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DECEMBER, 1021 ) HISTORY OF THE NIZAM SHAHI KINGS OF AHMADNAGAR.
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Shortly after this it was reported to the king that the emperor Akbar, with an innu. mera ble army, had entered Malwa and was there engaged in fishing in the Narbada 20 The king, as a precautionary measure, Becretly made over Muzaffar Husain Mirza Baiqarâ, 205 who was then at Ahmadnagar, to Asad Khân and sent with him to the borders of Berar, & large number of officers, with their troops in order that they might be prepared to resist any invasion of his dominions. Orders were also issued to Sayyid Murta zâ, directing him to march with the army of Berar to the frontier and to co-operate with Asad Khân in resisting any invader.
Asad Khân with Muzaffar Husain Mirza and the rest of the officers set out for the borders of Berar, and Sayyid Murtaza, in obedience to the orders which he had received, assembled the army of Berar and marched towards the frontier in order to be ready to oppose the em - peror Akbar. The two armies met on the bank of the Purandi208 which is the boundary between Burhanpur and Berar, and encamped there. The amirs now decided that the presence of Muzaffar Husain Mîrzâ in their camp was undesirable, and they therefore made him over to Babri Khan and sent him to the town of Daryâpûr in Berar.
When Mîrân Muhammad Shâh 207, Sultan of Burhånpûr, heard of the approach of the army of Ahmadnagar, he sent most of his amírs, with their troops, to its support, and the .armies met on the banks of the Purandi, the army of Burhanpur remaining enca mped on the north bank while Sayyid Murtaza and Asad Khân remained on the south bank. The main body of the royal'army now moved from the capital and marched to Daulatâbâd 208 where the royal pavilion was pitched on the bank of the Qutluqiyyah tank. Sayyid Murtaza and Asad Khân kent daily watch on the frontier at the Purandi river, but engaged daily in hunting, while prepared at all times for battle.
Akbar's spies continually reported to him these movements and he, surprised and perturbed at this preparedness, took counsel with his amirs and the officers of his army, saying that the Nizâm Shâhî army had taken the field before him and was now ostensibly engaged in hunting without displaying any fear or alarm, and inquiring whether any of his counsellors were in favour of war. Allagreed that it would not be wise to fight, for if they should defeat the army of Ahmadnagar they would have performed no great feat, while if, on the other hand, they should be defeated they would have to endure the shame of it for ever. This advice commen. ded itself to Akbar, and he retreated. Murtaza Nizam Shah, acting on the principle that peace was good thing, sent Vafà Khân to the court of Akbar with rich and costly gifts and thus opened peaceful negotiations.
Asad Khân and Sayyid Murtaza then retired from the frontier and joined the royal camp at Daulatâbâd where they had an audience of the king, and the royal army then returned to Ahmadnagar. Sayyid Murtaza and his officers were dismissed with much honour to Berar.
204 This report was not quite correct. On Sep. 16, 1576, Akbar get out from Agra on his annual pilgrimage to Ajmer, arriving there on Sep. 27. He marched in person as far as Dipálpûr (22° 51' N. and 70° 33' E.) in the sarkar of Ujjain, and on Feb. 27, 1577. dispatched a force under Qutb-ud-din Khán to handoah, where Raja Ali Khan, who had just succeeded Muhammad Shah II, had withheld tribute, relying on help from Ahmadnagar, Raja Ali Khân made his submission and the force returned. Akbar having satisfied himself that all was quiet in the Dakan, returned to Fathpur Sikri, arriving there on May, 9, 1577.
205 Muraffar Husain, one of the rebellious 'Mirzas,' Aibar's distant cousins, had been taken by his mother to the Dakan after Akbar had defeated the Mirzês in Gujarat.
206 There is no river of this name, and the Tåpti, not the Parna Nadi, is the boundary between Berar and Khandesh,
207 This should be Raja' Ali Khan, who had now succeeded his brother Muhammad.
204 According to Firishta (ii. 272) Murtaza Nizam Shah marched to Daulatâbâd with a force 90 inadequate that his advisers protested, and begged him to await reinforcements.
The Qutluqiyyah tank was a tank construoted by Qutlugh Khin, governor of Daulat Abad for several years under Muhammad Tughluq (A.D. 1325-1351).
