Later Mughals v2.c14.s14.12

v2.c14.s14.12

Mubariz Khan was buried in the plain outside the town of Shakar-Khera. Shah Nawaz Khan, author of the Masir-ul-umara, thinks that he was to blame for carelessness and want of promptitude. If he had raised at once the siege of Phulchari and marched off to Aurangabad immediately on receipt of the imperial rescript, he would have been successful, for at that time Iwaz Khan had not more than 2,000 men. Nor, in spite of the delay, ought he to have been beaten, if he had only taken measures to collect sufficient men and material. In fact during the campaign some of the Mahratta chiefs had made overtures to him, more especially Kanhu Bhonsla, who had 5,000 men with him and would have been satisfied with a small payment. But Mubariz Khan would not hear of such a thing. All these men, as he said, had felt his claws and suffered from his blows; and for the future as in the past he would enlist men when he wanted them. He would never lower himself by entreaties; but if they came of their own accord without payment there would be no objection. The thorough-going partizans of Nizam-ul-mulk laid all the blame upon Mubariz Khan for having dared to oppose such a man. "What can you expect?" they said, "Is it not true as the proverb says 'You cannot gather grapes from thorns nor apples from plane-trees'?" [M. U. iii. 743, Burhan 169a, Ahwal 196b.]