Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c24.s4.3

v2.c24.s4.3

"The Shah [c. 3 March] issued an order for slaying and plundering. His soldiers were assured that everyone would be allowed to keep whatever plunder he took and would be paid Rs. 5 for every enemy head [brought in.] It was midnight when the camp-followers went out to the attack. One horseman mounted a horse and took ten to twenty others, each attached to the tail of the horse preceding it, and drove them just like a string of camels. When it was one watch (3 hours) after sunrise I saw them come back. Every horseman had loaded up all his horses with the plundered property, and atop of it rode the girl-captives and the slaves. The severed heads were tied up in rugs like bundles of grain and placed on the heads of the captives . . . Then the heads were stuck upon lances and taken to the gate of the chief minister for payment. It was an extraordinary display! Daily did this manner of slaughter and plundering proceed. And at night the shrieks of the women captives who were being ravished, deafened the ears of people. . . . All those heads that had been cut off were built into pillars, and the [captive] men upon whose heads those bloody bundles had been brought in, were made to grind corn, and then their heads too were cut off. These things went on all the way to the city of Agra, nor was any part of the country spared. In addition to all this, five thousand Ruhela foot-soldiers joined the army. Each man procured some thirty to forty buffaloes. The plundered goods, such as jewels and clothes, they loaded upon these buffaloes, and established a market of their own within the camp, where they sold all these things at low prices . . . . Copper and other vessels that had been broken up were strewed along the route of the army and no one stooped to pick them up. Excepting gold and silver nothing was carried away.”