34,2 
W. Irvine —The Later Mn gh als. 
[No. 4, 
wolves. So overcome with fear were they, that with no man pursuing, 
they allowed the bazar idlers—'butchers, washermen, aud scavengers— 
to relieve them of their horses and spears. Things came to such a pass 
that the Bhatiydrins, or women attendants belonging to the public sarae 
in Mu gh alpurah, seized each the bridle reins of some five of these 
Rawat 1 2 horsemen, and by hitting them with sticks or throwing bricks 
at them, unhorsed them in spite of their lances, stripped them, and 
killed them. In their panic the men lifted neither hand nor foot to 
defend themselves, but crept like mice into any doorway or passage 
that they could find. They were killed as if they were dogs or cats. 
It was enough for a shopkeeper to stand up, and with a sign or a frown 
to demand the surrender of their arms. Calling out, Are bap ! Are bap ! 
and throwing away their straight Dakhani swords 3 and their shields, they 
stood on one leg with a straw between their lips, and besought mercy, 
saying Nako ! Nako! 3 Two or three leaders of repute lost their lives, 
among them the chief Santa, who commanded some five or six thousand 
horsemen. From the gate of the fort to the entrance of the hunting 
preserve, and the Market ( mandavi ) and the Takiyah of Majnun Shah, 
a distance of three or four kos, bodies were to be seen in every direc¬ 
tion. The slain included many men who, from the darkness of their 
complexion, had been mistaken for Mahrattas. All the aftdbgir, a kind 
of standard which the Mahrattas carry as a mark of honour, one to 
every fifteen or twenty horsemen, had disappeared. 4 * The lining of 
their saddles was ripped open, the plundered gold and jewels hidden 
there were taken, and the bags of coin collected from villages in 
Rajah Jai Singh’s country, were extracted from their waist-cloths. 
It was estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 Mahrattas lost their lives on that 
day. 6 This, the first armed Mahratta appearance at Dihli, where in 
forty years’ time they were to be lords and masters, was not of happy 
augury. They were not accustomed to street fighting and were, no 
1 Rawat (hero, chief), is used here by the Mahomedan historian as a synonym 
for inferior Hindus, mere rustics, or in other words “ beggars on horseback. ” 
2 Dhop. 
3 Muhammad Qasim, 244. The custom known as Ddnt-tinTcd , or “ straw 
between teeth, ” expressive of abject submission, Elliot, “ Supp. Gloss,” 252; Are 
bap = “ O father ! ” an exclamation of sudden terror; “ Nako, IVa&o’^Dakhini for 
“ Do not, do not,” Kam Raj, 66, and J. Shakespear, 2078. 
4 See Blochmann, Ain , I, 50. It was a sort of large fan of oval shape at the 
end of a long handle. 
6 Grant Duff, 199, and Briggs, 178, say 1,500: Warid, 158a, 2,000. Khafi 
Khan, II, 811, says he himself was present as a spectator, and gives the number as 
1,500 ; Mirza Muhammad has 3,000 to 4,000; Kam Raj, 66, four hundred. 
