History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c66.s6.4

v4.c66.s6.4

Then a stinging rebuke from the Emperor and an unusually audacious act of sniping on the Prince's camp, roused him to seek battle again. After a very bloody contest the Deccanis were pushed back to their camp at noon, when the Prince very chivalrously granted them a few hours' respite to remove their women to a place of safety, as it was a war between men on both sides. Thereafter, the battle was renewed; but at sunset the Deccanis retreated, after Shaikh Minhaj and Rustam Rao had been wounded and both sides had suffered heavy losses. Next morning it was learnt that they had fled towards Haidarabad. The cause of this sudden break-down of the Deccani resistance was dissension between the commander-in-chief, Mir Muhammad Ibrahim, and his second in command, Shaikh Minhaj, and the seduction of the former by the Mughals. The Prince, being now unopposed, rapidly marched towards Haidarabad. It is said in some histories that Ibrahim’s intended treachery was suspected by the Golkonda Government and a plan was formed to arrest him, but he forestalled it by escaping to the Prince’s camp when the Mughals arrived in the vicinity of Haidarabad, in the beginning of October, 1685. (K.K. ii. 298-306; Dil. 189; Ishwardas, 91a.)