History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s2: § 2. Siege of Golkonda begins: death of Qalich Khan.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s2
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§ 2. Siege of Golkonda begins: death of Qalich Khan.
v4.c68.s2.1
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.