Page 127 - Lohgarh

Mughal Action Against the Sikhs w 127

of the orders of the Emperor because he (Emperor) had given
instructions that the siege should be prolonged; and, when the
ammunition and the ration of the Sikhs is exhausted, they will be
captured. Now, when they had moved forward in violation of the orders
of the Emperor, they had only one option, i.e., either capture the Fort
or die; because a defeat would earn them the wrath of the Emperor
along with punishment for disobeying his orders.
On the other hand, the Sikhs were firing from cannons after long
intervals. This made the royal generals realise that the Sikhs did not
have much gun powder; by the evening the Sikhs’ cannons stopped
firing; they came out of their trenches and attacked the royal forces
with swords. Several Sikhs were killed in this fighting.
At that time Banda Singh was sitting in Sitargarh Fort, on the top of
another hill adjacent to Lohgarh hill. By this time, the royal forces had
closely surrounded Lohgarh Fort and could enter it any time. The Sikhs
had realised that they had no option except to die fighting or make an
attempt to escape. So, at night, they filled all the gun powder in the
improvised tamarind-stem cannon and fired it towards the royal army.
It resulted into a great explosion which shook the earth. This frightened
the royal forces and they hid themselves in their trenches. The Sikhs
availed of the opportunity and fled towards the Shivalik hills; Banda
Singh too was a part of this group which escaped.
The next morning, Udit Singh Bundela and Rustam Dil Khan made a
major assault on the Fort and entered it without any major fighting;
there they found not more than thirty Sikhs including Gulab Singh
Bakhshi who was wearing Banda Singh’s clothes. Khafi Khan,
commenting on the escape of Banda Singh and arrest of his look-like
Gulab Singh, says: ‘the falcon had escaped and an owl had been
captured.’ 56
When Bahadur Shah came to know that Banda Singh had escaped,
he became very much angry and said: ‘How could a jackal escape from
the siege of so many dogs? The Emperor was especially angry at Khan
Khanan who had disobeyed the Emperor and attacked the Fort of his
own.” 57