The Siege of Asirgarh 1601

The Strategic Importance of Asirgarh

The fort of Asirgarh, situated on a hill in the Satpura range near the city of Burhanpur, was the principal stronghold of the Faruqi dynasty of Khandesh, a small but strategically important sultanate that controlled the upper Tapti valley. The Faruqi dynasty had been established in the late fourteenth century by Malik Ahmad, a governor of the Bahmani sultanate, and it had maintained its independence through the turbulent politics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By the late sixteenth century the Faruqis had become a tributary of the larger Deccan sultanates, particularly the Nizam Shahis of Ahmednagar, and the strategic position of Khandesh, between the Mughal provinces of the north and the Deccan sultanates of the south, made it a natural target for Mughal expansion.

The fort of Asirgarh was one of the most formidable in the Deccan. The hill on which the fort stood rises to a height of several hundred feet above the surrounding plain, and the fort itself was protected by a series of concentric walls and by a number of detached outworks. The principal approach to the fort, from the north, was commanded by a lower fort, the Bala Hissar, and the upper fort, the Kila-i-Kalan, was situated on the summit of the hill. The fort was well provided with water, with stores, and with a substantial garrison, and it had been a centre of resistance to the Mughals since the early years of Akbar’s reign.

The Faruqi Dynasty of Khandesh

The Faruqi dynasty of Khandesh was ruled at the time of the siege by Bahadur Shah Faruqi, a ruler of moderate ability who had succeeded to the throne in the 1590s. The Faruqi court was a minor centre of Islamic culture, and the rajas of the dynasty had maintained a precarious independence between the larger powers of Ahmednagar and the Mughal empire. Bahadur Shah had accepted Mughal suzerainty in the early 1590s, but he had subsequently attempted to recover his independence by allying himself with the Nizam Shahi sultan of Ahmednagar and by entertaining a number of Mughal rebels at his court. The refusal of Bahadur Shah to surrender the Mughal refugees, combined with his support of the Nizam Shahis, persuaded Akbar that the conquest of Khandesh was a necessary preliminary to the larger conquest of the Deccan.

The Campaign Under Daniyal

The Mughal campaign against Khandesh was entrusted to Prince Daniyal, the youngest son of Akbar, who had been appointed governor of the Deccan provinces in 1599. Daniyal was at the time only twenty-six years old, and he was assisted by a number of experienced commanders, including the Rajput raja Man Singh of Amber and the Persian general Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan. The Mughal army that gathered at Burhanpur in the autumn of 1600 was substantial, and it included a powerful siege train under the command of the mir-i-atish of the empire.

The Mughal army reached the vicinity of Asirgarh in the late autumn of 1600, and the siege was formally opened in November of that year. The garrison of the fort, commanded by the Faruqi general Bahadur Khan, made a spirited defence, and the initial Mughal assaults were repulsed with substantial loss. Akbar himself arrived at the siege in the spring of 1601, and his presence gave the operation the character of an imperial campaign. The emperor directed the operations in person, and the siege was conducted with a deliberation that the importance of the prize demanded.

The Use of Artillery and Mining

The principal military operations at the siege of Asirgarh were the deployment of the imperial artillery and the driving of mines beneath the walls. The Mughal artillery train included a substantial number of heavy siege pieces, including several large zarb-zan cannon cast at the imperial foundries, and these were deployed in carefully prepared batteries on the lower slopes of the hill. The bombardment of the fort continued for several weeks, and the outer works were progressively reduced.

The mining operations were conducted under the direction of Ottoman and Iranian specialists, and they involved the driving of several galleries beneath the principal walls. The first mine was sprung in the early summer of 1601, and the resulting explosion breached a section of the wall and permitted a Mughal assault. The assault was repulsed with substantial loss, and the garrison continued to resist. A second mine was sprung in the late summer, and the resulting assault succeeded in capturing a section of the outer works. The garrison, by this time substantially weakened by losses, by disease, and by the failure of attempts to relieve the fort from outside, was eventually compelled to negotiate.

The Final Assault and the Surrender

The final assault on the fort was delivered in the early autumn of 1601, after a bombardment of several days by the Mughal heavy artillery. The garrison, by this time reduced to a fraction of its original strength, was unable to resist, and Bahadur Shah Faruqi opened negotiations for the surrender of the fort. The terms of the surrender were relatively generous: the Faruqi ruler was permitted to retire with his family and his personal effects to a substantial jagir in the Deccan, and the surviving members of the garrison were permitted to march out with the honours of war. The fort itself was incorporated into the Mughal imperial establishment, and a substantial Mughal garrison was installed in the Bala Hissar.

The Place of the Siege in the Deccan Expansion

Sources

• Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, vol. I (1912), pp. 280–92.