Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 63.10.3

63.10.3

Here the Rana leaving eight thousand Rajpoots with an ample supply of provisions in the fort, retired with his family to a country he deemed more inaccessible. Akbur, having invested Chittoor, employed five thousand workmen of different descriptions to conduct the siege. The approaches were made by sabat, a description of defence for the besiegers peculiar to India. The sabats are constructed in the following manner. The zig-zags, commencing at gunshot distance from the fort, consist of a double wall, and by means of blinds or stuffed gabions covered with leather the besiegers continue their approaches till they arrive near to the walls of the place to be attacked. The miners then proceed to sink their shafts, and carry on their galleries underground, for the construction of the mines, in which having placed the powder and blown up the works, the storming party rushes from the sabat, or superior galleries, and assaults the place. On the present occasion, two sabats, or superior galleries, having been constructed, two mines were carried under bastions at different spots, and they were both fired at the same time. It happened that one of them exploded before the other, and a practicable breach was formed. Two thousand men, prepared to storm, advanced immediately, under the supposition that both mines had been sprung, and the parties divided, in order to enter both breaches at once.