Sowar (Urdu: سوار, also sawar or siwar meaning "the one who rides" or "rider", from Persian sawār, from the Sasanid Persian Aswār, from the Achaemenid Persian Asabāra)^[1] was originally a rank during the Mughal Empire. Later, during the British Raj, it was the name in Anglo-Indian usage for a horse-soldier belonging to the cavalry troops of the native armies of British India and the feudal states. It is also used more specifically of a mounted orderly, escort or guard. It was also the rank held by ordinary cavalry troopers, equivalent to sepoy in the infantry — this rank has been inherited by the modern armies of India and Pakistan.

An image from the Carnatic Wars features a Sowar armed with a musket.^{[citation needed]}

Sowar has been used as the name of a line of wrist-watches by the Swiss West End Watch Co.

• Suvari

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sowar". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.