Fresh from the field of Waterloo, Matthew Hervey, newly appointed aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, is dispatched on a mission of the utmost secrecy. Leaving behind his fiancée, Lady Henrietta Lindsay, he must journey across tempestuous seas to India, an alien, exotic and beguiling land that will test his mettle to the very limit. For the princely state of Chintal is threatened both by intrigue from within and military might from without, and Hervey, sabre in hand, finds he is once more destined for the field of battle...
The Nizam’s Daughters is a work of fiction: the princely state of Chintal never existed. However, the story is firmly rooted in what was happening in India just after Waterloo in the build-up to the third Maratha war. And Chintal (even with its singular rajah) is, I would maintain, not untypical of the minor princely states whose precarious existence depended increasingly on the Honourable East India Company. They were states where young Englishmen like Hervey – as soldiers, administrators or tutors to the royal household – often had disproportionate influence.
India had its own military language, of course, and in this story I use some of that language, though in a way, I trust, that will not bar understanding if the words are unfamiliar. But just a few words of explanation of the different terms used by the Honourable East India Company’s army – and others – may be of help. The list is by no means exhaustive, and it must be remembered that terms (and spelling) varied between the Company’s three ‘presidencies’ (Bengal, Madras, Bombay), and were in unofficial use long before being formalized:
Sowar - cavalryman of the lowest rank
Sepoy (sipahi) - infantryman of the lowest rank
Jemadar - junior officer (second lieutenant/lieutenant), infantry or cavalry
Subedar - next senior officer (lieutenant/captain), infantry
Rissaldar - next senior officer (lieutenant/captain), cavalry
Subedar-major - most senior officer (major), infantry
Russaldar-major - most senior officer (major), cavalry
Daffadar - serjeant, cavalry
Lance-daffadar - corporal, cavalry
Havildar - serjeant, infantry
Naik - corporal, infantry
Khansamah - butler
Khitmagar - servant (waiter)
Bhisti - water-bearer/sprinkler
Syce - grass-cutter
Ryot - peasant
Rissalah - a body of cavalry, one- or twohundred strong
Jingal - gun mounted on and fired from a horse or elephant