Muntakhab al-lubab 113: Sieges of Forts.

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[Text, vol. ii. p. 489.] The siege (of Parnala) had endured for two months, and repeated attempts had been made to carry the place by escalade. * * At length, when the garrison was hard pressed, the commandant surrendered the fort, having secretly received a sum of money from Prince Muhammad Kam Bakhsh and Tarbiyat Khan, with whom he had been in correspondence. At the end of Zi-l hijja the keys were given up, and both the forts were evacuated.
The army was about to march, when a violent storm came on [and did great damage]. In the beginning of Muharram, 1113, it was determined to march towards Kahdwan, where there was plenty of grass and grain. Fathu-llah Khan was sent with a force to chastise the plundering Mahrattas, and to subdue their forts. * * He killed many of the enemy near the four forts in that neighbourhood, * * and, on hearing of his approach, the enemy abandoned the fort of Paras-garh. Bahramand Khan was sent along with Fathu-llah Khan against the fort of Chandan-mandan, * * and by the middle of Jumada-l awwal all the four forts were subdued.
On the 16th Jumada-l akhir the royal army moved from Panch-ganw, to effect the conquest of the fort of Khelna. The difficulties of the road were great. * * Amba-ghat, at a distance of two days' march, took twelve days to reach. * * Prince Bedar Bakht was ordered to fall back on Bani Shah Darak (as Parnala was now called), to punish the enemy, who were closing the roads in that direction, * * and to prevent any supplies being thrown into Khelna from that quarter. Muhammad Amin Khan was likewise ordered to the Amba-ghat, to cut off any supplies intended for the fort, and to succour the convoys of Banjaras bearing grain for the royal army. He showed no lack of zeal in these duties; and was so active in ravaging and burning the inhabited places, in killing and making prisoners the people, and in seizing and carrying off the cattle, that any sign of cultivation, or the name or trace of a Mahratta, was not to be found. * *
The siege works were pushed on until a mine was carried near to the gate. In the raising of the earthworks, camel saddles and baskets innumerable were used, full of earth and rubbish and litter, heads of men and feet of quadrupeds; and these were advanced so far that the garrison were intimidated.