History of Aurangzib Vol I/Chapter V

by Jadunath Sarkar

Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/113 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/114 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/115 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/116 crushing blow which might win for him peace and the growth of revenue. The enemy had "no forts or towns or immovable property, worthy of the name, for an invader to destroy, and no stationary population, left undefended, upon whom he might wreak his vengeance Mobility must have been the quality they relied on more than any other, both in attack and retreat, and we find them baffling their enemies more by their movements than by their fighting power."^[1] When reduced to the worst, they fled across the Oxus to their homes. Mughal troops who had served in the Deccan, immediately noted that the Uzbaks fought like the Marathas but were far more hardy.^[2] Savage and uncouth as the Uzbaks were, they had at least the faith of Islam in common with their foemen from India. But the Turkoman tribes (miscalled Alamans) were worse still. They had not yet accepted the creed of Muhammad, but clung to their old heathenism.^[3] Plunder was their sole livelihood. In their forays they burnt the Quran

Tartar raiders. Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/118 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/119 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/120 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/121 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/122 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/123 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/124 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/125 9^ HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. V.

Bahadur Khan and Asalat Khan were left in Balkh as joint viceroys, and Oalich Khan in Badakhshan. After 22 days of hard toil, the great wazir finished his task and returned to Kabul by a rapid ride of four days only (6 September).* The Prince, who had preceded him, was disgraced, deprived of his rank and government, and forbidden the Court. f

The Mughal outposts were exposed to attack from the Uzbaks, and many of them lived in a state of siege, fighting frequent but indecisive skirmishes with the enemy. All waited for the arrival of a supreme commander and reinforce- ments at the end of winter.;|l

During the recess the Emperor made grand

preparations for opening the Preparations for . . . ,

renewing the war. campaign m the spring of 1647.

His sons Shuja and Aurangzib

were called up from their provinces, large sums

of money were conveyed to Afghanistan, and

troops were massed at convenient stations from

Peshawar to Kabul, in readiness to move at the

first order.§

• Abdul Hamid, ii. 560 — 565, 584.

t Ibid, 579.

X Ibid, 566 — 571, 614—618, 620—624, 626, 642 — 657.

§ Ibid, 603, 633, 641-642. Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/127 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/128 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/129 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/130 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/131 Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/132 were routed and the left wing saved from extinction.^[4]

The Second of June was a terrible day for the Imperialists, They had marched from dawn to midday and then got no rest in their camp, but had to fight incessantly till sunset before they could gain the much needed safety and repose. Ali Mardan Khan now returned with the victorious Rear. The camp was entrenched and carefully guarded, many of the captains doing patrol duty all night, without dismounting.

Next day the tired soldiers and their chief alike wished to halt. But under Ali Uzbak Camp captured. Mardan's wise advice they advanced to seize Beg Ughli's base and reap the utmost fruit of their victory. The Uzbaks as usual hovered round the marching army and kept up a running fight. Thanks to their superior mobility, they could attack or retreat as they chose. Leaving screens at safe distances on the Right and Left, their miassed troops fell on the Van, but only to be shattered by the Mughal artillery. The same tactics were repeated against the Rear, but with no better success. The march continued, the enemy seizing every disorder or weakness to come closer and gall the Imperialists with showers of arrows. But the Scythian militia was no match for regular troops, and their general's camp at Pashai was seized by Aurangzib, and the peasantry whom they had carried off into captivity were released.^[5]

After two days of march and fighting the Prince could no longer deny his troops a halt. Meantime the baffled enemy slipped away from his front to his rear at Aliabad. Another large army arrived from Bukhara under Prince Subhan Quli, evidently to attack the city of Balkh.^[6]

Retreat to Balkh. The news made Aurangzib beat a retreat from Pashai (5th June) and hasten eastwards to defend the capital. The enemy became more aggressive than before, and at two places penetrated into his camp for a time.^[7] Artillery, rockets, and muskets alone could keep their hordes at a safe distance. Next day he turned a little aside to Shaikhabad to release two of his officers who were invested in a garden. Thence he marched towards Faizabad on the Balkháb river.^[8]

On the 7th the situation grew worse. The Grand battle with the Uzbaks. Bukhara army put forth a supreme effort. It was now in full strength. Its highest commanders, Abdul Aziz the king, Subhan Quli his brother, and Beg Ughli the Uzbak chieftain, were all present, and directed the attack on three points of the Imperial army. But again musketry and superior discipline gave the Mughals the victory. The retreat continued till the 9th with the usual ineffective molestation from an enemy that lacked fire arms, and whose arrows were powerless except in a close en- counter. At last in the evening of the 9th the Bukhara king demanded a parley and sent a friendly message. The Mughals were not molested during the next two days, and they reached Balkh in peace on 11th June.^[9]

This march Hardships of the Mughals. towards Aqcha and retreat to Balkh had taken up ten days, during which the Mughal army had been a stranger to repose. Day after day a strenuous fight had to be maintained against the tireless and mobile enemy, while hunger raged in the Imperial ranks. The soldiers were ever on the move, and food could be cooked only on the backs of the marching elephants! Bread sold at one rupee or even two rupees a piece and water was equally dear. Happy were those who could get the necessaries of life even at this price, for there was not enough for all. Such was the condition of the Prince's personal following. The lot of the common soldiers may be imagined. But in the midst of all this hardship and danger, Aurangzib's firmness and control prevented any slackness or disorder; his watchful eye and active body hastened to the succour of every weak spot, and his wisdom and courage brought the army back to safety.^[10]

Evil as was the plight of the Mughal army, Aurangzib's splendid courage. the enemy were worse off. Aurangzib's grim tenacity had gained its object. Abdul Aziz now desired to make peace. His hope of crushing Aurangzib had failed. He had personally witnessed a striking proof of the Prince's cool courage; for, one day the hour of evening prayer arrived when the battle was at its hottest; Aurangzib spread his carpet on the field, knelt down and calmly said his prayers, regardless of the strife and din around him. He was then, as during the rest of the campaign, without armour and shield. The Bukhara army gazed on the scene with wonder, and Abdul Aziz, in generous admiration, stopped the fight, crying, "To fight with such a man is to court one's own ruin."^[11]

The Bukhara king could no longer pay and Uzbak army melts away. keep his vast host together. The hope of an easy plunder of the Imperialists had brought his men together. That design having failed they were eager to return home. The Turko- mans in particular sold their horses to the Imperial army and decamped across the Oxus.^[12]

Overtures of peace. Abdul Aziz proposed that Balkh should be delivered to his younger brother Subhan Quli, as Shah Jahan had publicly offered to restore the country to their father. Aurangzib referred the question to the Emperor, and Abdul Aziz left the neighbourhood of Balkh, and from Khulm turned sharply to the crossing the Oxus at Aiwanj on inflated skins, his soldiers following his example wherever they could.^[13] The historian Abdul Hamid has blamed Auranszib for not immediately giving chase and killing or capturing Abdul Aziz.^[14] But he forgets that the Uzbak war was a national rising and did not depend on any individual leader, even when that leader was a powerful and able prince like Abdul Aziz Khan.

The war was now practically over, at least for a season. But a settlement Mughal army sick of Balkh. was still far off. Shah Jahan had no doubt decided to give the country back to Nazar Muhammad Khan, but that king must first offer submission and beg pardon before Imperial prestige could be satisfied. Meantime in the Mughal army officers and men alike were sick of their exile and longed to return home. High commanders like Bahadur Khan secretly thwarted Aurangzib, fearing that if they captured the king of Bukhara, the Emperor would annex Transoxiana and leave the Indian troops in permanent garrison there, while the failure of the expedition would lead to their speedy return home! The country had been devastated by the Turkoman freebooters, the crops burnt, and the peasantry robbed or dragged away. Aurangzib, therefore, wrote to his father that he could do no good by staying there.^[15]

Nazar Muhammad prolongs negotiations. Soon after the Prince's return to Balkh about the middle of June, negotiations had been opened by Nazar Muhammad, then in refuge at Belchiragh.^[16] But three months were wasted in a fruitless exchange of messages and vain attempts to allay the ex-king's suspicions of treachery if he interviewed Aurangzib. He demanded this fort and that as a security, and on 13th September sent Qafsh, the Qalmaq chieftain, as his agent to Aurangzib. On the 23rd, he sent his grandsons to the Prince, excusing himself on the ground of illness.^[17]

With this Aurangzib had to be contented, as the winter was fast approaching. The passes of the Hindu Kush would be soon closed by

snow. His army was faced with starvation, as grain was selling in Balkh at ten rupees a maund. They had no winter quarters in that poor and desolate country.

Already tribes of Turks and "Alamans" had recrossed the Oxus and begun to Peace patched up. cut off small parties of the Mughals. Aurangzib, as his officers urged, had no time to lose; he could not even wait for the Emperor's consent. So at last, on 1st October, 1647, he formally delivered the city and fort of Balkh to Nazar Muhammad's grandsons. His distant garrisons fell back on him at the rumour of peace, without waiting for his order.^[18]

On 3rd October the Mughal army marched from the plain outside Balkh and began its retreat to Kabul.Mughals leave Balkh. Ali Mardan Khan and Rajah Jai Singh commanded the Right and Left wings, and Bahadur Khan the Rear. The artillery accompanied the Van. The pass of Ghazniyak was crossed slowly and painfully, the enemy harassing them from the rear and boldly falling upon them at their least disorder or Harassed during retreat. difficulty. Ghori was reached still hanging on on 14th October, the Uzbaks the tail of the retreating force. Shah Jahan had wished to retain this fort and Kahmard as the southern gates of Balkh, but his officers refused to stay there.^[19] The retreat continued. The wild hillmen Sufferings in crossing the Hindu Kush. called Hazarahs now took the place of the Uzbaks in harassing and plundering the Mughals. The winter of that year set in very early and with unusual severity.^[20] The Imperialists, encumbered with 10 lakhs of rupees but having few transport animals and porters, toiled slowly and painfully through a narrow and steep pass east of the Surkhab river (21st and 22nd October) and the hardened ice on the Hindu Kush (24th October). South of these mountains lay Afghanistan and safety, and Aurangzib could now hasten in advance to Kabul, which he reached on the 27th.^[21] Ali Mardan Khan too crossed with ease. But the rest of the army, especially the Rajputs under Jai Singh, the treasure-escort under Zulqadar Khan, the stores, and the Camp and Rear under Baha dur Khan, were several days' march behind. They suffered untold hardships from heavy and incessant snowfall for three days together. Men and beasts of burden alike slipped on the snow or lost the narrow track and went rolling down into the depths below. The exhausted camels lay down in the ice never to rise again. The intense cold drove every man away in search of shelter. Zulqadar Khan alone, with a handful of men, guarded his charge on the bare top of the pass for seven days, regardless of snowfall, till the Rear under Bahadur Khan came up and took him away. This last officer's march had been slow, as he had constantly to face round and drive back the hillmen who clung to him in the hope of plunder. One night, in the midst of wind and snow, he had to bivouac on the top of the pass, and many benumbed men and beasts of his party perished.^[22] The last part of the army reached Kabul on 10th November.^[23]

Loss of life. The total loss of the Imperial army in crossing the passes was 10,000 lives, about one-half of the number being men, and the rest elephants, horses, camels and other beasts. Much property, too, was left buried under the snow, or flung into the ravines for want of transport. The horrors of the British Retreat from Kabul were anticipated by these Indian mercenaries, who had blindly gone to an unrighteous war at the call of their paymaster. Next year when the snow melted it revealed the gruesome spectacle of piles of human bones bordering the path!^[24]

Thus ended Shah Jahan's fatuous war inLoss to the treasury. Balkh,—a war in which the Indian treasury spent four krores of rupees in two years and realised from the conquered country a revenue of 22½ lakhs only. Not an inch of territory was annexed, no dynasty changed, and no enemy replaced by an ally on the throne of Balkh. The grain stored in Balkh fort, worth 5 lakhs, and the provisions in other forts as well, were all abandoned to the Bukharians, besides Rs. 50,000 in cash presented to Nazar Muhammad's grandsons and Rs. 22,500 to envoys. Five hundred soldiers fell in battle and ten times that number (including camp followers) was slain by cold and snow on the mountains.^[25] Such is the terrible price that aggressive Imperialism makes India pay for wars across the north-western frontier.

1. Elias & Ross, Intro. 55.
2. Abdul Hamid, ii. 705.
3. Alaman is a Tartar word meaning 'a predatory ex-pedition' (Vambery, 317.) The historian Abdul Hamid took it to be the name of a Tartar tribe, whose manners he describes in ii. 619 and 453.
4. Ibid, 688—692; Khafi Khan says that this encounter took place next morning (i. 662).
5. Abdul Hamid, ii. 692—694.
6. The following points in Aurangzib's advance from Balkh are mentioned: Yulbugha (near some canals)—Aliabad—Timurabad, 'one kos from Fatihabad'—Pashai in the district of Aqcha.
7. Khafi Khan (i. 668) says that three or four thousand Uzbaks dashed into the Mughal camp, and carried off many camels loaded with baggage and many women and children of the Mughal troops. Ali Mardan Khan recovered only a little of the booty.
8. Abdul Hamid, ii. 694-697.
9. Abdul Hamid, ii. 697—701. The following points in Aurangzib's retreat from Pashai are named in the Persian history: Aliabad-digression to Shaikhabad—Faizabad on the Balkhab River—Yanki Ariq—Bridge of Dost Beg (on the Balkhab?)—Naharab or canal—Yandarak-Balkh city.
10. Khafi Khan, i. 668 and 669. Howorth (752) says, "The devastation caused such a famine that an ass's load of corn cost 1000 florins."
11. Masir-i-Alamgiri, 531; Abdul Hamid, ii. 704.
12. Abdul Hamid, ii. 701 & 702, 708.
13. Abdul Hamid, ii. 700, 706 & 707.
14. Abdul Hamid, ii. 709.
15. Waris, 3b, 4a.
16. For Nazar Muhammad's adventures in Persia and after his return, see Abdul Hamid, ii. 658-668.
17. Waris, 6b, 7a.
18. Waris, 7b.
19. Waris, 8a.
20. Vambery's History of Bukhara, 332.
21. Aurangzib returned from Balkh to Kabul by the Ghazniyak—Haibak—Ghori—Ghorband route, which is called in the Persian history the Khwajah Zaid Road (Abd. Ham. ii. 669). He seems to have crossed the Hindu Kush either by the Kushan Pass, because "this pass leads under the great peak specially known as that of Hindu Kush", (Wood, lxv) or, what is more likely, by the Chardarya or Kipchak Pass, (for which see Wood, lxv. and Leyden, 139). The stages of his homeward march from Balkh are thus given:-Ghazniyak Pass—Ghori—Surkhab river—Bek Shahar—Chahar Chashma—Pass of Hindu Kush—Ghorband—Charikar—Kabul. (Waris, 8a & b).
22. Waris, 8b, 9a.
23. Waris, 9a.
24. Vambery's Bukhara, 322.
25. Abdul Hamid, ii. 542, 704; Waris, 7b, 6b, 7a.