Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/52

46 horizon,' Aurangzíb marshalled his men. Keeping the command of the centre for himself, he placed Murád-Bakhsh in the left wing, appointed Bahádur Khán to load the right, and sent forward his own son Muhammad with the advance guard to act with the artillery, which were, as usual, in the van. Dárá meanwhile disposed his forces in a similar order. He placed his cannon in front, linked together by iron chains, so that the enemy's cavalry might not break through. Immediately behind the cannon, he ranged a line of light artillery-camels, mounting brass pieces worked on swivels, and fired by the rider. Then came infantry armed with muskets. The mass of the army was composed, as usual, of cavalry, armed with sabres, pikes, and arrows. The last was the favourite weapon of the Mughals and Persians; the hand-pike being the special arm of the Rájputs. Khalíl-Allah Khán commanded the right, Rustam Khán the left, and Dárá himself was with the centre.

The battle began, as Mughal battles always did, by an artillery engagement; cannon were fired; rockets or hand-grenades were thrown to create a stampede among the enemy's horses and elephants; and then the infantry came into action with their clumsy matchlocks, whilst flights of arrows flew over their heads from the archers behind. Dárá's advance guard, under his son Sipihr Shukóh, then came out and drove in Prince Muhammad's squadrons, and this advantage was immediately followed up by bringing