Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/161

 Chap. VI.] KEKJN OF AKIJEU. 127

the king's liaiul and l)eg fur mercy; but he shook him off in disgust, and ordered a.u. isor his attendants to do summary jastice by flinging him over the parajjct.

About this time Akber himself narrowly escaped assfussination. A famous -^kber chief of Tm'kestan, called Mirza Shurf-udin Hoos.sein, arriving from Lahore at Nissi„atioii. Agra, was received at court with great distinction ; but shortly after, being suspected of treasonable designs, fled to Ajmeer and went into rebellion. On the advance of the I'oyal army he retreated to the frontiers of Gujerat. One of his retainers, who happened to be in the neighbourhood of Delhi when the royal retinue was pa.ssing along the road, joined it; and, looking upwards, fixed an arrow in his bow and pointed it towards the .sky, as if he were going to shoot at some object in the air. The attendants, thinking he was aiming at a l)ird, did not inteifere, and he had time to lower the bow and lodge the arrow deep in the flesh of Ak])er"s shoulder. The assassin was immediately cut to pieces, and the arrow was with some difficulty extracted. I'he wound, though deep, did not prove serious, and healed over in about ten days.

Shortly after Akber set out from Agra on a hunting excui'sion. This was his Usbek ostensible object, but his real design was to nij) in the bud an insurrection which was meditated by Abdollah Khan Usbek, the governor of Malwah. He accord- ingly turned suddenly aside, and, in spite of the r.ainy season, made an incursion into that province. He had only reached Oojein when Abdollah Khan, taking guilt to himself, marched off with his forces and treasure for Gujerat. Akber chivalrously pursued with a small body of hor.se, but met with so much opposi- tion that he was obliged to fall back on Mando. The annoyance caused by this U.sbek was said to have given Akber a rooted dislike to the whole race ; and it was generally rumoured that he meant to seize and impri.son all the Usbek chiefs. The consequence was a general Usbek revolt. In a short time the insurgents mustered 40,000 horse, with which they ravaged the teriitories of Berar and Juanpoor. One of the leadei-s of the revolt was Asuf Khan Heroy, governor of Kurra. Shortly after his a])pointment he obtained permission to sulxlue a country called Gurrah, which was at the time governed by Doorgawutty, a ranee or Hindoo queen, as celebrated for beauty sis for ability. The aggi-ession appears to have been un])rincipled, for the only reason assigned for it is that Asuf Khan had heard of the riches of Gurrah. After several predatory excui'sions he invaded it with a force of about GOOO hor.se and infantiy. The queen opposed him with an army of 8000 horse and foot, and 1 500 elej)hant.s. The battle was sanguinary antl well contested, till the queen, who was mounted on an elephant, was struck by an arrow in the eye and disabled from giving ordei-s. Determined not to fall i)e,itiiof into the hands of the enemy, she plucked a dagger from the girdle of her elephant ^",1^ driver and stabbed herself Her capital was immeiliately taken by storm, and ^"^"^^ her infant son trampled to death. A.suf Khan obtained an immense booty in gold and jewels, but sent only a small part to the royal treasmy, and was thus able, on joining the revolt, to add largely to its pecuniary resources.