History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c36.s4.30.3

v3.c36.s4.30.3

Most of the local Bundela chieftains joined in the hunt after him, to prove their loyalty to the throne. His brother and helper, Sujan Rai, lost his fort of Vedpur and committed suicide to escape arrest. Champat, daily tortured by ague and attended by only 25 retainers, was surprised near Urchha and forced to flee to Sahra in the Sarangpur district of Malwa, whose Rajah* (a chief of the Dhandhera clan) he had befriended in the days of his influence at Shah Jahan's Court. But even here, after a long and exhausting march, suffering from fever and hunger, he was driven off by the approach of the enemy. The outlaw gave himself up to despair and ran blindly onwards like a hunted animal. His mind became confused; nowhere could he find a way of escape. Even his own daughter (the wife of a local chief, Jnan Shah) refused asylum or food to his son Chhatra Sal, though he had been fasting for the last three days and was sinking with fatigue. The Dhandhera clan of Sahra were afraid of imperial wrath for having harboured the outlaw and now thought only of buying the forgiveness of Government by arresting and giving up their guest and refugee. Two hundred armed horsemen were sent by Sahib Rai Dhandhera to dog the steps of the unhappy fugitive under the pretext of forming his body-guard.