Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c14.s1.8

v1.c14.s1.8

The battle began in the morning. Two divisions under Qāim and Muazzam Khan attacked the southern and northern corners of the grove in which the Ruhelas were posted under Dundi Khan and Sadullah Khan respectively. At first the assaulting columns, headed by numerous elephants, seemed to carry everything before them. Dundi Khan’s guns were captured, and that chief had to dismount and lead his men in a hand to hand fight. Sadullah was in imminent danger when reinforcements arrived and turned the scale against the invaders; Muazzam Khan and his brother as well as several sons of Muhammad Khan Bangash were shot down. Then Qāim Khan himself headed a charge with his lieutenants and Hindu allies, and the Ruhelas gave way, running into a long and deep ravine behind the battlefield, hotly pursued by Qāim Khan and his division. It soon became a death-trap for him, for the quick eye of Hāfiz Rahmat had already taken in the situation and planted an ambush there. The steep crests of the ravine were covered with thick tall crops of bajra (spiked millet) in which 8,000 Afghans were placed, completely concealed from view, their matchlocks loaded and resisting on the ground.