History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c79.s2: § 3. Pidia Nayak's career after 1687.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c79.s2
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§ 3. Pidia Nayak's career after 1687.
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Pidia Nayak, the nephew and adopted heir of Pam Nayak,* had waited on Aurangzib as early as 1683 and been given a post in the imperial army. After the Mughal conquest of Sagar and the death of his uncle, he rendered useful service at Ruhullah Khan's siege of Raichur (1689). On the fall of that fort, he went to his home on a week's leave to replenish his equipment and quota of troops. But instead of returning to his post as promised, he busied himself in fortifying Wagingera and raising an army. After the loss of Sagar, the families of the Berad Nayak and his nobles had taken refuge in the village of Wagingera, twelve miles west of it. Their houses stood on a hill which Pidia now enclosed with fortifications and to which he added a walled village on a lower level. He collected twelve thousand excellent musketeers of his tribesmen and steadily increased his artillery and munitions of war. "While outwardly conducting himself as a loyal subject and paying revenue to the Emperor, he gradually collected money and men. By strengthening the defences of the town (Wagingera) and increasing cultivation in its neighbourhood, he acquired power and authority, became the chief ally of the Marathas in robbery and rebellion, and dispossessed Pam Nayak's own son Jagia. The latter appealed to the Emperor for his patrimony, and took from him a sanad of succession, but could not get possession of the zamindari. [M. A. 491-2, K. K. ii. 525-26.]
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∗ *M.A.* says on page 239 that it was Pam (mis-spelt Padam) and on page 491 that it was Pam's nephew Pidia who paid this visit. Pidia is called the *biradarzada pisar-i-khanda* of Pam (page 491). *Dilkasha* (ii. 95b) wrongly calls Pidia the son of Pām.
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§ 4. Early Mughal campaigns against Pidia.
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Pidia's robberies in the Kulbarga district became too serious to be neglected any longer. At last, on 27th May 1691 the Emperor sent his son Kam Bakhsh from Bijapur, in charge of Bahramand Khan, to attack Wagingera. Three weeks later, another high commander Hamid-ud-din Khan, was deputed to the Sagar district, evidently to keep in check the roving field armies of the Berads. Kam Bakhsh spent only two months before Wagingera, during which he dug trenches, mounted guns, and fought almost daily conflicts with the enemy. On 20th July he was sent off to the Madras Karnatak, and the operations against the Berads were entrusted to Ruhullah Khan. [M. A. 339-40, 344, 354-55 ; Dil. ii. 102b]. The latter "could not achieve the task : the Berads twice fell on his entrenchment and destroyed it ; many on the Mughal side were slain, including the celebrated Ranmast Khan.* So Ruhullah Khan opened negotiations with the enemy." This was exactly what Pidia was seeking. It was not in his interests to carry the contest to an extreme. He bribed Ruhullah and lulled him into inactivity. [*Dil.* ii. 103a; *M.A.* 491.]
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∗ Brother of Khizr Khan Pani of Bijapur. He had been created Bahadur Khan in 1683 (M.A. 235). Had defeated Shivaji in 1679.
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After five months Ruhullah was recalled and Azam sent to relieve him (18th December 1691). This prince stayed there for a year, ravaging the country and checking Berad activities. Pidia then submitted, appealed to the prince's mercy, presented him with two lakhs of rupees and made peace with the Emperor by paying an indemnity of seven lakhs and promising to remain as an obedient subject and pay the revenue regularly. But in December 1692 the critical situation at Jinji compelled the Emperor to remove Azam from Sagar to Kadapa in order to support the Karnatak expedition, and Pidia soon afterwards resumed his old brigandage and usurpation of land. When Firuz Jang was sent against him (April 1696),* he "played the same jackal's trick on him" and escaped destruction by promising a tribute of nine lakhs. [*M. A.* 345, 492; *K. K.* ii. 526.]
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§ 5. Aurangzib marches against Pidia Nayak.
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Thereafter for nine years the Emperor was too deeply entangled with the Marathas to attend to the Berads, and Pidia resumed his raids and extension of territory without fear or hindrance.
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∗ *Z. S.* Also *Akhbarat*, year 40, under 6th and 10th May 1696. He captures a *garhi* named Samal or Chamal from these highway robbers.
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At last, towards the close of the year 1704, after the great Maratha forts of Satara and Parli, Panhala and Vishalgarh, Kondana and Torna had all been captured, the Emperor turned to Wagingera, as Pidia was now menacing the city of Bijapur itself. [Dil. ii. 149b.] Arriving before the fort on 8th February 1705, he laid siege to it. Chin Qalich Khan, the subahdar of Bijapur, in whose jagir the Berad country lay, took up his position half-a-mile from the fort with Muhammad Amin Khan, Tarbiyat Khan (Mir Atish), and the officers of the imperial artillery. Aurangzib's tents were pitched two miles from the walls.
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§ 6. Fort and environs of Wagingera described.
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Wagingera* stands on the western crest of the same short range on the eastern extremity of which Shorapur was built in later times. The hill here is about 250 feet high above the plain, and the fort is an irregular pentagon with seven bastions along its length. The fortifications are neither striking nor elaborate. In certain places the natural granite rock rising abruptly from the ground forms the only defence, but on the lower sides of the hill boulders have been utilized by connecting them with a wall 4½ feet thick and composed of large irregular stones cemented together. The denuded tops present the spectacle of strange tors and huge piles of rocks. The old gate, named after Ram, faces the south-east and is eleven feet by nine. But after Aurang-zib's conquest of the place another gate of nearly the same size was built in the western wall by his order, and an inscription records its completion by Hafiz Masaud on 1st Rajab 1117 A. H. (8th October 1705).
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∗ Description based on Dil. ii. 153a; M.A. 499; Meadows Taylor, 123; Framroz Jang's Shorapur. A smaller fort was built on a neighbouring hill 5,000 feet apart, at a later date, by Nishti Irana, but it is now totally in ruins.
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On the plain in the south, facing the fort gate, there is a village called *Talwargera*, enclosed by a mud wall and containing the market for the supply of the garrison. Close to it was *Dhedpura*, a hamlet of grass huts, where the families of the common Berads lived and from which they tilled the surrounding lands. These three were the only inhabited places there; but close to the fort in the east and north were a number of hillocks which would be of great service to besiegers. One of these, called *Lal Tikri* from its red soil, slightly commanded a portion of Wagingera itself and had a very important bearing on the defence of that fort. The Berads had not thought of protecting any of these outlying eminences by redoubt or outpost.
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The strength of Wagingera lay not so much in its natural position or artificial defences, as in the courage and number of its garrison, the deadly accuracy of their musketry fire, and its ample supply of guns, rockets and artillery munitions. In addition to the famous *Kala-piadas* or Berad foot-musketeers, Pidia had engaged some four thousand active cavalry, both Hindu and Muhammadan, including many Sayyids of the Deccan (to the intense abhorrence of the pious Muslim Aurangzib).
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The siege began early in February 1705. Tarbiyat Khan (Chief of Artillery), Chin Qalich Khan, Hamid-ud-din Khan (a favourite of the Emperor and a very experienced fighter) and other officers began to throw up two high platforms and to run covered approaches from a position facing the gate of the fort. Prince Kam Bakhsh's contingent co-operated with them. [*Dil.* ii., 150*b*.] But, for many weeks the Mughals could do nothing. As the Court historian writes, "Every day the enemy sallied forth and attacked the imperialists. Great fights were fought. The big guns from the top of the hill raised the tumult of slaughter; rockets followed each other with vehement force." (*M. A.* 498.) This bombardment continued incessantly and made the advance of the Mughal trenches, or even their maintenance within range of the fort guns, impossible.*