End Of The Siege Of Bhopal

There were a number of occasions when the Marhatta forces almost succeeded in gaining entry in to the fortified area of Bhopal. The siege endured week after week, month after month. While the Marhatta armies waited patiently for the inevitable capitulation, the besieged Bhopalies were given to eating leaves and boiling shoe leather for nourishment. The main source of food came from the loyal Rajput zamindars Ratan Singh and Aman Singh, who, under the cover of darkness, would bring cartloads of grain through the jungle to an appointed spot on the far side of the lake overlooked by the Fatahgarh fort. At a given hour, well past midnight, Wazir and a few trusted companions like Shahzad Masih (Bourbon) and Bakshi Bahadur (the commander in chief) would slip stealthily through the rear gates of the fort and swim across the lake with their empty mushuks. These mushuks would be filled with grain and on return, rationed out to the starving population. Led by the brave Zeenat begum, wife of Ghous who stayed back, the women of Bhopal, both Hindu and Muslim, played a vital role in the siege. They learned to fill cannons with gunpowder and sometimes, dressed as men, would load and fire the cannons themselves. The famous guthka (beetle nuts coated with different spices) of Bhopal is said to be a legacy from this period.

After nine months of deprivation, Wazir announced at a council of war that he would ask for safe passage for the women and children and the remaining 300 able-bodied men would mount a final, suicide attack on the besieging Marhatta army. Legend has it that Wazir went to the resident Pir called Pir Mustan Shah and laying his sword and turban at the Pir’s feet asked for his blessings. As per the legend, the Pir went into a trance, pointed to a spot in the fort and asked Wazir to dig. There, in a shallow depression, the Bhopalis found a hidden arsenal of dynamite. Filling their canons with gunpowder, they decided to postpone their surrender by a day. Unknown to the Bhopalis, the army of Gwalior led by Jagua Bapu had suffered an attack of cholera. Moreover Sadiq Ali, who led the Nagpur forces, had withdrawn from the siege following differences with Jagua Bapu. With canons fired by women, Wazir with his loyal men mounted a ferocious attack on Jagua’s forces and achieved a heroic victory.