Later Mughals v1.c6.s4.4

v1.c6.s4.4

Baqi Khan Qul, commandant of the Agra fort, was also summoned to surrender, to open the gates of the fort and to make over its contents to the men deputed for that purpose. Baqi Khan, who like Mukhtar Khan was favourable to Azam Shah, invented the excuse that the rival claimant had not yet arrived in person, and until this happened he could not make over the fort to any one. Moreover, up to this time the prospects of Azam Shah were commonly held to be far better than those of his brother, Muhammad Muazzam. Baqi Khan's refusal incensed Prince Muhammad Azim who erected batteries in the grove lying below the mansion known as Dara Shukoh's, on the top of the Jama Masjid and over the triple gate (*tripoliya*) of the city, intending to frighten the garrison by a cannonade and the discharge of rockets. On his side Baqi Khan pointed his guns and posted his musketmen ready for resistance. His first shot struck the three-domed building in the marketplace (*chauk*) and destroyed its domes, the second killed many men and fell on the gate of the mosque, the third reached the mansion of Dara Shukoh and knocked down a wall in one of its rooms. Several of Muhammad Azim's men were killed, and he then desisted from any further attack on the fort. A truce of twenty days was agreed on and Muhammad Azim awaited his father's arrival, his force having swollen now to 40,000 men. [Kamwar 9 ; Kamraj 18 ; K. K. 576 ; Qasim 6-7 ; Jangnama ; Khush-hal Chand 368 *b*.]