Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/156

 122

IirSTORV OF TNDTA.

fB^JOK 1

A D. 1660.

13elirain riiJea in Ak ber'a uuiiiu.

Wl

H'M

tl

le

luflaiicholy tidings readied liiui ho wuh aWnt

Akber's thvoiie in danger.

He gains a signal victory at

Paniput

fourteeiitli yeai'.

(Ml this coinuiaMd. Tlu; necessary steps were iinine<liately taken, and he waH forthwith i)rclaiined as hiwf'ul possessor of the throne. Tliere wa.s no rival in liis own family to dispute it with him; hut in Jieiiram Khan, a Toorkoman who had stood hioh in his father's confidence, and also been his own tutor, he found a minister who seemed determined to leave him little more than a nrmiinal sovereignty. Behrams talents were of the highest order; and he probably retained the power not for any treasonable purpose, but merely because he ha/1 persuaded himself that the interest of his youthful sovereign would thereby be most effectually promoted.

Akber was not the kind of person to be long kept in leading-strings, though he had prudence enough not to take any decisive step for the purpo.se of escap- ing from thraldom till he was sm-e that he would be able to give effect to it. At first, therefore, he left Behram undisturbed, and readily consented to all the measm-es which he rertommended. It is probable that in this way he was a considerable gainer ; for Behrams experience was great, and mast have done much to extricate Akber from the difficulties which encompassed him at the very outset of liis reign. In the Punjab, Sikundur Sur still kept his gi-ound, and declared his determination to be satisfied with nothing .short of the throne of Delhi; in Cabool, Mirza Soliman of Buduk.shan had made a sudden in-uption, and made himself absolute master ; and from an opposite direction, Hemoo, the talented Hindoo minister of the usurper Adih, was advancing towards Agi'a at the head of a powerful army. Against the last, as the most pressing danger, Behram and his young sovereign immediately took the field. It was almost too late; for the Mogul generals had sustained a severe defeat, and Hemoo had, in consequence, not only captured Agra, but forced his entrance into Delhi.

The contest now about to be waged wore a very ominous aspect for Akber. His army at the utmo.st mustered only 20,000 horse, wdiUe that of the enemy exceeded 1 00,000. No wonder that many of the ofiicers urged an instant retreat in the direction of Cabool. The minister and his sovereign stood alone when they resolved to risk the encounter. Some addition was made to Akber's force by the arrival of soldiers who had belonged to the defeated detachments, but when the armies met his was still far inferior in numbers. The decisive battle was fought near Paniput, on the 5th of November, 1556. Hemoo began the action with his elephants, and pushed forward with them into Akber s very centre ; but these powerful and unwieldy animals acted as they almost invariably did when their first charge failed to produce a general panic. Furiously attacked on all sides by the Moguls, who galled them with lances, aiTows, and javelins, they L'ecame unruly, and carried confusion into their own ranks. The day was thus quickly decided in Akber's favour ; but Hemoo, mounted on an elephant of procUgious size, still bravely continued the action, at the head of 4000 horse. An arrow pierced his eye and he sunk senseless into his howdah. • A few moments