Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/64

52 Hie latter's family was lodged. Mahaldar Khan reached Baizapur without opposition and captured the wife and daughter of Shahji and a large quantity of supplies and treasure, including 400 horses, 100,000 hufis and much personal property belonging to Shahji, and property valued at 12,000 hims belonging to Rindula Khan. The Klian-i-Khanan compli- iiiented Mahaldar Khan on his success and ordered him to place Shahji's wife and family in safety with the commandant of the fort of Kalna, recently captured by the imperial troops, and to join the imperial army.

Fath Khan now realised that he could hold out no longer and sent his eldest son, Abdur Rasul Khan, to the Khan-i-Khanan, praying for a week's time in which to convey his and his sovereign's families to a place of safety and for the means of conveying them and the expensed ^f their journey. Abdur Rasul Khan was to remain meanwhile as a hostage with the imperial army. The Khan-i-Khanan generously placed his own elephants and palkis at the disposal of Fath Khan and Husain Nizam Shah and supplied them with more than a million rupees for expenses. Fath Khan then sent the keys of the fort to the Khan-i- Khanan and made preparations for the journey of his family, while the gates were guarded by the imperial troops. On Monday, June 28, 1633, Fath Khan and Husain Nizam Shah came forth and the imperial army occupied the citadel of Daulatabad. Thus, after a siege of more than four months, *• the nine forts of Daulatabad, whereof five are on the plain and four on the slopes of the hill, with many guns and other material of war, lead, powder, grenades, and rockets, fell into the hands of the leaders of the host of the glorious empire." The drums of victory were beaten and the khittba was read in the mosque of Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah in the name of the emperor Shahjahan. Abdul Hamid Khan Lahori, whose description of the fort has already been quoted, records that no conqueror had hitherto been able " to cast the noose of contrivance over the battlement of subjection " at Daulatabad, and ex- plains the Khan-i-Khanan's success. In the year before that in which the siege was undertaken the failure of the rains caused a famine in the Deccan, and when the siege began, Daulatabad, as we have seen, was scantily victualled. Had supplies been sufficient the imperial army could never have effected an entry mto Balakot, the upper fort. The failure of the