History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s2.1

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.)