The army of the Mughal Empire was the military force by which the Mughal emperors established and expanded their empire. 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 third emperor, Akbar. The regular forces were mainly recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.
During the 17th century, the army became the earth's largest, numbering 911,400–4,049,097 infantry (zats) and 342,696–15,000,000 cavalry (Swari). Alternatively, according to the Abul Fazl's census, the size of the army was roughly about 4.4 million, with less than half a million trained as cavalry; while modern Indian historians estimate 26 million.
The Mughal dominated India, employing superior engineering and logistic mastery. Historians compared the Mughal army with that of the Roman Empire or the United States Armed Forces in terms of force projection. In logistical superiority, the Mughals were comparable with the British Army during the Victorian Era. Historian Stephen Morillo claimed that Western scholarship generally overlooked the destructive scale of Asian empires such as the Mughal, not unlike the Roman Empire.
British historian Jeremy Black claimed that the Mughal army's struggles until their decline in the wake of Nader Shah's invasion of India reflected Asiatic military development in the 17th century. Black's evaluation contrasted with other historians who claimed that Asian empire militaries during the 17th century were influenced by the Military Revolution in Europe. This period coincided with the costly Deccan wars, which substantially damaged the Mughal army.
Historians such as Irfan Habib and Farhat Hasan claimed that Mughal cavalry was unmatched in South Asian conflicts. Its superiority in discipline and shock charge were a staple of its success. By the 16th-17th century, Mughal horses were imported, mostly from Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Central Asia.
Due to their adoption of gunpowder warfare, historians Marshall Hodgson and colleague William H. McNeill termed the Mughals a gunpowder empire. The Mughal army employed heavy cannons, light artillery, grenades, rockets, and heavy mortar among other weapons. Heavy cannons were expensive and difficult to transport, and had to be dragged by elephants and oxen.
The Mughal naval forces were named the Amla-e-Nawara. In Dhaka, the Mughal naval fleet contained 768 ships with 933 foreigner crews of Portuguese origin and 8,112 artillery personnel. They maintained fleets of warships and transport ships.
The emperor's personal army numbered around 24,000 soldiers. Directly under royal command, these warriors were called Ahadis, a body of cavalry troopers.
Another term for the Mughal emperor's personal bodyguards which was associated with the Ahadis was the Walashahis (belonging to the king), or imperial bodyguards. Regarded as the most trusted and faithful troops, they were directly in the pay of the Emperor. They served as cavalrymen, similar to Ahadis. Walashahis were chiefly, if not entirely, men who had been attached to the Emperor since their youth and had served him while he was only a prince, and were thus marked as his personal attendants and household troops.
The Mughal army was generally divided into four branches: the cavalry (Aswaran), the infantry (Perigean), the artillery (Topkhana) and the navy. These were branches or classes that were distributed amongst the Mansabdars , each of whom commanded some of each of these forces. The exception to this rule was the artillery, which had its own designated commander, and was not part of the mansabdari troops. The Mughals followed the tradition of harsh execution of mutineers by strapping them into the mouth of cannon and blowing them apart. This tradition was copied by the British empire's military to punish their own mutineers.
Officers called mansabdars led the bulk of the Mughal armed forces. Under Akbar, as many as 1,600 mansabdars served. Shah Jahan had many as 8,000 mansabdars. Mansabdar officers worked for the government and were responsible for recruiting and maintaining their quota of horsemen. A Mansabdar's rank was based on the horsemen he provided, which ranged from 10 (the lowest), up to 5000. A prince had 25000. Their salaries were based on their ranks.
Historian Richard M. Eaton noted Aurangzeb's strengthening of the mansabdari system and rotation of jagirs, which ensured noble loyalty and political stability, deterring usurpation attempts during his early reign.
Each Mansabdar was responsible to the Mir Bakshi, or the head of Mughal empire's office of military and intelligence administrations. Aside from reporting to the Mir Bakshi, Mansabdars were often appointed as Subahdars, or heads of provincial administration where they were assisted by provincial officers such as Diwan, Bakhshi, Faujdar, Kotwal, Qazi, Sadr, Waqa-i-Navis, Qanungo and Patwari officers. Faujdaris aided their subahdar in maintaining law and order and enforcing imperial regulations, while also commanding thanas or military outposts, which were usually garrisoned with a fixed number of sowar (cavalry). According to Jos Gommans, the assessment and appointment of mansabdar officers was done personally by the emperor. Mughal administrative policies were directed at the heterogenous population of India which consisted of myriad backgrounds, social strata, ethnicities, and religious groups. While rare, foreigners from Europe such as the Englishman William Hawkins were sometimes appointed as Mansabdar. Hawkins provided records about the administrations of mansabdar, recording during his life the names of about 41 mansabdar officers who commanded about 3,000-5,000 Zat or horsemen.
Bakhshi officers were charged with the management and payment of a province's military. The provincial bakhshi often simultaneously served as the province's waqia-navis (news writer), and reported on all provincial mansabdar's, including 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.
The Mir Bakhshi was the chief Bakhsh, and worked in the central administration. The position was also referred to as bakhshi-ul-mamalik or bakhshi-i-mamalik. Scholars translated the title as 'paymaster general' or 'army minister'. Unlike the Delhi Sultanate-era office, the Mughal version Mir Bakhshi's influence extended beyond the military, since every noble of the Mughal empire was a mansabdar.
The Mughal imperial camp, known as "The exalted camp" or "The victorious camp", was used for military expeditions and royal tours, also serving as a mobile, de facto administrative capital and imperial army headquarters. It was manned by hundreds of thousands of people and 50,000 horses and oxen required to transport tents, baggage and equipment as its challenge. Vincent Smith 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, observed that the manner of travelling in those days was convenient like Italy or France.
This mobile military capital was constructed by more than 2,000 personnel and labourers sent ahead of the main force. From the time of Akbar, Mughal military camps were huge in scale, accompanied by members of the royal court, as well as soldiers and labourers. Administration and governance were carried out from within, with the Emperors spending a significant portion of their rule within these camps. Akbar's entourage included small camps for journeys or hunting and large camps for royal tours and military campaigns, which could altogether accommodate 300,000 people. The large camp travelled an estimated 6-16 km per day, preceded by agents, scouts and workers who handled logistics, preparing roads and bridges, campsites, purchasing food and fuel and assuring the cooperation of local rulers.