Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.39
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 78.39
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‘And victory from God appeared nigh.’ The next day the army marched thence, and having looked over the battle-field to see how each had behaved, leaving Gogandah came to Kokandah. And certain of the devoted servants of the Ráná, who were the guardians of his palace, and some of the inhabitants of the temples, in all amounting to twenty persons, in accordance with an ancient custom of the Hindus that, when they are compelled to evacuate a city, they should be killed in order to save their honour, coming out of their houses and temples performed the sacrificial rite, and by the stroke of their life-giving swords committed their souls to the keepers of hell. The Amirs as security against a night-attack on the part of the Rana, barricaded the streets, and drew a trench, and a wall of such a height that horsemen could not leap over it, round the city of Kokandah, and then settled down quietly. And they had a list drawn up containing the names of all the slain, and the horses killed in the action, intending to enclose it with the despatch to the Emperor. Sayyid Ahmad Khan Barha said, ‘There has been no person, or horse, of ours killed, whose name you will have to report to the imperial government, so what is the good of writing them down?
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It is more important at the present moment to look after the Commissariat.’ Then, since there was in that mountain district but little arable land, and so but a scanty amount of corn was produced, and moreover the Banjaras did not come, his Majesty. Man Singh answered [jocosely]: ‘There is a great deal of his work still left undone; he ought to come in front of the line and everywhere take the lead in battle.’ I answered: ‘My Imamship here is finished; my business now is to go and act as Imam before the ranks of His Imperial Highness.’ He was pleased and smiled, and sent me with the elephant, and appointed three hundred horsemen to accompany me by way of precaution. And he himself, taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy himself in hunting, and to leave detached guards in different places, came with me by very easy marches as far as the town of Mohani, which is twenty cosses from Kokandah. There he furnished me with letters of commendation, and dismissed me to go to the Court. Thence, by way of Bak'hor, and Mandal Garh, I arrived at Amber the home of Man Singh. Wherever we passed, the circumstances of the battle were published, but the people would not credit our statements. By chance it happened, that at five cosses from Amber the elephant sank into a morass, and the more it went forward, the deeper it sank in the clay. And since this was my first service of such a nature, I was in a terrible fix.
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At last the country people of the neighbourhood came up, and said, ‘Last year at this very spot a royal elephant became bogged. Let them pour a quantity of water on the clay and mud, and then the royal elephant will come out easily enough.’ Accordingly the water-carriers did so, and poured a quantity of water on, and the elephant became gradually extricated from the quagmire, and got to Amber; and the exultation of those people reached the very heavens. The Author remained there three for four days, and then proceeded on his journey, by way of the town of Todah, which is his birth-place, and Basawar which bears this relation to him, that : — ‘In that land his skin first touched the dust.’ And during the first days of the month Rabi'ul-awwal, by the intervention of Raja Bhagvan Das, father of Raja Man Singh, I prostrated myself in Audience-chamber at Fathpur, and delivered the despatches of the Amirs, together with the elephant. The Emperor asked : ‘What is its name?’ I replied : ‘Ram-prasad.’ His Majesty replied : Since all this [success] has been brought about through the Pir, its name henceforth shall be Pir-prasad.
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Next His Majesty said : ‘They have written ever so many praises of you, tell me truly, in what army have you served, and what exploits have you performed?’ I replied : ‘In the presence of the Emperor, Your Majesty’s humble servant speaks even the truth, with a hundred fears and tremblings, how can he speak that which is not the truth!’ And then I related to him succinctly what had happened. Again he asked : ‘Were you unarmed, or armed?’ I said : ‘I had armour both for man and horse.’ ‘Where did you get it from?’ he said. I replied : ‘From Sayyid ‘Abd-ullah Khan.’ The Emperor was exceedingly pleased, and putting forth his hand to a heap of Ashrafis (which in those days, just like a heap in a treasury, used always to be laid before him) presented me with a sum of ninety-six and said : ‘Have you seen Shaikh ‘Abd-un-Nabi [since your return]?’ I answered : ‘From the dust of the road I came to Court, how could I have seen him?’ Then the Emperor gave me a pair of splendid Nakhudi shawls [and said] : ‘Take these and go and see the Shaikh, and say to him from us : ‘They are from our own private treasury, and we had them made on purpose for you, do you wear them.’ I took them, and carried the message to the Shaikh, who was very much pleased. Then he asked : At the moment of taking leave of you, I said, At the moment of joining battle remember to pray for me ? I replied : I then recited the prayer ‘O God !
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pardon believers male and female, and keep those who keep the Religion of Muhammad, and abandon those who abandon the Religion of Muhammad (on him be blessing and peace !) ’ He said ‘ That was sufficient, praise belongs to God ! ’ This Shaikh ‘Abd-un-Nabi eventually went out of the world by a mischance, such as which may none experience or hear ! and may it serve as a warning to all ! — ‘ Whomsoever this world fosters, At last it spills his blood. What can be the condition of that child, Whose own mother is its enemy ! ’
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In this year the Emperor sent Sayyid ‘Abd-ullah post haste to the Khan Jahan (who was encamped against Daud near K’halgaon, and was awaiting the arrival of Muzaffar Khan, and the army of Bihar and Haji-pur) entrusted with a firman expressing his anxiety for those Amirs, and promising the speedy arrival of His Majesty in person. And he despatched five lacs of rupees by a mounted messenger, as a subsidy to that army, and also ordered several vessels to start from Agrah laden with corn for the troops. Then news arrived that Gujpati, a zamindar of the neighbourhood of Haji-pur and Patnah, who had been subjugated, had rebelled, and gathering together a force, had attacked Farhat Khan, and his son Mirak Radai, who were in the station of Ara, and had brought them both to the grade of martyrdom, and now held all the roads. On this account an the twenty-fifth of Rabi'ul akhir of the aforesaid year the Emperor started towards the east of Hind, and came to a halt within five cosses of his goal (P. 238). At this halting-place Sayyid ‘Abd-ullah Khān sent the head of Dā'ūd : and this verse, which Sayyid Mīr Kal at the moment of returning from Patnah to Jounpūr had chosen as a charm of prophetic meaning, came true:— “News of the victory suddenly came, The head of Dā'ūd came to the Court.” And the history of the battle is concisely as follows. When Sayyid ‘Abd-ullah Khān joined the army of the Khān Jahān in the neighbourhood of K'halgāon, he was very anxious to attack the enemy.
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On the next day (which was the fifteenth of Rabi'ul ākhir) the Khān Jahān issued orders to the Amīrs of his own troops, and appointed to each the place he was to take. Then Muẓaffar Khān reinforced him with 5,000 horse. And Dā'ūd with the greatest presumption and pride, being supported by his paternal uncle Junaid Kararānī and other leaders, drew out of the fortress, and leaving his hiding-place offered battle. At the very first attack a cannon-ball struck the knee of Junaid and shattered it. When the armies closed with one another, defeat fell on the Afghāns. The horse of Dā'ūd stuck fast in a swamp, and Ḥasan Beg surrounded him, and brought him to Khān Jahān. Dā'ūd being overcome with thirst, asked for water. They filled his slipper with water and brought it to him. But when he refused to drink, Khān Jahān offered him his own private canteen, and allowed him to drink out of it. He did not wish to kill him, for he was a very handsome man; but finally the Amīrs said that to spare his life would be to incur suspicions as to their own loyalty, so he ordered them to cut off his head. They took two chops at his neck without success, but at last they succeeded in killing him, and in severing his head from his body. Then they stuffed it with straw, and anointed it with perfumes, and gave it in charge to Sayyid ‘Abd-ullah Khān, and sent him with it to the Emperor. They took many elephants and much spoil.
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And on the twenty-third of Jamād'-as-sānī the Emperor went to Ajmīr with the intention of returning thanks for the victory.