Note 43 — CHAPTER 23

“’Tis a pleasure (says Bernier) to see them with the fume of opium in their heads, embrace each other when the battle is to begin, and give their mutual farewells, as men resolved to die.” [Ed. 1914, p. 40. The battle of Dharmāt was fought on the banks of the river Sipra (IGI, xxi. 14 f.) on 15th April, 1658. Manucci was not present, but gives an account derived from Aurangzeb’s artillery officers of the battle at Dharmātpur, about 14 miles from Ujjain (i. 259 f., and see Jadunath Sarkar, Life of Aurangzeb, ii. 1 ff.). The latter (ii. 20 f.) speaks highly of the valour of Jaswant Singh, but Khāfi Khan (Elliot-Dowson vii. 219) says that he acted in a cowardly way. The account quoted by the author is not in the original work of Ferishta, but in Dow’s continuation (ed. 1812, iii. 206 f).].