Bengal Native Cavalry, 1788 (c)

Watercolour on European paper, by a Company artist, 1788 (c).

The experience of fighting the skilled horsemen of the Marathas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries taught the East India Company that it needed better cavalry.

Until 1796 there were only three regiments of Bengal Native cavalry: the Governor's troop of Moghuls (renamed the Governor-General's Body Guard in 1781), the Oudh Cavalry and the Khandahar Horse - raised in 1773, 1776 and 1778 respectively. This sowar (cavalry private) wears his sword in the Indian fashion with the curve to the front.