Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.s3.t1.49

v2.c28.s3.t1.49

Amir Khān supports Mān Singh. Defeat of the Jaipur Army A.D. 1806.—The protracted defence having emptied the treasury of Amber, the arch-intriguer of Pokaran was called upon to contribute towards satisfying the clamour of the troops. Having exhausted the means of his own party, he applied to the four chieftains who had been induced to join the cause of the pretender by the suspicions of Raja Man, to advance a sum of money, This appeal proved a test of [146] their zeal. They abandoned the pretender, and proceeded direct to the camp of Amir Khan. It required no powerful rhetoric to detach him from the cause and prevail upon him to advocate that of Raja Man; nor could they have given him better counsel towards this end, than the proposal to carry the war into the enemy's country: to attack and plunder Jaipur, now left unguarded. At this critical moment, the Jaipur prince, in consequence of the representation of the Marwar chiefs, had directed his commander-in-chief, Sheolal, to chastise Amir Khan for his lawless conduct. Sheolal put a stop to their deliberations, attacked and drove them across the Luni, surprised them at Govindgarh, again in a night attack at Harsuri, and pursued the Khan to Phaggi,¹ at the very frontier of Jaipur. Astonished at his own success, and little aware that the chase was in the direction projected by his enemy, Sheolal deemed he had accomplished his orders in driving him out of Marwar; halted, and leaving his camp, repaired to Jaipur to partake of its festivities. The Khan, who with his allies had reached Pipla near Tonk, no sooner heard of this, than he called to his aid the heavy brigades of Muhammad Shah Khan and Raja Bahadur (then besieging Isarda²), and availed himself of the imprudent absence of his foe to gain over the Haidarabad Rasala, a legion well known in the predatory wars of that period. Having effected this object, he assailed the Jaipur force, which, notwithstanding this defection and the absence of its commander, fought with great valour, the battalions of Hira Singh being nearly cut to pieces. The action ended in the entire defeat of the Jaipurians, and the capture of their camp, guns, and equipage. Prompted by the Rathor chieftains, whose valour led to this result, Amir Khan rapidly followed up his success, and Jaipur was dismayed by the presence of the victor at her gates. The generalship of the Khan was the salvation of Raja Man; it dissolved the confederacy, and fixed the doom of Sawai, its projector.