Nizam's Army, (3rd Cavalry) Native Officer in full dress, 1846

Coloured aquatint by J Harris after Henry Martens. Number seven in the series 'Costumes of the Indian Army' published by R Ackermann, 1846.

Almost a quarter of the population of 'British India' lived in over a hundred semi-independent princely states who had entered into treaty relationships first with the East India Company and later with the Crown. These states maintained their own armed forces, usually supplied with British officers. In the case of the large state of Hyderabad, the Crown maintained a small army known as the Hyderabad Contingent besides the Nizam of Hyderabad's own small forces.