Muntakhab al-lubab 68.1

68.1

[Text, vol. ii. p. 270.] Khan-Jahan Bahadur Kokaltash, after arriving at the Khujista-bunyad Aurangabad, according to order, laid siege to the fort of Salir. Many Rajputs were killed, and many Musulmans also fell. He pressed the siege for four or five months, but making no impression, he withdrew to Aurangabad. The hell-dog Sivaji went forth with an army on a plundering expedition, and while Khan-Zaman, the Subadar, was at Burhanpur, he entered Khandesh, and plundered the town of Dharan-ganw, one of the most flourishing places in that country. * * * Afterwards he ravaged and burnt Chopra and other parganas. He then marched against Jalna, a rich mercantile place in the Balaghat. * * In the course of the same year he was attacked with illness and died. The date of his death is found in the words, "Kafir ba-jahannam raft," "The infidel went to hell," which was discovered by the writer of these pages. Sivaji left two sons, Sambha and Ram Raja. The former succeeded him. He made Kahkalas, the Brahman who brought him from Allahabad, his minister.