Padshah-namah 14: Attack on Parenda.

14

[Text, vol. i. p. 356.] 'Azam Khan was in the neighbourhood of Parenda, intent upon the reduction of that fortress, and the capture of the elephants and stores which had been sent there. * * He sent Raja Jai Singh with a detachment to ravage the town and petta. The Raja first plundered the petta, which was about a kos distant on the left of the fortress. He then attacked the town, which was surrounded by a mud (kham) wall five gaz high and three gaz thick, and by a ditch of three cubits (sih zara') broad (?). He broke through the walls by means of his elephants, and the musketeers of the garrison then fled into the ditch of the fort. The town was plundered. 'Azam Khan then arrived, * * * and entered the town, to secure the elephants belonging to the enemy, which had been taken into the ditch of the fortress. Seven elephants were seized and brought out, and much other booty was secured. * * 'Azam Khan pressed the siege, and the troops drove zigzags up to the edge of the ditch in three places, and began to fill it up. He raised a battery exactly opposite the gate of the fortress, at the distance of an arrow-shot from the moat. He then pushed his zigzags to the very edge of the moat, and there raised a battery, to which the men in the Sher-Haji found it very difficult to reply.
It now became evident that 'Adil Khan, through his tender years, had no real power, but that the reins of government were in the hands of a slave named Daulat, who had been originally a minstrel (kalawant), and whom the King's father, Ibrahim 'Adil, had ennobled with the title of Daulat Khan, and had placed in command of the fortress of Bijapur. This ungrateful infamous fellow, after the death of Ibrahim, assumed the title "Khawass Khan," and delivered the government over to a mischievous turbulent brahman, named Murari Pandit. This same Daulat put out the eyes of Darwesh Muhammad, the eldest son of Ibrahim 'Adil Khan by the daughter of Kutbu-l Mulk, and demanded his daughter in marriage, thus bringing to infamy the name and honour of his indulgent patron. The 'Adil-Khanis and the Nizam-Shahis had now made common cause and were united.
The siege of Parenda had gone on for a month. Provender had throughout been difficult to procure, and now no grass was to be found within twenty kos. So 'Azam Khan was obliged to raise the siege, and to go to Dharur. * * * The 'Adil-Khanis retreated before 'Azam Khan, and he encamped on the banks of the Wanjira. Next day he captured the town and fort of Balni, which the inhabitants defended in the hope of receiving assistance. After plundering the place, he marched to Mandu, and from Mandu to Dharur.