330
THE INDIAN EMPIRE
[CHAP.
the end of practised at every native court in the country. Many of
theenigh- these roving adventurous spirits naturally found their way
century. to the South, and there is evidence to show that, attracted
by good and regular pay and by the magnetic influence of
military success, they readily enlisted in the Company's forces.
The French had recruited their battalions chiefly from the
people of Southern India. We apparently took men farther
afield, and Pathans, Rohillas, Rajputs, Arabs, and Abyssinians
were enfolded in the recruiting net. And though the Madras
and Bombay battalions contained a considerable share of the
inhabitants of the South, it must be remembered that in
those days fighting was more or less continuous, and that
years of peace had not enervated the martial qualities of men
who may now be reckoned as belonging to the non-warlike
Indian races. In Bengal, besides the mixed classes of
adventurers who ranged themselves under our standards, we
gradually drew Hindustanis from Oudh, and from I776
onward the native army in Bengal was almost entirely recruited
from the tract of country between the Ganges and the Gogra,
the men being described as mostly Brahmans and RKjputs,
and as 'a brave, manly race of people.' It is not necessary
to suppose that the discipline was exact or the training
perfect, but both were infinitely superior to anything of the
kind possessed by their opponents. The power of marching
and manceuvring in solid formations and of concentrating
fire, and the use of well-served guns, enabled small bodies
of the Company's soldiers to overcome the loosely arrayed
hordes of their adversaries.
Native Allowing for the exaggeration of Oriental historians-a fault
armhes not entirely confined to the East-in estimating the num-
period. bers of a defeated enemy, it is certain that the native
armies of those days were of huge dimensions, dragging in
their train ten times the number of the fighting men in
the shape of followers, and constituting a series of moving
bazars. As a rule these armies had no cohesion. They were
merely great bands of men following the standards of their
chiefs. In the Mughal armies, for example, the emperor was
supposed to have at his disposal fifteen or sixteen Rajas, each
of whom could bring 25,000 horsemen into the field. Of these
only a fraction was maintained on what we should call the
' establishment,' and the rest were called up when an emergency
occurred. Thousands of free-lances were employed, and roving
adventurers were ready to bid for any service which offered
some pay and more plunder. Ponderous guns were dragged by
|
![[Digital South Asia Library]](/graphics/thirdlevel.gif)
