Sawar
Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"
Meaning
Sawar means "horseman" or "cavalryman". In the Mughal mansabdari system, every officer (mansabdar) held a rank (mansab) made of two numbers. The sawar number showed how many cavalrymen, with their horses, he had to keep ready for the state. This let the emperor gather a large army quickly without keeping one permanent central army. Regular inspections checked that officers really kept these men and horses. The word was also used more widely for mounted soldiers.
Example
In the Ain-i-Akbari, written by Abul Fazl, Akbar's court historian, the military strength of local landholders (zamindars) is counted as sawar (horsemen), piyada (foot soldiers) and fil (elephants).
Don't confuse with
- Zat: the other number in a mansab. It fixed the officer's personal rank and salary. The sawar number was the count of horsemen he had to maintain.