Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/197

Rh as surrounded Aurangzíb in his gigantic camp at Bairampúr. Instead of hardy swordsmen, they had become padded dandies. They wore wadding under their heavy armour, and instead of a plain soldierly bearing they luxuriated in comfortable saddles, and velvet housings, and bells and ornaments on their chargers. They were adorned for a procession, when they should have been in rough campaigning outfit. Their camp was as splendid and luxurious as if they were on guard at the palace at Delhi. The very rank and file grumbled if their tents were not furnished as comfortably as in quarters at Agra, and their requirements attracted an immense crowd of camp followers, twenty times as numerous as the effective strength. An eye-witness describes Aurangzíb's camp at Galgala in 1695 as enormous: the royal tents alone occupied a circuit of three miles, defended all round with palisades and ditches and 500 falconets: –

'I was told,' he says, 'that the forces in this camp amounted to 60,000 horse and 100,000 on foot, for whose baggage there were 50,000 camels and 3000 elephants; but that the sutlers, merchants and artificers were much more numerous, the whole camp being a moving city containing five millions of souls, and abounding not only in provisions, but in all things that could be desired. There were 250 bazars or markets, every Amír or general having one to serve his men. In short the whole camp was thirty miles about .'