History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c41.s6.28

v3.c41.s6.28

The exultant Ahoms renewed their attacks on Garhgaon and there was fighting every night outside the fort. A grand attack on 15th September was defeated and the victorious Mughals chased the enemy for miles with heavy slaughter. Thereafter the Ahoms grew quiet and shrank from again provoking the Mughal army. But the pestilence now reached its extreme. The refugees from Mathurapur had infected the garrison of Garhgaon, and diverse and mutually opposed diseases broke out. "All kinds of food-stuffs disappeared except coarse red rice, without salt, and the fruit of the lime tree. Poor men did not spare the leaves on the trees, the grass on the ground or the herbs on the riverside in the pang of hunger." Mir Jumla lived and ate like the common soldiers, though he had a good store of delicacies. Much heroic self-sacrifice and social service* were rendered by some other Muslim officers too, in that dreadful period.