CHAP. XI.] KALIANI: MOAT FIlled up. 275 to his trenches before Kaliani, his brows adorned with victory.** The siege was pressed with vigour, but the defence by the Abyssinian Dilawwar was equally heroic. Progress of the siege. The sap had reached the moat on 11th May, and by the 23rd of the month three-fourths of the ditch had been filled up, under the guidance of Mir Jumla, with thorny plants. The garrison, by hurling down lighted gunpowder and burning naphtha and grass, reduced these plants to ashes; the work of bridg- ing the ditch had to be begun anew; the assault was delayed. Stones and earth were now thrown into the ditch, but progress in this task was necessarily slow. During this period of enforced idleness detachments from the besieging army were usefully employed in capturing the forts of Nilanga and Chincholy.f- Since their defeat in the great battle of 28th May, the Bijapuris had not interfered with the siege for nearly two months. At the end of
- For the battle of 28th May, Kambu, 4b, Adab, 112a,
1476, 1546. In his letters Aurangzib speaks of the Bijapuris generally as Zangis or Negroes. The context shows that the term is merely used by way of abuse, and does not mean any Negro corps in the service of Bijapur. + Kambu, 5a. Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
