History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s7: § 7. Rain and famine: troubles of the besiegers.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s7
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§ 7. Rain and famine: troubles of the besiegers.
v4.c68.s7.1
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.
v4.c68.s7.2
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.
v4.c68.s7.3
§ 8. Sortie of the garrison : heavy Mughal loss.
v4.c68.s7.4
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.
v4.c68.s7.5
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.
v4.c68.s7.6
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.
v4.c68.s7.7
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.
v4.c68.s7.8
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.
v4.c68.s7.9
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."
v4.c68.s7.10
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.
v4.c68.s7.11
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.