History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c27.22

v2.c27.22

In crossing the Greater Rann the army suffered frightful privations. The Rao of Cutch had turned unfriendly, and refused to supply a guide across the salt marsh; one of his grandsons accompanied Jai Singh, but only to the shore of it. At one halting place, six miles south of the Greater Rann, they found a few wells and the soldiers with all their exertions got out of them only some drops of water mixed with mud, with which they were forced to quench their thirst. Next day they heard of three or four wells, ten miles from their camp. The soldiers hastened thither for the precious water; a few got it, while the others returned with their thirst unquenched after twenty miles of fruitless marching. Towards evening the army arrived at the southern edge of the Rann, at the village of Lauh (?=Luna), and began to cross the salt plain at night. The Greater Rann was here 70 miles in breadth, in the whole extent of which not a drop of drinking water could be found, nor for 10 miles beyond its northern shore.