History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c25.s1: Battle of Khajwah
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c25.s1
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Battle of Khajwah
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No time was now lost on the Imperial side. Next day, 3rd January, Aurangzib formed his plan of battle and assigned to each division its proper position. Early at dawn on the fourth, the order of battle was issued : the artillery was to be planted opposite the enemy's guns, and the army was to advance there. All was stir and bustle in the camp. The marshals and orderlies galloped about to arrange the ranks ; trumpets sounded ; the kettledrums struck up ; the standards were borne aloft. Before each division moved the elephants and guns ; behind them tramped the serried ranks of steel-clad cavalry. " A dense cloud of dust " raised by 90,000 horses' hoofs " hid the earth and sky."*
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 242, 245, 250. Khafi Khan, ii. 49. Aurangzib's disposition of his troops is minutely described in the Alamgirnamah, 245—250, and Shuja's on pp. 250 & 251 ; also Aqil Kh. 75. Khafi Kh. (ii. 49) merely gives an abstract of the Alamgirnamah.
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From 8 a.m. Aurangzib himself rode out on a huge elephant inspecting his troops and cheering them by his presence in the field. Under his leadership the army advanced slowly and in perfect order, till about 3 p.m., when they halted one mile from the enemy's force, behind the Imperial artillery, at a spot chosen by the scouts for the battle. Shujah, too, marshalled his ranks, but did not leave his position. Only his artillery was sent half a mile in front of his camp. The Imperial artillery replied to their fire, but little execution seems to have been done on either side.∗
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∗ Masum (101 b) says that the fire was continued all night, and many were slain. But this is very unlikely. The Alamgirnamah gives the more credible account, which I have followed.
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At nightfall Shujah's artillery retired on his army, in order to keep touch with it. Mir Jumla, with a born general's instinct, at once seized the deserted position,—which was a high ground commanding the enemy's camp. By hard labour he dragged 40 guns to it and mounted them, aiming at the enemy and ready for action on the next morning. By Aurangzib's order his soldiers did not take off their armour, their horses were not unsaddled; the men only dismounted and slept each at his own post. The Emperor himself occupied a small tent pitched on the field. His generals hastily entrenched in front of their divisions, and kept watch. Mir Jumla went his rounds during the first part of the night, superintending the entrenching and urging the sentinels to remain on the alert.*
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The eventful 5th of January was about to dawn. A few hours of the night still remained; the Emperor was engaged in the prayer of the last watch (*tahajjud*), when a vague clamour arose in the far-off Van of his army and grew louder every moment.† The alarm and confusion rapidly spread through the camp. The air was thick with the yells of assailants, the cries of startled sleepers and timid fugitives, and the tramp of horsemen recklessly galloping away and of cattle stampeding in fright. The ruffianly element among the camp-followers seized the opportunity of plundering on their own account. The darkness heightened the confusion, and the ignorance of its cause added to its terrors.
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 252. † Ibid, 253. The Ahkam gives the time as "two and a half *prahars* of the night" (4b); Khafi Khan (ii. 51) says, "when 4 or 5 *gharis* of the night remained"; the *Alamgirnamah* is vague, "towards the morning" (255.)
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Messengers began to come running up to the Emperor to report the truth. An act of treachery, disgraceful in any servant, doubly disgraceful in a Rajput,* was the root of all this trouble. Maharajah Jaswant Singh (of Jodhpur), who commanded the Imperial Right Wing, had brooded over some fancied slight or neglect and matured a deep plan of vengeance. He had, it was said, sent a secret message to Shuja saying that he would attack the Imperial camp behind the field at the close of the night,† and that while the Emperor would hasten to the rear to repel him Shuja should swiftly fall on the disordered army and crush it between two adversaries. So, shortly after midnight he got his 14,000 Rajputs‡ ready, turned his back to the field, and rushed the camp of Prince Muhammad, which lay in the path of his flight. The few guards of the camp were soon overpowered, the followers who were found in the way were slain, and every thing that the Rajputs could lay their hands on was carried off. Some of the camp people, roused by the noise and mistaking it for the approach of the enemy, hastily loaded their goods on their beasts to prepare for flight. These now fell into the hands of the Rajputs, who were saved the trouble of packing their booty! Horses and camels beyond number and an immense amount in cash and kind were carried off. The baggage, stores, and draught-cattle of the Imperialists, from the Emperor to the meanest private, which lay in the camp behind the bivouacking army, were looted. "Everything in the Prince's camp was swept away with the broom of plunder." Much of the Emperor's own camp suffered the same fate before the Rajputs gained the road to Agra. The confusion spread to the army at the front. Men assembled in broken groups, and rumours of a disaster spread through the ranks. "The news caused distraction among the troops; their order was broken; cowards and traitors fled away with or after Jaswant; some double-dealers went over to Shuja. Many commanders left their posts and hastened to the rear-camp to look after their property.”
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∗ Aurangzib's own words, in a letter to Jai Singh, given in the Paris MS., 2b.
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† For the attack on the Base Camp, see Masum, 110b-111b, Alamgirnamah, 253-256, Khafi Kh. ii. 51-53, Kambu, 19b, (meagre), Aqil Kh. 76 & 77 (brief and confused), and Ahkam, Irvine MS. 4b. (India Office MS. 34a gives a few lines more.) The best accounts are those supplied by the Alamgirnamah and the Anecdotes, § 7. Khafi Khan supplies a few interesting details.
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‡ This number is given by the Ahkam. Masum says "5 or 6 thousand." I have taken the larger number because Jaswant as commander of the Right Wing could not have had less than 10,000 men; in the reduced Mughal army of the next day that wing had 10,000 men, with a reserve of 3,000 more. Secondly, the Alamgirnamah admits that at dawn Aurangzib found that "nearly one half of yesterday's force had been scattered by the tumult" (256.)
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But the situation was saved by Aurangzib’s wonderful coolness and Shuja’s hesitation. Shuja received Jaswant’s message, heard of the tumult, but did not leave his own camp at night, fearing it might be a mere ruse contrived between Aurangzib and Jaswant to lure him on to destruction! So great was Aurangzib’s repute for writing feigned letters, making false professions, and practising all the stratagems of war and policy, that Shuja durst not take advantage of his seeming distress. The general who hesitates is lost; the psychological moment passed away, never to return.
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The Emperor was at his tahajjud prayer in his field-tent, when the news of Jaswant’s attack and desertion reached him. Without uttering a word, he merely waved his hand as if to say, “If he is gone, let him go!” After deliberately finishing the prayer, he issued from the tent, mounted a takht-i-rawan (portable chair), and addressed his officers, “This incident is a mercy vouchsafed to us by God. If the infidel had played the traitor in the midst of the battle, all would have been lost. His flight (now) is good for us. Praised be God that by this means friends have been winnowed from secret enemies in my army. The occurrence is a God-send and an omen of victory to us!"*
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So Aurangzib firmly kept his own position, and prevented the confusion from infecting his division too. His example put heart into others. Orderlies were sent off to urge the leaders of the various corps not to stir from their places; any one found away from his assigned post was to be dragged to the Emperor with insult.† Islam Khan was ordered to command the Right Wing in the place of Jaswant, and Saif Khan was given independent charge of the front section of that division. In all other respects yesterday's battle formation was retained. But Mir Jumla was empowered to make any change that he deemed necessary. The rest of the night wore on in watching and caution.
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At dawn Aurangzib rode out on an elephant to inspect. Jaswant's exploit had scattered nearly half the Imperial army. But with the return of day-light many faithful officers, who had not been swept too far away by the tide of flight, hastened to rejoin the royal banner. Thus Aurangzib saw around himself more than 50,000 soldiers, as against Shuja's bare 23,000.* He issued the order of battle with an assurance of victory which the flattering Court annalist ascribes to "his trust in God and the escort of angelic legions," but which the modern critical historian must set down to a more mundane cause, viz., his clear superiority of two to one over his enemy.
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 255 and 256, Khafi Kh., ii. 53, Ahkam 4b.
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First spread a screen of skirmishers (qarawwals), a small but picked body under Abdullah Khan. These were the retinue of the Imperial hunt, men accustomed to track the deer and the tiger and to take advantage of every cover in the ground. The Vanguard was led by Zulfiqar Khan and Sultan Muhammad, the Right Wing by Islam Khan, and the Left Wing by Khan-i-Dauran and Kumar Ram Singh (the son of Jai Singh.) Each of these divisions was 10,000 strong and had a number of guns covering its front. Bahadur Khan commanded the Iltimsh or small Advanced Reserve. The main Reserves of the two wings, each numbering 3,000 troopers, were under Daud Khan and Rajah Sujan Singh respectively. In the Centre the Emperor's banner waved over a vast host of at least 20,000 men.* His own right and left flanks were commanded by Amin Khan and Murtaza Khan. Khawas Khan brought up the scanty Rear. Aurangzib rode on a huge elephant with his third son, Muhammad 'Azam, in his *hawda*. Mir Jumla was seated on another elephant, close to the Emperor's, ready to help him with counsel at any crisis. The army marched slowly ahead in this formation, and clashed with the enemy at 8 a.m.
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∗ Aqil Khan (p. 76) gives Shuja's numbers thus: Right Wing 5,000 Left ,, 4,000 Right Reserve 2,000 Left ,, 2,000 Centre (tip) 10,000 } This gives a total of 23,000. No main Reserve is mentioned.
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∗ The actual strength of the Imperial army is mentioned neither in the *Alamgirnamah*, nor by Khafi Kh. The former only says that more than one half of the previous day's force i. e., 90,000, was present (p. 256.) This would give 45,000 to 50,000. The latter adds that at dawn many of the dispersed officers came back to the presence (p. 53.) Therefore Aurangzib could not have got less than 50,000 men with him after Jaswant's flight; 60,000 would be nearer the truth. Aqil Khan (p. 78) estimates the Imperial force thus: Van, Right Wing, and Left Wing, 10,000 each; Right and Left Reserves 3,000 each. The number in the Centre (under the Emperor) is unfortunately not given. But it must have been twice as strong as either of the wings, because the *Alamgirnamah* mentions 43 officers as present in it, against some 20 in each of the wings (pp. 246-248). The statement of the *Ahkam* that when the battle began Aurangzib's army "did not number even one-fourth of Shuja's" is an absurd exaggeration and occurs only in the India Office MS. of it (f. 34*a*).
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Shuja had been impressed by yesterday's vast assemblage of the Imperial host, whose number rumour had swollen to above 90,000 men. He knew that he could not adopt the customary plan of battle, making his force correspond, division for division, to the enemy's dispositions. His small force would then have been overlapped and swallowed up by the vastly extended front of an enemy who outnumbered him as three to one. So, with great judgment he made a new formation to-day: all his army was drawn up in one long line, behind the artillery. His Right was commanded by his eldest son Zainuddin Muhammad and Syed Alam (5,000 men), and his Left by Hasan Kheshgi (4,000 men). Behind these two wings stood their Reserves, each 2,000 strong, under Isfandiar Beg and Syed Quli respectively. In the Centre rode Shuja with his second son, Buland Akhtar, (10,000 men), his front being led by Shaikh Zarif and Syed Qasim. There was apparently no main Reserve. With true generalship Shuja determined to assume the offensive, and make up for the smallness of his number by the moral superiority which the attacking party always has. The first stage of the battle justified his forecast.
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Shuja's formation.
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The battle began at 8 a.m., with a furious artillery duel; cannon, rockets and muskets were discharged on both sides, doing great havoc. One ball struck Zainuddin's elephant, wounding the driver and the servant at the back, while the rider and mount escaped scathless. The two Vans now closed together and plied their bows.[*]
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Battle begins.
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The first move was made by Syed Alam with Shuja's Right. He charged the Imperial Left Wing, driving in front three infuriated elephants, each brandishing a two-maund iron chain in its trunk.[†] Neither man nor beast could stand their impetuous onset. The Imperial Left, which had no Prince or great general to command it, broke and fled. The panic spread even to the Centre; the soldiers ran about in confusion; the faint-hearted fled without waiting to be attacked.[‡] To make matters worse, a false report of the
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Aurangzib's Left Wing routed.
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[*] For the battle of Khajwah see Alamgirnamah, 257—265; Masum, 102b—105b; Khafi Kh. ii. 53-56 (mostly a repetition of the Alamgirnamah); Kambu, 20a & b, Aqil Khan, 75—79. The last adds many incidents which the Court historian has omitted. Masum is of special value as giving a picture of the battle as seen from Shuja's side. Otherwise, the Alamgirnamah has been my chief authority. [†] Khafi Kh. ii. 56. [‡] Kambu, 20b.
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Emperor's death suddenly spread through the ranks and took away the hearts of the soldiers. Many fled away; "even veterans of the Deccan wars and old servants of the Emperor joined the stream of flight."* So great was their panic that some of the fugitives did not halt before reaching Agra. Jaswant's mysterious appearance and rapid flight had created along the route to Agra a story of the Emperor's defeat and capture. The later arrivals from the field confirmed the news, gave circumstantial details of the disaster like eye-witnesses, and announced the speedy advance of the victorious Shuja to release Shah Jahan. Agra then must have resembled Brussels just after Waterloo !
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But the battle had yet to be fought and won. The enemy, after clearing the Left Wing, pushed on towards the Centre, where only 2,000 troopers now remained to guard the Emperor. But Murtaza Khan from the Iltimsh, and Hasan Ali Khan from the Left Reserve, each with a handful of men, flung themselves forward and barred the enemy's path. The Emperor, too, boldly turned his elephant's head to the Left to confront the enemy. Backed thus by the Centre, these few brave officers successfully repelled Syed Alam, who galloped back by the same path that he had come.
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∗ Aqil Kh. 76 & 77.
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But the three elephants continued to advance wildly, their wounds having made them fiercer than before. One of them came up to Aurangzib's elephant. It was the critical moment of the battle. If the Emperor had given ground or turned back, his whole army would have fled. But he stood like a rock, chaining the legs of his elephant to prevent its flight.[*] At his order one of his matchlockmen, Jalal Khan, shot down the *mahut* of the attacking elephant, and immediately afterwards some Imperial elephants surrounded it, a brave royal *mahut* nimbly leaped on its back and brought the riderless beast under his control. The other two elephants ran away in front of the Centre towards the Right Wing. The Emperor now got breathing time, and turned to succour his Right, which had been hard pressed in the meantime.
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For, encouraged by the success of Syed Alam's charge, the enemy's Van and Left, led by Buland Akhtar, Shaikh Wali, Shaikh Zarif, Hasan Kheshgi, and others, had attacked the Imperial Right. In spite of their small number, their gallant charge dislodged their opponents; many of the Imperialists fled, but the captains kept their places, though with very few men at their back.* All this time so severe was the stress of the fight on the Left that Aurangzib had no time to think of his Right. Now, freed from the danger on his Left, he looked at the Right and found there signs of confusion and flight. His first thought was to hasten to reinforce that hard-pressed division. But even in the greatest difficulty and danger, his coolness and presence of mind did not desert him.† It at once struck him that, as his own front had hitherto been turned towards the Left, if he were now to face suddenly round and march to the Right, the rest of the army would interpret this volte face as flight. So, he first sent orderlies to the Van to tell the generals of his real object and to urge them to fight on without fear or doubt.
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∗ Khafi Kh. ii. 56.
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Then he wheeled the Centre round and joined the Right Wing. The succour came not a minute too soon. The elephant of Islam Khan, the commander of that wing, taking fright from a rocket, had fled scattering and shaking the troops of that division. The commander of the Right Wing artillery and his son had been slain. But Saif Khan and Akram Khan, the leaders of the vanguard of the Right, with a few men kept their ground, and were fighting hard to stem the enemy's advance.
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∗ Kambu, 20a, Masum, 102b & 103a.
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Just then the Emperor arrived and reinforced them. This was the decisive move of the day. The tide of battle now rolled resistlessly against Shuja. The Imperial Right, newly strengthened, made a counter-charge and swept away the enemy from before them, with great carnage. Shaikh Wali Farmuli, the leader of Buland Akhtar's Van, with some other commanders, was slain. Hasan Kheshgi, the general of Shuja's Left Wing, fell down wounded. Shaikh Zarif, a Daudzai Afghan, after a heroic fight in front of the Emperor, was captured covered with wounds. Buland Akhtar fled to his father.∗
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∗ Alamgirnamah, 263; Aqil Kh., 78.
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Meantime the Imperial Van, under Zulfiqar Khan and Sultan Muhammad, had beaten back the attack on it, advanced, and shaken the enemy's front line. There the Bengal leader, Tahawwur Khan, with a handful of men, offered a bold opposition and saved the fugitives from slaughter. But so thick was the shower of cannon-balls, rockets and bullets from Aurangzib's army that no man could stand it. The front line of Shuja began to gallop back to a safe distance in twos and threes at a time.*
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General advance of Aurangzib's army. There was now a general advance of the whole Imperial army, Right, Centre, and Left. "Like masses of dark clouds, they surrounded Shuja's own division, the Centre," his two flanks having been laid bare by the defeat and flight of his Right and Left Wings. Many of his personal attendants perished from the Imperialist fire under his own eyes. The cannon-balls carried off a head or half a body at a time. Some of them, weighing 16 or 20 lbs, flew about his own head.† Therefore, at Mir Isfandiar Mamuri's advice he left the dangerous prominence of the elephant's back and took horse.
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Shuja dismounts from his elephant. This was the end of the struggle.‡ All was now lost. The sight of the empty hawda, visible from the furthest limits of the field, struck terror into his soldiers' hearts. Their master was slain, so they imagined. For whom would they fight any longer? They had been sorely tried by Aurangzib's artillery and wanted only a decent excuse for flight. This was now found in the riderless elephant. In a moment the whole army broke and fled.
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∗ Masum, 103a-104a. † This last scene is graphically described by Masum, 103b & 104a. ‡ Bernier's statement, copied by Stewart, that Shuja was on the point of gaining the victory when he lost all by dismounting from his elephant, merely gives the bazar gossip. None of the contemporary authorities on whom my account of the battle is based, supports such an idea, which is also naturally
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Shuja's shouts to his men to stand firm fell on unheeding ears; he could not arrest the tide of flight, but stood in the field as a helpless "spectator of the hand of Fate." A few of his captains, who had been gallantly facing the enemy, now looked around and saw with amazement the field behind them deserted, and none of their followers present at their back. The enemy, emboldened by the sight, hemmed them round. It was only left for them to do and to die, and this they did. Syed Alam alone broke through the ring of his adversaries.*
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Already the craven-hearted had begun to buy safety with desertion to the victor's side. While Aurangzib was advancing from his own Right, first Murad Kam Safawi (surnamed Mukarram Khan), then Abdur Rahman Khan (son of Nazar Muhammad Khan, the ex-king of Balkh), improbable. Indeed, the battle had been already lost and Shuja was in imminent risk of being captured, when he took horse.
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∗ Masum, 104a;& b.
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and Saujar Beg (the son of Alawardi Khan), left Shuja and joined him. Under their guidance the Emperor skirted Shuja's artillery on his left hand and charged the enemy's Centre, as narrated before.[*] But the victory had been already won. A courier now galloped up to him with the happy news that Shuja had fled from the field with his sons, Syed Alam, Alawardi Khan, and a small remnant of his army.[†]
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Immediately the Imperial band struck up the 'music of victory,' which conveyed the happy news to every soldier in the field. The battle was over. Aurangzib descended from his elephant, and knelt down on the field to thank the Giver of Victory. Shuja's entire camp and baggage were plundered by the Imperialists. One hundred and fourteen large and small pieces of cannon, and eleven of the celebrated elephants of Bengal became the victor's spoil, as also did a small portion of treasure and jewels which had escaped plunder by the soldiers.[‡]
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Reviewing the battle, we must give the palm of generalship to Shuja. Aurangzib showed great firmness and presence of mind, but no mili-
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[*] Kambu, 20b; Alamgirnamah, 263 & 264. [†] Aurangzib's own account of the battle is given in the Ruqat-i-Alamgiri, No. 19 and the Paris MS., 2b. [‡] Alamgirnamah, 265; Khafi Kh., ii. 59.
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tary genius. Shuja's plan of battle was admirable; it would have succeeded if he had not been so hopelessly outnumbered, and if Syed Alam had been supported from behind and pressed his charge home. The latter, after routing the Left Wing of Aurangzib, was confronted by the Centre, checked, and forced to retreat. If he had made a longer stand there, he could have utilised the opening made by the rush of his two furious elephants in front of the enemy's Centre, and crashed into Aurangzib's Right from behind, at the very time when that wing was shaken by the charge of Buland Akhtar from the front and the stampede of Islam Khan's elephant. This would have annihilated both the wings of Aurangzib; and after this splendid success his Van and Centre, left alone in the field, would have been demoralised and easily defeated. But either Syed Alam was not a stubborn fighter, or Shuja was too timid to risk his all on one throw by denuding his Centre of men to support his victorious Right. Probably he was held in check at his own position by Aurangzib's Van.∗
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∗ This conjecture is borne out by Aqil Kh., 78 and Masum, 103 a, who state that when Aurangzib's two wings were being dispersed (or soon afterwards), the Van under Prince Muhammad advanced on the enemy and "shook them" (Aqil Kh.) or "broke up their formation" (Masum.)
Linked texts (2)
- ʿAmal-i Ṣāliḥ — Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Kambōh 1659, Persian
- Tārīkh-i Shāh Shujāʿī — Muḥammad Maʿṣūm 1659, Persian