Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s12.58

v2.c28.s12.58

The Jat Rajah with his immense force and ponderous artillery and baggage set out on return from Pushkar, and had all but reached his own country, when at Maonda, only 23 miles south-west of Narnol, the last Jaipur station near the Jat frontier, the Kachhwa army which had been following him delivered their attack (14 December, 1767.) * Here a narrow defile lay before the Jats ; they sent their baggage ahead, covering it with the troops in the rear. The first attack of the Rajput horse in the open was repulsed by the Jats making a counter-march towards them, as the Kachhwa artillery and infantry were lagging behind. The Jats took advantage of it to enter the defile, hoping thus to escape. But the Jaipur cavalry overtook them in the middle of the pass ; the Jats made a half-turn and offered battle. The Jaipur horse after firmly standing a devastating fire from the Jat guns for some time, at last threw themselves sword in hand on the Jat army, which fled away at the first shock, crying out that all was lost and abandoning their artillery, baggage and Jawahir himself. The Rajputs immediately dispersed for plunder and an indescribable confusion raged over the scene, during which the trained battalions of Sombre and Madec kept their heads and with equal bravery and coolness maintained the battle, fighting with their backs to the rocky walls till nightfall, and thus saved Jawahir and enabled him to make an unmolested retreat, though the rest of his army had dispersed in flight. But all his artillery train (70 pieces of different calibres), tents and baggage including his royal umbrella, had to be abandoned on the field. The total loss on the two sides together was about 5,000 men, the Rajputs losing two to three thousand soldiers, "mostly by artillery fire, before which they stood with astonishing firmness"; but most of their principal chiefs fell on the field; there was hardly a noble family in Jaipur that did not sacrifice a son or two on that day. "Dalil Singh, the commander-in-chief of the Jaipur army, fell in the fight with three generations of his descendants, and none but boys of ten remained to represent the baronial houses of Jaipur". [Qanungo, 211.]