Page 185 - Lohgarh

Third Mughal Attack on Lohgarh w 185

without giving a fight. It seemed that only one thousand Sikhs were
involved in the battle. Abdus Samad Khan, once again, failed to arrest
or kill Banda Singh Bahadur. So, the Mughals lost this battle too. Their
purpose was not to capture Lohgarh Fort; they were there to arrest or
kill Banda Singh Bahadur; and they failed in this mission. Even by fleeing
the scene Banda Singh had virtually defeated the Mughals.

Why Did Banda Singh Leave Lohgarh in 1713?

One may ask that it was neither failure of food supplies, nor in
ammunition, then why did Banda Singh leave Lohgarh without giving a
big fight? The answer is Banda Singh had a long term strategy. His
purpose was not to achieve a small gain of winning the battle of Lohgarh.
He wanted to keep the Mughal army constantly engaged in the
battlefield and thus exhaust it, drain its treasury in paying salary for the
soldiers and spending on provisions and ammunition, create constant
fear in the mind of the Emperor and the Mughal aristocracy, and create
an atmosphere of chaos for the officials of the Mughal regime.
When he left Lohgarh on 30 November 1710, it was the same
reason. He could have fought for several months. He left Lohgarh and
the Mughal generals and the soldiers remained in trouble for so many
days; the regime spent a lot of money for this expedition, the Emperor
could not pay attention to other activities. The awe and chaos created
by Banda Singh made the Emperor insane. This was the beginning of
the destruction of the Mughal Empire. Even for the second time, in
September 1712, he left Lohgarh without giving a fight. At that time
too, along with Mohammed Amin Khan, hundreds of generals and
thousands of Mughal soldiers, the Emperor had also engaged the Rajas
of Jaipur and Jodhpur. This time too, the royal treasury spent a lot of
money, and, it had to surrender revenue rights of the East and Gujrat
to the rulers of Jaipur and Jodhpur, thus losing a considerable part of
the royal income. The third time (in November 1713) too, the Governors
of Lahore and Multan and the Faujdar of Sarhind and thousands of the
soldiers of the Mughals spent many months to capture Sadhura and
Lohgarh but they could not arrest or kill Banda Singh Bahadur. This time