Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/49

CHAP. II.] leave Jhujhar in possession of his conquest if he ceded an equivalent territory to the Mughals! This the Bundela was most unwilling to do. Deciding on a policy of resistance, he secretly recalled his son Yograj (surnamed Vikramajit), whom he had left in charge of his contingent in Balaghat. The youth slipped away unperceived. But an energetic Mughal officer, Khan-i-Dauran, was soon at his heels, reached Ashta from Burhanpur by forced marches in five days, and overtook Vikramajit, who fled defeated and wounded to his father at Dhamuni.

A habitual plunderer and refractory chieftain could not be left unsubdued on the edge of the Deccan road. Shah Jahan organised an expedition to hunt him down. Three armies were to converge upon the rebel's country: Syed Khan-i-Jahan with 10,500 men from Budaun, Abdullah Khan Bahadur Firuz Jang with 6,000 men from

the north, and Khan-i-Dauran with 6,000 men from the southwest. The Bundela army