History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c53.4

v3.c53.4

Aurangzib subdues the low country; Rana withdraws to the hills. Mughals capture the strongholds,—Chitor, Mandalgarh, Mandesor, Jiran, and many others (canto x. 117.) Aurangzib stops at Deobari Pass [4 Jan. 1680], sends Akbar to occupy deserted Udaipur, [16 Jan.] Kumar Jai Singh surprises Akbar at Udaipur, while Rana cuts off his retreat eastwards to Deobari. Akbar marches towards Gogunda, which the hills block. Jai Singh releases Akbar on promise of ending the war, and escorts him to Chitor via Jhilwara. [Crit.—Incredible story. The bearings are wrong. Chitor is east of Gogunda, and one has not to go there via Jhilwara which is west, and the way to which involves the needless crossing of hills, while the natural route eastwards via Udaipur and Deobari could have been easily opened to Akbar. Equally incredible is Manucci's story, as given in Storia, ii. 241, that the Rana encircled the Emperor, cut his supplies off, and captured Udaipuri Begam. The Emperor was methodically guarded in full force during his stay in Mewar: when he stopped at Deobari, his Van occupied Udaipur; when he himself went to Udaipur, a strong force under Hasan Ali Khan advanced westwards pursuing the Rana to Gogunda. The Rana, who was at this time a fugitive, could not have attacked the Emperor who occupied the centre, without destroying the left or western wing of the Mughal army. On the contrary he was actually defeated by this wing on 22nd January. Twenty camel loads of tents and other property captured from the Rana, "who had fled leaving his camp and property behind," were brought (on 29th January) to the Emperor by the victorious Hasan Ali Khan, who also "seized so much grain during this campaign that it led to cheapness" in the camp bazar. (M.A. 189.) As the Mughal line from Deobari to Udaipur was unbroken, Aurangzib's communication with his rear could not have been cut off nor could his wife have been captured, unless she had ventured west of Udaipur with a slender escort, which is highly improbable. The envelopment of the Emperor is, I think, the garbled Rajput tradition of the envelopment of Hasan Ali Khan's force near Gogunda, which, however, did not end in a Mughal defeat. Akbar met with some defeats at the hands of the Rana's army, but that was later, *after* the Emperor's return to Ajmir and took place in the open country east of the Deobari Pass, as we learn from the *Adab*, which gives detailed and accurate dates.]