Lehal Library

110 The Agrarian Uprising The cordon round Banda was tightened by large reinforcements sent from Delhi. Abdus Samad Khan raised a wall around the island to make egress impossible. So great was the belief in Banda's magical powers and so acute the anxiety to get him that even dogs and cats that strayed out of his fortress were irnrn~ diately destroyed (lest Banda may have undergone a feline or canine transformation to make his escape). Banda's provisions ran out. His men ate their horses, mules, and even the forbidden oxen. Then dysentery broke out in epidemic form. Banda's right-hand man, Binod Singh, suggested making a mass sortie and trusting their fate to the Guru. Banda pleaded with his men to hold out a little longer until the monsoon compelled the Mughals to raise the siege. Disagreement and bickering led to open defiance of Banda's authority. Binod Singh and a small band slipped out under cover of darkness, cut their way through the Mughal guards, and escaped to the hills. Banda held on doggedly. At the end of eight months not one of the besieged garrison had strength left to wield his sword or speaf'. They accepted an assurance from Abdus Samad Khan that hc- would intercede on their behalf with the Emperor, and laid down arms on 17 December 1715.2'1 Abdus Samad Khan showed the manner in which he meant to plead for the li\eS of the vanquished foe. He ordered the immediate execution of over two hundred of the prisoners and filled 'that extensive plain ""ith blood as if it had been a dish.•~" The remainder, including Banda and his famih, were put in chains and sent first to Lahore and then to Delhi. Banda's hands were manacled to two soldiers on either side, his feet bound in feners, an iron collar put round his neck, and 22 Banda's heroic stand won admiration from his enemies. The comempor.ary historian Kamwar Khan wrote: 'It was by the grace of God and not by wisdom or bravery that this came to happen. IL is knoMt to everyone that the late Emperor Bahadur Shah, with four royal princes and numerous generals, had made effons to repress this rebellion. but it was all fruitless, and no"' that infidel of the Sikhs and a few thousand of his companions have been sLarvcd into surrender· (Mohammed Hadi Kamwar Khan, Ta:Jurii-us-SaJiUin Chuzb_tiyii, J 79.) 23 Muntalrhif>.ul-luhiib, \iii.