Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/149

Rh garh, afterwards known as Fathabad, "the place of victory." For a day or more they remained observing one another. The heat was such as is known only on the plains of India. It was a true Agra summer, and the men were fainting and dying in their heavy armour. Early in the morning, Aurangzib marshalled his men. Keeping the command of the centre for himself, he placed Murad Bakhsh in the left wing, appointed Bahadur Khan to lead the right, and sent forward his own son, Mohammad, with the advance-guard to act with the artillery, which was, as usual, in the van. Dara 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 Moghuls and Persians; the hand-pike being the special arm of the Rajputs. Khalil Allah Khan commanded the right, Rustam Khan the left, and Dara himself was with the centre.

The battle began, as Moghul battles always did, with an artillery engagement; cannon were fired; rockets or hand-grenades were thrown to excite a stampede among the enemy's horses and elephants, and then the infantry came into action with their clumsy matchlocks, while flights of arrows flew over their heads from the