Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/167

CHAP. VII.] of Shah Abbas II served only to deepen the disgrace of the subsequent failures of Aurangzib and Dara Shukoh at the same place.

For the fall of Qandahar Shah Jahan and his advisers alone must be held responsible. They had underrated the enemy's powers; they had delayed their own preparations; and above all they had left Daulat Khan in charge. Before the Persians arrived, men and money had been thrown into the fort, but not the man needed for the occasion; and in war it is not men but the man that counts.

Daulat Khan

had risen to be a commander of five thousand. By birth a Bhati of the Panjab, his extreme beauty in youth had gained him Jahangir's favour and the easy office of Captain of the Imperial Body-guard. Under Shah Jahan he had distinguished himself by personal bravery and enterprise in the wars of the Deccan and the arrest of a powerful rebel. But he was now verging on sixty and had evidently lost his old energy and leadership of men. He had neither resourcefulness nor power of initiative, nor the iron will that nerves heroes to hold a fortress till the last moment in scorn of