Later Mughals v1.c6.s18.15

v1.c6.s18.15

Wazir Khan, as soon as he heard of the pretender's rising, hurried off from Sarhind with the three thousand to four thousand men then present.‡ The Sikhs were then on their way to attack him. Both forces met on a plain between Alwan Sarai and the town of Banur, some ten to twelve miles north-east of Sarhind.§ This was on the 24th Rabi I. 1122 (22nd May 1710). At the first shock the Sikhs, after a feeble resistance, turned and fled. Wazir Khan's force appeared to have already gained the day, when suddenly a crowd of men were led by the Guru to an attack on the Muhammadan rear. This bold movement put heart into the flying Sikhs and, with loud cries of "Sacha Padshah" and "Fath daras", they fell in a compact body on the Muhammadans, who for a time held their ground. The Sikh swordsmen attacked several elephants and wounded them. Sher Muhammad and Khwaja Ali of Kotilah Maler* were killed, and confusion arose in the Muhammadan ranks. Wazir Khan, then fully eighty years of age, made no attempt to escape, but tried to rally his men, and continued to shoot his arrows at the enemy. At length he, too, was killed by a musket shot.† The baggage was plundered, the elephants captured, and the body of Wazir Khan dishonoured and hung to a tree. Not a single Muhammadan escaped with anything but the clothes upon his back.