CHAP. VIII.] MUGHAL LOSSES. 167
money you are engaging highly paid soldiers. Evidently you want to recover Oandahar. God assist you !"""= Herein he recognised that the conquest of Qandahar was an impossible feat.
The three sieges of Qandahar cost the Indian treasury more than ten krores of
Cost of the T JJ-i- 4. 1.U-
rupees. In addition to this sum, sieges. ^ '
the new fortifications built by the Mughals on taking possession of it from Ali Mardan Khan and the treasure, arms, muni- tions, and provisions that fell into the hands of the Persians on its capture, must have cost more than a krore.'f Thus the Indian tax-payer poured into the sands of Afghanistan about 12 krores of rupees, and more than half the gross annual
- Letter No. 4 in the Hthographed Ruqat-i-Alamgiri .
f We have the following data for calculating the cost of the Qandahar wars. For the second siege 2 krores of rupees were brought from Delhi and Agra, out of which one krore was spent on the soldiers and officers in one ynonth. (Waris, 6ia). The third siege occupied 5 months (against 2 months in the case of the second) and- Dara's army was probably 70,000, as against the 50,000 men who accompanied Aurangzib. Hence the third siege must have cost about seven krores. The presents to Dara on the eve of the ex- pedition amounted to 20 lakhs, and one krore was sent with him (Waris yoa and 71a). When starting for the first siege, the officers were paid a bounty of Rs. 100 for each trooper placed in the field, and as the force was 50,000 strong, this alone absorbed 50 lakhs (Waris, 23a). Before the Persians arrived, 5 lakhs had been sent to the fort from Kabul. In 1638, when Qandahar was betrayed to Shah Jahan, 20 lakhs were sent with Shuja to meet the cost of the
