Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s3.6

v1.c9.s3.6

Ignoring the Marātha light horse as beneath his notice and pointing to the Afghāns as "There are my enemies," the Nawāb advanced upon their massed ranks. The battle began with a discharge of guns. In this Alivardi had a decided superiority, as the Afghāns had abandoned most of their heavy pieces at the ford four miles eastwards the day before. At the first cannonade Sardār Khān's head was blown away. He commanded nearly half the rebel force and his death on the back of his elephant, visible from far and near, shook the men of his division. Alivardi's youthful captains were eager to charge the enemy at once, but the cool-headed veteran pulled them up short, letting his musketeers do their work first. His barqāndāzes fired volley after volley into the enemy ranks crowded on the sand bank, "darkening the bright day with smoke." Seeing the enemy now really hard pressed, the Nawāb ordered two officers to make a charge, but the order met with no immediate response. During this confusion the Marāthas and Mir Habib's Afghāns (the former retainers of Mustafa) made an attack on the Nawāb's baggage in the rear, and driving a crowd of servants before them approached the centre. But the Nawāb, never giving these enemies a thought, ordered his vanguard to charge the main Afghān army in front and advanced on his elephant with his guards, in support of the vanguard, his band playing the music of victory. His generals vied with one another in driving their elephants into the enemy's ranks. The engagement now became close and general all along the line. Murād Sher Khān fell back into his hawdā wounded by a musket-ball; two Nawābi officers jumped on his elephant and cut off his head. In another part of the field, during the confusion of the fight Shamshir Khān fell down from his elephant and was beheaded on the ground. The Afghān army now helplessly broke and fled; the Marāthas also quickly disappeared from a field where they had contributed nothing to the fight and found no chance of securing booty. The Nawāb's victory was complete. He occupied the enemy's deserted camp, and then marched to Baikunthpur, 12 miles west of the battlefield, where he halted for a few days, and finally entered Patna in triumph. A great cloud of terror was lifted up from the hearts of the people of Patna, high and low alike, and life returned to their bodies, as it were. [Siyar, ii. 165—168.]