Mughal Imperial Invasion
Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was informed of the losses on December 19, 1667 and he commissioned Raja Ram Singh of Amber, son of the famous Mirza Raja Jai Singh, to take back Guwahati. Ram Singh left Delhi on December 27, 1667, and finally reached Rangamati in February in 1669. He was accompanied, as was the Mughal custom of sending two generals, by Rashid Khan, ex-faujdar of Guwahati, and from Patna by the Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur. The Ahoms, anticipating a Mughal strike, is said to have followed his movements from Delhi itself. Along the way Aurangzeb augmented Ram Singh's forces of 4,000 troopers (from his char-hazaari mansab), 1,500 ahadis and 500 barqandezes by an additional 30,000 infantrymen, 21 Rajput chiefs (Thakurs) with their contingents, 18,000 cavalry, 2,000 archers and shieldmen and 40 ships. When Lachit surveyed the massive Mughal force later, he was moved to tears and he uttered: "It is a tragedy that my country is facing this dire catastrophe during my Phukanship. How will my king be saved? How will my people be saved? And how will my posterity be saved?"
Armies from Koch Bihar joined the Mughal forces since they were vassals.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Saraighat
Famous quotes containing the words imperial and/or invasion:
“If you are ambitious of climbing up to the difficult, and in a manner inaccessible, summit of the Temple of Fame, your surest way is to leave on one hand the narrow path of Poetry, and follow the narrower track of Knight-Errantry, which in a trice may raise you to an imperial throne.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
“In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)