History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c6.75

v1.c6.75

Aurangzib sent an army of 7000 men under Maloji, a Deccani officer in the Imperial service, and Muhammad Tahir Khurasani (afterwards Wazir Khan) to besiege the capital Mulher.† This fort covers the spacious top of a low hill close to the Mosam river, 9 miles north-east of Saler. As is the case with all Deccani forts, it shelters a walled village lower down the hill side, called the Bari or in the language of further south the Pettah. Here lived the Rajah and his family. On 16th January, 1638, the Mughal army in three divisions stormed the lower fort or *Bari*, with heavy loss on both sides.[*] The Rajah with some 500 men retired to the upper fort and was there blockaded. A month's close investment reduced him to submission. He sent his mother and minister to offer to Aurangzib the keys of his other eight forts and to beg for himself a post in the Emperor's service, (15th February). The overture was accepted; he was created a Commander of Three Thousand and consoled with an estate in Sultanpur, a district of Khandesh, north of the Tapti. On 4th June, he evacuated Mulher; his kingdom was annexed, and its revenue fixed at 4 lakhs for the present. A month later, his kinsman Rudbá surrendered the fort of Piplá, 9 miles south of Saler. One hundred and twenty pieces of artillery, large and small, were seized in the forts.[†]