gunpowder weapons in Mughal empire became widespread particularly during the time of emperor Akbar. When the Portuguese reached India in 1498, they brought with them firearms, among them the matchlock musket. However, expert armorers were already plentiful in India, and native craftsmen began to copy the weapons and adapting them for their own needs. These indigenous matchlocks were called Toradar. They were found mostly in the Mughal-influenced Northern and Central India. Two types of Toradar exist: one has a very slim, from 3 feet (91 cm) to 6 feet (180 cm) long, straight stock with pentagonal-shaped section, and a light barrel; the other type is always between 5 feet (150 cm) to 6 feet (180 cm) long, has a curved stock with diamond-shaped section and a very heavy barrel, much enlarged at the breech.
Regarding the tactics and equipment of the Mughal cavalry, from the time of the rise of Babur, the cavalry troopers wore heavy chain mail armour, and also acted as cavalry archers as they were armed with composite bows or steel bows. The composite bows were made of animal horn and sinews with the length around four feet. When facing difficult situation, the Muslim Mughals cavalrymen would perform a type of fighting called Utara, the martial act of dismounting from their horses and fighting on foot until they died rather than retreat. Mughal armour was not as heavy as contemporary European armour, due to the heat climate of the region, but was heavier than the south Indian outfits.
One of the most phenomenal aspect, yet somewhat unusual for its era, of Mughal military was their mastery logistical system, which according to historians such as Stephen Rosen was comparable with the ancient Rome army or modern time US Army in term of military brute force. While Historian Jeremy Black compared logistical superiority of the Mughals with the British army of Victorian era.
Its massive war machine which also complemented by large numbers of settler pioneers, animal trainers, security forces, spies, chef, artisans, and others, has resulted in multi tasking armed forces which could operated freely in any seasons or terrains. Jeremy Black also focusing the role of Mughal logistical capabilities from the time of Akbar to Aurangzeb.
To maintain the constant supply of their massive cavalry forces, the empire employed logistical system to ensure the well transportation of fodder. Another key component of the Mughal logistical system was their revenue assets to finance the Overhead costs to employ the camp followers such as accountants, bankers, and merchants who accompanying the massive expedition and covering the logistical needs for months and even years. This is due to necessity of remittance from hundred of Mughal nobles to supply their needs. To facilitate such heavy logistical task of maintain the huge needs to ensure the camp sustain its inhabitants, the Mughal established an exchange bill credit institution to bridge the noble's military camps with the local Indian markets. Gommans also noted due to the nature of already wealth of Mughal empire, they did not consider it was necessary to always moving their encampment site, in comparison with the contemporary European kingdoms.
The ground army logistic department also proven pivotal in supporting the naval fleets, as the land army logistical units clearing the jungles on the coastal area, building roads and canals, allowing the navy units to advances such as during the Mughal naval operations in Assam by Mir Jumla and Chittagong by Shaishta Khan. On the other hand, the role of the riverines and waterways in India peninsula proved crucial for the empire to transport their heavy artillery weaponries.
From the time of Babur, cavalry archery has become a staple of the Mughal army. By the time of emperor Jahangir, it was recorded the Mughal empire has maintained in total of 342,696 cavalry troopers. The Mughal army performances depended heavily with their animal's performances such as war elephants, warhorses, and bulls to transport their artillery.
André Wink opined that the cavalry warfare came to replace the logistically difficult elephant warfare and chaotic mass infantry tactics. Rajputs were co-opted by converting them into cavalry despite their traditions of fighting on foot. This was similar to the Marathas' service to the Deccan Sultanates. The officer also had to maintain his quota of horses, elephants and cots for transportation, as well as foot soldiers and artillery. Soldiers were given the option to be paid either in monthly/annual payments or jagir, but many chose jagir. The emperor also allocated jagir to mansabdars for maintenance of the mansabs.
The key to Mughal power in India was its use of warhorses and also its control of the supply of superior warhorses from Central Asia. Modern middle east and Islamic culture historian Annemarie Schimmel estimated around 75 percent of Mughal army's warhorses were imported origin. This indication also supported by the Mughal victories in the Battle of Panipat, the Battle of Machhiwara, Battle of Dharmatpur, and in eyewitness accounts such as Father Monserrate, which primarily featured the use of traditional Turko-Mongol horse archer tactics rather than gunpowder. The cavalrymen of Mughal were usually hailed high-class caste and were better paid than foot soldiers and artillerymen, and had to possess at least two of their own horses and good equipment. The regular horseman was called a Sowar.
The difference between Mughal heavy cavalry charge with their counterpart in European Man-at-arms knights was the ability of the Mughal cavalryman to comfortably sat in relaxed fashion on their saddles during the top speed of their horse charge. Historian Jos Gommans recorded how the Mughals mocked the "European style" of cavalry charge. The regular cavalry troopers were directly recruited by the Mughal emperor himself, mainly from the emperor's own blood relatives and tribesmen. They had their own pay roll and pay master, and were better paid than normal horsemen sowars.
Normally, the riders were armed with Bow and arrow, mace, cavalry lance, Sabre, swords, shields, and sometimes also rifle. Materials of the Mughal cavalry armour was made up of steel or leather, heavy chainmail, lamellar, or half-plate armor, while their horses also worn similar type of protection. The full set of their armour consisted of two layers; the first consisting of steel plates and helmets to secure the head, breast, and limbs. Underneath this steel network of armour was worn an upper garment of cotton or linen quilted thick enough to resist a sword or a bullet, which came down as far as the knees. There was also a custom among the riders to cover the body in protective garments until little beyond a man's eyes could be seen. Above all, they wore the traditional dress of their tribes, such as silken pants as the lower garment and a pair of kashmir shawls wrapped around the waist completed this costume. Furthermore, Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri testified about the magnificent gallop of the Mughal cavalier's charge, as they adorned their horse;s saddles and head covers with gems or jewel stones.
The horse cavalry and musketeers recruited by mansabdars were required to meet the standard of quality set by the emperor. The cavalry troopers in particular was riding the strong breeds of Tartary (central Asian) or Persian steeds which generally have larger body than most horses commonly found in India during that time. The quality control regarding the imperial standart used Dagh (imperial mark) which branded on the side of the horse. The cavalry troops of the Mughals also required to possess extra mounts as spare Well-bred horses were either imported from Arabia, Iran or Central Asia, or bred in Sindh, Rajasthan and parts of Punjab. Emperors at times also issued firman or imperial mandates on regular intervals addressing officials like mansabdars, kotwals, zamindars and mutasaddis for the remission of taxes for promoting the horse trade. Meanwhile, the emperor and the high-ranking commanders using Arabian horses for their high quality. The Marathan lords of Thanjavur regularly sent tributes to the empire by sending Persian and Arabian horses.
Aside from the high quality purebreed Arabian, Iraq, Khurasan, and Central Asia steeds, the Mughal also bred lower quality warhorses. The systematic classification of horse quality in Mughal empire was started in 1595, it is generally divided into several classes such as:
Nevertheless, the most precious breeds of warhorse in Mughal were:
Stewart N. Gordon stated the classifications of 3 zones of military cultures in India, he divided pre British colonial era India into a three regions, where southern India based on fortress and light infantries, western India such as Marathas basing their military forces with light cavalry, then the Mughal, and by extension the Rajputs, were based on heavy cavalry tradition with feudalistic land revenue system.
Tactically speaking, the Mughals characterized by their frontal-combat oriented, and shock-charge tactics of the heavy cavalry armed with swords and lances was popular in Mughal armies. The Mughal cavalry also trained in a special maneuver to attack enemy's war elephant, where they could control their horses to stand on their hind legs and jumping forward. The adversaries of the Mughals such as the Uzbek employed their own cavalry archers to counter the Mughal heavy cavalry from closing in. Meanwhile, the Mughal also possessed their own cavalry archer units which quality even more effective than a rifle armed cavalry. This particularly on their ability to shooting their arrows repeatedly on top of their horse. François Bernier observed the Mughal cavalry archer rate of fire that they can unleash 6 arrows before a riflemen could shoot twice.
In the battle against Hemu, the Mughal army led by Ali Quli Khan Shaibani with three sections of cavalry vanguard with the centre composed of 10,000 cavalry. This formation included Bairam Khan's detachment of Turks. There are unique characteristics among horse-cavalry troopers under the command of each Subahdar (Mughal provincial governor). According to the father of Shuja-ud-Daula, Safdar Jang, the governor of Awadh, had adorned his contingent of 20,000 cavalry, who were mainly native Hindustan from the Jadibal district in Kashmir, with the uniform of Persian Qizilbash in dress and taught them to speak Persian language casually. Meanwhile, The Sadaat-e-Bara tribe of Urdu-speaking people which traditionally composed the vanguard of the imperial army, held the hereditary role to serve as vanguard units of the empire in each battles.
Mughal army also included war elephants. Commanders of Mughal army always command their troops from the top of their elephant, as they the elephant ride gave them high ground of vantage to give them good vision for giving orders The elephant rider unit of the Mughal army consisted of two riders atop of single elephant was known as Howdah. Mainly they were used for transportation to carry heavy goods. Elephant riders in Indus river civilizations usually called Mahout. The riders were consisted of natives of desert areas in India like Rajasthan. Female elephants usually trained and tasked to carry or dragging baggage and siege cannons, while the male ones were trained to fight in melee combat to destroy the enemy infantry troopers.
A special elephant unit called Gajnal were carrying Indian swivel-gun mounted on its back. two of these kind of light artillery could be carried by single elephant.
The armor which worn by the Mughal's war elephants was called Bargustawan-i-pil. it is an armor which consisted of Chain mail and Plate armour which weighed 118 kg. However, it was also reported that the war elephants was vulnerable to firearm based weapons. The elephants which used in war by the Mughals bore well ornamented and good armour. The clad of armor sets which protected the war elephants mostly only protected the head and trunks parts. However, the elephants which were rode by high ranking figures such as rulers who could afford this usually were fully protected with chainmail, steel plates, sewn-scale or brigandines armor sets, although was not casual regularity even among high-ranking commanders of the army. From the earliest time of warfare in India, war elephants which assigned to the frontline usually used as shock troops which charge was unstoppable by most kind of enemies, except heavily disciplined infantry columns.
In 1581, Catalan Jesuit Antoni de Montserrat recorded that Akbar has brought around 500 elephants and 28 field cannons in his battle against Mirza Hakim,his brother. Montserrat also further described the supporting role of war elephant units in the formation of the Mughal army during the battle. During the rule of Aurangzeb, In 1703, the Mughal commander at Coromandel, Daud Khan Panni were recorded has spent 10,500 coins to purchase 30 to 50 war elephants from Ceylon. Akbar and Jahangir heavily used elephants in warfare, as Akbar himself maintained around 5000 to 7000 elephants in his fil-khana (elephant house), of which about 100 of the very best were reserved for his personal collection (khassa). Meanwhile, the Delhi sultans never had more than 3,000 elephants at any time, the Mughals were much more interested in maintaining war elephants than their predecessors. They fully supported changing their war tactics to also include elephants as Akbar is known as the biggest proponent of elephant warfare in the Mughal Dynasty.
Aside from its military purpose, Vikram Aggarwal recorded historical accounts and religious lore together to illustrate elephants significance to Mughal leadership's right to rule, co-opting cultural symbols and repurpose it and thus underscoring the dynamic nature of culture and power in India, As it shown how elephants played major role in the culture of South Asia, as they were seen a symbol of power and reverence since the ancient Vedic period. like the Aryans before them, the Mughals, fully adopted elephant husbandry into the Mughal dynasty. Abul Fazl, writer of emperor Akbar's biography Akbarnama, has stated that in Mughal society, the value of one good conditioned elephant as equal to 500 horses. The empire also has regular occasion supply of Sri Lankan elephants from the Marathan lords from Thanjavur.
Some of the Rajput mansabdar's also provided camel cavalry. The Zamburaks or camel units with mounted swivel guns were though as Mughal innovation, as were first mentioned by Bernier, who reports that Aurangzeb took two to three hundred camel- guns with him on his expedition to Kashmir. Its mobility compared to their Gajnal Elephant counterpart were considered pivotal, as those weapons which size are double of normal musket could be shot on top of the camels. Each of two Zamburaks usually attached to the saddle of a camel and the ordnance measured in two haths and forty - six liva.
Emperor Akbar reportedly has employed the camel trainers from Baloch and Rabari ethnic in addition to his own camel corps which numbered around 6,000-7,000 camel riders.
The infantry was recruited either by Mansabdars, or by the emperor himself. The emperor's own infantry was called Ahsam. They were normally ill-paid and ill-equipped, and also lacked discipline. This group included bandukchi or gun bearers, swordsmen, as well as servants and artisans. They used a wide variety of weapons like swords, shields, lances, clubs, pistols, rifles, muskets, etc. They normally wore no armour. Unlike the Europeans who placed Wagon forts in their rear formations, the Mughals army placing their wagon in front of enemy centers with. Chains connected the wagons to each other to impeded enemy cavalry charges. This wagon forts provided cover for the slow-loading of the Indian rifles. while also protected Heavy cavalry who positioned behind the direct-fire infantry protected.
The rifle infantry units of the Mughal were generally viewed as more effective than infantry archer units. The Banduqchis were the musket infantry which formed the bulk of the Mughal infantry.
The Mughal musket infantry line was known to be able to break the enemy's elephant charge without help from cavalry units, as it was shown in the battle of Haldigathi against the Rajput kingdom of Mewar. This feat was also shown in the battle of Tukaroi against huge cavalry and elephant charge of the Afghan sultanate, although with combined arms fashion with cavalry and artillery units in Tukaroi. They are most useful in rural level operations to subdue local peasant-based insurrections against the empire.
Locally recruited and equipped with matchlocks, bows and spears, the infantry was held in low status and was virtually equated with palanquin bearers, woodworkers, cotton carders in the army payrolls. Their matchlocks were thrice as slow as the mounted archers. Chronicles hardly mention them in battle accounts. Indian Muslims usually enlisted in the cavalry and seldom recruited in the infantry, as they regarded fighting with muskets with contempt. The Banduqchis were mainly made up of Hindus of various castes who were known for their skills as gunmen, such as the Bundelas, the Karnatakas and the men of Buxar.
The main infantry was supplemented by specialized units such as the Shamsherbaz. Meaning "sword-wielders" or "gladiators", or swordsmen. The Shamsherbaz were elite heavy infantry companies of highly skilled swordsmen. As their name implies, a few of them were assigned to the court to serve as palace guards, or participate in mock-battles of exhibitions of skill. However, tens of thousands of them were assigned to army units by the Mansabdars around the Mughal Empire. The Shamsherbaz were frequently used in siege warfare, where they would be unleashed to deal with the resistance once the walls were breached with explosives or artillery. There are several class of Shamsherbaz unit within the mughal army:
Much of the Shamsherbaz were recruited from religious sects such as Sufi orders. Furthermore, many of Rajput tribesmens also entered service of the Mughal Shamserbaz unit either as regular soldier or mercenary. Mughal chronicler Abul Fazl recorded there were around 1,000 gladiators or Shamsherbaz within the Mughal royal palace alone, while approximately around 100,000 gladiator infantries total was employed by the empire of Mughal across their territories.
Infantry archer in the Mughal empire was called dākhilī troops. The emperor employ them by assigning them under the command of manṣabdār officers. They usually has salary about 100-120 dāms. A captain of 10 archers was called Mīr-dah officer, they usually received higher salary between 120 and 180 dāms. During the final years of emperor Akbar's rule, the proportion of infantry archers with musketeers in Mughal army was about 3 to 1. Archer units of Mughal army mainly filled a similar role with musketeer units.
Mridha archer was the elite class archers units hailed from the parts of Dhaka, Tangail, Bikrampur and Pirojpur.
Chela were slave soldiers in the Mughal army. As a counterpoise to the mercenaries in their employ, over whom they had a very loose hold, commanders were in the habit of getting together, as the kernel of their force, a body of personal dependents or slaves, who had no one to look to except their master. Such troops were known by the Hindi name of chela (a slave). They were fed, clothed, and lodged by their employer, had mostly been brought up and trained by him, and had no other home than his camp. They were recruited chiefly from children taken in war or bought from their parents during times of famine. The great majority were of Hindu origin, but they always converted to Islam after joined the Chela unit. This slave-originated units were the only troops on which a man could place entire reliance as being ready to follow his fortunes in both foul and fair weather.
Similar the Timurids and other Mongol-derived armies, and unlike other Islamic states, the Mughal empire did not use slave soldiers as their regular army. The Chela soldiers were mainly served the role as menial labor, footmen and low-level officers rather than regular units like Ghilman, Mamluks or Janissaries. However, eunuch officers were prized for their loyalty.
During the Mughal Dynasty, urdubegis were the class of women assigned to protect the emperor and inhabitants of the zenana, or Harem of the emperor. Because the women of the Mughal court lived sequestered under purdah, the administration of their living quarters was run entirely by women. The division of the administrative tasks was dictated largely by the vision of Akbar, who organized his zenana of over 5,000 noble women and servants.
The women tasked with the protection of the zenana were commonly of Habshi, Tatar, Turk and Kashmiri origin. Kashmiri women were selected because they did not observe purdah. Many of the women were purchased as slaves, and trained for their positions.
They are mentioned as early as the reigns of Babur and Humayun, and were proficient in weapons combat, specifically the lance, and archery. Mughal emperors spent a great deal of their leisure time in the zenana, and slept there at night, therefore the women assigned to protect the women's quarters were also part of the larger system in place to protect the emperor. During Babur's and Humayun's reign, when the Mughal throne was not sufficiently consolidated, the harem was mobile, following wherever the Emperor went next. Accordingly, it was necessary to have the range of trustworthy female guards and thus, the army of Urdubegis were constituted. They also followed the harem during excursions and sieges, and kept guard in the palace mansions were the Emperor's male soldiers were prohibited from entering. Many of these warriors ascended the ranks with time, or were granted a promotion by the Emperor in return for a favour. For instance, Bibi Fatima, the only known Urdubegi, was first a wet-nurse in Humayun's period, but was promoted to the rank of an Urdubegi by his son Akbar.
From the large number of women who have served as the Urdubegis under Mughal rule, we only know the name of one, that is Bibi Fatima. Her name is mentioned by Gulbadan-Begum, Humayun's half-sister, who wrote his biography the Humayun-nama. It is interesting, how in all other biographies, written by male authors, we do not find exclusive mention of an Urdubegi. In the wake of the colonial gaze interpreting history, the harem became a definite orientalist, and exotic space, from wherein the mention of the Urdubegis were removed. The harem came to largely symbolise the Mughal monarch's sexual playground, and its complexities were reduced under such a biased historical analysis.
The Indian Muslims during the rule of Mughal maintained artillery dominance in India, and even after the fall of the empire, various other non-Islamic Indian kingdoms continued to recruit Hindustani Muslims as artillery officers in their armies.
Mughal artillery consisted of various types of cannons, light artillery, and grenadier units. The artillery was a specialized corps with its own designated commander, the Mir-i-Atish. The office of Mir-i-Atish grew in importance during the time of the later Mughals. Being in charge of the defense of the Imperial Palace Fort, and being in personal contact with the Emperor, the Mir-i-Atish commander had great influence. They were somewhat risky to be used in the battlefield, since they exploded sometimes, killing the crew members. Light artillery was the most useful in the battle field. They were mainly made up of bronze and drawn by horses. This also included swivel guns born by camels called zamburak. Since Mughal rule, Indian Muslims maintained the dominance of artillery in India, and even after the fall of the Mughal empire, various non-Muslim Indian kingdoms continued to recruit Hindustani Muslims as artillery officers in their armies.
One of the largest artillery used by the Mughal army were during the Siege of Chittorgarh (1567–1568), where they used a gigantic Mortar designed by a Persian engineer Fathullah Shirazi. This mortar was capable firing a cannonball weighed over 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg). Another recorded mortar usage also recorded in 1659 during the conflict between Aurangzeb against his brother, Shah Shuja.
The Mughals also used rockets based weaponries. Emperor Akbar reportedly used metal cylinder rocket weapons known as bans against enemy war elephants, during the Battle of Sanbal. In 1657, the Mughal army also used rockets during the Siege of Bidar. Aurangzeb's forces reportedly used rockets and grenades while scaling the walls. Some miscellaneous rocket artillery engine also employed by the Mughal artillery corps, such as one which recorded by chronicler Abul Fazl, which description was resembling German nebelwerfer artillery according to modern historian Andrew de la Garza.
The Mughals artillery corps also employed hand grenade, and rocket artilleries. These rockets are considered as predecessor of Mysorean rockets which employed by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan Pradeep Barua also noted the Mughal technology for sapping and mining warfare also saw small improvements from the Delhi sultanates which ruled India before them.
The Mughal also maintain considerable naval forces, which named Amla-e-Nawara. It is recorded that In Dhaka alone, the Amla-e-Nawara fleet contains 768 ships with 933 foreigner crews of Portuguese origin and of 8,112 artillery personnel in the eastern part. To support the maritime operations, Mughal grand vizier Mir Jumla repaired and fortified three river forts, Hajiganj Fort, Sonakanda Fort, and Idrakpur Fort between 1660 and 1663. The Navy's main duty was controlling piracy, sometimes used in war. It is known from the standard survey of maritime technology in 1958, that the Bengalis expertize on shipbuilding were duplicated by The British East India Company in the 1760s, which leading to significant improvements in seaworthiness and navigation for European ships during the Industrial Revolution. Among them, there are 923 Portuguese sailors in service of Akbar.
According to records in the Mughal invasion on kingdom of Ahom, the characteristic of Ghurab warships of Mughals in Bengal regions were Ghurab warships which were outfitted with 14 guns. the personnels were numbered around 50 to 60 crews. The officers of those ships were conscripted from Dutch, Portuguese, British, and Russian naval officers.
Another Mughal warships characteristics were their strength and their size, due to the shipbuilding skills of their Bengalis shipbuilder. Contrary to the naval forces in Bengal which relied mostly on riverine fitted Gharb warships, the naval forces of Janjira state which given subsidy and sponsored by Aurangzeb with the access of Surat port could construct more bigger ships like frigates and Man-of-war The Man-of-war ships of Mughals were as big as English Third-rate. while the frigates used prow instead of Beakhead. some of these ships carried thirty to forty pieces of cannons. This Siddi navy has armed with rare huge vessels of certain craft which weighted between 300 and 400 tonnage with heavy ordnance on row boats, where few matchlock gunner and spear men cramped. The use of hand-driven pumps to dispose excessive water from boats was already used by Indian shipmasters in the seventeenth century. However, larger imperial ships also operated by Mughal such Rahīmī, which reached 1500 tonnage. Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti also noted the existences of ships belonging to the emperor that possess 1000 tonnes in weight disposal. Another notable huge ship owned by Mughal were the Ganj-i-Sawai, which mounted 800 onboard guns at its disposal. Ganj-i-Sawai was reported as the largest ship in Surat at that time, with its 1600 tonnes in weight.
For the two decades in the end of the 16th century, during their operation in Bengal, the Mughal Empire faced difficulties when it was dealing with the rainy climate and the geography of Bengal region, which contains large portions of Ganges River delta, resulting in any attempts for military conquests turning into amphibious operations. Their opponents were the local warlords, who owned large quantities of warships. The locals were also assisted by the pirates from Portuguese Goa region, along with some Dutch ships, although some of the Portuguese instead assisted the Mughal empire.
The Mughal amphibious forces also operated in muddy terrains, such as when Ghiyas Khan led the operation against Udayaditya from the Jessore Kingdom. To further improving their operations in wet terrains, the Mughals constructed some economical river dedicated fortress which built with the abundance of muds in the region that they learned from the local Bengalese fortress construction techniques. Soon, the imperial naval strategy focusing the mobilities of the ships which tracks were defended by those river forts. Grand vizier Mir Jumla also constructing land-based defensensive installations put on those floating river forts, which constructed by lashing ships, and large rafts to enable the Mughal soldiers to fight on water. Heavy artillery pieces brought on board rafts to supplement the existing ones, while wagons lashed to decks and stacks of crates and bales of straw or cotton formed makeshift fortification.
The foundation of salt water naval force of the Mughal empire were established by Akbar from the late 16th century after he conquered Bengal and Gujarat. Emperor Akbar reorganized the imperial navy from a collections of civilian vessels with more professional institutions of Naval administration which is detailed in the Ain-i-Akbari, the annals of Akbar's reign.It identifies the navy's primary objectives including the maintenance of transport and combat vessels, the retention of skilled seamen, protection of civilian commerce and the enforcement of tolls and tariffs. Akbar were recorded in A'in Mir Bahri, to be possessed 3000 armed vessels, although later decreased into 768. In early 1600, the Mughals employed Bengali local warriors as their naval force. these Nawwara is a Bengal local warlords. These locals were consisted of the twelve chiefs of Baro-Bhuyan military confederacy, where they responsible for the shipbuildings, commercial trades, slave raidings, and military protections. The Mughals assign these local warlords in naval position and also uncultivated lands for them.
About 20 years after the Siege of Hooghly, the Mughals in Bengal came into a conflict against the English East India. The Mughal forces were commanded by Shaista Khan, and Masum Khan, the eldest son of Musa Khan, and grand son of Isa khan, former enemies of the Mughal empire in Bengal during the reign of Akbar. Masum served as the Mughal army General during the Hughly invasion in 1632. The English company, which under admiral Nicholson, who had been granted permission by the emperor to sail about 10 warships, The objectives of the company was to seize Chittagong and consolidate its interests. However, The English were defeated as the Mughal counterattack under Shaista Khan towards Hooghly proved too much. In 1572, Akbar unsuccessfully tried to obtain compact artillery pieces from Purtuguese, hence became the reason why the Mughal could not establish their naval forces along Gujarat coast.
Empress Mariam-uz-Zamani maintained large fleets of trade ships, including the Rahīmī and Ganj-i-Sawai. The Rahimi was the largest of the Indian ships trading in the Red Sea. It had large sails that were identifiable to sailors from miles away, and was known to Europeans as the great pilgrimage ship. After being sacked by pirates, this ship was replaced by the Ganj-i-Sawa. This ship was eventually scaked by English pirate Henry Every.
One of the best-documented naval campaigns of the Mughal empire were provided during the conflict against kingdom of Arakan, where in December 1665, Aurangzeb dispatched Shaista Khan, his governor of Bengal to command 288 vessels and more than 20,000 men to pacify the pirate activities within Arakan territory and to capture Chittagong, while also assisted by about 40 Portuguese vessels. Ibn Hussain, Shaista Khan's admiral, was asked to lead the navy, while the subahdar himself took up the responsibility of supplying provisions for the campaign. He also ordered Farhad Khan and Mir Murtaza to take the land route, while the overall command was given to Buzurg Ummed Khan, a son of Shaista Khan. The Mughals and the Portuguese held sway in the following naval battle. The conquered territory to the western bank of Kashyapnadi (Kaladan river) was placed under direct imperial administration. The name of Chittagong was changed to Islamabad and it became the headquarters of a Mughal faujdar. This ensuing conflict in Chittagong were documented as largest Early Modern galley battles fought which nvolved more than 500 ships. and the number of were more than 40,000 bodies. After the Mughals took Chittagong, the Portuguese moved to the Ferengi Bazaar in Dhaka. Descendants of the Portuguese still reside in these places.
It is said in the Ahkam 'Alamgiri record that the commander of British navy, Sir John Child, has concluded peace with the Mughal empire in 1689 due to his fear towards the "Mughal navy" force of Janjira which let by Siddi Yaqub. According to Grant Duff, until 1670 the imperial navy under the leadership of Khan Jahan with the Janjira mariners has clashed frequently against Maratha Navy under Shivaji, where the Janjira and Mughal naval forces always comes victorious. English letters In 1672 has recorded that Aurangzeb has sent 30 small frigates to assist the Siddis in Danda-Rajapuri. The resulting battle has caused Shivaji naval forces to be burned and lost 50 ships. Meanwhile, Khafi Khan has recorded that previously, once the fleet of Mughal during the era of Shah Jahan once inflicted heavy losses to the Maratha naval forces and causing 200 being captured while 100 casualties, an event which fuelled the rivalry of the Siddis with the Maratha in the sea.
During the era Aurangzeb, the chronicle of Ahkam 'Alamgiri reveals how the Mughal empire had struggled to establish strong navy, boldened by the failure to prevent losses of Muslim vessels off the coast of the Maldives islands. Aurangzeb were said to possess four huge vessels at Surat and port of southern Gujarat. Aurangzeb's Vizier, Jafar Khan, blames the Mughal lack of ability to establish an effective navy not due to lack of resources and money, but to the lack of men to direct (the vessels). Thus Syed Hassan Askari concluded that the lack of priority of Aurangzeb to afford his naval project due to his conflicts against the Marathas has hindered him to do so. Andrew de la Garza stated other reason of the Mughal navy did not evolve into a high seas fleet during the 17th century was technological inferiority of Indian blast furnaces in comparation with the European counterparts, who capable of generating the temperatures required to manufacture cast iron cannon in quantity. Nevertheless, Syed maintained that Mughal was largely not independent to control the rampart piracy and European naval incursions, and instead resorted to depend on the strength of friendly Arab forces from Muscat to keep the Portuguese in check.
However, Syed Hassan also highlighted that Aurangzeb are not completely neglect it since he has acquired the British expertise to strengthen the fort of Janjira island, and thus establishing naval cooperation with semi independent Siddi community naval force of Janjira State which resisted the Marathas. The proficiency of the Siddi Yaqub navy are exemplified during Siege of Bombay, where Siddi Yaqub and his Mappila fleet blockaded the fortress and forced the submission of the Britain forces. In the late 1600s, Sidi Yaqut received a subsidy of 400,000 rupees from emperor Aurangzeb to manage Murud-Janjira He also owned large ships which weighed 300–400 tons. According to records, these ships were unsuitable for fighting on the open sea against European warships, but their size allowed for transporting soldiers for amphibious operations. Reports from travellers has noted that Mughal general Mir Jumla II were employing the services the sailors from British, the Dutch, and the Portuguese, along their ships. In August, 1660, he employed 6–7 British sailors of a small vessel carrying Trevisa, the English Agent, to Dhaka. He also utilised the services of both the Dutch and the British for constructing his warships as it is recorded a galiot built by the Dutch at Hooghly district and manned by 6–7 British fugitives under a captain named John Durson. Furthermore, Mir Jumla also employing a British named Thomas Pratt to construct boats and making ammunition for riverine warfare During the tenure of Mughal general Mir Jumla in Bengal, he employs Portuguese, English, and Dutch sailors to operate his 323 warships. In August, 1660, he employed 6–7 British sailors of a small vessel carrying Trevisa, the English Agent, to Dhaka. He also utilised the services of both the Dutch and the British for constructing his warships as it is recorded a galiot built by the Dutch at Hooghly district and manned by 6–7 British fugitives under a captain named John Durson. Furthermore, Mir Jumla also employing a British named Thomas Pratt to construct boats and making ammunition for riverine warfare After the death of Mir Jumla, Shaista Khan launched conquest of Chittagong in 1666, where he employing the fleet of ships belonging local warlords group in Bengal, which called Nawwara, to overcome the turbulent water water frontier of the region.
This article incorporates text from The army of the Indian Moghuls: its organization and administration, by William Irvine, a publication from 1903, now in the public domain in the United States.