How to feed an Indian army?

fernando · 3rd November 2018, 08:15 PM

Perhaps our present concept of an army is different than it was by then. We imagine a column marching constantly, only stopping for resting. Maybe those armies were more a huge crowd, not in a continuous marching but, a mass of people that stayed in a spot for a long while, enough to plant and crop their own supplies, restore their ammunitins and, coming next season, move again; no rush to meet with the enemy, as a modern army does.
I don't know how serious is the mentioning of armies of a million people; you are in a better position to judge on that, by what you read about it. By the XV-XVI centuries things were already more restrict, so to say.
In the writings of Alvaro Velho, who was with Vasco da Gama on his first voyage to India (Calecut-1497) he described the various local armies as comprehending respectively:
Cael in Calegrande. Its King could gather 4000 footmen and 100 elephants.
Chomandarla in Coromandel. ( of Christians) 100 000 footmen.
Ceylon. 4000 men and many war elephants, and also those for sale.
Camatara in Sumatra. 4000 footmen, 1000 on horse and 300 war elephants.
Xarnauz in Sião. 20 000 footmen, 4 000 on horse and 400 war elephants
Tenacar in Tenasserim ( of Christians with a Christian King), with a good wind, 40 days away from Calecute. 10 000 footmen and 500 war elephants.
Bengala. 20 000 footmen and 10 000 on horse.
Melaca. 20 000 men, scilicet: 10 00 on horse and the others on foot, and 400 war elephants.
So comparing to those early armies, these forces could be fed by the snack bar around the corner, so to say ... and probably they didn't use to march for such immense distances.

3rd November 2018, 08:15 PM	#4
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Perhaps our present concept of an army is different than it was by then. We imagine a column marching constantly, only stopping for resting. Maybe those armies were more a huge crowd, not in a continuous marching but, a mass of people that stayed in a spot for a long while, enough to plant and crop their own supplies, restore their ammunitins and, coming next season, move again; no rush to meet with the enemy, as a modern army does. I don't know how serious is the mentioning of armies of a million people; you are in a better position to judge on that, by what you read about it. By the XV-XVI centuries things were already more restrict, so to say. In the writings of Alvaro Velho, who was with Vasco da Gama on his first voyage to India (Calecut-1497) he described the various local armies as comprehending respectively: Cael in Calegrande. Its King could gather 4000 footmen and 100 elephants. Chomandarla in Coromandel. ( of Christians) 100 000 footmen. Ceylon. 4000 men and many war elephants, and also those for sale. Camatara in Sumatra. 4000 footmen, 1000 on horse and 300 war elephants. Xarnauz in Sião. 20 000 footmen, 4 000 on horse and 400 war elephants Tenacar in Tenasserim ( of Christians with a Christian King), with a good wind, 40 days away from Calecute. 10 000 footmen and 500 war elephants. Bengala. 20 000 footmen and 10 000 on horse. Melaca. 20 000 men, scilicet: 10 00 on horse and the others on foot, and 400 war elephants. So comparing to those early armies, these forces could be fed by the snack bar around the corner, so to say ... and probably they didn't use to march for such immense distances.