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History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68: Chapter XLVII. Fall of Golkonda, 1687.

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68

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Chapter XLVII. Fall of Golkonda, 1687.

§ 1. Fort of Golkonda described.

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On 30th October 1686, Aurangzib left the newly conquered city of Bijapur and then travelled by easy stages to Kulbarga and Bidar, halting there for several weeks. "At last on 14th January 1687 he mounted his horse to punish that luckless man, Abul Hasan," and on the 28th of the month arrived within two miles of Golkonda. Meantime, Abul Hasan had again fled from his capital to this fort, and the city of Haidarabad was occupied for the third and last time by the Mughals. Firuz Jang had been detached after the fall of Bijapur to capture the Qutb-Shahi fort of Ibrahimgarh (or Yadagiri, 30 m. s. of Malkhed.) After carrying out that task, he had advanced and taken possession of Haidarabad in the name of the Emperor. (M.A. 287-288.)

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On hearing of Aurangzib's coming, "Abul Hasan was in utter despair and perplexity. His lips were strangers to laughter, his eyes full of tears, his head vacant of sense, his tongue speechless. He offered submission to the Emperor with new protestations of devotion. But the Emperor's only reply was the sword." (M.A. 287).

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The walled city of Haidarabad, the seat of the Qutb-Shahi Government, stands on the south bank of the Musi river, which was then crossed by a grand old stone bridge of early 17th century construction. North of the river were a number of suburbs, "where all the merchants, brokers, and artisans dwelt, and in general all the common people," Haidarabad itself having been reserved for the Sultan, his Court, nobles and military officers. Even to-day the westernmost of these suburbs bears the name of *Karwan*, from the many caravanserais for merchants and travellers that it once contained. Next, to the east, came Dhulpet, and beyond it Begam Bazar with the Gosha Mahal ("Secluded Palace") standing in the midst of a park north of the peopled quarter. Further east, after crossing a thin stream feeding the Musi, lay the site of the British Residency and the aristocratic Chadarghat ward of the present day.

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Two miles due west of this stone bridge, some 160 yards north of the Musi river, lies the fort of Golkonda,[*] the impregnable stronghold of the Deccan. It is an irregular rhombus, with a rough pentagon (the *Naya Qila*) annexed to its north-eastern face. A strong crenellated wall of granite, over four miles in length and of great thickness, surrounds the fort, which is further defended by 87 semi-circular bastions, each from 50 to 60 feet high and built of solid blocks of granite cemented together, some of them weighing more than a ton. The eight massive gates could have safely defied any artillery known to the 17th century. On the walls were mounted a vast display of cannon, some of them being very fine specimens of the mediæval gun-founder's art. Outside is a deep ditch, 50 feet broad, with stone retaining walls, and along the entire southern side there are traces of a second parallel moat still visible.

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∗ Described from my personal observations in October, 1916 An excellent large scale map has been prepared by the Archæological Department of the Nizam.

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But Golkonda really consists of four distinct forts joined to each other and included within the same lines of circumvallation. The lowest of these is the outermost enclosure into which we enter by the Fath Darwaza near the south-eastern corner; it is a vast tract covered with mansions of the nobles, bazars, temples, mosques, soldiers' barracks, powder magazines, stables and even cultivated fields. Here the whole population of Haidarabad used to live in times of danger. Proceeding inside along the grand main road for some 1,250 yards from the Fath Darwaza, and leaving a set of rather later palaces, harems and offices on a low site on the right, we arrive at the Bala Hisar gate which leads us, over a flight of steps, to a higher area with exceedingly lofty and strong walls and containing a capacious three-storied armoury, magazines, stables, mosques, audience chambers, harems, gardens, large wells with steps, and even two serais and a temple of the monkey-god!

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Further west, some 200 steps cut in the solid rock lead the traveller up to the very apex of the fortress, the Bala Hisar (or Upper Fort), standing on a bed of solid granite, its walls being formed by huge boulders with here and there connecting curtains and parapets that tower far overhead. This is the citadel of the citadel, the kernel of the whole fort; and here the early Dravidian Rajahs of the land had built their first stronghold, by filling the gaps in the natural rocky walls with mud and rough stones, and here their rude ancient temples cut into the rock still stand. In this Bala Hisar the Qutb-Shahi kings had erected a two-storied palace, the roof of which commands a free view of the environs for miles and miles around. Here they could have retired as a last resource, for it contains, in spite of its great height, a well of water, and powder magazines and numerous granaries (ambar-khanah) hollowed out of the bed-rock. The western face of the Bala Hisar is a steep scarp, between which and the outermost wall on that side, the plain is broken by three long granite spurs running westwards, and presents to the eye a bare uneven desert some 260 yards in width, strewn with fragments of rock.

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At the north-western corner of the fort, on both sides of the Patancheru Road, there are reservoirs of water and thick human habitations, gardens, and a small cemetery. At the north-eastern angle stands a mound commanding parts of Golkonda; but it was enclosed by a wall and added to the fort, under the name of the Naya Qila or New Fort, by king Abdullah as a defensive precaution after Aurangzib's first siege in 1656. (M.A. 301.) North, south and even west of this last area are large tanks, and the water-supply of the fort was unfailing.

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Between the fort and the northern suburbs of Haidarabad the ground is low and scored by streamlets draining the surplus water of the Langarcheru into the Musi. Here, as well as round the Naya Qila lie many hundred acres of rice-field, secure of irrigation from the tanks of this region. North of the fort, at a distance of a mile and a quarter, runs a low range of bare fantastically piled up hills, skirted by the great old road from Sholapur and the west. Here Aurangzib is said to have established his own quarters at the last siege. About a thousand yards outside the Patancheru or North-Western gate, stand the magnificent tombs of the Qutb-Shahi kings, queens and nobles; and this position seems to have sheltered some of the besieging force. But so far as we can infer from the scanty details left about the siege, the Mughal attack was directed on the south-eastern and southern faces of the fort, their soldiers moving along both the north and south banks of the Musi, while the N. W. gate was bombarded only as a feint.*

§ 2. Siege of Golkonda begins: death of Qalich Khan.

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Arrived within view of Golkonda (28th January, 1687), Aurangzib at once ordered his generals to assail and drive away the enemy's troops who had assembled in the dry ditch under shelter of the fort walls, "like a swarm of flies." One charge of the imperialists swept them away, or as the Mughal official history puts it, "the wind came and the gnats fled away"; and their property, wives and children were captured. Qalich Khan (the grandfather of the first Nizam) tried to enter the fort pell-mell with the fugitives and capture it by one stroke. But Golkonda was not to be taken by a coup de main. He was hit on the shoulder-blade by a zamburak bullet from the fort walls, and with one exception all his followers hung back from this desperate enterprise. So the Khan had to return in disappointment. The old warrior bore his pain with stoic fortitude. "When the surgeons were extracting the splinters of bone from his shoulder, he was sitting calmly engaged in conversation with the men around, without twitching a muscle of his face, and sipping coffee with the other hand. He cried out, 'I have got an excellent tailor!' In spite of all the remedies tried by the doctors, he died after three days." (M.A. 288-289; Dil. 206.)

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∗ Siege of Golkonda: M.A. 288—300 (most authentic and complete.) Niamat Khan Ali in his Waqai treats only eight select episodes of the siege (16th May—22nd June) in an intolerably rhetorical and rather obscure style. He, however, gives us several details and graphic touches not to be found elsewhere. But his narrative stops full three months before the fall of the fort. The lithographed edition of Niamat published by the Newal Kishore Press is here referred to, but it abounds in gross mistakes, especially of date, which I have corrected from a MS. in my possession. K. K. (ii. 329—368) gives a simple and useful summary of Niamat Khan, with many additional details, esp. of the last stage of the siege, evidently gathered from survivors. His evidence, esp. about the diplomatic rupture, is extremely valuable. Dil. 206—208 is very short and supplies no new information; the author was not an eye-witness of the siege. Ishwardas is useful for the surrender only. Storia, ii. 305—308 (of little value and partly doubtful.) Chahar Gulshan, 92a—93a (secondary source.) My papers in the Journal of the Haidarabad Archæological Society.

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Regular siege operations had, therefore, to be undertaken against the fort. On 7th February the trenches were opened and thus began the siege of Golkonda which was destined to last seven months and a half, to cause unspeakable suffering and loss to the Mughals, and to end, not in a glorious victory of arms, but in a shameful capture through bribery.

§ 3. Shah Alam's offences.

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The siege began under the Emperor's own eyes, but at the very outset his arms were paralysed by a conflict of policy and a bitter personal jealousy in his camp. The greatest sinner in this respect was his eldest surviving son and intended heir, Shah Alam. This Prince was of a soft pleasure-loving nature, and constitutionally averse to strenuous exertion and heroic enterprise. He did not wish to see a brother sovereign like Abul Hasan utterly ruined. This generous impulse was mingled with a more sordid feeling: if Golkonda were taken by assault, all the credit of the achievement would go to the commander-in-chief Firuz Jang, as the credit of the capture of Bijapur had gone to his younger brother Muhammad Azam. But if he could induce Abul Hasan to sue for peace through his mediation, then he himself would be proclaimed in the official reports as the captor of Golkonda. Abul Hasan knew it and worked on the Prince's feelings. His agents secretly visited Shah Alam with costly presents, begging him to use his influence with the Emperor to save Abul Hasan's throne and dynasty. The Prince gave encouraging replies, in order to induce Qutb Shah to look up to him as his only friend at Court and not to seek any other intercessor. For some time envoys and letters continued to pass between the two.*

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In thus negotiating behind the Emperor's back and with an enemy beyond hope of the Emperor's pardon, Shah Alam was playing a dangerous game. And he had enemies in the camp ever on the look out for a chance to ruin him. His rival, Azam, was no doubt absent, but had friends in the imperial army and Court, who were glad of an opportunity to trip up Shah Alam. The Prince's position was rendered still more dangerous by dissensions in his harem. His favourite wife, Nur-un-nisa (the daughter of Mirza Sanjar Najam Sani) had monopolized his heart by her accomplishments as a Hindi poetess, devotion and care for his comfort, and charity to all, so that his other wives were jealous of her to the death. Azam's partisans revealed to the Emperor the secret of the communications passing between Shah Alam and Abul Hasan, while the neglected wives of the Prince denounced Nur-un-nisa as her husband's counsellor and agent in these treasonable negotiations. They even spread the false tale that she had shamelessly gone to the fort in disguise and assured Abul Hasan that Shah Alam would come over to him if the Emperor rejected the proffered peace. An order of Shah Alam to bring his women's tents closer to his headquarters, really a precaution against surprise by the enemy, strengthened Aurangzib's suspicion that the Prince was meditating flight to the enemy's fort with his family. All doubts were set at rest when Firuz Jang intercepted and showed to the Emperor one night some letters which the Prince had been trying to send to the fort.

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∗ The captivity of Shah Alam M A 293—295, K K ii 330—334, Ishwardas 113b—116a (gives a different cause), Dil 207 (only five lines), Hamid ud din's Ahkam §9, Storia, ii 302—'4 Relaxation of captivity M A 335 341—345 350—351, 370—373, K K ii 397—'98 404, 407—418 437, 443, Ishwardas 148b, Ahkam §10 and 11, also Akhbarat

§ 4. Shah Alam imprisoned.

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Aurangzib acted promptly. Shah Alam's own contingent was sent to the front on the pretext of meeting an expected night-attack, while imperial troops took their place as guards round the Prince's camp. Next morning (21st February), Shah Alam with his four sons was invited to the Emperor's tent for consultation. After a few minutes' talk with him, they were asked by the wazir to step into a side-room (the chapel) with him to hear some secret instructions of the Emperor. There they were politely asked to consider themselves as prisoners and surrender their swords. Shah Alam readily submitted; but his eldest son Muizz-ud-din had more spirit; he laid his hand on the hilt of his sword and looked up to his father for a signal to draw it and make a dash for liberty. But Shah Alam's answer was an angry frown and a stern order to obey. The Prince's entire family was imprisoned, his property attached, his troops distributed among other commands, and his trusted eunuchs tortured to make them divulge their master's treasonable plots. The more the Prince protested his innocence, the more did the Emperor's anger flame up; he increased the rigours of Shah Alam's captivity and ordered that he should not be allowed to cut his hair or pare his nails, nor be supplied with delicate food, cooling drinks or his customary dress. It was seven years before the Prince recovered his liberty.

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Aurangzib's mortification at this stern necessity was extreme. His eldest son had been put in prison and had died a captive. His eldest daughter, the gifted poetess Zeb-un-nisa, had been doomed to lifelong confinement in the State-prison of Delhi. And now his eldest surviving son had to be punished similarly. After the arrest of the Prince, the Emperor hurriedly broke up his Court, ran to his wife Aurangabadi Mahal, and kept slapping his knees and moaning, "Alas! Alas! I have razed to the ground what I had been rearing up for the last forty years." (M.A. 294.)

§ 5. Aurangzib's distrust of Shias and other difficulties.

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But Shah Alam was not the only discordant element in the siege-camp. The many Shias in the imperial service heartily disliked the prospect of the extinction of the last Shia kingdom in India, and though a few notable exceptions among them served the Emperor loyally against their own religious sympathies, others secretly helped the besieged, especially during the dark days of rain and famine. Apart from the Shias, this war of extermination against Abul Hasan was condemned by many orthodox Sunnis even, as an unprovoked "war between Muslims" and therefore sinful. The upright and saintly Chief Justice, Shaikh-ul-Islam, had counselled the Emperor not to invade the two Decanni sultanates, and on his advice being rejected he had resigned his high post and retired to Mecca. His successor in office, Qazi Abdullah, tendered the same unpalatable advice and entreated the Emperor to accept submission and tribute from Qutb Shah and thus stop the effusion of Muslim blood. The Emperor's answer was to pack off this honest adviser to the Base camp.

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This natural distrust of Shias hindered the Emperor's business. At first the only high and distinguished officer at the siege was Firuz Jang. As for Khan-i-Jahan, he was fighting in Northern India. The only other great general, Ruhullah Khan (Paymaster-General), was a Persian Shia, and hence he was at first suspiciously kept in the rear at Bijapur, and called to Golkonda only after five and a half months had elapsed from the opening of the siege and the Mughals had been driven into the sorest straits. Persians, though undoubtedly the cleverest among the Islamic peoples, were now jealously kept out of the post of Chief of Artillery which was of the first importance in a siege.*

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Saf Shikan Khan, the Chief of Artillery, was a Persian and jealous of the superior position and favour enjoyed by Firuz Jang, a Turk. After working strenuously for some time in carrying the trenches towards the ditch and raising lofty batteries to command the towers of the fort, he resigned "in order to spite Firuz Jang." Salabat Khan succeeded him, but failed to do his work well, and resigned in a short time. The next Chief of Artillery was Ghairat Khan, who was surprised by the enemy in a state of gross carelessness and carried off as a prisoner. Then the post went abegging for some time, to the ruin of the siege operations. Salabat Khan, on being pressed to resume it, replied that he could not bear the roar of artillery and begged that he might be allowed to stay in the rear and discharge his duties by deputy! The whole camp laughed at him and refused to be his deputy. Then at last, Saf Shikan Khan was taken out of prison and restored to this office (22 June 1687.) But by that time the field-works constructed after five months of toil, had been demolished by the enemy, and the investment had to be begun anew. This internal history of the besieging army will supply the key to the actual course of its operations.

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∗ At the siege of Golkonda Aurangzib assembled 1900 barqandazes, 42725 ahsham, 106 pieces of artillery (of which 17 were large, carrying balls weighing 4 sr to 41 sr, and 89 were smaller pieces), 5809 maunds of powder, 1244 maunds of shot, and 3¼ lakhs of bags for filling the ditch (Zawabit, 137b)

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When, at the end of January, the Mughals sat down before Golkonda, an enemy force of 40,000 cavalry under Shaikh Nizam and other officers remained outside and tried to hinder the progress of the siege. Aurangzib detached Dalpat Rao Bundela and other officers of Firuz Jang's division to repel them. A severe battle was fought, in which many Rajputs were slain and Krishna Singh Hada was mortally wounded; but in the end the enemy fled, after receiving such a severe punishment that for some months afterwards they never again molested the Mughals. (Dil. 206; K. K. ii. 329, 335.)

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The circle of investment had been divided among the various generals and the first turf cut for the approaches on 7th February. But the fort had an inexhaustible supply of munitions and its walls bristled with guns of large calibre. Day and night the garrison kept up an incessant fire on the approaching Mughals. "The fort looked as if made of fire; the smoke turned the day into night." (M.A.

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290; K. K. ii. 336.) Every day some men were slain or wounded on the Mughal side. But the dauntless courage and tireless perseverance of the troops under Saf Shikan carried the sap to the edge of the ditch in about six weeks. Then they began to raise lofty platforms and mount guns on them to dominate the towers of the fort. The next step was to fill the ditch and make a path for the assaulting column. For this purpose, Aurangzib, after performing his ceremonial ablutions and uttering prayers, sewed with his own fingers the first bag of cotton to be filled with earth and thrown into the ditch.

§ 6. Firuz Jang's surprise fails.

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While these slow operations for breaching and assault were going on, the commander-in-chief made an attempt to take the fort by an escalade. On 16th May, he stole out of his camp at 9 P.M., and on reaching a bastion where the enemy's sentries were asleep, he planted a ladder against the wall and sent two men up to the rampart. The two other ladders he had taken with him proved too short, and so a rope-ladder was fastened to the top of the gate. By chance a pariah dog was standing on the wall, seeking a path for descending to the moat and feeding on the corpses lying there. Alarmed by the appearance of strangers, it set up a loud bark, which roused the garrison. The two Mughal heroes were slain at once. The enemy ran to the wall, with torches, discovered the assailants, threw the ladder down, cut the rope-noose, and despatched with hand-grenades the men at the foot of the wall. A smart musketry-fire drove away the Mughal supports. Firuz Jang was covered with failure, but returned to his camp in the early morning, beating his kettle-drums in a spirit of vain defiance.

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To the Muslims the dog is an unclean animal. But this dog had played the part of the sacred geese of the Capitoline Hill during the Gallic invasion of Rome. Abul Hasan rewarded his canine deliverer by giving it a gold chain, a collar set with jewels, and a gold embroidered coat, and styling it Seh-tabqa or "Peer of three degrees,"—in mockery of Firuz Jang's three titles of Khan, Bahadur, and Jang,—and remarking wittily "This creature has done no less a deed (than Firuz Jang)!"

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The garrison promptly retaliated for the surprise that had failed. Early in the morning of the next day (17th May), they made a sortie on the raised battery, slaying the artillerymen. Reinforcements were soon pushed up from the trenches, and the enemy withdrew after killing 70 men. They had also brought a large gun to a point on the wall opposite Aurangzib's own tent and began to fire it, the balls falling around his residence. To subdue its fire he ordered a new raised battery to be built opposite it; but no officer would undertake to heap up the earth quickly in the face of the enemy's murderous fire. The Emperor, therefore, ordered two hundred quilted coats (inscribed with extracts from the Quran) and leather helmets (mighfar) to be sewn and supplied to the forlorn hope for an assault on the walls. He had, in addition, some long ladders made, set them up against his tent-poles and himself climbed up one of them in order to charm them into invulnerability and thus put heart into his troops; for, did he not enjoy the reputation of being a living saint, *Alamgir zinda pir*?

§ 7. Rain and famine: troubles of the besiegers.

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Indeed, his troops sorely needed to be heartened by appeals to supernatural aid. The siege operations had ceased to make any progress for some time past, on account of the confusion in the artillery branch. Saf Shikan Khan, quarrelling with the commander-in-chief, had resigned the supreme command of the artillery, and the post had been filled by the cowardly Salabat Khan and then by the sleepy Ghairat Khan. The enemy's fire was still unsubdued, and the ditch far from filled up. The Mughals also now fell into the grip of famine. During the preceding year there had been an utter failure of rain throughout the Deccan, and the millets (*jawari* and *bajra*) which are the chief food crops of the peninsula, had dried up on their stalks. In the Haidarabad district, rice was the staple produce; but the war had prevented the sowing of the fields, and this fertile region had become a desert. The Deccanis and their Maratha allies infested the roads and prevented the transport of grain to the Mughal camp. Then, in June, the rain descended in torrents, the swollen water-courses and rivers became impassable, the roads were turned into quagmires. No provisions could reach the besiegers even from their neighbourhood. To crown their misery, terrible reverses fell on them in quick succession at this time.

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The incessant rain of the middle of June completely spoiled the siege-works. The raised gun-platforms collapsed into mud-heaps; the walls of the trenches fell down and blocked the passages; the covered lanes ceased to exist. The camp became a sheet of water out of which the white tents stood up like bubbles of foam; the canopies were torn away by the violence of the storm, leaving the men without any shelter over their heads. The shivering troops began to steal away from the front, and their officers sought cover and repose instead of keeping a strict watch at their posts.

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§ 8. Sortie of the garrison : heavy Mughal loss.

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The enemy seized the opportunity. In the night of 15th June, amidst a deluge of rain, they raided the Mughal advanced batteries and trenches, slew the careless artillerymen, drove nails into the port-holes of the guns, destroyed the stores of sapping and gun material, and then fell on the officers. Salim Khan (an Abyssinian) and Saf Shikan Khan (the ex-Chief of Artillery) saved themselves by jumping down into pits of mud and water. Jamshid Khan the sapper fled before the onset. Ghairat Khan, the new Chief of Artillery, ran for safety into a covered lane and after rolling about in the mud, to disguise his appearance, shammed the dead! The enemy followed him there, and an Afghan deserter from the imperial army recognized him and carried him off into captivity with Sarbarah Khan (a trusty old servant of the Emperor) and twelve other high officers.

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The Emperor, at the first report of the raid, had ordered Haiat Khan to go with 70 elephants and convey reinforcements to the scene of the fight in the advanced trenches, over the flooded nalah which no boat could cross. But the water was too deep and swift even for elephants; and after standing for hours on the nearer bank of the stream as helpless spectators of the slaughter of their comrades going on on the other bank, Haiat Khan and the troops under him returned to their tents. The trenches and batteries between the nalah and the fort were lost to the Mughals for three days.

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The Emperor's wrath fell on Saf Shikan Khan, who was flung into prison and his property confiscated, on the suspicion of his having collusively aided the enemy out of spite against Firuz Jang and Ghairat Khan. On the 16th, Lutfullah Khan was sent with the Emperor's body-guards and other picked troops to recover the lost ground. But it was only after three days of struggle and with the assistance of a fresh division that the enemy could be expelled and the ruined battery re-occupied by the Mughals.

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Abul Hasan treated the captive Mughal officers very kindly, gave them rich presents and sent them back to the Emperor. These luckless men were sternly punished on their return; all of them were degraded in rank; Ghairat Khan was sent off to the Base, Sarbarah Khan was deprived of his peerage (title of Khan) and reduced to his former status of a slave.

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With them Abul Hasan had sent a petition to the Emperor, saying, "If Golkonda is left to me as a vassal paying tribute, it would be more profitable to the Emperor than if he annexes it and governs it by a viceroy, as the expenses of the latter course would swallow up the entire revenue of the province. It will take 7 or 8 years to restore cultivation and population to this war-wasted land, and during that period the Mughals will get nothing out of it. If, on the other hand, Aurangzib makes peace and retires beyond my frontiers, I shall pay him one *krore* of Rupees as indemnity, besides one *krore* in honour of every assault that he has led in person." He also offered to present 5 or 6 lakhs of maunds of grain from the fort to feed the starving Mughals, even if his peace-terms were rejected.

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But imperial prestige had been lowered by the late brilliant coup of the enemy, and it must be restored whatever further suffering and loss such an attempt might bring down upon the imperial army. Aurangzib rejected both offers of Abul Hasan and scornfully replied to the Golkonda king, not directly, but through one of the Mughal officers, "If Abul Hasan is *really* submissive to me, as he professes to be, let him come with his arms tied together and a rope round his neck (like a sentenced felon), and then I shall confer on him any favour that I may consider proper."

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Vigorous measures were taken to retrieve the late disaster and press the attack home. Orders were sent to Aurangabad, Khandesh and Berar for 50,000 cotton bags, two yards by one yard, and other materials necessary for filling the ditch anew and making a path for the assaulting column. The starving imperialists complained of the rejection of the enemy's offer to supply them with food, but Aurangzib continued stern and unbending in his attitude to Qutb Shah.

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Soon he prepared to strike his greatest blow. Three mines had been carried from the siege-trenches to under the bastions, and they had been reported as nearly complete, as early as 17th May. Everything was ready by 19th June; each chamber stored with 500 maunds of gunpowder, the fuses laid, and the army only waiting for the Emperor's order.

§ 9. Mines exploded, severe battles, 20th June.

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The next day (20th June) was fixed for the explosion of the mines and the delivery of the assault, which the Emperor went to supervise in person from Firuz Jang's trenches. The Mughal troops, as ordered, rushed out of their trenches and made a noisy feint against the undermined bastion in order to induce the enemy to crowd at this point and then to kill vast numbers of them by the explosion! Dense masses of Mughals—artillerymen, musketers and infantry,—stood in battle order in the plain below the glacis, ready to storm the breach when made.

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Early at dawn the signal was given; the fuse was lighted and then followed a deafening noise.

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But the force of the explosion was directed outwards; a vast mass of rock and earth from the glacis was hurled upon the Mughal ranks crowded below: "In a twinkle of the eye the flying splinters killed 1,100 imperialists, while the fort walls remained intact." A universal clamour rose from the Mughal army, the groans of the dying, the shrieks of the wounded, the wild cries of the terror-stricken, and the lamentation of the friends of the victims mingled in a dissonant tumult which "suggested the Day of Judgment." A cloud of smoke and dust covered the imperialists as with a pall.

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The enemy seized the opportunity by making a sally and attacking the confounded Mughals. No resistance could be made under the circumstances. The exultant garrison put to the sword the few survivors of the assaulting column whom the explosion had spared, and then seized the trenches and outposts which it had taken the Mughals four months to make and occupy. A force sent by the Emperor drove them out and recovered the position after a long contest and heavy loss. This had been hardly effected when the second mine was fired with the same disastrous consequences. Again the splinters of the blown-up tower fell on the Mughals, and killed more than a thousand of them. The enemy who had got news of the intended assault through their friends in the siege-camp, had vacated the undermined bastion the night before, leaving only a look-out man there. They now made a second sortie and fell on the unhappy imperial vanguard, doing the same havoc as before.

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Firuz Jang then hastened to the scene with a large force, but by the time he arrived from his distant quarters, the enemy were in possession of the Mughal field-works and shelters. A severe struggle for them now took place; the enemy alternately fired their guns and charged sword in hand; and Firuz Jang with all his efforts could not reach the lost ground and dislodge them. He himself was wounded with two other generals, Rustam Khan and Dalpat Rao Bundela, while vast numbers of his men were slain. "The men could not advance one inch in the face of the murderous discharge of muskets, rockets, chain-shot and bombs." (M.A. 295.)

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At the news of this serious check, coming as it did on the top of two disasters on the same day, Aurangzib himself, girt round by his staff, advanced from his station in Firuz Jang's tent to aid his hard-pressed troops. Cannon-balls began to fall near his portable throne (takht-i-rawan), and one of them carried away the arm of his body-servant (khawas.) But he coolly kept his position and cheered his soldiers by his example.

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While the battle was raging fiercely, the elements themselves seemed to mingle in the war of mortals. A tropical storm burst on the plain with all the violence of wind rain and thunder. The imperialists in the plain could not advance or even see their objectives distinctly amidst the blinding shower, while the Qutb-Shahi troops, safely sheltered in the fort walls and the captured Mughal trenches, plied their fire-arms with deadly precision on the crowded Mughals in the open.

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The rain continued to descend in torrents; the water in the field rose above the horses' breasts, the raised batteries were washed away, the dry nalahs and even low paths became rushing streams. The Mughals, assailed by men and the gods, gave way; and then the Decannis made their third sortie of the day. Sallying forth from the gates, they seized the trenches further off and the elevated gun-platforms, carried off as many guns as they could and destroyed the others. The big planks, beams and thousands of bags filled with earth which the Mughals had thrown into the ditch were quickly removed into the fort and used in repairing the breach caused by the explosion!

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By this time the plain of battle had been turned into a lake of mud. The Mughal generals continued to charge the enemy, but to no effect. An imperial elephant worth Rs. 40,000 was killed on the spot, and many men were shot down by the Deccani musketeers and the incessant discharge of artillery from the bastions of the fort. Towards evening the prime minister Asad Khan and Prince Kam Bakhsh brought up fresh reinforcements, but could not restore the battle. (*Dil.* 207, *M.A.* 295.) Advance was impossible, and to hold the position was to face a gradual but sure destruction. Therefore, at sunset the defeated Mughals retired to their quarters; the Emperor spent the night in Firuz Jang’s camp.

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§ 10. Mughal failure; famine and pestilence.

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Next morning (21st June) he issued forth again to fire the third mine and try his fortune by another assault under his own eyes. The mine did not explode at all. It was then learnt that the enemy had discovered the three mines, countermined them by digging with incredible labour in the solid rock of Golkonda, removed all the powder from this (third) mine, and partially emptied the other two and flooded their chambers with water on the fort side, so that only the powder at the Mughal end was dry and the explosion had, therefore, been driven outwards. After some futile exchange of blows, the Mughal soldiers returned to their camp in utter disappointment. The baffled Emperor stole back to his own tent “without ceremony.” “Various other plans were tried, immense wealth was spent, but the siege dragged on.” (*M.A.* 295.)

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The morale of the imperial army was utterly gone. True, reinforcements soon arrived (10 July) under Prince Azam and Ruhullah Khan, the governors of Malwa and Bijapur respectively. True, Shaikh Minhaj, "the best servant of Abul Hasan" (M.A. 296), deserted to the Emperor's side (28th May), and Saf Shikan Khan, restored to liberty and the Mir Atish-ship (22nd June), began to do his utmost to erect a new gun-platform very quickly. But all these were of no avail. The famine grew worse than before, and pestilence appeared as its inseparable companion. "The scarcity of grain and fodder was so great that even rich men were reduced to beggary, while the condition of the poor baffled description." (K. K. ii. 336.) As the official history records it, "Wheat, pulse, and rice disappeared. The city of Haidarabad was utterly depopulated; houses, river, and plain were all filled with corpses. The same condition prevailed in the Mughal camp. At night piles of the dead used to accumulate, and next day the sweepers used to fling them, without funeral, on the bank of the river. This happened day after day. The survivors in the agony of hunger ate the carrion of men and beasts. For miles and miles around, the eye rested only on mounds of corpses. Happily, the ceaseless rain melted away the flesh and the skin, otherwise the rotting carcases would have poisoned the air and despatched even the men spared by the famine. After some months, when the rains ceased, the white piles of skeletons looked from a distance like hillocks of snow." (M.A. 292.)

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"Many of the Mughal soldiers, unable to bear the pangs of hunger, deserted to Abul Hasan; others, in secret league with him, gave help to the besieged." (K. K. ii. 337; M.A. 295.) The reinforcements brought by Ruhullah Khan and Prince Azam only added to the scarcity of food.

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"The siege was protracted." All hope of taking Golkonda by escalade or breaching was gone. And there was no course left but to sit down before the place with grim tenacity and starve it into surrender. And this Aurangzib did. "The Emperor decided to build a wall of wood and earth round the fort of Golkonda. In a short time it was completed and guards were placed at its doors, ingress and egress being forbidden except on the production of passports." (M.A. 296.) A new lofty gun-platform was also constructed opposite one of the bastions, and the Emperor reconnoitred the fort from it on 7th July. Prince Azam, on his arrival, was appointed commander-in-chief in the place of the wounded Firuz Jang. (M.A. 299; K. K. ii. 358.) At the same time, to prevent the garrison from getting fresh supplies, Aurangzib issued a proclamation annexing the kingdom of Haidarabad. He appointed his own magistrates and revenue-collectors for all places in it, saying "How long can Abul Hasan remain hidden in the fort, when his towns villages and corn-fields are in our hands?" The *khutba* was read in the Emperor's name and a Censor of Public Morals (*muhtasib*) was posted by him at Haidarabad to put down all the Hindu usages and deviations from Islam which Abul Hasan had tolerated, to demolish the temples, and to build a mosque. (K. K. 358; Waqai, 134.)

§ 11. Golkonda surrendered by treachery.

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In time the rain ceased, the roads became dry and the rivers fordable again, provisions began to come to the Mughal camp, and the famished troops got a new life. On 21st September, after the siege had lasted nearly eight months, "the luck of Aurangzib did its work, without a stroke of sword or spear." Golkonda was captured by bribery. (M.A. 292; K. K. ii. 361.)

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An Afghan soldier of fortune, named Abdullah Pani, surnamed Sardar Khan, had deserted Bijapur service for the Mughal and then left the Mughals to join Abul Hasan; and now in the decline of the Qutb-Shahi monarchy he had risen to be one of the two highest officers in the fort. This double-dyed traitor now sold his master to the enemy.

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He left the *khirki* or postern gate of the fort open, and at his invitation a party of Mughal soldiers under Ruhullah Khan crossed the broken ground between the siege batteries and the wall and entered the fort unchallenged, at about 3 o'clock in the morning of 21st September, 1687. They posted some men within to hold the ground and then opened the main gate through which the flood of Mughal invasion now poured into the fort. Prince Azam with the supports advanced from the river, at the foot of the fort, to the front trenches and then to the gate, and struck up the music of victory, proclaiming that Golkonda was at last won.

§ 12. Heroic feats of Abdur Razzaq Lari.

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But it was not to be won without a final struggle. One last feat of the purest heroism cast its radiance on the fall of Golkonda and redeemed its infamy. When the exultant Mughals were swarming into the fort and making their way to the palace, a single rider who had no time to gird his belt on or put saddle on his horse's back, fell like a lunatic on that myriad of enemies. It was Abdur Razzak Lari, surnamed Mustafa Khan, the one faithful man among that faithless crew of Golkonda. Throughout the siege he had rejected with scorn all the bribes of Aurangzib, including a command of Six Thousand Cavalry in the Mughal army, saying, that "he would rather be ranked among the 72 faithful companions who perished with the Imam Husain at Karbala than with the 22,000 traitors who overcame him." Alone he rushed against the flood of invaders, shouting, "While I live, there will be at least one life sacrificed in defence of Abul Hasan." He forced his way against "a thousand swords" to the gate of the Bala Hisar. But covered with 70 distinct wounds, one eye badly damaged, and the skin of his forehead slashed and hanging down so as to obstruct his vision, his horse reeling from wounds and loss of blood,—Abdur Razzaq no longer saw the path before him, but did his best merely to keep his seat and gave his horse the loose rein. The animal escaped from the press and dropped him near an old cocoa-nut tree in the Nagina Bagh garden near the citadel. Here the only hero of the siege of Golkonda lay blood-stained, insensible, half dead, for an entire day, and was then found and taken to his home. Thence he was removed to the Mughal camp and nursed back to life by order of the Emperor. .

§ 13. Abul Hasan made captive.

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In the meantime, when the roar of the advancing Mughals and the din of street fighting and plunder reached the ears of Abul Hasan, he knew that his end had come. "After trying to console his wives and begging pardon of each of them, he came out to the audience chamber and sat down on the throne calmly waiting for his unbidden guests, and even ordered his morning meal to be served at the usual time. When at last Ruhullah Khan and his party entered, Abul Hasan was the first to say "Good morning," greeted them kindly, and behaved with royal dignity throughout the painful scene. Then, after bidding his captors to breakfast with him, he finished his meal and left the palace amidst the frantic lamentations of his women, servants and friends. On reaching Azam's tent outside the gate, the deposed king was consoled by the Prince, lodged in his tent, and in the evening presented to the Emperor. The Court historian writes that "Aurangzib, in his infinite mercy, shut his eyes to the offences of this hapless man and ordered him to be safely lodged in a tent." After a time he was sent to Daulatabad. On the steep wind-swept side of that grim prison-fortress, in a set of narrow apartments now choked with grass, brambles and fallen masonry,[*] the most luxurious king of the Deccan sighed out his captive life on a pension of Rs. 50,000 a year.

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Nothing in Abul Hasan's reign became him like the ending of it. As king he had been known only for swinish sensuality and a criminal neglect of the The first of these, the *Gospel of the Hebrews*, was used by the Jewish Christians of Palestine, and was probably a version of the Gospel of Matthew, though it contained some traditions not found in our canonical books. The *Gospel of the Egyptians* was used by the ascetic sects of Egypt, and was marked by a strong tendency towards mysticism and asceticism. The *Gospel of Peter* was used by the Docetists, and taught that Christ did not really suffer, but only appeared to do so.

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∗ This was their appearance when I visited the place in October 1916.

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These gospels, and others like them, were not accepted by the Church as a whole, and were gradually lost or suppressed. The Church, however, felt the need for a standard collection of writings that would serve as a guide for faith and practice. This led to the formation of the New Testament canon, a process that took several centuries to complete.

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The first step in this process was the collection of the letters of Paul, which were widely circulated among the churches. Then came the four Gospels, which were accepted as the authoritative accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles and the other epistles were gradually added, and finally the Book of Revelation.

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By the end of the second century, the core of the New Testament was generally accepted by the Church. The process of canonization was not a formal act of a council, but rather a gradual recognition by the churches of the writings that were most valuable for their life and worship. It was only in the fourth century that the canon was formally closed by the councils of the Church.

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The formation of the New Testament canon was a crucial event in the history of the Church. It provided a standard of faith and practice that helped to unify the Church and to protect it from the influence of heretical sects. It also ensured that the teachings of Jesus and the apostles would be preserved for future generations.

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The spoils taken at Golkonda amounted to nearly seven *krores* of Rupees in cash besides gold and silver plate, jewels and jewelled ware. The revenue of the conquered kingdom was 2 *krores* and 87 *lakhs* of Rupees. (K. K. ii. 367.)

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The report entered in the Fort St. George Diary on 12th Nov. 1687 is more reliable than Manucci's account. It runs thus: "...News from the French, Dutch and other nations that the Mughal had taken Golkonda fort by treachery on the 2nd of last month [New Style] about midnight......Upon the king of Golkonda's prostration the Mughal had made a large discourse to him for his corrupt government, wherein he had been very unfaithful, in the charge he had committed to him, in encouraging the Brahmans and discouraging the Moors, to the dishonour of their religion and country, whereby he had justly brought these troubles upon himself; and ordered him to be put in chains, of which it is reported he was next day released."