sowar

Etymology

From Hindi/Urdu सवार (savār)/سوار‎ (savār), from Persian سوار‎ (savâr, “horseman”).

Noun

sowar (plural sowars)

1. (historical, India) A soldier on horseback, especially one during the British Raj.
   • 1897, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, Forty-one years in India‎:

     Among the latter was Hope Grant, who had his horse shot under him in a charge, and was saved by the devotion of two men of his own regiment (the 9th Lancers) and a Mahomedan sowar of the 4th Irregular Cavalry.

   • 1910, Charles John Griffiths, A Narrative Of The Siege Of Delhi‎:

     Hills was struck down badly wounded, and was on the point of being despatched by a sowar, when Major Tombs, hearing the noise, rushed out of his tent, and seeing the plight his subaltern was in, fired his revolver at thirty yards and killed the sowar.

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