The Organization of the Mughal Army

The Imperial and Provincial Forces

The Mughal army was conventionally divided into two main components: the imperial forces, maintained directly by the emperor from the revenues of the imperial crown lands, and the provincial forces, maintained by the great mansabdari nobles from the revenues of the jagirs assigned to them. The imperial forces included the household cavalry of the emperor, the imperial topkhana, the elephant corps, and the artillery train; the provincial forces included the contingents of the mansabdars and the garrison troops of the provincial forts.

The proportion of imperial to provincial forces varied considerably over the history of the empire. Under Akbar, the imperial forces were relatively small, and the army was predominantly mansabdari; the great campaigns of the reign, including the conquest of Gujarat in 1572–73 and the campaigns in the Deccan in the 1590s, were conducted substantially by the mansabdari contingents. Under Aurangzeb, by contrast, the imperial forces were greatly expanded, and the long wars in the Deccan of the late seventeenth century were conducted in part by troops maintained directly by the emperor.

The Mansabdari System as the Basis of Recruitment

The mansabdari system, examined in detail on the Mughal mansabdari page, was the principal mechanism by which the Mughal army was raised and maintained. Each mansabdar, or holder of a mansab or military rank, was required to maintain a prescribed number of cavalry, with a prescribed number of horses of a prescribed quality, in return for the assignment of a jagir, or the right to collect the revenue of a specified tract of land, in lieu of cash salary. The mansabdari ranks ranged from commanders of ten to commanders of ten thousand, and the highest mansabdars of the empire, the panj hazari and the daw hazari, commanded substantial forces that could be deployed on the most important campaigns.

The mansabdari returns were carefully scrutinised at each formal muster, and the mansabdars were required to present their contingents, with their horses and equipment, for inspection. Mansabdars who failed to present the prescribed number of troopers, or who presented troopers whose horses were of inferior quality, were subject to reduction in rank or to other penalties. The system was designed to ensure that the imperial army was always at a high state of readiness, and it was one of the principal administrative achievements of the Mughal state.

The Categories of Cavalry

The Categories of Infantry

The infantry of the Mughal army was considerably smaller, in proportion, than the cavalry, and it was recruited from a number of distinct sources. The matchlock infantry, the banduqchis and qarabardars, were maintained as a specialist corps, and they were attached to the artillery train and to the imperial household. The garrison troops of the provincial forts were largely infantry, and they were recruited from the local population, often from the older military classes of the region. The ahadi infantry, like the ahadi cavalry, were maintained by the imperial household and assigned to particular officers. The infantry of the mature Mughal state was relatively small, perhaps one infantryman to every ten or fifteen cavalrymen, but it was technically competent and it played a substantial role in the siege operations that formed a major part of Mughal warfare.

The Elephant Corps, the Camel Corps, and the Artillery

The Chain of Command and the Mir Bakhshi

The Mughal army was commanded by a hierarchy of officers drawn from the mansabdari ranks. The supreme commander was the mir bakhshi, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, who was directly responsible to the emperor for the discipline, the pay, and the operational deployment of the army. The mir bakhshi was assisted by a number of subordinate officers, the bakshis, who were responsible for the musters and the discipline of the contingents of the individual mansabdars. Below the bakshis were the wakai-navis, the reporting officers, who were responsible for the intelligence and the operational reporting of the army.

The chain of command on campaign was a complex matter, and the emperor, when present in person, exercised supreme command. The emperor was assisted by a number of senior commanders, including the princes of the blood, the great umara of the court, and the commanders of the specialist arms. The command of the individual components of the army, the topkhana, the fauj-i-fil, the ahadi cavalry, and the dakhili contingents, was exercised by the senior officers of each establishment.

The Size, the Recruitment, and the Salaries

The size of the Mughal army at its seventeenth-century peak is difficult to determine with precision, but the official mansabdari returns suggest that perhaps three to four hundred thousand cavalry were nominally enrolled in the imperial service. The actual numbers present in the field on any given campaign were substantially smaller, and the army that fought at the Battle of Samugarh in 1658 probably numbered between fifty and one hundred thousand men. The infantry, the artillery, and the elephant corps together probably added another fifty thousand men, and the total strength of the army at its peak was probably in the order of one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand men.

The recruitment of the army was a continuous process, and the mansabdars were required to maintain their contingents at the prescribed strength throughout the year. The recruitment of the infantry, the artillery, and the elephant corps was the responsibility of the specialist commanders of those arms, and the great imperial karkhanas of Agra, Delhi, and Lahore were the principal centres of recruitment and training. The salaries of the army were paid in cash or in jagir, and the administration of the jagir system, treated on the Mughal administration and Mughal mansabdari pages, was one of the most demanding tasks of the imperial government.

The Discipline and the Logistics

The discipline of the Mughal army was maintained by a formal code of military law, and the punishments for breach of discipline were severe. The mir bakhshi and his subordinate officers were responsible for the maintenance of discipline, and the formal dagh (branding) of horses and the chehra (description) of troopers were the principal means by which the identity of individual soldiers was verified. The logistics of Mughal campaigns, examined on the Mughal military overview and Mughal administration pages, was a substantial undertaking, and the supply of grain, of fodder, and of gunpowder required the maintenance of an extensive system of magazines and supply depots.

Sources

• M. Athar Ali, Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb (1966), ch. 1.
• S.A. Khan, Mughal Art of War (2012).