Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10.s8: § 15. Battle of Mānupur
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10.s8
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§ 15. Battle of Mānupur
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The imperial army consisted of about sixty thousand combatants, formed in five main divisions: the Vanguard consisting of the wazir's contingent of Turks now led by his son Muin; the Right wing under Safdar Jang at the head of a picked body of Irāni soldiers taken over from Nādir army, besides Indians of the Purbia class; the Centre under Prince Ahmad and his guardians; the Left wing formed by a large contingent of Rajput horse under Ishwari Singh of Jaipur and other Rajahs; and the Rearguard under Nāsir Khan. The baggage camp was placed behind the Centre. In the actual fighting the Vanguard formed one line abreast of the two wings.
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Abdāli’s army* on the best estimate was not more than 12,000 strong, and the imperialists were five-fold superior to him in number of men and immeasurably stronger in artillery. The
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∗ Battle of Manupur: best accounts, Anandram 343-377, TAh 6b-9a, and Mujmil 104-112 (after discounting his Shia partisanship.) Bayan 233-235 and Siyar, iii. 19, are brief but helpful. Husain Shahi 27-29, much later, meagre and derivative. Anandram and TAh differ greatly as regards the events after the battle, but TAh is the best authority for these.
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At Mānupur Abdāli’s army is most correctly estimated at not more than 12,000 troopers and the imperialists at between 60 and 70 thousand [TAh. 5b.] Siyar, iii. 19 makes an underestimate, ‘Abdali’s forces did not exceed 6 or 7 thousand’, while Anandram 332 exaggerates the number to ‘nearly 30,000 troopers.’ The Delhi army is swollen by rumour to ‘more than 2 lakhs of men and 200 pieces of cannon’ [Mujmil. 100], and even 2½ lakhs [Husain Shāhi, 24.] The force with which Abdali had marched upon Lahor is given by Ashub ii. 454 as 6 to 7 thousand (an underestimate), by Husain Shāhi as 12,000 (most likely), and by Anandram 312 as 25,000 (inflated.) TAh 7b makes a self-contradictory slip, placing Safdar J. in the Left W. and Ishwari S. in the Right Wing.
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Indian lines were drawn out too long and their Centre was too well protected in front by formidable rows of big guns. Abdali knew his own inferiority in number and gun-power and determined to make the best use of the superior mobility and energy of his soldiers by not fighting a regular battle of the conventional type, division against division, but by merely containing the imperial Centre and directing his main attack on the van and the two wings, so as to break through them and threaten the Indian camp in the rear. A special division was told off to fall upon the imperialists' baggage by any path it could find during the confusion of the battle.
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The conflict began at noon. By that time the Indian troops had marched out of their trenches and drawn up in battle array on the field beyond them. The Afghāns began the attack. The fury of their assault first fell on the imperial vanguard. Abdālī’s chief commander Muhammad Taqi Khān Shirāzi assailed it at the head of 3,000 Qizilbāsh troops (i.e., Turks settled in Persia.) These according to their usual tactics made a succession of charges, each time galloping up, delivering a rapid volley, then quickly falling back as the imperialists pressed forward, and advancing again to the attack after being refreshed and reinforced. The fight in this quarter was most obstinate.
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Muin and his comrades fought with desperate valour and caused heavy slaughter among the Afghāns, who were checked by the sheer weight of numbers and devastated by the heavy artillery in the Mughal trenches. Abdāli repeatedly pushed up supports to Muhammad Taqi to maintain the battle. Muin stood his ground but with heavy losses.
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Very early in the fight, the Afghāns had found an easier prey in the Rājputs (the Left wing). A body of 3,000 of Abdāli’s horsemen with 200 swivels carried on camels, had formed itself in two divisions. Each half galloped up to within easy range of the Rājputs, delivered their fire, and galloped back like the wind. Immediately afterwards the second group attacked in the same way. Thus, while the Rājputs were waiting for the enemy and twirling their moustaches in full confidence of victory by their clever swordsmanship and reckless courage when the contest would come to the decision of cold steel, they found hundreds of their saddles being emptied at each volley without their being able to touch an enemy. This strange method of warfare shook the nerves of the Rājputs, trained in the obsolete tactics of two centuries ago. The Afghans seized the moment and drove into the confused and wavering crowd, cutting it up "like the sections of a cucumber." The Rājput leader, Ishwari Singh, had early heard of the wazir's death, and received despairing counsel from his chief adviser, a barber (!), who had told him, "When the wazir is dead, what can *you* do against the Abdāli?" Seeing the havoc among his followers and no chance of restoring the fight under the circumstances, the Rajah at once fled away from the field, abandoning his section of the trenches also. So hurried was his flight that he threw his kettledrums and light artillery (*rahkala*) into wells, and abandoned his baggage to be looted by the rascals of the army. His leaderless followers scattered right and left and crowded into the trenches of the prince and Muin for shelter.
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By the path thus left open, one Afghan division penetrated to the baggage and after plundering it turned to the rear of Muin's trenches on the heels of the fugitive Rājputs. Even the imperial Centre was threatened, and the prince in alarm appealed to Safdar Jang for aid. Desertions to the rear began among the Indian fighters, both generals and common soldiers being panic-stricken.
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Muin delivered a counter-charge on the Afghān Centre and engaged it at close quarters, with heavy slaughter on both sides. Muin's skin was grazed by a bullet, his brother Fakhr-ud-din received a shot in his foot, an officer Adina Beg was twice wounded, and Jānish Khān and some other Turāni *sardārs* of this division were slain. This was the crisis of the battle. But the scale was soon turned in favour of the Indians by the bravery and enterprise of Safdar Jang and a happy accident.
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One of the Afghān divisions had been posted opposite Safdar Jang (on the imperial Right wing.) By Abdāli’s order 700 of his camel-swivels had been advanced to a hillock overlooking Safdar Jang’s position; here the camels were made to lie down, their knees were tied together, and the swivels were directed against the Indian troops. Safdar Jang met this danger by dismounting 1700 of his musketeers and sending them to charge up the hillock on foot. With one concerted volley of their long pieces (*jizails*) these men slew many of the Afghān gunners, routed the survivors, and captured all their camels and swivels. A counter-attack failed to recover the hillock; Abdāli’s men, as they ran up the slope, were shot down by the soldiers of Safdar Jang in possession of the crest. Thus, the Afghān wing engaging the imperial Right was decisively defeated. Safdar Jang now had breathing time; he detached men to reinforce the prince (in the Centre), and made a bold advance into the field with all his troops in line, preceded by rockets, long firelocks (*jizail*) and light artillery (rahkala), in order to draw away the Afghān attack from Muin (van) upon himself.
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Meantime, some carts full of rockets which Abdāli had captured caught fire from the recklessness of the plunderers, several thousands of rockets at once flew up into the air, the sparks falling from them ignited the gunpowder of the Afghān field artillery, a thousand of Abdāli’s soldiers were burnt to death, and utter disorder fell on their ranks. This calamity, coupled with Safdar Jang’s intervention in the contest in the Mughal van, which came just when the enemy had been checked by Muin, at last decided the day. The Afghān soldiers resisted no longer, but broke and fled.
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§ 16. Defeat and retreat of Afghan army.
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Ahmad Abdāli, however, was too good a general to admit an utter defeat. He put a bold face on it and made a firm stand in a small mud-fort a short distance behind the battle-field, checking the Mughal advance by musket-fire. By the time the imperialists brought big guns to bear on the fort, night had descended, and the Afghans fled away under cover of the darkness. To the Mughals the victory was quite unlooked for and they durst not follow it up at once, but deemed it wiser to keep a careful watch in their own trenches during the whole of the night, each man sleeping fully armed in his own appointed place, the generals sitting on horseback, the sentries regularly going round, and random shots being fired by way of precaution till next morning.
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Abdālī retired from the field in the course of that night, with only two to three thousand followers, many of whom were wounded. The imperialists could not set out in pursuit on the following day, nor even for four days after their victory, as they were quite in the dark about the enemy’s real condition and exact position. Rumours spread in their camp that the Afghān commander-in-chief had been slain,* and even that the Abdālī king himself was killed or at least wounded. No Indian soldier durst go out singly to scout. Abdālī beguiled the prince and Safdar Jang for a few days by sending envoys to ask for terms of peace, and used this respite to get his broken army together, sent away his camp baggage and treasure to Lahor by a neglected path, and finally one night began his retreat towards Lāhor quite unperceived. It was only on the 16th of March, or five days after the battle, that the imperial army ventured to march out towards the Afghān camp, in full strength and battle array, but found it deserted. The jungle which covered all the land from Sarhind to the river Satlaj rendered pursuit slow and ineffective. Even the scouts could not get prompt and correct intelligence of the enemy. The imperialists continued to feel their way towards that river, clinging together for safety and precaution, rather like a camp in constant dread of a surprise than in the spirit of self-confident victors. The Afghān rear-guard, some two thousand horse, were once sighted in the jungle, and fought skirmishes from a distance on the 16th and 17th, but retired before the imperial artillery. On the 18th, the Mughals recovered Sarhind. Abdāli crossed over at Ludhiāna the day before and then went on to Lāhor. This city he first vacated of his booty, and then hastened towards Qandahār via Peshawar, as he had heard that his deputy and nephew Luqmān Khān had rebelled during his absence. [Anand, 370—377; TAh. 8a-9b; Mujmil, 112.]
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∗ Years afterwards, Abdul Karim reported it as an actual occurrence. (Bayān, 235.) TAh qa states that Safdar Jang reported to the prince on 16th March [should be 17th] that Abdali had died of his wounds and that Taqi Kh. and other sardārs had carried his corpse away!
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The last brush with the enemy took place on 17th March, and two days later the prince resumed his advance, arriving at the bank of the Satlaj near Ludhiāna on the 21st. Here a halt for some days was made to refresh the troops worn out by the fight and the march through the jungle. This halt was prolonged for weeks, because Safdar Jang, who had become the centre of all affairs after the wazir's death, fell ill and took to his bed for 10 or 12 days. Even when he recovered he evaded carrying out the prince's order to cross the Satlaj and advance upon Lāhor, but made one or two futile marches along the river bank. All further operations were stopped on 9th April, when letters were received from the Emperor urgently recalling the prince to Court and appointing Muin-ul-mulk governor of Lāhor and Nāsir Khān that of Kābul. These two were given their *conge* on the 11th and 12th and the prince set his face towards Delhi on the latter of these dates. [*TAh.* 9*b*-10*b*; the earlier dates have been corrected by adding one day.]
Linked texts (1)
- Bayān-i wāqiʿ — Khwāja ʿAbd al-Karīm Kashmīrī 1780, Persian