History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c41.s12: §20. Greatness of Mir Jumla's character.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c41.s12
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§20. Greatness of Mir Jumla's character.
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Though Mir Jumla's expedition ended in heavy loss of men, his own death from disease and exhaustion, and the speedy loss of his acquisitions in Kuch Bihar and Assam, yet his character shone with supreme radiance in this enterprise. He did nothing which does not reflect the highest credit on him. No other general of that age conducted war with so much humanity and justice, nor kept his soldiers, privates and captains alike, under such discipline; no other general could have retained to the last the confidence and even affection of his subordinates amidst such appalling sufferings and dangers. The owner of 20 maunds of diamonds, viceroy of the rich province of Bengal, he shared with the meanest soldier the privations of the march and brought premature death on himself by scorning delights and living laborious days. On the day when he crossed the Kuch Bihar frontier, he issued strict orders forbidding plunder, rape and oppression on the people, and saw to it that his orders were obeyed. The stern punishment which he meted out to the first few offenders had a
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∗ "My brother Sutamla [Jayadhwaj Sinha] did not offer any sacrifice to Indra and other gods. So the Musalmans could come to our country and devastate it. The Karis and Hajuas were massacred"
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and great misery was suffered by all." (Order of Chakradhwaj in Buranji Khunlung etc. ii. 25-27). "When the war with the Musalmans came to an end, most of the Dekaris ceased to pay their tribute to the heavenly king" (Phuleshwar Phukan's Buranji, 337). The vassal Rajahs of Darrang and Dimarua had gone over to the Mughals. The helplessness of Jayadhwaj Sinha when he made peace with Mir Jumla is admitted in Buranji Khunlung &c., ii. 8-9, "Book II." (b) 2, viii. 93. "The Baduli Phukan told Khwajah Bhor Mal that up to that time (July 1662), 2,30,000 Assamese had perished of pestilence in the hills." (Fathiyah, 129).
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salutary effect.* ‘‘This order continued in force up to the day of the return of the army from Assam, and during the year’s stay of the imperial army in that country, not a single officer, private or camp-follower durst even cast a wistful glance of plunder or kidnapping at the property and women of the people of the land.’’ And when during the rains Farhad Khan made an example of the treacherous villagers near Ramdang, who after professing submission to the Mughals used to join the Ahoms in their night attacks, Mir Jumla was displeased at the maltreatment of their women, condemned such ‘‘frightfulness,’’ and set the captives free at once. At the time of the retreat from Assam, he forbade his army ‘‘even more strongly than before to molest the peasantry of the country or to rob their goods.’’† We realize Mir Jumla’s peculiar excellence more clearly by contrast with others. When his eagle eyes were removed, the Mughal officers began to oppress the people of Kuch Bihar and lost that kingdom by exciting popular hatred.
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† Mir Jumla’s strict discipline and prohibition of plunder, Fathiyah, 15, 35, 160, 86-87 (Farhad Khan censured).
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With a hero like Mir Jumla, the rhetoric of the historian Talish ceases to be extravagance; his eulogy of the general is not fulsome flattery but homage deservedly paid to a born king of men.
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∗ Fathiyah (35-36) humorously describes the disappointment of the would-be plunderers and ravishers at the frustration of all their hopes.