History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c29: Chapter XXIII.

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c29

Language: English

Chapter XXIII.

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THE PURSUIT OF SHUJA AND THE WAR IN BIHAR.

After the victory Aurangzib marched through Shuja’s camp, near the tank of the village of Khajwah, and halted for the night on the other side of it. To give the enemy no time to rally, he despatched a pursuing column under Prince Muhammad that very afternoon. Supplies, including horses, dress and arms, were given to him from the Imperial stores, as all his property had been plundered by Jaswant in the morning. Reinforcements were soon afterwards despatched under Mir Jumla, as joint Commander-in-Chief, raising the pursuing force to, 30,000 men.∗

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∗ *Alamgirnamah*, 265—269; Aqil Khan, 91.

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The unhappy pretender to the throne rode away 30 miles from the fatal field, before he halted to give repose to his exhausted body and drooping spirits.

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After four days of flight he crossed the Ganges and encamped at Jusi, opposite Allahabad. Dara's commandant of Allahabad shut the fort-gates in his face, and invited the Imperialists to come and take delivery of the fortress, (which was done on 12th. January.)*

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On reaching Bahadurpur, east of Benares, Shuja stopped for some days, repaired the wall and trenches round his former camp, and thought of making a stand there against his pursuers. If the worst came to the worst, he could retreat in his flotilla, which lay moored at hand. Seven large guns were brought away from Chunar and mounted on the ramparts.† Sultan Muhammad, who had no boats, could not cross the flooded Ganges near Bahadurpur; so he marched back upstream, forded the river near Allahabad, and advancing by way of Kheri and Kuntit arrived two stages from Chunar.‡

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This fact, joined to the news that Fidai Khan, another officer of Aurangzib, was marching north of the Ganges from Gorakhpur towards Patna, alarmed Shuja, and he fled precipitately to Patna, arriving at the garden of Jafar Khan in its suburbs on 10th February, 1659.[*] Here some precious days were wasted in marrying his son Zainuddin to the daughter of the old and retired officer Zulfiqar Khan Qaramanlu, in the vain hope of thus buttressing up his fallen fortunes. Meantime the enemy arrived within 20 miles of the town, and there was another rapid flight to Mungir, which was reached on the 19th. Sultan Muhammad arrived at Patna about the 22nd, eight days after Shuja had left it, and here he was joined by Fidai Khan.[†]

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 285 & 286; Masum, 105b. † Alamgirnamah, 492 & 493. ‡ Aqil Khan, 91. Kheree is in the Khyragarh Dist. Kuntit is near Bindhachal, 10 miles west of Mirzapur. (Indian Atlas, Sh. 88.)

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At Mungir Shuja made a longer stand (Feb. 19th—March 6th). The ground favoured the defence against an invader from the west. The city of Mungir stands in a narrow plain, 2½ miles wide, bounded by the Ganges on the west and the Khargpur hills on the east. Along this plain runs the most convenient road from Patna to Bengal. If it were blocked, the invader would have to make a long detour through the desolate hills and jungles of the Santal Parganahs and Birbhum, far away from the Ganges and its populous

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[*] Aqil Kh., 91 & 92; Alamgirnamah, 493. [†] Aqil Khan, 92.

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cities, and strike the river again only in the neighbourhood of Murshidabad.

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During the period of Afghan rule, a wall and moat had been run in front of Mungir, from the hill to the river-bank, for the defence of the town. Last year, when opposing Sulaiman Shukoh, Shuja had repaired these old defences, raised bastions every 30 yards along the wall, and connected the ditch with the stream. Guns were now landed from his boats and mounted on the walls, the trenches were regularly manned by his soldiers, and Rajah Bahroz, the *zamindar* of Khargpur, undertook to guard the southern hills, through which ran a difficult path to Rajmahal.*

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Early in March Mir Jumla approached Mungir, and finding the main road barred, did not waste his time in attempting the siege of the town, but bought over Rajah Bahroz. Under the Rajah's guidance the Imperial army marched through the hills and jungles of Khargpur, and making a detour round Mungir, threatened to seize Shuja's rear.† That Prince, on hearing of Bahroz's desertion and the unexpected movement of his enemies, fled from Mungir on 6th March. At this, Mir Jumla, who had reached Pialapur, 40 miles east of Mungir, left part of his army there under Prince Muhammad, while he himself hastened westwards to Mungir,[*] to take possession of it and appoint governors on behalf of the Emperor.

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∗ *Alamgirnamah*, 493 and 494. † *Ibid*, 494 & 495; Aqil Khan, 92; Masum, 113*b*. Khargpur is due south of Mungir. (*Indian Atlas*, Sh. 112).

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At Sahibganj[†] Shuja made another halt of 15 days (March 10th to 24th), built a wall from the river to the southern hill, barring the narrow plain through which the road ran. He had mistaken Mir Jumla's westward march from Pialapur as a sign that the Imperialists were tired of crossing the hills and jungles and would now pursue him along his track by the southern bank of the Ganges. So he hoped to detain them

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Shuja at Sahibganj.

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[*] There is a Pialapur, 4 miles south of the Pir Pointy Station on the E. I. R. Loop Line, and 11 miles east of Colgong. It is more than 65 miles east of Mungir. Tarrapur, 6 miles due east of Khargpur in Rennell's Atlas, sh. 2, exactly corresponds to the description in the text. But the form Pialapur is given too often to be taken for a copyist's error for Tarapur. There is a second Pialapur in the Mungir district, with a hill close to it, (Pioneer, 3 Jan. 1912, p. 2), but I cannot find it in the Atlas.

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[†] Alamgirnamah, 495, gives "Rangamati, 33 kos from Mungir and 15 kos from Rajmahal." Aqil Khan (92) gives Garhi, i.e., Teliagarhi. The place meant is undoubtedly Lalmati, half a mile south of the Sahibganj station on the E. I. R. Loop Line (Indian Atlas, sh. 112). It is situated midway between Teliagarhi and Sikrigali.

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long before his wall at Sahibganj. His right was protected by the river, his left by the Rajmahal hills stretching southwards in a long line from the Ganges to Birbhum. To guard against the Imperialists again turning his left flank by making a detour through the hills, he sent his follower Mir Isfandiar Mamuri to Khwajah Kamal Afghan, the zamindar of Birbhum and Chatnagar, with orders to oppose such a move and close the path on the south.

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But again the gold of the Imperialists upset his plans. As at Mungir, so here too, Mir Jumla won over the trusted zamindar and purchased a safe passage through his lands. After twelve days of toilsome march through the hills southeast of the Mungir District, in which Raja Bahroz acted as guide and provided rations and fodder, the Imperialists emerged from the jungles* and entered the zamindari of Birbhum. The chief town, Suri, was passed on 28th March.

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Here a strange piece of news damped the ardour of the Imperialists and weakened their strength. It had been known that Dara Shukoh had again made head in Guzerat, and that the Emperor had hastened thither to oppose him.

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∗ *Alamgirnamah*, 496 and 497 ; Aqil Khan, 92.

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On 13th March 1659, the two armies clashed together near Ajmir; Dara's power was destroyed for ever, and he was fleeing helplessly before the pursuing Imperialists. But rumour, with her usual love of falsehood, wafted to the Mughal army at Pialapur the news that Aurangzib had been routed at Ajmir and had fled to the Deccan abandoning everything. Distance magnified the extent of the disaster, and the tale received many embellishments as it flew from mouth to mouth. The whole army was thrown into alarm and confusion. Mir Jumla's flanking movement through the hills was suspected to be not an attack on Shuja's rear, but a covert design to flee with Prince Sultan Muhammad to the Deccan by the unfrequented route of Chota Nagpur and Orissa !

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The Rajput contingent was particularly upset.

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The Rajput Contingent is alarmed

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As high caste Hindus they would have to undergo untold hardships regarding food and drink in a several months' march through an unbroken wilderness. Their homes in the far west were exposed to the victorious enemies of Aurangzib. The wrath of Dara would descend heaviest on the house of Jaipur, as Jai Singh had deserted Sulaiman Shukoh and won over Jaswant Singh to Aurangzib's side, and both he and his son Ram Singh had done signal service to the Emperor. This march through the hills was bad enough, but the outlook before them was worse still. What could they expect on reaching the Deccan, even if the march were safely accomplished? To join the broken ranks of a defeated pretender to the throne, and to be for ever exiled from home and chased hither and thither with the fugitive Aurangzib! Better return west through Patna and Allahabad and make peace with Dara, or at least push on to Rajputana in time to guard their homeland.

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The Rajputs brooded over the matter and slowly made up their minds. Some days after leaving Pialapur they stopped waiting on the Prince like other officers, at the times of his starting and dismounting. Then, on 26th March, after the day's advance they did not occupy the respective quarters marked out for them in the encampment, but all the Rajputs of the different divisions collected together and took up a position behind the camp. Next day they followed the main army at some distance, keeping their tents and baggage with themselves. On 30th March, two stages beyond Birbhum, the Rajput contingent, 4,000 strong, seceded from the army and set out on their return towards Agra.*

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Mir Jumla did not waste any time in trying to dissuade them or even to punish their desertion, but pushed steadily on towards his objective. He had still some 25,000 troopers† with him, double the strength of Shuja,‡ and every moment was precious to him if he hoped to cut off the enemy's retreat to Dacca.

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† The Rajput contingent that seceded is numbered 4,000 men by Aqil Khan. Masum's estimate of "about 10 or 12 thousand troopers" represents the exaggeration made by distance and rumour. All the Rajputs did not return, Rajah Indra-dyumna remained loyal. Aqil Khan says that two Muhammadan officers accompanied the deserters.

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‡ Masum (116a) says that Shuja had not more than 5 or 6 thousand men.

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Shuja, hearing that the Imperialists had gained a passage through Birbhum, evacuated Sahibganj and hastened to Rajmahal (about 27th March.) But he could not find safety anywhere on the right (or western) bank of the Ganges. Therefore, leaving Rajmahal, he planned to cross the river at Dogachi (a few miles south of the town), remove his family and army to Tanda (4 miles west of the Fort of Gaur), and prolong the struggle with the help of his powerful flotilla, against which Mir Jumla’s purely land force could make no head.

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 497 & 498. Aqil Khan, 93, gives the inner meaning of the Rajput defection. Masum, 115b & 116a is very meagre.

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But treachery was brewing in his ranks. The advance of the Imperial army in his rear destroyed his last chance of success; their arrival at Belghata, 30 miles from his position, supplied his wavering followers with protectors close at hand in case they deserted. Fidelity to Shuja now meant only a choice between two miseries, *viz.*, slaughter by the overwhelmingly superior Imperial army, and voluntary exile to the dreadful land of the savage Arracanese. “Many of his old and trusted followers” now conspired to desert him. The leader of the malcontents was Alawardi Khan, a noble who had governed Bihar in the closing years of Shah Jahan’s reign, and joined Shuja’s standard at Patna when that Prince made his first attempt for the throne in 1657. Shuja had promoted him to the rank of his chief adviser, used to call him *Khan Bhai* (My noble brother), and had recently created him *Amir-ul-umara* or ‘Premier Noble.’*

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Plot of Alawardi Khan to desert him.

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∗ For the affair of Alawardi Khan see *Alamgirnamah*, 21, 422, 499—501; Masum 114*a*—115*b*. Aqil Khan, 94, merely mentions the execution.

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The plan of the traitors was to lag behind at Rajmahal after Shuja had gone to the ferry, and to slip away to the Imperial camp when he would be across the river. Shuja certainly went to the ferry of Dogachi (1st April, 1659), but a storm prevented his embarkation that night, and he had to return to his tent, 5 miles from the river. The conspirators had not foreseen this delay. The plot had already got wind. Shuja heard of it at the end of the night, and acted with unwonted promptitude and decision. He had left two officers at Rajmahal to superintend the transport of the men and stores that were to follow him.

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Next morning (2nd April), he galloped from his tent to the city, a distance of 10 miles, and alighted in his garden in the suburbs.[*] He was in a towering rage and kept shouting to his officers to bring Alawardi Khan. Man after man was sent on this errand. Meantime Alawardi Khan was guarding his house with his own retainers, against any attack. Shuja's officers came in rapid succession and gathered round his house with their troops, waiting for the Prince's order to storm it. At this Alawardi lost heart; his partisans were cowed down. So, when the diwan, Mirza Sarajuddin Muhammad Jabri, arrived to fetch him, he easily consented to leave his stronghold and accompany him to the Prince.*

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∗ Was it the Nageswar Bag garden given in Rennell, sheets 2 and 15?

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Alawardi, with his younger son Saifullah, was taken to the Prince outside the city. They were immediately seized and handcuffed by the loyal soldiers, placed on an elephant, and carried back to the city with Shuja. Here at the palace-gate they were beheaded publicly. Two other mansabdars, who had joined the plot, shared the same fate.

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After passing three more days at Rajmahal, Shuja, on 4th April, crossed the Ganges at Dogachi, and encamped at Baqarpur on the opposite bank, with the flotilla guarding his front. The Imperial army after leaving Birbhum, had turned to the N. E., wishing to strike the Ganges above Murshidabad and block Shuja's line of retreat to Dacca. It had reached Belghata* when it heard of Shuja's evacuation of Rajmahal, and immediately made a dash northwards to seize that town. The Van, under Zulfiqar Khan, entered it on 13th April, and established their own government there. Some 4,000 of Shuja's soldiers, having failed to get boats at Dogachi, returned helplessly to Rajmahal and submitted to the Imperialists. Thus the whole country west of the Ganges, from Rajmahal to Hughli, passed out of Shuja's hands.†

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∗ The official history accuses Shuja of having induced Alawardi to come out of his house by a false promise of safety, and then treacherously executed him. (Alamgirnamah, 500). But the Tarikh-i-Shujai does not support the charge. It says, "Mirza Sarajuddin Muhammad, a confidential servant of the Prince, offered to bring Alawardi, went to the latter, and told him all the case (haqiqat-i-hal). The latter had no help but to come with one or two mansabdars engaged in the same plot." (f. 115a). I have accepted his account as more likely to be true under the circumstances. Alawardi had no chance of escape if he resisted arrest.

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The river Ganges, after flowing due east for several hundred miles from Allahabad, takes a sudden turn to the right below Sikrigali and sweeps southwards for about 80 miles to Bhagwangola, where it again turns to the east. East of this stretch of the river lies the district of Maldah with the ruins of Gaur, on the west stands Rajmahal, and south of it the district of Murshidabad.

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In its upper courses the rocky soil, as at Chunar, Benares, Mungir, and Teliagarhi, confines the river to a fixed bed. But after leaving

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The Scene of the War Sikrigali, it flows through a softer ground and gives free play to its fondness for changing its bed or splitting up into many streams. Thus the valley of the Ganges, between the Rajmahal hills on the west and the upland of Barind at the back of Maldah on the east, is intersected by countless thin serpentine brooks and nullahs, dry sandy deposits marking the deserted beds of the river, and the one or more streams of the Ganges and the Mahananda. "The earth is as water" here and travelling is extremely difficult. On the north of this tract, the main artery of the Ganges receives many straggling branches of the lower Kushi, on the east the Kalindi, the Mahananda (the river of Maldah), and several of its own ramifications. On the south, a little east of Suti, the original Ganges branches off in a thin tortuous stream, which still bears the name of Bhagirathi or the Holy Ganges, and flows past Murshidabad, Nadia, and Calcutta, to the sea. But its main current flows eastwards by Rajshahi and Goalnand in a vast volume of water known as the Padma.

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∗ Belgotta in Rennell, Sh. 2, about 2 miles west of Jangipur and 4 miles south of the battle field of Gheria. † Alamgirnamah, 501 & 344; Aqil Khan, 94.

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During the rains much of this valley is flooded. As the rains stop and the flood subsides, innumerable water courses (nullahs) and lakes are found to intersect the land. Only a few of the nullahs carry off running water; all the others first grow stagnant, then their ends dry up, and they form slimy pools and soft morasses. Only in their last stage, in the hottest part of summer, do they present the solid land again, but immensely changed from its last year's configuration. This process goes on year after year, making fantastic variations in the surface of the ground.

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Shuja had a hopeless inferiority of troops. He had brought back about 10,000 men from Khajwah. Of these some had been lost by desertion, and many others had been intercepted by the Mughal capture of Rajmahal.[*] On land he could not have made an hour's stand against the Imperialists. But he had an artillery of big pieces admirably served by European and half-caste gunners. He was also strong in an arm peculiarly suited to the theatre of the war, an arm in which Bengal, of all the provinces of the empire, enjoyed a notable superiority, and the lack of which paralysed his enemy's efforts. Bengal is the land of water-ways, and its subahdar (viceroy) used to get a large assignment on the revenue (tankhah) and extensive jagirs (fiefs) for maintaining a flotilla (nawwara)* to patrol the rivers, convey officers and troops, and resist the pirates of Sondip and Chatgaon. The Mughals were proverbially bad seamen. Expert cavaliers, they were powerless on board a ship. The deep had unknown terrors for them, and even a voyage down a river was a penance to be gone through with set teeth and breathless expectation of its end, when they would tread on solid land again!

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∗ Aqil Khan, 95. For the state of the deserted Shujaites in Rajmahal, see Masum, 116b and 126a.

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Mir Jumla's army was a purely land force. He had not brought a single boat with himself, nor could he get any in Bengal, as Shuja had anticipated him by seizing and sinking all the private boats in this part of the country. For want of water-transport Mir Jumla was confined to the western bank, unable to cross over and attack the enemy, or advance on Dacca, as many rivers intersected his path. Shuja, on the other hand, could mount his guns and men on his boats and employ this extremely mobile force anywhere he pleased along the entire Mughal line from Rajmahal to Suti. But he was too weak in troops to take the offensive against an enemy so over-whelmingly superior on land. The Bengali nursery tale of the duel between the alligator and the tiger aptly typifies this stage of the war.

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∗ Talish's Continuation, tr. by me in Journal and Proceedings, A. S. B. June 1906 and June 1907.

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After a council of war with his generals, headed by Mirza Jan Beg, Shuja had decided to evacuate the western bank of the Ganges, to remove his headquarters and family to Tanda, (where he would be protected by the Ganges and a labyrinth of nullahs on his west,) to resist the hostile movements of the Imperialists, and to utilise the precious months thus gained through the enemy's want of a fleet in "recruiting his shattered power."* The plan was the best under the circumstances; but it failed through Mir Jumla's wonderful activity in procuring boats from remote places, the Emperor's fine strategy in sending another army under the Governor of Patna to make a diversion on the left bank of the Ganges and turn Shuja's right, and lastly through both the roads for the arrival of hardy recruits from Oudh, Allahabad and Bihar being closed to Shuja by the Mughal occupation of Rajmahal and all the country west of the Ganges.

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Shuja, making Tanda his base, entrenched on the eastern bank at various places opposite the entire Mughal front, which stretched from Rajmahal to Suti, on the western bank. On his own side Mir Jumla placed pickets at every ferry and road to prevent Shuja's deserted followers at Rajmahal from crossing over to him. After the occupation of Rajmahal (13th April, 1659), his first object was to get boats, without which he could not take one step forward. By persistent efforts for a fortnight he succeeded in securing a few,—kosas, khaluahs, and ráhwáras, from distant or obscure places.*

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∗ Masum, 116a and b.

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Taking up his quarters at Dogachi,† about 13 miles south of Rajmahal, he carried out his first bold and well-planned stroke. In midstream opposite his post there was a high island, which formed a half-way house to the other bank. A detachment from Shuja's army had already occupied it, and begun to entrench and erect batteries, in order to molest the Imperial camp in co-operation with their flotilla. Mir Jumla resolved to wrest it from them. Under his careful arrangement and personal supervision, his few boats made several silent and secret trips after midnight, transporting to the island 2,000 soldiers under Zulfiqar Khan and some other high officers, with 22 hatchet-men and a few guns. The morning discovered their arrival to the enemy, who fled away in their boats, carrying off their guns. The Imperialists occupied the deserted position and hastily entrenched. Next day they repelled a formidable attack by Shuja's entire flotilla, sinking some of the boats. A party of the enemy that had landed on one side of the island and was trying to throw up entrenchments, was gallantly charged by a body of Afghans under Taj Niazi and driven out after a severe and bloody struggle. A second attempt of the enemy's combined forces to recover the island was defeated two days later, and the Imperialists were left in undisturbed possession of the captured post.∗

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∗ Masum, 118a. † Dogachi is given in the Indian Atlas, sh. 112, about 13 miles south of Rajmahal. There is another Dogachi, 14 miles further south; but that is not the place meant in this history. Dunapur is given on the same sheet as Dugnapur near the S. E. corner.)

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 501—503.

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Shuja vigilant.

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But here their success ended. Shuja, warned by the past, now guarded his defences carefully, his flotilla daily cruised up and down the river, exchanging fire with the Mughals on the western bank, and his army and guns were massed opposite Dogachi. It was hopeless for Mir Jumla with his half dozen boats to carry his army across in small bodies or effect a landing by surprise at this point in the face of such a powerful and vigilant enemy.

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So, he made other arrangements and bided his time. The Imperial army was distributed along the entire western bank: Muhammad Murad Beg was left in command at Rajmahal in the extreme north; the Prince with Zulfiqar Khan, Islam Khan, Fidai Khan, and the bulk of the army, remained at Dogachi 13 miles southwards, facing Shuja. At Dunapur, some 8 miles further south, Ali Quli Khan was posted, while Mir Jumla himself with six or seven thousand troops occupied Suti, the southernmost point of the Mughal lines, 28 miles south of Rajmahal.*

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Here he collected about a hundred boats of various sorts, and daily watched for an opportunity to land on the other bank by surprise. The enemy had erected a high battery of eight large guns opposite him, which did great damage to his followers and cattle on the river side. An expedition sent one night in ten boats was detected by the enemy and repulsed. Next day the attempt was repeated, and succeeded by its very audacity. In the broad glare of noon, when the wind had freshened and the enemy were off their guard, he embarked 20 Imperial troopers and a party of his own retainers and sent them over. Quickly going across with the help of the wind, they fell on the battery, drove nails into the port-holes of the two largest guns and carried off the other six without any loss. This splendid feat struck terror into the enemy's heart. Shuja's general, Nurul Hasan, who had been thus caught napping, was removed from his command.∗

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 503 and 504.

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∗ *Ibid*, 505.

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But Mir Jumla was soon to learn the fickleness of fortune. Encouraged by the success of his first two *coups*, he planned another on a much grander scale. But this time Shuja was on the alert. His able and devoted officer Syed Alam of Barha with a picked force now commanded at this point. He left the trenches and batteries on the riverside scantily guarded as before, but posted his troops and fierce war-elephants behind them in ambushes cleverly masked in front. Mir Jumla had either not taken the precaution to reconnoitre and ascertain the enemy's strength there (as Masum says), or he had committed the fatal mistake of despising the enemy. But he was destined to get a lesson which made him extremely cautious and even slow for the rest of the campaign.

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At dawn (3rd May) when the first two or three boats of the expedition sent by Mir Jumla reached the opposite bank, Ihtamam Khan landed with some men and assaulted the enemy's trenches, driving them out and planting the Imperial banner there. Then Syed Alam issued from his ambush and fell upon this small party, which gallantly defended itself in the captured redoubt. Some of the boats were busy trying to land their men; most others had not yet reached the bank; these lost heart at the sudden appearance of the enemy and rowed back to their own side; only six boats were left behind. The enemy growing bolder turned aside from the redoubt to attack the boats, leading two elephants with them. The Imperialists were perplexed; of many troopers the horses had not yet landed, and even those few who were mounted could not gallop on the loose sand. To complete their misery, some of the enemy's fast boats (*kosas*) now surrounded them, and a confused naval battle began in which the odds were against them. Zabardast Khan, though wounded, cut his way through the ring of the enemy. His brothers and nephews, in another boat, were trying to disembark and aid Ihtamam Khan, when another party of the enemy, 200 strong, with a furious elephant (a noted fighter, named Kokah), fell on them. It gored Shahbaz Khan with its tusk and sank two or three boats. Two other captains were slain. Of the common soldiers, “many were drowned or slain, and the wounded were made prisoners.”

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After disposing of the boats, Syed Alam turned upon Ihtamam Khan, who was helplessly cooped up in the redoubt. The Khan fell fighting, with many of his men; the rest surrendered. “The very pick of the Imperial army thus perished miserably; 500 of them were taken prisoner, and some of these were afterwards put to death by order of Shuja.”*

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Meantime Mir Jumla had been a helpless spectator of this reverse from the western bank. In vain did he command and entreat his fugitive boats to return to the aid of their brethren; they were too demoralised to face the Bengal flotilla again. He was deeply mortified; the disaster dimmed the lustre of his hitherto victorious career; he had lost a choice body of men and given cause of exultation to his enemies, both across the river and in his own army.

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Soon afterwards the Imperial party had to meet with a loss which paralysed it for a time, and would have been disastrous but for Mir Jumla’s wonderful courage, presence of mind, and mastery over men. Late in the night of 8th June, his camp at Suti was startled to hear that Prince Muhammad had deserted his post at Dogachi and fled to Shuja!

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 506—509; Masum, 118a-119b; Aqil Khan, 95.

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Sultan Muhammad had been long chafing under the tutelage of Mir Jumla. Youthful flatterers were not wanting to tell him that he was the hero of Khajwah, and that while the other divisions of the Imperial Army had been routed or shaken, his alone had stood its ground and beaten back the enemy’s onset. Was he not more worthy of the throne than his father, especially as he was beloved by his captive grandfather? To these dreams of ambition were added the tenderer ones of love. Years ago, when the Emperor Shah Jahan was holding Court at Kabul, the Princes Aurangzib and Shuja had taken leave of him to go to the provinces assigned to them. Their way lay together up to Agra. In jealousy of their eldest brother Dara, they had vowed to unite against him on their father’s death, and the vow had been strengthened by each entertaining the other for a week at Agra and betrothing the young Sultan Muhammad to Shuja’s little daughter Gulrukh Banu (Lady Rose-cheek).* Their fathers' quarrel had broken off the match when the pair came of age. Shuja, whose servants and agents in Rajmahal kept him constantly informed of the state of the Mughal army, had been sending secret messages to the Prince, offering him the throne and the hand of his daughter. The temptation was too great for a youngman, with his heart sore against his father and his father's confidant.

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So, one dark and rainy night (8th June), he slipped out of Dogachi in a small open boat with only five confidential servants and some gold coins and jewels, and went over to Shuja's camp, where he was welcomed, married (after a time) to his betrothed, and made his father-in-law's chief commander and counsellor.†

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Meantime alarm and distraction reigned in the Imperial camp. The news flew from tent to tent. But there was a born ruler of men on the spot: Mir Jumla at Suti firmly kept his own men quiet, and the morning after the flight rode to the Prince's camp at Dogachi, harangued the leaderless troops, put heart and hope into them, and restored order and discipline. A council of war was held; all the other generals agreed to obey him as their sole head. Thus through his heroic exertion, the army weathered the storm; "it lost only one man—the Prince," as Aqil Khan pithily puts it.

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∗ Aqil Khan, 10 and 11. † For the history of the Prince's flight, see Alamgirnamah, 511, 406 and 407; Khafi Khan, ii. 91; Masum, 120b—124a; Aqil Khan, 96 and 97.

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It was now the middle of June. The torrential rains of Bengal suspended operations, and the army went into cantonments. Mir Jumla with about 15,000 men fixed his quarters at Murshidabad, "a high tract of land, with abundance of supplies." Zulfiqar Khan and many other officers with the rest of the army stayed at Rajmahal. Evidently the posts at Dogachi, Dunapur, and Suti were withdrwan.[^ *]

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The moral effect of the Prince's flight was very great. Coming so soon after the reverse of 3rd May, it damped the spirit of the Imperial army and suspended its activity. The Emperor was alarmed at the news; he sent out strong reinforcements, and himself left the capital for Allahabad, to be within easy reach of the Bengal

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[^ *]: Alamgirnamah, 512.

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army, should the danger increase and roll westwards. The Shujaites were correspondingly elated, and now for the first time in the war took the aggressive. Their enemy's force was split up into two bodies separated by sixty miles of almost impassable road. They had only to wrest Rajmahal from Zulfiqar Khan, and then march south to crush Mir Jumla. A daring blow achieved the first of these objects with startling quickness and ease.

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The rains had converted the environs of Rajmahal into one marshy lake (jheel), except at the N. W. corner where the hills approach it. Boats plied even in the midst of the city. The enemy's flotilla prevented Mir Jumla from sending the promised supplies from Murshidabad by water. Harchand, the Rajah of the Majwah hills, stretching west of Rajmahal, on receiving Shujah's subsidy, stopped the coming of supplies from that side, and robbed every grain-merchant (bunjara) who ventured to send even a bullock's load of grain to Rajmahal. "Not a grain reached the city, the troops were weakened by abundance of water and dearth of (solid) food." "Scarcity reached its extreme point. Grain rose to the price of gold. Coarse red rice and dal sold at nine seers for a rupee." In the agony of hunger men ate noxious weeds. The Imperial troops in the city were reduced to the last extremity by famine and the loss of their horses and draught cattle; and the discord among their generals made matters worse.

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First, Shuja's admiral, Shaikh Abbas, seized a hilly tract named Paturah,[*] 5 miles south of Rajmahal. From this base he began to make boat-raids into the water-girt city. Then on 22nd August, Shuja suddenly attacked Rajmahal with his flotilla. The commandant, Zulfiqar Khan, was too ill to ride. Rajah Indradyumna alone offered a gallant opposition to the invader. The other Imperial officers wavered, held a council of war, could not agree to anything, but quarrelled with each other, and fled at night for Mushidabad, evacuating all their positions,—the city on the bank, the upland, (a spur of the hill), midway between old and new Rajmahal, which was their main camp, and the causeway leading from the hill-side to the new town. All their property was seized by Shuja, who thus recovered his capital and re-established himself on the western bank of the Ganges.[†]

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∗ Puttoorah, 5 miles south of Rajmahal, (Indian Atlas, sh. 112.)

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† Alamgirnamah, 516—519; Masum, 125a and b; Aqil

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The rainy season wore off without any further adventure. At its close Shuja, with an army now raised to 8,000 men, marched from Rajmahal against Mir Jumla, who issued from Murshidabad and took post behind a deep nullah near Belghata, throwing two bridges over it and fortifying their heads.

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The scene of the war now was the same which a century afterwards witnessed the final contest between the English and the Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim. Belghata is only four miles south of the battle-field of Gheria, and Dogachi about the same distance from the famous lines of Undhua Nullah.

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On 6th December, 1659, Shuja came in front of Mir Jumla's position. After spending some days in cannonade and skirmishing, he attacked the right bridge with all his force on 15th December and seized its head. In this obstinate contest both sides lost heavily. Their gallant leader Ekkataz Khan being slain, the Imperialists fled to their own side of the nullah and burnt the bridge of boats to prevent pursuit. While this fight was raging, Mir Jumla crossed the

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Khan, 98. The last two give graphic descriptions of the scarcity in the city.

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nullah by the left bridge and marched on Shuja from behind. Catching up the enemy's rear on the bank of the Bhagirathi near the village of Gheria, which was afterwards the scene of two other memorable combats,—Aliwardi Khan's triumph over Nawab Sarfaraz Khan in 1740 and the rout of Mir Qasim's troops by the English in 1763,—he dispersed it with loss. But their main army came back and faced him in battle order, behind their guns, which did great execution and arrested the Mughal advance. Evidently there was a disorderly shrinking back among the Imperial troops. The Court historian tries to explain it away by saying that, as the officers disobeyed Mir Jumla's orders, the different divisions were separated too far, and the enemy could not be charged. At sunset Mir Jumla had to return baffled to his camp, after a little fruitless cannonade. Two days afterwards the Shujaites again came upon the Imperial army and did some damage with their powerful artillery.∗

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∗ *Alamgirnamah*, 519—525; Masum, 131*a*—133*b*. Aqil Khan (99—103) tells a story which cannot be reconciled with the other two histories. He says that Mir Jumla surrounded Shuja in the village of Gheria and could have captured him if he had boldly made a night-attack. In the morning Shuja escaped. This passage is incomprehensible to me; it does not look like an invention, but bears the stamp of an eye-

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In this arm Mir Jumla was very weak. He had dragged only light pieces with himself by the land route from Allahabad, while Shuja could take his big guns in and out of his boats, and had also enlisted excellent gunners from the Europeans of Hughli, Tamluk, and Noakhali.

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Mir Jumla retreats. Mir Jumla without wasting any more men and ammunition, quietly retired to Murshidabad, as he was every day expecting a diversion in another quarter, which would send Shuja flying to his own base. That Prince, emboldened by the enemy's retreat and ignorant of the danger in his own rear, marched parallel to the Mughals down the other bank of the Bhagirathi, to Nashipur (12 miles north of Murshidabad), in order to cross there and cut off the Imperial army from the last-named town.

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Daud Khan threatens Shuja's rear. The Emperor with his usual foresight had ordered Daud Khan, the subahdar of Bihar, to march upon Tanda along the left or northern bank of the Ganges and co-operate with Mir Jumla who was on the right bank. The Khan had started from Patna as early as 13th

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witness's report. But it is contradicted by the official history. Masum on the contrary asserts that if Shuja had charged he could have defeated Mir Jumla!

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May, 1659, but the rains, the many flooded rivers of North Bihar, and the enemy's flotilla and trenches on the river-banks had brought him to an absolute halt at Qazi-Keria, opposite Bhagalpur. Early in December he resumed his advance, forced a passage across the Kushi, swept away a Shujaite detachment under Syed Tajuddin of Barha, Jamal Ghori, and Khwajah Mishki, which barred his path, and was in full march from the N. W. towards Maldah, (by 20th December). Shuja at Nashipur heard this dismal news in the night of 26th December and at once beat a retreat towards Suti, intending to cross the Ganges there and fall back on Tanda.[*]

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Shuja's retreat from Nashipur.

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Mir Jumla had been waiting for this development. He now sprang forward in pursuit. Starting at 9 a.m. next day, he sighted the fugitive enemy behind a nullah flanked with swamps. After an ineffectual artillery duel, Shuja fled from his position next morning, at 3 a.m. Very timely reinforcements with artillery, material, 700 rockets, and 12 lakhs of rupees now reached Mir Jumla from the Court. At sunrise he crossed the nullah, continued the chase, and at night halted at Fatihpur, 8 miles behind the enemy's former

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Mir Jumla gives chase.

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 513, 514, 524-526; Masum, 134a.

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position. Next morning (28th December), he advanced further, and came upon the enemy's army beyod Chilmari, near Suti.

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Four or five days passed in a fruitless exchange of fire, the men on both sides standing to arms all day; but there was no fight at close quarters, though the scouts and patrols had daily skirmishes. Nurul Hasan now deserted to the Imperialists. In the night of 1st January, 1660, Shuja fled northwards to Dunapur, and thence in great disorder and confusion to Dogachi, Mir Jumla following hot at his heels, though delayed by bad roads, *nullahs*, and broken bridges. By this rapid march the Imperial general had outstripped his heavy artillery, and so when the enemy turned at bay behind the *nullah* of Dogachi, his men shrank from forcing a passage across in the face of Shuja's big guns. He therefore advanced by the left side towards Rajmahal (2nd January), Shuja marching parallel to him on the other side of the *nullah*, with the Ganges on his right. That Prince was now in a terrible dilemma: how could he cross the Ganges so close to an active enemy? If he went over first, his army would desert him; and if they were transported before him, he would be captured by the enemy. So he dug a deep moat round his camp, entrenched, mounted guns, and then marched over the Ganges with his whole army by a bridge of boats, (9th January).

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Next morning, Mir Jumla at Dogachi, hearing the news, pushed forward a detachment to occupy Rajmahal and open the river-side road to Mungir, which had been so long closed by the enemy. On 11th January, the Imperialists recovered Rajmahal. The whole country west of the Ganges was now lost to Shuja for ever. It only remained to crush his power on the eastern side of the river.∗

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∗ Alamgirnamah, 526—532 ; Masum (134a) is extremely brief; Aqil Khan (101—103) evidently refers to this stage of the war; but there is probably a gap after p. 100 in the A. S. B. Ms. of Aqil Khan which I have used.

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Mir Jumla recovers Rajmahal.

Linked texts (1)

Tārīkh-i Shāh Shujāʿī — Muḥammad Maʿṣūm 1659, Persian