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Module - II Military System of The Mughals

Military History of
f) Equipments: During battles, the Mughals used a wide variety of weapons. The
Medieval India
generic name for arms and armour was silah (plural aslah). Broadly, they can be
classified into short arms and weapons for distant attacks.

6.2.1 Short arms ranged into five classes. They were:
1) swords and shields,
2) maces,
Note
3) battle axes,
4) spears and,

5) daggers.

Besides the above, the Mughals also used weapons for more distant attacks. They
were of three different types:
1) the bow (Kaman) and arrow (Tir),

2) the matchlock (banduq or tufang) and
3) the pistol (tamanchah).

Of these three, the Tir-Kaman was the most popular. In fact, it served as the primary
weapon of the cavalry, and the Mughal horsemen were famed for their archery.
"The sword was better than the dagger, the spear better than the sword, the bow and
arrow better than the spear."
The generic name of a sword was tegh (Arabic), shamsher (Persian) or talwar (Hindi).
The Arabic word saif was also used occasionally. One kind of short-sword was called
the nimchah-shamsher. Apart from these there were many other kinds of weapons that
were used. They are as follows:
DHUP (asa-shamsher, i.e. staff-sword): a straight sword, adopted from the Dakhin.
It had a broad blade, four feet long and a cross hilt. It was considered as an emblem
of sovereignty and high dignity and was therefore displayed on state occasions.
SIROHI: "Whoever was struck on the head by these Indian blades was cleft to the
waist, or if the cut were on the body, he was divided into two parts."
PATTA: a narrow-bladed, straight rapier.
GUPTI: a straight sword having a walking stick as its sheath.
Along with the sword naturally comes the shield; then known as chirwah & tilwah.
The mace (gurz) usually formed part of the equipments of a Mughal warrior. The
battle-axe (tabar) was a triangular blade with one broad cutting edge. The usual generic
name used for spears of all kinds was the Arabic word sinan. The head or point was
called sunain, and the butt was the bunain. Besides these, there were also other varieties
of daggers that were in use. To name some of them: Jamdhar, khanjar, katta and
peshqabz.

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MILITARY HISTORY