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Sardars and Horses
ਕੋਟ ਤੁਰੰਗ ਕੁਰੰਗ ਸੇ ਕੂਦਤ ਪਉਨ ਕੇ ਗਉਨ ਕਉ ਜਾਤ ਨਿਵਾਰੇ ॥
kot turang kurang se soodat paun ke gaun kau jaat nivaare||
With millions of horses galloping like deer, moving faster than the wind.
Sri Dasam Granth
A passage which I extracted from a memoir written in Delhi in 1777, exhibits a lively picture of this people and their military capacity. "The Siques" it represents "are in general strong and well made; accustomed from their infancy to the most laborious life and hardest fare, they make marches and undergo fatigues that really appear astonishing. In their excursions they carry no tents or baggage, except, perhaps a small tent for the principle officer: the rest shelter themselves under blankets which serve them also in cold weather to wrap themselves in, and which, on a march, cover their saddles.They commonly have two, some of them three, horses each, of the middle size, strong, active and mildly tempered. The provinces of Lahore and Moultan, noted for the best breed of horses in Hindostan, afford them an ample supply; and indeed they take care to encrease it by all means in their power. Though they make merry on the demise of their brethren, they mourn for the death of a horse; thus shewing their love of an animal so necessary to them in their professional capacity.
George Forster 1783
Accustomed from their earliest infancy to a life of hardship and difficulty, the Seiks despise the comforts of a tent; in lieu of this, each horseman is furnished with two blankets one for himself and the other for his horse. These blankets, which are placed beneath the saddle, with a gram bag and heal roped, comprize, in time of war, the baggage of a Seik. Their cooking utensils are carried on tattoos. Considering this mode of life, and the extraordinary rapidity of their movements, it cannot be matter of wonder if they perform marches, which to those who are only accustomed to European warfare, must seem almost incredible.
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