Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/259

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

WAR WITH THE KAJPUTS 211 appeared. Not only his own people, but many of his enemies were won over. First an Afghan officer came with a valuable contingent of two or three thousand retainers from the Doab. Then a powerful chief was won by the emperor's clemency to his captured sons. Meanwhile Sambhal was taken by guile; and Humayun led an army against the insurgent Afghans in the east, who were advancing into the Doab, but immediately broke up on his approach and fled over the Ganges. The young prince pursued, took Jaunpur and Ghazipur, and leaving strong divisions to hold his conquests, marched back by way of Kalpi to support his father against a pressing danger. For Babar was now coming to the grip with the only formidable rival left in Hindustan. The great Eana Sanga of Chitor, the revered head of all the Raj- put princes, commanded a vast army. One hundred and twenty chieftains of rank, with eighty thousand horse and 500 war elephants, followed him to the field. The lords of Marwar and Amber, Gwalior, Ajmir, Chanderi, and many more, brought their retainers to his stand- ards; and the battered old Rajput hero, who counted eighty wounds in his body, and had lost an arm and an eye in the wars, was not to be denied when his drums beat to battle. The famous Rana was now marching on Biana. The emperor sent on a light de- tachment toward the threatened fortress, with orders to hang on the enemy and harass him; and himself set out with his main body in battle array on February 11, 1527. All his campaigns hitherto had been against fel-