Battle of Dharmat

Battle of Dharmat
Part of Mughal War of Succession (1658-1659)
Date 15 April 1658 Location Faithabad near the village of Dharmat 33 km from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh Result Victory for Aurengzeb
Belligerents
Aurengzeb	Dara Shikoh
Commanders and leaders
Aurengzeb Murad Baksh Muhammad Sultan Multafat Khan Najabat Khan	Jaswant Singh Rathore Mukund Singh Hada † Qasim Khan
Strength
30000	22,272 armymen along with cavalry 266 Mansabdārs
Casualties and losses
7000 Horsemen 4000 Mansabdārs 100 Nobles	atleast 6000 rajputs(as computed by Jadunath Sarkar)

The Battle of Dharmat was fought during the Mughal war of Succession (1658-1659) by Aurengzeb against the Rajput noble Jaswant Singh Rathore on the open plain of Dharmat on the hot Summer day of 15th April 1658 in which Aurengzeb wins due to advantage in Artillery and Tactics..

Aftermath

The soldiers had been under arms for more than eight hours of a hot April day. Victor and vanquished alike were worn out by the strife. So, Aurangzib mercifully forbidden pursuit, saying that this sparing of human life was his offering (zakat) to Allah

The deserted camp of the imperialists close to the field, contained booty beyond imagination. Hither the victors flocked. The entire camp of Jaswant and Qasim Khan with all their artillery, tents, and elephants, as well as a vast amount of treasure, became the victorious princes spoil, while their soldiers looted the property equipment and baggage of the vanquished array. Long strings of camels and mules, laden with various articles, were seized as prize or pillaged by the common soldiers and camp followers.

But the only question that remains is what advantage did Aurengzeb really got from his victory ?. As Historian Jadunath Sarkar says

But far greater than all these material gains was the moral prestige secured by Aurangzib. Dharmat became the omen of his future success in the opinion of his followers and of the people at large throughout the empire. At one blow he had brought Dara down from a position of immense superiority to one of equality with his own, or even lower. The hero of the Deccan wars and the victor of Dharmat faced the world not only without loss but with his military reputation rendered absolutely unrivalled in India.

Preparation

On 6th September 1657, Emperor Shah Jahan suddenly fell ill due to strangury and constipation. He failed to hold darshan and the shops were closed in the bazaars around Delhi. There were rumours rife that the emperor was either dead or Dara was holding his father as a hostage. Only some physicians ,Dara and his sister Jahanara were allowed to physically see him. The stage was set for the transition of power. Eventhough Shah Jahan later was able to recover from his illness it would still prove costly for him. Seizing the opportunity who was the viceroy of Bengal and Orissa rebelled against the father and Murad Baksh crowned himself as the emperor at Surat. In contrast to Shuja and Murad, however, Aurangzeb did not take the irrevocable step of crowning himself. Instead, he engaged in a busy secret correspondence with Murad, and, to a lesser extent, with Shuja. Letters written in cipher encased in bamboo tubes passed from runner to runner over special relay posts newly established between Ahmadabad and Aurangabad. Both of them agreed to a joint action against their brothers. As a result they decided to divide the ruling Mughal land amongst themselves.(But this wasn't so as the fact that Aurengzeb was only seeking the Annihilation of all his brothers and gaining the throne for himself later in the war of succession)..

On the 5th February 1658, Aurengzeb left Aurangabad to contest the Mughal Throne. He proclaimed himself ruler and bestowed titles on his children. By the 5th of April he crossed the Narmada river towards Ujjain.

Battle

The Charge of the Rajputs

It was a little over two hours from sunrise, of 15th April 1658 when the rival hosts sighted each other. The battle began with the usual discharge of artillery, rockets, and muskets at long range. The distance gradually decreased, as Aurangzib’s army advanced slowly, keeping its regular formation. The Rajputs were soon engaged in a close hand to hand combat. The Rajputs densely packed within their narrow position, were severely galled by the barqandazes and archers of the princes’ army from front and flank, without being able to manoeuvre freely and give an effective reply. Their losses began to mount up every minute. The Rajput leaders of the Van,— Mukund Singh Hada, Ratan Singh Rathor, Dayal Singh Jhala, Arjun Singh Gaur, Sujan Singh Sisodia and others, with their choicest clansmen, galloped forward. Shouting their war- cry of Ram Ram “they fell on the enemy like tigers, casting away ail plan.” The flood of Rajput charge first burst on Aurangzib’s artillery. The guns and muskets fired at point-blank range, woefully thinned their ranks, but so impetuous was their onset that it bore down all opposition. Murshid Quli Khan, the Chief of Artillery, was slain after a heroic resistance and his division was shaken; but the guns were not damaged.

For one point of time the Rajput charge was seeming to overwhelm Aurengzeb's Vanguard but his Van was composed of his most picked troops, “eight thousand mail-clad warriors,” many of them hereditary fighters of the Afghan tribe, and their generals were reliable men. Muhammad Sultan, Najabat Khan, and other commanders of the Van, on their elephants kept their ground like hills, while the flood of Rajput charge raged round and round them in eddies. Here the most stubborn and decisive fighting of the day took place. The close combat was so heavy that “The ground was dyed crimson with blood like a tulip-bed.”

The Rajputs, being divided into many mutually antagonistic clans, could not charge in one compact mass; they were broken up into six or seven bodies, each under its own chieftain and each choosing its own point of attack. Thus the force of their impact was divided and weakened as soon as it struck the dense mass of Aurangzib’s Van.

The Maharajah had chosen his position so badly that many of the imperialists standing on the uneven ground could not join in the fight, and many others could not charge by reason of their being cramped within a narrow space. Half the imperial Van, viz., the Mughal troops under Qasim Khan, rendered no aid to their Rajput comrades now struggling hard with Aurangzib’s Van ,they were suspected of collusion with the enemy or of antipathy to the Rajputs. The charge of Jaswant’s Vanguard was not followed up. Aurangzib’s troops, who had parted before the rushing tide, closed again behind them, and thus cut off their retreat. Jaswant, too, was not the Cool wise commander to keep watch on all the field and send reinforcements and the new development made his position untenable.