The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.54

v4.c20.54

Aurangzīb marched against Khelnā next winter. This fort stands on the crest of the western Ghāts, 3350 feet above the sea and overlooking the Konkan plain, with dense forests and thick underwood below it. With great labour a road was made through the Ambāghāt pass by Fath-ullah Khān, but even then the emperor’s followers suffered terrible hardship and loss in crossing it and bringing his camp and equipage to the foot of the fort. The siege dragged on for five months; the Mughul artillery beat in vain against the solid rock of the walls, while the missiles of the garrison did terrible havoc among the imperialists crowded below. Some success was gained at the western gate by Bīdār Bakht’s follower Rājā Jay Singh (Sawāī, of Amber) and his Rājputs, who stormed the *fausse braye* of the gate (7 May, 1702). But the terrible monsoon of the Bombay coast now burst on the heads of the Mughul army. They then bribed the commandant Parashurām to evacuate it (17 June). The imperialists underwent unspeakable hardship in their return from Khelnā, in crossing the Ambāghāt and the swollen streams on the way which raged like torrents. Grain sold at a rupee a *seer*,¹ “fodder and firewood appeared in the isolated camp only by mistake”; no tent was available. In this condition, traversing 30 miles in thirty-eight days, the miserable army reached Panhālā on 27 July.