During the final siege of Wagingera, the

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

sent for

Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung Muhammad Ismail (1649/1657 – 11 February 1713), known by his title Zulfiqar Khan, was a leading noble and military general of the Mughal Empire. His father was Asad Khan, '' wazir'' (prime minister) to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. During Auran ...

who arrived on March 27, and the next day attacked Lal Tikri Hillock which was lost to the Bedars in the early days of the siege and retook it. The Bedars retreated to the village at the foot of Talwargera and began operating from behind its mud wall. Many

Rajputs Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

fell in this daring attack. But Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung did not stop there. He sent Rao Dalpat Bundela to another mound which was taken and the Bedars fled to the village of Dhedpura, where he was ambushed. But Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung held his position. A few days afterwards Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung made a strategic move and captured the wells from where the Bedars used to draw their water. He attacked Talwargera on April 27 taking the village.

Siege

With the arrival of Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung the Bedars were now hard pressed. The siege weapons were pushed forward to the fort, and on the day appointed for the assault, Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb mounted his horse to take part therein, and took his position at a cannon-shot distance from the fort. The enemy was overpowered, and some positions were captured. Being greatly dispirited, Pedda Pidia Nayak, commander of the fort, directed his people to take their wives and children, their jewels, and whatever they could carry, and after setting fire to the temple and other buildings, they went out from another gate, and by some outlets which had been prepared for such an occasion, they made their way to the

Maratha The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

army, in parties, in the dark of night. The conflagration in the fort and the cessation of the firing made the Mughals aware of their flight. A party of men entered, and found only disabled and wounded persons who were unable to fly. On the 14th day of

Muharram Al-Muharram () is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in ...

, the

Mughal Army The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselve ...

took possession of the place after a siege of three months. The name Wagingera was changed to ''Fort Rahman Bakhsh''. The

then retired to pass the rainy season at

Deogaon Deogaon is a small village on the banks of Kusei River in the Kendujhar District of Orissa, India. It lies at a distance of 10 km from Anandapur, 90 km from the district headquarters Kendujhar and 170 km from Bhubaneswar, the st ...

, three or four kos from the River Krishna. Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb bestowed upon Asaf Jah I the title of "Chin Kilich Khan" (boy swordsman) for surviving an attack that blew off three of his horse's legs during the Siege of Wagingera Fort. He was also gifted a female elephant now aged 20. For fighting on and capturing the fort he was raised to rank of 5000 horse and awarded 15 million dams, a jeweled sabre and a third elephant.

Aftermath

A plaque embedded on the wall to the entrance of the fort reads in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: - signifying the fall of the fort in 1705. By now the elderly Emperor was exhausted and returned to

Ahmednagar Ahmednagar, officially Ahilyanagar, is a city in, and the headquarters of, the Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Ahmednagar has several dozen buildings and sites from the Nizam Shahi period. Ahmednagar Fort, once considered almost impre ...

on January 31, 1706. The siege of Wagingera would be his last battle. He died in 1707 and was succeeded by his son

Bahadur Shah I Bahadur Shah I (Muhammad Mu'azzam; 14 October 1643 – 27 February 1712) or Shah Alam I, was the eighth Mughal Emperor from 1707 to 1712. He was the second son of the sixth Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who he conspired to overthrow in his youth ...

References

{{Mughal Empire, state=expanded

Wagingera Wagingera is a village in the Shorapur taluka of Yadgir district in Karnataka state, India.Census Village code = 366800, Wagingera is famous for its fort that played decisive role during the Siege of Wagingera. Wagingera Fort is 5 km we ...

1704 in India 1700s in the Mughal Empire

Siege

Aftermath

See also

References