IT has lately been represented to us, that the Koorgs have committed some excesses* at Zuferâbâd. We have, in consequence, written to the Buktshy of the Jyshe, to dispatch you with two guns and your Kushoon to that place. He is also ordered to advance you two thousand Behâdury pagodas, on account of the pay of your Kushoon; as well as a thousand rupees, to be applied in compensations to the wounded.* After leaving a guard over such of Othman Khân’s Kushoon as are not to be trusted,* you will proceed, as above directed, to Zuferâbâd; to the Foujdâr of which place, Zynûl Aabideen, we have addressed another letter, which is enclosed. You are, in conjunction with him, to make a general attack on the Koorgs;* when, having put to the sword, or made prisoners of, the whole of them, both the slain and the prisoners are to be made Musulmans.* In short, you must so manage matters, as [effectually] to prevent them from exciting any further sedition or disturbance.
Obtaining from the treasury a copy of our regulations respecting the wounded, let your wounded be paid in conformity thereto. Rewards to those men, who may be entitled to them, must also be given from the money in your hands; from which you must, likewise, make such advances [of pay] to your Kushoon, as shall seem proper to you.
I am doubtful, whether by the Zynûl Aabideen, mentioned in the title of this letter, is meant Zynûl Aabideen Shoostry (to whom Letter CXXVIII is unquestionably addressed) or a distinct person, bearing the same name. Though the former is usually distinguished by the addition of Shoostry (denoting him to be a native of Shuster or Suza, in Persia) yet the appellation might have been accidentally omitted in the present letter, as it most clearly appears to have been in the title of Letter CXLV. If this conjecture were well founded, it would follow that Zynûl Aabideen Shoostry was a Sipahdâr, or a commander of a Kushoon, which, however, I have no authority for supposing him to have been.
The <Arabic> Zukhm-putty, or compensation to wounded soldiers, is a custom pretty general in the native armies of India. Having never seen Tippoo Sultan’s regulations on this head, I am unable to give any information respecting them. As, however, all the Sultan’s establishments were formed on the most economical, if not the most parsimonious scale, it is not probable, that his donations to the wounded were regulated by a different spirit. The rewards occasionally bestowed on men, distinguishing themselves in battle or otherwise, usually consisted of gold or silver chains, or of rings for the wrists, according to the rank of the person receiving them.
The reader will probably be startled at the order contained in the foregoing letter, for making Musulmans, not only of the living, but of the dead Koorgs, who might fall into the hands of the Sipahdâr; and the extravagance of the proceeding may even lead him to suspect, either the correctness of the manuscript, or the fidelity of the translation. With respect to the former, it will be sufficient to say that there is not the slightest ground for supposing any error of the manuscript in this passage; and as to the latter, I will only observe, that nothing can be expressed with more plainness, or freedom from ambiguity, than the original, which, for the satisfaction of the oriental reader, at least, shall be inserted at the bottom of the page.*