The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15.68

v4.c15.68

In the hot weather of this year Akbar, while hunting near Sakīt, now in the Etah district of the United Provinces, heard complaints of a gang of Hindu brigands who infested that neighbourhood. He at once marched against them and they fled and took refuge in the village of Paraunkh, 15 miles south-east of Sakīt. At the head of his escort of 200 horse he attacked the brigands, who are said to have numbered 4000. He was not well supported, but pressed on, receiving twelve arrows in his shield and narrowly escaping death by his elephant stumbling into a grain pit. He succeeded, however, in forcing the animal through a wall of the buildings in which the brigands had taken refuge and they were set on fire, about a thousand of the wretches perishing in the flames. Akbar was ever ready for such perilous enterprises and we shall see that at a much later period of his life he displayed similar reckless courage in Gujarāt. These exploits, performed in the interests of his empire, stand on an entirely different footing from his foolish pranks with tigers and elephants.