152 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII. body, containing many officers and some five thousand soldiers of his own contingent, started from Multan, followed the western route through Chotiali and Pishin, and debouched through the Panjmandrak (=Khojak ?) Pass.* The two divi- sions met near Qandahar on 2nd May, 1652. Dispositions of the besiegers. On that day the siege was begun. The divisional commanders occupied their appointed places round the fort and set themselves to run trenches and erect batteries. Aurangzib took post on the west of the fort, behind the hill of
- For the details of the marches, Waris 64a, and especially
Adab-i-Alamgiri, 9a-11b, which gives Aurangzib's move- ments thus-Left Multan 16th February, but halted long outside it,-crossed the Chenab 20th March (sent his family back to Multan),-reached the Indus by four marches, and crossed it on 26th March-Lakia,-Chacha, 6th April,- Chotiali on 13th April, Duki on 14th, Tabaq-sar on 19th, Pishin (probably on 23rd, because the dates in the above two authorities conflict), the Panjmandrak Pass on 26th, reached Qandahar, 2nd May. The whole distance between Multan and Pishin is given as 124 kos. The route followed by the English travellers Richard Steel and John Crowther in 1615 was,-Multan-the Chenab- Patuali village (20 kos from the river-the Indus-Lacca (=Lakia),-enters the mountains 12 kos from Lacca,- Chatcza (Chacha),-Duki-Secotah (=seh kotah, three castles),-crosses a mountain pass,-Coasta-Abdun-Pe- singa (-Pishin),— -crosses a high mountain, and descends into the plain-Qandahar, 60 kos from Pesinga. (Kerr, ix. 210-212, quoting Purchas.) Pishin is spelt in the Persian MSS. as Fushanj or Qushanj or Qushakh. A map of Biddulph's route in 1879 is given in Shadbolt's Afghan Campaigns, and with Temple's article in the Royal Geo- graphical Soc. Fournal, 1880, pp. 190-319. Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
