- The Mughal military was controlled by the emperor of the Mughal empire. There were five main branches of military force – infantry, cavalry, fire-arms, elephants and war boats.
- Infantry was the largest. They had a head to foot covering of plate mail armor. This type of armor was called a Bukhtar. Some infantry carried shields as well. A shield made up of iron and steel was known as a Sipar. Other lighter shields were made up of various materials, such as cane and bamboo, wood and leather and sometimes even tortoise and rhinoceros skin.
- The empire depended heavily on the cavalry for its victory. Because of their speed and power, cavalry was arguably the most important amongst the Mughal forces.
- The fire-arms consisted of gunners, musketeers and cannon shooters. Cannons were a very important weapon. They caused a large explosive impact on whatever came into contact with the cannon ball. The result of the explosion often scared horses and elephants. This was useful in disrupting an enemy attack. Their only problem was that they were very large and very heavy. During Akbar’s period of ruling, there were many improvements in guns and cannons.
- The Mughal Navy was very weak with few naval defense soldiers. Their navy was made up of boats equipped with artillery. Earlier in Mughal history, the military only accepted Muslim people to fight in the battles but later they accepted Hindus and others. Military technology, especially gunpowder, was improved greatly during the centuries of Mughal reign. Although the Mughals were very war-like, that was not the only thing that they did.
- Akbar created a military organisational system called mansabdari. This system created a set of rankings and salaries for every military or civilian official. These officials were called mansabdars. The emperors would provide land to the mansabdars and in return, they would provide cavalry to fight
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