Tempo:
The Hirrupayas to_Tibet
277
mouth of the Khyber. For the Afghans the killing of Bari Singh Nalwa turned the defeat at Jamrud into a victo.ry. 9 Much as Dost Mohammed tried to claim the battle of Jamrud as an Afghan victory (be heaped public honours upon his son), nothing could stop the stench of eleven thousand Afghan and Pathan corpses strewn about the Khyber from reaching the nostrils of the tribesmen in the neighbouring hills and valleys. The Punjab's standards still fluttered on Bala Hissar, Shabk.adar, and the battered walls of Jamrud. And now the ghost of the valiant Nalwa haunted the rocky defiles, spreading terror among the people. It was necessary for Dost Mohammed to recover his lost prestige. He is reported to have written to the Maharajah: 'I have always regarded myself as established by your authority... I was your servant.• If the Durbar could give him Peshawar, there would be no trouble on the frontier. But if the request were turned down, he would be compelled by cira.unstances to fight-tang amad bajang amad (when one is forced one goes to battle) .10 The Durbar rejected the Afghans' demand for Peshawar and sent a word of warning: the maintenance of peace was not the sole monopoly of the Afghans. H the Afghans could force war on the Punjabis, the Punjabis could force war on the ·Afghans. 9 An account of the battle was sent by an Englishman, Dr Wood, from Rohtas to the governor general (PC 59 of29.5.1837). He wrote that in the greal slaughter of the Afghans, Mohammed Afzal, the eldcsl son of Dost Mohammed, had been killed. According to Puajabi accounts they losl 6000 men; the Afghans. who outnumbered them, left about 11,000 men dead on the field. Of the death ofNalwa, Dr Wood wrote: 'He received four wounds. two sabre cuts across his breast; one arrow was fixed in his breast, which be deliberately pulled oul himself, and continued to issue his orders as before until he received a gunshot wound in Lhe side, from which he gradually sank and was carried off the field to the fon, where he expired, requesting that his death should not be made known until the arrival of the Maharajah's reliefs.' It is significant that in this sanguinary battle, the .Pathan and Afghan ihazis were largely defeated by Sikh nihangs and Punjabi Mussalmans fighling shoulcier to shoulder. 10 PC 28 of 11.9.1837.
277
mouth of the Khyber. For the Afghans the killing of Bari Singh Nalwa turned the defeat at Jamrud into a victo.ry. 9 Much as Dost Mohammed tried to claim the battle of Jamrud as an Afghan victory (be heaped public honours upon his son), nothing could stop the stench of eleven thousand Afghan and Pathan corpses strewn about the Khyber from reaching the nostrils of the tribesmen in the neighbouring hills and valleys. The Punjab's standards still fluttered on Bala Hissar, Shabk.adar, and the battered walls of Jamrud. And now the ghost of the valiant Nalwa haunted the rocky defiles, spreading terror among the people. It was necessary for Dost Mohammed to recover his lost prestige. He is reported to have written to the Maharajah: 'I have always regarded myself as established by your authority... I was your servant.• If the Durbar could give him Peshawar, there would be no trouble on the frontier. But if the request were turned down, he would be compelled by cira.unstances to fight-tang amad bajang amad (when one is forced one goes to battle) .10 The Durbar rejected the Afghans' demand for Peshawar and sent a word of warning: the maintenance of peace was not the sole monopoly of the Afghans. H the Afghans could force war on the Punjabis, the Punjabis could force war on the ·Afghans. 9 An account of the battle was sent by an Englishman, Dr Wood, from Rohtas to the governor general (PC 59 of29.5.1837). He wrote that in the greal slaughter of the Afghans, Mohammed Afzal, the eldcsl son of Dost Mohammed, had been killed. According to Puajabi accounts they losl 6000 men; the Afghans. who outnumbered them, left about 11,000 men dead on the field. Of the death ofNalwa, Dr Wood wrote: 'He received four wounds. two sabre cuts across his breast; one arrow was fixed in his breast, which be deliberately pulled oul himself, and continued to issue his orders as before until he received a gunshot wound in Lhe side, from which he gradually sank and was carried off the field to the fon, where he expired, requesting that his death should not be made known until the arrival of the Maharajah's reliefs.' It is significant that in this sanguinary battle, the .Pathan and Afghan ihazis were largely defeated by Sikh nihangs and Punjabi Mussalmans fighling shoulcier to shoulder. 10 PC 28 of 11.9.1837.
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