The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c23.21

c23.21

Many battles were lost by the event above referred to, the death or disappearance of the leader. One instance is the loss of the battle of Samūgaṛh in 1658, because Dārā Shukoh descended from his elephant to mount a horse, at the entreaty of Khalīlullah Khān, with the object of pursuing the flying enemy (Bernier, 54). The loss or flight or capture of the leader also determined the great battles of Jājau (18th June 1707), Ḥaidarābād (13th January 1709), Lāhor, (15th-18th March 1712), Āgrah, (10th Dec. 1712) Ḥasanpur (13th Nov. 1720). In the first Prince Aʿzam Shāh and two sons were killed; in the second, Prince Kām Bakhsh was mortally wounded and made prisoner. At Lāhor the three younger brothers of Prince Jahāndār Shāh were defeated by him one after another and killed. At Āgrah, Jahāndār Shāh left the field of battle and fled in disguise to Dihli. At Ḥasanpur, Prince Ibrāhīm and the rebel wazīr, ʿAbdullah Khān, both became the prisoners of Muḥammad Shāh. On this head see also Horn, 46, and the cases there referred to, *Badshāhnāmah*, i, 512, last line, *Akbarnāmah*, iii, 54, line 12 and following. Once more, Sir Eyre Coote, “Minutes of Sel. Com”, 30th April 1772, reprint, 39, attributes the victory of Palāsī (Plassey) partly to the loss of one Meer Noodur, Sirāj-ud-Daulah’s head general. One of our cannon balls killed his elephant and then its rider was killed by a fall from it; this, and the death of the oxen dragging the guns, threw the enemy into the greatest confusion.