Army of the Mughal Empire

The Army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. 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 empire's third emperor, Akbar. The regular forces mainly recruited and fielded by Mansabdar officers.

During the 17th century, the Mughal empire possessed the largest military on earth, with its strength numbering 911,400-4,039,097 infantry and 342,696 cavalry. Alternatively, according to the census by Abul Fazl, the size of the army was roughly about flat 4.4 million, with less than half a million trained as cavalry.^: 89–90 While modern India historians put far bigger number in 26 million personnels.

The Mughal is considered as dominant military force in India. Employing their superior engineering to military affairs and logistic mastery, historians has compared Mughal army brute force with a Roman Empire or United States Armed Forces.^{: 276 : 158} Stephen Morillo also noted about western scholarship generally overlooked on how destructive is was Asian empires such as the Mughal in their conquest, not unlike the Roman empire. British historian Jeremy Black viewed that the Mughal military struggles until their decline in the wake of Nader Shah's invasion of India has reflected the Asiatic military development in the 17th century. Black's evaluation contrasted other modern military historians view that the Asian military during that era were influenced by in Military Revolution Europe. Indian Historian Pradeep P. Barua also remarked that the successful takeover of Mughal rule in India by the British Raj was not stemmed from advance the British military organization, technology, or fighting skill. but it rather because the British Raj could offer political stability with their civil administrations after the decline of Mughal authority in India .^: 119

Other expert such as Irfan Habib noted that Mughal cavalry are invincible in Indian subcontinent. The superiority of their heavy cavalry discipline and shock charge were a staple of Mughal cavalry.

Mughal artillery consisted of heavy cannons, light artillery, grenadiers and rockets.^{: 48 : 133} Heavy cannons were very expensive and heavy for transportation, and had to be dragged by elephants and oxen into the battlefield.

The Mughal naval fprces were named Amla-e-Nawara. It is recorded that In Dhaka alone, the Amla-e-Nawara fleet contains 768 ships with 933 foreigner crews of Portuguese origin and of 8,112 artillery personnel in the eastern part. They maintained fleets of warships and transport ships.