History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c43.6

v3.c43.6

These dates are, however, rendered improbable by the distance and the broken pathless character of the intervening country. At the end of the 21st Farhad Khan came into touch with the fleet at Kumaria, which is 2 days' march by land (say 20 miles) from Chatgaon, while Buzurg Ummed Khan halted 20 miles further behind (according to *A. N.* 949). When early on the 23rd, the fleet sailed out of Kumaria seeking battle, Farhad Khan "advanced by land to co-operate with the navy, by the road which the men of the ships had made. Beyond the clearing he could not go, on account of the density of the jungle" (Cont., 168*a*). Here, in the night of the 23rd he received the Commander-in-Chief's order to push on and join the *nawwara*. How could he have crossed 16 or 17 miles of such a pathless jungly country in one day and arrived at Chatgaon on the 24th, and how could Buzurg Ummed Khan, who was one or probably two marches in the rear, have reached the walls of that fort on the 25th, as the *A. N.* would have us believe? This difficulty is avoided by Talish's statement that the capture of Chatgaon was the work of the navy alone and not the result of a regular siege. I think that the Mughal army reached Chatgaon on the 25th when practically all was over except the shouting. It is just possible that Buzurg Ummed Khan was in at the fall of Chatgaon, but his arrival under its walls before the actual surrender (morning of the 26th) is rendered improbable by the distance.