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History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c49: Chapter XXXVI. Invasion of Rajputana, 1679-1680

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c49

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Chapter XXXVI. Invasion of Rajputana, 1679-1680

§1. Marwar, its soil and crops.

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Westwards beyond the Aravali range lies the kingdom of Marwar, a vast plain broken here and there by bold conical rocks of low elevation. Its northern half is the fringe of the Indian desert, an arid waste of level sands and sand-hills. The eastern and southern districts are formed out of the valley of the Luni, a rainy-weather river which presents a dry bed for ten months in the year. But in a land with an annual rainfall of only five inches, even such a river is of priceless importance, and half the agricultural wealth of the country is dependent on the Luni. In four of the districts the soil is comparatively fertile, wells of good water abound, irrigation is freely practised, and the cultivator is rewarded with two harvests in the year. Elsewhere the water is too far below the surface to permit irrigation, or the alkali in the soil forbids any growth of vegetation. The hardy millet *bajra* and a few pulses are the staple crops of the land.

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But there are some spots with a soil of greater fertility and a more copious water-supply, especially some shallow marshes, where good crops of wheat, gram and opium are raised. The kingdom abounds in salt lakes and pools, but this source of wealth was of little value in an age when transport was costly and markets distant.*

§2. Strategic importance of Marwar.

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But, with all its agricultural poverty, this ‘desert land’ (*Maru-mar*) enjoyed a peculiar importance in the geography of Mughal India. The shortest and easiest trade-route from the Mughal capital to the rich manufacturing city of Ahmadabad and the busy port of Cambay lay through its limits. From Agra the western road through the loyal State of Jaipur to the imperial city of Ajmir was safe and well-frequented. Thereafter it crossed a gap in the Aravali barrier and ran level through the Marwar cities of Pali and Jhalor to Ahmadabad. The alternative or eastern route through the Malwa plateau and the broken jungly Panch Mahals was longer and marked by many a rise and fall. Indeed, the Marwar road was so manifestly advantageous that as early as the 12th century after Christ trade caravans are known to have regularly used it, and a race of robbers found a rich income by raiding Pali and levying blackmail on the transit of goods. The convenient situation of Pali, as a half-way house between Ahmadabad and Ajmir, made it the chief commercial mart of Western Rajputana.*

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∗ *Rajputana Gazetteer* (1879), ii. 222-228, 238 (following Tod, ch. 16).

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If such a province could be annexed to the imperial dominions or placed under a servile and dependent Rajah, Mughal traders and Mughal armies would be able to pass easily from the capital to Western India and the Arabian Sea, the proud lord of Udaipur would be taken in flank, and a long wedge of Muslim territory would be driven right across Rajputana, cleaving it into two isolated halves which could be crushed in detail.

§3. Jaswant and Aurangzib.

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A special reason, besides its strategic importance, made the kingdom of Marwar a desirable acquisition in Aurangzib's eyes. It was the foremost Hindu State of Northern India at this time.† Its chieftain was Jaswant Singh, who enjoyed the unrivalled rank of a Maharajah and whom the death of Jai Singh thirteen years ago had left as the leading Hindu peer of the Mughal Court. If his power passed on to a worthy successor, that successor would be the pillar of the Hindus' hopes all over the empire and the centre of the Hindu opposition to the policy of temple destruction and *jaziya*.

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∗ Raj. Gaz., ii. 230, 263 (following Tod, ii. ch. 1 and 16).

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† The Maharana of Udaipur, in spite of his pre-eminent descent, was a negligible factor of the Hindu population of the Mughal world, as he hid himself among his mountain fastnesses, and never appeared in the Mughal Court or camp.

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We know not whether Jaswant's sins of twenty years ago,—his presumption in opposing Aurangzib at Dharmat, after all the other nobles had declined to confront a prince of the blood, his treachery at Khajwa, his coquetting with Dara on the eve of the battle of Deorai,—still rankled in Aurangzib's bosom, as Khafi Khan asserts, and he now sought to take a safe if belated vengeance. But it is clear that the success of his plan of the forcible conversion of the Hindus required that Jaswant's State should sink into a quiescent dependency or a regular province of the empire. Hindu resistance to the policy of religious persecution must be deprived of a possible efficient head.*

§4. Death of Jaswant; Mughals occupy Marwar.

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On 10th December, 1678, Maharajah Jaswant Singh died at Jamrud when commanding the Mughal posts in the Khaibar Pass† and the Peshawar district in general. The news reached the Emperor at Delhi in the fourth week of the month, and he immediately formed his plans with regard to the State of Jodhpur. True, Jaswant had left no son to succeed him. But his elder brother Amar Singh,—disinherited and banished from Marwar by an angry father,—was now represented by his grandson Indra Singh, the Rao of Nagor and a loyal grandee of the imperial Court.* If Aurangzib had wished to preserve the life of the Jodhpur State, he had only to invest Indra Singh with the lordship of the Rathor clan. But for more than five months after Jaswant's death no successor was appointed to his vacant throne.

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∗ Khafi Khan, ii. 259. *Storia*, ii. 234. Tod, i. ch. 13, ii. ch. 7. In a letter written in 1659, Aurangzib speaks of Jaswant as "the infidel who has destroyed mosques and built idol-temples on their sites." (*Adab*, 263a.)

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† He was never viceroy of Afghanistan or even governor of Kabul city, but merely *thanadar* of Jamrud.

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On the contrary, immediately on hearing of Jaswant's death Aurangzib took steps to seize his kingdom. Muslim officers were appointed as *faujdar*, *qiladar*, *kotwal* and *amin* of Jodhpur, and the whole country was brought under direct Mughal rule. On 9th January, 1679, the Emperor himself set out for Ajmir, in order to be close enough to Jodhpur to overawe opposition and direct the military operations that might be necessary. High officers, like the wazir Asad Khan, Shaista Khan, and Prince Akbar, were summoned from their provinces to reinforce the Emperor at Ajmir. (M.A. 171-173.)

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∗ *M. A.* 175, speaks of Indra Singh as the son of Rao Rai Singh and grandson of Amar Singh. Also *M. U.* ii. 236, and *Dilkasha*, 165. *Ishwardas*, 74b, and a rejected MS. of *M. A.* call him the son of Amar Singh. Tod names him 'Rutna the son of Umra.' But *M. A.* is correct.

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But this overwhelming display of force was unnecessary. The death of Jaswant had thrown the Rathors into confusion and dismay. The State was without a head. Jaswant's highest officers and best troops were absent in Afghanistan. At first no resistance could be offered to the vast and well-directed Mughal armies that poured into the land. Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur with a band of high officers was sent on 7th February to occupy the country, demolish its temples, and seize the late Maharajah's property. On 1st March a detachment under Khidmat-guzar Khan entered the hill-fort of Siwanah, where the Rajahs of Marwar used to keep their treasures, and searched for them. But as the quest yielded nothing but a few old cloths, another officer was sent with masons to dig under the fort-walls, new mansions and courtyard, in search of buried treasure! The *diwan* of Crownlands was deputed to Jodhpur to make an inventory of Jaswant's property and prepare a statement of the revenue of the different districts of the State.*

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Some days before ordering the last steps, Aurangzib had learnt (on 26th February) that two of Jaswant's widows had given birth to two posthumous sons at Lahor.† But the Emperor was not to be moved from his policy of annexing Marwar by any regard for the law of legitimate succession. The arrangements for occupying the country being complete and national resistance seeming hopelessly impossible, he returned from Ajmir to Delhi (2nd April). On that day the invidious poll-tax on the Hindus was imposed again after a century of abeyance.*

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∗ M.A. 172; Akh. 22/1 (official records). † M.A. 173; Ishwardas, 73b.

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Next month Khan-i-Jahan returned to Court after taking possession of Jodhpur city and demolishing its temples. He was granted a special audience and highly praised for his services. "The cart-loads of idols he had brought away were ordered to be cast down in the Armoury Square of Delhi fort and under the steps of the Jama Mosque, to be trodden upon." Indra Singh Rathor, the chieftain of Nagor, and grand-nephew of Jaswant, was invested as Rajah of Jodhpur in return for a succession fee of 36 lakhs of Rupees (26th May), and sent to Marwar. But the Mughal administrators and generals in occupation of the country were retained there, evidently to help the new Rajah in taking possession of his State.†

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† M.A. 175-176. Ishwardas, 75a, says that the Emperor angrily dismissed Khan-i-Jahan for recommending that Jodhpur should be given to Jaswant's new-born son.

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The force massed at Ajmir was dispersed as the imperial policy seemed to have completely triumphed. Marwar, however, was far from being settled. "At the death of the Maharajah the head of every Rajput house in Marwar, out of the proud ambition of asserting his leadership, got ready to create disturbance and mischief.”* These troublers of peace might in time have been put down by efficient rule and the steady pressure of Mughal force. But a new actor now entered the scene to disturb and eventually to defeat the imperial policy. This was Ajit Singh, the son of Jaswant.

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∗ M.A. 174; Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 313; Ishwardas, 74a.

§5. Sons born to Jaswant.

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On the death of the Maharajah at Jamrud, five of his wives and seven of his concubines burnt themselves with his corpse. His followers began a hurried return to their homeland from the uncongenial climate of Afghanistan which had killed both Jaswant and his son Jagat Singh, the hope of his old age. On reaching Lahor two of the widowed Ranis gave birth to two sons (February, 1679), one of whom died in a few weeks, while the other, Ajit Singh, lived to mount the throne of Jodhpur after a most eventful and romantic career.†

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† Tod, ii. ch. 6 & 7; Ishwardas, 73b.

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As early as 26th February the Rathor ministers had waited on the Emperor and pleaded in vain for a recognition of the succession of Ajit to his father’s heritage. At the end of June the Maharajah’s family reached Delhi, and the rights of Ajit were again urged before Aurangzib; but he only ordered that the child should be brought up in his harem, with a promise to give him a rank in the Mughal peerage and investiture as Rajah when he would come of age.* One contemporary historian says that the throne of Jodhpur was offered to Ajit on condition of his turning Muslim.† Such a proposal would be quite in keeping with Aurangzib's past policy, as he had lately given the zamindaris of Chaukigarh, Deogarh, and Mau to those among rival claimants who had agreed to accept Islam. The assertion is corroborated by the fact that the counterfeit Ajit Singh whom he kept in ward, was brought up as a Muslim, given a Muslim name, Muhammadi Raj, and on his death buried as a Muslim.‡ Some years later Aurangzib, also pressed the captive Shahu Bhonsla to embrace Islam.

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∗ Ishwardas, 74b.

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† Dilkasha, 164.

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‡ Akhbarat, year 13 sheets 10, 24, 32; M. U. ii. 281; Tod, i. p. 413 (later); Ishwardas, 144 a.

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The loyal Rathors were seized with consternation at Aurangzib's proposal. Their cherished religion itself was in danger of being subtly overthrown. The life of the royal infant would scarcely be safe in the charge of his greedy and bigoted guardian. The clansmen vowed to die to a man to save their chieftain's heir. But even Rajput devotion and Rajput heroism would have availed little without the guiding genius of Durgadas, the flower of Rathor chivalry.

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∗ M.A. 173, 177.

§6. Durgadas Rathor, his character.

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Durgadas, one of the several sons of Jaswant's minister Askaran, the baron of Drunera, was born in 1638 at the village of lesser Salwe. When quite a lad he had shown his keen regard for his king's good name by slaying some royal grooms who had been feeding the State camels on the standing crops of the peasantry and wickedly asserting that it was done by the Rajah's command. But for his twenty-five years' unflagging exertion and wise contrivance, Ajit Singh could not have secured his father's throne. In scorn of the frequent risk of capture and other dangers of such a long journey, he volunteered to escort the luckless rebel Prince Akbar to the Maratha Court and thus saved him from the horrors of Aurangzib's vengeance. A soul of honour, he kept the deserted daughter of Akbar free from every stain and provided her with every facility for Islamic religious training in the wilderness of Marwar, Fighting against terrible odds and a host of enemies on every side, with distrust and wavering among his own countrymen, he kept the cause of his chieftain triumphant. Mughal gold could not seduce, Mughal arms could not daunt that constant heart. Almost alone among the Rathors he displayed the rare combination of the dash and reckless valour of a Rajput soldier with the tact, diplomacy and organizing power of a Mughal minister of State. No wonder that the Rathor bard should pray that every Rajput mother might have a son like Durgadas :*

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Eh mata put esa jin
Jesa Durga-das.

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When Aurangzib demanded the surrender of the infant Ajit Singh and placed a guard round his house to prevent his escape, Durgadas took counsel with his brother nobles and quickly formed a plan for saving his infant master. They pleaded with Aurangzib for delay, urging that the child was too young to be parted from his mother, and promising to present him at Court when he had grown up. The Emperor's wrath was inflamed by this resistance and on 15th July he sent a strong force under the Provost of Delhi city and the Captain of the imperial guards to seize the Ranis and Ajit and lodge them in the prison fortress of Nurgarh.†

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† M. A. 177; Ishwardas, 75a and b.

§7. The fight to save Ajit Singh.

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The imperialists shrank from provoking the "death-loving Rajputs" to extreme courses, and at first tried persuasion, but in vain. The Rathor plan was to ensure the escape of Ajit by offering desperate resistance and sacrificing their own lives freely in a series of rear-guard actions. While a smart musketry fire was being exchanged between the two sides, Raghunath, a Bhatti noble of Jodhpur, with a hundred devoted troopers made a sortie from one side of the mansion. Lance in hand, with faces grim as Death, the Rathor heroes rushed upon their foes; they had taken leave of life by making their last oblations to the gods and swallowing a double dose of their sweetest earthly solace, opium. Before their wild charge the imperialists quailed, and seizing this momentary confusion Durgadas slipped out with Ajit and the Ranis dressed in male attire, and rode direct for Marwar. For an hour and a half Raghunath dyed the streets of Delhi with blood, but at last he fell with 70 of his comrades. The Mughals now set off in pursuit, but Durgadas had covered nine miles by the time he was overtaken. It was now Ranchhordas Jodha's turn to face round with a small band and gain precious time by barring the enemy's path. When their resistance was at last borne down and the Mughals rode over their corpses to the fugitives, Durgadas sent the Maharajah's family onwards with forty troopers, while he himself stayed behind at the head of 50 men and checked the Mughals for an hour. It was now evening; the Mughals were worn out by the long ride and the three murderous conflicts; and so when the wounded Durgadas cut his way out with seven troopers, the sole remnant of his gallant band, the pursuit was abandoned. The baffled Mughals returned to Delhi. Durgadas rejoined his prince and safely conducted him to Marwar (23rd July).*

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∗ Tod, ii. ch. 7 and end of ch. 9. The anecdote about young Durgadas I owe to M. M. Haraprasad Shastri. For Aurangzib's recognition of Durgadas's services in giving religious education to Akbar's daughter, Ishwardas, 167 b. [Post ch. 58 §6.]

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Ajit grew up in strict concealment among a monastic brotherhood on the lonely rock of Abu. But his escape from Delhi had become known and his name became the rallying cry of the Rathor legitimists. Aurangzib's policy in Marwar seemed to have been wrecked. But his statecraft struck a shrewd blow to counter the action of Durgadas: he brought up a milkman's infant in his harem as the true Ajit Singh and proclaimed Durgadas's protege to be a bogus prince. At the same time he dismissed the degraded Tahir Khan, the *faujdar* of Jodhpur, for failure to keep Durgadas out, and also dethroned Indra Singh, the two months' Rajah of Marwar, for his manifest incapacity to "rule fifty thousand Rathor blades." (*M.A.* 179; *Dilkasha*, 165; Tod, ii. ch. 7.)

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∗ This account of the escape of Ajit is based on Ishwardas, 75a—76b, because he was in close touch with the Rathors and afterwards acted as a go-between in inducing Durgadas to submit to the Mughal Government. Tod, ii. ch. 7, as usual, indulges in rhapsodies. Dilkasha, 164, is meagre. Khafi Khan, ii. 259-260, supports Ishwardas. The official history, M.A., 178, represents it as an imperial victory!

§8. Aurangzib annexes Marwar.

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A strong force was sent into Marwar under Sarbuland Khan (17th August), and a fortnight later the Emperor himself started for Ajmir to direct the reconquest of the State. Anarchy and slaughter were let loose on the doomed province. The nationalist party was threatened by a host of enemies. The Parihars,—the dispossessed ancient lords of the land and the hereditary enemies of the Rathor interlopers,—tried to revive their historic kingdom of Gurjara-Pratihar by seizing Mandor, the ancient capital, 5 miles north of Jodhpur.

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The Emperor called up heavy reinforcements from the distant provinces, and took up his headquarters at Ajmir on 25th September, and though he himself spent the next month in comparative quiet for keeping the fast of Ramzan, his army advanced fighting under his son Muhammad Akbar. The Mughal Van was led by Tahawwur Khan, the *faujdar* of Ajmir. The Mairtia clan of Rathors, under one Raj Singh, barred his path in front of the temple of the Boar near the sacred lake of Pushkar, and a three days' continuous battle ended only with the extinction of the brave defenders after mounds of the dead had been piled up on both sides (19th August).[^ *]

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[^ *]: *Raj-vilas* calls the place Joginipur, and gives 28th August as the date of the battle, which according to this poem ended in a complete rout of the Mughals.

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This was the last pitched battle of the campaign; thereafter the Rajputs always carried on a guerilla warfare from their lurking places in the hills and desert. The Emperor now divided Marwar into districts over each of which a Mughal officer was placed as *faujdar* (end of October). The pretence of rule by a vassal Rajah was given up, and the State placed under the direct administration of the Crown.[*]

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Advancing north-west from Ajmir, Prince Akbar entered Marwar and forced his way to Mairta. His route is still marked by the cenotaphs of the Rathor heroes who tried to stem the tide of invasion with small bands of their brethren or personal retainers. But no resistance could stand against such odds, and the whole country was soon occupied by the foe. "As the cloud pours water upon the earth, so did Aurangzib pour his barbarians over the land... Jodhpur fell and was pillaged; and all the great towns in the plains of Mairta, Didwana, and Rohit, shared a similar fate. The emblems of religion were trampled under foot, the temples thrown down and mosques erected on their sites." But this policy of aggression and religious persecution, by provoking a natural reaction brought about its own failure; the Rathors and Sisodias united in defence of their common faith, the Maharana of Udaipur took up the cause of Ajit Singh, and the war entered on a new stage (end of November, 1679). [Tod, ii. ch. 7.]

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∗ *M.A.*, 179—182; *Ishwardas*, 76b; *Tod*, *ibid*. *Tahawwur* is the "Tyber" of *Tod*.

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§9. Maharana of Mewar’s relations with the Emperor.

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Ever since the time of Jahangir, the chief of Mewar had been loyal to the Mughal throne. True, he had never personally appeared at Court to make his bow among the vassals of the empire. But the imperial dignity had been satisfied with his rendering such homage by deputy,—usually through a son or a younger brother. Every now and then the Maharana had sent agents to the Emperor with complimentary gifts, and had received robes of honour, elephants, jewellery and royal letters in return. A contingent of his troops had occasionally fought in the imperial ranks, as was the duty of all feudatories. Late in the reign cf Shah Jahan (1654), he had fortified Chitor in violation of treaty; but the presumption had been promptly punished : a Mughal army under the wazir Sadullah Khan had dismantled the fort and forced the refractory Maharana to offer an apology. [Waris, 90b—93a.]

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But now the lord of Udaipur had to choose between rebellion and the loss of whatever is dearest to man. The Mughal annexation of Marwar turned his left flank and exposed his country to invasion through the Aravali passes on its western side, while the eastern half of his State, being comparatively level, lay as open to a foe as before. The mountain fastness of Kamalmir, which had sheltered Pratap during the dark days of Akbar's invasion, would now cease to be an impregnable refuge to his successor. The annexation of Marwar was but the preliminary to an easy conquest of Mewar. Besides, Aurangzib's campaign of temple destruction was not likely to stop within the imperial dominions. He had demolished and wantonly desecrated the holiest Hindu shrines at Benares, Mathura and Somnath. In Rajputana itself, even before the death of Jaswant gave him any pretext for interference, he had pulled down the great temples of Khandela and Sanula and "all other temples" there, while after Jaswant's death, the Mughal occupation of his capital had been signalized by the wanton demolition of its temples and the public desecration of their idols. [M.A. 173.] On the revival of the jaziya tax, a demand for its enforcement throughout his State had been sent to the Maharana. [K. K. ii. 261.] If the Sisodias did not stand by the Rathors now, the two clans would be crushed piecemeal, and the whole of Rajasthan would lie helpless under the tyrant's feet. So thought Maharana Raj Singh, and so thought his clansmen, many of whom had already fraternized with the Rathor refugees in the Godwar district and opposed the Mughals under Tahawwur Khan. [Ishwardas, 77b.] The mother of Ajit Singh was a Mewar princess, and Raj Singh could not, either as a kinsman or as a knight, reject her appeal to defend the orphan's rights.

§10. The war in Mewar.

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Raj Singh began his preparations for war. With huge portals he closed the pass of Deobari which leads to his capital, and also repaired the fortifications of Chitor. Aurangzib with his usual promptitude struck the first blow. He left Ajmir (30th November, 1679) for Udaipur. Seven thousand picked soldiers under Hasan Ali Khan marched in advance from Pur ravaging the Rana's territory and clearing the way for the main army. The Rajputs had nothing that could make a stand against the excellent Mughal artillery served by European gunners. On the plains they were hopelessly outclassed. Hence, the Rana had prepared for the invasion by abandoning the low country and retiring with all his subjects to the hills, whither the Mughals durst not penetrate. The deserted pass of Deobari, leading to Udaipur from the east, was occupied by the Emperor on 4th January, 1680. Even the capital Udaipur, was found evacuated. The Mughals took possession of it and destroyed its great temple, "one of the wonders of the age and a building that had cost the infidels much money,"—its twenty self-elected defenders fell fighting one by one in a hopeless resistance, after slaying many times their own number. Three temples on the Udai-sagar lake suffered the same fate.*

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Hasan Ali Khan entered the hills north-west of Udaipur in search of the Rajput army; but all trace of him was lost among those rugged defiles. There was extreme anxiety about him in the imperial camp, as all communication with him had ceased for several days. The regular scouts refused to go out on reconnaissance in fear of the Rajputs. At last a young Turani lieutenant, Mir Shihab-ud-din, undertook the perilous adventure and by a combination of audacity and cleverness reached Hasan Ali's camp, and brought back news of his safety to the anxiously expectant Emperor. This achievement was the beginning of a long and successful career which ended in his becoming the highest peer of the realm and the father of the founder of the greatest Muslim State that rose on the ruins of the Mughal empire.†

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∗ M. A. 182, 186. Ishwardas, 78b—79a. Tod, i. ch.

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¹³ Storia, ii.

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²⁴⁰ K. K. ii.

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²⁶³ Aurangzib, on taking possession of Udaipur, set about "demolishing the portals of Deobari, dismantling the palaces and temples, and cutting down the garden trees." (Ishwardas, 79a.)

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† M. A., 186-187; Ishwardas, 80a. Anecdotes, §33, places this feat of scouting later, but it is wrong.

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Hasan Ali was reinforced and freshly provisioned, and he inflicted a defeat on the Maharana (22nd January), capturing his camp and property and much grain on the way, and destroying 173 temples in the environs of Udaipur. Chitor had been already occupied by the Mughals, and 63 temples of the place were destroyed when Aurangzib visited it at the end of February. The power of Mewar having been seemingly crushed and its ruler being a fugitive among the hills, the Emperor left Udaipur and returned to Ajmir (on 22nd March), while a strong force under Prince Akbar held the Chitor district as a base.* The Udaipur valley was evidently abandoned by the Mughals, as too distant to be occupied with safety. Even then the imperial outposts were too far scattered to be defended easily, while the whole of the Rajput land was seething with hostility. The Mughal positions in Mewar and Marwar were isolated from each other by the wedge of the Aravali range, whose crest the Rana held in force, and from which he could make sudden descents and deal crushing blows on the east or on the west as he pleased, while the Mughals in transferring troops from Chitor to southern Marwar had to make a long and toilsome detour through the Bednor, Beawar, and Sojat districts.

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∗ M. A. 187, 189-190.

§11. Difficulties of the imperialists.

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The rough circle formed by the massed hills of Mewar and stretching from Udaipur westwards to Kamalmir and from Rajsamudra lake southwards to Salumbra, resembled a vast impregnable fort with three gates, opening east, north and west, through which the garrison could sally out in full force and crush any isolated Mughal outpost or thin Mughal detachment that seemed an easy prey. The Mughals, on the other hand, could effect a concentration only by moving along a long arc of which the Rana held the short base. The Emperor's plan of campaign was virtually that of besieging this immense natural circle and breaking into it through its three gates,—Udaipur, Rajsamudra and Deosuri.

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Prince Akbar had been left at Chitor in charge of all the Mughal posts east of the Aravali and south of Ajmir. But his force was too small for the effective defence of this vast region. Under his direct command were probably 12,000 men,[*] and after deducting the large detachments he had to send out under his chief lieutenants, Hasan Ali Khan and Tahawwur Khan, he could never spare more than 2,000 men from his own corps to strengthen any threatened outpost. On the other hand, the Rathors alone are said to have numbered 25,000 horsemen, at the lowest computation, while the Udaipur troops must have exceeded 12,000, as they formed three independent divisions.* The Rajputs, fighting in their homeland, knew every nook of the ground and were helped by a friendly peasantry. The Mughals were strangers to that wild broken country and marched among a hostile population, though some Rajput nobles (of the Rathor and Hada clans) fought under the imperial banners.

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∗ The strength of Akbar's army is not given in M.A., Ishwardas or K. K. But we learn from Adab No. 700 that when, on 22nd Nov., after receiving reinforcements from Court, he made Tahawwur Khan force the Jhilwara Pass, the troops employed numbered 9,000 only, with possibly a thousand or two in reserve. That Akbar used to reinforce his subordinates with not more than 2,000 men from his own division is stated in Adab, Nos. 638, 666, 675 and 694. Akbar was

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a divisional commander like his brother Shah Alam, and the force which the latter brought to Ajmir to save the Emperor during Akbar's rebellion, was only 9 to 10 thousand strong. (K. K. ii. 266.) The Rajput bard's statement that "Seventy thousand men under Tyber Khan were commanded to destroy the Rajputs," is an instance of poetic licence.

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The Rathor army before Akbar's defection was estimated at nearly 25,000 horsemen (K. K. ii. 263). When the prince rebelled he was joined by 30,000 Rajputs (K. K. ii. 265, Storia, ii. 245), or 25,000, according to Ishwardas, (81 b). To this body the Maharana contributed only *half* his armed strength (*Adab*, No. 756). The Rathor national militia is frequently computed in the Rajput annals at 'fifty thousand *talwar-i-Rathoran*,'—an indefinite expression,—more than double of the real number. The *Raj-vilas* counts the Mewar army as 25,000 strong.

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∗ Tod, i. ch. 13, p. 397.

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Moreover, while the invaders lacked a decisive superiority in mere numbers, the Rajput soldiers very early established a personal ascendancy over their enemy.

§12. Rajput successes.

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A marked increase of Rajput activity began with the Emperor's retirement to Ajmir (in March). They made raids, cut off supply trains and stragglers, and made the Mughal outposts extremely unsafe. From Prince Akbar's letters we learn how effectually the Rajputs succeeded in creating a terror of their prowess. The command of Mughal outposts went abegging, captain after captain declining the dangerous honour and "offering excuses"; the Mughal troops refused to enter any pass, "being overcome by vain fancies"; detachments sat down only a short distance from the base and refused to advance further.* The bitter experiences of Hasan Ali Khan's troops when they were lost for a fortnight in the hills west of Udaipur and the greatest alarm and anxiety which were felt in the imperial camp on their account, must have completely unnerved the Mughal army.

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In April, 1680, the Mughal garrison in Zafarnagar* was invested by Gopal Singh, and its communication with the head-quarters cut off for a time. About the middle of the next month Akbar's camp near Chitor was surprised at night and some slaughter done by the Rajputs who had entered it by a ruse. The Maharana descended from the hills and roamed the Bednor district, threatening Akbar's communications with Ajmir. Such was the terror inspired by the Rajputs that even Hasan Ali Khan refused to invade the hills, pleading the difficulty of transport. The imperialists had to wall their camp around for safety. At the end of this month (May), a terrible reverse befell the Mughal arms: Akbar was surprised by the Rana and evidently suffered a heavy loss. A few days later, the Rajputs carried off a convoy of *Banjaras* with 10,000 pack-oxen bringing grain to the prince's army from Malwa by way of Mandesor and Nimach. The enemy daily grew bolder. One of the Rana's armies under his son Bhim Singh ranged the country, striking swift and sudden blows at weak points. The Emperor's order to lay Mewar waste could not be carried out, as the Mughal captains refused to advance beyond the low country; "our army is motionless through fear," so Akbar complains. Even Bednor, north-west of Chitor, was threatened. The Mughal army in Mewar was faced with starvation, and provisions had to be sent to it from Ajmir under strong escort.∗

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∗ Adab, Nos. 662, 666, 733, 734 (officers decline the command of outposts in fear).

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∗ Adab, Nos. 721 and 748. I cannot trace this fort, which was situated in the land of the Hada clan, probably Kotah. Rantambhor is too far north to be the place meant, though otherwise it seems most likely.

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∗ Adab; Tod, i. p. 400 (supplies sent from Ajmir).

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At these signal instances of Akbar's failure, the Emperor in high wrath sent him off to Marwar and placed the command of Chitor in the hands of another son, Prince Azam (26th June).

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The imperial plan henceforth was to penetrate the Mewar hills in three columns,—from the Chitor or eastern side Prince Azam would advance by way of the Deobari Pass and Udaipur, from the north Prince Muazzam by way of the lake Rajsamudra, and from the west Akbar through the Deosuri Pass. The first two failed to achieve their tasks; and we now turn to Akbar's operations in Marwar during the second half of the year 1680, of which his 127 letters in the *Adab-i-Alamgiri* give a detailed account.†

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† Akbar's own account of his operations is given in his letters to Shah Alam (Adab, No. 686) and Zeb-un-nisa (Adab, No. 700).

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The disgraced prince left Chitor on 26th June and went to Marwar by the Barr Pass,‡ a few miles west of Beawar,—Tahawwur Khan ably leading his Van and clearing the way for him. The Rajputs occasionally molested his march, but they were beaten off, and he even took prisoners at the village of Beawar and another place south of Mairta where the Rathors had made a stand. The town of Sojat in the Luni valley was reached on 18th July, and it continued to be his head-quarters for some months.

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‡ The MS. reads B R H A, H R H or B R H. Neither Banera nor Barl (28 m. north of Banera) seems to be the place meant.

§13. Guerilla warfare in Marwar.

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But in Marwar the imperial arms met with no better success than in Mewar. The Rathor bands spread over the country, appearing unexpectedly in different quarters and scoring a success wherever a Mughal outpost was weakly held, closing the trade routes, and keeping the land in perpetual turmoil. No great pitched battle was fought, but the Mughal general was distracted by the ever present alarm and the necessity of reinforcing threatened points in time; his divisional commanders were worn out by their ceaseless marches and counter-marches in the vain attempt to clear the country of the elusive Rajput bands and keep the roads open for traffic. All parts of Marwar,—Jhalor and Siwana in the south, Godwar in the east, Nagor in the extreme north, and Didwana and Sambhar in the north-east, were invaded by Ajit's partisans in turn, always by surprise, and some times oftener than once.

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§14. Prince Akbar's campaign in Rajputana.

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On entering Marwar, Akbar's instructions were to make the central position at Sojat secure, then occupy Nadol, the chief town of the Godwar district, from which new base his Van under Tahawwur Khan was to advance eastwards into Mewar by the city of Narlai, force the Deosuri Pass, and invade the Kamalmir region, where the Maharana and the defeated Rathors had taken refuge, and from which they used to make sallies. But it took many months to carry this plan out. So great was the terror inspired by the "death-loving" Rajputs that Tahawwur's troops stopped at Kharwa, on the way to Nadol, refusing to advance (early in August). When, a month later, they did reach Nadol, the same fear and inactivity were again displayed. Therefore, the Commander-in-Chief had to go to the place himself, to drive them forward. After making arrangements for the patrolling of the roads and the supply of provisions, establishing a chain of outposts from Jodhpur to Sojat and thence to Nadol, and organizing bodies of pioneers and water-carriers for the campaign in Mewar, Akbar left Sojat on 21st September, and reached Nadol at the end of the month. But Tahawwur Khan refused to enter the hills, and Akbar had to use compulsion towards his timid lieutenant. On 27th September the Khan advanced towards the mouth of the pass to reconnoitre. The Rajputs under Bhim Singh, the second son of the Maharana, descended from the hills and gave battle, with losses on both sides.[*]

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Then, for more than a month and a half, we have a long spell of delay which is mysterious. As early as the end of May, the Maharana had proposed terms through Tahawwur Khan; Rathor envoys had been visiting the Khan's camp off and on since the beginning of August. Akbar had warned the Emperor not to take these overtures seriously, as they were clearly intended to delay the Mughal invasion.[†] Tahawwur Khan had, however, been instructed to win over to his side as many Rathor and Sisodia nobles as he could, and he was, therefore, constantly holding parley with them. How early he had yielded to Rajput seduction and decided to play the traitor, we do not know. But from September 1680 we notice a suspicious slackening of his activity. He is no longer the brave and dashing officer who, as commander of Akbar's Van in the first Jodhpur campaign and the war in eastern Mewar, had won the Emperor's praise and the title of Padishah Quli Khan. He will not advance unless a sergeant-at-arms is sent to compel him; he pleads the difficulty of the roads, the smallness of his own force, and the enemy's overwhelming numbers.

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∗ The battle has been very graphically described by Ishwardas, 77b-78b. Adab (Nos. 670 and 700) and Tod, i. p. 401, briefly refer to it.

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† Adab, Nos. 662, 716, 723, 724.

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After more than six weeks had been wasted while Akbar sat down at Nadol and Tahawwur Khan at the village of Deosuri near the entrance to the pass, the prince found that his father's patience had been worn out. The Emperor sent him money and reinforcements under the Paymaster Ruhullah Khan with orders to enforce a forward movement of the division. Further delay could not be excused. So, Akbar advanced his base from Nadol to Deosuri (19th November), and from the latter village sent Tahawwur Khan on to force the Jhilwara Pass (22nd). Three thousand musketeers crowned the ridges right and left in long files, while the Khan, at the head of six thousand picked cavalry, dashed into the narrow defile between. The Rajputs offered a stubborn resistance in defence of their stronghold; many were slain on both sides, but the Mughals advanced to Jhilwara, fighting and carrying the barricades across the path. Ammunition, provisions, and baggage were pushed up to them from the rear by Akbar, and the Khan, from his station at Jhilwara, began to ravage the neighbouring country freely. The Mughal advanced position was strengthened in flank and rear by planting outposts at Someshwar in the north and Sadri in the south of it, building a redoubt at Deosuri, and daily patrolling the road from Narlai to the pass. Other outposts under loyal Rajput officers radiated west, north and east, from Nadol as a centre.

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The advance to Jhilwara was made on 22nd November. The next step would have been to push on eight miles south to Kamalmir, the last refuge of the Rana. But during the next five weeks we have again the same suspicious inactivity on Tahawwur Khan's part. Akbar in his despatches to his father weakly complains of his lieutenant's procrastination and defers his own advance till the arrival of fresh reinforcements. But, in truth, the prince's treasonable plot was fully hatched during this period. On 1st January, 1681 he united with the Rajput rebels, issued a manifesto deposing his father, and crowned himself Emperor; and the next day he set out for Ajmir to wrest the Mughal crown from Aurangzib's brows.