History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c29.14

v1.c29.14

"In the midst of these affairs the Sulṭān was informed that the perfidious Rāya of Orissa, with a large force of foot and horse, had invaded the territories of Islam. Niẓām-ul-mulk Baḥrī, who was situated as a barrier between the country of the infidels and the territories of Islam, owing to the numbers of the enemy's force, was unable to cope with them, hastened towards Wazīrābād. The Sulṭān ordered his army to be assembled in all haste at the town of Malikpur, near Āshṭūr, on the bank of a tank, which was one of the innovations of Mālik Ḥasan Niẓām-ul-mulk Baḥrī. According to orders, they flocked there from all parts, and in a short time an immense force was assembled, and the Sulṭān marching with them in the time arrived near the fortress of Rajamundri (Rājamahendrī). From that innumerable force the Sulṭān picked out 20,000 men with two horses each, and leaving the minister Khwājah Jahān in the royal camp in attendance on the prince (Maḥmūd Khan) he himself with the picked troops proceeded to Rajamundri... When they arrived in the neighbourhood of the fortress, they saw an immense city, on the further side of which the infidel Narasimha Rāya with 7,00,000 accursed infantry and 500 elephants like mountains of iron had taken his stand. On this side of the river he had dug a deep ditch, on the edge of which he had built a wall like the rampart of Alexander, and filled it with cannon and guns and all apparatus of war. Yet notwithstanding all these army and pomp and pride and preparation, when Narasimha Rāya heard of the arrival of the Sulṭān's army, thinking it advisable to avoid meeting their attack, he elected to take to flight.