The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c20.30

c20.30

Marching through Passes. The passage through a hilly country of such a huge assemblage as a Moghul army, consisting as it mainly did of undisciplined men, was, it need hardly be said, a matter of extreme difficulty, and in the presence of an active enemy likely to end disastrously. Of this difficulty Bahādur Shāh had ample experience while governor of Kābul during the last ten years of his father’s life. It was with the greatest difficulty, and more by guile than force, that he was able to pass yearly from his winter quarters at Peshāwar to his summer residence at Kābul, and back again (Raverty, “Notes”, 84, foot note, 86, 90, foot note, 372). Warned by what had happened to him in Kābul, we find Bahādur Shāh adopting special precautions whenever he came to any narrow defile. On his return from the Dakhin, when he arrived at the Fardāpur pass between Aurangābād and Burhānpur on the 23rd Shawwāl 1121 H. (25th Dec. 1709), he sent ahead his eldest son, Jahāndār Shāh, with orders on reaching the other end to occupy in force a position in the open plain beyond (Kāmwar Khān, entry of above date). Shortly afterwards he came with his army to the Mukand darrah, or pass, and the three great Rājput chieftains of Udīpur, Jodhpur, and Jaipur being in open revolt, there was every reason to take precaution against a sudden onfall. This narrow valley in the Kotah state has a melancholy interest in Anglo-Indian history as the scene of Colonel Monson’s disastrous retreat before Jaswant Rāo, Hūlkar, in July 1804 (Thornton, “Gaz.” 624, Thorn, “War”, 358—363, Wellesley “Despatches”, iv, 178 ¹). Bahādur Shāh took very great precautions. A plan of the pass was prepared a week before they came to it: the road was reported to be only 4½ dira‘h wide (about 12½ feet). Accordingly on the 25th Muḥarram 1122 H. (25th March 1710), the eldest prince, Jahāndār Shāh, was again deputed to march through in advance of the main army, and occupy the exit from the narrow valley. It seems to have taken the main body eight days to get clear, as it was not until the 6th Ṣafar (5th April) that the emperor quitted his camp on the hill side, at the top of the pass, a position which had been occupied by him since the 29th March (Kāmwar Khān, entry of above date).