Later Mughals v1.c9.s18.31

v1.c9.s18.31

When things had come to this pass, all food being exhausted, and the smell of the putrid bodies of men and animals making the place untenable, the Sikh leaders made overtures for surrender on certain conditions. Abdus-samad Khan refused to make any concessions, and at length the Guru submitted unconditionally; the Muhammadans entered the fort and made prisoners of everybody found alive within it. Of these prisoners two or three hundred were executed by the general's order, their heads being then filled with straw and fixed on spears. As it was known that many of the Sikhs had swallowed whatever gold coins they had, to save them from plunder, the dead bodies were ripped open, and thus much wealth fell into the hands of the low camp-followers and the Mughal soldiers. The rest of the prisoners were placed in fetters and kept to grace the triumphal entry into Dihli. The surrender of Gurdaspur took place on the 21st Zul Hijja 1127 (17th Dec. 1715). The list of arms taken and money seized does not give a very exalted notion of either the military strength or of the wealth of the Sikh leader.* In spite of this, he and his men had resisted all the force that the Empire could bring against them for the space of eight months. [Kamwar 162.]