The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c20.33

c20.33

Negociations. These were carried on as a rule through holy men (darvesh) or through eunuchs, the sacred character of the one and the peculiar position of the other class making their persons more likely to be respected. Connected with this subject is the case in Erskine “History”, ii, 248, quoted by Horn, 51, where during Humāyūn’s flight through Sind in 1542, Māl Deo, the son of Rāe Lankaran of Jaisalmīr, when he came to remonstrate about plundering, bore a white flag. Another instance is found in Ashob, fol. 256b. He tells us that during the general slaughter of 1739 in Dihli, the Shāh’s men were opposed in superior force by the Wazīr’s troops stationed round the latter’s mansion. It became necessary to communicate with the Wazīr and send him a letter. The messenger displayed a white sheet “that is to say, the signal of peace and negociation”, and then advanced to state his purpose. The only other instance that I have met with of a flag of truce being used, was at the siege of Malligām in 1818, where Lake, 127, says “the garrison hung out a flag of truce, that we might carry away our dead and wounded”.