The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma
The Initial Skirmishes Prior to Yamuna Part II
Sultan Lodi rallies the troops
Sultan Ibrahim Lodi was now in some measure cooped up in his camp while the enemy was in possession of the open country. The uneasiness which he in consequence experienced in this state of inaction appears very naturally to have excited feelings of religious compunction in his mind. When he reviewed his past life he keenly felt that somehow that this opposition to his rule was retribution by Allah for not being a faithful adherent to the Islamic faith. He often drank wine and other alcholic beverages in the court during his reign and like other habitual offenders he had all along firmly resolved to give up the evil custom at some future time but that time had been constantly deferred.
This was a visible sign commonly adopted by such as were under the influence of a vow. Many nobles and others to the number of three hundred followed the example of their sovereign. Salt was thrown into the ample store of wine just arrived from Agra all the rest found in the camp was poured upon the ground and a well was ordered to be dug and an almshousebuilt on the spot to commemorate this great religious event of repentance. As a boon to his Muslim followers and subjects he gave up the Temgha or stamp tax in all his dominions so far as concerned Muslims and published a firman to that effect. The dejection and alarm of the Sultan's troops had at this time reached their extreme point. The contagion had infected even his highest officers. The Sultan determined to make a bold exertion to infuse a portion of his own heroic ardor into the drooping spirits of his followers and for that purpose he addressed himself to the religious feelings so powerful with all Muslims but especially with such as are engaged in a holy war, a jihad against infidels. He thus made the most famous and most important speech of his life:
Friends, people of the court, lend me your ears! Every man that comes into this world is subject to dissolution! When we are passed away and gone from this world, Allah remains One and Unchangeable. Whoever sits down to the feast of life must, before it is over, drink from the cup of death. He who arrives at the inn of mortality, the world must one day without fail take his departure from that mansion of sorrow. How much better then is it to die with honor than to live with infamy.
Sultan Ibrahim Lodi continued:
Allah Almighty has been propitious to us. He has now placed us in such a crisis that if we fall in the field we die the death of martyrs, if we survive we rise victorious the avengers of his sacred cause. Let us therefore with one accord swear on Allah's Holy Word that none of us will for a moment think of turning his face from this warfare or shrink from the battle and slaughter that ensue till his soul is separated from his body.
Sultan Ibrahim Lodi's attempt at reinvigorating his men remains to this day one of the most excellent displays of military leadership, even today despite the fact that in the end that he would not be the victor.
Sultan Ibrahim Lodi's advance
With his troops now in high spirits, Sultan Ibrahim Lodi decided to advance from the entrenchments in which the army had so long been cooped up. It was on the April of 1528 that Ibrahim Lodi drew forward his guns and a kind of defensive cover that moved on wheels and which served as a breastwork supporting them by his musket-wielding men and all his army. He himself galloped along the line animating his troops and officers and giving them instructions how to conduct themselves in every emergency that could occur. The army having advanced a mile or two halted to encamp. As soon as the Rajputs heard that they were in motion several bodies of them galloped close up to the guns. The Sultan not intending to engage in a general action that day quietly finished his entrenchments and ditches and then sent out a few horsemen to skirmish with them and try the temper of his men. They took several prisoners and returned with a number of heads elevated on their spears or dangling from their saddle bows which had a wonderful effect in restoring the confidence of the troops.
He now threw up other trenches in a position about a mile or two farther in advance near the spot which he had pitched upon as favorable for a general engagement and when they were finished advanced to occupy them dragging forward his guns. His people having reached their ground were still busy in pitching their tents when news was brought that the enemy was in sight. All were instantly ordered to their posts. The Sultan mounted and drew up his troops riding cheerfully along the ranks and confidently assuring them of victory.
Battle positions of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi
The center Ibrahim Lodi took to himself assisted by Taimur the right wing he committed to Qassim Hussein who under him hadHindu Baig and Khusroe Kokultash while the left wing he entrusted to Sayid Mahdi Qwaja with Muhammad Sultan O'zbek, Abdul Aziz and Mohammed Ali. He appointed strong reserves to carry out rescue efforts wherever required. On the right and left placed two flanking columns chiefly composed of Delhi Sultanate troops who formed what is called the Tulughma and were on a signal given to wheel round on the enemy's flank and rear in the heat of battle. This arrangement he had learned to his cost in his early wars with the and he had practiced it in his later wars with brilliant success. His Indian allied troops appear to have been stationed chiefly in the left. His artillery under the captured Timurid artillery maker Ustad Ali Kuli was placed in the center in front connected by chains and protected by the moveable defenses or breastworks which he had constructed, behind which were placed matchlock men and in their rear a body of chosen troops ready either to repel any attack from behind or themselves to rush forward and charge the enemy whenever the chains that connected the guns were dropped to permit their passage. The army abounded with veteran commanders who had learned the art of war under the Emperor himself.
Battle positions of Rana Sanga
In the Rajput army the commanders under Rana Sanga were generally great chieftains who from their territorial possessions could bring a large force into the field. Thus Silhadi a Tomar ( तोमर )Rajput chieftain of northeast Malwa, the Chief of Bhilsa is rated at having thirty thousand soldiers; Hasan Khan of Mewat having twelve thousand; Raul Uday Singh Nagari (राउल उदय नगरी सिंह); Medini Rao( मदीना राव) the Chief of Chanderi (चंदेरी) with ten thousand. Rana Sanga commanded a large army of fourteen thousand men. Sultan Mahmud Lodi, a man who possessed no kingdom to call his own but a wealth large enough to hire nine thousand warriors, mostly O'zbek warriors from Central Asia. There were other chiefs who commanded four thousand to seven soldiers and all were animated by the most exalted hopes and by hatred of the common enemy in the Sultanate. They also possessed six hundred Indian war elephants and included seven Rajas (राजाओं), nine Raos (राव्स) and one hundred Rawals (रावल) and Rawats (रावत). A more gallent army couldn't been put into the battlefield.
