The Battle with Sarbuland.
“Eight gharis of the day remained, when Sarbuland fled; but Aliyar, the leader of his vanguard, made a desperate resistance, until he fell by the hand of Bakhta Singh. The drum of victory sounded. The Nawab left his pani in the Rankund.[[35]] The ‘would-be-king’ was wounded; his elephant showed the speed of the deer. Four thousand four hundred and ninety-three were slain, of whom one hundred were Palkinishins, eight Hathinishins,[[36]] and three hundred entitled to the Tazim on entering the Diwan-i-amm.[[37]]
“One hundred and twenty of Abhai Singh’s chieftains of note, with five hundred horse, were slain, and seven hundred wounded.
“The next morning, Sarbuland surrendered with all his effects. He was escorted towards Agra, his wounded Moguls dying at every stage; but the soul of the ‘Fearless’ was sad at the loss of his kin.[[38]] Abhaimall ruled over the seventeen [107] thousand towns of Gujarat, and the nine thousand of Marwar, besides one thousand elsewhere. The princes of Idar, of Bhuj, of Parkar, of Sind, and of Sirohi, the Chalukya Ran of Fatehpur, Jhunjunu, Jaisalmer, Nagor, Dungarpur, Banswara, Lunawara, Halwad, every morning bowed the head to Abhaimall.
“Thus, in the enlightened half of the moon, on the victorious tenth[[39]] (S. 1787, A.D. 1731), the day on which Ramachandra captured Lanka, the war against Sarbuland, an Omrah (lord) of twelve thousand, was concluded.”[[40]]
Having left a garrison of seventeen thousand men for the duties of the capital and province, Abhai Singh returned to Jodhpur with the spoils of Gujarat, and there he deposited four crores of rupees, and one thousand four hundred guns of all calibres, besides military stores of every description. With these, in the declining state of the empire, the desert king strengthened his forts and garrisons, and determined, in the general scramble for dominion, not to neglect his own interests [108].
[1]. [A plumed crest worn on the turban.]
[2]. [Fly-flappers, bands of music, kettledrums.]
[3]. The kalas is a brazen vessel, of household use. A female of each family, filling one of these with water, repairs to the house of the head of the village, when, being all convened, they proceed in a body to meet the person to whom they render honour, singing the suhaila, or ‘song of joy.’ The presenting water is a token of homage and regard, and one which the author has often had paid to him, especially in Mewar, where every village met him in this way.