The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c23.31

c23.31

Again in the *Maāsir-i-ʿĀlamgīrī*, 299, at the taking of Gūlkandah, 24th Zu'l Qaʿdah 1098 H., 9th Sept. 1687, we have the expression used in its literal sense of a feeble useless effort. When the besiegers entered that fort, their leader seized the king *be ān kih ū o hamrāhān-ash harakat-i-mazbūḥī namāyand*, "before he and his companions could make any fruitless effort". As the prisoners thus made were Mahomedans, it can hardly be supposed that the writer means they were about to perform a “sacrificial rite”, that is, in other words, the Hindū jūhar, or immolation of themselves and family. In the Maāsir-ul-umarā, i, 844, the words are used to describe the opposition offered in 1153 H. (1740) by Sarfarāz Khān, nāzim of Bengal, to the invasion of the usurper, ‘Alī Wirdī Khān, Mahābat Jang. Wilks, ii, 552, attributes to Tīpū Sultān’s personal malignity the use of this phrase for describing the “movements of the enemy”. No doubt, contempt is included in the meaning, but it is a regular stock expression, used by all writers when describing the movements of troops. Khūshḥāl Chand, Berlin Ms. 495, fol. 1010b uses it in its strictly literal signification with reference to the execution of Rajah Ratn Chand (1133 H.). Once more he uses it, rather indefinitely, on fol. 1015b.