Battle of Dharmat

It was a little over two hours from sunrise, of 15th April 1658 when the rival hosts sighted each other. The battle began with the usual discharge of artillery, rockets, and muskets at long range. The distance gradually decreased, as Aurangzib’s army advanced slowly, keeping its regular formation. The Rajputs were soon engaged in a close hand to hand combat. The Rajputs densely packed within their narrow position, were severely galled by the barqandazes and archers of the princes’ army from front and flank, without being able to manoeuvre freely and give an effective reply. Their losses began to mount up every minute. The Rajput leaders of the Van,— Mukund Singh Hada, Ratan Singh Rathor, Dayal Singh Jhala, Arjun Singh Gaur, Sujan Singh Sisodia and others, with their choicest clansmen, galloped forward. Shouting their war- cry of Ram Ram “they fell on the enemy like tigers, casting away ail plan.” The flood of Rajput charge first burst on Aurangzib’s artillery. [7] The guns and muskets fired at point-blank range, woefully thinned their ranks, but so impetuous was their onset that it bore down all opposition. Murshid Quli Khan, the Chief of Artillery, was slain after a heroic resistance and his division was shaken; but the guns were not damaged.

For one point of time the Rajput charge was seeming to overwhelm Aurengzeb's Vanguard but his Van was composed of his most picked troops, “eight thousand mail-clad warriors,” many of them hereditary fighters of the Afghan tribe, and their generals were reliable men. Muhammad Sultan, Najabat Khan, and other commanders of the Van, on their elephants kept their ground like hills, while the flood of Rajput charge raged round and round them in eddies. Here the most stubborn and decisive fighting of the day took place. The close combat was so heavy that “The ground was dyed crimson with blood like a tulip-bed.”[8]

The Rajputs, being divided into many mutually antagonistic clans, could not charge in one compact mass; they were broken up into six or seven bodies, each under its own chieftain and each choosing its own point of attack. Thus the force of their impact was divided and weakened as soon as it struck the dense mass of Aurangzib’s Van. [8]

The Maharajah had chosen his position so badly that many of the imperialists standing on the uneven ground could not join in the fight, and many others could not charge by reason of their being cramped within a narrow space. Half the imperial Van, viz., the Mughal troops under Qasim Khan, rendered no aid to their Rajput comrades now struggling hard with Aurangzib’s Van ,they were suspected of collusion with the enemy or of antipathy to the Rajputs. The charge of Jaswant’s Vanguard was not followed up. Aurangzib’s troops, who had parted before the rushing tide, closed again behind them, and thus cut off their retreat. Jaswant, too, was not the Cool wise commander to keep watch on all the field and send reinforcements and the new development made his position untenable.[8]

By this time the watchful eye of Aurangzib had taken note of the situation his Advanced Reserve had been pushed up to reinforce the Van, and he himself moved forward with the Centre to form a wall of support and refuge close behind them. Above all, Shaikh Mir and Saf Shikan Khan with the right and left wings of the Centre struck the Rajputs in the waist from the two flanks, while they were engaged with Aurangzib’s Van in front.

Without support or reinforcement arriving from their own army, the Rajputs were disheartened and checked. Mukund Singh Hada, their gallant leader, received an arrow through his eye and fell down dead. All the six Rajput chieftains engaged in the charge were slain. Hopelessly outnumbered now, assailed in front, right, and left, and cut off from their rear, the Rajputs were slaughtered. Aurangzib’s gunners, with their pieces mounted on high ground, concentrated their fire on the enemy’s Centre under Jaswant himself. At the sight of the annihilation of their brave Vanguard and a triumphant forward movement on the part of Aurangzib, defection appeared in the Maharajah’s ranks. Kai Singh Sisodia from the right flank of the Centre, and Sujan Singh Bundela and Amar Singh Chandrawat from the Van, left the battlefield with their clansmen and returned home.[9]

Even though the imperialists were close to defeat, there stood 2,000 Rathors under the banner of Marwar, ready to live or to die with their chieftain, besides many other Rajput and Mughal auxiliaries; and they offered a stubborn opposition. Iftikhar Khan, who bravely fought the reserves with his depleted forces, was slain.[10]

With the Vanguard of Iftikhar Khan overwhelmed and the Mughal force under Qasim Khan kept aloof during the battle, Jaswant Singh who fought valiantly for 4 hours even though he was wounded his voice was an encouragement to his Rajput troops. According to Ishwardas, he chose the option of charging with his horse towards the strong fresh troops to get slain, but he was persuaded by Maheshdas and Askarandas to desist from it and took the reins of the horse from him.[11]

With the retreat of Jaswant Singh from the battlefield, the battle was already lost, and the flight of the Rathors removed the last semblance of resistance. There was now a general rout of the few divisions of the imperial army that had still kept the field.