The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c26.53

c26.53

Jaitpur. One of the best known sieges of the 18th century was that of Jaitpur in Bundelkhand, where Muḥammad Khān, Bangash, was invested by the Bundelahs aided by the Mahrattas. This siege is memorable, among other reasons, as the occasion on which the Mahrattas first took a prominent part in imperial politics north of the Narbadā. The siege lasted over three months, namely, from the 15th May to the 31st Aug. 1729. Chattarsāl, Bundelah, had submitted himself earlier in the year, and Muḥammad Khān, quite unsuspicious of danger, was out settling the country at the head of a small force. Suddenly he heard that a large Mahratta army, under Bājī Rāo and eleven other chiefs, was close at hand. From the 12th March to the 15th May, he maintained himself in his camp, but finally was forced to retreat on Jaitpur. There were no stores of food, and no time to provide any. Soon they were completely surrounded, but the Mahrattas, always poor hands at siege operations, made no impression on the place. They resolved to starve the garrison out. After a month or two there was no longer any grain for food. Recourse was then had to the slaughter of the horses and bullocks. Flour could not be procured even at one hundred rupees the seer; the only supplies were those furnished surreptitiously by the Mahrattas outside, and this flour was composed mainly of ground bones. Money was let down by a rope, and the corresponding amount of flour, at the rate of 100 rupees for a seer, was attached to the rope and drawn up. Many men died of starvation. But by Bājī Rāo’s orders, any man on giving up his arms was allowed to pass out unmolested. In the end only some thousand or twelve hundred men remained. At last Muḥammad Khān was forced to make terms and evacuate the fort (Journal A. S. B. for 1878, p. 300, and Mirāt-i-wāridāt, my copy, pp. 25, 26.