1904 ] William Irvine— The Later,Muahals. 45 
Muhammad Khan. Bangash, came in from Sa‘dabad [ on the 20th Sha‘- 
ban (7th July, 1719) and followed the main body. At this time many 
rumours were prevalent. As usual in such cases, dreams or the 
opinions of soothsayers and astrologers favourable to Nekusiyar, passed 
from mouth to mouth. Rajah Jai Singh, people said, was marching from 
Amber on Agrah ; Chabelali Ram was on liis way from Allahabad at 
the head of thirty thousand men ; Kizam-ul-mulk had started to rein¬ 
force them with a mighty army ; Nekusiyar, in the garb of a faqir, had 
escaped from Agrah and reached the camp of Rajah Jai Singh. Of all 
these statements the only true one was that Rajah Jai Singh had come 
out one stage from Amber at the head of nine or ten thousand horse¬ 
men, and there awaited the advance of Ohabelah Ram. The latter, 
however, was still busily occupied with the revolt of Jasan Singh of 
Kalpl, who was backed up by the Afghans. Kizam-ul-mulk showed no • 
serious intention of taking up the cause of Nekuslyar. 1 2 
On the 21st Shahan (8th July, 1719) Husain ‘All Khan reached 
Sikandrah, 3 within sight of Agrah ; the weather was extremely hot, 
and a halt was made for three days. On the 25th (12th July) camp 
was moved to Bagh Dahr-arae. 4 * The siege which had been commenced 
by Ghalrat Khan and Haidar Quli Khan, was now pressed on with 
redoubled energy. 6 
Section 4.— Siege of Agrah Fort. 
As soon as he reached Agrah, Husain ‘All Khan rode round the 
fort and fixed in person the sites for the batteries, the side selected for 
attack being the south, where is the bastion then known as the Banga- 
la-hurj , a place which was weakly defended and had no earthwork 
(jpushtah) to strengthen the wall. Heavy guns were brought to bear on 
the walls ; 6 but as the wet weather had begun and the rain was heavy, 
1 Sa‘ dabad, a town in the Ganges- Jamnah duabah. • 
2 Kamwar Khan, 205, Khali Khan, II, 832. 
3 Sikandrah, the place where the Emperor Akbar is buried ; it lies west of 
Agrah. 
4 Kam Raj, ‘ Ibratndmah, 69 a, Bagh Dahr-ara, two hos from the city. See also 
ante Reign of Bahadur Shah, p. 26 (not yet published). 
6 Muhammad Qasim, Lahori, 277. 
6 These guns had each a name, such as Qhdzi Khan (Lord Champion), Sher- 
dahan (Tiger-mouth), Bhum-dhdm (The noisy), and so forth. They carried bails 
from thirty ShahjahanI sers to one and a quarter man in weight; attached to each 
were from one to four elephants, and from six hundred to seventeen hundred 
draught oxen. 
