History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c49.s7: §7. The fight to save Ajit Singh.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c49.s7
- Language
- English
§7. The fight to save Ajit Singh.
v3.c49.s7.1
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).*
v3.c49.s7.2
∗ 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.]
v3.c49.s7.3
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.)
v3.c49.s7.4
∗ 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!