Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s1.t3.76

v3.c42.s1.t3.76

Battle of Jājau, June 10, 1707.—Shah Alam advanced from Lahore, and Azam, with his son Bedar Bakht, from the Deccan ; and both armies met on the plains of Jajau, near Dholpur. A more desperate conflict was never recorded in the many bloody pages of the history of India. Had it been a common contest for supremacy, to be decided by the Muslim supporters of the rivals, it would have ended like similar ones,—a furious onset, terminated by a treacherous desertion. But here were assembled the brave bands of Rajputana, house opposed to house, and clan against clan. The princes of Datia and Kotah, who had long served with Prince Azam, and were attached to him by favours, forgot the injunctions of Aurangzeb, and supported that prince’s pretensions against the lawful heir. A powerful friendship united the chiefs of Bundi and Datia, whose lives exhibited one scene of glorious triumph in all the wars of the Deccan. In opposing the cause of Shah Alam, Ram Singh of Kotah was actuated by his ambition to become the head of the Haras, and in anticipation of success had actually been invested with the honours of Bundi. With such stimulants on each side did the rival Haras meet face to face on the plains of Jajau, to decide at the same time the pretensions to empire, and what affected them more, those of their respective heads to superiority. Previous to the battle, Ram Singh sent a perfidious message to Rao Budh, inviting him to desert the cause he espoused, and come over to Azam ; to which he indignantly replied: “ That the field which his ancestor had illustrated by his death, was not that whereon he would disgrace his memory by the desertion of his prince.”