1879.] W. Irvine — The Bangash Naioabs of Furruhhabucl. 61 



feet of elephants. Then he ordered out his artillery and camp equipage, 

 and marched westwards from Shahabad — Kannauj, at the head of an immense 

 force, with one thousand cannon of all sorts, large and small. He pushed 

 on to the Kali river as quickly as possible, and crossing it pitched his camp 

 on the left bank near Khudaganj, seventeen miles south-east of Farrukka- 

 bad and twenty miles north-west of Kannauj.* Soon after this, letters 

 from the Wazir arrived, announcing his own approach and giving orders 

 that till the two forces had joined, the attack was to be postponed. The 

 Wazir's words were, that if any of the wild beasts, i. e., the Pathans, survived 

 the battle, he would tie stones round their necks and drown them in the 

 river, not one of their seed should be left alive in Hindustan. Naval Rae 

 proceeded to carry out these orders. He caused a ditch to be dug round 

 his camp, and posting his guns all round his entrenchment, he secured them 

 to each other by chains. Heralds (iiakib) were sent to proclaim aloud 

 from tent to tent the Wazir's instructions, and the army was warned that 

 any one engaging the enemy would come under the displeasure of the 

 Wazir and the Rajah. 



Meanwhile, on the Bangash side, at Rustam Khan's suggestion, Nawab 

 Ahmad Khan ordered a march eastwards. His personal troops were under 

 the command of his son, Mahmud Khan, then about fifteen years of age, 

 and there were other contingents iinder Zu'lfikar Khan, Khan Saman Khan, 

 Jamal Khan, Muhammad Mah Khan, Bahadur Khan, Roshan Khan, Mak- 

 han Khan, 'Abd-ur-rahim Khan, Birahim Khan Kashmiri, Yar Khan of 

 Daipur and Mirza, Anwar Beg. There were also the following chelas of 

 Nawab Muhammad Khan, Grbazanfar Jang, viz., Haji Sarfaraz Khan, 

 Ranmast Khan, Sarmast Khan, Namdar Khan the elder, Namdar Khan the 

 younger, Sherdil Khan, Nahardil Khan, Jovvahir Khan, Salabat Khan, 

 Hafizullah Khan, Bara Khan, Pahar Khan, the five sons of Shamsher 

 Khan, two sons of Mukim Khan, 'Usman Khan, son of Islam Khan, also 

 Mahtab Khan and Dilawar Khan Janvibi. The Pathans encamped about 

 two miles from the army of Naval Rae. The site of the encampment was, 

 tradition says, at Rajepiir on the metalled road, three miles north-west of 

 Khudaganj. 



To reinforce Naval Rae, the Wazir had on the 27th and 28th Sha'ban 

 (21st and 22nd July, 1750), detached a force of twenty thousand men under 

 Nasir-ud-din Haidar, Isma'il Beg, Muhammad Ali Khan Risaldar, Rajah 



* The author of the " 'Amad-us-Sa'dat" tells us (p. 47,) that to the Kali river are 

 ascribed miraculous properties. When only knee-deep, if you beat the kettle-drums, it 

 rises over an elephant's head. He offers the rationalistic explanation that the bottom 

 is yielding, and soon gets trodden into a quagmire, so that any one afterwards crossing 

 by the same passage would sink in. 



