Page 124 - Lohgarh

124 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

imli (tamarind) tree. They did not have even enough gun powder for
these cannons.
But, according to the account of Muhammed Qasim Aurangabadi:
the next day the big pearl of the crown of the empire (prince) Rafi-ush-
Shan and Wazir-UL-Mumalik Khan Khanan (Munaim Khan) were given
command to put siege to the Fort. So, following the command, they
organized the army and put siege to the Fort. The cheat (Banda Singh)
became busy in strengthening the towers, outer wall, mounds and gates
of his Fortress. The noble-born prince and Khan Khanan strengthened
their trenches and became ready for battle. They began firing from
cannons, guns and rockets. By God’s grace, one of the rockets fired by
great honorable prince fell into the storage of explosives and that got
fired. With this blunder of that unlucky person, countless persons
reached the hell. All the trenches, which were made of timber, were
burnt. When the fire was extinguished, the honorable prince
strengthened their foot on the foothills of the Fort. But now no voice
could be heard from the Fort side. There were not more than one
thousand young men in the Fort. As the awe of battle affected both the
sides, the brave soldiers (of the Mughals) did not move forward and
waited for the command of the prince, Khan Khanan’s wise advice. The
opinion of the prince was that the knot would not be untied (occupation
of the Fort would not be possible) in less than one year; i.e. this problem
would not be solved in less than one year. Divine courage played its
role and the long-term problem was solved in a moment. They thought
that there was no necessity to make haste, the soldiers too were badly
tired. So they decided to wait for some time. They thought if God willed,
in the morning they would occupy the Fort in no time. They thought
that if they attacked that day, he (Banda Singh) might escape through
some other way and their efforts might go waste. They thought that
the proper thing for them would be to make arrangements to block the
path of his escape. If that unFortunate schemer (Banda Singh) ran away
from there, he had two escape routes: one was through the territory of
Burfi Raja (Nahan), and the other towards the Afghan border of the
Afghan (Jammu). We should write to them that they should not allow