Let us first understand what the political situation in the time period concerned was which will allow us to drastically reduce the number of possibilities that could be at play here. In the beginning of the 17th century, by 1605, Akbar, one of the most successful Mughal Emperors had just died, having conquered and consolidated his rule over all of Hindustan (North India) along with Kabul, Qandahar, Sindh in the west, Kashmir in the North and Bengal in the east marking the borders of the territories. He was succeeded by his son Jahangir, and for the next 100 years, despite internal crisis, strife, unrest, rebellions and military and economic failures and problems, the Mughal Empire would largely retain and indeed expand its territories. However, we shall also look at two more specific regions that were homes to their own unique socio-political organisations and channels of raising military labour, the first being the Rajputana and the second the Deccan. The former being home to a galaxy of Rajput states, the most prominent of them being the states of Mewar, Marwar and Amber, while the latter being home to the Deccan Sultanates and later the Maratha Kingdom, these entities relying on local networks of military labour and struggling against the Northern aggressive Mughal Empire which wished to assert control and hegemony in the Deccan region. An analysis of these states and the channels of raising military labour that were at their disposal might allow us to get a clearer picture of the means of raising armies in the 17th century.
RAJPUT MILITARY SYSTEM :
By the 13th century, the Rajputs were well entrenched into a feudal system of civil and military organisation. The land of a kingdom was divided into villages headed by rais, who were themselves subordinated to (either individually or in groupings) a thikana given as fief or patrimony to thakurs which initially was a term which referred to Rajputs or Kshatriyas exclusively, but eventually became a title and was used by Brahmins of the same feudal rank. Next were Samantas special ministers appointed by kings to administer a number thikanas or to serve in special roles in the administration. There were also a number of other feudal lords and chiefs, subordinated to the Raja, and several Rajas would be further subordinated to a Maharaja or a Great King.
The army itself was raised out of 6 military labour pools namely :
Maula or hereditary troops
Bhrita or regular forces/mercenaries
Sreni or troops supplied by guilds, towns etc.
Mitra or Suhrd or forces of allied states
Dwisad or Ari or soldiers alienated from the enemy camp, by bribery, or recruited after defeating the enemy
Atavika forces raised out of tribal groups such as Bhils
Among these groups the most important pool of military labour is Maula. This refers to those soldiers whose previous generations have owed loyalty to and have shown exceptional service towards the king, who in recognition of these services appoints them as part of his Maula troops. These troops were also often drawn from close and distant family members. For example, a king might have many brothers, who might have many sons and those sons might have married into families and those families might have several capable men of fighting age as well. The king would appoint men from this labour pool into his Maula force as he saw fit and each soldier would be replaced by a brother or son when they died. Hence making them hereditary troops both in terms of their replenishment and the fact that each successive generation inherited these troops. These men, being close friends and family of the king, meant they could be given independent charge, could advise him in war and could be appointed as commanders of any number of units.
I shall not go into the details of military organisation of the Rajputs any further, since that is not the concern of this answer, however, to give a brief overview, units were organised into 5, 30, 100, 1000 and 10,000. There did exist a corps of high teir officers to look after the management of the logistics, law and order and command of the entire army. Armies until the 11th century were composed of elephants, infantry and cavalry.
The continued conflict of the Rajputs with the successive dynasties that ruled over the Delhi Sultanate forced the Rajputs to adopt to their enemies and their new style of warfare. The Rajputs began to change the composition of their armies from poorly armoured but highly skilled infantry, elephants and light cavalry, to cavalry heavy armies or cavalry exclusive armies.
The concept of Rajput chivalry, prowess and honour was closely associated with horsemanship and effectiveness as a cavalryman. The Rajputs relied more and more, on outmaneuvering the enemy, on heavy cavalry charges, to swoop the enemy off the battlefield and to rout and destroy their numbers. The typical Rajput campaign as it came to take shape in by the mid 14th century during the campaigns of Rana Kumbharna Singh, was one where the Rajputs utilised their mobility to surprise the enemy and choose a battlefield of their taste, then waiting for the enemy to take positions on a plain battlefield well suited to charges, and then charging along the entire front or in some order, to defeat the enemy.
MUGHAL MILITARY SYSTEM
The armies of the Mughal Empire, were truly only limited by the wealth of the Emperor and how many men they could efficiently employ. These virtually limitless potential soldiers, were both the Empire's greatest asset and among its greatest liabilities. The Mughals, with their firm control over North India could materialise armies out of thin air by merely scooping Imperial currency out of the treasury and using it to recruit 10s of thousands of soldiers with relative ease, using well established local networks of recruitment.
However, this also meant that the Empire could not afford to demobilise it's armed forces in times of peace. A regular readiness and vigilance for war was not only a necessity but a compulsion since the enemies of the Empire, both within and without, in its immediate vicinity, could also tap into this vast labour pool and recruit from among these warrior castes and ethnic groups.
The incredible cost of constantly keeping such numbers of men, which according to Abul Faz'l were upwards of 500,000 men, was also a liability and constant strain on the Empire's impressive resources and wealth. Not to mention the fat salaries that were enjoyed by Mughal nobles or Mansabdars who formed the most well payed beaurocracy on the planet.
While the Mughal Empire did not employ especially elite formations within their military, what they instead relied upon was the virtually limitless supply of warriors, soldiers and officers from one of if not the most militarised societies of its age. The Mughal military system was one which incorporated local feudal structures, caste and ethnic hierarchical structures and centralised beaurocratic civil and military institutions as well as incredibly specialised and varied departments and integrated and synchronises these elements to produce one of the most powerful states of it's era, which in it's prime took Kandahar from the Safavids, forced the EEIC to prostrate themselves before the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, waged successful campaigns in Central Asia and created the largest continuous empire in South Asia since the Mauryan and Gupta Empires of antiquety. Let us look at some of the unique features of the Mughal military system and some of the sources for raising military labour available to the Mughals and indeed any North Indian state of the period.
MONOPOLISATION OF GUNPOWDER
While it has become cliché to define the Mughals as a gunpowder empire, the usage of gunpowder weaponry cannot be seperated from the foundational and expansion story of the Empire by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore, in the words of Abul Faz'l, firearms were the "‘wonderful locks for protecting the august edifice of the state; and befitting keys for the door of conquest". The Imeprial Household held the exclusive right to employ and raise musketeers, and these were largely raised from among the Purbiyas, whom we will discuss later. Even when local governors or Subehdars raised musketeers for the fulfilling of Imperial commands, they would be paid out of the Imeprial treasury. Imeprial musketeers would be deployed in special garrisons, commanded by imperial officers. All these steps, were to ensure that the advantage that these weapons conferred upon the battlefield would never slip into the hands of local rebellious nobles or worse, that trained and experienced veterans wouldn't defect to enemy states. This monopoly, maintained the supremacy of the Imperial arms for the greater part of the 16th and 17th century