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Battle of Dharmat
The Battle of Dharmat was fought during the Mughal war of succession (1658–1659) by Aurangzeb against Jaswant Singh Rathore who was allied with the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh. The battle was fought on the open plain of Dharmat on the hot Summer day of 15 April 1658 in which Aurangzeb won a decisive victory due to advantage in imperial artillery and tactics.
On 6 September 1657, Emperor Shah Jahan suddenly fell ill due to strangury and constipation. He failed to hold Jharokha Darshan and the shops were closed in the bazaars around Delhi. There were rumours rife whether the emperor was dead or held hostage by his son Dara. Only some physicians, Dara and his sister Jahanara were physically allowed to see him. The stage was set for the transition of power. Even though Shah Jahan was able to recover completely from his illness, it would still prove costly for him. Seizing the opportunity to claim the throne, Prince Shah Shuja, who was the viceroy of Bengal and Orissa rebelled against his father and prince Murad Baksh crowned himself as emperor at Surat. However, as a contrast to both Shuja and Murad, Aurangzeb did not take the irrevocable step of crowning himself. Instead, he engaged in a busy secret correspondence with Murad, and, to a lesser extent, with Shuja. Letters written in cipher encased in bamboo tubes passed from runner to runner over special relay posts newly established between Ahmadabad and Aurangabad. Both of them agreed to a joint action against their brothers. As a result, they decided to divide the ruling Mughal land amongst themselves.
On February 5, 1658, Aurengzeb left Aurangabad to contest the Mughal Throne. He proclaimed himself ruler and bestowed titles on his children. By April 3 he crossed the Narmada river towards Ujjain. On April 13 he learns that Murad was just near him and Aurangzeb summoned him to come fast and on the next day they camped at Dharmat by the western bank of the Gambhira River.
The Imperial forces under Raja Jaswant Singh of Marwar had reached Malwa at the orders of Dara Shikoh by February 1658 but the Raja was still in the dark about the movements of Aurangzeb. At first his army blocked Karchraud near Ujjain to give battle to Murad but Murad avoided battle by prudently taking a detour around Karchraud and joined Aurangzeb. When the Raja realised that Aurangzeb was already in Malwa, he was at his wit's end. Aurangzeb sent a Brahmin envoy, Kavi Rai to advise him to desist from battle and allow him to go Delhi to just see his father. Jaswant tried to parley with Aurangzeb as he thought that the enormous strength of the imperial forces was enough to dissuade both princes. He thought that they will stop their rebellion and return to their domains.
Shah Jahan's orders to Jaswant was to take every possible step to induce the two princes to retire. If they declined to listen, they were to be stopped by force. Truly in this case Jaswant Singh was caught between a rock and a hard place. Jadunath Sarkar aptly summarises the dilemma faced by Jaswant Singh in his words:
At all times, a subject opposing two princes of the blood, a servant fighting for a distant master against two chiefs who acknowledge no higher authority than their own will, is severely handicapped. In Jaswant's case the natural inferiority of his position was aggravated by the commands he had received from Shah Jahan—Jadunath Sarkar
Moreover, his army, too, was an ill-knit group of discordant elements. The various Rajput clans were often divided from each other by hereditary feuds and quarrels about dignity and precedence. Unlike Jai Singh, Jaswant was not the commander to humour and manage them, and make all obey the will of one common head. Then, again, there was the standing aloofness between Hindus and Musalmans. It had been found next to impossible to brigade these creeds together for a campaign under one general.
Many contemporaries blame Jaswant Singh for being inept and inexperienced. He chose his ground badly and so cramped his men that the horsemen could not manoeuvre freely nor gather momentum for a charge; The ground where Jaswant took his stand was narrow and uneven, with ditches and swamps on its flanks. One historian asserts that Jaswant had deliberately poured water on 200 yards of ground in front of him and trodden it into mud, evidently to arrest the enemy's charge. His position was also surrounded by trenches thrown up during the previous day, as the usual precaution against night attacks. In short, the imperial army seemed to be standing on an island, ready for a siege. He failed to send timely succour to the divisions that needed it most, and the battle once begun, he lost control over his forces as if he were a mere divisional leader and not the supreme commander of all. Lastly he made the fatal mistake of despising artillery. It is said that one of the chiefs under Jaswant, Askarandas advised him to fall on the European gunners who manned the artillery pieces of Aurangzeb in a night raid so as to avoid annihilation of the Rajputs but Jaswant Singh refused as he thought that it was below the dignity of a Rajput to attack the foe when they are unarmed.
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Battle of Dharmat
The Battle of Dharmat was fought during the Mughal war of succession (1658–1659) by Aurangzeb against Jaswant Singh Rathore who was allied with the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh. The battle was fought on the open plain of Dharmat on the hot Summer day of 15 April 1658 in which Aurangzeb won a decisive victory due to advantage in imperial artillery and tactics.
On 6 September 1657, Emperor Shah Jahan suddenly fell ill due to strangury and constipation. He failed to hold Jharokha Darshan and the shops were closed in the bazaars around Delhi. There were rumours rife whether the emperor was dead or held hostage by his son Dara. Only some physicians, Dara and his sister Jahanara were physically allowed to see him. The stage was set for the transition of power. Even though Shah Jahan was able to recover completely from his illness, it would still prove costly for him. Seizing the opportunity to claim the throne, Prince Shah Shuja, who was the viceroy of Bengal and Orissa rebelled against his father and prince Murad Baksh crowned himself as emperor at Surat. However, as a contrast to both Shuja and Murad, Aurangzeb did not take the irrevocable step of crowning himself. Instead, he engaged in a busy secret correspondence with Murad, and, to a lesser extent, with Shuja. Letters written in cipher encased in bamboo tubes passed from runner to runner over special relay posts newly established between Ahmadabad and Aurangabad. Both of them agreed to a joint action against their brothers. As a result, they decided to divide the ruling Mughal land amongst themselves.
On February 5, 1658, Aurengzeb left Aurangabad to contest the Mughal Throne. He proclaimed himself ruler and bestowed titles on his children. By April 3 he crossed the Narmada river towards Ujjain. On April 13 he learns that Murad was just near him and Aurangzeb summoned him to come fast and on the next day they camped at Dharmat by the western bank of the Gambhira River.
The Imperial forces under Raja Jaswant Singh of Marwar had reached Malwa at the orders of Dara Shikoh by February 1658 but the Raja was still in the dark about the movements of Aurangzeb. At first his army blocked Karchraud near Ujjain to give battle to Murad but Murad avoided battle by prudently taking a detour around Karchraud and joined Aurangzeb. When the Raja realised that Aurangzeb was already in Malwa, he was at his wit's end. Aurangzeb sent a Brahmin envoy, Kavi Rai to advise him to desist from battle and allow him to go Delhi to just see his father. Jaswant tried to parley with Aurangzeb as he thought that the enormous strength of the imperial forces was enough to dissuade both princes. He thought that they will stop their rebellion and return to their domains.
Shah Jahan's orders to Jaswant was to take every possible step to induce the two princes to retire. If they declined to listen, they were to be stopped by force. Truly in this case Jaswant Singh was caught between a rock and a hard place. Jadunath Sarkar aptly summarises the dilemma faced by Jaswant Singh in his words:
At all times, a subject opposing two princes of the blood, a servant fighting for a distant master against two chiefs who acknowledge no higher authority than their own will, is severely handicapped. In Jaswant's case the natural inferiority of his position was aggravated by the commands he had received from Shah Jahan—Jadunath Sarkar
Moreover, his army, too, was an ill-knit group of discordant elements. The various Rajput clans were often divided from each other by hereditary feuds and quarrels about dignity and precedence. Unlike Jai Singh, Jaswant was not the commander to humour and manage them, and make all obey the will of one common head. Then, again, there was the standing aloofness between Hindus and Musalmans. It had been found next to impossible to brigade these creeds together for a campaign under one general.
Many contemporaries blame Jaswant Singh for being inept and inexperienced. He chose his ground badly and so cramped his men that the horsemen could not manoeuvre freely nor gather momentum for a charge; The ground where Jaswant took his stand was narrow and uneven, with ditches and swamps on its flanks. One historian asserts that Jaswant had deliberately poured water on 200 yards of ground in front of him and trodden it into mud, evidently to arrest the enemy's charge. His position was also surrounded by trenches thrown up during the previous day, as the usual precaution against night attacks. In short, the imperial army seemed to be standing on an island, ready for a siege. He failed to send timely succour to the divisions that needed it most, and the battle once begun, he lost control over his forces as if he were a mere divisional leader and not the supreme commander of all. Lastly he made the fatal mistake of despising artillery. It is said that one of the chiefs under Jaswant, Askarandas advised him to fall on the European gunners who manned the artillery pieces of Aurangzeb in a night raid so as to avoid annihilation of the Rajputs but Jaswant Singh refused as he thought that it was below the dignity of a Rajput to attack the foe when they are unarmed.