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288
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NOVEMBER, 1898.
Khanan and Shahbaz Khan, who did not approve of the conquest of the Dakhan - with their horsemen and retinue, drunis and standards, stepped into the plain of battle.
After the assembly of the Mughal army the engineers being ordered to fire the mines and throw down the walls, they set fire to those mortar-like mines. At this time the defenders had found two of the mines and emptied them of powder, and having found the third mine also, were in the act of digging it out, when suddenly the smoke of destruction came forth from that mortar-like mine, and the tiame of misfortune fell in the foundation of that wall. All at once the wall of the fortress tottered, and from terror of it the earth came forth from its place, and the sound of it came forth from the position of that foundation, so that you would have thought the trumpet of the resurrection had been blown, and you beheld the day of resurrection face to face. About fifty cubits17-length was brenched and all at once demolished and broken, and by the force of the explosion the pillars of the walls of that impregnable fortress were laid low.
A number of the enemy's force who were standing by the ditch waiting for the destruction of the wall, threw themselves into the ditch and made for the breach ; and as ti ey expected the demolition of the other walls, most of the army were waiting for that in order that they might with ease enter the fortress and take it. The stones which, bird-like, flew from the wall of the fortress, like the huntingfalcon of death killed several of the Mughal troops who were near the fortress, waiting for the assault ; and as many of the defenders were engaged in digging out the mine under the same wall, a number of them also were buried under the stones and earth. Some who were farther off, when they saw so great a brench in the pillars of the fortress, fled from the stones.18 Some crept into corners, and some went to Her Highness Chand Bibi. The amirs and leaders of the army, who, in their own houses heard of that great occurrence, hastened in a frantic state towards the breach in the wall. Of the amirs and great nobles, Mujahid-ud-Din Shamshir Khan and Umdab-ud-Daulah Mubariz-ud-Din Abhang Khân first arrived at the breach, and with Arrows and swords opposed the entrance of the Mughal troops. After that, Sadr-ul-Umra Muhammad Khan with his sons and relatives, and Multân Khan, Ahmad Shah, Ali Shir Khan and all the amirs and leaders of the army, following one another, went to the breach and blocked the way of the enemy's force. And a number of the foreign nobles, such as Abzal Khan. Maulana Muhaminad - ambassador of Ibrahim Adil-Shah - Maulana Haji Muhammad ambassador of Muhammad Kuli ķutb-Shảh - Mir Muhammad Zaman, Mîr Saiyid 'Ali Astarabadi and Khwajah Husain Kirmâni, who, owing to the great bravery which he displayed on this day, received the title of Tîr-andaz Khân. Troops of strangers and all the foreigners too, who in their own houses heard of this occurrence, hastened with all speed to the breach, and with their stone-splitting arrows blocked the way of coming and going of the enemy's troops. Most of the foreign nobles, such as the ambassadors of the Dakhan kings, by the advice of the amirs and nobles of the State, hastened to wait on Chand Sultanah, and in order to strengthen the warriors and further the business of the fighting, brought the Queen from the palace to the breach and the scene of the combat. When her sur like umbrella cast the shadow of protection and favour over the heads of the lords of the State, the strength and ferocity of the warriors was increased a thousand-fold. The lightning-making guns and flaming rockets drove the enemy from the neighbourhood of the breach ; and the engineers and artil
17 1 gaz, or cabit = 24 finger-breadths.
18 In connexion with this Mirza Raff-ud-Din relates an episode which reads like a story from the adventures of Baron Munchausen, "It was an extraordinary occurrence that when a bastion and some of the parapet of the fortress were blown up, three persona on top of the bastion, sitting on a slab of stone, were playing a game of nard sa kind of backgammon), when suddenly they were blown to the heavens with that stone, and descended near Ja'far Åka's well, which is nearly one faraakh (6,000 yards) from the fort. One of those three escaped uninjured, and when I was sent on a diplomatic mission to mediate between Nizam-ShAh and the amits, between whom dissen sions had arinen, that person was shown to me. I asked him how he had felt in going ap and coming down. Ho replied: -'Such terror pervaded my heart that I was unable to open my eyes till the stone reached the ground and I became separated from it. Thanks be to the Creator, who bridge safely out of such a whirlpool of danger anyone He wishes. By this action the Almighty shows to his servants the perfection of His power.'"-Taskaral-lum. Mulik, I, O, MS. p. 875.
