History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c25.s1.20

v2.c25.s1.20

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.