He had purchased
the support of Malhar Rao Holkar by promises of large subsidies,
which he called on the emperor and the eunuch to fulfil.
the support of Malhar Rao Holkar by promises of large subsidies,
which he called on the emperor and the eunuch to fulfil.
Cambridge History of India - v4 - Mugul Period
Shamsher Bahadur and Antaji Man-
keshwar died of wounds at Dig.
"Never was a defeat more complete", says Elphinstone, "and
never was there a calamity that diffused so much consternation.
Grief and despondency spread over the whole Maratha people: most
had to mourn relations, and all felt the destruction of the army as
a death-blow to their national greatness. ” Most disastrous of all,
1 Siyar-ul-Mutaakhkhirin, DI, 392.
## p. 426 (#464) ############################################
426
RISE OF THE MARATHA EMPIRE (1707-1761)
perhaps, was the fact that it dealt a fatal blow to the one unifying
influence in the Deccan, the prestige of the Peshwas. It is, of course,
true that the Marathas, with characteristic resiliency, recovered from
what would have been a crushing disaster to a less hardy nation.
In August, 1763, they won a brilliant victory over the Nizam at
Rakshasbhavan. But their armies were never again the same. The
Arab and Hindustani mercenary to an increasing degree replaced
the free Maratha trooper, and most important of all, the weakened
power of the Peshwa paved the way to English interference in
Maratha affairs. Panipat, in other words, was the prelude to Assaye
and Kirkee. To Ahmad Shah also, the victory was a Pyrrhic one:
on 22 March, after ransacking Delhi, he withdrew his army. His
men, who hated the Indian hot weather, were on the verge of mutiny,
and insisted on returning home with their plunder. Ahmad Shah,
accordingly, after having left Najib Khan as regent of Delhi, retreated
beyond the passes, and did not again invade India.
A NOTE ON MARATHI LITERATURE
The Marathas are typical hil en, independent and freedom-loving, and their
language and literature reflect these characteristics. Marathi is a rugged ton-
gue, with none of the courtly refinements of northern India, and the early poetic
literature is the simple, natural expression of religious emotion. The earliest
Marathi poetry is an offshoot of the Bhakti movement which swept over India
from the twelfth century A. D. , and gave such an impetus to the development of
vernaculars. Its essential doctrine is that salvation may be attained, independent-
ly of priests, ritual and caste, by devotion to the Divine Name. The Deity, whe-
ther manifested as Shiva, or Vishnu in his various incarnations, is Bhagavan, the
Adorable, and his devotees are the Bhagavatas. It has been not inaptly com-
pared to the Protestant Reformation in Europe.
In Maharashtra, the central object of devotion was Vithoba, a local form of
Vishnu, who dwells at the famous shrine of Pandharpur. It was upon him that
the worship of the poet-sainis of the Deccan was focused. The earliest writers
in Marathi (as opposed to the Maharashtri Prakrit) belong to the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and flourished under the Yadavas, the last Hindu
dynasty of the Deccan. They are Mukundraj, Namdev (A. D. 1270-1350) and
Jnaneshvar. Their object was to bring the learning of the pundits down to the
level of the common people. Jnaneshvar, who lived at Alandi near Poona, is
commonly believed to have made a buffalo recite the Veda! He wrote a para-
phrase of the Bhagavad Gita. Namdev, a devotee of Vithoba, was a tailor by
caste. He wrote in Hindi as well as Marathi; some of his poems found their way
to northern India, and were incorporated in the Adi Granth of the Sikhs.
For the next three centuries, with the Deccan under the heel of the Muham-
madans, no writer of note appeared. Then in the seventeenth century, the
national renaissance which culminated in Shivaji began to gather force. The
earliest poet of this period was Eknath of Paithan, who, though a Brahman,
denounced the caste-system, and went so far as to dine with a Mahar, an almost
unbeard-of action. He died in 1608. His grandson Mukteshvar, together with
Tukaram and Ramdas, was a contemporary of Shivaji. Shivaji, though formally
illiterate, was a fervent admirer of his country's songs and legends, and it is said
that more than once he risked capture when going to Poona in disguise to hear
## p. 427 (#465) ############################################
MARATHI LITERATURE
427
a religious recitation. He tried to persuade Tukaram to come to his court. But
Tukaram, absorbed in his intense love of Vithoba, cared for none of these things:
He was a poor trader by profession, knowing no Sanskrit, and his artless verses
are sung in countless village homes all over the Deccan to-day. Ramdas, on
the cther hand, was a Brahman, and was Shivaji's guru or spiritual preceptor.
It is said that Shivaji surrendered his kingdom to him, and received it back
"in trust from God”, and for this reason, the national standard of the Mara-
thas, the Bhagwa Jhanda, was the orange robe of the ascetic. The verses of
Ramdas, full of wise saws, remind us of the Proverbs of King Solomon, and
his teaching undoubtedly had a formative effect upon Shivaji. He died in 1681.
The most interesting products of the period, however, are the pawadas or
ballads. Their most singular characteristic is that they are unwritten, being
handed down from generation to generation by the gondhalis, a tribe or caste
of wandering bards who composed and recited them. The gondhalis are devo-
tees of the goddess Amba Bhavani, and the recitations are accompanied by an
elaborate ritual, in which the goddess herself is supposed to descend upon the
reciter. The ballads deal with the deeds of the Maratha heroes in their strug-
gles against the Muhammadans, such as the slaying of Afzal Khan, the taking
of Sinhgarh by Tanaji Malusre, the battle of Kharda, and the tragedy of
Panipat. These ballads were intensely popular with the unlettered peasantıy,
and played a great part in arousing them against their Muhammadan rulers. i
The period after the death of Shivaji witnessed a great outburst of Marathi
poetry, and it will here be possible only to mention a few leading names. Shri-
dhar was the most beloved of the writers of this time, and shares with Tukaram
the palm of popularity in the Deccan to-day. His mission was to make the heroic
legends of Hinduism accessible to women and others who knew no Sanskrit.
The titles of his works, the Tri of Rama ma Vijay and the Exploits
of the Pandavas, speak for themselves. He was born at Pandharpur in 1670
and died in 1728. "In every town and village in the Deccan and Konkan,
especially during the rains, the pious Maratha will be found enjoying with his
family and friends the Pothi of Shridhar. ” Moropant, admired by connoisseurs
for his verbal ingenuity, does not appeal to western taste. Another writer of
great interest is Mahipati, whose Bhakta Vijaya and Santa Vijaya, Triumphs
of the Devotees and Saints, are a mine of information about the picturesque
legends which have grown up round the poet-saints of the Deccan.
During the eighteenth century, the Maratha character started to change.
Poona was filled with loot from Hindustan, and the manners and ceremonial
of the Mughul Court were introduced. Contact with the western nations, espe-
cially the English at Bombay and Surat, was beginning to have its effect. Erotic
poetry became popular, and Ram Joshi (1762-1812) was the most celebrated of
the writers of Lavanis or Love Songs. The conquest of an empire, and the
appearance of state-papers and despatches, led to the development of Marathi
prose. Bakhars or historical chronicles were compiled, but their barbarous
idiom, three-quarters Persian, bears little relation to the elegant, highly sanskri-
tised prose style which arose in the nineteenth century, as a result of contact
with western literature.
1 About sixty were taken down by Acworth and Shaligram, and ten have been
translated into verse by H. A. Acworth, Ballads of the Marathas, Longmans, 1894.
## p. 428 (#466) ############################################
CHAPTER XV
AHMAD SHAH ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
THE new emperor was a young man of twenty-one, vicious, dissi-
pated, perfidious, pusillanimous, and utterly worthless. The weak-
ness of his character left him, throughout his short reign, a tool in the
hands of others, and his natural instinct led him to prefer, as advisers,
those least worthy of being associated in the administration of such
territories as were left to him. The great nobles were entirely selfish,
devoid of patriotism and honour, and interested only in dividing
among themselves the remnant of the dominions of the House of
Timur. In this ignoble competition they employed intrigue, assassina-
tion, and open violence.
After returning from the inglorious though successful campaign
against Ahmad Shah, they were employed in a redistribution of the
great offices at the capital and in the provinces. Mu'in-ul-Mulk, a
son of the late minister, had already secured the Punjab and had
been permitted to leave Sirhind for Lahore after promising to remit
large sums to Delhi as tribute, a promise which he was never able
to redeem. The vacant place of minister was filled by Safdar Jang,
the viceroy of Oudh, who governed his province by deputy. Nizam-
ul-Mulk, now an old man in a very feeble state of health, had at
once marched northward, but had not passed Burhanpur when he
heard first of the defeat of the invader at Sirhind and immediately
afterwards of the death of Muhammad and the accession of Ahmad
Shah. Turning back, he died on 1 June 1748 close to Burhanpur. His
eldest son being at court, he was succeeded in the Deccan, as a matter
of course, by his second son, Nasir Jang. His title of Amir-ul-Umara,
with its privileges, was bestowed by Ahmad Shah on Sadat Khan,
entitled Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang, who had already held high office as governor
of the capital.
These offices of state were apportioned by the great nobles without
reference to the personal wishes of the emperor, who tried to retaliate
by forming a court faction of personal adherents. His attempt to
assert authority may be traced to his mother, a woman of humble
origin but pernicious activity. At the head of the party was the chief
eunuch, Javid Khan, who received high titles and in return for these
unmerited honours taught his master to destroy a naturally feeble
intellect by drinking to excess. The court party was, in fact, nothing
but a cabal of women and eunuchs who pitted themselves against
the great officers of state and their armed forces.
1 See chap. XIII, p. 386.
## p. 429 (#467) ############################################
THE BANGASH PATHANS ATTACK THE ROHILLAS 429
'Ali Muhammad Khan, the chief of the Rohillas of Katehr, had
been a political prisoner, and in the confusion which ensued on
Ahmad Shah Abdali's invasion returned to Moradabad, where he
completely re-established his authority. Safdar Jang, a Persian Shiah,
detested all Afghans and viewed with alarm the establishment of
an Afghan state on the north-western border of his province. 'Ali
Muhammad Khan died shortly after his return, but Hafiz Rahmat
Khan, the father-in-law of his elder son, Sa'd-ullah Khan, became
regent of his territories. An officer appointed from Delhi as governor
of Moradabad, but ill supplied with troops and munitions, ventured
to cross the Ganges with a small force. The Rohillas whom he first
attacked feigned flight, and pursuing them with triumphant shouts,
he and his men were drawn into an ambush, where nearly all were
slain.
Safdar Jang now thought of a new device. During the reigns of
Farrukh-siyar and Muhammad Shah the Afghan soldier of fortune,
Muhammad Khan Bangash, had gradually acquired the greater part
of the southern portion of the Gangetic Duab, from Kol, the modern
'Aligarh, nearly to the south-eastern boundary of the present district
of Cawnpore. In Farrukhabad, the capital which he built for him-
self, he commemorated the name of his first patron. In this area
he was virtually independent and the viceroys of Oudh resented the
growth of this Afghan principality on their western border as much
as that of the more recently established Rohilla state. Muhammad
Khan had died in 1743, but his territories were now governed by
his son Qaim Khan, who bore the title of Qaim Jang, and Safdar
Jang issued in the emperor's name an order directing him to attack
the rebels in Katehr. Qaim Jang crossed the Ganges and besieged
the Rohillas in Budaun, where the impetuous Sa'd-ullah Khan, elder
son of 'Ali Muhammad Khan, sallied forth to meet him. Qaim Jang's
superior numbers forced the enemy to give way, but by a stratagem
Qaim Jang was enticed into an ambush and slain, and his troops fled.
The defeat of the Bangash Afghans and the death of their leader
left them a safe object of attack and on 10 December 1748 Safdar
Jang, carrying the emperor with him, marched from Delhi for
Farrukhabad with 40,000 horse, having also directed Raja Naval Rai,
his deputy in Oudh, to join him from that direction. The Afghans
were too broken to offer any resistance. Six million rupees were
extorted from the mother of Qaim Jang and five of Muhammad Khan's
younger sons were carried off and imprisoned by Naval Rai in the
fortress of Allahabad.
In 1749 Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India for the second time.
but did not advance beyond Lahore, where the governor bought
him off by the cession of the revenue of four sub-districts.
Safdar Jang had left to the Bangash Afghans only those districts
which Farrukh-siyar had assigned to Muhammad Khan, and the
## p. 430 (#468) ############################################
430 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
remainder were administered by Raja Naval Rai, Ahmad Khan, the
brother of Qaim Jang, who had succeeded at the instigation of his
mother, began to assemble troops in preparation for an attack on
Naval Rai, who warned his master of the preparations and, advancing
from Kanauj, entrenched himself at Khudaganj about half-way
between Kanauj and Farrukhabad. Safdar Jang left Delhi on 3 August
with a large army and sent troops in advance to meet Naval Rai. The
Afghans, however, on 13 August penetrated the camp of Naval Rai
by surprise, put him to death in his tent, and captured his artillery
and the whole of his equipage.
Safdar Jang had reached Marahra, about sixty-seven miles north-
west of Farrukhabad, when he received the news. His difficulties were
increased by the turbulence of his troops who, in consequence of
a dispute between a camel driver and one of the leading inhabitants,
sacked the town of Marahra while he halted there. Ahmad Khan
turned north. The armies met on 24 September between Sahawar
and Patiali, and Safdar Jang was completely defeated and he was
himself wounded by a musket ball. He retired with his beaten army
to Delhi, where he learnt with indignation that his defeat had been
received by the court party with joy. His death had been reported
and the emperor and Javid Khan had prepared to confiscate his
property, as was usual, but had waited until the rumour should be
confirmed. His wife had assembled such of his troops as remained
in Delhi to defend his property. On his return the emperor and
Javid Khan attempted to excuse themselves but failed to satisfy
Safdar Jang, who warned the queen-mother, as the prime mover in
the plot, that he was still alive and that it would go ill with any
who attempted to molest him.
Ahmad Khan, after his victory over the minister, sent his young
son Muhammad Khan into Oudh to plunder the country and marched
in person on Allahabad, where his younger brothers were confined,
and besieged the fort. Failing to take it, and learning that the
minister had taken the field, he plundered and burnt the city and
retired to Farrukhabad carrying with him 400 women captured at
Allahabad.
Meanwhile Mahmud Khan had crossed the Ganges into Oudh
and attacked Bilgram, but the determined attitude of the Sayyids
of that town, of the same stock as the Sayyids of Barha, saved it.
He sent detachments to occupy the parganas of Shahabad and Khaira-
bad and marched to Phaphamau, on the Ganges, near Allahabad,
whence he despatched a force to capture Lucknow. The Afghans
entered Lucknow, but one of Safdar Jang's officers raised the
citizens and drove them out of the city, while other troops from
Oudh moved towards Phaphamau and Mahmud Khan fled. The
expulsion of the Afghans from Oudh was now a simple matter, but
they still remained dangerous. Safdar Jang now decided to summon
## p. 431 (#469) ############################################
SAFDAR JANG CALLS IN THE MARATHAS
431
to his aid Malhar Rao Holkar from Malwa, Jayappa Sindia from
Narnaul, and Suraj Mal the Jat. He did this, intent only on his
own ends and negligent of the danger of bringing Marathas into
disputes in the neighbourhood of the capital. The Maratha horse
were first sent against Ahmad Khan's governor of Kol and Jalesar,
who was suddenly attacked and completely defeated, and fled to
Farrukhabad. Ahmad Khan, on hearing of this, withdrew at once
from Allahabad, which he had been again besieging. His army largely
composed of adventurers, deserted him, and he reached Farrukhabad
with but a few followers. Safdar Jang and the Marathas and Jats
marched on Farrukhabad and on their approach Ahmad Khan with-
drew from the city to a fort now called Fatehgarh, which he had built
on the bank of the Ganges, and appealed to the Rohillas for aid.
There was some hesitation on their part in responding. The elders
had been on good terms with the minister, since they had defeated
Qaim Jang, and even the impetuous Sa'd-ullah Khan hesitated to join
Ahmad Khan, who had not yet avenged his brother's blood. Ahmad
Khan assured him that help at such a time would be ample atonement
and Sa'd-ullah Khan marched, too late, to his aid.
The Marathas sacked Farrukhabad and had for some time been
endeavouring to throw a bridge of boats across the Ganges, hoping
to surround the position held by Ahmad Khan, which was open in
all directions on the east of the Ganges. Mahmud Khan was unsuc-
cessful in preventing this, and on 28 April the Ganges was bridged
under cover of the Maratha guns. Sa'd-ullah Khan joined Ahmad
Khan two days later, and the latter, unwilling to stand a siege in
his camp, came forth, and gave battle. The Afghans were defeated,
with heavy loss, and the remnant fled by way of Aonla and Morada-
bad to Chilkia, at the foot of the Kumaun hills. The Marathas
occupied Rohilkhand throughout the rainy season of 1751 and were
rewarded for their services in this campaign with half the Bangash
territory. The power of the Bangash Nawabs of Farrukhabad was
now finally broken. Early in the reign Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang had held
the provinces of Allahabad and Agra, but the minister, Safdar Jang,
coveted the former, which adjoined Oudh, and transferred to Zu-'l-
Fiqar Jang Ajmer, which adjoined Agra, and took Allahabad. The
Emperor was obliged to sanction this arrangement, though it was
detrimental to his interests. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang was foolish, irresolute,
and a poltroon, but events in Rajputana gave him an opportunity.
Bakht Singh of Jodhpur was in rebellion against his nephew, Ram
Singh, who had succeeded his father, Abhay Singh, and he appealed
for imperial support against his nephew, making specious promises
which offered a prospect of the re-establishment of the emperor's
authority. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang promised him aid and set out for Ajmer.
The Jats meanwhile had extended their dominion northwards and
had occupied Nimrana, which lay in Zu-'l-Fiqar's way. Though they
## p. 432 (#470) ############################################
432 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
were not hostile to the emperor, the fortress was weakly held and a
cheap victory appealed strongly to Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang. The garrison
was expelled without difficulty, but the simple victor had but em-
broiled himself disastrously with the Jats. His illusory success turned
his head, and after some hesitation he recalled his advanced guard
and marched southward into the Jat country. Here an advanced
guard found the Jats in force, under Suraj Mal. At a moment when
a little resolution might have ensured the success of a mistaken enter-
prise his heart failed, and instead of advancing in person to the
support of his advanced guard, he ordered it to retire. Its retreat
demoralised the rest of his army, which was attacked and defeated
by the Jats. He then thought of fieeing to Delhi and leaving his
army, but his officers would not permit this. Suraj Mal, though
prepared to defend his own possessions, was loth to detain the impe-
rial officer, and he offered Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang easy terms and undertook
to fulfil his obligations to Bakht Singh and to send tribute from
Rajputana. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang continued his march to Narnaul, where
Bakht Singh resided, accompanied by his Jat ally. Bakht Singh did
not conceal his contempt for an ally of the Jats and would not permit
them to join in the settlement of disputes between Rajputs; and
ordered Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang to proceed to Ajmer. Suraj Mal returned
home in disgust and the submissive Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang was joined by
Bakht Singh at Ajmer and they marched towards Jodhpur. The
combined troops of Ram Singh and Khande Rao, son of Malhar Rao
Holkar, met them at Pipar. Bakht Singh warned Zu-l-Fiqar Jang
to beware of the Jodhpur artillery concealed in the centre of the
army, but the latter disregarded the warning. Fire was reserved
until his army, in close formation, was almost on the guns and was
then delivered with terrible effect, causing the whole mass to recoil.
The battle was not decided and Bakht Singh's troops were fresh,
but Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang had had enough of fighting and announced his
intention of coming to terms. Bakht Singh vainly urged the impor-
tance of establishing the imperial authority in Jodhpur, but Zu-'l-
Fiqar Jang persisted in his resolve. On the one side Bakht Singh and
on the other Khande Rao Holkar withdrew, leaving Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang
and Ram Singh to arrange their own terms. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang accepted
300,000 rupees in ready money and a promise of supplies to be
delivered at various stages of his retreat and set out at once for
Delhi. The reason for his haste was the news of Safdar Jang's defeat
by Ahmad Khan. He assumed that the minister would at once be
dismissed and his folly and conceit encouraged him to hope that he
might secure the place, but Safdar Jang had already recovered his
position. After Zu-'l-Fiqar's return to Delhi his failure preyed upon
his mind. He begged the emperor to help him to discharge his debt
to his troops and, when his request was rejected, began to talk treason
1 26° 23' N. , 73° 33' E.
## p. 433 (#471) ############################################
DISPUTED SUCCESSION TO NIZAM-UL-MULK 433
among his companions. Finally, he attempted to enter the hall of
audience fully armed, to intimidate the emperor. Forbidden to
appear at court, he appeared no more in public. His property was
confiscated and he was deprived of his rank and of the title of Amir-
ul-Umara, which was conferred upon Ghazi-ud-din Khan, the eldest
son of the late Nizam-ul-Mulk.
In the Deccan, Nizam-ul-Mulk had been succeeded in 1748 by his
second son, Nasir Jang. Ahmad Shah and Javid Khan had from the
first disliked Safdar Jang and had intended to confer the post of mini-
ster on Nizam-ul-Mulk. They sought to attach the powerful viceroy of
the Deccan to the court party and thus escape the domination of
Safdar Jang, and accordingly wrote private letters to Nasir Jang beg-
ging him to come to Delhi. He set out with a large army and arrived
at Burhanpur in April, 1749, but received another order cancelling
the summons. Safdar Jang had probably discovered the design of
the court party and had compelled the emperor to abandon it.
Nazir Jang was content to return, for his sister's son Muzaffar
Jang, who enjoyed the support of the French, had taken advantage
of his departure to rise in rebellion and at the instigation of Husain
Dost Khan the Navait, known as Chanda Sahib, and with the help
of a force of French troops supplied by M. Dupleix, had invaded the
lower Carnatic. Nasir Jang's campaign in the Carnatic and his
murder in December, 1750, have been described elsewhere. 2 A few
months later Muzaffar Jang, who was proclaimed by the French
viceroy of the Deccan, shared the same fate, and Bussy recognised as
his successor Salabat Jang, the third son of Nizam-ul-Mulk.
Nazir Jang, Muzaffar Jang, and Salabat Jang, as well as their
foreign supporters, had all assumed that Ghazi-ud-din Khan, eldest
son of the late Nizam-ul-Mulk, had foregone his claim. Ghazi-ud-din,
though he had hitherto taken no steps to dispute Nasir Jang's acces-
sion, early in 1751 demanded of the emperor a commission as viceroy
of the Deccan in succession to his father. The issue of orders was
delayed by the courtiers' claim that he should purchase his office
with the customary large payment in which they hoped to share and
by Ghazi-ud-din's demand that it should be free of cost.
This dispute was interrupted by the third 3 invasion of India by
Ahmad Shah Abdali, who crossed the frontier at the end of 1751,
and at the same time sent an envoy to Delhi, demanding the cession
of the Punjab and Multan. Muʻin-ul-Mulk the governor withstood
the invader for four months and would probably have compelled
1 His other titles were Firuz Jang and 'Imad-ul-Mulk.
2 See chap, XIII, p. 386, and vol. V, pp. 127 sqq.
3 The author of the Siyar-ul-Mutaakhkhirin misnumbers all Ahmad Shah
Abdali's invasions, making the first the second, and so on. Ahmad Shah, as one of
Nadir Shah's officers, accompanied him on his expedition to India and Sayyid
Ghulam Husain Khan Tabatabai apparently reckons this as the Abdali's first
invasion
28
## p. 434 (#472) ############################################
434 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH 'ALAM
him to retire had it not been for the treachery of Adina Beg Khan,
who suggested an ill-timed sortie, of which notice was given to the
invaders, and which failed.
As usual the emperor and his courtiers were overcome with terror.
Safdar Jang, who had not returned to the capital since his successes
against the Bangash Afghans and the Rohillas, received pressing
messages asking him to bring to court Malhar Rao Holkar and other
allies. Before he could reach Delhi the pusillanimous Ahmad had
purchased safety by a disgraceful treaty which ceded the Punjab and
Multan to Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah Abdali thereupon appointed
Mu'in-ul-Mulk as his governor of the Punjab and returned to Kabul.
Safdar Jang arrived at Delhi in May, 1752, and was furious on
discovering that this treaty had been concluded.
He had purchased
the support of Malhar Rao Holkar by promises of large subsidies,
which he called on the emperor and the eunuch to fulfil. They,
however, could not if they would; and relations between the emperor
and his minister were irrevocably embittered.
The crafty Ghazi-ud-din offered a solution of the difficulty. He
promised, in return for a free commission, to carry Holkar with him
and to close his mouth. The commission was issued and in May,
having appointed his son to represent him at the capital, he left
Delhi for the Deccan, accompanied by Holkar. Ghazi-ud-din had
already secured a promise of the support of Balaji Rao Peshwa who
was levying contributions from districts of the Deccan in which
Salabat Jang's authority was acknowledged. But with help from the
French the Marathas were defeated and Salabat Jang came to terms
with them in January, 1752 (see vol. v, p. 135). Two months later
Ghazi-ud-din and Malhar Rao Holkar started from Delhi and were
met at Burhanpur by the Peshwa. To secure the fidelity of his
Maratha allies, who were bound to him by no ties save that of interest
and were quite ready to change sides, Ghazi-ud-din pledged large
concessions (see chap. XIII, p. 388).
Salabat Jang's position was now difficult. He retained the support
of his French allies but financial difficulties embarrassed him and his
brother was at the head of an immense army. Negotiations and
preparations for taking the field were begun at the same time, but
before either had advanced beyond their earliest stages Ghazi-ud-din
was poisoned at Aurangabad by his stepmother and Salabat Jang re-
mained in undisputed possession of the viceroyalty of the Deccan.
At Delhi the quarrel between the emperor and his minister had
reached an acute stage. Safdar Jang returned to the city, after the
departure of Ghazi-ud-din for the Deccan. He laid the blame for
the disgraceful treaty with the Abdali entirely on the eunuch Javid
Khan, but when the first storm of his rage was passed he dissembled,
made overtures for a reconciliation, and in August invited the eunuch
to a banquet, where he was stabbed to death. The murder deprived
## p. 435 (#473) ############################################
CIVIL WAR AT DELHI
435
Ahmad Shah of the only adherent whom he could trust and alarmed
him for his personal safety. After the death of Ghazi-ud-din his son,
Shihab-ud-din Khan, an able, violent, unscrupulous, and utterly
fearless youth of eighteen, became a person of importance, and the
emperor and Safdar Jang vied for his support. The former conferred
on him at once his father's titles of Ghazi-ud-din Khan Bahadur
and Firuz Jang, and the latter obtained for him the high title of
Amir-ul-Umara, but both were destined to disappointment. Ghazi-
ud-din II, notwithstanding his learning, his skill in calligraphy, his
knowledge of many languages, his poetic gifts and his valour, was
utterly bad and specially forgot his patrons. He first allied himself
to the emperor and the court party, and encouraged Ahmad Shah
to require of Safdar Jang the resignation of the command of some
appointments which he held in conjunction with the great offices of
minister of the empire and viceroy of Oudh.
The minister was now deterred from taking up arms against the
emperor only by fear of incurring the suspicion of aspiring to the
throne and thus alienating all. He ignored the demand for the
resignation of his minor offices, but Ghazi-ud-din discovered a plan
to deprive him of the most dangerous of them. The imperial artillery
was stationed in the fort, and by a stratagem Safdar Jang's officer
in charge of it was removed. The guns were then loaded and trained
on the palace which the minister occupied. Safdar Jang then begged
for leave to depart to his province. In the emperor's refusal of this
permission may be traced the hand of Ghazi-ud-din, who was opposed
to a peaceful solution of the difficulty and wished, by driving Safdar
Jang into active hostility, to complete his ruin.
Safdar Jang now raised the standard of revolt and, to avert suspi-
cion from himself, proclaimed as emperor a man of unknown origin,
whom he represented to be a prince of the imperial house.
The civil war, which broke out on 4 May, 1753, and lasted for six
months, took the form of incessant combats in the streets and neigh-
bourhood of the capital. Safdar Jang sent his wife and family for
safety into the Jat country and enlisted the aid of Suraj Mal, raja
of the Jats. Ghazi-ud-din's principal commander was Najib Khan
the Rohilla, whose hostility to Safdar Jang could be relied upon,
and who afterwards rose to the rank of Amir-ul-Umara. Zu-'l-Fiqar
Jang emerged from his retirement and joined Safdar Jang. Both
parties summoned to their aid all the turbulent elements in the
capital and the surrounding districts and the Sunni Ghazi-ud-din
imported an additional element of bitterness into the strife by pro-
claiming the Shiah Safdar Jang a heretic. By this means as well as
by bribes he was able to detach from Safdar Jang most of the Sunnis
serving in his troops, and individual heretics were seized in the streets
and robbed and beaten, or even murdered. Suraj Mal plundered
Old Delhi, then more populous than Shah Jahan's city, and the latter
## p. 436 (#474) ############################################
436 AHMAD SHAH, ‘ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
was a scene of continual bloodshed, plunder and murder. Neither
party obtained any decided advantage over the other and both at
length grew weary of the fruitless and devastating strife. In November
they came to terms. Safdar Jang was permitted to retain the pro-
vinces of Oudh and Allahabad, and departed for the seat of his
government, and Intizam-ud-Daula, son of Qamar-ud-din and uncle
of Ghazi-ud-din, was confirmed as minister.
During the six months' fighting Ghazi-ud-din had summoned to
his aid Malhar Rao Holkar from Malwa and Jayappa Sindia from
Nagaur, but they did not reach Delhi until peace had been concluded
and Ghazi-ud-din now employed them for the punishment of Suraj
Mal. He was deficient in artillery, and discovering, on entering the
Jat country, that without it he could make no impression on the
strong fortresses, he asked the emperor to supply him with guns.
Intizam-ud-Daula, who knew his nephew's turbulent and ambitious
disposition, warned Ahmad Shah against the request, and Ghazi-ud-
din instigated an attack on the minister's house, which failed. The
timid Ahmad Shah was now apprehensive of Ghazi-ud-din, and
opened communications with Suraj Mal, who suggested that Safdar
Jang should be summoned from Oudh. This suggestion was not
adopted, but the emperor and the minister marched from Delhi with
the army in order that they might watch the movements of Ghazi-ud-
din and, if necessary, unite with Suraj Mal against him.
Ghazi-ud-din resented this movement and disliked the proximity
of the imperial army. He tried to induce the emperor by intimidation
to retire, warning him that a force of several thousand Maratha
horse, whose intentions were unknown, had been seen in the neigh-
bourhood. It happened that Malhar Rao Holkar, whose son Khande
Rao had been killed in action against the Jats, bitterly resented the
emperor's refusal to supply the army with artillery, and had secretly
left the camp to force compliance or to punish him for refusal. His
presence in the neighbourhood of the camp became known, and the
emperor, his mother, and the minister, whose cowardice was notorious,
without warning any of their intention, entered their litters and fled
towards Delhi, leaving the army and the imperial harem to their
fate. In the morning the army, without a leader, was helpless before
Holkar, who stripped the men of their arms, took their horses, and
plundered the camp, capturing the ladies of the imperial harem,
whom, however, he treated with respect.
When the emperor's flight became known, the siege of Dig was
raised, Jayappa Sindia returned to Nagaur, and Ghazi-ud-din and
Holkar marched to Delhi, where they compelled the emperor to
dismiss Intizam-ud-Daula, Ghazi-ud-din himself becoming minister.
On 2 June, 1754, Ahmad Shah was deposed and prince 'Aziz-ud-din,
the second but eldest surviving son of Jahandar Shah, was raised
## p. 437 (#475) ############################################
'ALAMGIR II SUCCEEDS AHMAD SHAH
437
to the throne under the title of 'Alamgir II. A week later both
Ahmad Shah and his mother were blinded.
The condition of the Punjab now appeared to offer Ghazi-ud-din
an opportunity for its recovery. Its governor Muʻin-ul-Mulk, whose
appetite might have vied with that of Sultan Mahmud Bigara of
Gujarat and Shaikh Abu-'l-Fazl, died in November, 1753, from an
internal injury caused by riding hard immediately after a surfeit.
Ahmad Abdali permitted an infant son to succeed, the management
of affairs remaining in the hands of his mother. Though the son died,
his mother made herself feared. She was, however, not fitted to
govern a large and impoverished province, and the administration
was left to underlings who, besides enriching themselves, levied cruel
exactions from the people, thus driving many to join the warlike
sect of the Sikhs, who were able to protect their adherents. Anarchy
prevailed throughout the Punjab when Ghazi-ud-din, taking with him
his puppet emperor, marched from Delhi to regain the lost province.
This first expedition was a failure. Ghazi-ud-din maintained in his
troops a corps, composed of troopers whom he had detached by
appeals to cupidity and bigotry, from Safdar Jang, the late minister.
When the army reached Panipat this corps, which was highly paid,
clamoured for arrears due to the members. After much wrangling
Ghazi-ud-din agreed to pay them after inspection of the corps by an
independent officer. The officer selected was Najib Khan the Afghan,
who was known to be fearless, and clamour was renewed. Ghazi-ud-din
left his quarters to quell the tumult and was seized by the excited
soldiery and dragged through the streets of Panipat, with every
circumstance of indignity. Though he was roughly handled, and
threatened with death, his courage never left him. He turned on his
captors with foul abuse and recommended them to slay him quickly,
lest they should be slain themselves. The officers, now terrified,
endeavoured to pacify him, but he was still further infuriated by a
message from the emperor, delivered to them in his hearing, which
promised the arrears of pay and extraordinary favours if they would
hand their prisoner over as he was. The officers, hoping that they
had succeeded in allaying his wrath, sent him back to his own quarters
on an elephant, but he hardly gave himself time to rearrange his
dress before he remounted the elephant and ordered Najib Khan and
his Afghans, and the rest of his troops, to attack the corps, massacre
the men, and plunder their tents. Ghazi-ud-din then returned to
Delhi. When his troops were ready for the field he left again for the
Punjab, carrying with him on this occasion not the emperor, but his
eldest son, Mirza 'Abdullah, 'Ali Gauhar. 'Alamgir II was left in
the custody of confidential agents.
Mu'in-ul-Mulk had been the maternal uncle of Ghazi-ud-din, who
1 It was known as the Sin-dagh or “S brand" from the letter branded on the
horses.
## p. 438 (#476) ############################################
438 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
was betrothed to his daughter. Arriving at Ludhiana he requested
his aunt to fulfil the contract of marriage. The widow, suspecting
nothing, sent her daughter to Ludhiana, where Ghazi-ud-din married
her in due form. He had expected the mother to accompany the
daughter, and he was resolved to seize her and thus gain the
government of the Punjab. He was already in league with Adina
Beg Khan, the traitor who had for many years past been at the
bottom of every trouble in the Punjab. He sent a picked force under
trustworthy officers, who by a forced march arrived at Lahore, more
than a hundred miles away, in little more than twenty-four hours.
Eunuchs arrested the lady before she was awake, and next day the
troops conducted her to Ludhiana. The government of the Punjab
as then conferred on Adina Beg Khan, who paid three million
rupees for the appointment. Ghazi-ud-din was unable to pacify his
infuriated mother-in-law, who heaped abuse on him, and predicted
that the outrage would bring him calamity. The impudent aggression
aroused the wrath of Ahmad Abdali, who marched on Lahore.
Adina Beg Khan fled in terror and hid in the waterless district of
Hissar and Hansi, whither, he hoped, no army could follow him.
From Lahore the Afghan advanced by forced marches on Delhi.
Even Ghazi-ud-din was alarmed and prevailed on his mother-in-law
to intercede for him. As a suppliant, forty miles from the city, he
met Ahmad, who at first rated him, but afterwards pardoned and
confirmed him as minister. So low was the empire fallen that the
disposal of its great offices of state was in the hands of the Afghan.
The real offender thus escaped unscathed, but Ahmad Abdali de-
manded reparation for the insult to his authority, and an innocent
people had to suffer for the fault of a headstrong youth.
Ahmad Abdali entered the fort of Delhi on 28 January, 1757, and
met 'Alamgir II, and on the same day the sack of the city began.
The pillage was not accompanied, as during Nadir Shah's invasion.
by massacre, but the people suffered great misery and many of the
more respectable killed themselves to escape dishonour. Ahmad
stayed in the city for nearly a month, during which time the daughter
of prince A'azz-ud-din, the emperor's deceased elder brother, was
married to prince Timur, eldest son of the invader. After resting
his troops in Delhi he sent a force under one of his officers, with
Ghazi-ud-din, to punish Suraj Mal the Jat for having allied himself
with Safdar Jang, and himself followed the troops. Suraj Mal's
forts were not easily reduced and Ghazi-ud-din begged that a force
might be sent with him into the Duab and Oudh, to collect tribute
for the Abdali, and that two princes of the imperial house should
accompany him to provide against any attempt to set up a pretender
at Delhi.
1 Coin was also struck at Shahjahanabad (Delhi) in the name of Ahmad
Shah. (Ed. )
## p. 439 (#477) ############################################
MASSACRE AT MUTTRA BY AHMAD SHAH ABDALI 439
His motive was partly to ingratiate himself with the invader and
to get rid of him, but chiefly to secure revenge on the son of his old
enemy. Safdar Jang had died on 5 October, 1754, and had been
succeeded in Oudh by his son Shuja'-ud-Daula. The expedition was
not a conspicuous success. The army reached Farrukhabad, where
Ahmad Khan Bangash presented gifts to the princes and to Ghazi-
ud-din and sent a contingent with it into Oudh.
Shuja'-ud-Daula met the invaders of his province at Sandi, near
Bilgram, and after two unimportant affairs of outposts was reinforced
by Sa'd-ullah Khan of Rohilkhand, who had now become his friend.
The arrival of this new force and Sa'd-ullah Khan's advocacy of
Shuja'-ud-Daula's cause put an end to hostilities and the aggressors
retired after receiving 500,000 rupees in cash from Shuja'-ud-Daula
and vague promises of more. Ghazi-ud-din retired to Farrukhabad,
where he halted to await the departure of Ahmad Abdali.
Ahmad had been conducting a campaign in his own manner.
After a siege of three days he had taken the Jat fort of Ballabhgarh,
twenty-four miles south of Delhi, and had put the garrison to the
sword. He had sent another force to Muttra, where the massacre
of a large assembly of unarmed pilgrims showed his zeal for Islam.
Further enterprises of a like nature were stopped by the fierce heat
of the Indian summer, and a pestilence, accompanied by great
mortality, which broke out in his army decided him to return. Near
Delhi he was met by 'Alamgir II, who complained bitterly of his
treatment by Ghazi-ud-din. Ahmad Abdali promoted Najib Khan,
who accompanied 'Alamgir, to the rank of Amir-ul-Umara, and
committed the helpless puppet to his protection. Najib Khan re-
ceived at the same time the title of Najib-ud-Daula.
Ahmad Abdali received, before leaving India, a strange appeal.
Two widows of Muhammad Shah bitterly resented the turbulence
of Ghazi-ud-din and the cowardice of the courtiers, which had caused
them to fall into the hands of Marathas. Fearing worse consequences
one of them begged Ahmad to marry her and to remove both from
the danger of dishonour. In spite of their age, their high rank and
their distress aroused the conqueror's compassion. He accordingly
married one and took both ladies with him to Afghanistan.
On Ahmad Abdali's departure from India, Ghazi-ud-din threw
down the gauntlet to his former servant, Najib Khan, by appointing
Ahmad Khan Bangash Amir-ul-Umara and, summoning to his aid
Raghunath Rao, brother of the Peshwa, and Malhar Rao Holkar,
marched on Delhi and besieged the emperor and Najib-ud-Daula in
the fort.
This action had been expected and some time before the departure
of Ahmad Abdali, the emperor had granted assignments to his eldest
son, 'Ali Gauhar, to the west of Delhi and had sent him into these
districts with secret instructions to raise an army for opposing Ghazi-
## p. 440 (#478) ############################################
440 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
ud-din if he marched on Delhi. The participation of the Marathas
had not been expected and 'Ali Gauhar, who was not strong enough
to attack the combined forces, did nothing.
When the siege had lasted forty-five days, Najib-ud-Daula pur-
chased the protection of Holkar, and retired to his estates north-west
of Delhi. The emperor could no longer resist, and Ghazi-ud-din,
with Ahmad Khan Bangash, entered the fort and resumed control
of the emperor and the administration. His first act was to compel
‘Alamgir to send a force to recall his son to the capital. Vithal Rao,
a Maratha officer who had remained near Delhi after the retirement
of Raghunath Rao and Holkar, warned the prince that the order
had been wrúng from his father and advised him to disregard it,
and 'Ali Gauhar, on this advice, crossed the Jumna into the Duab
and occupied several parganas, but Vithal Rao was induced by a
heavy bribe to advise the prince to return to the capital. 'Ali Gauhar
entered Delhi with his troops but refused to live in the fort, and lodged
in a private house. He soon found himself unable to pay his troops
and Ghazi-ud-din advised him to send them to the districts allotted
for their payment as revenue could not be collected without their
assistance. The prince was once more compelled to comply, but
retained at Delhi a bodyguard and some of his most trustworthy
officers. Ghazi-ud-din, assembling ten or twelve thousand troops on
the pretext that he intended to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of
Nizam-ud-din Auliya, surrounded the house in which the prince
lodged. Some of his men forced an entrance, but 'Ali Gauhar, who
possessed the courage of his race, caused the outer wall of the house
nearest to the Jumna to be breached, and at the head of his men cut
his way through the minister's troops and rode to Vithal Rao's camp
across the river. Vithal Rao was now overcome with shame for having
advised the prince to place himself in the power of Ghazi-ud-din,
and pitched tents for him near his own camp, but it was only with
great difficulty that the prince reached them, for some of the minister's
troops barred his way. He would have been slain or taken but for
the devotion of a gallant Sayyid who kept the pursuers employed.
The Sayyid fell but the prince reached his tents and Vithal Rao
escorted him to Farrukhabad, where he was well received and sup-
plied with money. From Farrukhabad the prince marched to
Saharanpur and took refuge with Najib-ud-Daula, who protected
him for eight months and then, fearing complications with the
minister, advised him to attempt the reconquest of Bengal, where
the imperial authority had long been disregarded and British in-
fluence was paramount. 'Ali Gauhar accepted this advice and
marched first to Oudh, leaving his lieutenant to enlist troops and
collect supplies. Shuja'-ud-Daula met the prince near Lucknow,
on 19 January, 1758, and received him hospitably; but, anxious to
rid himself of so inconvenient a guest, supported Najib-ud-Daula's
## p. 441 (#479) ############################################
AN
11
aZJA
Gae
THE MARATHAS IN BENGAL
441
advice to attempt the recovery of Bengal, and was relieved when he
marched on to Allahabad.
The relief afforded to Bengal by the expulsion of Raghuji Bhonsle
in 1743 had been ephemeral. Balaji Rao Peshwa, having obtained
his reward, had immediately entered into an agreement acknow-
ledging Raghuji's right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa; and in 1744 an army of 20,000 Maratha horse
invaded Bengal. 'Ali Vardi Khan craftily invited all the principal
officers to an entertainment, which they were induced to attend by
a false oath sworn by Mustafa Khan, an Afghan officer, on a brick
wrapped in a cloth which was supposed to contain a copy of the
Koran. On 14 April the twenty-one who attended were treacherously
murdered and the single superior officer who had been left in charge
of the camp tried to lead the army back, but the peasantry, exasperated
by recent depredations, allowed few stragglers to escape.
Mustafa Khan's reward was not, in his estimation, commensurate
with his services and he rose in rebellion in Bihar, where he attacked
Haibat, 'Ali Vardi Khan's lieutenant.
This atrocious crime greatly enraged Raghuji Bhonsle, but he was
detained at Nagpur throughout the year 1744 by a disputed suc-
cession in a Gond principality. Next year, having ascertained that
conditions were favourable, he invaded Orissa and without difficulty
cccupied Cuttack and captured the inefficient governor. From
Cuttack Raghuji sent a message to 'Ali Vardi, demanding thirty
million rupees as the price of evacuating Orissa. ‘Ali Vardi evaded
answering until he heard that the rebel Mustafa Khan was dead,
when he returned a provocative reply to which Raghuji answered
by overrunning the country as far as Burdwan. When the rainy
season was over he marched into Bihar in response to an invitation
from the remnant of the Afghan rebels, who had been driven into
the Kaimur hills on the north bank of the Son. They joined him
near Arwal on the east bank of the Son, within forty-five miles of
Patna. 'Ali Vardi advanced to Bankipore, and surprised the Marathas
at Muhibbʻalipur on the eastern bank of the Son, about eight miles
above Arwal. The advantage lay, on the whole, with the Muslims,
but the engagement was not decisive and for some days the armies
engaged in purposeless skirmishes. Then Raghuji suddenly marched
off, intending to reach Murshidabad and sack the town before Ali
Vardi Khan could return. 'Ali Vardi Khan turned back and marched
rapidly, but the more mobile Marathas were a day before him and,
though they could not enter the town, plundered and burnt tiie
neighbouring villages and marched on towards Katwa, still followed
by 'Ali Vardi Khan, who defeated them in a battle a few miles to the
south of that town.
Raghuji now returned to his own country, but left at Midnapore,
to guard the approaches to Orissa, a force of two or three thousand
LE
## p. 442 (#480) ############################################
442 AHMAD SHAH, ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
Marathas under Mir Habib, and six or seven thousand Afghans under
Murtaza Khan.
In 1746 Mir Muhammad Ja'far Khan, known as Mir Ja'far, was
appointed governor of Orissa with an injunction to recover it from
the Marathas. He defeated and drove southwards the garrison of
Midnapore, but refrained from pursuing them lest he should provoke
Raghuji Bhonsle to invade Bengal in force. Later, hearing that
Janoji, Raghuji's son, was marching on Cuttack, he fled panic-
stricken to Burdwan. Janoji followed him northward, but Mir Ja'far
had been reinforced and the Marathas were defeated. They returned
in the following year and were again defeated near Burdwan hy
‘Ali Vardi Khan, who pursued them to Midnapore but failed
to overtake them and retired to Murshidabad for the rainy
season.
Early in 1748 Haibat Jang engaged in Bihar a force of Afghans
who had been dismissed by ‘Ali Vardi Khan owing to suspicions
of their loyalty. It was believed that they might safely be employed
in Bihar, where their opportunities for communicating with the
Marathas would be fewer; but the officers, on the occasion of their
first reception, assassinated the governor, in revenge for the treat-
ment which they had received from his father-in-law, 'Ali Vardi
Khan. They then plundered the town and seized the government of
the province. A large force was soon collected and the leader,
knowing that he could enjoy no safety so long as ‘Ali Vardi Khan
retained the government of Bengal, made preparations for conquering
that province.
‘Ali Vardi Khan was again engaged with the Marathas south of
Katwa when this alarming news reached him. On 1 March, 1748
he marched towards Patna, leaving a sufficient garrison to protect
Murshidabad. The Marathas followed him, hanging on his flanks
and rear, and gave his army no rest. When he met the Afghan rebels
about eight miles to the west of the town of Barh, on the Ganges, he
was obliged to attack them while the Marathas were still threatening
his rear. His small army seemed doomed to destruction, but a fortu-
nate discharge of artillery and musketry killed or wounded the three
Afghan leaders early in the day, and this produced its usual result.
The great host, largely composed of raw levies, fled in all directions.
The Marathas, fearing lest the victorious army should turn on them,
dispersed, and Ali
‘ Vardi Khan,
Khan, entering Patna, appointed
Siraj-ud-Daula, his daughter's son by Haibat Jang, governor of
Bihar with Raja Janki Ram as his guardian and deputy, and followed
the retreating Marathas.
Janoji Bhonsle had been recalled to Nagpur by the news of his
mother's death and 'Ali Vardi seized the opportunity. He marched
to Cuttack, reoccupied the town, captured the citadel, put to death
the officers who had held it for Raghuji, and expelled the Marathas.
## p. 443 (#481) ############################################
THE MARATHAS RETAIN ORISSA
443
Their expulsion was, however, temporary and they returned to the
province almost immediately. Again, in 1750, they were defeated
at Midnapore, but it was as useless to defeat them in the field as it
was to expel them, in face of the mobility of irregular troops living
on the country and independent either of a base or of lines of com-
munication. The Muslims, after a victory in the field, often found
the beaten enemy immediately laying waste the country in their rear,
and were obliged to hasten to save their capital from pillage.
The Marathas claimed the right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in
the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and they had for
some time been anxious for a composition. They proposed that
Orissa should be absolutely ceded to them in place of the rights
claimed in all three. 'Ali Vardi Khan admitted no right, but he could
not exclude the Marathas, who treated the provinces as an enemy's
country, and destroyed what they could not carry off. The viceroy's
advisers had long urged him to purchase peace for his unfortunate
people. He had hitherto scornfully rejected this advice, but he was
now seventy-five years of age, his health was failing, he had for twelve
years been engaged in ceaseless and fruitless warfare, and a great
part of his territory lay waste. He gave way and in November, 1751,
ceded Orissa, salving his pride by the fiction of appointing Mir
Habib Raghuji's agent, as his governor of the province. He also
saved the district of Midnapore, which had hitherto been included
in Orissa, and fixed the Subarnarekha river as the boundary of the
Maratha province. Orissa thus passed finally out of the hands of
the viceroy of Bengal and the land had peace.
On 9 April, 1756, 'Ali Vardi Khan died and was succeeded by his
grandson, Siraj-ud-Daula, whose history will be found in chap. VII,
vol. v. Clive's victory at Plassey, on 23 June, 1757, established the
supremacy of the British in Bengal and thus furnished 'Ali Gauhar
with the pretext for his demonstration.
It is not quite correct to represent the prince as being in rebellion
against his father. He originally left the palace by his father's wish
and raised troops for service against Ghazi-ud-din. Subsequent orders
recalling him were actually issued by the minister, and though they
bore the emperor's seal there is every reason to believe that the
prince's course of action accorded with his father's wishes. Many
circumstances contributed to the choice of Bihar as a field for his
activity. Both Najib-ud-Daula and Shuja'-ud-Daula were anxious
to be rid of him and the latter was ambitious of adding the viceroyalty
of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to that of Oudh and not unwilling to
employ the prince as his instrument. Muhammad Quli Khan,
Shuja'-ud-Daula's governor of Allahabad, a brave but foolish man,
was also ambitious of annexing the viceroyalty, for his master, as he
was careful to explain, but in reality for himself. Shuja'-ud-Daula
1 See Oxford History of India, p. 495.
keshwar died of wounds at Dig.
"Never was a defeat more complete", says Elphinstone, "and
never was there a calamity that diffused so much consternation.
Grief and despondency spread over the whole Maratha people: most
had to mourn relations, and all felt the destruction of the army as
a death-blow to their national greatness. ” Most disastrous of all,
1 Siyar-ul-Mutaakhkhirin, DI, 392.
## p. 426 (#464) ############################################
426
RISE OF THE MARATHA EMPIRE (1707-1761)
perhaps, was the fact that it dealt a fatal blow to the one unifying
influence in the Deccan, the prestige of the Peshwas. It is, of course,
true that the Marathas, with characteristic resiliency, recovered from
what would have been a crushing disaster to a less hardy nation.
In August, 1763, they won a brilliant victory over the Nizam at
Rakshasbhavan. But their armies were never again the same. The
Arab and Hindustani mercenary to an increasing degree replaced
the free Maratha trooper, and most important of all, the weakened
power of the Peshwa paved the way to English interference in
Maratha affairs. Panipat, in other words, was the prelude to Assaye
and Kirkee. To Ahmad Shah also, the victory was a Pyrrhic one:
on 22 March, after ransacking Delhi, he withdrew his army. His
men, who hated the Indian hot weather, were on the verge of mutiny,
and insisted on returning home with their plunder. Ahmad Shah,
accordingly, after having left Najib Khan as regent of Delhi, retreated
beyond the passes, and did not again invade India.
A NOTE ON MARATHI LITERATURE
The Marathas are typical hil en, independent and freedom-loving, and their
language and literature reflect these characteristics. Marathi is a rugged ton-
gue, with none of the courtly refinements of northern India, and the early poetic
literature is the simple, natural expression of religious emotion. The earliest
Marathi poetry is an offshoot of the Bhakti movement which swept over India
from the twelfth century A. D. , and gave such an impetus to the development of
vernaculars. Its essential doctrine is that salvation may be attained, independent-
ly of priests, ritual and caste, by devotion to the Divine Name. The Deity, whe-
ther manifested as Shiva, or Vishnu in his various incarnations, is Bhagavan, the
Adorable, and his devotees are the Bhagavatas. It has been not inaptly com-
pared to the Protestant Reformation in Europe.
In Maharashtra, the central object of devotion was Vithoba, a local form of
Vishnu, who dwells at the famous shrine of Pandharpur. It was upon him that
the worship of the poet-sainis of the Deccan was focused. The earliest writers
in Marathi (as opposed to the Maharashtri Prakrit) belong to the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and flourished under the Yadavas, the last Hindu
dynasty of the Deccan. They are Mukundraj, Namdev (A. D. 1270-1350) and
Jnaneshvar. Their object was to bring the learning of the pundits down to the
level of the common people. Jnaneshvar, who lived at Alandi near Poona, is
commonly believed to have made a buffalo recite the Veda! He wrote a para-
phrase of the Bhagavad Gita. Namdev, a devotee of Vithoba, was a tailor by
caste. He wrote in Hindi as well as Marathi; some of his poems found their way
to northern India, and were incorporated in the Adi Granth of the Sikhs.
For the next three centuries, with the Deccan under the heel of the Muham-
madans, no writer of note appeared. Then in the seventeenth century, the
national renaissance which culminated in Shivaji began to gather force. The
earliest poet of this period was Eknath of Paithan, who, though a Brahman,
denounced the caste-system, and went so far as to dine with a Mahar, an almost
unbeard-of action. He died in 1608. His grandson Mukteshvar, together with
Tukaram and Ramdas, was a contemporary of Shivaji. Shivaji, though formally
illiterate, was a fervent admirer of his country's songs and legends, and it is said
that more than once he risked capture when going to Poona in disguise to hear
## p. 427 (#465) ############################################
MARATHI LITERATURE
427
a religious recitation. He tried to persuade Tukaram to come to his court. But
Tukaram, absorbed in his intense love of Vithoba, cared for none of these things:
He was a poor trader by profession, knowing no Sanskrit, and his artless verses
are sung in countless village homes all over the Deccan to-day. Ramdas, on
the cther hand, was a Brahman, and was Shivaji's guru or spiritual preceptor.
It is said that Shivaji surrendered his kingdom to him, and received it back
"in trust from God”, and for this reason, the national standard of the Mara-
thas, the Bhagwa Jhanda, was the orange robe of the ascetic. The verses of
Ramdas, full of wise saws, remind us of the Proverbs of King Solomon, and
his teaching undoubtedly had a formative effect upon Shivaji. He died in 1681.
The most interesting products of the period, however, are the pawadas or
ballads. Their most singular characteristic is that they are unwritten, being
handed down from generation to generation by the gondhalis, a tribe or caste
of wandering bards who composed and recited them. The gondhalis are devo-
tees of the goddess Amba Bhavani, and the recitations are accompanied by an
elaborate ritual, in which the goddess herself is supposed to descend upon the
reciter. The ballads deal with the deeds of the Maratha heroes in their strug-
gles against the Muhammadans, such as the slaying of Afzal Khan, the taking
of Sinhgarh by Tanaji Malusre, the battle of Kharda, and the tragedy of
Panipat. These ballads were intensely popular with the unlettered peasantıy,
and played a great part in arousing them against their Muhammadan rulers. i
The period after the death of Shivaji witnessed a great outburst of Marathi
poetry, and it will here be possible only to mention a few leading names. Shri-
dhar was the most beloved of the writers of this time, and shares with Tukaram
the palm of popularity in the Deccan to-day. His mission was to make the heroic
legends of Hinduism accessible to women and others who knew no Sanskrit.
The titles of his works, the Tri of Rama ma Vijay and the Exploits
of the Pandavas, speak for themselves. He was born at Pandharpur in 1670
and died in 1728. "In every town and village in the Deccan and Konkan,
especially during the rains, the pious Maratha will be found enjoying with his
family and friends the Pothi of Shridhar. ” Moropant, admired by connoisseurs
for his verbal ingenuity, does not appeal to western taste. Another writer of
great interest is Mahipati, whose Bhakta Vijaya and Santa Vijaya, Triumphs
of the Devotees and Saints, are a mine of information about the picturesque
legends which have grown up round the poet-saints of the Deccan.
During the eighteenth century, the Maratha character started to change.
Poona was filled with loot from Hindustan, and the manners and ceremonial
of the Mughul Court were introduced. Contact with the western nations, espe-
cially the English at Bombay and Surat, was beginning to have its effect. Erotic
poetry became popular, and Ram Joshi (1762-1812) was the most celebrated of
the writers of Lavanis or Love Songs. The conquest of an empire, and the
appearance of state-papers and despatches, led to the development of Marathi
prose. Bakhars or historical chronicles were compiled, but their barbarous
idiom, three-quarters Persian, bears little relation to the elegant, highly sanskri-
tised prose style which arose in the nineteenth century, as a result of contact
with western literature.
1 About sixty were taken down by Acworth and Shaligram, and ten have been
translated into verse by H. A. Acworth, Ballads of the Marathas, Longmans, 1894.
## p. 428 (#466) ############################################
CHAPTER XV
AHMAD SHAH ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
THE new emperor was a young man of twenty-one, vicious, dissi-
pated, perfidious, pusillanimous, and utterly worthless. The weak-
ness of his character left him, throughout his short reign, a tool in the
hands of others, and his natural instinct led him to prefer, as advisers,
those least worthy of being associated in the administration of such
territories as were left to him. The great nobles were entirely selfish,
devoid of patriotism and honour, and interested only in dividing
among themselves the remnant of the dominions of the House of
Timur. In this ignoble competition they employed intrigue, assassina-
tion, and open violence.
After returning from the inglorious though successful campaign
against Ahmad Shah, they were employed in a redistribution of the
great offices at the capital and in the provinces. Mu'in-ul-Mulk, a
son of the late minister, had already secured the Punjab and had
been permitted to leave Sirhind for Lahore after promising to remit
large sums to Delhi as tribute, a promise which he was never able
to redeem. The vacant place of minister was filled by Safdar Jang,
the viceroy of Oudh, who governed his province by deputy. Nizam-
ul-Mulk, now an old man in a very feeble state of health, had at
once marched northward, but had not passed Burhanpur when he
heard first of the defeat of the invader at Sirhind and immediately
afterwards of the death of Muhammad and the accession of Ahmad
Shah. Turning back, he died on 1 June 1748 close to Burhanpur. His
eldest son being at court, he was succeeded in the Deccan, as a matter
of course, by his second son, Nasir Jang. His title of Amir-ul-Umara,
with its privileges, was bestowed by Ahmad Shah on Sadat Khan,
entitled Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang, who had already held high office as governor
of the capital.
These offices of state were apportioned by the great nobles without
reference to the personal wishes of the emperor, who tried to retaliate
by forming a court faction of personal adherents. His attempt to
assert authority may be traced to his mother, a woman of humble
origin but pernicious activity. At the head of the party was the chief
eunuch, Javid Khan, who received high titles and in return for these
unmerited honours taught his master to destroy a naturally feeble
intellect by drinking to excess. The court party was, in fact, nothing
but a cabal of women and eunuchs who pitted themselves against
the great officers of state and their armed forces.
1 See chap. XIII, p. 386.
## p. 429 (#467) ############################################
THE BANGASH PATHANS ATTACK THE ROHILLAS 429
'Ali Muhammad Khan, the chief of the Rohillas of Katehr, had
been a political prisoner, and in the confusion which ensued on
Ahmad Shah Abdali's invasion returned to Moradabad, where he
completely re-established his authority. Safdar Jang, a Persian Shiah,
detested all Afghans and viewed with alarm the establishment of
an Afghan state on the north-western border of his province. 'Ali
Muhammad Khan died shortly after his return, but Hafiz Rahmat
Khan, the father-in-law of his elder son, Sa'd-ullah Khan, became
regent of his territories. An officer appointed from Delhi as governor
of Moradabad, but ill supplied with troops and munitions, ventured
to cross the Ganges with a small force. The Rohillas whom he first
attacked feigned flight, and pursuing them with triumphant shouts,
he and his men were drawn into an ambush, where nearly all were
slain.
Safdar Jang now thought of a new device. During the reigns of
Farrukh-siyar and Muhammad Shah the Afghan soldier of fortune,
Muhammad Khan Bangash, had gradually acquired the greater part
of the southern portion of the Gangetic Duab, from Kol, the modern
'Aligarh, nearly to the south-eastern boundary of the present district
of Cawnpore. In Farrukhabad, the capital which he built for him-
self, he commemorated the name of his first patron. In this area
he was virtually independent and the viceroys of Oudh resented the
growth of this Afghan principality on their western border as much
as that of the more recently established Rohilla state. Muhammad
Khan had died in 1743, but his territories were now governed by
his son Qaim Khan, who bore the title of Qaim Jang, and Safdar
Jang issued in the emperor's name an order directing him to attack
the rebels in Katehr. Qaim Jang crossed the Ganges and besieged
the Rohillas in Budaun, where the impetuous Sa'd-ullah Khan, elder
son of 'Ali Muhammad Khan, sallied forth to meet him. Qaim Jang's
superior numbers forced the enemy to give way, but by a stratagem
Qaim Jang was enticed into an ambush and slain, and his troops fled.
The defeat of the Bangash Afghans and the death of their leader
left them a safe object of attack and on 10 December 1748 Safdar
Jang, carrying the emperor with him, marched from Delhi for
Farrukhabad with 40,000 horse, having also directed Raja Naval Rai,
his deputy in Oudh, to join him from that direction. The Afghans
were too broken to offer any resistance. Six million rupees were
extorted from the mother of Qaim Jang and five of Muhammad Khan's
younger sons were carried off and imprisoned by Naval Rai in the
fortress of Allahabad.
In 1749 Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India for the second time.
but did not advance beyond Lahore, where the governor bought
him off by the cession of the revenue of four sub-districts.
Safdar Jang had left to the Bangash Afghans only those districts
which Farrukh-siyar had assigned to Muhammad Khan, and the
## p. 430 (#468) ############################################
430 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
remainder were administered by Raja Naval Rai, Ahmad Khan, the
brother of Qaim Jang, who had succeeded at the instigation of his
mother, began to assemble troops in preparation for an attack on
Naval Rai, who warned his master of the preparations and, advancing
from Kanauj, entrenched himself at Khudaganj about half-way
between Kanauj and Farrukhabad. Safdar Jang left Delhi on 3 August
with a large army and sent troops in advance to meet Naval Rai. The
Afghans, however, on 13 August penetrated the camp of Naval Rai
by surprise, put him to death in his tent, and captured his artillery
and the whole of his equipage.
Safdar Jang had reached Marahra, about sixty-seven miles north-
west of Farrukhabad, when he received the news. His difficulties were
increased by the turbulence of his troops who, in consequence of
a dispute between a camel driver and one of the leading inhabitants,
sacked the town of Marahra while he halted there. Ahmad Khan
turned north. The armies met on 24 September between Sahawar
and Patiali, and Safdar Jang was completely defeated and he was
himself wounded by a musket ball. He retired with his beaten army
to Delhi, where he learnt with indignation that his defeat had been
received by the court party with joy. His death had been reported
and the emperor and Javid Khan had prepared to confiscate his
property, as was usual, but had waited until the rumour should be
confirmed. His wife had assembled such of his troops as remained
in Delhi to defend his property. On his return the emperor and
Javid Khan attempted to excuse themselves but failed to satisfy
Safdar Jang, who warned the queen-mother, as the prime mover in
the plot, that he was still alive and that it would go ill with any
who attempted to molest him.
Ahmad Khan, after his victory over the minister, sent his young
son Muhammad Khan into Oudh to plunder the country and marched
in person on Allahabad, where his younger brothers were confined,
and besieged the fort. Failing to take it, and learning that the
minister had taken the field, he plundered and burnt the city and
retired to Farrukhabad carrying with him 400 women captured at
Allahabad.
Meanwhile Mahmud Khan had crossed the Ganges into Oudh
and attacked Bilgram, but the determined attitude of the Sayyids
of that town, of the same stock as the Sayyids of Barha, saved it.
He sent detachments to occupy the parganas of Shahabad and Khaira-
bad and marched to Phaphamau, on the Ganges, near Allahabad,
whence he despatched a force to capture Lucknow. The Afghans
entered Lucknow, but one of Safdar Jang's officers raised the
citizens and drove them out of the city, while other troops from
Oudh moved towards Phaphamau and Mahmud Khan fled. The
expulsion of the Afghans from Oudh was now a simple matter, but
they still remained dangerous. Safdar Jang now decided to summon
## p. 431 (#469) ############################################
SAFDAR JANG CALLS IN THE MARATHAS
431
to his aid Malhar Rao Holkar from Malwa, Jayappa Sindia from
Narnaul, and Suraj Mal the Jat. He did this, intent only on his
own ends and negligent of the danger of bringing Marathas into
disputes in the neighbourhood of the capital. The Maratha horse
were first sent against Ahmad Khan's governor of Kol and Jalesar,
who was suddenly attacked and completely defeated, and fled to
Farrukhabad. Ahmad Khan, on hearing of this, withdrew at once
from Allahabad, which he had been again besieging. His army largely
composed of adventurers, deserted him, and he reached Farrukhabad
with but a few followers. Safdar Jang and the Marathas and Jats
marched on Farrukhabad and on their approach Ahmad Khan with-
drew from the city to a fort now called Fatehgarh, which he had built
on the bank of the Ganges, and appealed to the Rohillas for aid.
There was some hesitation on their part in responding. The elders
had been on good terms with the minister, since they had defeated
Qaim Jang, and even the impetuous Sa'd-ullah Khan hesitated to join
Ahmad Khan, who had not yet avenged his brother's blood. Ahmad
Khan assured him that help at such a time would be ample atonement
and Sa'd-ullah Khan marched, too late, to his aid.
The Marathas sacked Farrukhabad and had for some time been
endeavouring to throw a bridge of boats across the Ganges, hoping
to surround the position held by Ahmad Khan, which was open in
all directions on the east of the Ganges. Mahmud Khan was unsuc-
cessful in preventing this, and on 28 April the Ganges was bridged
under cover of the Maratha guns. Sa'd-ullah Khan joined Ahmad
Khan two days later, and the latter, unwilling to stand a siege in
his camp, came forth, and gave battle. The Afghans were defeated,
with heavy loss, and the remnant fled by way of Aonla and Morada-
bad to Chilkia, at the foot of the Kumaun hills. The Marathas
occupied Rohilkhand throughout the rainy season of 1751 and were
rewarded for their services in this campaign with half the Bangash
territory. The power of the Bangash Nawabs of Farrukhabad was
now finally broken. Early in the reign Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang had held
the provinces of Allahabad and Agra, but the minister, Safdar Jang,
coveted the former, which adjoined Oudh, and transferred to Zu-'l-
Fiqar Jang Ajmer, which adjoined Agra, and took Allahabad. The
Emperor was obliged to sanction this arrangement, though it was
detrimental to his interests. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang was foolish, irresolute,
and a poltroon, but events in Rajputana gave him an opportunity.
Bakht Singh of Jodhpur was in rebellion against his nephew, Ram
Singh, who had succeeded his father, Abhay Singh, and he appealed
for imperial support against his nephew, making specious promises
which offered a prospect of the re-establishment of the emperor's
authority. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang promised him aid and set out for Ajmer.
The Jats meanwhile had extended their dominion northwards and
had occupied Nimrana, which lay in Zu-'l-Fiqar's way. Though they
## p. 432 (#470) ############################################
432 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
were not hostile to the emperor, the fortress was weakly held and a
cheap victory appealed strongly to Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang. The garrison
was expelled without difficulty, but the simple victor had but em-
broiled himself disastrously with the Jats. His illusory success turned
his head, and after some hesitation he recalled his advanced guard
and marched southward into the Jat country. Here an advanced
guard found the Jats in force, under Suraj Mal. At a moment when
a little resolution might have ensured the success of a mistaken enter-
prise his heart failed, and instead of advancing in person to the
support of his advanced guard, he ordered it to retire. Its retreat
demoralised the rest of his army, which was attacked and defeated
by the Jats. He then thought of fieeing to Delhi and leaving his
army, but his officers would not permit this. Suraj Mal, though
prepared to defend his own possessions, was loth to detain the impe-
rial officer, and he offered Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang easy terms and undertook
to fulfil his obligations to Bakht Singh and to send tribute from
Rajputana. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang continued his march to Narnaul, where
Bakht Singh resided, accompanied by his Jat ally. Bakht Singh did
not conceal his contempt for an ally of the Jats and would not permit
them to join in the settlement of disputes between Rajputs; and
ordered Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang to proceed to Ajmer. Suraj Mal returned
home in disgust and the submissive Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang was joined by
Bakht Singh at Ajmer and they marched towards Jodhpur. The
combined troops of Ram Singh and Khande Rao, son of Malhar Rao
Holkar, met them at Pipar. Bakht Singh warned Zu-l-Fiqar Jang
to beware of the Jodhpur artillery concealed in the centre of the
army, but the latter disregarded the warning. Fire was reserved
until his army, in close formation, was almost on the guns and was
then delivered with terrible effect, causing the whole mass to recoil.
The battle was not decided and Bakht Singh's troops were fresh,
but Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang had had enough of fighting and announced his
intention of coming to terms. Bakht Singh vainly urged the impor-
tance of establishing the imperial authority in Jodhpur, but Zu-'l-
Fiqar Jang persisted in his resolve. On the one side Bakht Singh and
on the other Khande Rao Holkar withdrew, leaving Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang
and Ram Singh to arrange their own terms. Zu-'l-Fiqar Jang accepted
300,000 rupees in ready money and a promise of supplies to be
delivered at various stages of his retreat and set out at once for
Delhi. The reason for his haste was the news of Safdar Jang's defeat
by Ahmad Khan. He assumed that the minister would at once be
dismissed and his folly and conceit encouraged him to hope that he
might secure the place, but Safdar Jang had already recovered his
position. After Zu-'l-Fiqar's return to Delhi his failure preyed upon
his mind. He begged the emperor to help him to discharge his debt
to his troops and, when his request was rejected, began to talk treason
1 26° 23' N. , 73° 33' E.
## p. 433 (#471) ############################################
DISPUTED SUCCESSION TO NIZAM-UL-MULK 433
among his companions. Finally, he attempted to enter the hall of
audience fully armed, to intimidate the emperor. Forbidden to
appear at court, he appeared no more in public. His property was
confiscated and he was deprived of his rank and of the title of Amir-
ul-Umara, which was conferred upon Ghazi-ud-din Khan, the eldest
son of the late Nizam-ul-Mulk.
In the Deccan, Nizam-ul-Mulk had been succeeded in 1748 by his
second son, Nasir Jang. Ahmad Shah and Javid Khan had from the
first disliked Safdar Jang and had intended to confer the post of mini-
ster on Nizam-ul-Mulk. They sought to attach the powerful viceroy of
the Deccan to the court party and thus escape the domination of
Safdar Jang, and accordingly wrote private letters to Nasir Jang beg-
ging him to come to Delhi. He set out with a large army and arrived
at Burhanpur in April, 1749, but received another order cancelling
the summons. Safdar Jang had probably discovered the design of
the court party and had compelled the emperor to abandon it.
Nazir Jang was content to return, for his sister's son Muzaffar
Jang, who enjoyed the support of the French, had taken advantage
of his departure to rise in rebellion and at the instigation of Husain
Dost Khan the Navait, known as Chanda Sahib, and with the help
of a force of French troops supplied by M. Dupleix, had invaded the
lower Carnatic. Nasir Jang's campaign in the Carnatic and his
murder in December, 1750, have been described elsewhere. 2 A few
months later Muzaffar Jang, who was proclaimed by the French
viceroy of the Deccan, shared the same fate, and Bussy recognised as
his successor Salabat Jang, the third son of Nizam-ul-Mulk.
Nazir Jang, Muzaffar Jang, and Salabat Jang, as well as their
foreign supporters, had all assumed that Ghazi-ud-din Khan, eldest
son of the late Nizam-ul-Mulk, had foregone his claim. Ghazi-ud-din,
though he had hitherto taken no steps to dispute Nasir Jang's acces-
sion, early in 1751 demanded of the emperor a commission as viceroy
of the Deccan in succession to his father. The issue of orders was
delayed by the courtiers' claim that he should purchase his office
with the customary large payment in which they hoped to share and
by Ghazi-ud-din's demand that it should be free of cost.
This dispute was interrupted by the third 3 invasion of India by
Ahmad Shah Abdali, who crossed the frontier at the end of 1751,
and at the same time sent an envoy to Delhi, demanding the cession
of the Punjab and Multan. Muʻin-ul-Mulk the governor withstood
the invader for four months and would probably have compelled
1 His other titles were Firuz Jang and 'Imad-ul-Mulk.
2 See chap, XIII, p. 386, and vol. V, pp. 127 sqq.
3 The author of the Siyar-ul-Mutaakhkhirin misnumbers all Ahmad Shah
Abdali's invasions, making the first the second, and so on. Ahmad Shah, as one of
Nadir Shah's officers, accompanied him on his expedition to India and Sayyid
Ghulam Husain Khan Tabatabai apparently reckons this as the Abdali's first
invasion
28
## p. 434 (#472) ############################################
434 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH 'ALAM
him to retire had it not been for the treachery of Adina Beg Khan,
who suggested an ill-timed sortie, of which notice was given to the
invaders, and which failed.
As usual the emperor and his courtiers were overcome with terror.
Safdar Jang, who had not returned to the capital since his successes
against the Bangash Afghans and the Rohillas, received pressing
messages asking him to bring to court Malhar Rao Holkar and other
allies. Before he could reach Delhi the pusillanimous Ahmad had
purchased safety by a disgraceful treaty which ceded the Punjab and
Multan to Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah Abdali thereupon appointed
Mu'in-ul-Mulk as his governor of the Punjab and returned to Kabul.
Safdar Jang arrived at Delhi in May, 1752, and was furious on
discovering that this treaty had been concluded.
He had purchased
the support of Malhar Rao Holkar by promises of large subsidies,
which he called on the emperor and the eunuch to fulfil. They,
however, could not if they would; and relations between the emperor
and his minister were irrevocably embittered.
The crafty Ghazi-ud-din offered a solution of the difficulty. He
promised, in return for a free commission, to carry Holkar with him
and to close his mouth. The commission was issued and in May,
having appointed his son to represent him at the capital, he left
Delhi for the Deccan, accompanied by Holkar. Ghazi-ud-din had
already secured a promise of the support of Balaji Rao Peshwa who
was levying contributions from districts of the Deccan in which
Salabat Jang's authority was acknowledged. But with help from the
French the Marathas were defeated and Salabat Jang came to terms
with them in January, 1752 (see vol. v, p. 135). Two months later
Ghazi-ud-din and Malhar Rao Holkar started from Delhi and were
met at Burhanpur by the Peshwa. To secure the fidelity of his
Maratha allies, who were bound to him by no ties save that of interest
and were quite ready to change sides, Ghazi-ud-din pledged large
concessions (see chap. XIII, p. 388).
Salabat Jang's position was now difficult. He retained the support
of his French allies but financial difficulties embarrassed him and his
brother was at the head of an immense army. Negotiations and
preparations for taking the field were begun at the same time, but
before either had advanced beyond their earliest stages Ghazi-ud-din
was poisoned at Aurangabad by his stepmother and Salabat Jang re-
mained in undisputed possession of the viceroyalty of the Deccan.
At Delhi the quarrel between the emperor and his minister had
reached an acute stage. Safdar Jang returned to the city, after the
departure of Ghazi-ud-din for the Deccan. He laid the blame for
the disgraceful treaty with the Abdali entirely on the eunuch Javid
Khan, but when the first storm of his rage was passed he dissembled,
made overtures for a reconciliation, and in August invited the eunuch
to a banquet, where he was stabbed to death. The murder deprived
## p. 435 (#473) ############################################
CIVIL WAR AT DELHI
435
Ahmad Shah of the only adherent whom he could trust and alarmed
him for his personal safety. After the death of Ghazi-ud-din his son,
Shihab-ud-din Khan, an able, violent, unscrupulous, and utterly
fearless youth of eighteen, became a person of importance, and the
emperor and Safdar Jang vied for his support. The former conferred
on him at once his father's titles of Ghazi-ud-din Khan Bahadur
and Firuz Jang, and the latter obtained for him the high title of
Amir-ul-Umara, but both were destined to disappointment. Ghazi-
ud-din II, notwithstanding his learning, his skill in calligraphy, his
knowledge of many languages, his poetic gifts and his valour, was
utterly bad and specially forgot his patrons. He first allied himself
to the emperor and the court party, and encouraged Ahmad Shah
to require of Safdar Jang the resignation of the command of some
appointments which he held in conjunction with the great offices of
minister of the empire and viceroy of Oudh.
The minister was now deterred from taking up arms against the
emperor only by fear of incurring the suspicion of aspiring to the
throne and thus alienating all. He ignored the demand for the
resignation of his minor offices, but Ghazi-ud-din discovered a plan
to deprive him of the most dangerous of them. The imperial artillery
was stationed in the fort, and by a stratagem Safdar Jang's officer
in charge of it was removed. The guns were then loaded and trained
on the palace which the minister occupied. Safdar Jang then begged
for leave to depart to his province. In the emperor's refusal of this
permission may be traced the hand of Ghazi-ud-din, who was opposed
to a peaceful solution of the difficulty and wished, by driving Safdar
Jang into active hostility, to complete his ruin.
Safdar Jang now raised the standard of revolt and, to avert suspi-
cion from himself, proclaimed as emperor a man of unknown origin,
whom he represented to be a prince of the imperial house.
The civil war, which broke out on 4 May, 1753, and lasted for six
months, took the form of incessant combats in the streets and neigh-
bourhood of the capital. Safdar Jang sent his wife and family for
safety into the Jat country and enlisted the aid of Suraj Mal, raja
of the Jats. Ghazi-ud-din's principal commander was Najib Khan
the Rohilla, whose hostility to Safdar Jang could be relied upon,
and who afterwards rose to the rank of Amir-ul-Umara. Zu-'l-Fiqar
Jang emerged from his retirement and joined Safdar Jang. Both
parties summoned to their aid all the turbulent elements in the
capital and the surrounding districts and the Sunni Ghazi-ud-din
imported an additional element of bitterness into the strife by pro-
claiming the Shiah Safdar Jang a heretic. By this means as well as
by bribes he was able to detach from Safdar Jang most of the Sunnis
serving in his troops, and individual heretics were seized in the streets
and robbed and beaten, or even murdered. Suraj Mal plundered
Old Delhi, then more populous than Shah Jahan's city, and the latter
## p. 436 (#474) ############################################
436 AHMAD SHAH, ‘ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
was a scene of continual bloodshed, plunder and murder. Neither
party obtained any decided advantage over the other and both at
length grew weary of the fruitless and devastating strife. In November
they came to terms. Safdar Jang was permitted to retain the pro-
vinces of Oudh and Allahabad, and departed for the seat of his
government, and Intizam-ud-Daula, son of Qamar-ud-din and uncle
of Ghazi-ud-din, was confirmed as minister.
During the six months' fighting Ghazi-ud-din had summoned to
his aid Malhar Rao Holkar from Malwa and Jayappa Sindia from
Nagaur, but they did not reach Delhi until peace had been concluded
and Ghazi-ud-din now employed them for the punishment of Suraj
Mal. He was deficient in artillery, and discovering, on entering the
Jat country, that without it he could make no impression on the
strong fortresses, he asked the emperor to supply him with guns.
Intizam-ud-Daula, who knew his nephew's turbulent and ambitious
disposition, warned Ahmad Shah against the request, and Ghazi-ud-
din instigated an attack on the minister's house, which failed. The
timid Ahmad Shah was now apprehensive of Ghazi-ud-din, and
opened communications with Suraj Mal, who suggested that Safdar
Jang should be summoned from Oudh. This suggestion was not
adopted, but the emperor and the minister marched from Delhi with
the army in order that they might watch the movements of Ghazi-ud-
din and, if necessary, unite with Suraj Mal against him.
Ghazi-ud-din resented this movement and disliked the proximity
of the imperial army. He tried to induce the emperor by intimidation
to retire, warning him that a force of several thousand Maratha
horse, whose intentions were unknown, had been seen in the neigh-
bourhood. It happened that Malhar Rao Holkar, whose son Khande
Rao had been killed in action against the Jats, bitterly resented the
emperor's refusal to supply the army with artillery, and had secretly
left the camp to force compliance or to punish him for refusal. His
presence in the neighbourhood of the camp became known, and the
emperor, his mother, and the minister, whose cowardice was notorious,
without warning any of their intention, entered their litters and fled
towards Delhi, leaving the army and the imperial harem to their
fate. In the morning the army, without a leader, was helpless before
Holkar, who stripped the men of their arms, took their horses, and
plundered the camp, capturing the ladies of the imperial harem,
whom, however, he treated with respect.
When the emperor's flight became known, the siege of Dig was
raised, Jayappa Sindia returned to Nagaur, and Ghazi-ud-din and
Holkar marched to Delhi, where they compelled the emperor to
dismiss Intizam-ud-Daula, Ghazi-ud-din himself becoming minister.
On 2 June, 1754, Ahmad Shah was deposed and prince 'Aziz-ud-din,
the second but eldest surviving son of Jahandar Shah, was raised
## p. 437 (#475) ############################################
'ALAMGIR II SUCCEEDS AHMAD SHAH
437
to the throne under the title of 'Alamgir II. A week later both
Ahmad Shah and his mother were blinded.
The condition of the Punjab now appeared to offer Ghazi-ud-din
an opportunity for its recovery. Its governor Muʻin-ul-Mulk, whose
appetite might have vied with that of Sultan Mahmud Bigara of
Gujarat and Shaikh Abu-'l-Fazl, died in November, 1753, from an
internal injury caused by riding hard immediately after a surfeit.
Ahmad Abdali permitted an infant son to succeed, the management
of affairs remaining in the hands of his mother. Though the son died,
his mother made herself feared. She was, however, not fitted to
govern a large and impoverished province, and the administration
was left to underlings who, besides enriching themselves, levied cruel
exactions from the people, thus driving many to join the warlike
sect of the Sikhs, who were able to protect their adherents. Anarchy
prevailed throughout the Punjab when Ghazi-ud-din, taking with him
his puppet emperor, marched from Delhi to regain the lost province.
This first expedition was a failure. Ghazi-ud-din maintained in his
troops a corps, composed of troopers whom he had detached by
appeals to cupidity and bigotry, from Safdar Jang, the late minister.
When the army reached Panipat this corps, which was highly paid,
clamoured for arrears due to the members. After much wrangling
Ghazi-ud-din agreed to pay them after inspection of the corps by an
independent officer. The officer selected was Najib Khan the Afghan,
who was known to be fearless, and clamour was renewed. Ghazi-ud-din
left his quarters to quell the tumult and was seized by the excited
soldiery and dragged through the streets of Panipat, with every
circumstance of indignity. Though he was roughly handled, and
threatened with death, his courage never left him. He turned on his
captors with foul abuse and recommended them to slay him quickly,
lest they should be slain themselves. The officers, now terrified,
endeavoured to pacify him, but he was still further infuriated by a
message from the emperor, delivered to them in his hearing, which
promised the arrears of pay and extraordinary favours if they would
hand their prisoner over as he was. The officers, hoping that they
had succeeded in allaying his wrath, sent him back to his own quarters
on an elephant, but he hardly gave himself time to rearrange his
dress before he remounted the elephant and ordered Najib Khan and
his Afghans, and the rest of his troops, to attack the corps, massacre
the men, and plunder their tents. Ghazi-ud-din then returned to
Delhi. When his troops were ready for the field he left again for the
Punjab, carrying with him on this occasion not the emperor, but his
eldest son, Mirza 'Abdullah, 'Ali Gauhar. 'Alamgir II was left in
the custody of confidential agents.
Mu'in-ul-Mulk had been the maternal uncle of Ghazi-ud-din, who
1 It was known as the Sin-dagh or “S brand" from the letter branded on the
horses.
## p. 438 (#476) ############################################
438 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
was betrothed to his daughter. Arriving at Ludhiana he requested
his aunt to fulfil the contract of marriage. The widow, suspecting
nothing, sent her daughter to Ludhiana, where Ghazi-ud-din married
her in due form. He had expected the mother to accompany the
daughter, and he was resolved to seize her and thus gain the
government of the Punjab. He was already in league with Adina
Beg Khan, the traitor who had for many years past been at the
bottom of every trouble in the Punjab. He sent a picked force under
trustworthy officers, who by a forced march arrived at Lahore, more
than a hundred miles away, in little more than twenty-four hours.
Eunuchs arrested the lady before she was awake, and next day the
troops conducted her to Ludhiana. The government of the Punjab
as then conferred on Adina Beg Khan, who paid three million
rupees for the appointment. Ghazi-ud-din was unable to pacify his
infuriated mother-in-law, who heaped abuse on him, and predicted
that the outrage would bring him calamity. The impudent aggression
aroused the wrath of Ahmad Abdali, who marched on Lahore.
Adina Beg Khan fled in terror and hid in the waterless district of
Hissar and Hansi, whither, he hoped, no army could follow him.
From Lahore the Afghan advanced by forced marches on Delhi.
Even Ghazi-ud-din was alarmed and prevailed on his mother-in-law
to intercede for him. As a suppliant, forty miles from the city, he
met Ahmad, who at first rated him, but afterwards pardoned and
confirmed him as minister. So low was the empire fallen that the
disposal of its great offices of state was in the hands of the Afghan.
The real offender thus escaped unscathed, but Ahmad Abdali de-
manded reparation for the insult to his authority, and an innocent
people had to suffer for the fault of a headstrong youth.
Ahmad Abdali entered the fort of Delhi on 28 January, 1757, and
met 'Alamgir II, and on the same day the sack of the city began.
The pillage was not accompanied, as during Nadir Shah's invasion.
by massacre, but the people suffered great misery and many of the
more respectable killed themselves to escape dishonour. Ahmad
stayed in the city for nearly a month, during which time the daughter
of prince A'azz-ud-din, the emperor's deceased elder brother, was
married to prince Timur, eldest son of the invader. After resting
his troops in Delhi he sent a force under one of his officers, with
Ghazi-ud-din, to punish Suraj Mal the Jat for having allied himself
with Safdar Jang, and himself followed the troops. Suraj Mal's
forts were not easily reduced and Ghazi-ud-din begged that a force
might be sent with him into the Duab and Oudh, to collect tribute
for the Abdali, and that two princes of the imperial house should
accompany him to provide against any attempt to set up a pretender
at Delhi.
1 Coin was also struck at Shahjahanabad (Delhi) in the name of Ahmad
Shah. (Ed. )
## p. 439 (#477) ############################################
MASSACRE AT MUTTRA BY AHMAD SHAH ABDALI 439
His motive was partly to ingratiate himself with the invader and
to get rid of him, but chiefly to secure revenge on the son of his old
enemy. Safdar Jang had died on 5 October, 1754, and had been
succeeded in Oudh by his son Shuja'-ud-Daula. The expedition was
not a conspicuous success. The army reached Farrukhabad, where
Ahmad Khan Bangash presented gifts to the princes and to Ghazi-
ud-din and sent a contingent with it into Oudh.
Shuja'-ud-Daula met the invaders of his province at Sandi, near
Bilgram, and after two unimportant affairs of outposts was reinforced
by Sa'd-ullah Khan of Rohilkhand, who had now become his friend.
The arrival of this new force and Sa'd-ullah Khan's advocacy of
Shuja'-ud-Daula's cause put an end to hostilities and the aggressors
retired after receiving 500,000 rupees in cash from Shuja'-ud-Daula
and vague promises of more. Ghazi-ud-din retired to Farrukhabad,
where he halted to await the departure of Ahmad Abdali.
Ahmad had been conducting a campaign in his own manner.
After a siege of three days he had taken the Jat fort of Ballabhgarh,
twenty-four miles south of Delhi, and had put the garrison to the
sword. He had sent another force to Muttra, where the massacre
of a large assembly of unarmed pilgrims showed his zeal for Islam.
Further enterprises of a like nature were stopped by the fierce heat
of the Indian summer, and a pestilence, accompanied by great
mortality, which broke out in his army decided him to return. Near
Delhi he was met by 'Alamgir II, who complained bitterly of his
treatment by Ghazi-ud-din. Ahmad Abdali promoted Najib Khan,
who accompanied 'Alamgir, to the rank of Amir-ul-Umara, and
committed the helpless puppet to his protection. Najib Khan re-
ceived at the same time the title of Najib-ud-Daula.
Ahmad Abdali received, before leaving India, a strange appeal.
Two widows of Muhammad Shah bitterly resented the turbulence
of Ghazi-ud-din and the cowardice of the courtiers, which had caused
them to fall into the hands of Marathas. Fearing worse consequences
one of them begged Ahmad to marry her and to remove both from
the danger of dishonour. In spite of their age, their high rank and
their distress aroused the conqueror's compassion. He accordingly
married one and took both ladies with him to Afghanistan.
On Ahmad Abdali's departure from India, Ghazi-ud-din threw
down the gauntlet to his former servant, Najib Khan, by appointing
Ahmad Khan Bangash Amir-ul-Umara and, summoning to his aid
Raghunath Rao, brother of the Peshwa, and Malhar Rao Holkar,
marched on Delhi and besieged the emperor and Najib-ud-Daula in
the fort.
This action had been expected and some time before the departure
of Ahmad Abdali, the emperor had granted assignments to his eldest
son, 'Ali Gauhar, to the west of Delhi and had sent him into these
districts with secret instructions to raise an army for opposing Ghazi-
## p. 440 (#478) ############################################
440 AHMAD SHAH, 'ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
ud-din if he marched on Delhi. The participation of the Marathas
had not been expected and 'Ali Gauhar, who was not strong enough
to attack the combined forces, did nothing.
When the siege had lasted forty-five days, Najib-ud-Daula pur-
chased the protection of Holkar, and retired to his estates north-west
of Delhi. The emperor could no longer resist, and Ghazi-ud-din,
with Ahmad Khan Bangash, entered the fort and resumed control
of the emperor and the administration. His first act was to compel
‘Alamgir to send a force to recall his son to the capital. Vithal Rao,
a Maratha officer who had remained near Delhi after the retirement
of Raghunath Rao and Holkar, warned the prince that the order
had been wrúng from his father and advised him to disregard it,
and 'Ali Gauhar, on this advice, crossed the Jumna into the Duab
and occupied several parganas, but Vithal Rao was induced by a
heavy bribe to advise the prince to return to the capital. 'Ali Gauhar
entered Delhi with his troops but refused to live in the fort, and lodged
in a private house. He soon found himself unable to pay his troops
and Ghazi-ud-din advised him to send them to the districts allotted
for their payment as revenue could not be collected without their
assistance. The prince was once more compelled to comply, but
retained at Delhi a bodyguard and some of his most trustworthy
officers. Ghazi-ud-din, assembling ten or twelve thousand troops on
the pretext that he intended to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of
Nizam-ud-din Auliya, surrounded the house in which the prince
lodged. Some of his men forced an entrance, but 'Ali Gauhar, who
possessed the courage of his race, caused the outer wall of the house
nearest to the Jumna to be breached, and at the head of his men cut
his way through the minister's troops and rode to Vithal Rao's camp
across the river. Vithal Rao was now overcome with shame for having
advised the prince to place himself in the power of Ghazi-ud-din,
and pitched tents for him near his own camp, but it was only with
great difficulty that the prince reached them, for some of the minister's
troops barred his way. He would have been slain or taken but for
the devotion of a gallant Sayyid who kept the pursuers employed.
The Sayyid fell but the prince reached his tents and Vithal Rao
escorted him to Farrukhabad, where he was well received and sup-
plied with money. From Farrukhabad the prince marched to
Saharanpur and took refuge with Najib-ud-Daula, who protected
him for eight months and then, fearing complications with the
minister, advised him to attempt the reconquest of Bengal, where
the imperial authority had long been disregarded and British in-
fluence was paramount. 'Ali Gauhar accepted this advice and
marched first to Oudh, leaving his lieutenant to enlist troops and
collect supplies. Shuja'-ud-Daula met the prince near Lucknow,
on 19 January, 1758, and received him hospitably; but, anxious to
rid himself of so inconvenient a guest, supported Najib-ud-Daula's
## p. 441 (#479) ############################################
AN
11
aZJA
Gae
THE MARATHAS IN BENGAL
441
advice to attempt the recovery of Bengal, and was relieved when he
marched on to Allahabad.
The relief afforded to Bengal by the expulsion of Raghuji Bhonsle
in 1743 had been ephemeral. Balaji Rao Peshwa, having obtained
his reward, had immediately entered into an agreement acknow-
ledging Raghuji's right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa; and in 1744 an army of 20,000 Maratha horse
invaded Bengal. 'Ali Vardi Khan craftily invited all the principal
officers to an entertainment, which they were induced to attend by
a false oath sworn by Mustafa Khan, an Afghan officer, on a brick
wrapped in a cloth which was supposed to contain a copy of the
Koran. On 14 April the twenty-one who attended were treacherously
murdered and the single superior officer who had been left in charge
of the camp tried to lead the army back, but the peasantry, exasperated
by recent depredations, allowed few stragglers to escape.
Mustafa Khan's reward was not, in his estimation, commensurate
with his services and he rose in rebellion in Bihar, where he attacked
Haibat, 'Ali Vardi Khan's lieutenant.
This atrocious crime greatly enraged Raghuji Bhonsle, but he was
detained at Nagpur throughout the year 1744 by a disputed suc-
cession in a Gond principality. Next year, having ascertained that
conditions were favourable, he invaded Orissa and without difficulty
cccupied Cuttack and captured the inefficient governor. From
Cuttack Raghuji sent a message to 'Ali Vardi, demanding thirty
million rupees as the price of evacuating Orissa. ‘Ali Vardi evaded
answering until he heard that the rebel Mustafa Khan was dead,
when he returned a provocative reply to which Raghuji answered
by overrunning the country as far as Burdwan. When the rainy
season was over he marched into Bihar in response to an invitation
from the remnant of the Afghan rebels, who had been driven into
the Kaimur hills on the north bank of the Son. They joined him
near Arwal on the east bank of the Son, within forty-five miles of
Patna. 'Ali Vardi advanced to Bankipore, and surprised the Marathas
at Muhibbʻalipur on the eastern bank of the Son, about eight miles
above Arwal. The advantage lay, on the whole, with the Muslims,
but the engagement was not decisive and for some days the armies
engaged in purposeless skirmishes. Then Raghuji suddenly marched
off, intending to reach Murshidabad and sack the town before Ali
Vardi Khan could return. 'Ali Vardi Khan turned back and marched
rapidly, but the more mobile Marathas were a day before him and,
though they could not enter the town, plundered and burnt tiie
neighbouring villages and marched on towards Katwa, still followed
by 'Ali Vardi Khan, who defeated them in a battle a few miles to the
south of that town.
Raghuji now returned to his own country, but left at Midnapore,
to guard the approaches to Orissa, a force of two or three thousand
LE
## p. 442 (#480) ############################################
442 AHMAD SHAH, ALAMGIR II AND SHAH ALAM
Marathas under Mir Habib, and six or seven thousand Afghans under
Murtaza Khan.
In 1746 Mir Muhammad Ja'far Khan, known as Mir Ja'far, was
appointed governor of Orissa with an injunction to recover it from
the Marathas. He defeated and drove southwards the garrison of
Midnapore, but refrained from pursuing them lest he should provoke
Raghuji Bhonsle to invade Bengal in force. Later, hearing that
Janoji, Raghuji's son, was marching on Cuttack, he fled panic-
stricken to Burdwan. Janoji followed him northward, but Mir Ja'far
had been reinforced and the Marathas were defeated. They returned
in the following year and were again defeated near Burdwan hy
‘Ali Vardi Khan, who pursued them to Midnapore but failed
to overtake them and retired to Murshidabad for the rainy
season.
Early in 1748 Haibat Jang engaged in Bihar a force of Afghans
who had been dismissed by ‘Ali Vardi Khan owing to suspicions
of their loyalty. It was believed that they might safely be employed
in Bihar, where their opportunities for communicating with the
Marathas would be fewer; but the officers, on the occasion of their
first reception, assassinated the governor, in revenge for the treat-
ment which they had received from his father-in-law, 'Ali Vardi
Khan. They then plundered the town and seized the government of
the province. A large force was soon collected and the leader,
knowing that he could enjoy no safety so long as ‘Ali Vardi Khan
retained the government of Bengal, made preparations for conquering
that province.
‘Ali Vardi Khan was again engaged with the Marathas south of
Katwa when this alarming news reached him. On 1 March, 1748
he marched towards Patna, leaving a sufficient garrison to protect
Murshidabad. The Marathas followed him, hanging on his flanks
and rear, and gave his army no rest. When he met the Afghan rebels
about eight miles to the west of the town of Barh, on the Ganges, he
was obliged to attack them while the Marathas were still threatening
his rear. His small army seemed doomed to destruction, but a fortu-
nate discharge of artillery and musketry killed or wounded the three
Afghan leaders early in the day, and this produced its usual result.
The great host, largely composed of raw levies, fled in all directions.
The Marathas, fearing lest the victorious army should turn on them,
dispersed, and Ali
‘ Vardi Khan,
Khan, entering Patna, appointed
Siraj-ud-Daula, his daughter's son by Haibat Jang, governor of
Bihar with Raja Janki Ram as his guardian and deputy, and followed
the retreating Marathas.
Janoji Bhonsle had been recalled to Nagpur by the news of his
mother's death and 'Ali Vardi seized the opportunity. He marched
to Cuttack, reoccupied the town, captured the citadel, put to death
the officers who had held it for Raghuji, and expelled the Marathas.
## p. 443 (#481) ############################################
THE MARATHAS RETAIN ORISSA
443
Their expulsion was, however, temporary and they returned to the
province almost immediately. Again, in 1750, they were defeated
at Midnapore, but it was as useless to defeat them in the field as it
was to expel them, in face of the mobility of irregular troops living
on the country and independent either of a base or of lines of com-
munication. The Muslims, after a victory in the field, often found
the beaten enemy immediately laying waste the country in their rear,
and were obliged to hasten to save their capital from pillage.
The Marathas claimed the right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in
the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and they had for
some time been anxious for a composition. They proposed that
Orissa should be absolutely ceded to them in place of the rights
claimed in all three. 'Ali Vardi Khan admitted no right, but he could
not exclude the Marathas, who treated the provinces as an enemy's
country, and destroyed what they could not carry off. The viceroy's
advisers had long urged him to purchase peace for his unfortunate
people. He had hitherto scornfully rejected this advice, but he was
now seventy-five years of age, his health was failing, he had for twelve
years been engaged in ceaseless and fruitless warfare, and a great
part of his territory lay waste. He gave way and in November, 1751,
ceded Orissa, salving his pride by the fiction of appointing Mir
Habib Raghuji's agent, as his governor of the province. He also
saved the district of Midnapore, which had hitherto been included
in Orissa, and fixed the Subarnarekha river as the boundary of the
Maratha province. Orissa thus passed finally out of the hands of
the viceroy of Bengal and the land had peace.
On 9 April, 1756, 'Ali Vardi Khan died and was succeeded by his
grandson, Siraj-ud-Daula, whose history will be found in chap. VII,
vol. v. Clive's victory at Plassey, on 23 June, 1757, established the
supremacy of the British in Bengal and thus furnished 'Ali Gauhar
with the pretext for his demonstration.
It is not quite correct to represent the prince as being in rebellion
against his father. He originally left the palace by his father's wish
and raised troops for service against Ghazi-ud-din. Subsequent orders
recalling him were actually issued by the minister, and though they
bore the emperor's seal there is every reason to believe that the
prince's course of action accorded with his father's wishes. Many
circumstances contributed to the choice of Bihar as a field for his
activity. Both Najib-ud-Daula and Shuja'-ud-Daula were anxious
to be rid of him and the latter was ambitious of adding the viceroyalty
of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to that of Oudh and not unwilling to
employ the prince as his instrument. Muhammad Quli Khan,
Shuja'-ud-Daula's governor of Allahabad, a brave but foolish man,
was also ambitious of annexing the viceroyalty, for his master, as he
was careful to explain, but in reality for himself. Shuja'-ud-Daula
1 See Oxford History of India, p. 495.
