Muntakhab al-lubab 54: Sivaji's Escape.
Muntakhabu-l Lubáb, of Kháfí Khán (Elliot & Dowson, extracts) 54
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Sivaji's Escape.
54.1
[vol. ii. p. 198.] After Sivaji returned angry and disappointed from the royal presence to his house, orders were given to the kotwal to place guards round it. Sivaji, reflecting upon his former deeds and his present condition, was sadly troubled by the state of his affairs. He thought of nothing else but of delivering himself by some crafty plan from his perilous position. His subtle mind was not long in contriving a scheme. From the beginning he kept up a show of friendship and intimacy with the amirs, and with Kunwar Ram Singh. He sent them presents of Dakhin products, and, by expressing contrition for his past conduct, he won them over to advocate the acceptance of his shame and repentance.
54.2
Afterwards he feigned to be ill, and groaned and sighed aloud. Complaining of pains in the liver and spleen, he took to his bed, and, as if prostrated with consumption or fever, he sought remedies from the physicians. For some time he carried on this artifice. At length he made known his recovery. He sent presents to his doctors and attendants, food to the Brahmans, and presents of grain and money to needy Musulmans and Hindus. For this purpose he had provided large baskets covered with paper. These, being filled with sweetmeats of all sorts, were sent to the houses of the amirs and the abodes of fakirs. Two or three swift horses were procured, and, under the pretence of being presents to Brahmans, they were sent to a place appointed fourteen kos from the city, in charge of some of his people, who were privy to his plans. A devoted companion, who resembled him in height and figure, took his place upon the couch, and Sivaji's gold ring was placed upon his hand. He was directed to throw a piece of fine muslin over his head, but to display the ring he wore upon his hand; and when any one came in, to feign to be asleep. Sivaji, with his son, got into two baskets, and were carried out, it being pretended that the baskets contained sweetmeats intended for the brahmans and fakirs of Mathura.
54.3
Thus, on the last day of Safar, Sivaji got out of Agra, and proceeded to where his horses were posted. Thence, in the course of two watches, he reached Mathura. There he shaved off his beard and whiskers, and smeared his own and his son's face with ashes, and, taking with him some jewels and gold, he went off with some of his confederates, who were also disguised as fakirs. He crossed the Jumna at an unfrequented ferry, and proceeded towards Benares, travelling in the night, and being guided by some swift Dakhini runners, whose business is to disguise themselves and travel in all directions. It is said that they carried sufficient money and jewels for their wants in hollow walking-sticks. On the following day, at the fifth watch, a Dakhini runner, employed as a spy, brought information that Sivaji had got free and was making off. The kotwal was directed to make inquiry, but he replied that the guards were at their posts round the house. Another spy confidently reported his escape. The kotwal's men went to see, and they saw as they thought Sivaji asleep under his thin covering, and his ring distinctly visible. The kotwal reported accordingly. A third spy now strongly asseverated that Sivaji had escaped, and was forty or fifty kos away. A closer investigation revealed the fact of his escape. The kotwal and Kunwar Ram Singh were censured, and as Ram Singh was suspected of having prompted the evasion, he was deprived of his mansab and forbidden to come to Court.
54.4
Orders were sent to the provincial governors, and to the officials in all directions, to search for Sivaji, and to seize him and send him to the Emperor. Raja Jai Singh, who just at this time had retired from Bijapur, and had arrived at Aurangabad, received orders to arrest Nathuji before the escape of Sivaji became public, and to send him to Court. After that he was to watch carefully for the bird escaped from the cage, and not suffer him to re-establish himself in his old haunts and to gather his followers around him. * * It is said that Sivaji made such expedition in his flight that no courier could have overtaken him. But his son Sambha, a boy of tender years, was with him, and he suffered so much from the rapid motion, that Sivaji left him behind at Allahabad, in charge of a Brahman, a man of high repute in that place, whose relations in the Dakhin had been closely connected with Sivaji's father. Sivaji placed a sum of money with the Brahman and commended the boy to his care. He was not to part from him until he received a letter in Sivaji's own hand; and if he obtained certain intelligence of Sivaji's death, he was to act as he deemed best.