Storia do Mogor : or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine.

Storia do Mogor, or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine.

  • Manucci, Niccolò, 1639-approximately 1717.
Date:
1907-08
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Storia do Mogor, or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    473/512 (page 351)
    CAPTURE OF DARÀ 351 prince s privileges, or a master’s rights. Without any remorse, chains were put upon his legs and manacles upon his wrists. Then four elephants appeared with howdahs on, and in secrecy they placed the prince on one of them. Each elephant was escorted by three thousand horsemen, armed with swords and spears. There were thus four divisions, and among them were distributed the prince, the sons, and the women, with such secrecy that not a soul knew in what division, or on which elephant, or in which howdah. Darà was. In each howdah was a soldier with drawn sword seated at the back. This was done so that if any outbreak occurred, or any attempt was made to rescue the prince, the assailants should not know in which division he was, and the soldier seated at his back would have time enough to despatch him according to orders. The march began, Rajah Jai Singh at the head of the vanguard and Bahadur IGian with the rear-guard. They set out [251] for the fortress of Bhakkar. In that fortress we remained, under continual assaults, de- fending ourselves boldly. In spite of all their efforts, the enemy were unable by force of arms to overcome us. Therefore they planned a means of getting the European artillerymen to with- draw from the fortress, and to this end they shot arrows, to which letters were attached. These invited us to abandon the service of Darà and evacuate the place. One of these arrows hit me on the shoulder when I was sitting in my bastion at eight o’clock at night. Withdrawing the arrow, I went with it at once, wounded as I was, to the eunuch. He gave me a robe (saràpà) and some bottles of rose-water in recognition of my fidelity. Since Aurangzeb had strongly enjoined on KTalllullah Kfiàn that he must reduce the place in one way or the other, and he saw that he could not do so by force of arms, he had recourse to many letters containing promises to our eunuch Primavera (Basant), that if he gave over the fortress his demands would be gratified. Enraged at length by the receipt of so many letters, the eunuch wrote to Khalllullah Kfiàn that if he would come in person he would enter into the desired agreement. He meant to surrender the place, as he perceived that Dàrà’s affairs were