>f California Regional Facility THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE THE HISTORY OF INDIA. BY THE HONOURABLE MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE, VOL. II. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. MDCCCXLI. 55 \ . LONDON : Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE, New- Street- Square. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. BOOK VI. KINGS OF DELHI UP TO THE ACCESSION OF THE HOUSE OF TEIMUR. (1206 TO 1526.) CHAP I. SLAVE KINGS. (1206 TO 1288.) A. D. Page 1206. Independence of India - - 1 Kutb u din - ib. Progress of a Turki Slave - ib. 1210. A'ram - 3 1211. Shams u din Altamsh - ib. 1219. Conquests of the Moguls under Chengiz Khan - 4 1221. King of Kharizm pursued into India - 5 1223. Returns to Persia - 6 State of Hindostan - 8 1236. Death of Altamsh - ib. Rukn u din 9 Sultana Rezia - - 10 Her Virtues - ib. Her Weakness - 1 1 Rebellion - - - ib. 1239. The Queen defeated and put to death - 12 Moizz u din Behram - - ib. Mogul Irruption into the Panjab - - ib. 1241. Ala u din Masaud - - ib. Mogul Irruptions - ib. A 2 IV CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1246. Nasir u din Mahmud - 13 Gheias u din Bulbun Vizir - - ib. 1253- Removal of Bulbun - 14- Discontents and Intrigues - 15 Bulbun restored - _ - ib. 1266. Gheias u din Bulbun . - 17 Bulbun puts down the Influence of the Slaves - ib. His Character - - - ib. 1279. Revolt of Bengal - - 19 Suppressed - - 20 Mogul Irruption - - 21 Victory and Death of the Heir Apparent - ib. 1286. Death of Bulbun - - ib. Kei Kobad - 22 Intrigues and Power of the Vizir - ib. Massacre of Mogul Mercenaries - - 22 King's Interview with his Father - 23 Murder of the Vizir - 24- The King dethroned and put to death - - ib. HOUSE OF KH1LJI. (1288 TO 1321.) CHAP. II . LAL u DIN KI-IILJI. 1288. Mild Government of Jelal u din - - 26 Vigour of Ala u din, his nephew - - 28 1294-. Ala u din's Invasion of the Deckan - 29 Submission of Deogiri - - 31 Return to Hindostan - 32 1295. Assassination of Jelal u din - 33 Singular Instance of Credulity and Injustice - ib. Ala u din - 35 1297. Expedition to Guzerat . - - 36 Mogul Incursions - - 37 1298. Serious Invasion by the Moguls - - 38 Their Defeat at Delhi - - ib. Designs of the King's Nephew - - 39 1299. He attempts to assassinate the King - - ib. CONTENTS. 1299. His Failure and Death - - 40 1300. Other Disturbances quelled - - - ib. 1303. Capture of Chitor - -42 1304, 1305. Unsuccessful Invasions of the Moguls - ib. Discontinuance of their Incursions - - 43 1S06. Expedition to the Deckan - ib, Story of the Princess Dewal Devi - - 44 1309. Failure of an Expedition to Telingana - 46 1?10. Conquest of Carnata - ib. Conquest of Maaber up to Cape Comorin - - ib. 1311. Massacre of Mogul Converts - 48 1312. Taking of Deogiri, and Conquest of Maharashtra - ib. Intrigues and influence of Cafur - - ib. Revolt of Guzerat ... - 49 Recovery of Chitor by the Rajputs - - ib. 1316. Death of Ala u din - 50 His Character - - ib. His internal Policy - - ib. Mobarik Khilji - - 53 1319. Conquest of Malabar - 54 Influence of Khusru, and Ascendancy of a Hindu Party at Court - ib. 1321. Murder of Mobarik and Extirpation of his Family - 55 CHAP. III. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK, SEIADS, AND HOUSE OF LODI. (1321 TO 1526.) HOUSE OF TOGHLAK 1321 TO 1412. 1321. Gheias u dm Toghlak - - 56 1322. Failure of an Expedition to Telingana - - ib. 1323. Conquest of Telingana, and Capture of Warangol, the Capital - 57 1325. Death of the King - - ib. Mohammed Toghlak - - 58 Character of Mohammed Toghlak - ib. Wild Schemes of Mohammed - 60 A 3 VI CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1325. Projected Conquest of Persia - 60 Attempt to conquer China - ib. Introduction of Paper Money - - 61 Tyranny and Exactions of the King - - ib. 1338. Rebellions - - 62 134'0. Permanent revolt of Bengal and of the Coast of Coromandel - - ib. 1344. Restoration of the Hindu Kingdoms of Carnata and Telingana - 63 134-5-6 Other Rebellions - - ib. Rebellion of the Mogul Troops in Guzerat - 64 1347. General Revolt of the Deckan - ib. Vigour and Activity of the King - - ib. 1351. Death of Mohammed Tdghlak - - 65 Removal of the Capital to Deogiri and other Caprices of Mohammed - - ib. Foreign Accounts of his Court and Government - 66 The Mahometan Territory in India at its greatest Extent in this Reign - - 68 Firuz Toghlak - - - 69 1356. Independence of Bengal and the Deckan recognised ib. The King's Infirmities - 70 1385. Rivalries at his Court - ib. 1388. His Death - 71 His Laws - - - ib. His public Works - - ib. Gheias u din Toghlak II. - 72 1389. Abubekr Toghlak 73 1390. Nasir u din Toghlak - - ib. 1394. Mahmud Toghlak . - 74 Dissolution of the Monarchy - ib. 1398. Invasion of Tamerlane - - 75 Defeat of the Indian Army - 77 Sack, Conflagration, and Massacre of Delhi - ib. 1399. Tamerlane retires from India - 78 His Character - - - 79 Anarchy at Delhi - - - 80 CONTENTS. Vll GOVERNMENT OF THE SEIADS. A. D. Page HI 4. Seiad Khizr Khan - 81 14.21. Seiad Mobarik - - 82 1435. Seiad Mohammed - 83 1444. Seiad Ala u din - ;)i ^ r - - - 84 HOUSE OF L6DI. 1450. Behlol Lodi - 85 Rise of the Family of Lodi - - ib. Panjab re-annexed to Delhi - - ib. 1478. Recovery of Juanpur ... - 86 1488. Secander Lodi - - ib. Good Administration of Secander - - ib. His Bigotry - - - - - ib. 1517. I'brahim Lodi - 87 Discontents and Rebellions - - ib. 1524. Invasion of Baber - 88 He retreats from Sirhind - - 89 1525. Return of Baber (December) - ib. 1526. Defeat and Death of rbrahim - - 90 Occupation of Delhi and Agra - - 91 HOUSE OF TEIMUR. BOOK VII. FROM THE CONQUEST OF BABER TO THE ACCESSION OF AKBER. CHAP. I. REIGN OF BABER. Descent and early Life of Baber - - - 93 His Wars and Adventures in his Youth - - 94 He is driven out of Transoxiana - - 98 Acquires the Kingdom of Cabul (1504) - - 100 A 4< Vltl CONTENTS. A. n. Page His Views on India - - - - 103 1526. Baber's Proceedings after his Victory over I'brahim ib. Discontent of his Troops - - 104 His War with Sanga liana of Mewar - 106 1527. March. Battle of Sikri Victory of Baber - 109 Settlement of the Country - 110 1528. Siege of Chanderi - - ib. Afghan Insurrection - - 1 1 1 1529. Defeat of the King of Bengal -113 Sickness of Baber - - -114 Intrigues regarding the Succession - 115 1830, Dec. 26. Death of Baber -117 His Character - - ib. CHAP. II. FIRST REIGN OF HUMAYUN. 1531. Arrangements with the King's Brothers - - 123 Separation of Cabul from India - - ib. Afghan Insurrections in India - ib. 1532. Disputes with Bahadur Shah, King of Guzerat - 124- 1534. Invasion and Conquest of Guzerat - - 125 1535. Expulsion of the Moguls from Guzerat - - 127 Early Life and Rise of Shir Khan Sur . - 128 He obtains Possession of Behar - - 130 Conquers Bengal - 131 1537. Humayun marches against him - - 132 Military Features of Behar and Bengal - - ib. 1538, January. Siege of Chunar -133 Shir Khan's Plan for resisting the Invasion -134 1538, June or July. Taking of Gour by Humayun - ib. His Difficulties during the rainy Season - - 135 Active Operations of Shir Khan - - ib. Retreat of Humayun - ib. Shir Khan assumes the Title of King - 136 Intercepts Humayun on his Retreat - ib. 1539, June. Surprises him and disperses his Army - 137 Second Campaign - - 139 1540, May. Final Defeat of Humayun - ib. His Flight - ib. 1540, July. Arrives at Labor - - 140 CONTENTS. IX A. n. Page Fails in an Attempt on Sincl (154-1-2) - 14-0 Seeks Refuge in Jodpur, which is refused - 141 Horrors of his March through the Desert - 14-2 Is hospitably received at Amercot (154-2) - 14-3 Birth of Akber (October 14. 154-2) - - ib. Second Attempt on Sind ... 144 Humayun consents to retire to Candahar (154-3) - 145 His Dangers in that Country - - - ib. His Flight to Persia - - - - 14-6 CHAP. III. SHIR SHAH AND OTHERS OF THE FAMILY OF Sua. 1540. Shir Shah takes Possession of all Humayun's Domi- nions ------ 14-8 154-2. Recovers Malwa - - - - - ib. 1543. Massacres the Garrison of Raisin - - ib. 1544. Invades Marwar ----- 149 Takes Chitor - 150 1545. Is killed at Calinjer - ib. His Character - - - - - ib. His internal Improvements - - - ib. Selim Shall Sur. Selim supplants his elder Brother - 151 1547. Quells an obstinate Rebellion - 152 1553. Dies - 153 Account of a fanatical Sect - - ib. Mohammed Shah Sur A'dili. Mohammed A'dili murders his Nephew and usurps the Throne -... - - 154 His Vices and Incapacity ... 155 Hemu, a low Hindu, made Prime Minister - ib. Vigour and Talents of Hemu - ib. Oppressive Measures of the King - ib. 1554. Rebellions - 156 Separation of Delhi and the western Provinces - ib. Revolt of the Panjab under Secander Sur - 156 1555. Revolt of Bengal -.' - ib. X CONTENTS. A. D Page 1555. Revolt of Mai wa - 156 1555, July. Return of Humayun - 157 Success of Hemu - - ib. His Defeat by Akber and Death (1556) - 158 Death of Mohammed A'dili (1557) - ib. CHAP. IV. HUMAYUN RESTORED. Reception of Humayun in Persia (A. D. 1544) - 159 Account of the Safavis or Sophis - ib. Magnificence and Hospitality of Shah Tahmasp - ib. His Arrogance and Caprice - 160 Forces Humayun to profess the Shia religion - ib. Sends an Army to restore Humayun - ] 64 Taking of Candahar (September, 1545) - -165 Treacherously recovered by Humayun after the Departure of the Persian Army - 166 Taking of Cabul - - 168 Expedition to Badakhshan - ib. Camran recovers Cabul - - 169 Is driven out by Humayun (April, 1547) - - ib. Gives himself up to Humayun, and is kindly treated (August, 1548) - 170 Humayun invades Balkh (1549) - - ib. Fresh Rebellion of Camran - ib. Calamitous Retreat from Balkh - . - ib. Humayun defeated by Camran, and deserted by his Army (1550) - ib. Camran again expelled (1551) - -171 Taken and blinded (September, 1553) - - 172 Humayun marches to recover India (January, 1555) 174 Defeats Secander Siir - ib. 1555, July. Takes Delhi and Agra - ib. 1556, January. His Death - - 175 CONTENTS. XI BOOK VIII. STATE OF INDIA UP TO THE ACCESSION OF AKBER. CHAP. I. HISTORY OF THE BAHMANI KINGDOM OF THE DECKAN AND ITS SUBSEQUENT DIVISIONS. A. D. Page States formed on the Dissolution of the Empire un- der Mahmud Toghlak - - 176 Bahmani Kings of the Deckan. 1347. Hassan Gangu (or Ala u din), an Afghan of Delhi - 179 Wars with the Hindus - - 180 Conquest of Rajamandri and Masulipatam - 181 Partial Conquest of the Concan .... ib. Increased Intercourse with the Hindus - - ib. Rivalry between the Shia and Sunni Sects in the Court and Army - - - - 183 States formed out of the Bahmani Dominions - 184 Bljapur - - ib. Ahmednagar - - ib. Golconda - - - ib. Berar - ... jb. Bidr - 185 Dynasty of A'dil Shah at Bijapur. 1489. Founded by Eusof A'dil Shah, a Turkish Slave - 185 Extent of the Kingdom - - - - 186 Attempt to introduce the Shia Religion - - ib. Religious Factions - 187 Rise of the Marattas - ib. Wars with the other Mahometan Kings - - 188 League against Bijayanagar - 189 Battle of Talicota - ib. Fall of the Kingdom of Bijayanagar - - ib. Wars with the Portuguese - 190 Dynasty of Nizam Shah at Ahmednagar. 1490. Founded by Ahmed, a Hindu Convert - 191 Religious Factions - ib. Xll CONTENTS. A - D - Page Wars with the other Kings of the Deckan - 192 Miscellaneous Facts .... 193 Extent of the Kingdom - . - - 194 Dynasty of Kutb Shah at Golconda. 1512. Founded by Kutb Kuli, a Turkman Soldier - 194- Kutb professes the Shia Religion - \95 Extent of his Kingdom - - - - ib. Conquests from the Hindus - - - ib. Wars with the other Mahometan Kings - - ib. 1550. rbrahim, the fourth King - - 196 His Wars - - ib. Conquests on the Coast of Coromandel - - ib. Dynasty of Imdd Shah in Berdr. 1484. Founded by Fatten Ullah, descended from a con- verted Hindu - 197 Dynasty of Bar id Shah at Bidr - - 198 CHAP. II. OTHER KINGDOMS FORMED ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE EMPIRE. Guzerdt. Description of Guzerat - - - 199 Original Extent of the Kingdom - - 200 1396. Founded by Mozaffer, the Son of a Rajput Convert 202 His Wars - ib. His Occupation and subsequent Evacuation of Malwa - - 203 14-11. Ahmed Shah - ib. His Wars with Malwa and his Hindu Neighbours - ib. And with other Mahometan Kings - 204 Mohammed Shah - 205 1451. Kutb Shah - ib. His Wars with Mewar - - ib. David Khan - 206 1459. Mahmud Begarra - ib. His vigorous Government - - ib. He rescues the Bahmani King of the Deckan - ib. Marches to the Indus - - - - ib. CONTENTS. Xlll A. D. Page Takes Girnar and Champaner - - 207 His Wars with Mahometan Kings - - ib. His maritime Power - - - - ib. 1508. He co-operates with the Mamluks of Egypt in a naval War with the Portuguese - - 208 1511. Mozaffer II. - 209 Generosity to the King of Malwa - - ib. War with Sanga, Rana of Mewar - - ib. 1526. Bahadur - - - 210 Takes Part in the Wars of the Deckan - - 211 His Supremacy acknowledged by the Kings of Candesh, Berar, and Ahmednagar - - ib. 1534-. Conquest of Malwa, and its Annexation to Guzerat ib. Troubles in Malwa - - - ib. War with Mewar - - - - 212 \Var with Humayun and Expulsion of Bahddur - 213 1535. Bahadur recovers his Kingdom - - - ib. Disputes with the Portuguese at Diu - ib. Interview with the Portuguese Viceroy - - ib^ Death of Bahadur - 214- Miran Mohammed Shah - - ib. Mahmud III. - - - - 215 Ahmed II. ..... ib. 1561. Mozaffer III. . ib. 1572. Guzerat conquered by Akber - - 216 Malwa. 1401. Founded by Dilawar, of a Family from Ghdr - 216 Wars in Hindostan and the Deckan - - ib. 1512. Mahmud II. - 217 Ascendancy of Medni Rai, a Hindu Chief - ib. Mahmud flies to Guzerat - 218 1519- Is restored by Bahadur Shah - ib. Is defeated, taken Prisoner, and released by Sanga, Rana of Mewar - - ib. His Ingratitude - - 219 1531 . He is defeated, and his Kingdom annexed to Guzerat ib. Cdndesfi. Founded by Malik Raja, a Person of Arab Descent 219 XIV CONTENTS. A. n. Page Prosperity of Candesh - - ib. 1599. Conquered by Akber - ib. The Rajput States. Change in the Condition of the Rajputs after the Mahometan Conquests in India - 221 State of the remaining Rajput Princes at the Ac- cession of Akber - 222 Mewar - - - - - - ib. Marwar - . 223 Bikanir - - 224 Jesalmer - - ib. Amber or Jeipur - .... 225 Harauti - - ib. Petty States in the Desert - ib. Petty States on the East of the Table Land - - 226 13381576. Bengal - ib. 139414-76. Juanpur - 227 Sind - - - 228 Multdn - - - 229 State of the other Parts of India - - ib. CHAP. III. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. Internal State of the Mahometan Empire 230 The King's Power - ib. His Ministers - - ib. Provinces - - - - 231 Army - - - - - ib. Law (Mahometan and Common) - 232 Church - - 234- Moulavis .... 235 Fakirs - - ib. Superstitions - - 237 Sects - - ib. Hindus - - - - - ib. Conversions - 238 ^Revenue - - 239 Condition of the People - - ib. State of the Country - . 240 Towns and Commerce - - ib. CONTENTS. XV Page Coinage - - 244 Architecture - - 245 Manners - 247 Mahometan Literature - - 249 Language - - 250 BOOK IX. AKBER. CHAP. I. FROM 1556 TO 1586. 1556. Accession of Akber - - 252 Behram Khan - - - ib. Loss of Cabul - - 253 1556, November. Defeat and Death of Hemu - - ib. Recovery of Delhi and Agra - - 254 Campaign in the Panjab Submission of Secander Stir - ib. Arbitrary Government of Behram Khan - - ib. General Discontent at Court - - 255 1560, March. Akber assumes the Government - - 257 Perplexity of Behram - ib. He revolts - - - ib. 1560, September. His Submission and Pardon - - 258 His Death - - ib. Difficult Situation of the young King - - ib. His Plan for restoring and consolidating the Empire 260 Extent of his Territory - - ib. Insubordination and Rebellions of his Officers - 261 Quelled, after a Struggle of seven Years - - 265 Affairs of Cabul - - ib Nominal Government of Prince Hakim, Akber's brother - - - ib. 1566. Hakim invades the Panjab - 266 Revolt of the Mirzas - ib. They fly to Guzerat - 267 Miscellaneous Occurrences - - - ib. 1567. Foreign Affairs the Rajputs - - 269 XVI CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1572,1573. Conquest of Guzerat - -273 1575,1576. Conquest of Bengal - - 276 State of that Province - - 278 1577. Mutiny of the Troops in Bengal and Behar - ib. Insurrection of the Afghans in Bengal - - 279 Final Settlement of the Province after fifteen Years of Disturbance (1592) - -280 1579. Revolt of Prince Hakim - - ib. Reduction of Cabul - 281 1581 1593. Insurrection in Guzerat - - ib. CHAP. II. FROM 1586 TO THE DEATH OF AKBER. 1586. Akber interferes in the Disputes of the Deckan - 283 Akber moves to Attoc on the Indus - - ib- 1586,1587. Conquest of Cashmir - ib. Wars with the north-eastern Afghans - 286 Description of those Tribes and of their Country - ib. Sect of the Roushenlas - - - 289 Destruction of the invading Army by the Eusofzeis (1586) - - 290 Imperfect Settlement at the end of fifteen Years (1600) - 295 1591. Conquest of Sind - -296 1594. Recovery of Candahar - - 297 Complete Settlement of Hindostan - 298 1595. Expedition to the Deckan - - ib. Chand Sultana - - 299 Her Defence of Ahmednagar - - 300 1596. Peace agreed on - - - 301 War renewed and extended to the whole of the Deckan - 302 1599. Akber goes in person to the Deckan - ib. 1600. Death of Chand Sultana - - ib. Taking of Ahmednagar - - ib. 1601. Conquest of Candesh - -303 Akber returns to Hindostan - - 304 Refractory Conduct of his eldest Son, Selim (after- wards Jehangir) - - ib. 1602. Murder of A'bul Fazl - - - -306 CONTENTS. XVU A. n. Page 1603. Reconciliation of Akber with Selim - 307 Continued Misconduct of Selim *^< - 308 He is placed under Restraint and soon after re- leased - - 309 His Quarrels with his own Son, Khusru - - ib. Death of Danial, Akber's third Son - 310 Sickness of Akber - - ib. Intrigues regarding the Succession 3 . .- - : - 311 Unsuccessful Combination to set aside Selim - ib. 1605, 13th Oct. Death of Akber rv-fjJi - 312 His Character - - 313 CHAP. III. INTERNAL POLICY. His internal Policy, religious and civil - 316 His general Toleration and Impartiality - ib. Progress of his religious Opinions - - ib. Feizi - - 317 His Translations from the Shanscrit - ib. He superintends Translations from that and other Languages - 318 Abul Fazl - - ib. Akber's Attachment to those Brothers - 319 Akber's religious and philosophical Confer- ences - >iiiiui . 320 Religious System of Akber - tafcJ . 322 His Discouragement of the Mahometan Peculiarities - t>yti _ 325 His Restrictions on the Hindu Superstition ib. His general Indulgence to Hindus - - 326 Discontents among the Mussulmans - 327 Limited Progress of his own Religion - 329 His civil Government Revenue System - 330 Toder Mai - - 335 Subahs or Governments, and their Establish- ments military, judicial, and police - ib. Reform and new Model of the Army - 337 Fortifications and public Works - - 340 Household and Court - 34-1 VOL. II. a XV111 CONTENTS. BOOK X. JEHANGfR SHAH JEHAN. CHAP. I. JEHANGIR. (16051627.) A. D. Page 1605. State of India at the Accession of Jehangir - 34-6 Moderate Measures at the Commencement of his Reign - - ib. 1606. March. Flight of Prince Khusru - - -348 His Rebellion - - - ib. Quashed - - 349 Barbarous Punishment of the Rebels - ib. Imprisonment of Khusru - - ib. 1607. Wars in Mewar and in the Deckan - 350 1610. Insurrection of a pretended Khusru - ib. Ill Success of the war in the Deckan - ib. Malik Amber - 351 He recovers Ahmednagar - - ib. Marriage of the Emperor with Nur Jehan - ib. Her History - - ib. Her Influence - 355 Combined Attack on Ahmednagar - 356 1612. Defeated by Malik Amber - ib. War with Mewar - 357 1613. Victories and Moderation of Shah Jehan (Prince Khurram) - 358 1614. The Rana submits on honourable Terms - - ib. Influence of Shah Jehan - - ib. Supported by Nur Jehan - - 359 Insurrection in Cabul quelled - ib. 1615. Embassy of Sir T. Roe - - ib. His Account of the Empire, Court, and Character of Jehangir - - - - - ib. Prince Khusru - - 364 Unpopularity of Shah Jehan - - ib. Prince Parviz - 365 1616. Shah Jehan declared Heir Apparent - ib. CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1616. Sent to settle the Deckan r ?* ;, - - 365 1616, October. The Emperor moves to Mandu - ib. Sir T. Roe's Description of his March *j c - ib. 1617. Complete Success of Shah Jehan - -366 1617, Sept. to "I Residence of the Emperor and Shah 1618, Sept. J Jehan in Guzerat !;.*:; - ib. 1621. Renewal of the Disturbances in the Deckan - 367 Shah Jehan marches to quell them - - ib. His Success in the Field - 368 He comes to Terms with Malik Amber - - ib. Dangerous Illness of the Emperor - - ib. Measures of Parviz and Shah Jehan - - ib. Suspicious Death of Khusru - - ib. Alienation of the Empress from Shah Jehan - ib. Candahar taken by the Persians - - 369 Shah Jehan ordered to retake it - - ib. His Reluctance to leave India {.'*> 1: - 370 The Enterprise committed to Prince Shehriar - ib. To whom most of Shah Jehan's Troops are trans- ferred - - ib. Mohabat Khan called to Court by the Empress - ib. 1622. Increased Distrust between the Emperor and Shah Jehan - 371 1623. Rebellion of Shah Jehan - ib. Advance of the Emperor -vtisij - ib. Retreat of Shah Jehan - <. * *i - ib. Its Consequences - - ib. Shah Jehan retreats into Telingana - - 372 162t. Makes his Way to Bengal - ib. Obtains Possession of Bengal and Behar - ib. He is pursued by Prince Parviz and Mohabat Khan ib. Is defeated and flies to the Deckan - 373 State of the Deckan - - ib. Shah Jehan unites with Malik Amber - - ib. Pressed by Parviz and Mohabat Khan - - ib. Deserted by his Army - ib. 1625. Offers his Submission to the Emperor - 374- The Emperor marches against the Roushenias in Cabul - ib. a 2 XX CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1625. Persecution of Mohabat Khan by the Empress - 374 His History - - ib. He is summoned to Court - 375 Brutal Treatment ofhis Son-in-law by the Emperor ib. 1626, March. Mohabat seizes on the Emperor's Person - 376 Spirited Conduct of Nur Jehan - - -378 She attacks Mohabat's Camp - 379 Is repulsed with heavy Loss - 380 She joins the Emperor in his Confinement - ib. Insecurity of Mohabat's Power - - 381 Artifices of the Emperor - - ib. Quarrel between the Rajputs and the King's Troops 382 Plots and Preparations of Nur Jehan - - 383 1626, September. Rescue of Jehangir - - ib. Terms granted to Mohabat Khan - - 384 He is sent against Shah Jehan - - ib. 1626, (end of.) He breaks with the Emperor, and joins Shah Jehan - - ib. 1627, October. Sickness and Death of Jehanglr - -385 CHAP II. SHAH JEHAN TILL 1657. 1627, October. Asof Khan takes part with Shah Jehan - 387 Imprisons the Empress - - ib. Defeats Shehriar, who is put to death - ib. 1628, January. Shah Jehan arrives from the Deckan, and is proclaimed at Agra - - 388 Local Disturbances - 389 History of Khan Jehan Lodi - ib. His Flight from Agra - 391 His Proceedings in the Deckan - 392 1629, October. The Emperor marches against him - ib. State of the Deckan - ib. Khan Jehan driven out of Ahmednagar - - 393 Pursued by A'zim Khan - - ib. Fails in obtaining an Asylum at Bijapur - - ib. His Ally, the King of Ahmednagar, defeated - 394 Khan Jehan flies from the Deckan - ib. 1630, Is cut off in Bundelcand - - 395 Continuance of the War with Ahmednagar - ib. Famine and Pestilence in the Deckan - - ib. CONTENTS. XXI A. D. Page 1631. The King of Bijapur joins the King of Ahmednagar 395 Murder of the King of Ahmednagar by his Minister, Fatteh Khan - - 396 Who submits to Shah Jehan - - - ib. War with Bijapur continues - - - ib. 1632. Tergiversation of Fatteh Khan - - - ib. Siege of Bijapur - - :,v-iri' - 397 Failure of the Siege - - - - ib. The Emperor returns to Delhi - - ib. 1633. February. Final Surrender of Fatteh Khan - 398 1634. Ill Success of the Operations in the Deckan - ib. Shahji Bosla attempts to restore the King of Ah- mednagar - 399 1635. November. The Emperor returns to the Deckan - ib. Failure of another Attempt on Bijapur - - ib. 1636. Peace with Bijapur - - 400 Submission of Shahji Bosla - ib. The Emperor exacts a Tribute from Golconda - ib. 1637- Returns to Delhi - - ib. Local Disturbances and Successes in Hindostan - 401 Recovery of Candahar - - ib. Ali Merdan Khan ,,;-,, ,.-, - ib. 1644. Invasion of Balkh - - - ib. Services of the Rajputs in the Mountains of Hindu Cush - - .'..._ - 402 1645. Shah Jehan moves to Cabul - 403 Balkh reduced by Prince Morad and Ali Merdan Khan - - ib. Overrun by the Uzbeks from beyond the Oxus - ib. 164-7. Aurangzib sent against them - ib. Is besieged in Balkh - - - ib. Shah Jehan abandons his Conquest - - 404 Disastrous Retreat of Aurangzib - ib. 1648. Candahar retaken by the Persians - ib. 1649. Aurangzib sent to recover it - 405 Fails in the Siege of Candahar ... 406 1652. Second attempt on Candahar under Aurangzib - ib. Its Failure - - 407 Great Expedition under Prince Dara Sheko - ib. a 3 XX11 CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1652. Siege of Candahar -408 1653, November. Failure and Retreat of Dara Sheko - ib. Death of the Vizir, Saad Ullah Khan - 409 1655. Renewal of the War in the Deckan under Aurangzib ib. Intrigues of Aurangzib at Golconda Mir Jumla - ib. Treacherous Attack on Heiderabad by Aurangzib 4-10 Submission of the King of Golconda - 412 1656. Unprovoked War with Bijapur - - ib. CHAP. III. FROM 1657 TO THE DEPOSAL OF SHAH JEHAN. 1657. Dangerous Illness of the Emperor - 414 Characters and Pretensions of his Sons - - ib. Dara Shek6 - ib. Shuja - - ib. Aurangzib - 4<15 Morad - - - 4-16 Daughters of Shah Jehan - 417 Dara administers the Government under the Em- peror - - ib. Rebellion of Shuja - 418 And of Morad - - ib. Cautious Measures of Aurangzib - - ib. His Collusion with Mir Jumla - - ib. He marches to assist Morad - 419 Defensive Measures of Dara - 420 Shah Jehan re-assumes the Government - - ib. Shuja continues to advance on Agra - ib. Is defeated by Soliman, Son of Dara, and returns to Bengal - 421 1658. April. Aurangzib and Morad defeat the Imperial Army under Jeswant Sing at Ujen - ib. Shah Jehan's Anxiety for an Accommodation - 422 Dara marches from Agra to oppose his Brothers, against the Wish of Shah Jehan - 423 1658, June. Is totally defeated - - ib. Dara flies to Delhi - 426 Aurangzib enters Agra - - 427 Shah Jehan adheres to the Cause of Dara - ib. Is confined in his Palace - 4*28 CONTENTS. XXlll A. n. Page 1658, August. Aurangzib imprisons Morad, and openly assumes the Government ... 4.28 High Prosperity of India under Shah Jehan - 4-29 Magnificence of Shah Jehan ... 4,32 His Buildings - - 433 The Taj Mahal - - ib. His Economy - w - 1 : - 435 His personal Character - lWi fl - ib. His Distrust of all around him --'' - - 54-2 His Management of his Sons and Courtiers - ib. Increased Disorders of the State - 544 1702. Successes of the Marattas -J^ 5i-jio; -545 1705. They begin to recover their Forts 'f>ini - ib. Exhausted State of the Army ' 'J/J* - ib. Disorder of the Finances - 546 Grand Army hard pressed by the Marattas - ib. 1706. Retreats to Ahmednagar - tswy;;. - 547 Declining Health of the Emperor 'i ai^i - 548 His Fears of encountering the Fate of Shah Jehan ib. His Suspicions of his Sons - 549 His Alarms at the Approach of Death 'bi.fi - ib. 1707. February. His Death - 551 And Character - ''--W- - ib. His Letters "1# Y 1 *^ - 553 Miscellaneous Transactions ... 554 BOOK XII. SUCCESSORS OF AURANGZIB. CHAP. I. To THE ACCESSION OF MOHAMMED SHAH. Bahadur Shah. Contest between Prince A'zim and his elder Brother, Prince Moazzim - 557 1707, June. Victory of Moazzim, henceforward Bahadur Shah - - ib. Revolt of Prince Cambakhsh in the Deckan - 558 1708, February. His Defeat and Death - -:;?r: - ib. Bahadur's Proceedings in the Deckan - - ib. State of the Marattas ^$1 . . - ib. Factions of Raja Saho and Tara Bai - - ib. Daud Khan Panni left in charge of the Deckan for Zulfikar Khan - - - - 559 Makes a Truce with the Marattas - - 560 XXX CONTENTS. A. D. Page Transactions with the Rajputs ... 560 1709. Peace with that Power - - 561 Rise of the Siks (end of the fifteenth Century) - ib. Peaceful Character of their Sect - 562 Persecuted by the Mahometans (1606) - - ib. Their Revolt - - ib. Guru Govind - 563 He forms the Siks into a religious and military Commonwealth - - ib. Their Doctrines and Manners - - ib. They are overpowered at first - 564> Their Fanaticism - 565 Their Successes, Ravages, and Cruelties under Bandu - - ib. 1710. Bahadur marches against them - - 566 They are driven into the Hills - - ib. Escape of Bandu - - ib. 1712, February. Death of Bahadur Jah - -567 Contest between his Sons - - ib. Artifices of Zulfikar Khan - - ib. He secures the Victory to Jehandar Shah - ib. Jehdnddr Shah. 1712, May or June. Accession of Jehandar Shah - 568 His Incapacity - - ib. Arrogance of Zulfikar Khan - - ib. General Discontent - - ib. Revolt of Prince Farokhslr in Bengal - 569 He is supported by Abdullah and Hosen Ali, Go- vernors of Behar and Allahabad - ib. Defeats the Imperial Army - ib. Zulfikar betrays Jehandar Shah to the Enemy - ib. 1713, February. But is put to death along with the Em- peror - - 570 Farokhsir. Great Power of the Seiads Abdullah and Hosen Ali ib. Jealousy of the Emperor - - ib. His Intrigues - 571 Hosen Ali sent against Ajit Sing, Raja of Marwar - ib. CONTENTS. XXXI A. D. Page Makes an honourable Peace i^-f'M - - 571 Increased Distrust fj #3 4 - ib. Submission of the Emperor ... 572 Hosen AH marches to settle the Deckan - - ib. Farokhsir instigates Baud Khan Panni to resist him - - - - srH v - 573 1716. Defeat and Death of David Khan - 574 Renewed Devastations of the Slks - - ib. They are defeated and nearly extirpated - ib. Cruel Execution of Bandu - ,,_ - 575 Progress of the Marattas - - - ib. Chin Kilich Khan (afterwards Asof Jah) - 576 111 Success of Hosen Ali - - - ib. 1717. He makes Peace with Raja Saho, and submits to pay the Chout ----- 577 Farokhsir refuses to ratify the Treaty - 578 State of the Court of Delhi Abdullah Khan - ib. Plots of Farokhsir - . ib. Combination of great Nobles to support him - 579 His Levity and Irresolution ... 530 Disgusts his Confederates - 581 1718, December. Return of Hosen Ali, accompanied by 10,000 Marattas - ib. Farokhsir deposed and put to death - 582 Nominal Emperors set up by the Seiads - - ib. 1719, February. Rafi u Dirjat - - - - ib. 1719, May. Rafi u Doula - ib. CHAP. II. To THE DEPARTURE OF NADIR SHAH. Mohammed Shah. 1719, September. Mohammed Shah >&< V/-i^ - 584- General Indignation against the Seiads - - ib. Internal Dissensions of their Party - - ib. Insurrections - *>' * ; - jfro - ib. Proceedings of Asof Jah - - - - 585 1720, April. He establishes his Power in the Deckan - 586 1720, June and July, Defeats the Armies of the Seiads - ib. Alarm at Delhi - - - - - ib. XXXll CONTENTS. A. D. Page Prudent Conduct of Mohammed Shah - -587 His Plans against the Seiads - ib. Mohammed Amln Khan - - ib. Sadat Khan ... - ib. Hosen Ali marches against Asof Jdh, accompanied by the Emperor - 588 1 720, October. Assassination of Hose"n Ali - ib. The Emperor assumes the Government - - 589 Difficult Situation of Abdullah - ib. He sets up a new Emperor - ib. Assembles an Army - - ib. 1720, November. Is defeated and taken Prisoner - 590 1721, Sudden Death of Mohammed Amin, the new Vizir ib. Rapid Decline of the Monarchy - - 591 1722, January. Asof Jah Vizir - -592 Indolence of the Emperor - ib. His Favourites - - - ib. His Dislike to Asof Jah - - ib. Asof Jah sent against the refractory Governor of Guzerat - - ib. Quells the Insurrection and retains the Government of the Province - - 593 Expedition against the Jats of Bhartpur - ib. Disgust of Asof Jah - 59* 1723, October. He resigns his Office, and sets off for the Deckan - - ib. The Emperor instigates Mobariz Khan, Governor of Heiderabad, to supplant him . ib. 1724, October. Mobariz defeated and slain - - ib. Asof Jah's Policy towards the Marattas - - 595 Consolidation of the Maratta Government - ib. Balaji Wiswanat Peshwa - ib. Establishes the Government of Saho - 596 Dies (October, 1720) - 597 His complicated Revenue System - ib. His Motives - - ib. Baji Rao Peshwa - 598 His enterprising Policy - - ib. Character of Saho . . . 599 CONTENTS. XXX1U A. D. OfBaji Rao - ,;*(< - 599 Baji Rao ravages Malwa - - 600 1725. Obtains a Cession by the Governor of the Chout of Guzerat - - - - - ib. 1725 1729. Asof Jah foments the Dissensions of the Marattas - - - - - ib. 1729. He is attacked, and compelled to make Con- cessions - '_> . ',,[-!* f - - 601 1730. Accommodation between Saho and his Rival, Samba 602 Renewed Intrigues of Asof Jah - - - ib. Dabari, a great Maratta Chief in Guzerat, marches to depose the Peshwa - {f jrff '-.?& - 603 1731. Is anticipated by Baji Rao, defeated, and killed - ib. Moderation of Baji Rao in settling Guzerat - ib. Origin of the Families of Puar, Holcar, and Sindia ib. Compromise between Baji Rao and Asof Jah - 604 Raja Abhi Sing of Marwar, Viceroy of Guzerat - ib. Procures the Assassination of Pilajt Geikwar - 605 Retaliation of the Marattas - ,n^-- - ib. Abhi Sing retires to Marwar ; t 'i^cl ii"iif 606 1732. Successes of Baji Rao in Malwa - - - ib. Obtains Possessions in Bundelcand - - 607 Raja Jei Sing, the second Viceroy of Malwa - ib. 1734. His tacit Surrender of the Provin'ee to the Marattas ib. 1736. Baji Rao increases his Demands ... 608 Further Cessions by the Emperor - - - ib. Alarm of Asof Jah - - - - ib. He is reconciled to the Emperor - - ib. 1737. Baji Rao appears before Delhi - 609 He retreats - - 610 Arrival of Asof Jah at Delhi ... ib. Marches against Baji Rao - - - ib. Is attacked by Baji Rao near Bopal - - 611 Constrained to make great Cessions on the Em- peror's part - - - - 612 1738. Invasion of Nadir Shah - -. : - - ib. Previous Transactions in Persia - - - ib. Western Afghans - - - - ib. Ghiljeis - - 614 VOL. II. b XXXIV CONTENTS. A. D. Page Abdalis (or Durdnis) . - - - 614 Revolt of the Ghiljeis (1708) - - - ib. Conquest of Persia by the Ghiljeis (17201722) - 615 Their tyrannical Government - -617 Their Wars with the Turks and Russians - 619 Rise of Nadir Shah - - - 620 He drives out the Ghiljeis, and recovers Khorasan from the Abdalis (1729) - - ib. Renewed Invasion of the Abdalis - 621 Nadir takes Herat (February, 1731) - ib. And gains the Attachment of the Abdalis - ib. He deposes Tahmasp Shah (August, 1731) - ib. Is himself elected King (February 1736) - 622 He suppresses the Shla Religion - - ib. Invades the Ghiljeis - - 623 1738, March. Takes Candahar - - ib. His conciliatory Policy - - 624 ] 738. His Difference with the Government of India - ib. Supineness of the Court of Delhi - - 625 Nadir invades India - - 626 1739, February. Defeats Mohammed Shah - 626 1739, March. Advances to Delhi - 627 Insurrection of the Inhabitants - - 628 General Massacre by the Persians - - ib. Nadir's Extortions ... 630 His Rapacity and Violence - ib. He prepares to return - - 631 The Country west of the Indus ceded to him - ib. 1739, May. Mohammed Shah restored - - ib. Amount of the Treasures carried off by Nadir Shah ib. CHAP. III. To THE DEATH OF MOHAMMED SHAH. Deplorable Condition of the Capital and of the Empire - 633 Internal Dissensions - ib. Proceedings of the Marattas - 634 Baji Rao resumes offensive Operations - - ib. Attacks Asof Jah's Possessions - - - ib. CONTENTS. XXXV A. D, Page 1740. Is repulsed by Asof's Son, Nasir Jang ''- *{ ?i - 635 Perplexed Affairs of Saji Rao '^-rV - - ib. 174-0, April. His Death - - ib. His Sons - - ib. Wars in the Concan before Baji Rao's Death - 636 With A'ngria ' fe' v;ai , li '<" '.'+" . ib. With the Abyssinians of Jinjera - i ia'* - 637 With the Portuguese '* ^ '- -' ! - ib. Balaji Rao V.r.'.' i/Uirr! . . ib. Domestic Enemies of Baji Rao ' -' ' : -''-' - ib. The Pirti Nidhi, Raguji Bosla "'/'' \^'" -638 Damaji Geikwar - ' - ' '' ' " ~ ' - ib. Their Intrigues to prevent Balaji succeeding to the Office of Peshwa - 639 1740, August. Success of Balaji - -640 1742. Balaji marches into Malwa "&+>''>- . ib. Revives his Father's Demands on the Court of Delhi ib. Invasion of Bengal by Raguji Bosla I \i-ia . ib % The Emperor purchases the Aid of Balaji by the formal Cession of Malwa 11:^.0 t-'^'-s . g^j 1743. Balaji defeats and drives out Raguji ^i,'-' . 642 Fresh Combinations against the Peshwa - - ib. He buys over Raguji by liberal Cessions - - ib. Raguji again invades Bengal U|W - - - ; l . ib. His General murdered by the Viceroy - - 643 He ultimately obtains the Chout of Bengal, and a Cession of Cattac (1751) - ib. Affairs of Asof Jah - ib. Revolt of Nasir Jang (1741) - ib. Asof Jah returns to the Deckan ,-*^ n - ib. 1748. His Death - ib. Death of Saho Raja (1749) - ib. Intrigues and Contests for the Succession - - 644 Boldness and Address of Balaji - - - ib. Alleged Abdication in favour of Balaji ..t*j rj - 645 Balaji takes Possession of the Government (1750) 646 Marches against Salabat Jang, the Son of Asof Jah (March, 1751) - - 646 He is recalled by the Insurrection of Tara Bai and Damaji Geikwar - ib. b 2 XXXVI CONTENTS. A, D. Page 174-8. Ba"laji seizes Damaji by Treachery 648 Salabat Jang advances on Puna (December, 1751) - ib. Superiority of the Invaders M. Bussy - - ib. Balaji saved by a Mutiny of Salabat' s Army - ib. An Armistice concluded (1752) - 649 Transactions at Delhi resumed - - ib. Rise of the Rohillas - - - ib. The Emperor marches against them (1745) - 650 Fresh Invasions from the Side of Persia - ib. Revolutions in that Country - - ib. Tyranny of Nadir Shah - ib. His Fears of the Shias - - 651 He puts out the Eyes of his Son - 652 His intolerable Cruelties - - - ib. His Favour to the Afghans - - - ib. He is assassinated by the Persians (June, 1749) - 653 Retreat of the Afghdns - 654 Ahmed Khan Abdali - ib. Ahmed crowned King at Candahar (October, 1747) 655 Changes the Name of Abdalis to Duranis - ib. His skilful Management of his unruly Subjects - ib. His Views on India - 656 He occupies the Panjab - - ib. He is repulsed by an Indian Army under Prince Ahmed, the Heir Apparent - ib. 1748, April. Death of Mohammed Shah - 657 CHAP. IV. To THE EXTINCTION OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE. Ahmed Shah. Internal Arrangements of the new King - - 658 1748, December. Attempts to subdue the Rohillas by Saf- dar Jang, the Vizir - - - - 659 1750. The Vizir marches against them in Person, and is defeated - - ib. 1751. He calls in the Marattas - - ib. Defeat of the Imperial Troops in Marwa> - - 600 Second Invasion of Ahmed Shah Durani - - ib. 1752. Cession of the Panjab -661 Discontent of Safder Jang, the Vizir - - ib. CONTENTS. XXXVll A. D. Page He assassinates the Emperor's Favourite - - 661 Ghazi u din the younger 'wV - - ib. Resists the Vizir - ijy< ^.i-i -662 Calls in the Marattas and expels the Viztr - ib. The Emperor plots against Ghazi u din - ib. 1754. Is defeated and deposed - - 5 fjfcifc - 663 A'lamgir II. 1754-, June 2. Ghazi u din Vizir - - ib. His violent Government - - - - ib. His Life in Danger in a Mutiny - t V " - ib. His Suspicions of the Emperor - ' - 664- 1756. His treacherous Seizure of Ahmed Shah Durani's Governor of the Panjab - - '' ''* - ib. Third Invasion of Ahmed Shah - .' - - 665 He takes Delhi - - . ", ' *b. Massacres and Exactions - - - - ib. 1757> June. His Return to his own Dominions - - 666 His Arrangements for the Protection of A'lamgir II. against Ghazi u din - - - - ib. Najlb u doula Minister - - - - ib. Ghazi u din applies for the Assistance of the Ma- rattas ------ 667 Previous Transactions of that Nation - - ib. Ragoba, the Peshwa's Brother, marches to support Ghazi u din - 668 1758. Takes Delhi - ib. Escape of the Heir Apparent - - - ib. And of Najib u doula - - - - ib. 1 758, May. Ragoba takes Possession of the Panjab - ib. Plans of the Marattas for the Conquest of Hindostan 669 General Combination of the Mahometan Princes - 670 The Marattas invade Rohilcand - - - ib. 1759, September. Fourth Invasion of Ahmed Shah ib. Murder of A'lamgir IL, by Ghazi u din - - 671 Events after the Death of Alamgir II. - - ib. The Marat ta Troops in Hindostan dispersed by Ahmed Shah - - - - - ib. Power of the Marattas at its Zenith - 673 Their Army - - ib. XXXV111 CONTENTS. A. D. Page Great Preparations for the Contest in Hindostan - 674? Arrogance of the Commander, Sedasheo Bhao - ib. He takes Delhi - - 675 Ahmed Shah's Negotiation with Shuja u doula - 676 Who joins the Mahometan Confederacy - - 677 Ahmed Shah marches against Sedasheo Bhao - ib. 1760, October. His bold Passage of the Jamna - ib. Marattas retire to Panipat and intrench their Camp 678 Their Numbers - - ib. Force under Ahmed Shah - ib. Protracted Operations - - 679 Failure of the Maratta Supplies - - ib. 1761, July 6. Battle of Panipat -683 Destruction of the Maratta Army - - 686 Despondency of the Maratta Nation - - 687 Death of the Peshwa - ib. Dissolution of the Mahometan Confederacy - 688 Extinction of the Mogul Empire - ib. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VI. KINGS OF DELHI, TO THE ACCESSION OF THE HOUSE OF TEIMUR, A. D. 1006 TO 1526. CHAPTER I. SLAVE KINGS. Kutb u din Eibak. FROM the death of Shahab u din, India became an independent kingdom ; and after the disturb- ance occasioned by the dissolution of his empire -I'll- 11 ence of had subsided, it ceased to have any connection India, with the countries beyond the Indus. The life of Kutb u din, the founder of this new Progress of monarchy, affords a specimen of the history of the Turki slaves, who rose to sovereignty throughout Asia, and who for a long time furnished a succes- sion of rulers to India. He was brought to Nishapur in his infancy, and VOL. ii. B t HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK purchased by a wealthy person, who had him in- structed in Persian and Arabic. On his death, Kutb was sold to a merchant, who presented him to Shahab u din. He soon acquired his master's favour, and was in command of a body of horse, when, in some border warfare with the Khariz- mians, he was taken prisoner on an occasion in which his gallantry had been conspicuous. Being afterwards recaptured, he was received with an increase of favour j and by his subsequent good conduct stood so high in his sovereign's estimation, that, after the defeat of the raja of Ajmir, he was left in charge of , all the new conquests. His master's subsequent successes were greatly promoted, as has been shown, by Kutb u din's ability in his new station ; and in process of time the* conduct of affairs in Hindostan was almost entirely confided to his discretion. A natural manliness of character inherent in the Turks gave to newly raised officers of that nation an estimation among the other great men which seldom falls to the lot of the creatures of princes ; and Kutb u din, instead of being an object of jealousy, seems to have been generally beloved for the frankness and generosity of his disposition. Besides the friendships formed with the great, he strengthened himself by family connections with persons circumstanced like himself. He married the daughter of Eldoz ; he gave his sister in mar- riage to Nasir u din Kubacha ; and he afterwards bestowed his daughter on Altamsh, another rising slave, who afterwards succeeded to his throne. SLAVE KINGS. 3 Nasir u din from the first acknowledged his su- CHAP. periority, and held Sind of him, under the supre- ' macy of Mahmud of Ghor ; but Eldoz, with whom ambition had more force than family ties, affected to treat India as if it were still a dependency of Ghazni, set out with an army to enforce his claim, and almost immediately gained possession of Lahor. He was soon after driven out by Kutb u din, who followed up his success by the capture of Ghazni. A. D . 1205, A . . A. H. 603. After being some time in possession, he was ex- pelled in his turn by Eldoz, and spent the rest of his life in the government of his own dominions, where he left a permanent reputation as a just and virtuous ruler. He had only been four years on A. D . 1210, i i . i . . . i i i A. H. 607. the throne, but his administration had been known for the twenty years that he officiated as the repre- sentative of Shahab u din. A'ram. A'ram, his son, succeeded him. He showed no capacity, and was dethroned within a twelvemonth by his brother-in-law, Altamsh. Shams u din Altamsh. It is related of Altamsh, probably after his ele- A. D . 1211, vation, that he was of a noble family, but was sold, like Joseph, by his envious brothers. Sultan Shahab u din, unwilling to pay the price demanded for him, allowed Kutb u din as a favour to purchase him for 50,000 pieces of silver. He passed through different stations, and was governor of Behar at the 4- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK time of his revolt. He was invited to the throne VI. ' by a party ; but a numerous body of Turki chiefs were opposed to him, and he did not gain posses- sion without a battle. Eldoz, in his assumed superiority, gave him in- vestiture unasked ; but being soon after driven out of Ghazni by the king of Kharizm, he made an attempt to establish himself in India. He pene- trated to Tanesar, and had even made a party in A. D. 1215, Altamsh's court, when he was defeated, was taken A. H. 612. prisoner, and ended his days in confinement. Altamsh next marched against his wife's uncle, Nasir u din Kubacha, who had asserted his inde- pendence in Sind ; but, although he displayed great A. D. 1217, activity and personal gallantry, he did not succeed A. H. 614. . ITT' T in establishing his sovereignty. At this time it seemed far from improbable that the Kharizmians would pursue their conquests into India, and Nasir u din had already been engaged with bodies of their troops which had approached the Indus. Conquests But all these alarms were suspended by an event which changed the whole face of Asia. Chengiz Khan, originally a petty chief among the Moguls, having subdued the three nations of Tartary, and swelled his bands with their united hordes, burst on the Mahometan kingdoms with an army that never was equalled in numbers either before or since. * Ferishta, in his History of Sind, vol. iv. p. 414., makes only one expedition ; in his General History, vol. i. p. 208., he makes two;- but in the second there is a confusion regarding the Khiljis which throws the whole into doubt. SLAVE KINGS. 5 This irruption of the Moguls was the greatest CHAP. calamity that has fallen on mankind since the ' deluge. They had no religion to teach, and no seeds of improvement to sow, nor did they offer an alternative of conversion or tribute ; their only ob- ject was to slaughter and destroy ; and the only trace they left was in the devastation of every country which they visited. The storm first fell on the Sultan of Kharizm, who had drawn it on himself by the murder of Chengiz's ambassadors. His armies were defeated, his cities demolished, his country laid waste, and a great part of his sub- jects either massacred or reduced to slavery. He himself died of a broken heart, in an inaccessible retreat on an island in the Caspian, and his son and successor, Jelal u din, was driven into the eastern extremity of his dominions. This prince defended his country gallantly to the last. He gained a victory near Candahar, and another still further to the east ; but these suc- cesses did not even retard his ruin. His last battle was on the Indus, where, after displaying the most obstinate valour, and witnessing the total destruc- tion of his army, he swam the river with seven fot- lowers amidst a shower of arrows from his enemies, * 1221, i r> -i r> i i A. H. 618. whom he left in admiration of his intrepidity.* In the course of the night and next day he was King of joined by 120 of his soldiers; and, before many pursued 1 days were passed, he had assembled 4000 horse. * De Guignes, vol. iii. pp. 58, 59. D'Herbelot. Ferishta, vol. iv. p. 415. B 3 6 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK The Moguls threatening to cross the Indus, he fled towards Delhi, and applied to Altamsh for assistance, or at least for an asylum. Altamsh sent a courteous answer, but was too prudent to draw on himself the resentment of the Moguls ; and Jelal u din, left to his own resources, formed an alliance with the Gakkars, drew together an army by means of plunder, and at length attacked Nasir u din Kubacha, and forced him to take refuge in Multan. After this he kept no measures with any one : he ravaged the country on the Indus ; in- vaded and conquered Sind ; and would, perhaps, Returns to have maintained himself in the possession of it, if Persm. SO me hopes in Persia had not induced him to pass A. D. 1223, >. H. 620. into Kirman. Finding the Mogul armies withdrawn from Persia, he again established his power in that country, op- posed them with vigour in a new invasion, and was killed at last in Mesopotamia, ten years after his passage of the Indus.* During his abode in Sind, Ferishta relates that a Mogul armyt came in pursuit of him, laid siege to Multan, and, being repelled by Nasir u din, continued their march to Sind, which Jelal u din had quitted. They conducted themselves with their usual barbarity throughout ; and finding pro- visions scarce in their camp before they departed, they put to death 10,000 Indian prisoners, when * D'Herbelot, art. " Gelaleddin." t Ferishta says, under Chaghatai Khan in person, but pro- bably a detachment. SLAVE KINGS. *} they would have been equally relieved by setting CHAP. them free. ' After he was delivered from this succession of enemies, Nasir u din was again invaded by Al- tamsh, who, this time, was more successful than before. Nasir u din was constrained to retreat to Bakkar; and on attempting, afterwards, to continue his course to Sind, he was drowned, with all his family, in a sudden squall on the Indus, and the whole of the territory subject to him submitted to A. 0.1225, J A. H. 622. the victor. The country to the south of Tatta seems to have maintained its independence from the time of Mo- hammed Casim to that under discussion. It may, perhaps, have acknowledged the superiority of some of the intermediate dynasties during the in- terval, but the internal government was never out of the hands of the Sumera Rajputs. In the same year with this expedition to Sind, Altamsh marched against Bakhtiar Khilji, who looked on Behar and Bengal as his own conquest ; and, though he professed obedience to Kutb u din (to whose daughter he was married), openly dis- claimed all dependence on his successor. Altamsh was successful in this undertaking ; he deprived Bakhtiar of Behar (the government of which he conferred on his own son), and obliged him to hold Bengal under the crown of Delhi. Bakhtiar made a subsequent attempt to retrieve his losses, was defeated by the prince who governed Behar, and lost his life in the conflict. B 4 8 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Altamsh was now occupied for upwards of six ' years in reducing the part of Hindostan which had , A. D. 1226, remained independent. He began by taking Rin- to tambor, which, though so much in the line of A. H. esc. ' former conquests, had been protected by its moun- tainous situation. He next took Mandu, a town of great extent and natural strength in Malwa ; Gwalior, which had revolted, was next recovered ; Bilsa was likewise taken ; and the occupation of the ancient capital Ujen, with the destruction of its celebrated temple, completed the conquest of Malwa. state of All Hindostan, except some insulated portions, Hindostan. _, 1 . now acknowledged the government or Delhi ; but the obedience of the different portions was in dif- ferent degrees, from entire subjection to very im- perfect dependence : and in this state, with various fluctuations, it remained till the end of the Mogul empire. In a succession of strong reigns, the sub- ject country would greatly exceed the rest j and the princes who retained the internal government of their territories would be quite submissive and obedient in general politics : but two or three weak rulers would again throw all into confusion ; new princes would start up, and the old ones would become unruly, till the next vigorous monarch had almost to begin the conquest anew. Death of After these victories Altamsh returned to Delhi, an d died in April, 1236, as he was about to set out on a J ourne y to Multan. During the course of his reign he received in- SLAVE KINGS. 9 vestiture from the calif of Bagdad ; the most autho- CHAP. ritative recognition of a new government that could ' take place among Mussulmans. His vizir was a man of great eminence, and had been long in one of the highest employments under the calif. The author of the " Jama ul Hikayat," a very popular collection of historical anecdotes in Persian, resided at his court. The beautiful column called the Kutb, or Cutab Minar, near Delhi, was completed in the reign of Altamsh. It is in the form of a minaret, with galleries ; the shaft is fluted in a manner peculiar to itself, and ornamented with the richest effect. It is 242 feet high, although injured by an earth- quake j and is still, I believe, the highest column in the world. Near it is an unfinished mosque, which for grandeur of design and elegance of exe- cution is equal to any thing in India. It is ascribed in an inscription to Shahab u din Ghori. Rukn u din. At the death of Altamsh the contest with the Hindus was at an end ; and the period which fol- lowed was occupied by a succession of plots, mu- tinies, and revolutions, equally destitute of present interest and permanent effects. Rukn u din, who succeeded his father, lavished his treasures on dancing- worn en, buffoons, and musicians, and left the government to his mother ; and her tyranny and cruelty soon drove all ranks 10 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK into rebellion. He was deposed after a reign of ' seven months, and his sister Rezia was raised to the throne in his place. Sultana Rezia. A. D. lass, " Rezia Begum," says Ferishta, " was endowed with every princely virtue, and those who scru- Her vir- tues, tinise her actions most severely will find in her no fault but that she was a woman."* If not distin- guished for literature, she read the Koran cor- rectly j and such was her talent for business, that Altamsh, when absent on his southern campaigns, left her in charge of his government in preference to his sons. Her conduct on the throne did not disappoint the expectations entertained of her. Of two separate factions which had concurred in de- throning her brother, one was opposed to the ele- vation of the Sultana. The vizir of the two last kings was at the head of the latter faction, and they were strong enough to appear before Delhi, and to defeat an army that was coming to its relief. But the queen's arts were more effectual than her arms. She succeeded so well in sowing dissensions among her enemies, that the whole confederacy dissolved, and left the individuals composing it at her mercy. Some were put to death, and others conciliated ; and in a short time quiet was perfectly restored. The internal administration of Rezia did not fall * Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 217. SLAVE KINGS. 11 short of her policy. She appeared daily on her CHAP. throne in the usual habit of a Sultan ; gave audi- ' ence to all comers, reformed the abuses which had crept in under the last government, revised the laws, decided suits of importance, and evinced all the qualities of a just and able sovereign. But her and weak- talents and virtues were insufficient to protect her from the effects of a single weakness. It was shown in the extraordinary marks of favour which she showered on her Master of the Horse ; who, to make her partiality more degrading, was an Abyssinian slave. It does not appear that her fondness was criminal, since the greatest breach of decorum alleged against her is her allowing the Abyssinian to lift her on her horse. It was, how- ever, imprudent in the highest degree ; for, by raising her favourite to the office of Amir al O'mra*, which gave him rank over all other cour- tiers, she at once disgusted her nobility, and fur- nished them with a plausible ground for exciting a clamour against her. The first who openly rebelled was a Turki Rebellion, chief called Altunia. The queen immediately marched against his fort of Batinda ; but her army mutinied, her favourite was killed in a tumult, and she herself, being made prisoner, was consigned to Altunia, as the safest hands in which she could be placed ; while her brother Behram was raised to the vacant throne. * Literally " Commander of Commanders ; " that is, General in Chief. 12 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Rezia, when force failed her, had again recourse VI. ' to art ; and she so far gained over Altunia by the influence of love or of ambition, that he agreed to marry her, and to assert her rights against his former confederates. Aided by her new consort, the queen assembled an army, and advanced to defeaSd een Delhi ; and it was not till after two bloody battles and put to that she was made prisoner along with her hus- death. band, and both were put to death. Her reign lasted for three years and six months. Moizz u din Behrdm. A.D. 1239, The new king endeavoured, by treachery and A. H. 637. . . i -I in/^i 11 r assassination, to rid nimselr ot the nobles who, tor their own purposes, had raised him to the throne. Mogul Before he had attained his end, his dominions were into P the n invaded by a body of Moguls, who penetrated to Lahor ; and the assemblage of troops which fol- fowed led to new plots and seditions, which ended in his imprisonment and death, after he had reigned two years and two months. Aid u din Masdud. A. D. 1241, The reign of the next Sultan, a son of Rukn u din, was a repetition of the same scenes, increased by the cruelty and licentiousness of the king, until, at the end of little more than two years, he was deposed and put to death. Mogul The only remarkable events of his reign were irruptions. SLAVE KINGS. 13 two irruptions of the Moguls ; the first through CHAP. Tibet into Bengal, the only one recorded from that _ quarter during the period of authentic history ; A - D - 1244, and the other by a division of the army of Manku Khan into the north-western part of the kingdom. The first of these invasions was defeated by the local officers ; the second advanced no further than U'ch, on the joint rivers of the Panjab to the south of Multan. Ndsir u din Mahmud. The twenty years' reign of Nasir u din was full A. D . 1246, A H 644 of disturbances foreign and domestic, though none sufficient to overturn the government. He was the grandson of Altamsh, had been im- prisoned immediately after that prince's death, and, though he had been for some time released and entrusted with a government, he retained the re- tired and studious habits of his youth. He reposed with entire confidence on the conduct of his vizir, Gheiasu whose name was Gheias u din Bulbun. This mi- bun, vizir, nister was a Turki slave of Altamsh, and had been honoured by that monarch with the hand of one of his daughters, the aunt of the reigning king. The great danger was now from the Moguls, who were in possession of all the countries west of the Indus. To guard against it, Bulbun formed the frontier provinces into one great government, at the head of which he placed his relation, Shir Khan, who, like himself, had been a slave. He 14 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK then advised the king to proceed in person to the ' Panjab. While in that province he severely chas- tised the Gakkars for their co-operation with the Moguls in their inroads, and compelled the jagir- dars *, who had long neglected their duty, to fur- nish their contingents with regularity. He next turned his arms against different Hindu rajas, whom the weakness of the preceding reigns A. D. 1247, had tempted to revolt. In the first campaign he A. H. 646, -. , i i 11 to restored the royal authority in the country on both 1 H! 649. ' sides of the Jamna, from opposite Delhi to Calinjer in Bundelcand ; and in the three following years he settled the hilly country of Mewat, extending from near Delhi to the Chambal, the neighbouring territory of Rintambor, and the more remote one of Chitor. He afterwards took the strong fort of Narwar in Buldelcand, reduced Chanderi, and re- covered all the revolted part of Malwa. In an interval of these expeditions he quelled a rebellion of the governor of U'ch ; and, during the same period, Shir Khan, governor of the Panjab, not only kept the Moguls out of his province, but in- vaded their territory and took possession of Ghazni. Removal During most of these operations the king ac- companied the army, and was the ostensible author of all its success. He nevertheless began to feel uneasy in the secondary place which he really occupied, and was induced by the insinuations of Imad u din, an artful courtier, who had risen by * Holders of land on military service. See Vol. I. p. 141. SLAVE KINGS. 15 the favour of the vizir, to remove that minister CHAP. from his post, and to confer it on his secret ac- ' cuser. All the vizir's immediate adherents were soon A - D - A. H. 651. after displaced ; and the misgovernment which fol- Discon- lowed created extensive discontents, and afforded intrigues. a pretext to ten governors of provinces, who pro- bably were in league with Gheias, to unite their troops, and address a remonstrance to the king, fol- lowed up by a demand, in respectful but firm terms, for the dismission of the new minister. No men- tion was made of the displaced vizir, but the object of the confederacy was obvious j and, as resistance would have been hopeless, the king re- called Gheias u din, who thenceforth .was the real head of the government. Imad u din now raised a rebellion, in which he A - D - 1255 A. H. 653, involved a relation of the king's ; and although he to was himself soon taken and put to death, yet a A^ess." confederacy had been formed, including the Hindu raja of a place called Santur and the king's go- vernor of Sind. This rebellion was not entirely quelled till the end of the second year. During the same time another Mogul attack on the Panjab was repelled, and an expedition was afterwards undertaken against the revolted governor A - D - 12 M, A. H. 656. of Karrah Manikpur. A more difficult task was, to put down the inhabitants of Mewat. The vizir went against them, and it was not without great exertion and some danger that he vanquished them in battle, and ultimately reduced their country. 16 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Ten thousand of the insurgents are said to have . been slain. The fierce and turbulent mountaineers A. D. 1259, of Mewat, though their frontier was within twenty- five miles of Delhi, were never entirely quieted until the establishment of the British government. The last event of the reign was the arrival of an ambassador from Holaku Khan, grandson of Chengiz Khan, and himself a very powerful mon- arch. Every exertion was made to give him an honourable reception, and the splendour of the court is described as worthy of the best days of A. D. 1266, the monarchy. No other occurrence is recorded until the death of the king in February, 1266. Nasir u din's private life was that of a dervise. He defrayed all his personal expenses by copying books : his fare was of the humblest description, and was cooked by the queen, to whom he allowed no female servant : he had only one wife, and no concubines. He was an eminent patron of Persian literature. The " Tabakati Nasiri," a general history of Persia and India, which still retains the highest celebrity, was written at his court, and takes its name from him. An instance is told of his temper and courtesy. On showing one of the books he had transcribed to a nobleman of his court, the nobleman pointed out several mistakes, which the king immediately corrected. When the nobleman was gone, he was observed to erase the corrections and restore the old reading ; and when asked his reason, he said he knew that the copy was right all the time, but SLAVE KINGS. 17 thought it better to make the corrections than to CHAP. i. hurt the feelings O f a well-intentioned adviser. Gheids u din jBulbun.* Bulbun being already in possession of all the A . D . powers of king, found no difficulty in assuming the title. He had been brought up from infancy at the court of Altamsh, and had taken an active part in all the intrigues and revolutions of the succeeding enceofthe slaves. reigns. During the life of Altamsh, he had entered into a covenant for mutual support with forty of the king's other slaves, most of whom had attained to high stations. Having gained his own object, he desired to put an end to a system which would have endangered the succession of his family. He therefore, on various pretexts, made away with his surviving confederates (some of them his own near connections by marriage) ; and he hencefortli made it an invariable rule to confer no office but on men of family. So ostentatiously did he exer. Hischa- cise his new policy, that he affected a repugnance r even to ordinary intercourse with people of low origin. He also made it a rule to exclude Hindus from all offices of trust. All his other acts partook of the same contracted spirit. He established laws for the preservation of game round his capital ; and and having exceeded in wine in his early life, he * Often called Balin by English writers. VOL. II. C 18 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK severely punished even the moderate use of it . 1_ after he had reformed. In cases of rebellion, not satisfied with chastising the leaders, as had been usual, he extended capital punishment to the meanest of their vassals and retainers. Stories are told of his inflexible justice ; but they consist in publicly whipping governors of provinces, and sometimes having them beaten to death in his pre- sence. This narrow-minded and selfish tyrant was raised, by circumstances, to the appearance of a liberal and enlightened monarch. The horrors of the Mogul invasion drove men of eminence from the countries to which it extended ; and Bulbun's being the only Mahometan government that was not subverted, his court was filled with illustrious exiles of that religion. He used to boast that no less than fifteen sovereign princes had been de- pendent on his hospitality : he gave the names of their territories to the streets which they inhabited; and his capital long preserved those memorials of Rum, Ghor, Kharizm, Bagdad, and other king- doms. The number of literary fugitives was naturally still more considerable ; and as the king's eldest son, Prince Mohammed, was a young man of the greatest accomplishments, his palace was the resort of all the famous authors of that age. The chief, among many names well known in Persian litera- ture, was the poet Amir Khusru ; on the possession of whose society the prince was congratulated by SLAVE KINGS. 19 Sadi *, who sent him a copy of his works, and CHAP. regretted that his extreme old age prevented his accepting an invitation to Delhi. Bulbun himself had a turn for pomp and magnificence ; so that his court was surrounded by an external splendour which blinded strangers to its real character. He was disturbed by Hindu insurrections on the A - D - 1266 A. H. 665. banks of the Jamna and Ganges, as well as in the mountains of Jud and Mewat. They were created by banditti for the sake of plunder : and here his exterminating system, backed by the erection of garrisons and other prudent precautions, seems to have operated effectually. In Mewat he is said to have put 100,000 persons to the sword ; but he also cut down the forest over a great extent of country ; and, from that time, it afforded support to the husbandman, instead of an asylum to the robber. His only serious rebellion was in Bengal. The Revolt of governor, Togral, having made a successful expe- dition against Jajnagar beyond the river Megnat, had refused to send any portion of the booty to Delhi, and soon after assumed the title of king. A. D . 1279, He totally defeated the first army sent against . him, on which the king hanged the unsuccessful * The celebrated moral poet ; perhaps the best author Persia ever produced. f No\v Tipperah (Hamilton s Hindostan, vol. i. p. 178). Jajnagar has been taken for Jajpur in Cattack, which never was the head place of a district. (See Mr. Stirling, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 274 1 . C 2 20 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK general. Another army having been routed in spite of this severity, he at length moved in person to put down the rebellion. He acted on this occasion with the vigour and ability in which he never was deficient : he set out without waiting till the end of the periodical rains, marched straight to Sunar- gong * (or Sundergong), then capital of the eastern district of Bengal, and struck such terror into the rebel, that he evacuated the open country, and withdrew, with a strong body of troops, into the forests. His retreat was discovered by one of the king's chiefs, who came unexpectedly on the camp, and, though at the head of only forty men, took the desperate resolution of entering it in open day. His small troop advanced without attracting ob- servation till they reached Togral's tent, when they rushed on with loud shouts. Togral and those around him fled with precipitation, imagining the whole of the royal army was upon them : the panic spread to the troops ; the whole dispersed in con- fusion ; and Togral himself was overtaken and slain as he was endeavouring to swim his horse over a river, on his flight towards Jajnagar. Suppressed. The king punished this rebellion with more than his usual severity, and was only prevented going on with his executions after he had returned to his capital, by the intercession of the cazis, muftis, and other learned and venerable men. * It has since been swept away by the Ganges. (Buchanan, quoted by Hamilton, Hindostan, vol. i. p. 187.) SLAVE KINGS. 21 Not long after this he had the misfortune to lose CHAP. his eldest son ; a calamity to his people no less than ' to himself. The prince's death was worthy of the Mogul high character he had acquired. An army of Moguls belonging to Arghun Khan, then king of Persia, had invaded the Panjab, and Prince Mo- hammed, who was governor of the province, hast- ened thither from the capital, where he had gone to meet his father. He defeated the invaders, and had recovered all the country they had overrun, when a fresh army arrived of chosen troops under a celebrated general named Teimur Khan. A sanguinary conflict took place, and the prince victory . ., J . T MI 11 and death gained a complete victory; but was killed by a of the heir body of the enemy, who had kept together during the pursuit. Amir Khusru, the poet, his constant companion, was taken prisoner on the same oc- casion. This loss drew tears from the meanest soldier in the army, and touched the heart even of Bulbun. That monarch had now reached his eightieth year, and was fast sinking under the affliction that had fallen on him, when he summoned his second son, Bakarra Khan, to attend him on his death-bed. His son, finding him in less immediate danger than he expected, returned, without leave, to his pro- vince of Bengal; and Bulbun was so much offended that he sent for Kei Khusru, the son of Prince Mohammed, and immediately declared him his heir. Soon after this act the king died. The ministers, Death of desirous of averting a civil war, proclaimed Kei c 3 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Kobad, the son of Bakarra Khan, and restored Khusru to his father's government of Multan. Both the losing claimants appeared to acquiesce A. D. 1286, in this arrangement, and Kei Kobad mounted the throne without opposition. Kei Kobad. A. D. 1286, The new king, who was in his eighteenth year at his accession, gave way, without restraint, to the intrigues pleasures natural to his age. He was encouraged and power . . * / of the vizir, in his vices by his vizir, JNizam u din, who enter- tained hopes of securing the crown for himself. As Kei Khusru stood immediately in the way of his design, he took advantage of some imprudence on his part to render him an object of jealousy to the king ; and being thus secure of impunity, he procured his assassination. By similar arts he brought about the death or disgrace of all the ministers who were not his own creatures ; and, as his wife's ascendancy was as great in the harem as his was in the court, he held the king entirely cut off from all knowledge but what he thought proper to impart. Massacre Many Mogul adventurers had, at this time, of Mogul . __- .... . . XT . , taken service at Delhi : it was an object to JNizam u din to alienate these useful auxiliaries from the king; and he worked on that prince's fears by pretending a correspondence between them and their hostile countrymen, until he induced him to invite their chiefs to a banquet, and put them treacherously to death. SLAVE KINGS. 2 Before his schemes were matured, he was in- CHA.P. terrupted by the approach of the king's father, Bakarra Khan, who, hearing of the state of affairs, marched with an army to look after the interests of his family. The vizir easily prevailed on the king to move out to oppose him ; but, when the armies drew near, Bakarra Khan appealed so strongly to his son's affections that the minister could no longer prevent an interview. He en- deavoured to frustrate the effects of it by imposing many humiliating ceremonies on Bakarra Khan, to all which that prince submitted ; until, after re- peated obeisances, he found the king remaining un- moved on his throne ; when, shocked by this un- natural behaviour, he burst into tears. This sight overpowered all the king's resolutions : he leaped from his throne, and ran to throw himself at his father's feet ; and, the father hastening to prevent him, he fell on his neck, and they remained for some minutes weeping in each other's arms, while the whole court was almost as much affected as themselves. When the first transport was over, Kei Kobad seated his father on the throne, and showed him every mark of love and reverence. All thoughts of war were now at an end ; but, after repeated interviews, Bakarra Khan found that the vizir's vigilance, and his power over the enfeebled mind of the king, rendered it impossible to subvert his authority by peaceful means ; and, being unwilling, or unable, to resort to force, he returned to Bengal, and left his son to his fate. c 4> HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VI. Murder of the vizir. The king dethroned and put to death. A. D. 1288, A. H. 687. Kei Kobad plunged anew into all sorts of de- bauchery ; and to such excess, that, at that early age, he entirely broke his constitution and brought on an attack of palsy. Being now driven on re- flection, he perceived all the dangers of his situ- ation ; and, unable to rid himself of his minister by honourable means, he had recourse to the lessons with which he had been made familiar, and suc- ceeded, before long, in taking him off by poison. The removal of this predominating influence served only to let loose a number of other enemies, all eager to seize on the power which the king was unable himself to retain. The ascendancy of the slaves about the court had been destroyed by the policy of Bulbun, and the contest was now between the principal military leaders ; and, as the native Indians were not yet of sufficient importance to form a party, the only competitors were the Tartar chiefs and those of the old kingdom of Ghazni or Ghor. The Khiljis seem, from the ability of their chief, or some ad- vantage of their own, to have been at the head of the latter class : they prevailed over the Tartars, and Jelal u din Khilji was raised to the throne, after the way had been opened for him by the as- sassination of Kei Kobad. * * Ferishta calls the competitors of the Khiljis, Moguls ; but it is impossible to believe in the ascendancy of that tribe, any more than in the disappearance of the Turks, at so early a period. The pretender set up by the Tartars was, moreover, the son of Kei Kobad, a natural object of choice to them for SLAVE KINGS. 2 his Turki descent, but of aversion to the Moguls for his father's CHAP. massacre of their chiefs. The succession of kings of Delhi which commenced with Kutb u din, is by some considered as a continuation of the line of Ghor ; but most oriental writers include those princes along with E'ldoz, and one or two others, in a dynasty to which they give the name of ei the slaves of the Sultans of Ghor." O HISTORY OF INDIA, HOUSE OF KHILJI. CHAP. II. JELAL U DfN KHILJI.* BOOK JELAL u DIN was seventy years of age when he VI. came to the government. A. H. 687.' He affected extreme regret at having his high office forced on him, and professed the utmost re- spect and attachment for the memory of Gheias u din. He over-acted humility so far as to refuse to enter the royal palace on horseback, and to stand at his usual station in the court instead of occupy- ing the throne. But he kept the infant son of the late king in custody, and put him to death as soon as he felt strong enough for such a measure. Mild go- If this last atrocity be imputed to him on false ITjMiu grounds, which is not improbable, we should be inclined to acquit him of hypocrisy in all his for- mer professions ; for, during the rest of his reign, his lenity to his enemies, both open and secret, was carried even to a fault ; and he continued to * For the origin of the Khiljis, see Vol. I. p. 528. Though Turks by descent, they had been so long settled among the Afghans that they had almost become identified with that people : but they probably mixed more with other nations, or at least with their Turki brethren, and would be more civilised than the generality of Afghan mountaineers. HOUSE OF KHILJI. 2 retain the simplicity of his manners, and to asso- CHAP. ciate with his old friends on the same footing of _ familiarity that he did when a private man. He had frequent parties of those friends, together with men eminent for wit or literature ; and, on those occasions, he carried conviviality beyond the limits of the Mahometan law, though never beyond those of sobriety. He had soon occasion to display his clemency. Malik Jaju, a nephew of Gheias u din, rebelled against him in his government of Karrah, and was joined by all the adherents of the house of Bui- bun. They were soon strong enough to march to Delhi, but were defeated by the king's second son, Arkalli Khan ; and all the chiefs, including Malik Jaju, were made prisoners. The king immediately released them all, and sent Malik Jaju to Multan, where he allowed him a liberal establishment for the rest of his days. He soon after showed equal magnanimity towards a body of chiefs of his own tribe, who were detected in a plot against his life. Unfortunately he did not confine his lenity to personal injuries, but al- lowed so general an impunity to offenders, that the whole frame of the government became relaxed ; governors withheld their tribute, neglected their duty, and abused their power ; the roads and high- ways were infested by robbers, and bands of plun- derers and insurgents interrupted the communi- cation between different parts of the kingdom. He marched, himself, into Malwa, to quell an * 28 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK insurrection of a more general character. He was VI. successful in the main ; yet, from his aversion to shed blood, combined with the feebleness of age, he hesitated to attack the principal fortresses of the rebels, and left his suppression of the revolt incom- plete. He showed more vigour soon after, on an invasion of the Panjab by a numerous host of Moguls, whom he engaged in person, and totally defeated. With characteristic moderation, he granted peace to the vanquished enemy, and allowed the wreck of their army to retire unmolested. Three thousand Moguls on this occasion joined his stand- ard, and soon after embraced the Mahometan re- ligion. A place in the suburbs of Delhi, still called Moghulpura, was assigned for their residence. A. D. 1293, In the next year he made another march to A. H. 692. Malwa, which was as inconclusive as the first. His own weakness, however, began, at this time, to be vigour of made up for by the energy of his nephew, Ala th* king"' u din, governor of Karrah, a man of vigour and nephew. gjjjiity^ quite exempt from all the scruples which sometimes obstructed his uncle's success. Having obtained permission to act against the insurgents in Bundelcand and the east of Malwa, he not only restrained their turbulence, but took several forts which had before been left to dependent princes, and gained such a booty as enabled him to make considerable additions to his army. The king re- ceived the intelligence of his success with great satisfaction ; and, although his favourite wife en- HOUSE OF KHILJI. 29 deavoured to put him on his guard against the am- CHAP. bition of Ala u din, he gave him the government . ' of Oud, in addition to that which he before pos- sessed, and allowed him to assemble an army, and to entertain many of the old adherents of the Bui- bun family, Ala u din's first employment of his force justified AM u din's his uncle's confidence, and opened a new aera in of the the history of India. He resolved to attempt the A .^. ^"94, hitherto untried adventure of an invasion of the A ' "" 693 ' Deckan ; and, setting out with 8000 chosen horse from Karrah, made his way through the extensive forests that still fill the space between that place and Berar ; threw the princes, whose country he was approaching, off their guard, by pretending to have left his uncle in disgust; and, having thus reached to E'lichpur, he turned to the west, and proceeded, by rapid marches, to Deogiri, the main object of his expedition. Deogiri (now Doulata- bad) was the capital of Ramdeo, a prince of so great power that the Mahometans look on him as king of the Decka'n, and who, in fact, was raja of Maharashtra, or the country of the Marattas. It was probably owing to the natural indolence of the Rajputs, and their deeming it dishonourable to attack each other without warning, that the Mussulman invaders so often found them unpre- pared for defence. Their example seems to have infected the other Hindu chiefs ; for, on this occa- sion, the raja was in all the security of profound peace. He had no troops about him ; and his wife HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and son had gone out of the city to a neighbouring temple. In the consternation which ensued, Ram- deo preserved presence of mind sufficient to as- semble a body of 3000 or 4000 citizens and do- mestics. With these he made head against the enemy, and afforded some little time for defensive arrangements. He was obliged to give way before long, and retired into the strong hill fort close to the city, into which some provisions had hastily been thrown. The town was taken without re- sistance, and was given up to pillage. The mer- chants were tortured to make them disclose the treasures (the first instance mentioned in Mussul- man history of this species of barbarity) ; and forty elephants, with some thousand horses of the raja's, fell into the hands of the enemy. Mean- while, the fort was invested ; and Ala u din, having given out that his army was only the advanced guard of the king's, the arrival of which would speedily render all opposition unavailing, the raja became impatient to come to terms, and had ac- tually concluded a treaty very favourable to the invaders, when his son, who had escaped being shut up with his father, returned at the head of an army suddenly assembled, but far exceeding that of the Mussulmans in numbers. Trusting to this superiority, he disregarded the remonstrances of his father, and attacked Ala u din. The result would have gone hard with the invader, if a small body of troops which he had left to observe the garrison had not opportunely fallen on the enemy, HOUSE OF KH1LJI. 31 and, being taken for the expected main army under CHAP. the king, created a confusion which could not be ' retrieved. After this victory, Ala u din raised his demands ; and, as the raja expected reinforce- ments from his allies, the affair might have been prolonged more than was safe for Ala u din, had not the garrison unexpectedly discovered that, in the hurry of victualling the fort, sacks of salt had been taken by mistake instead of sacks of grain, and consequently that their provisions were already nearly exhausted. This discovery made the raja more compliant : he agreed to an immense pay- ment in money and jewels, besides the cession of E'lichpur and its dependencies ; after which Ala u din drew off through Candesh into Malwa. Ala u din's march to Deogiri was about 700 Submission . . ofDeogiri. miles, great part of it through the mountains and forests of the Vindya range, which so completely separates Hindostan from the Deckan. The nar- row and intricate paths, the want of supplies, and the danger of exposure to the arrows of the moun- taineers, made the passage difficult for a small force, and impossible for a large one ; while the entry into so great and populous a country as the Deckan, with no more than 8000 men, seemed an act of rashness rather than courage. To have surmounted these dangers, and obviated, by exploring a new route, the increased difficulty of returning by the same, give a high impression of the military talents of Ala u din. The pretext he used on his advance, that he was on his way 02 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK to enter the service of the Hindu raja of Raja- mandri, shows how much religious distinctions were weakened since the settlement of the Ma- hometans in India. Return to This expedition had been undertaken without Hmdostan. leave ; and, as all communication had been cut off while it continued, Jelal u din remained in sus- pense and anxiety, both as to the fate and the de- signs of his nephew ; and when he heard that he was on his return, loaded with treasures and covered with glory, he felt nothing but delight at the in- telligence. The more sagacious of his advisers took a different view of the matter ; and, seeing fresh proofs of the daring spirit of Ala u din, as well as of the resources at his disposal, they ad- vised the king to adopt such measures of precaution as, without showing distrust, should prevent his assembling another army when the present should have dispersed to lay up their spoils. The generous temper of the king led him to disregard all these admonitions, and laid him open to the insidious designs of Ala u din, who now affected alarm from the cabals of his enemies, and fear of the king's displeasure for his unauthorised expedition. He sent his brother, Alaf Khan, as crafty an intriguer as himself, and remarkable for his insinuating ad- dress, to deprecate his uncle's resentment, and in- duce him to meet Ala u din in such a manner as, under pretence of affording security to his nephew, should, in fact, leave none to himself. By degrees, he was persuaded to move with his army towards HOUSE OF KHILJI. 33 Karrah ; then to advance with a small escort, and CHAP. at last to cross the Ganges almost alone. Ala u din fell at his feet, and the affectionate old man was patting him on the cheek, and reproaching him with having distrusted an uncle who had brought him up from his infancy and loved him better than his own sons, when Ala u din made a signal to assassins posted for the purpose, who rushed forward and stabbed the king to the heart. A His head was stuck on a spear and carried aloft l through the camp and city. Ferishta shows a A. 0.1295, i-i , i Jul y 19 - natural pleasure in relating the calamities which A . H. 695, pursued the subordinate actors in this horrid tra- gedy to their graves : but that retribution affords little satisfaction while we continue to witness the uninterrupted prosperity of the parricide in whom the whole of this detestable act of perfidy had its rise. As Jelal u din had reigned upwards of seven years, he must have been more than seventy-seven when he was killed. A singular incident occurred in this reign, which singular ,,.,,,... . , instance of snows the credulity or the Asiatics even at a period credulity i i i r A i ' " ' i an d injus- not remarkable for superstition. A dervise named tice. Sidi Moula, a native of Persia, who had travelled through many countries, and was acquainted with most men of eminence in his day, arrived at Delhi, and instituted a school and an almshouse, where travellers, religious mendicants, and persons of all descriptions were entertained at his expense. He lived on rice alone, and had neither wife nor slaves VOL. ir. D HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK of either sex ; yet his expenses were such as would have exceeded the means of the wealthiest noble- man. Besides his profuse dispensation of charity, he entertained the great men with splendour at his house, and did not hesitate to bestow sums of two or three thousand pieces of gold to relieve noble families in distress. Although he held some pe- culiar opinions, and among others never attended public worship, yet his piety remained unques- tioned ; and even among the suspicions to which his conduct gave birth, the cry of heresy was never raised against him. The first surmise regarding him was that he possessed the philosopher's stone ; the next took a more dangerous form, and repre- sented him as aiming at the crown ; and this at last appeared in the definite shape of an accusation that he had prepared assassins to make away with the king, and had 10,000 of his votaries ready to profit by the confusion. The mysterious nature of the danger seems to have frightened the king out of his natural moderation. On the accusation of an alleged accomplice he apprehended Sidi Moula, and his most considerable associate ; and, being unable to convict them on the evidence of one suspected witness, he ordered a large fire to be made on a plain before the town, to allow them to prove their innocence by an ordeal which they probably had appealed to. When the time came, the ministers raised their voices against the pro- ceeding as equally opposed to Mahometan law and to natural reason ; and the king, giving way to HOUSE OF KHILJI. 35 their remonstrances, ordered the accused persons to CHAP. be kept in confinement. As they were leading them away to prison, some Calenders (a sort of religious mendicants), countenanced, if not instigated, by the king, fell on Sidi Moula, and put him to death in the royal presence. With his last breath he protested his innocence, and denounced the curse that impended over his oppressor. Jelal u din was greatly troubled at the moment : a dark whirlwind which happened just then to arise increased the general horror ; and the death of the king's eldest son, which took place soon after, together with a failure of the rains and a famine which followed, as well as the awful termination of the monarch's own life, and the exclusion of his immediate family from the throne, were ascribed to the Divine vengeance for this act of impiety and injustice. Ala u din. When the accounts of the late king's death A - D - 1295 A. H. 695. reached Delhi, his widow made a feeble attempt to set up her own son, an infant, in his place : on the approach of Ala u din she fled to Multan, where the only other surviving son of Jelal u din was go- vernor ; but the whole family were inveigled from this asylum by means of a fallacious promise, when the two princes were put to death and the queen imprisoned. Ala u din studiously endeavoured to recover the goodwill of his people, by his just exercise of the D 2 36 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK power he had obtained by so many atrocities. He ' was liberal in bestowing wealth and honours, and was profuse in gifts as well as in shows and magni- ficence : but as in the midst of his course of con- ciliation he could not refrain from acts of rapacity, and never repressed his arbitrary temper, he was only partially successful in his attempts to gain popularity : and, although his reign was long and glorious, he was always disturbed by conspiracies and rebellions, and disquieted by suspicions even of his own family and of those most trusted by him. A. D. 1297, His first great undertaking was an expedition to Expedition Guzerat. Shahab u din's garrison had long been withdrawn, and the raja had recovered his inde- pendence. The present conquest was final. Alif Khan, the king's brother, and his vizir, Nusrat Khan, who were at the head of the army, almost immediately took possession of the province ; the raja flying to Baglana, the nearest part of the Deckan. A harsh attempt to compel the troops to give up their plunder, while on their return towards Delhi, brought on a dangerous mutiny, in which the vizir's brother and the king's nephew lost their lives. It was at last quelled, and many of the mutineers were killed ; the survivors took refuge with the raja of Rintambor. Their families, in- cluding the women and children, were massacred by the king's order. The fugitives themselves, who appear to have been Mogul converts (always HOUSE OF KHILJI. 3? the chief actors in scenes of turbulence in those CHAP. days), were put to death when Rintambor was ' taken.* During the preceding year an incursion of the Mogul in- Moguls into the Panjab had been repulsed with loss ; and another, equally unsuccessful, took place about this time. It was followed up by a more serious invasion, apparently designed for conquest as well as plunder, t The commander was Kutlugh * The emperor Baber, who, though a Turk, was himself de- scended by the mother's side from Mogul ancestors, gives the following account of the Moguls in his service: " The horde of Moguls have uniformly been the authors of every kind of mischief and devastation : down to the present time they have five times rebelled against me." (Erskines Saber, p. 69.) f At least eleven of these invasions are mentioned by Ferishta, not one of which is noticed by De Guignes, D'Her- belot, or Price, in their accounts of the Mogul transactions ; and although there is a long list in D'Ohson (vol. iv. p. 559.), yet they are all given on the authority of Ferishta. It is not improbable that the cruel ravages by which they were marked may have led the Indian historians to overrate the importance of the ordinary incursions ; but, in some in- stances, especially in the present one, the silence of the Euro- pean writers may perhaps be ascribed to the imperfect inform- ation they possess respecting Mogul affairs in the east of Persia and in Transoxiana. The commander of the last expedition is called Choldi Khan by Ferishta; and Touldai Khan was one of the officers of Ghazan Khan, then king of Persia. (Price, vol. ii. p. 605.) The most conspicuous general of the same monarch was Kutlugh Shah, who was at Herat in this year, A. n. 1297. (Price, vol. ii. p. 616., and De Guignes, vol. iii. p. 270.), and might possibly have led an expedition to India, though circum- stances make it improbable. Opposed to this coincidence of names, which would lead us to suppose these invasions to have been made by the Moguls of Persia, is the positive assertion of D 3 38 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ' Serums m- vasion by the MO- Their de- feat at Delhi. Khan, whom Ferishta describes as the son of Daud Khan, king of Transoxiana. He marched straight fa Ddhj, the Indian army which had been sent to J oppose him retreating as he advanced, and the whole population of the surrounding country flying to the capital. So great was the crowd of fugitives that all com- munication through the streets was interrupted ; the provisions were almost immediately consumed, and in a few days famine was added to the miseries and terrors of the inhabitants. Ala u din was forced in these circumstances to give up his intention of declining an action. He moved out at the head of all the troops he could collect ; and Ferishta alleges that the number of men assembled on both sides exceeded all that ever appeared in one place in India up to the time when he wrote. This most important contest was gained by Ala u din, almost entirely from the skill displayed by Zafar Khan, who was before his most distinguished general. But the great services of that gallant chief had already rendered him an object of jealousy to Ala u din, and no less to Alif Khan, who pur- Ferishta, that they and all the subsequent inroads originated in Daud Khan, king of Transoxiana, who, by his account, was the father of Kutlugh Khan. Daud Khan is evidently the Doizi or Davat Khan mentioned by De Guignes (vol. iii. p. 311., and note) as king of Transoxiana ; and Kutlugh is so common a Mogul name that two persons may very probably have borne it at the same time. There does not, therefore, seem to be any ground for doubting Ferishta's account. HOUSE OF KH1LJI. 39 posely left him unsupported during the pursuit; CHAP. and the Moguls, perceiving his reduced numbers, ' turned upon him and cut him to pieces, with his detachment, after a resistance worthy of his former exploits. About a year after this deliverance, Ala u din A . D . 1299, dispatched an army, under his brother and the vizir, to reduce the hill fort of Rintambor.* They took a place called Jhayin, not far from Rintambor, and proceeded to lay siege to that fortress. In the commencement of the operations the vizir was killed by a stone from an engine ; and the gar- rison, making a sally, compelled the besiegers to fall back on Jhayin, and wait for reinforcements from Delhi. Ala u din, on this, determined to Designs of prosecute the siege in person, and had made some nephewf s progress on his march, when he had nearly fallen a victim to a crime of which he had himself set the example. His nephew, Prince Soliman, who held one of the highest offices in the state, reflecting on the resemblance between his own situation and that from which the present king had risen to the throne, was led to think that a similar attempt on his part might be attended with equal success. A He at- favourable opportunity soon presented itself, when J^ESe the king was hunting at a distance from the camp, the king> and was left with only two or three attendants, in consequence of the occupations of the chase. At * It does not appear when this place was lost. It was be- sieged by insurgents, and defended by the king of Delhi's troops, in A. D. 1259. D 4 40 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK this moment, Soliman approached him with some _ of the newly converted Moguls ; and before he had any suspicion of their purpose, they discharged their arrows at him with such effect that he fell senseless on the ground. Soliman, conceiving that his object was accomplished, gallopped directly to the camp, announced the king's death and his own accession, and directed himself to be formally pro- claimed. While he was seated on his throne, and receiving the homage of the great officers, Ala u din came gradually to himself; and, after his wounds were bound up, determined to proceed to join his brother at Jhayin. He was dissuaded from this by one of his officers, who advised him not to give his nephew time to establish his authority, but to show himself to the army, whose fidelity he had no reason to distrust. Ala u din saw the wisdom of his advice, and mounting his horse, wounded as he was, he proceeded towards the camp. He met some foraging parties on his way, by which his retinue was increased to about 500 horse. With this escort, he presented himself on an eminence, in full view of the camp, and displayed the white umbrella, which was then the sign of sovereignty. He was no sooner perceived than the whole army flocked to join him ; and the usurper, finding him- self left almost alone, mounted his horse, and sought His failure for safety in a precipitate flight. He was over- and death. ? . taken, and his head brought to the king, who put the other conspirators to death. Other dis- The king then proceeded to join his brother, turbances quelled. HOUSE OF KHILJI. and soon after resumed the siee of Rintambor. CHAP But his utmost efforts were insufficient to take the place ; and, before long, he received intelligence of the revolt of two of his other nephews, at Badayun. He did not think it necessary to move himself on this occasion : he suppressed the rebellion by means of his officers ; and when his nephews were sent to him, he first put out their eyes, and afterwards ordered them to be beheaded. The ill success of these rebellions did not pre- vent the occurrence of another of a still more ex- traordinary character. Haji Moula, a young slave of one of the principal families in Delhi, took ad- vantage of some discontent against the chief ma- gistrate of police to collect a mob and put him to death, under pretence of an order from the king ; and having thus got a body of infuriated followers, he proceeded to take possession of the city, to release the prisoners, distribute the royal arms and treasures among his adherents, and to set up a prince of the royal family for king. The decided conduct of a local officer prevented the ill effects of this explosion. He contrived to introduce a body of troops into the capital, killed Haji Moula, dispersed his rabble, and put his new king to death. Many executions followed by the king's order ; and, amongst others, the whole family of Haji Moula's former master. Men, women, and chil- dren were slaughtered, without a charge against them. At length, Rintambor fell after a siege of more u. 42 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK than a year. The raja, with his family, and the ' garrison, were put to the sword. In tne y ear !303, Ala u din went, in person, A. D. 1303, against Chitor, a celebrated hill fort in Mewar, and A. H. 703. & Capture of tne principal seat of the Rajput tribe of Sesodia. He took the fort, made the raja prisoner, and left the eldest of his own sons as governor. Next year the raja escaped, and made himself so formidable, that Ala u din found it prudent to make over the fort to another Rajput prince, named Maldeo, who, by Ferishta's account, was a nephew of the raja, but who is represented by the Rajputs as a person of another family. Maldeo remained tri- butary to Delhi until near the end of Ala u din's reign, when he was expelled by Hamir, a son of the former raja.* Ala u din was recalled from these conquests by a new Mogul invasion and another attack on Delhi, ogus. j_jj g f orce was so muc h weakened by detachments, that when he arrived at the capital he was unable to meet the enemy in the field, and obliged to in- trench his camp. The Moguls, who, probably, were not prepared for protracted operations, withdrew without a bat- tle ; and their retreat was ascribed, by the piety of the age, to a panic sent among them on the prayer of Nizam u din Oulia, a celebrated saint then alive. A. B. In the next two vears there were three 1304-5, A. H. * The descendant of this family is now rana of Oudipur, the chief of the Rajput princes. HOUSE OF KHILJI. 43 inroads, one of which penetrated, by the north of CHAP. the Panjab, into Rohilcand. ' On all those occasions the prisoners were sent to Delhi, where the chiefs were trampled to death by elephants, and the men butchered in cold blood.* These were the last Mogul invasions for many Disconti- nuance of years. their in- Though Ala u din's continual occupation since his accession had, in some measure, withdrawn his ^' t! J e JJeckan. attention from the Deckan, he had not forgotten the scene of his early exploits. At the time of his own expedition to Chitor (A. D. 1303, A. H. 703), he sent an army through Bengal, to attack War- angol, the capital of Telingana, situated to the south of the river Godaveri ; and he now pre- pared a great force, for the purpose of reducing the raja of Deogiri, who had, of late, withheld his tribute. Malik Cafur, who commanded this army, was a eunuch, and had been the slave of a mer- chant at Cambay, from whom he was taken, by force, during the conquest of Guzerat. Having come into the king's possession, he so completely won his master's affections that he rose to the highest offices, and excited the utmost disgust among the nobles by his rapid promotion from so base an origin. He now proceeded through A . D . isoe, Malwa, and by Sultanpur in Candesh, to Deogiri. Before he commenced the siege, he overran the greater part of the Maratta country ; and so im- * Ferishta says 9000 on one occasion. 44 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK pressed Ram Deo with the impossibility of resist- ! ance, that he came out of his fortress, and agreed to accompany Cafur to Delhi. He was there re- ceived with favour, returned loaded with honours, and from that time forward remained faithful to the Mussulmans. A circumstance occurred during this expedition which deserves to be mentioned. Khan, governor of Guzerat, (who must be cess Dewai distinguished from A'lif Khan, the king's brother,) Devi. had been directed to march to Deogiri, to co- operate with Cafur. His road lay through Bag- lana, where the fugitive raja of Guzerat had taken refuge, as has been related. This raja's wife, Caula Devi, had been taken prisoner during his flight ; and having been carried to Ala u din's harem, had gained a great share of his favour by her beauty and talents. On hearing of the in- tended march of these forces, she entreated that means might be taken to recover her daughter by the raja, who still remained with the exiled prince. Alp Khan was enjoined to attend to this object, and endeavoured, by the offer of favourable terms, to prevail on the raja to give up his daughter. The raja rejected his overtures, and Alp Khan marched against him. The princess, whose name was Dewal Devi, had long been sued for by the son of Ram Deo, the raja of Deogiri ; but her father, considering a Maratta, however high in station, as an unworthy match for the daughter of a Rajput, had rejected all his offers. In the pre- sent extremity, however, he gave a reluctant con- HOUSE OF KHILJI. 45 sent, and the princess was sent off, with an escort, CHAP. to Deogiri. Immediately after her departure, Alp ' Khan succeeded in defeating and dispersing the raja's army. His victory afforded him little satis- faction, when he found that the princess had escaped him ; and knowing the influence of Caula Devi, and the impetuous temper of the king, he gave up his whole attention to the means of ac- complishing an object which they had both so much at heart. His utmost efforts were not at- tended with success ; and he had arrived within a march of Deogiri without hearing any tidings of the princess, when a party who had gone from his camp to see the caves of Ellora happened, by mere chance, to fall in with her escort ; and being under the necessity of fighting in self-defence, they dis- persed the escort, and captured the princess, before they were aware of the importance of their acqui- r sition. Alp Khan, delighted with his prize, im- mediately marched with her to Delhi. Her beauty made such an impression on the king's eldest son, Khizr Khan, that he soon after married her ; and their loves are the subject of a celebrated Persian poem, by Amir Khusru. This incident is remarkable, as showing the in- termixture which had already taken place between the Hindus and Mahometans ; and also as leading to the first mention of the caves of Ellora, which have been compared, as works of labour, to the pyramids of Egypt, and which, in reality, far sur- pass them as specimens of art. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK During this expedition of Cafur, the king, in ' person, reduced Jhalor and Sewana, places in Marwar, to the north of Guzerat. A. D. 1309, After the return of Cafur, according to Ferishta, A. H. 709. ^y^ u ftfa received accounts of the failure of his Failure of an expedi- expedition to Warangol. He had been induced to tion to T- . _ _. 1 imgana. send it by an unexplored route from Bengal, in j consequence of the solicitation of the raja of Orissa, who had become jealous of the extension of his neighbour's power.* It is not recorded how it failed, or how the contest was so long protracted. Cafur was sent to retrieve the disaster. He marched byDeogiri, ravaged the north of Telingana, gained a great victory in the field, took the strong fort of Warangol after a siege of some months, and com- pelled the raja to pay a large contribution and submit to permanent tribute. A.D. 1310, Next year Cafur was again sent to the Deckan, A. H. 710. against the Belal raia of Carnata.t He marched Conquest ofCamata, by Deogiri, crossed the Godaveri, at Peitan, and penetrated, after a great battle, to Dwara Samudra, the capital, which he took ; and, having made the raja prisoner, put an end to the dynasty of Belal.t and of He does not appear to have invaded the western to Cape' part of the Belal possessions ; but he reduced the Comorin. * Wilson's Introduction to the Mackenzie Catalogue, p.cxxxii. For an account of the principality of Warango"!, see Vol. I. p. 417. f See Vol.1, p. 41 6. \ Wilson's Introduction to the Mackenzie Collection, p. cxiii. Dwara Samudra was situated in the heart of Carnata, about 100 miles north-west of Seringapatam, where its ruins still remain. (Buchanan s Journey, vol. Hi. p. 391.) HOUSE OF KHILJI. 47 whole of their eastern territory, including Maaber CHAP. on the sea coast, as far south as Rameshwar, or Adam's Bridge, opposite Ceylon. He there built a mosque, which was still standing when Ferishta wrote.* After this expedition, Cafur returned, with vast treasures, to Delhi.t * Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 373. Maaber (the place of crossing over) has very generally been supposed to be Malabar, as well from the resemblance of the names as from the position of the latter country in reference to Arabia ; but there is no doubt that the appellation really applies to the tract on the opposite coast, extending north from Rameshwar. (See Mars- den's Marco Polo, p. 626. note.) That Maaber in this sense was included in the Belal kingdom, appears from Professor Wilson's Introduction to the Mackenzie Collection, vol. i. p. cxi. It . remained united to Delhi for twenty or thirty years, till near the middle of the fourteenth century ; about which time Ibn Batiita crossed from Ceylon to Maaber, and found it in the possession of a Mahometan family, who had shortly before ac- quired it, in consequence of the revolt of Jelal u din Hasan, a sherif or seiad, who had been a subject of Mohammed Tdghlak. The revolt of Seiad Hasan in Maaber against Mohammed Toghlak is also mentioned by Ferishta. (Briggs, vol. i. p. 423.) It is not probable that Cafur conquered the western territory of the Belals ; because it appears from Wilks's " Mysore " that the remains of that family retired to Tonur near Seringapatam ; and Ibn Batuta found Malabar (which he visited on his way to, and on his return from, Maaber) in the hands of Hindu princes, except Honawar, which was held by a Mussulman under the sovereignty of a Hindu. The Mussulman religion had been introduced in that quarter from Arabia, some centuries before Ala u din's invasion of the Deckan ; and it did not become the dominant one until the conquest of Malabar by Heider Ali. ( Ferishta states that, at this time, there was no silver coin- age in the Carnatic ; and Colonel Briggs observes that the same was true, to a certain extent, till very lately : the common coin 48 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VI. Massacre of Mogul converts. A. D. 1311, A. H. 711. A. D. 1312, A. H. 712. Taking of Deogiri, and con- quest of Maharash- tra. Intrigues and influ- ence of Cafur. It seems to have been about this time that Ala u din at once discharged the whole of the Mogul converts from his service. Though habitually tur- bulent, they seem to have given no immediate occasion for this violent and imprudent measure. Being now driven to despair, some of them entered on a plot to assassinate the king ; and on its being detected, the king ordered the whole of them (amounting, according to Ferishta, to 15,000) to be massacred, and their families to be sold for slaves. Ram Deo had died before, or during, Cafur's last expedition ; and his son, who succeeded him, was already suspected of disaffection. He now withheld his tribute ; and some disturbances having likewise taken place in Carnata, Cafur once more set out to quell them. He put the raja of Deogiri to death, and carried his arms over all Maharashtra and Carnata, compelling those princes who still retained their territories to pay tribute ; and, after accomplishing all the objects of his expedition, he returned again to Delhi. Ala u din's constitution had by this time yielded to a long course of intemperance. His ill health made him more suspicious and irritable than ever ; and, like most people who distrust the bulk of mankind, he was the dupe of one artful individual. This was Cafur, the extent of whose abilities was was the pagoda, and there was a small coin called a gold fanam, as low in value as a sixpence. HOUSE OF KHILJI. 49 equalled by the depravity of his principles. The CHAP. use he made of his influence was to destroy all who he thought might rival him in favour, and afterwards to irritate the king against his sons, and the queen their mother, who might otherwise have found means to reconcile him to his children. Cafur first encouraged him in the notion that he was slighted and neglected by them in his illness, and at last in- fused suspicions that they were plotting against his life. Ala u din, notwithstanding his unfeeling nature, seems to have had some affection for his offspring ; so that it was not till near his end that Cafur pre- vailed on him, by innumerable artifices, to commit the two eldest princes and the queen to prison. At the same time Cafur procured an order to make away with Alp Khan, whose power he dreaded, and thus to remove the only remaining obstacle to his seizing on the government on his master's death. Meanwhile the king's blind subjection to his favourite, and the increased tyranny of his admi- nistration, excited general discontent. The nobles of the court were disgusted. Guzerat broke into Revolt of open rebellion. It was at this time that Chitor was recovered by Rana Hamir j and Harpal, the j f h h e it6r son-in-law of Ratndeo, raised an extensive insur- R ajp uts - rection in the Deckan, and expelled many Ma- hometan garrisons. The paroxysms of rage produced by a succession of these tidings increased the king's sufferings, and VOL. II. E HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK soon brought him to the brink of the grave. His * end is said to have been accelerated by poison, Aifu at. administered by Cafur. A^D. 1^316, g o g rea t i s the effect of vigour in a despotism, A. H. 716, that although Ala u din was ignorant and capri- Shawal 6. ... His cha- cious, as well as cruel and tyrannical, yet his foreign conquests were among the greatest ever made in India, and his internal administration, in spite of many absurd and oppressive measures, was, on the whole, equally successful. Quiet and security pre- vailed throughout the provinces ; wealth increased, and showed itself in public and private buildings, and in other forms of luxury and improvement. Ala u din was so absolutely illiterate, that he began to learn to read after he had been for some time on the throne ; yet so arrogant, that his most ex- perienced ministers durst not venture to contradict him, and the best informed men about his court were careful to keep down their knowledge to the level of his acquirements. Nor did this presump- tion wear off with his youth : it increased in his , latter days to such a pitch, that every word he uttered was considered as irrevocable. In the com- mencement of his career of prosperity, he enter- tained thoughts of setting up for a prophet, and founding a new religion ; and when he had laid aside that fancy, he assumed the title of " The Second Alexander," and publicly discussed a pro- ject of universal conquest. His inter- Some curious features are preserved of his policy, nalpolicy ' and that of his age. HOUSE OF KHILJI. 51 At the time when he had been so often threat- CHAP. ened by conspiracies, he called his counsellors together to consider the causes and the remedy. They traced his danger to three principal sources : convivial meetings, where men opened their secret thoughts to each other ; connections between great nobles, especially by intermarriages ; and, above all, the unequal distribution of property, and the accumulation of wealth by governors of pro- vinces. The king concurred in these opinions : he forbade the use of wine, and prohibited all pri- vate meetings and political discussions among the nobles of his court, till, at length, no man could entertain his friends without a written order from the vizir. No marriage among the nobility was allowed without a licence from the crown. Farmers were limited to a certain quantity of land, and a certain number of cattle and servants. Graziers, in like manner, were restricted as to the number of their flocks and herds. Official emoluments .were reduced ; the land tax was increased, and more rigorously exacted ; and, at last, the king became so rapacious, that the private property both of Mussulmans and Hindus was confiscated without a cause, so that men were almost reduced to a level over all the empire.* Among other measures of Ala u din's, one was * It is difficult to reconcile this statement, the last words of which are Ferishta's, with the same author's glowing account of the general prosperity; but it is probable the unfavourable picture only applies to the last years of the reign. E 2 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK for fixing rates for the prices of all articles. This ' plan originated in a wish to reduce the pay of the troops, which the king thought would be unjust unless the expense of living was lowered likewise. Accordingly, prices were fixed for grain, cattle, horses, &c., and for all other commodities, which were classed for the purpose.* Everything was in- cluded except labour. Public granaries were con- structed ; importation was encouraged ; exporta- tion forbidden ; money was advanced to merchants to enable them to import goods. Wholesale pur- chases were not allowed ; hours were fixed for opening and shutting shops ; and the whole was rendered effective by public reports to the king, and the employment of spies and informers to detect breaches of the regulation. A dearth which ensued soon after occasioned a relaxation in enforcing the rules about grain ; and the others, though not rescinded till the next reign, were probably in a great measure neglected after the king had cooled on his scheme. One of Ala u din's maxims was, that " religion had no connection with civil government, but was only the business, or rather amusement, of private life ;" and another, that " the will of a wise prince was oetter than the opinions of variable bodies of men." Ala u din had reigned upwards of twenty years. * Tables of the prices are given in Ferishta, and would be interesting if the value of the coins could be better ascertained. HOUSE OF KH1LJI. CHAP. II. Mobarik Khilji. On the death of Ala u din, Cafur produced a pretended will of that prince, appointing his youngest son, an infant, to be his successor, under the guardianship of Cafur. Having thus gained possession of the govern- ment, Cafur put out the eyes of the king's two eldest sons, and not long after sent assassins to murder the third son, Mobarik. The assassins, however, were won over and induced to spare him ; and before Cafur had time to take further measures, he was himself assassinated by the royal guard, headed by their commander and his lieutenant. Mobarik was immediately raised to the govern- ment. He did not assume the title of king for two months, at the end of which time he deprived A. D . 1317, his infant brother of sight, and sent him to a hill fort for life. He next put to death the two officers who had placed him on the throne, and broke up the guard. He raised several of his slaves to high rank and office, and made one of them, a converted Hindu, to whom he gave the title of Khusru Khan, his vizir ; so that his first acts gave an earnest of the bloody and licentious reign that was to follow. These misdeeds were not entirely unmixed with good actions ; he set free all prisoners, to the num- ber of 17,000 ; a sweeping measure, which could only have been commendable after a reign like the E 3 54> HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK preceding. He restored the lands confiscated by Ala u din, removed his oppressive taxes, and abo- lished his restrictions on trade and property. His military proceedings in the early part of his reign were not less meritorious. He sent an army to reduce Guzerat, and marched, himself, to the Deckan, where he took Harpal prisoner, and in- A. D. isis, humanly ordered him to be flayed alive. Having A. H. 7i8. completely restored tranquillity, he returned to Delhi, and gave himself up to a course of the most degrading and odious debauchery. One of his amusements was to accompany a troop of actresses in a female habit, and to dance along with them at the houses of the nobility. He was in a constant state of intoxication ; and his chief delight ap- peared to be to display his worst vices to the public. It is not surprising that under such a prince there should be a continual succession of conspiracies and rebellions ; each of which was followed by tortures and executions, and each gave rise to fresh sus- picions, and additional acts of tyranny. Conquest During his expedition to the Deckan, he sent of Malabar. j iis f avour i te , Kliusru, to conquer Malabar, which he effected in the course of a year, and brought a crreat treasure to Delhi. The whole administration A. I). ',>!;;, o A. u. 719. o f ^g government was then confided to him, and Influence of Khusru, every man's life and fortune was at his mercy. He ancyofa put some of the nobility to death, and struck such P aity U at a terror into the rest, that they thought themselves fortunate in being allowed to quit the court, and leave the king to the machinations of his favourite. The opportunity was not lost on Khusru, who HOUSE OF LODI. 55 surrounded the king with his creatures, and filled CHAP. the capital with Hindu troops of his own cast, until at length, when his plot was matured, he per- petrated the murder of his infatuated master, and at once assumed the vacant throne. He put to A. . 1321, death all the survivors of the family of Ala u din, A . 1,^721, : and transferred Dewal Devi to his own seraglio, ^i! ul His other measures were in the same spirit. But, ^ Iurder f Mobarik, notwithstanding his infamous character and his amiextir- manifold crimes, he did not fail to obtain adherents, his family, and to strengthen his party. He not only brought his own low creatures into power, but endeavoured to gain over the established nobles, by investing them with some of the highest offices. Among this number was Juna Khan, the son of Ghazi Khan Toghlak, governor of the Panjab, whose re- putation and influence made it of the utmost con- sequence to conciliate him. In this Khusru failed. Juna Khan fled from court, and Ghazi Khan went into open rebellion ; and, marching to Delhi with the veteran troops of the frontier, he gained a vic- tory over the dissolute and ill-commanded bands opposed to him, and put an end to the reign and life A . D . 1321, of the usurper, to the universal joy of the people. A.TS,' On entering Delhi, Ghazi Khan made a declara- ReK ' b 3a tion that his only object was to deliver the coun- try from oppression, and that he was willing to place any of the royal line on the throne. No member of the Khilji family was found to have sur- vived, and Toghlak was himself proclaimed under the title of Gheias u din. E 4- 56 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VI. A. D. 1321, A. H. 721. A. D. 1 322, A. H. 722. Failure of an expedi- tion to CHAP. TIL HOUSE OF T6GHLAK, SEIADS, AND HOUSE OF LODI. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. Gheids u din Toghlak. GHEIAS u DIN TOGHLAK was the son of a Turk! slave of Gheias u din Bulbun, by an Indian mo- ther. His whole reign was as commendable as his accession was blameless. He began by restoring order in his internal administration, and by putting his frontier in an effective state of defence against the Moguls. He then sent his son, Juna Khan, to settle the Deckan, where affairs had fallen into dis- order. Juna Khan's operations were successful, until he reached Warangol, on the fortifications of which place he was unable to make any impression : the siege was protracted until the setting in of the hot winds, and perhaps till the first burst of the rainy season ; a malignant distemper broke out in his camp ; and his troops, already depressed by these disasters, were alarmed by false reports of the death of the king, and a revolution at Delhi. At length, some of his principal officers deserted him with their troops ; and the prince himself, endea- vouring to retreat with the rest, was pressed by HOUSE OF T6GHLAK. 57 the Hindus, and pursued with great slaughter, to- CHAP. wards Doulatabad. He only brought back 3000 ' horse, out of his whole army, to Delhi. Juna Khan proved himself so indiscreet and self-willed in his own reign, that it is difficult to help ascribing a share of his failure, in this instance, to himself. He was more successful in his next attempt; he took Bidr, a place of strength and importance ; and Conquest afterwards reduced Warangol, and brought the g ana. /. . T\ 11 * Capture of raja prisoner to Delhi. * After this the king proceeded in person to Ben- gal, where Bakarra Khan, the father of the former A - H - 723 - A D 1324-5 king, KeiKobad, still retained his government, after A !H. 724-5.' a lapse of forty years. He was now confirmed in possession, and permitted the use of royal orna- ments, by the son of his father's former slave. The king also settled some disturbances in Sunargong (now Dacca t), which seems to have been a province independent of Bengal. On his way back, he reduced Tirhut (formerly Mithila), and took the raja prisoner. As he approached the capital, he was met by his Death of eldest son Juna Khan, who received him with magnificence in a wooden pavilion erected for the occasion. During the ceremonies, the building gave way, and the king, with five other persons, was crushed in its fall. This misfortune may have been purely accidental ; but the unusualness of erecting such a structure at all, the opportune absence of * The raja was afterwards released and restored, f Hamilton's Hindostan, vol. i. p. 187- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the eldest prince at the moment, and the circum- ____ stance of the second, who was his father's favourite, February^ being involved in the same calamity, fixed strong iiab'- 7 ? 5 ' SLls P' c i ns on the successor, in whose favour every awai. thing turned out so well. * The fort or castle of Toghlakabad, which is re- markable even at Delhi for its massive grandeur, was built by Gheas u din. Mohammed Toghlak. A. D . 1325, Juna Khan, who assumed the name of Sultan character Mohammed, took possession of his dignity with ofMoham- extraordinary magnificence ; and distributed gifts lak - and pensions to his friends, and to men of learning, with a profusion never before equalled. He established hospitals and almshouses on the same liberal scale ; and throughout his whole reign his munificence to the learned was such as to de- serve and to obtain their warmest expressions of praise. It is admitted, on all hands, that he was the most eloquent and accomplished prince of his age. His letters, both in Arabic and Persian, were admired for their elegance, long after he had ceased to reign. His memory was extraordinary ; and be- sides a thorough knowledge of logic, and the phi- losophy of the Greeks, he was much attached to mathematics and to physical science ; and used, himself, to attend sick persons, for the purpose of watching the symptoms of any extraordinary dis- * See Ibn Batuta, p. 130. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 59 ease. He was regular in his devotions ; abstained CHAP. from wine ; and conformed, in his private life, to all the moral precepts of his religion. In war he was distinguished for his gallantry and personal activity ; so that his contemporaries were justified in esteeming him as one of the wonders of the age. Yet the whole of these splendid talents and ac- complishments were given to him in vain ; they were accompanied by a perversion of judgment which, after every allowance for the intoxication of absolute power, leaves us in doubt whether he was not affected by some degree of insanity. His whole life was spent in pursuing visionary schemes, by means equally irrational, and with a total dis- regard of the sufferings which they occasioned to his subjects ; and its results were more calamitous than those of any other Indian reign. His first act was one which neither his virtues nor defects would have led us to anticipate. An army of Moguls, under a very celebrated general, Teimurshin Khan, having entered the Panjab, he bought them off by the payment of an immense contribution ; and this first instance of such policy in India was not, as might have been expected, followed by fresh invasions. His next measure was equally inconsistent with his character ; for it was perfectly rational and well-judged. He completed the reduction of the Deckan, and brought his most remote provinces into as good order as those near his capital. 60 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK He then plunged into the career which seemed naturally suited to his genius. wild He first determined on the conquest of Persia : schemes of Moham- and assembled a vast army *, which, after it had med. Projected consumed his treasures, dispersed for want of pay, Persia! 5 an d carried pillage and ruin to every quarter. Attempt to His next undertaking was to conquer China, and conquer China. fill his exhausted coffers with the plunder of that rich monarchy. With this view he sent an army of 100,000 men through the Hemalaya mountains ; but when the passage was effected, the Indians found a powerful Chinese army assembled on the frontier, with which theirs, reduced in numbers, and exhausted by fatigue, was unable to cope. Their provisions likewise failed ; and the approach of the rainy season did not admit of a moment's delay in falling back. During their retreat they were harassed by the mountaineers, slaughtered by the pursuing enemv, and worn out by famine. The Chinese were at last checked by the torrents of rain which began to fall, and the Indians, in time, made their way through the mountains ; but they now found the low country inundated, and the hills covered with impervious jungle. So terrible were the calamities of their retreat, that at the end of fifteen days scarcely a man was left to tell the tale ; and many of those who had been left behind in garrisons, as the army advanced, were put to death by the king, * Ferishta makes it amount to 370,000 horse. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 61 as if they had contributed to the failure of this ill- CHAP. , " ,... in. starred expedition. As this expedient had failed to relieve the introduc- tion of king's wants, he had recourse to another, almost paper equally ill-contrived. He had heard of the use of " paper money in China, and he now introduced the system into his own dominions, substituting copper tokens for paper. The king's insolvency, and the instability of his government, destroyed the credit of his tokens from the first ; foreign merchants re- fused to take them, and all attempts at compulsion were evaded, even at home : trade, in consequence, was at a stand ; and confusion and distress were spread throughout all ranks. The king gained, to appearance, in the payment of his debts, but his receipts were diminished in the same proportion ; the roots of his revenue were struck at by the im- poverished condition of his subjects ; and the re- sult of all this sacrifice of the fortunes of the people was to leave his own in greater embarrassment than ever. The king's exactions, which were always ex- Tyranny cessive, were now rendered intolerable by the tionsofthe urgency of his necessities : the husbandmen aban- doned their fields, fled to the woods, and, in many places, maintained themselves by rapine ; many towns were likewise deserted, and Mohammed, driven to fury by the disorders which he had him- self occasioned, revenged himself by a measure which surpassed all his other enormities. He ordered out his army as if for a grand hunt, sur- 62 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK rounded an extensive tract of country, as is usual VI ' on the great scale of the Indian chace, and then gave orders that the circle should close towards the centre, and that all within it (mostly inoffensive peasants) should be slaughtered like wild beasts. This sort of hunt was more than once repeated ; and on a subsequent occasion there was a general massacre of the inhabitants of the great city of Canouj. These horrors led in due time to famine, and the miseries of the country exceeded all power of description. Reunions. All this oppression was not allowed to pass with- out attempts to shake it off. Mohammed's own A. D. 1338, nephew first revolted in Malwa ; and, being pur- A H *7SQ sued by the king into the Deckan, was taken and flayed alive. Malik Beiram, the old friend of the king's father, whom he had helped to mount the A. D. 1339, throne, next rebelled in the Paniab, and was also A. H. 740. J subdued and put to death. Permanent Bengal soon after revolted under a Mussulman Bengal, officer, and was never again subdued. The coun- 1340, try on the coast of Coromandel almost immediately and oftiie followed the example, and had the same success. Coronv The king went in person to put down this last del - rebellion; but his army was attacked by a pestilence at Warangol, and suffered so much by its ravages, that he was obliged to return to Deogiri. On his way he had occasion to have a tooth drawn, and he buried it, with great ceremony, under a magni- ficent tomb. Meanwhile the Afghans crossed the Indus and HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 63 ravaged the Panjab. When they retired, they were CHAP. succeeded by the Gakkars, who took Labor, and . completed the ruin of the province. The rajas of Carnata and Telingana now formed a combination to recover their independence. The mUdd former was the founder of a new dynasty, erected on the ruins of that of Belal, which fixed its capital at Bijayanagar, and maintained a nearly equal struggle with the Mussulmans until near the end of the sixteenth century ; the latter regained possession of Warangol, while Mohammed's gar- risons were expelled from every part of their dominions. The famine in Hindostan being at this time at Other r e hellions. its height, the governor of Sambal became unable to collect his revenue, and, dreading the king's violence, went into rebellion. He was soon crushed, * * as was a similar insurgent at Bidr in the Deckan ; but a new rebellion almost immediately followed in the latter place by one of the chiefs of converted Moguls, or, as they were now called, Amir Jadida, or new nobility. The present revolt was quashed, * l but their other chiefs remained as ready as ever to profit by any new disturbance. The next rebellion was that of Ein ul Mulk, who, being removed from his government of Oud to that of the Deckan, suspected the king's in- tentions, and threw off his allegiance. He was soon reduced, and, contrary to all expectation, was pardoned, and restored to his office. The governor of the Deckan, who had hitherto 64 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK made head against his continually increasing diffi- culties, was afterwards removed ; and the country was placed under the king's son-in-law, Imad ul Mulk, while a great addition was laid on the re- venue of the province. Malwa likewise was put under a new governor of low origin, who showed his zeal by a treacherous massacre of seventy of the Mogul Amirs ; on which Rebellion the officers of the same nation in Guzerat pre- of the Mogul vailed on the rest of the troops to join them in troops in in- mi i -i i rebellion. Ihe king suppressed this insurrection A. D. A. H. in person, and ravaged his own province as if it had been an enemy's, giving up the rich towns of Cambay and Surat to plunder. Some of the rebels of Guzerat, having taken refuge in the Deckan, were protected by the Mo- gul Amirs in that province ; which Mohammed so highly resented that he ordered those chiefs to be General re- made prisoners. They soon after effected their escape, raised a general rebellion, and proclaimed vigour and Ismael Khan, an Afghan general, king. Mo- activity of the king, hammed Toghlak, with a courage and activity worthy of a better cause, hastened to the Deckan, defeated the insurgents, and shut up the chiefs and their king in the fort of Deogiri. Before he could complete his success by the capture of that fortress, his presence was required by a new revolt of Guzerat ; and as he was marching to suppress it, the people of the Deckan rose on his rear, and plundered his baggage and elephants. The dis- turbance in Guzerat was, however, got under, and HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. ()5 the chiefs compelled to take refuge with the Raj- CHAP. put princes of Tatta in Sind, when intelligence ' arrived from the Deckan that things had there assumed a more formidable shape than ever. The rebel king had abdicated in favour of Hasan Gangu (who founded the new dynasty of Bahmani), and under his auspices the insurgents had defeated and slain Mohammed's son-in-law, Imad ul Mulk, and not only recovered the Deckan, but induced the governor of Malwa to join in their insurrection. Mohammed, now sensible of his error in hastening to oppose every new revolt, and not first settling that on hand, determined to place Guzerat on a secure footing before he ventured to confront the increased difficulties which threatened him in the Deckan. Although already in precarious health, he set out after the fugitives to Sind. He was opposed by the rebels on the Indus, but crossed the river in defiance of them, and had reached Tatta, when he had an accession of illness, and died in that city, leaving the reputation of one of the most accomplished princes and most furious ty- ed T g h - rants that ever adorned or disgraced human nature. A. D . 1351, 4 i n A IT i i March 20. ; Among the many projects or Mohammed, none A. H. 752, i | i Moharram occasioned so much misery, or gave rise to so much 21. complaint, as that of transferring the capital from Delhi to Deoeriri. The design was by no means J and other unreasonable in itself, if it had been begun without caprices of Moham- precipitancy, and conducted with steadiness. But med. Mohammed, as soon as the fancy struck him, or- dered the whole of the inhabitants of Delhi to VOL. II. F 66 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK remove to Deogiri, to which he gave the name of ' Doulatabad.* After this the people were twice permitted to return to Delhi, and twice compelled, on pain of death, to leave it : one of these move- ments took place during a famine, and caused a prodigious loss of life, and all were attended with ruin and distress to thousands. The plan entirely failed in the end. Another of his whims was to acknowledge the sovereignty of the nominal calif in Egypt, to soli- cit investiture from him, and strike out of the list of kings all who had not received a similar con- firmation of their title. Another very expensive one was to divide the country into districts of sixty miles square, that the cultivation might be carried on under the management of the government. Foreign Many particulars regarding this reign are given his c0 c u o n ur s t 0f by Ibn Batuta, a native of Tangiers, who travelled and go- a n Asia, and visited the court of Mohammed vernment. about A. D. 1341, and who could have no interest in misrepresentation, as he wrote after his return to Africa. He confirms, to their full extent, the native accounts both of the king's talents and of his crimes, and gives exactly such a picture of mixed * On this occasion he completed the present fort, which still affords a stupendous proof of the great scale of his undertakings. The rock round the hill is cut perfectly smooth and perpendicu- lar for 180 feet, the only entrance being through a winding passage in the heart of the rock. The whole is surrounded by a broad and deep ditch, cut also in the solid rock. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. &/ magnificence and desolation as one would expect CHAP. under such a sovereign. He found an admirably ' regulated horse and foot post from the frontiers to the capital, while the country was so disturbed as to make travelling unsafe. He describes Delhi as a most magnificent city, its mosque and walls with- out an equal on earth ; but, although the king was then re-peopling it, it was almost a desert. " The greatest city in the world (he says) had the fewest inhabitants." The king being absent, he was carried, with some other noble and learned strangers, who ar- rived along with him, to the court of the queen- mother, where they were received and entertained with respect and attention, and dismissed with robes of honour. He had a house allotted him, with an ample supply of provisions and every thing he could desire, and 2000 dinars were given to him " to pay for his washing." His daughter happening to die, it was privately reported to the king by post ; and when the funeral took place, he was surprised to find it attended by the vizir, and performed with all the ceremonies usual for the nobles of the country. The queen- mother sent for his wife to console her, and pre- sented her with dresses and ornaments. The king's own manners, when he returned, were as courteous as his previous proceedings. Ibn Batuta went out to meet him, and was gra- ciously received, the king taking him by the hand and promising him every kindness. He afterwards F 2 68 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK made him a judge, conversed with him in Arabic VI on the duties of the office ; and when Ibn Batuta hesitated, on account of his ignorance of the Indian language, the king, though somewhat ruffled by his starting difficulties, answered his objections with temper, and assigned him a most liberal salary. He afterwards paid his debts, to the amount of 5,000 dinars, on his requesting it in an Arabic poem.* But Ibn Batuta soon found the dangerous ground he stood on. A particular dervise near Delhi falling under the king's suspicions, he im- mediately put him to death, and seized all persons who had frequented his cell. Among the number was Ibn Batuta, who was one of the very few who escaped with their lives. After this, he took an early opportunity of resigning his office ; but the king, instead of being offended, attached him to an embassy which he was sending to China, in return for a very splendid one which had just reached his court. The Ma- The Mahometan empire to the east of the Indus hometan . . , territory in was more extensive in the early part of tins king's India at its . , , . . , , , greatest reign than it ever was at any other period, but the provinces now lost were not all retrieved till the time of Aurangzib ; and, even in those which did not revolt, the royal authority received a shock from which it did not recover till the accession of the Mogul dynasty. There is in general so little scruple about get- * The dinar, at this period, seems to have been a very small coin ; but I do not know its precise value. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 69 ting rid of a bad king in the East, that it is seldom CHAP. such extensive mischief is brought about by the misgovernment of one man. Firuz Toghlak. On the death of Mohammed Toghlak the army A D . 1351, AH 752 fell into disorders, in which, as usual, the Moguls were the principal actors. The Indian chiefs (now mentioned for the first time) succeeded in repress- ing them, and raised Firuz u din, the late king's nephew, to the throne. He left a detachment to settle Sind, and marched along the Indus to U'ch, and thence to Delhi, where he overcame an oppo- sition set up in the name of a child, the real or supposititious son of his predecessor. Three years after his accession he made an A. D . 1353, T- i i i , , A. H. 754. attempt to recover Bengal, and overran the whole province, but was not able to reduce his enemy, until the rains setting in compelled him to retreat. At a later period he received embassies both A . D . 1355, from Bengal and the Deckan, and thus acknow- jndlncndl ledged the independence of both monarchs ; though, ^ f am] perhaps, without renouncing his nominal supe- the Deckan riority. Whether the treaty with Bengal was merely personal, or whether the death of the first king was a temptation for infringing it, we find the war almost immediately renewed with his suc- cessor, Secander, against whom Firuz marched in person to the extreme south-east of Bengal. He afterwards renewed his treaty with Secander, whose F 3 70 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK independence was no longer questioned. Several ' years after this adjustment, some provocation from Jain Bani, the Rajput prince of Tatta, induced the king to march in person to Sind ; and although his expedition was unsuccessful, his failure was softened by the nominal submission of the Jam. A. D. 1372, From Sind he went to Guzerat, where he left a new governor. In the course of a few years the death of this officer led to another appointment and a rebellion of no long duration. The king's Other affairs of less importance kept Firuz in l nfi iTi385, activity till A. D. 1385, when, having reached his A. H. 787. eighty-seventh year, he became incapable, from his infirmities, of conducting his government, and it fell by degrees entirely into the hands of his vizir. Rivalries at The enjoyment of power tempted that minister to secure its permanence by plotting against the heir apparent. He had nearly succeeded, through the usual calumnies, in paving his way to the succes- sion by the removal of the king's eldest son, when that prince took the bold measure of secretly intro- ducing himself into the seraglio, and throwing himself on the affection of his father. Firuz, either from conviction or weakness, gave up the vizir, and soon after openly invested his son with the whole powers of the state. The prince, whose name was Nasir u din, showed so little ability in the exercise of his au- thority, that in little more than a year he was displaced by two of his cousins. They raised a sedition in the capital, and, making use of the name of the old king, whose person they had secured, HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 71 obliged Nasir u din to fly to the mountains of Sarmor, between the upper courses of the Jamna and Satlaj. They then announced that Firuz had abdicated in favour of his grandson, Gheias u din. Almost immediately after this revolution Firuz His death. ,. , , c A - D - 1388 died at the age or ninety. Oct. 23. ; His reign, though not brilliant in other respects, R4mzln3. was distinguished for the enlightened spirit of His laws - his regulations, and the extent and utility of his public works. He limited the number of capital punishments, and put a stop to the use of torture and the practice of mutilation ; which last prohibi- tion was the more meritorious as it was at variance with the Mahometan law. He abolished a great number of vexatious taxes and fees ; put an end to all fluctuating and precarious imposts, and fixed the revenues in such a manner as to leave as little discretion as possible to the collectors, and to give precision and publicity to the demands of the state. He in some measure fell into the spirit of his times in punishing atheism by banishment, but showed his usual good sense in discouraging luxury in apparel by his own example rather than by sump- tuary laws. The following list is given of his public works, His public for the maintenance of which lands were assigned : 50 dams across rivers, to promote irrigation ; 40 mosques ; 30 colleges ; 100 caravanserais ; 30 re- servoirs for irrigation ; 100 hospitals ; 100 public baths ; 150 bridges ; besides many other edifices for pleasure or ornament. F 4 7# HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK The round numbers as well as the amount of VI. - some of the items suggest doubts of the accuracy of this list ; but the works of Firuz that still re- main afford sufficient evidence of the magnitude of his undertakings. The most considerable of these is not specified in the list : it is a canal from the point in the Jamna where it leaves the mountains, by Carnal, to Hansi and Hissar. It reaches to the river Gagar, and in former times was again con- nected with the Satlaj, the nearest of the rivers of the Panjab. It seems to have been intended for irrigation ; but as it has been disused, perhaps, since the death of Firuz, we can only judge of it by the part restored by the British government, which takes in the whole to beyond Hissar, a dis- tance of 200 miles. This portion now turns mills for grinding corn (which before were not used in India), and is also employed in saw mills and oil and sugar mills. It floats down rafts of wood from the mountains, and is capable of conveying mer- chandise in boats of a certain construction ; but its great object is irrigation, by means of which it has fertilised a large tract, and turned the inhabit- ants from pastoral life to agriculture.* Gheias u din Toghlak II. Gheias u din soon quarrelled with his kinsmen A. n. 1389, by whom he had been raised ; and was deposed A.VTgT, ' and murdered at the end of five months. Saffar. * Major Colvin, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ii. p. 105. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 73 CHAP Abubekr Toghlak. Abubekr, grandson of Firiiz by another son, was next made king, and had reigned for a year, when Nasir u din left the mountains, where he had re- mained since his expulsion, returned at the head of an army, and recovered the capital. A contest ^. D . issg, November ; followed, and lasted for several months, during A. H. 792, which time Delhi was more than once lost and re- covered, until at length Nasir u din obtained per- A.D. 1390, manent possession, and soon after made his rival A . H . 793, prisoner. It was a remarkable circumstance in this contest, that a Hindu chief named Rai Sarwar was among the most important of the adherents of Nasir, and that the Hindus of Mewat took an active part for his opponent. The household troops, who were all foreigners, having shown par- ticular hostility to the conqueror, were banished the city ; and as some endeavoured to conceal their character, recourse was had to a test like the Jewish Shiboleth, and all were treated as foreigners who could not pronounce a certain letter peculiar to the languages of Hindostan. From these circumstances we may judge of the increased importance of the Hindus, and of the native Mahometans, since the separation of the kingdoms of Ghor and India. Nasir u din Toghlak. The second reign of Nasir u din, though it pre- sented a scene of general disorder, was marked by few great events. 74 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Farhat ul Mulk, the governor of Guzerat, re- ' volted, and was reduced by Mozaffer Khan, who revolted, himself, in the next reign, There was also a rebellion of Rah tor Rajputs beyond the Jamna ; and the weakness into which the royal authority had fallen became every where apparent. This king's vizir was a Hindu convert, and was put to death on the accusation of his own nephew, an unconverted Hindu. On the death of Nasir ti din, his son Humayun succeeded, but died at the end of forty-five days, when his younger brother Mahmud was placed on the throne. Mahmud Toghlak. A. D. 1394, The young king was a minor, and little quali- fied to restore the lost authority of the crown. Mozaffer Khan, the governor of Guzerat, began to act as an independent prince. Malwa, which had been reannexed to the crown after the separa- tion of the Deckan, now permanently threw off the yoke, as did the little province of Candcsh ; and these new kingdoms remained independent until the time of Akber. Dissolution The king's own vizir also seized on the pro- of the mon- i i i i - vincc or Juanpur, and rounded a kingdom. Mean- while the capital was torn by sanguinary broils between factions. The remaining provinces looked on with indifference, or fell into disputes among themselves j and while the attention of all parties HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 75 was absorbed in these fierce commotions, the in- CHAP. vasion of Tamerlane burst upon their heads and ' overwhelmed the contending parties in one com- mon ruin. Tamerlane had united the hordes of Tartary in invasion of the same manner, though not to the same extent, as Chengiz Khan ; and, like him, he had carried his destructive inroads into all the surrounding countries. Though a Turk and a Mussulman*, and born in a comparatively civilised country, he was almost as barbarous in his mode of war, and at least as short-sighted in his policy, as the Mogul. His empire was even more transient, since he did not attempt to retain the greater part of the coun- tries he overran ; and if some of the fragments that remained to his family became flourishing pro- vinces, it was because the character of his descend- ants formed almost a contrast to his own. He had conquered Persia and Transoxiana, and ra- vaged Tartary, Georgia, and Mesopotamia, with parts of Russia and Siberia, before he turned his arms, without the pretext of a quarrel, on the dis- tracted empire of Hindostan. Early in the spring of A. D. 1398 1, Pir Mo- *;J; JJJf- * Tamerlane, or the Amir Teimur, as he is called in Asia, was born at Kesh, near Samarcand, where the languages are Turki and Persian, and where his family had been settled for 200 years. He claimed a remote descent from the same stock with Chengiz Khan ; but all that is certain is, that his grand- father was chief of the tribe of Berlas. f Tamerlane's proceedings are from Price, vol. iii. p. 219, &c., Kennel's Memoir, p. 115, &c., and Briggs's Ferishta. ? HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK hammed, the grandson of Tamerlane, who had VI .. been employed in reducing the Afghans in the mountains of Soliman, crossed the Indus in a line withU'ch, and soon after laid siege to Multan; an operation which occupied him for upwards of six months. Meanwhile, Tamerlane passed Hindu Gush by the usual route to Cabul* ; left that city in August, and marched by Haryub and Bannu to Dinkot on the Indus.f He crossed that river by a bridge of rafts and reeds, and marched to the Hydaspes, and down its banks to Tulamba, reducing the country as he passed. He levied a heavy contribution on Tulamba, which was afterwards sacked, and the inhabitants massacred by the troops, it is said, without his orders. By this time, Pir Mohammed had taken Multan by blockade ; but the rains having set in, he lost his horses, and was at length obliged to shut him- self up in the town. On the approach of Tamer- lane, he set out to meet him, leaving a garrison in Multan, and joined his father on the Gara or A. D. 1398, C a 4-1oi Oct. 25. ^ atla J' Tamerlane thence proceeded with a light detach- ment to Adjudin, where he met with no sort of resistance ; and as the town was famous for the tomb of a Mahometan saint, " out of respect for * His previous expedition into the mountains of the Siaposh Cafirs will be read with interest in Price, from Mirkhond. j- The exact position of Dinkot is not known, but it must be to the south of the salt range. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 77 his memory, he spared the few inhabitants who re- CHAP. mained in the place." He then proceeded to ' Batner, and massacred the country people who had taken refuge under the walls. The place NOV. 9. afterwards surrendered on terms ; but, by one of those mistakes which so constantly accompanied Tamerlane's capitulations, the town was burned, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. He then marched to Samana, where he joined his main body, having slaughtered the inhabitants of every place he passed. From Samana the towns were deserted, and consequently there were no more general massacres. Many prisoners were, however, taken ; and on reaching Delhi, Tamerlane put to Dec. 12. death all of them above fifteen years of age (to the number, according to the exaggerated accounts of the Mussulman historians, of 100,000). The Indian army, which was inferior in num- Defeat of ,-,..,,. -i i IP i -i ^ ie Indian bers, and divided in councils, being defeated and army, driven into the town, Mahmud Toghlak fled to Guzerat ; Delhi surrendered under a solemn pro- mise of protection ; and Tamerlane was publicly Dec. 17. proclaimed emperor of India. What follows is so constant a concomitant of sack, con- m r> flagration, Tamerlane's promises of protection, that we are at and mas- a loss whether to ascribe it to systematic perfidy, Delhi, or to the habitual ferocity and insubordination of the troops. On this occasion, the most credible accounts attribute the commencement to the latter cause. Plunder and violence brought on resist- ance : " this led to a general massacre ; some 78 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK streets were rendered impassable by heaps of dead ; . and the gates being forced, the whole Mogul army gained admittance, and a scene of horror ensued easier to be imagined than described." * For five days Tamerlane remained a tranquil spectator of the sack and conflagration of the city, and during that time he was celebrating a feast in honour of his victory. When the troops were wearied with slaughter, and nothing was left to plunder, he gave orders for the prosecution of his march ; and on the day of his departure he " of- fered up to the Divine Majesty the sincere and humble tribute of grateful praise in the noble A. D. 1398, mosque of polished marble" erected on the banks Dec. 31. of the Jamna by Firuz.t The booty carried off from Delhi is said to have been very great ; and innumerable men and women of all ranks were dragged into slavery. Tamer- lane secured to himself the masons and workers in stone and marble, for the purpose of constructing a mosque at Samarcand. Tamerlane He then marched to Mirat, where there was India. a general massacre ; and afterwards crossed the Ganges, and proceeded up its banks to near Hard- war, where that river leaves the mountains. Several affairs took place with bodies of Hindus in the skirts of the hills, in which Tamerlane exposed his person like a private soldier, and underwent fatigues the more extraordinary as he had reached the age * Briggs's Ferishta. f Price, apparently from Mirkhond. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK. 79 of sixty-three. He marched along the foot of the CHAP. mountains to Jammu (or Jummoo, north of La- ' hor) ; then turned to the south, fell into the route by which he first advanced, and quitted India, leaving anarchy, famine, and pestilence behind A. D . 1399, J March ; him.* A. H. SOL We must estimate Tamerlane's character from his actions, and not from the motives assigned to him by panegyrists, nor from maxims drawn up by his orders according to his idea of a perfect govern- ment. His own memoirs of his life throw a true light on his character, t They are written in the plain and picturesque style of Turki autobiography; and if there was a doubt that they were from Tamerlane's dictation, it would be removed by the unconscious simplicity with which he relates his own intrigues and perfidy ; taking credit all the time for an excess of goodness and sincerity which the boldest flatterer would not have ventured to ascribe to him. The mixture also of cant and hypocrisy, with real superstition and devotion, could not have been exhibited by any hand but his own ; and these traits, with his courage, prudence, and address, his perfect knowledge of mankind, and his boldness in practising on their weakness, make one of the most extraordinary pictures ever presented to the world. The commanding lan- guage of barbarous conquerors, contrasted with the * About the 10th of March, 1399, A. H. 801. He was now marching on his famous expedition against Bajazet. f Mulfuzat Timuri, translated by Major Stewart. 80 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK evasions of the princes whom they threaten, leads ' us to figure them as rude and artless soldiers ; but the essential character of Tamerlane was that of a wily politician, and probably it was to similar talents that the other Tartar conquerors owed their ascendancy over so many chiefs, who were their equals in merely military qualities. There is a resemblance between the histories of Chengiz Khan and Tamerlane ; but of those two enemies of mankind, the first was perhaps the most violent, and the second the most perfidious. Anarchy at For two months after Tamerlane's departure Delhi remained without a government, and almost without inhabitants. A struggle then took place for the possession of it, in which a chief named Ecbal, who had been in power under Mali mud, was at A. D. 1400, last successful. He failed in various attempts to 80^ extend his authority beyond the districts round the capital ; and, at last, was killed on a distant ex- pedition towards Multan. Mahmud had returned from Guzerat, and for some time lived as a pensioner at Delhi ; then at Canouj, a city belonging to the king of Juanpur, on which Ecbal made several attempts ; at last, on that chief's death, he was restored to the possession 1405, of Delhi. He died there after a nominal reign of MIS twent y years, and was succeeded by Doulat Khan 814 - Lodi ; who, at the end of fifteen months, was 1414, expelled by Khizr Khan, the governor of the 817. T> ''I Panjab. A H GOVERNMENT OF THE SEIADS. 81 CHAP. III. GOVERNMENT OF THE SEIADS. Seiad Kkizr Khan. The new ruler was a Seiad or decendant of the A - D - 14 J. 4 Prophet, but was himself a native of India. He had been governor of one portion of the Pan- jab, and being expelled during the confusion of Mahmud's reign, he appealed to Tamerlane, who gave him the government of the whole. He now affected to recognise that conqueror as emperor, and to govern as his deputy without the title of king or any of the royal honours. Before his ac- cession, (besides the permanent monarchies in the Deckan, together with Guzerat, Malwa, Bengal, and Juanpur, the last of which comprehended Oud and Canouj,) the governors of Samana, Biana, Calpi (in Bundelcand), and the Panjab, were all inde- pendent, and nothing remained to the ruler of Delhi but the country immediately round that city. The accession of Khizr reannexed for a moment his own government of the Panjab ; but, before long, the eastern portion, with the country about Sirhind, revolted, and established its independence. Khizr nevertheless made some spirited attempts to extend his dominions ; he levied tribute from the Rathors in Rohilcand, and from other Hindus near Gwalior. His greatest exertion was a war VOL. II. G 82 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK with the king of Guzerat at Nagor, which was pushed by Khizr as far as Jhalor, but ended in nothing. A.D. 1421, When Khizr died the inhabitants of Delhi wore black for him for three days : such deep mourning is now confined to Shia courts during the ten days' mourning for the sons of Ali. Even in the case of Khizr it may have been a tribute to his descent from Mahomet. Seiad Mobarik. The principal feature in the reign of Seiad Mobarik, son and successor of Seiad Khizr, is a constant struggle in the Panjab, partly to recover the eastern part, already independent, and partly to keep the rest from the Gakkars, who continually overran it, and who were occasionally supported by the Mogul governor of Cabul on the part of Shah Rokh Mirza, the son of Tamerlane. The Mogul was repeatedly worsted and expelled, but the Gakkars were not got under during this dy- nasty. On one occasion Mobarik marched to Gwalior to anticipate some design of the king of Malvva, A.D. 142:5, whom he defeated and obliged to pay a contribu- A.H. 827. . ^ J tion. A.D. 1426, At another period he marched a little further to the south-east to encounter the king of Juanpur, and fought an indecisive battle with him near the Cali Sind. He also several times received tribute GOVERNMENT OF THE SEIADS. 83 from the Rathors of Rohilcand, and made many CHAP. attempts to restrain the depredations of the Me- watis. He was at length assassinated by a party of Hindus, at the instigation of his vizir, whom he J had partially superseded in his office. Seiad Mohammed. The vizir placed the son of the late prince in his father's station, and made two of the Hindu assassins governors of provinces. He himself gained little by his crime. Having incurred the enmity of some of the nobility, they professed to revenge the murder of Seiad Mobarik, besieged the new A - D - 143G & A.H. 840. prince, and forced him to give up his minister. After this Behlol Khan Lodi, who had some time before obtained possession of the Panjab, began to push his designs with greater boldness ; and while Mohammed was temporising with him he was invaded by the king of Malwa, who ad- vanced with a large army to within two miles of Delhi. Seiad Mohammed in alarm called in the aid of Behlol, who repelled the king of Malwa : A - n - 1440 7 A.H. 844. and, content with securing his ascendancy, left Seiad Mohammed undisturbed. On a subsequent occasion Behlol besieged Delhi without success, and made no further attempt till the death of Seiad Mohammed. 81. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VI. A.D. A.H. 1444, 849. A.D. A.H. 1450, 854. Seiad Aid u din. His son succeeded. In his time the territory of Delhi was further reduced : in one place it only extended for twelve miles from the capital, and in another scarcely a mile. Seiad Ala u din, how- ever, still possessed Budayun beyond the Ganges, 100 miles from Delhi. To this place he removed his capital ; on which Behlol took possession of Delhi, and assumed the title of king. Ala u din abdicated in his favour, and was left unmolested in Badayun till his death, which hap- pened twenty-eight years after his abdication. HOUSE OF LODI. CHAP. III. HOUSE OF LODI. Behlol Lodi. The ancestors of Behlol had been enriched by Rise of the commerce, and his grandfather was governor of L6di. y * Multan under Firuz Toghlak, who was the first great patron of the Afghans. Behlol's father and several of his uncles held commands under the Seiad rulers ; and one of them, Islam Khan, was so considerable that he had 12,000 men of his own nation in his pay. The power of the family, to- gether with the calumnies of a disaffected relation, at length excited the jealousy of Seiad Mohammed, and the Lodis were persecuted and driven into the hills. They continued to resist the king's authority, until Behlol had an opportunity of occupying, first, Sirhind, and afterwards the whole of the Panjab. Behlol had been invited to Delhi by Hamid, the vizir of his predecessor, but finding himself over- shadowed by this powerful subject, he seized his person by a stratagem, and after he had broken his influence, allowed him to retire to private life. Behlol's accession again brought back the Pan- Panjab re- /i T-V 11 n/r i / 111 i annexed to jab to Delhi. Multan had become independent Delhi, during the time of the Seiads, and Behlol had marched against it, when he was recalled by an attack of the king of Juanpur, who had laid siege G 3 JO HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK to Delhi. A war now commenced with that VI ' prince, which was continued, with short intervals A.D. 1452, of hollow peace, for twenty-six years, and ended in Recovery the conquest of Juanpur, which was permanently A""??' ^annexed to Delhi. Behlol survived this long A.H. 883. war f or ten years, and made other conquests on a smaller scale ; so that at his death he left a territory extending from the Jamna to the Hemalaya moun- A.D. 1488, tains as far east as Benares, besides a tract on the west of the Jamna extending to Bundelcand. Secander Lodi. Secander's accession was disputed by some chiefs on the part of his infant nephew. It was after- wards contested in the field by two of his brothers, one of whom maintained an obstinate struggle. Secander was successful on all these occasions, and treated the inferior rebels with clemency, and his relations with affection. He reannexed Behar as far as the frontiers of Bengal to Delhi, and also extended his territories in the direction of Bundel- ii- cand. His internal administration was just and nistration . of Secander vigorous ; and he seems, in all other respects, to have been a mild and excellent prince. But he was one of the few bigots who have sat on the throne of India. He destroyed the temples in towns and forts that he took from Hindus, and he forbade that people performing pilgrimages, and bathing on certain festivals at places on the sacred streams within his own dominions. On one occa- sion he carried his zeal to cruelty and injustice ; HOUSE OF LODI. 87 for, a Bramin having been active in propagating the CHAP. doctrine that " all religions, if sincerely practised, were equally acceptable to God," he summoned him to defend this opinion in his presence, against twelve Mahometan divines ; and, on his refusing to renounce his tolerant maxims, put him to death. * A holy man of his own religion having remon- strated with him on his prohibition of pilgrimages, Secander drew his sword, exclaiming, " Wretch, do you defend idolatry ? " He was appeased by the answer, " No ; but I maintain that kings ought not to persecute their subjects." When marching against one of his brothers, a Calender addressed him with prayers for his suc- cess, on which he said, " Pray for victory to him who will best promote the good of his subjects." Secander was a poet, and was a great patron of letters. He died at Agra, after a reign of twenty- eight years. Ibrahim Lodi. I'brahim, who succeeded, had none of his father's virtues. He disgusted his tribe by his pride, and alarmed his chiefs by his suspicious and tyrannical temper. From these causes his reign was con- tinually disturbed by rebellions. At the com- Discon- mencement of it one of his brothers was proclaimed rebellions. * The Bramin was, probably, a disciple of Kablr, a Hindu philosopher, who taught similar doctrines at an earlier period in this century. (See Professor Wilson, Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi. p. 55.) G 4 88 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK king at Juanpur, was subdued in the course of a ' twelvemonth, and was privately executed by I'bra- him, who imprisoned his other brothers for life. A chief named Islam Khan next rebelled, and was killed in battle. Several men of rank and governors of provinces were executed for their share in these transactions. Others were put to death on sus- picion ; some were secretly made away with after being imprisoned ; and one was assassinated at the seat of his government. These proceedings spread general distrust and disaffection ; various chiefs revolted, and the whole of the eastern part of Tbrahim's dominions threw off its obedience, and formed a separate state under Deria Khan Lohani, invasion of whose son afterwards took the title of king. Doulat Khan Lodi, the governor of the Panjab, dreading the fate of so many other chiefs, revolted, and called in the aid of Baber, who had for some time reigned in Cabul. Baber had before invaded the Panjab, which he claimed as part of the inheritance of Tamerlane, and he now gladly availed himself of this invitation ; but some other Afghan chiefs, either from attachment to Fbrahim or aversion to a foreigner, drove out Doulat Khan, and opposed A.D 1524, Baber in the field. They were totally defeated H 0*30 near Lahor, and that city was reduced to ashes by the victors. Dibalpur was next stormed, and the garrison put to the sword ; and at this place Baber was joined by Doulat Khan. He had reason, soon after, to suspect the intentions of this person, and threw him and his sons into confinement. Re- HOUSE OF LODI. 89 lenting, subsequently, he released them, treated CHAP. them honourably, and granted them a jagir. He _____ did not, however, succeed in removing their dis- trust : by the time he had reached Sirhind on his advance towards Delhi, Doulat Khan and one of his sons revolted and fled to the hills.* Unwilling to leave such dangerous enemies behind him, Baber determined to return to Cabul. He nevertheless He retreats kept his hold on the country he had reduced, and hind, left persons on whom he could depend in the prin- cipal places. At Dibalpur he left Ala u din, a brother of King I'brahim, who seems to have escaped from confinement, and who had joined Baber. Doulat Khan now returned to the Panjab, and overrun great part of it, Ala u din flying to Cabul ; but in the end, Doulat Khan was entirely defeated by one of Baber's generals ; and as that monarch himself was engaged in defending Balkh against the Uzbeks, he sent Ala u din to India, with orders to his own chiefs to assist him. Thus supported, Ala u din advanced to Delhi, and from the general disaffection his army was soon swelled to 40,000 men. With this force he engaged I'bra- him under the walls of Delhi, and was totally de- feated. By this time, Baber had settled Balkh, Return of Biber. and was advanced as far as Lahor on his way into December. India. From Lahor he marched into the hills in pursuit of Doulat Khan, who submitted and gave * The other son, whose name was Dilawar, adhered to Baber, and had a high place in his confidence. He had the title of Khan Khanan, the second in the court of Delhi, and continued to be a person of great authority in his reign and Humayun's. 90 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK up his fort*; after which Baber continued his VI ' route through the hills to Ropur on the Satlaj, above Lodiana, and from thence nearly by the direct road to Delhi. At Panipat he found himself in the neighbourhood of I'brahim, who had come out to meet him at the head of an army amounting, as it was represented to Baber, to 100,000 men, with 1000 elephants. On the approach of this force, Baber took up a position, linked his guns together by ropes of twisted leather, and lined them with infantry, further protected by breast- works. He likewise strengthened his flanks with fieldworks of earth and facines. His army, including followers, amounted to no more than 12,000 men. Defeat and When I'brahim drew near, he also fortified his position ; but had not steadiness enough to adhere _i526, to his plan of awaiting an attack, and in a few days led out his army to storm Baber's lines. As soon as he was engaged with the front, Baber ordered his right and left wings to attack the flanks and rear of the enemy. They accordingly advanced and plied them with their arrows ; until the Indian troops, after attempting, in a few feeble charges, to drive them off, fell into disorder ; when Baber, who had hitherto been annoying them with his cannon, ordered his centre to move forward, and completed the rout of the enemy. I'brahim was killed, and the Indian army, having been nearly surrounded * His son Ghazi Khan fled, and Baber took possession of his library, in which he found a number of valuable books. One would have thought the Koran a sufficient library for an Afghan chief of those days. HOUSE OF LODI. 91 during the battle, suffered prodigious loss in the CHAP. defeat. Baber judged from observation that 15,000 or 16,000 lay dead on the field, of whom 5000 or 6000 lay in one spot around their king. The In- dians reported that not less than 40,000 perished in the battle and pursuit. This action does not give a high idea of the military character of either party. It lasted from soon after sunrise till noon, during which period, Baber observes, with satisfaction, that his guns were discharged many times to good purpose. The service of artillery would not in that age have been much better in Europe; but although Baber's plan of harassing the enemy's flanks and rear with arrows seems to be justified by its success, it does not ap- pear remarkable either for skill or spirit, or likely to have been carried on with impunity against an active enemy. Delhi was surrendered, and Baber advanced and Occupation took possession of Agra, which had lately been the and Ag? a . royal residence. Ma y 10 - From a list of I'brahim's nobles given by Fe- rishta, they appear all to have been of the Afghan tribes of Lodi or Lohani, or of that called Fer- muli, who were mixed with the Afghans, like the Khiljis, if indeed they are not a portion of the latter people. The raja * of Gwalior, who was reduced to sub- mission during the last reign, accompanied I'bra- him's army, and fell along with him in the battle. * Ibn Batuta, p. 133. 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Baber reviews his own conquest with much com- placency, and compares it to those of Sultan Mah- mud and Shahab u din : and although we must not confound the acquisition of the few distracted pro- vinces held by Fbrahim with the subjugation of India, yet it must be admitted that his enterprise was as glorious in its achievement as it was me- morable in its effects. His force seemed insufficient even to occupy the territory he had to subdue, and it was drawn with difficulty from his own domi- nions, still threatened by the Uzbeks, whose power the combined force of the whole house of Tamer- lane had proved unable to withstand. Baber's conduct to the places where he met with resistance was as inhuman as that of Tamerlane, who was naturally his model. The smallness of his force was some justification of the means he took to strike a terror ; but the invariable practice of his country is the best pal- liation for him. His natural disposition was re- markably humane ; and although we cannot help being shocked at these occurrences, and at two or three cruel executions mentioned in his Memoirs, yet they prove no more against his personal cha- racter in this respect, than his slaughtering Gauls or crucifying pirates against Caesar's clemency. Baber was the founder of a line of kings under whom India rose to the highest pitch of prosperity; and out of the ruins of whose empire all the exist- ing states in that country are composed. HOUSE OF TEIMUR. BOOK VII. FROM THE CONQUEST OF BABER TO THE ACCESSION OF AKBER. CHAP. I. REIGN OF BABER. THE early life of Baber was a tissue of surprising CHAP. vicissitudes and romantic adventures.* He was the - sixth in descent from Tamerlane. The extensive Descent and early dominions of his grandfather, Abusaid, were shared life of by the numerous sons of that monarch. One of them, Ahmed Mirza, obtained Samarcand and Bokhara ; Balkh or Bactria fell to another, Mah- mud Mirza ; and Cabul to a third, whose name \vas Ulugh Beg. O'mar Shekh Mirza, the fourth son, and the father of Baber, had at first been in charge of Cabul ; but was transferred during his father's lifetime to Ferghana, on the upper course of the Jaxartes, a small but rich and beautiful country, of which Baber always speaks with fond- * The account of Baber is taken from his own Memoirs, translated by Mr. Erskine. It differs, in some respects, from that given by Ferishta. 94" HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ness. The mother of Baber was a Mogul, the sister VII. ' of Mali mud Khan, a descendant of Chaghatai Khan, and head of his branch of the empire of Chengiz Khan. This connection does not seem to have inspired any attachment on the part of Baber to- wards the Mogul nation, of whom he never speaks in his Memoirs but with contempt and aversion.* His wars Baber was only twelve years old at the death turesinhis of his father and his own accession (A. D. 14-94). O'mar Shekh Mirza had just been involved in a war with his brother, Ahmed Mirza, of Samarcand, and his brother-in-law, Mali mud Khan, the Mogul; and those princes showed no disposition to relent in favour of their youthful nephew. They, how- ever, failed entirely in an attack on his capital ; and shortly after Ahmed Mirza died. He was suc- ceeded by his brother, the king of Bactria. He also died soon after, and was succeeded by his son, Baisanghar Mirza. Confusions ensued, and Baber was induced to attempt the conquest of Samarcand for himself. Though he had for some time con- ducted his own government, he was as yet only fifteen ; and considering that circumstance, together with the insignificance of his means, it is much less * " Under these circumstances," observes Mr. Erskine, " it may seem one of the strangest caprices of fortune, that the empire which he founded in India should have been called, both in the country and by foreigners, the empire of the Moguls ; thus taking its name from a race which he detested." (Erskine s Baber, p. 236.) The reason is, that the Indians call all northern Mussulmans, except the Afghans, Moguls : they now apply the term particularly to the Persians. BABER. 95 surprising that he more than once failed in this CHAP. undertaking, than that his spirit and perseverance were at last rewarded with success (A. D. 1497)- The possession of the capital of Tamerlane, which seemed a step to the sovereignty of all Transoxiana, proved in itself to be more than Baber had strength to maintain. The country of Samarcand was ex- hausted by long disorders, and afforded no means of paying his troops, who, in consequence, began to desert in great numbers. They spread their discontent among those left in Ferghana, and at last openly revolted, under Ahmed Tambol, one of Baber's principal leaders, in the name of his younger brother, Jehangir Mirza. Such a rebellion at home allowed no time for delay, and Baber left Samarcand, after a reign of a hundred days : on his departure the inhabitants immediately threw off their obedience to him. An unfortunate illness, which he with difficulty survived, so retarded his operations, that, by the time he had abandoned Samarcand, he found he had lost his hereditary dominions. On this he had recourse to his Mogul uncle, and sometimes with slender aid from him, but oftener with his own resources alone, he made various attempts, not without partial success, both on Samarcand and Ferghana. At length, in 1499, he succeeded in recovering his native kingdom ; but he had not entirely subdued the rebels when he was tempted by strong invitations from Samar- cand to set out for that capital. Before he reached his destination, he learned that both Samarcand 96 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and Bokhara were occupied by the Uzbeks, then VII _^ founding the dominion which they still possess over Transoxiana.* Meanwhile Tambol had again seized on Fer- ghana, and Baber was compelled to take refuge in the almost inaccessible mountains to the south of that country. While there, he learned that Shei- bani Khan, the chief of the Uzbeks, had left Samar- cand on an expedition ; and with characteristic spirit of enterprise he determined to avail himself of the opportunity to attempt to surprise that city. He set off with only 21<0 men ; escaladed the walls in the night; overpowered the guards, and mag- nified the impression of his numbers by boldness and rapidity, until the citizens rose in his favour, and massacred the Uzbeks wherever they were to be found. Sheibani Khan hastened back on this intelligence, but found the gates shut against him, and ultimately withdrew to Bokhara. The whole of Sogdiana now declared for Baber. He remained for six months in quiet possession, and employed the interval in endeavours to form a combination among the neighbouring princes, by impressing them with a sense of their danger from the Uzbeks. His exertions were fruitless ; and lie was obliged to encounter alone the whole power of * The Uzbeks (so called from one of their khans) were a mass of tribes of Turki, Mogul, and probably of Fennic origin, moulded into one people, but with a great preponderance of Turks. They had before been settled on the Jaik, and had been in possession of a large tract in Siberia. (Erskines Baber, Introduction, pp. lix. Ix.) BABER. 9? Sheibani. The hopes of success, which even then CHAP. he continued to cherish, were frustrated by the ' baseness of some Mogul auxiliaries, who left the battle for the purpose of plundering his baggage. The consequence was a total defeat ; and Baber was obliged to retire with the few troops that ad- hered to him within the walls of Samarcand. He resolved to defend that place to the last extremity, and repelled various assaults that were made on him by the Uzbeks. Sheibani had then recourse to a blockade, and in four months reduced his enemies to all the miseries of famine. The inhabitants perished in great numbers ; the soldiers let them- selves down from the walls and deserted ; and Baber, who had shared in all the privations of the people, was compelled at last to evacuate the town. After this he spent nearly two years in the ut- most poverty and distress, sometimes in the moun- tains, and oftener in his uncle's camp, where he re- mained in such a state of destitution that his very servants left him from absolute want. He seems to have been almost reduced to despondency by his repeated misfortunes, and once resolved to with- draw to China, and pass his life in obscurity and re- tirement. Occasional openings in Ferghana served to keep alive his hopes ; and at length, with the help of his uncle, he recovered the capital, and was joined by his brother Jehangir, who had hitherto been his nominal rival. Tambol, in this strait, called in the formidable aid of the Uzbeks. Baber was overpowered, compelled to fly after a desperate VOL. ir. H Q8 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK conflict in the streets, and so hotly pursued that ' his companions, one by one, fell into the hands of the enemy, and his own horse was so much ex- hausted that he was overtaken by two of Tambol's soldiers. They endeavoured to persuade him to surrender ; and Baber, while he kept up the parley, continued to push on towards the mountains. At length he thought he had succeeded, by arguments and entreaties, in bringing over the pursuers to his interest, and they took a solemn oath to share his fortunes ; but, whether they were originally in- sincere, or lost heart when they contemplated the prospect before them, they ended by betraying Baber to his enemies ; and it was with the utmost difficulty that he again recovered his freedom. He only escaped to a condition almost as hopeless as captivity. His uncle's Mogul army had been de- feated by Sheibani, and himself made prisoner ; while the whole of Transoxiana, except that an- nexed to Bactria, fell into the hands of the Uzbeks. All his prospects being thus extinguished, Baber out of bade a last farewell to his native country of Fer- ghana, and set out to try his fortune in new scenes beyond the range of Hindu Gush. After all that he had done and suffered (enough to fill up an eventful life) Baber was yet only in his twenty-third year. He bore his numerous re- verses with the elasticity of youth. He himself tells us that he often shed many tears, and com- posed many melancholy verses ; but in general his cheerful temper buoyed him up, and enabled him BABER. yb to enjoy the present and to entertain favourable CHAP. prospects of the future. He says he never had . more perfect pleasure than for a few days after he evacuated Samarcand, when he first got a full meal, a quiet night's rest, and a temporary freedom from labour and anxiety. He had often similar moments of enjoyment, thanks to his sociable habits and his relish for simple pleasures. He pauses, in relating one of his desperate expeditions, to describe a particular sort of melon with which he had been struck : if ever he had an interval of rest he was occupied with plants and gardening ; and during all his marches, in peace or war, flowers and trees and cheerful landscapes were never thrown away on him. It may be because others have not opened their hearts as he has done, but there cer- tainly is no person in Asiatic history into whose tastes and feelings we can enter as into Baber's. Bactria was now in the hands of Khusru Shah, a favourite of Baber's late uncle, and afterwards minister to his cousin, Baisanghar Mirza, the same whom he had driven out of Samarcand. Khusru Shah had since murdered his master, and was in possession of what remained of his dominions. He endeavoured to conciliate Baber, and re- ceived him with a show of hospitality when he entered his territory. His professions arose from a sense of his own insecurity : it was not long ere all the Moguls in his employment proffered their services to Baber; and, before they had openly declared themselves, Khusru's own brother, H 2 100 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Baki, came over to the same side, and was fol- VII. ' lowed by the whole of the army. When Baber approached Khusru's frontier he had between two and three hundred followers, many of them armed with clubs ; and only two tents, the best of which was allotted to his mother. He now set out to invade Cabul at the head of a regular and well- equipped army. His uncle, Ulugh Beg, the king of that country, had expired two years before ; his son and successor had been expelled by his minister; and he, in his turn, had been dispossessed by the Mogul or Turki family of Arghun, who had been for some time in possession of Candahar. Baber occupied Cabul almost without opposition (A. D. 1504*) ; and, regarding the original owner as com- pletely ejected, he took possession in his own name, and subsequently resisted an attempt of his cousin to regain his inheritance. He afterwards lost Bactria; which was recovered by Khusru Shah, and ultimately conquered by the Uzbeks. Baber's connection with the coil n try beyond the moun- tains was therefore entirely cut off. He was now dom of king of Cabul, over which country he reigned for twenty-two years, before his conquest of India ; and which was enjoyed by his descendants till the end of the seventeenth century. But though Baber had gained a fixed establish- ment, he was by no means in a state of repose. He had, in fact, only changed the character of his toils and perils. He was still threatened from without by an enemy who had hitherto proved BABER. 101 irresistible ; and within, a great part of his territory CHAP. was in the hands of independent tribes, and so strong that he could not hope to subdue it ; while part of the rest was possessed by personal enemies and rivals. His title was doubtful ; he had no minister whom he could trust ; his brother Je- hangir had but lately joined him after having been long in rebellion ; and his army was an assemblage of adventurers, strangers to him and traitors to their former masters. His first years were spent in the conquest of Candahar, in expeditions into the mountains of the Afghans and Hazarehs, and in a dangerous journey to Herat to concert measures with that branch of the house of Tamerlane for their com- mon defence against the Uzbeks. On these occa- sions he underwent the usual risks and more than the usual hardships of war, and had once nearly perished in the snow during a winter march through the mountains of the Hazarehs. In this period his brother Jehangir revolted (A.D. 1506); but was subdued and pardoned: a more serious insurrection took place while he was at Herat, when his Mogul troops set up one of his cousins as king, who was also defeated and par- doned (A. D. 1507) ; and he was afterwards brought to the brink of ruin by a conspiracy of the Moguls, who had come over from Khusru Shah. These men, from two to three thousand in number, gave the first sign of their disaffection by an attempt to seize Baber's person ; and when he had escaped H 3 102 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and fled from Cabul, they called in Abdu Rizak, VII . the son of Ulugh Beg, whom Baber had supplanted in the government (A. D. 1508). The right of this young man had probably little influence ; for all the princes of the house of Tamerlane seemed to consider that conqueror's dominions as a common prize, from which each might take what share he could : his strength lay in the connections he pos- sessed in a country where his father had reigned ; and those were so powerful that Baber found him- self deserted by the whole of his troops except about 500 men. A moment's despondency, at this crisis, would have been fatal ; but Baber made up for his small force by the boldness and activity of his enterprises : he led his troops to repeated en- counters, exposed himself in the hottest of every engagement, and, almost entirely by his personal courage and exertions, at last retrieved his affairs.* His most important wars were with his old ene- mies the Uzbeks. Sheibani Khan, after the con- quest of Transoxiana, invaded Khorasan, took He- rat, and extinguished the principal branch of the house of Tamerlane. He then advanced to Can- dahar and took the city. He was drawn off by distant troubles before he had reduced the citadel ; but left it so weakened that it fell into the hands of its old possessors the Arghuns, who had remained * Mr. Erskine, from Khafi Khan and Ferishta. Baber's Me- moirs break off in the beginning of the insurrection, and are not resumed for some years. The intervening portion seems never to have been written. (Erskim's Baber, p. 236.) BABER. 103 in the neighbourhood, and who now retained it for CHAP. several years (from A. D. 1507 to 1522). What might have been Baber's fortune if the Uzbeks had continued their progress, it is not easy to surmise. It is possible he might have shared the fate of so many princes of his family, had not Sheibani Khan encountered a new enemy whose success put a stop to the career of Tartar conquest. This was Shah Ismael Saffavi, king of Persia, with whom Sheibani went to war about this time, and by whom he was totally defeated and slain (A. D. 1510). His death opened a new field to Baber, or rather recalled him to that which had been the scene of his earliest exploits. He immediately occupied Bactria, made an alliance with Shah Is- mael, and, with the aid of a Persian force, took Bokhara, and again obtained possession of Samar- cand (A. D. 1511). But he was destined never to be long successful in Transoxiana : before the end of a twelvemonth he was driven out of Samarcand by the Uzbeks ; and, although he maintained the contest, with the support of the Persians, for two years longer, yet he at last suffered a total defeat, and lost all his acquisitions except Bactria (A. D. 1514). It was after this failure that he turned his serious His views attention to India, and began those enterprises, the result of which has already been related. After the taking of Agra, Baber's first act was A. D. 1526, .. , i j A - " 9 33 - to distribute the captured treasures to his ad- B ^ ber . s herents. He gave his son Humayun a diamond, H 4. 104 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK which was esteemed one of the finest in the world ; vn. ' and he sent a present of a shahrukhi each to every victory over man, woman, and child, slave or free, in the I brahim. country ofCabul. * But, although in possession of the capital, Baber was far from having conquered the kingdom. He only occupied the part to the north-west of Delhi, with a narrow tract along the Jamna to Agra. The whole of the country to the east of the Ganges had become independent in I'brahim's time under Deria Khan Lohani. His son took the title of king by the name of Mohammed Shah Lohani, and seems to have possessed Behar on both sides of the Ganges. Many places on the west of the Jamna had also been in rebellion in Fbrahim's time, and many of those which had been obedient now held out under the Afghan and Fermuli chiefs belong- ing to the late government. Nor was this the only opposition with which Baber had to contend : a strong dislike and hostility at first subsisted between his troops and the Indians, the villages round his camp were deserted, and it became a matter of great difficulty to procure grain or forage for the Discontent army. In addition to this, the summer, always troops. nearly intolerable to natives of cold countries, was * The shahrukhi is only lOd. or lid. ; but the whole sum must have been very great ; and this injudicious expenditure justifies the nickname of " the Calender" given to him at the time, from a religious order, whose practice it is to keep nothing for to-morrow. He could not always have been so profuse, though always generous ; for after he once got Cabul, we hear of no financial embarrassments. BABER. 105 in that year unusually oppressive, and so affected CHAP. the troops that all ranks began to murmur, and at . length to clamour to be led back to Cabul : some even made preparations for returning without leave. On this, Baber assembled the officers, and pointed out to them that, as the conquest of India had long been the great object of their labours, it would be weakness and disgrace to abandon it now that it was achieved ; that he, therefore, was de- termined to remain in India ; that all who chose to return were at liberty to do so at once ; but that henceforth he would hear of no remonstrances against his resolution. This address induced the greater part to give up their discontents. Khaja Kilan, however, one of his best and most confi- dential chiefs, was among those that decided to return, and was accordingly appointed to a govern- ment beyond the Indus, and dismissed with honour to his new charge. The determination so strongly expressed had an effect even on the enemy ; and many, who had hitherto expected Baber to withdraw as Tamerlane had done, now made their submission : detach- ments were sent to reduce others ; and, in the course of the next four months, not only had the country held by Sultan rbrahim been secured, but all the revolted provinces ever possessed by the house of Lodi, including the former kingdom of Juanpur, were brought into subjection by an army A. T>. 1525, J J July to Oct. under rnnce liumayun, Baber s eldest son. A.M. 932. The last places which submitted were Biana, 106 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Dhulpur on the Chambal, and Gwalior beyond that ' river. His war After he had thus been acknowledged by all the with Sanga, rana of Mussulmans, Baber had to commence a war with the Hindus, who, contrary to their usual practice, were on this occasion the aggressors. Hamir Sing, the Rajput prince who recovered Chitor in the reign of Ala u din Khilji (A. D. 1316), had, in the course of a long reign, re-established the Rajput dominion over all Mewar ; to which his son had added Ajmir. * After the separation of Malwa from Delhi the new kings of that country were engaged in frequent hostilities with the rajas of Mewar ; and, immediately before the time of Baber, Mahmud, king of Malwa, had been defeated and taken prisoner by Sanga, the Rajput prince t (A.D. 1519). Sanga, the sixth in succession from Hamir, pos- sessed all the hereditary dominions of Mewar, and likewise held the eastern part of Malwa as far as Bilsa and Chanderit, in dependence. He was recognised as their leader by the rajas of Marwar and Jeipur, and all the other Rajput princes. Being a natural enemy to the king of Delhi, he had opened a friendly communication with Baber while he was advancing against Fbrahim, and for the same reason he began to form combinations against him as soon as he found him established in * Colonel Tod's Rajputana, vol. i. p. 274. -f- Briggs's Ferishta, vol. iv. p. 261. ^ Baber's Memoirs, p. 312. Colonel Tod, vol. i. p. 299. BABER. 107 the former position of that prince. Besides his CHAP. Hindu allies, Sanga was on this occasion accom- panied by Mahmud, a prince of the house of Lodi, who had assumed the title of king, and, though possessed of no territory, was followed by 10,000 adherents. The Lodi chiefs formerly driven out by Humayun also returned to their former possessions, or raised men in other places to co-operate with the raja. Great efforts were made on both sides to secure the alliance of Hasan Khan, raja of Mewat, who, by his name, must have been a con- verted Hindu. His territory is that hilly tract ex- tending towards the river Chambal, from within twenty-five miles of Delhi, and including the petty state which is now called Macheri or Alwar. The son of this chief being a hostage in Baber's hands, he adopted the liberal policy of sending him to his father as the true way to gain his sincere co- operation. His generosity did not make the de- sired impression ; for Hasan Khan was no sooner set at ease about his son than he openly joined the enemy. Raja Sanga immediately advanced to sup- port his ally, and soon arrived at Biana, within fifty miles of Agra. He drove the garrison of that place, with loss, into their fort, and cut off all com- munication between them and the capital. Baber, on this, sent forward a detachment to observe the enemy, and soon after moved out with all his forces. He had reached Sikri*, about twenty miles * Now Fattehpur Sikri. 108 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK from Agra, when he found himself in the neigh.- ' bourhood of the Hindu army. His advanced guard was immediately attacked ; and, though reinforced from the main body, was defeated with heavy loss. If the raja had pressed on during the first panic, it is probable he would have obtained an easy victory : he chose to withdraw to his encampment after his success, and thus allowed Baber ample time to take February up a position and to fortify his camp, so as to make it a difficult matter to assail him. Baber's troops had looked on this contest in a very serious light from the first ; and the reports of fugitives, together with the disaster which had taken place almost before their eyes, had made a very deep impression on them ; when, by ill luck, a celebrated astrologer arrived from Cabul, and loudly announced, from the aspect of Mars, the certain defeat of the king's army, which happened to be in the quarter opposite to that planet. The consternation occasioned by these real and imagin- ary terrors was so general that even the officers of the highest rank were infected, lost all courage and decision in council, and could scarcely even maintain an appearance of firmness before their men. Baber's Indian troops began to desert ; some of them went over to the enemy ; and the rest of the army, though faithful, was completely dispirited and alarmed. Baber himself, though he despised the prediction of the astrologer, was not insensible to the dangers of his situation : he tells us that he repented of his sins, forswore wine, and gave away BABER. 109 his gold and silver drinking vessels to the poor : CHAP. he also made a vow to let his beard grow, and pro- ' mised to remit the stamp tax on all Mussulmans, if it should please God to give him victory. But he was too much used to danger to be depressed ; and that he might infuse some of his own spirit into his troops, he assembled his officers of all ranks, and, without touching on the usual topics of necessity, or of spoil and conquests, scarcely even on that of religion, he made a direct appeal to their sense of honour, and set the chance of glory against the risk of death. His theme seems to have been well chosen, for the whole assembly answered him with one voice, and accompanied their acclamations with an oath on the Koran to conquer or die. This scene revived the courage of the army ; and, as every day brought in accounts of some fresh disorder in the provinces, Baber de- termined no longer to avoid an action, but to bring things to an immediate crisis. With this view, he Battle of drew up his army in front of his in trench ments, fdJy"^ 10 " and, after arranging his guns, and making his other Bdben preparations, he gallopped along the line from right to left, animating his soldiers by short addresses, and instructing the officers how to conduct them- selves in the battle. The Hindus, it appears, were equally ready for a decisive effort ;. but so anxious is Baber to do justice to the great occasion, that, instead of his own account of the action, he gives us the elaborate despatch of his secretary, from which we can barely discover, in many pages of 110 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK flowery declamation, that Baber gained a great victory, that Raja Sanga escaped with difficulty, A. D . 1527, and that Hasan Khan and many other chiefs were March 16. ; f J A. H. 933, slam. Baber (to return to his own narrative) could Jamadi u v i i r> Sani is. now relieve his heart by a torrent or abuse against the astrologer, who came to congratulate him on his victory, and whom he inveighed against as a perverse, conceited, and insufferable evil-speaker : he was an old servant, however, and Baber made him a liberal present, while he desired him to quit his dominions. Settlement After this victory, Baber proceeded to reduce country. Mewat, and brought it into greater order than it ever had been in under the former government. Having promised, before the great battle, that he would allow any one who pleased leave of absence to Cibul, he formed all who desired to avail them- selves of that permission into a detachment, and sent them back under the command of Humayun. He spent the next six months in internal arrange- ments, and restoring order throughout the pro- vinces that had been disturbed during the doubtful period of his contest with Raja Sanga ; and by the end of the year his authority was everywhere re- established, except in Oud, beyond the Ganges. A body of Afghans still remained in arms in that province, and a detachment had been sent against them. A D. 1528, About the beginning of the next year, Baber siege^f 4 marched against Chanderi, on the borders of Bun- chanderi. jelcaiid and Malwa. It was held by Medni Rai, BABER. Ill a Raj put chief who had risen to great power under CHAP. Mahmud II., king of Malwa. He had afterwards ' usurped the government ; and, on being expelled by Mahmud with the aid of the king of Guzerat, established himself at Chanderi, under the pro- tection of Raja Sanga. He had made good his retreat after the late battle, and now offered a des- perate resistance. But the Rajputs, as usual, showed more valour than skill or perseverance. On the second day of the siege they gave up all for lost, and Baber witnessed one of those extra- ordinary instances of self-devotion which are so common in Rajput history. His troops had already mounted the works, when the garrison put their women to death, and rushed forth naked, not to conquer, but to die. They drove the Mussulmans before them, leaped from the ramparts, and con- tinued their charge with unabated fury until they were overpowered and destroyed : 200 or 300 had remained to defend Medni Rai's house, most of whom slew each other, each contending who A . D . 1523, should be the first victim. During the siege of Chanderi, Baber received Afghan in- intelligence of the defeat of his detachment inOud s by an Afghan chief named Baban, or Biban, and immediately marched, himself, in that direction. The Afghans having taken post at the passage of the Ganges, Baber threw a bridge over the river, under the fire of his artillery, and ultimately com- pelled the enemy to retire beyond the Gogra, whither he marched in pursuit of them. He seems HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK to have compelled the rebels to take refuge in the VII. ____ territories of the king of Bengal, and it was pro- bably on this occasion that he reduced Behar ; if that was not done before by Humayun : but in this place there is an interruption in the Memoirs, which is not filled up by any other historian. For some months after this, Baber seems to have been in bad health, and to have indulged in a longer course of relaxation than often fell to his lot. His Memoirs (which are now resumed) are filled with descriptions of Hindu forts and temples, and of fountains and cascades that he had visited; as well as of his own garde'ns and improvements, and of the jugglers, wrestlers, and other sources of amusement peculiar to India. Even during this period he made the important acquisition of the fort of Rintambor : it was made over to him by the second son of Raja Sanga, that prince having died, and having been succeeded by the eldest son. His attention was at last effectually roused by the intelligence that the province of Behar had been seized on by Sultan Mahmud, the same Lodi prince who had been present at the defeat of Raja Sanga. Mahmud seems to have been supported from Bengal ; and being joined by the Afghans in Behar and the adjoining provinces, his army soon swelled to such an extent as to be called 100,000 men. With this force lie had advanced to Benares, by the time when Baber reached the junction of the Jamna and Ganges, now Allahabad. BASER. 113 The approach of Baber, however, dissolved this CHAP. hasty assemblage, which was already a prey to dis- sension. They had attempted to storm the hill fort of Chunar; and a repulse they met with, though not in itself considerable, was sufficient, in the pre- sent state of their minds, to break up the army. Mahmud retreated with such portion as he could keep together. He took up a position behind the river Son (Soane) ; and many of the chiefs who had quitted him made their submission to Baber. Baber continued his advance ; and Mahmud, find- ing it in vain to oppose him, sought for safety in flight. All Behar south of the Ganges was now in D e f ea tof Baber's hands ; North Behar was still in possession *g n k a g of of the king of Bengal, who had a considerable army on foot in that quarter. His object appears to have been to have retained that portion of the Delhi territories without quarrelling with the pos- sessor of the rest ; and he kept an ambassador in Baber's camp, to amuse him with negotiations, until Baber lost patience, crossed the Ganges, and advanced against the Bengalese army. He had still to pass the river Gogra, on which the enemy were encamped, near its junction with the Ganges. He was, however, well provided with boats, and drove away those of the Bengalese, which might otherwise have obstructed his passage. The Bengalese then moved down to oppose his crossing, and a cannonade was kept up on both sides. As Baber's divisions landed in succession, VOL. II. 1 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK they charged the different parties opposed to them, and at last drove the enemy from the field. Soon after this the king of Bengal consented to terms of peace. Baber was preparing to return to Agra, when he heard that a body of Afghans, who had separated from the Bengal army, under Baban and another chief, named Bayazid, had crossed the Gogra, and taken Luknow. He immediately marched in that direction ; and, on the retreat of the Afghans, sent a detachment in pursuit of them. It followed them across the Ganges and Jamna, and had completely dispersed them in Bundelcand, when the setting in of the rainy season put an end to all operations, sickness of For the last fifteen months of his life Baber's Baber. health seems to have been greatly broken : the silence of his diary gives a proof of his diminished activity, and some circumstances lead to a belief that his authority began to be weakened by the prospect of its speedy cessation. Humayun left his government of Badakhshan without leave, and Khalifa, Baber's prime minister, on being selected to replace him, found means to excuse himself, and remain at court. Notwithstanding Humayun's un- looked for return, he was affectionately received ; and a dangerous illness, with which he was soon after attacked, was the immediate cause of the death of Baber. When it was announced to him that the phy- sicians had given over all their efforts, declaring that medicine could no longer avail, Baber seized BABER. 115 on the only hope that remained, and, in conformity CHAP. with a superstition which still prevails in the East, . he determined to devote his own life for that of his son. His friends, who had as little doubt of the efficacy of this substitution as he had himself, entreated him to forbear from a sacrifice involving the happiness of so many ; but Baber's resolution was unmoved. He walked three times round the bed of the dying prince (a solemnity usual on such occasions), and then spent some moments in ear- nest prayer to God ; at the end of which, he was filled with such assurance, that he more than once exclaimed, " I have borne it away I have borne it away ! " and so powerful was the impression both on his mind and his son's, that all the his- torians agree that Humayun began from that time to recover, while it is certain that Baber, who was already ill, and whose health must have been se- verely shaken by his anxiety and agitation, began visibly to decline. It soon became evident that intrigues his end was approaching. He called his sons and ministers about him ; explained his dying wishes, and enjoined concord among all, and affection among his children. But Khalifa, his minister, whose influence, for some unexplained reason, was, at that time, irresistible, had already resolved to overturn the dearest of his plans. Desirous of keeping power in his own hands, he determined to set aside Baber's own sons, and to give the crown to his son-in-law, Mehdi Khaja, a young man whose thoughtless and flighty disposition made it the succes- sion. 116 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK seem easy to keep him in perpetual dependence.* ' Mehdi Khaja was at no pains to undeceive him in these expectations, and was now considered by himself and others as assured of the succession the moment that Baber should breathe his last. As that moment approached, however, he was sud- denly seized by Khalifa, put into confinement, and cut off from all communication with those around. The cause of this revolution is explained in a nar- rative referred to by Mr. Erskine, which is given on the authority of Mohammed Mokim, the father of the author. Khalifa, it seems, was on a visit to Mehdi Khaja, with no person present but Mokim : he was suddenly summoned to Baber, who lay at the last extremity. Mehdi Khaja attended him with great respect to the door, and stood looking after him, so that Mokim could not follow without pushing by him. " As soon as Khalifa was fairly gone, he muttered to himself, ' God willing, I will soon flay your hide off, old boy;' and, turning round at the same instant, saw my father. He was quite confounded ; but, immediately seizing my father's ear, with a convulsive eagerness, twisted it round, and said, hurriedly, * You Tajik ! the red tongue often gives the green head to the winds.' ' Mokim lost no time in apprising Khalifa of what * Khalifa was one of Baber's old officers ; but it is not easy to conjecture how he could acquire so inordinate a power under so able a sovereign as Baber, and with an experienced heir apparent like Humayun. Equally extraordinary does it seem that, from this time forward, he disappears, and is not mentioned in Ferishta or Abul Fazl, either under his own name of Khalifa, or his title of Nizam u din. BABEK. 117 had passed ; and the result was, his immediately CHAP. transferring his allegiance to Humaytm. In the midst of these intrigues, with which he Death of was, probably, unacquainted, Baber expired, the most admirable, though not the most powerful, prince that ever reigned in Asia. He died, at A. D . 1530, Agra, in the fiftieth year of his age, and the A . C H! 937' thirty-eighth of his reign. His body was buried, by his own desire, at Cabul, and on a spot which it is probable that he had himself selected.* Baber's character is best shown in his actions ; His cha- but something remains to be said of his private life and his writings. His Memoirs are almost singular in their own nature, and perfectly so if we consider the circumstances of the writer. They contain a minute account of the life of a great Tartar mon- arch, along with a natural effusion of his opinions and feelings, free from disguise and reserve, and no less free from all affectation of extreme frank- ness and candour.t * " He had directed his body to be interred in this place, to him the choicest in his wide dominions." ..." A running and clear stream yet waters the fragrant flowers of the cemetery, which is the great holiday resort of the people of Cabul. In the front of the grave is a small but chaste mosque of white marble." ..." There is a noble prospect from the hill that over- looks Baber's tomb," &c. &c. (Burness Travels, vol. i. p/141.) t In this last respect, they are a contrast to those of Tamer- lane, which, with all their simplicity of language, are evidently written for effect. " One da}', having unintentionally trodden on an ant, I felt as if my foot had lost all its power." (Memoirs of Teinmr, p. 30.) Who can imagine this to be natural, even if the author had been a Bramin ascetic, instead of the most san- guinary of conquerors ? i 3 VII. 118 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK The st.yle is plain and manly, as well as lively and picturesque ; and being the work of a man of genius and observation, it presents his countrymen and contemporaries, in their appearance, manners, pursuits, and actions, as clearly as in a mirror. In this respect it is almost the only specimen of real history in Asia ; for the ordinary writers, though they give pompous accounts of the deeds and cere- monies of the great, are apt to omit the lives and manners even of that class ; while every thing be- neath their level is left entirely out of sight. In Baber, the figures, dress, tastes, and habits of each individual introduced are described with such mi- nuteness and reality, that we seem to live among them, and to know their persons as well as we do their characters.* His description of the countries he visited, their scenery, climate, productions, and works of art and industry, are more full and accu- rate than will, perhaps, be found, in equal space, in any modern traveller ; and, considering the cir- cumstances in which they were compiled, are truly surprising.! * These portraits, however, are necessarily confined to the inhabitants of the courts and camps where Baber passed his days : in the countries which he has so well delineated, he only gives such remarkable particulars about the natives as would strike a stranger, without attempting a detailed account of their way of life, with which he must necessarily have been unac- quainted. ^ Compare his descriptions of the countries through which he fought his way with those of Ibn Batuta, himself a writer of remarkable merit, and a professed traveller and inquirer. Or compare his geography with that of any Asiatic who has written expressly on the science. BABER. 119 But the great charm of the work is in the charac- CHAP. i. ter of the author, whom we find, after all the trials ' of a long life, retaining the same kind and affection- ate heart, and the same easy and sociable temper, with which he set out on his career, and in whom the possession of power and grandeur had neither blunted the delicacy of his taste nor diminished his sensibility to the enjoyments of nature and imagin- ation. "It is a relief," says his translator, "in the midst of the pompous coldness of Asiatic history, to find a king who can weep for days, and tell us that he wept for the playmate of his boyhood." He speaks with as much interest of his mother and female relations as if he had never quitted their fireside ; and his friends make almost as great a figure in the personal part of his narrative as he does himself. He repeats their sayings, records their accidents and illnesses, relates their adven- tures, and sometimes jokes on their eccentricities. After a letter, on the affairs of his government, to his most confidential counsellor, Khaja Kilan (then at Cabul), he tells him little anecdotes of their common acquaintances, which he thinks will amuse him, and adds, " For God's sake excuse all these fooleries, and do not think the worse of me for them." He endeavours afterwards to persuade Khaja Kilan to leave off wine, as he had done ; and says, in substance, " Drinking was a very plea- sant thing with our old friends and companions j but now that you have only Shir Ahmed and 120 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Heider Kuli to take your wine with, it can be no ' great sacrifice to leave it off." In the same letter, he says how much he envies his friend his resi- dence at Cabul, and adds, " They, very recently, brought me a single musk melon* : while cutting- it up, I felt myself affected with a strong feeling of loneliness, and a sense of my exile from my native country, and I could not help shedding tears while I was eating it." It would have been fortunate if Baber had left off wine sooner, for there seems good reason to think his indulgence in it tended to shorten his days. Many a drinking party is recorded in his Memoirs, with at least as much interest as his bat- tles or negotiations ; and, unsuitable as they are to his station, they are not the least agreeable scenes in Baber's history. The perfect ease and fami- liarity among the company makes one forget the prince in the man ; and the temptations that gene- rally lead to those excesses a shady wood, a hill with a fine prospect, or the idleness of a boat floating down a river ; together with the amuse- ments with which they are accompanied, extem- porary verses, recitations in Turki and Persian, with sometimes a song, and often a contest of re- partee take away all the coarseness that might attach to such scenes of dissipation. The unsettled nature of his life is shown by his observing, near the end of it, that since he was eleven years old he had never kept the fast of the * This fruit had not then been introduced into India. BABER. Ramzan twice in any one place ; and the time not CHAP. spent in war and travelling was occupied in hunt- ing and other sports, or in long excursions on horseback about the country. On his last journey, after his health had begun to fail, he rode, in two days, from Calpi to Agra (160 miles), without any particular motive for dispatch ; and on the same journey he swam twice across the Ganges, as he said he had done with every other river he had met with. His mind was as active as his body : besides the business of the kingdom, he was con- stantly taken up with aqueducts, reservoirs, and other improvements, as well as introducing new fruits and other productions of remote countries. Yet he found time to compose many elegant Per- sian poems and a collection of Turki compositions, which are mentioned as giving him a high rank among the poets of his own country.* * Almost all that has been said of Baber has been drawn from Mr. Erskine's admirable translation of his Memoirs from the Turki. The notes and supplements which accompany that work remove the obscurities which, without such assistance, would beset us in every page ; and the preliminary dissertation gives a complete view of the state of Asia in Baber's time, and contains the best account of the geography of the countries which were the scene of his exploits, and the clearest expo- sition of the divisions of the Tartar nations. The translation seems to have imbibed the very spirit of the original. The style is singularly happy, strikingly characteristic, though per- fectly natural, and equally remote from the usual inflated lan- guage of the East, and from the imitation of scriptural simplicity into which other translators of similar works have fallen. HISTORY OF INDIA. CHAP. II. FIRST REIGN OF HUMAYUN. t BOOK BABER left three sons besides Humayun : Cam ran, VII. ' Hindal, and Mirza Askari.* * The narrative of the reign of Humayun (where not other- wise specified) is taken from Ferishta, the Memoirs of Humayun, and Abul Fazl. Ferishta is peculiarly defective at this period, which was too remote to admit of his conversing with eye-wit- nesses, and too recent to allow him to benefit by written his- tories. The Memoirs are written by a person named Jouher, who was a menial servant of Humayun, and whose duty it was to carry an ewer for his master to wash his hands. He was in constant attendance on Humayun, and although unacquainted with his political relations and secret designs, was a minute and correct observer of all that came within his reach, and describes what he saw with simplicity and distinctness. He was devoted to Humayun, and anxious to put all his actions in the most favourable light ; but he seldom imagined that any thing in his master's conduct required either concealment or apology. Abul Fazl was the well-known minister and favourite of Akber, and was a man of enlarged views and extraordinary talents; but he was a professed rhetorician, and is still the model of the unnatural style which is so much admired in India ; he was, be- sides, a most assiduous courtier, eager to extol the virtues, to gloss over the crimes, and to preserve the dignity of his master and those in whom he was interested. His dates and his gene- ral statement of events are valuable ; but he requires constant attention, not so much to guard against his barefaced partiality, as against the prejudice which he draws on his favourites by his fawning and fulsome commendations of them, and against the suspicions which he excites by his dishonest way of telling a story, even in cases where the action related was innocent or HUMAYUN. 123 Camran was governor of Cabul and Candahar, CHAP. and the other two were unemployed in India. ' From his having assigned no shares to his younger Arrange- children, it is probable that Baber did not intend the king's to divide the empire ; but Camran showed no dis- position to give way to his brother ; and as he was in possession of a strong and warlike country among the hereditary subjects of his family, he had a great advantage over Humayun, who could not assemble an army without evacuating his new and disaffected provinces. In these circumstances, Humayun thought it Separation , i i i i i f Cabul prudent to yield with a good grace, and gave up from India, the Panjab and the country on the Indus, in addi- tion to Camran's former territories. At the same time he gave the government of Sambal to Hindal, and that of Mewat to Mirza Askari. By the ces- sion to Camran, Humayun was left to govern a new conquest, while he was deprived of the re- sources by which it had been gained, and by which it might have been retained ; but as he still pos- sessed Baber's veteran army, and profited by the impression of his power, the effects of the dismem- berment did not at first appear. Humayun was engaged in the siege of Calanjer, Afghan in- excusable. His narrative is florid, feeble, and indistinct ; over- loaded with commonplace reflections and pious effusions, gene- rally ending in a compliment to his patron. In this part of his writings I have generally availed myself of Major Price's His- tory, which, though it does not profess to be a translation, is often a literal version, and always a full and faithful abstract of the original. surrections in India. 124 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK in Bundelcand, when he received intelligence that ' Baban and Bayazid, the Afghan chiefs, whose party was formerly broken up by Baber, were again in rebellion in Juanpur. He defeated and dispersed this assemblage ; and then went against the hill fort of Chunar, near Benares, at that time held by his future rival, Shir Khan. Shir Khan submitted A. D. is32, on condition of retaining the fort, and Humayun A. H. 939. j , * returned to Agra. Disputes Some time before this period, a distant relation of iiddurShah, Humayun's, who had been engaged in plots against Guferlt n * s ^ e anc ^ government, had taken refuge with A. D. 1532, Bahadur Shah, king of Guzerat ; and the refusal of that monarch to comply with Humayun's de- mand for his surrender, led to irritation and hostile feelings between the two kings. Bahadur, whose native kingdom always occupied a high rank among those formed out of the fragments of the empire of Delhi, had lately extended his power much beyond its former limits. The kings of Candesh, Berar, and Ahmednagar had agreed to do him homage for their crowns ; and he had completely conquered the kingdom of Malwa, and annexed it to his own. While his discussion with Humayun was at its height, Ala u din, the brother of Sultan Thraliim Lodi, who acted so conspicuous a part in the for- mer reign, having quitted the residence assigned to him by Baber, in Badakhshan, threw himself on the protection of the king of Guzerat; and Ba- hadur, whose family had risen to greatness under HUMAYUN. 125 the house of Lodi, and who had himself found an CHAP. asylum at the court of I'brahim, being at once in- cited by favour for his hereditary patrons, resent- ment at Humayun, and pride in his own power and prosperity, was tempted into measures as incon- sistent with sound policy as with justice. Without any open declaration of war with Humayun, he liberally supplied Ala u din with money, and en- abled him, in a very short time, to assemble a large force, and to send it against Agra, under his son, Tatar Khan. This army, so hastily collected, was as speedily dispersed ; and Tatar Khan fell in bat- tle, at the head of a division which remained faith- A - D - A. H. 941. ful in the general desertion. Encouraged by this success, or, perhaps, in pur- invasion . , and con- suance of plans already determined on, Humayun quest of marched from Agra to revenge the injury he had received from Bahadur Shah. That prince was A. n. 1534, -i i / n -LIT / / 11- November ; now at war with the rana of Mewar, and being A . H . 941, entirely occupied by the siege of Chitor, was adl particularly exposed to the attack of an enemy ; but Humayun, moved by his remonstrances against the impiety of molesting a Mussulman prince while engaged in war with the infidels, or in- fluenced by his own dilatory habits, retarded his march, until the p^ce was taken, and the besieger A. D . 1535, March ; prepared to receive him in an intrenched camp at A. H . 941, Mandesor. Bahadur had chosen this course on account of the superiority of his artillery, com- manded by a Constantinopolitan Turk, and partly served by Portuguese prisoners. These advantages 126 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK availed him little ; his position was rendered un- , tenable by the enemy's cutting off his supplies ; and, finding that famine would soon force him to surrender, he blew up his guns, and fled in the night, almost alone, to Mandu, leaving his army to provide for its own safety. The army immediately dispersed, and Bahadur, being hard pressed at Mandu, continued his flight to Champaner, and thence to the sea port of Cam- bay. Humayun was by this time in pursuit of him in person, with a light detachment, and reached Cambay on the evening of the day on which Ba- hadur had quitted it for his final place of refuge at Diu, in the most remote part of the peninsula of Guzerat. * Having failed in his immediate object, Hu- mayun quitted the peninsula, and proceeded to occupy the settled part of Guzerat. He soon ob- tained possession of the open country, but the year was well advanced before the hill fort of Cham- paner fell into his hands. It was scaled in the night, with the help of steel spikes fixed in an * When Humayun was encamped at Cambay, he was ex- posed to considerable danger from a night attack of a body of Culis, a forest tribe still famous for similar exploits in Guzerat. They made their way with so much silence and intelligence into the camp, that they surprised Humayun's own tent and carried off his baggage and books, among which was a remark- able copy of the " History of Tamerlane," the loss and subse- quent recovery of which are thought worthy of being recorded by the historians of those times. Humayun, by way of retali- ating the insult he had received from these lawless moun- taineers, gave up the unoffending town of Cambay to plunder. HUMAYUN. 127 almost perpendicular rock, by 300 chosen men, CHAP. who climbed up, one by one, during an attack made on one of the gates by the army. Humayun him- A. D . 1535, self was among the 300. * A. H. 942, Soon after the taking of Champaner, Humayun received accounts of the commencement of those troubles which ended in the successful revolt of , Guzerat. Shir Khan. He set off for Agra, leaving his bro- ther, Mirza Askari, in charge of his new conquests ; and had scarcely quitted Guzerat, when dissensions broke out among the officers left behind ; discon- tents and intrigues ensued, and ended in some pro- ject for raising Mirza Askari to the throne. Ba- hadur profited by these disorders ; and to such a state of weakness were the invaders reduced, that they gave up Guzerat, without a struggle; and A - D - I 535- evacuated Malwa, which was not even threatened.! Humayun had not been long returned to his * When the fort was taken, it was found that the place where Bahadur's treasure was concealed was known only to one officer, and it was suggested to have recourse to torture to make him disclose the secret ; but Humayun said they had much better have recourse to wine, and directed that the officer should be well treated, and invited to an entertainment by one of his own chiefs. Accordingly, when his heart was softened by kindness and warmed with good cheer, the officer made no scruple to tell his entertainer, thnt if the water were drawn off from a cer- tain reservoir, the treasure would be found in a vault beneath it ; and his instructions being complied with, a large amount of gold and silver was found as he had described. t Ferishta, vols. ii. and iv. Price, vol. iv. Memoirs of Hu- mayun. Bird's History of Guzerat. Paper by Col. Miles, Bom- bay Literary Transactions, vol. i. 128 HISTORY OF INDIA. Sur. BOOK capital before he set out against Shir Khan. * This _ person t, who was soon to act so great a part, was Early life jjjg grandson of I'brahim Khan, a native of Af- and rise of shir Khan rrhanistan. I'brahim claimed to be descended of the family (though probably only of the tribe) of the kings of Ghor, and both he and his son Hasan were married into noble families of their own na- tion. Hasan held a jagir at Sahseram, in Behar, for the maintenance of 500 horse. He had two sons by his Afghan wife, Shir Khan and Nizam Khan ; but he was led, by the arts of a concubine, * He marched in the month of Safar, but the year is un- certain : the. " Tarikhi Shir Shah" says A. H. 942 (A. D. 1535) ; and the " Mantakhib al Towarikh," as well as Ferishta, A. H. 94-3 (A. D. 1536). The former date, 94-2, is impossible, because Humayun took the fort of Champaner in Guzerat in that very month and year. The other year, 943, is improbable, as it allows only a twelvemonth for the final settlement of Guzerat and Malwa, besides the return to Delhi and the preparations for the war with Shir Khan ; while it leaves a year and a half for Humayun's march of 350 miles through his own dominions to Chunar. I should therefore suppose that his march took place place in Safar, A. H. 944 (July 1537). f This account of Shir Shah is compiled from Ferishta, vols. i., ii., iv., from Erskine's " Baber," and from Abul Fazl, in Price, vol. iv. Ferishta gives a connected history of Shir Shah (vol. ii. p. 98.), which, though it appears to be written with per- fect impartiality, is extremely confused from inattention to dates ; the different expeditions of Baber being mixed up with those of Humayun in such a manner as to make them quite in- explicable without other aid. This aid he himself partially sup- plies under the reigns of rbrahim, Baber, and Humayun ; but more is derived from Baber' s own Memoirs. Abul Fazl also fur- nishes several facts, though his general narrative is a mere in- vective against Shir Shah, such as might have been 1 expected from the minister of Humayun's son. HUMAYUN. 129 to slight his wife, and neglect her children ; and as CHAP. ii. soon as Shir Khan was of an age to act for himself, _ _____ he left his father, went to Juanpur, and entered as a private soldier into the service of the governor. His father applied to the governor to send him home for his education, but Shir Khan urged that there were more opportunities of education at Ju- anpur than at Sahseram ; and he seems to have been in earnest in his preference, for he devoted himself to study, made himself familiar with history and poetry, and could repeat all the poems of Sadi from memory, besides acquiring a general know- ledge of other branches of information. He- was subsequently restored to favour by his father, and managed his jagir, until Soliman, the son of his step-mother, had grown up. After this he found his situation so unpleasant, that he went off with his full brother, Nizam, and entered into the ser- vice of Sultan Secander, who was then king.* He remained at Delhi until his father died, when the jagir of Sahseram was conferred on him ; and after the defeat of Sultan Ibrahim (A. D. 1526), he was active in the service of Mohammed Shah Lohani, who set up for king of Juanpur and Behar. He was for some time in favour with this prince, but being again deprived of his paternal jagir by the intrigues of his half brother, Soliman, he left the court in disgust, and joined Junid, the governor of Juanpur, on the part of Baber (A. D. 1527). By * Secander died in A. D. 1517. VOL. II. K 130 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the assistance of Junid, he assembled a body of ad- VII . . venturers in the hills of Behar, recovered his own jagir, and carried on attacks and depredations on the territory of Mohammed Shah Lohani, profess- ing himself a subject of Baber. About this time (A. D. 1528) he waited on that monarch, accom- panied him to Chanderi (A. D. 1528), and was con- firmed in his possessions, and intrusted with a com- mand in Behar, on the part of the emperor. Next year (1529) Mahmud Lodi took Behar ; and Shir Khan, either from necessity, or an in- clination to the cause of his nation, joined the Lodi standard. On the dispersion of Mahmud's army, he was one of the many chiefs who made their submission to Baber (April 1529). * Mohammed Shah Lohani was now dead ; and his son Jelal, who was a minor, in charge of his mother, and at that time accompanying the Bengal army, made his submission also, and was invested with considerable powers, on the part of the emperor. He was still, however, under the management of his mother, Dudu, over whom Shir Khan acquired such an ascendancy, that, on her death, Jelal was left in He obtains entire dependence on that ambitious chief. Shir of "ifehfc* Khan now made himself master of Behar, and also obtained possession of the fort of Chunar, as, at this or some subsequent period, he did of the still more important fortress of Rohtas.t * Erskine's Baber, p. 408. j- Rohtas was taken by treachery from a Hindu raja. Shir Khan persuaded him to give an asylum to his family, and then HUMAYUN. 131 These rapid advances to power were made in CHAP. the early part of Humayun's reign ; and as soon as - __ that prince had settled his discussions with Cam- ran, and had time to attend to his interests in the provinces, he "marched against Chunar, as has been already stated (1532). He, however, was content with the recognition of his title, and the service of a body of horse, under Shir Khan's son ; and this young man took an opportunity to withdraw when the king began his march against Bahadur Shah. Humayun, thenceforward, was fully occupied in Guzerat ; and before his return, Shir Khan had got complete possession of Behar, had invaded Bengal, and had made great progress in the con- and con- quest of that rich kingdom, Bengal. His war with Bengal was occasioned by Jelal Lohani, who had called in the aid of the king of that country to relieve him from the control of Shir Khan, and, by his means, had at one time nearly succeeded in his object ; but Shir Khan soon retrieved his losses, repelled the attack on himself, and laid siege to Gour, the capital of the hostile king. He was engaged in this enterprise when Hu- mayun returned ; and that prince could not fail to introduced armed soldiers in the covered litters, which were supposed to conceal the women. This stratagem, which has so fabulous an appearance, was thought sufficiently plausible in modern times to be employed by M. Bussy to conceal the trea- chery of a governor who admitted him into the strong fort of Doulatabad. K 2 132 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VII. Humayun inarches against him. Military features of Behar and Bengal. perceive, at once, the advantage of attacking him while thus embarrassed, and the danger of allowing him to consolidate his power. With those views, he inarched at the head of a powerful army from Agra, and advanced through a peaceful country till he reached Chunar, near Benares. But Shir Khan was well aware of all the danger of his situation, and laid his plans for averting it with a foresight and combination of which we have no example in the previous history of India. His first object was to gain time to complete the conquest of Bengal, before he should be disturbed by a new enemy. For this purpose he threw a strong garrison into Chunar, and provided it with all the means of retarding the advance of Huma- yun, by an obstinate defence. This fort stands on a rock, close to the Ganges, and is, as it were, a detached portion of the Vindya mountains, which extend to the same river near Mirzapur. From that neighbourhood the hills re- cede westward, by the fort of Rohtas and Shir- ghati, and do not approach the river again until near Bhagalpur, after which they run straight south, leaving the Ganges at a great distance. These hills, therefore, cover the whole of the south-west of Behar and Bengal, and shut up the road along the south bank of the Ganges, in two places ; one near Chunar, and the other at Sicragalli, east of Bhagalpur. The hills themselves are not high, but poor and covered with woods. HUMAYUN. 133 As Humayan marched along the Ganges, and CHAP. made use of that river to convey his guns and ' stores, it was necessary for him to begin with the siege of Chunar. * After investing the place, he siege of 3 Chunar. endeavoured to mine such parts of the walls as were accessible on the land side, and also brought floating batteries, constructed for the purpose, to bear upon the face towards the river. Notwith- standing all these preparations, his attack failed ; the garrison, however, having already held out for several months, and knowing that they had no prospect of relief, at length surrendered. The siege had been conducted by Rumi Khan, the Constantinopolitan Turk, who brought Bahadur Shah of Guzerat's ordnance to so high a state, and who had since entered into the service of Hu- mayun ; and so much importance was attached to the knowledge of the service of artillery in those days, that the right hands of all the gunners in the garrison, to the number of 300, were cut off, either to disable them for the future, or in revenge for the loss they had occasioned. After the taking of Chunar, Humayun pushed * The Memoirs of Humayun say that the army reached Chunar on the Shabl Barat (Shaban 15th) of A.H. 945. January, 1539; but this would leave only six months for the conquest of Bengal and all the other operations till Humayun's defeat in Safar, 94-6 (June, 1539). I conclude, therefore, that the me- moir writer, who scarcely ever gives a date, may have mistaken the year, although he has remembered the festival, and that the siege began 15th Shaban, 944- (January 8th, 1538). All accounts agree that the siege lasted several months ; some say six months. K 3 134 HISTORY OF INDIA, BOOK his march along the Ganges. Before reaching 1_ Patna, he was met by Mahmud, king of Bengal, who had just been driven from his dominions, and was still suffering from a wound he had received in his last defeat. As he approached the defile of Sicragali, he sent on a strong detachment to take possession of it. They found it already occupied by Jelal Khan, the son of Shir Khan, who attacked and repulsed them with considerable loss. Humayun hastened on with his main body to retrieve this check, but was agreeably surprised to find the pass deserted, and the road open to the capital of Bengal. shirKhan's It was no part of Shir Khan's plan to cope with sistingthe the superior force of Humayun in this stage of the campaign. His design from the first was to retire to the hilly tract on the south-west ; and with this view he had removed his family, and all that he possessed of value, to Rohtas. The protracted siege of Chunar had enabled him to reduce Gour, and to defeat Mahmud in a conclusive battle. He had still required time to remove the captured treasure and stores to Rohtas, and to dispose of the open country in the manner that suited his views. Jelal Khan had therefore been instructed to delay Humayun at the pass, but to avoid any serious encounter, and to join his father in the Taking of hills. Humayun accordingly took possession of Humayun. GOUT* without further opposition. But the rains * Probably June or July, 1538. Abul Fazl states that Bengal was conquered in A. H. 94<5. That year began on May 30th, HUMAYUN. 135 had by this time attained their height : the Delta CHAP. of the Ganges was one vast sheet of water ; and in ! the country beyond the reach of inundation every ^ufcj ffi " brook and channel was become an impassable flood. ^*j e It was impossible to carry on operations in Bengal, son - and scarcely less difficult to keep up a communi- cation with upper India. This forced inactivity lasted for several months, during which time the spirit of the soldiers sank under the moist and sultry climate, and their numbers were thinned by the sickly season that follows the heavy rains. No sooner were the roads open, than they began to desert in numbers ; and Prince Hindal, who had been left in North Behar, went off even before the rains had ceased. Meanwhile Shir Khan issued from his retreat, Active took possession of Behar and Benares, recovered O f shir Chunar, laid siege to Juan pur, and pushed his de- tachments up the Ganges as far as Canouj. Thus, when the season for military operations com- menced, Humayun found his communication with his capital again intercepted, and himself left with no alternative but to trust his new conquest to the charge of a weak detachment, and endeavour to force his way to Agra with the rest of his reduced army. He for some time hesitated to adopt this decided Retreat of 1 Humayu.i. measure, and the dry season was half over before 1538 ; but it appears that Humayun had met with rain before he left Behar, where the rainy season does not commence till June. K 4 136 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK he set out on his retreat. He sent on a consider- able body before he himself began his march, under the command of Khan Khanan Lodi, one of Baber's principal generals. By the time this force reached Monghir, it was surprised and de- feated by a detachment sent by Shir, who was now as enterprising as he had before been cautious ; and who, to show his confidence in the result of his Shir Khan operations, had already assumed the title of king. titie'of 8 If Humayun had not before had sufficient motives for extricating himself from his present situation, the accounts he was daily receiving of the progress of affairs at Agra must have filled him with impatience : but by the time he had passed Baxar, between Patna and Benares, he found that Shir Shah had raised the siege of Juanpur, and intercepts was come by forced marches to intercept his re- on^re" treat. Shir Shah had made a inarch of thirty-five miles on that day, and Humayun was advised to attack him before his troops had time to refresh. The step seemed too hazardous to be adopted at onqe j and next day he found Shir intrenched in such a manner that he could neither be passed nor attacked with any prospect of success. Humayun, therefore, intrenched in his turn, and began to collect boats and form a bridge across the Ganges, so as to pursue his retreat along the opposite bank. Shir Shah, to whom every delay was an advantage, allowed him to go on for nearly two months ; when, the bridge of boats being nearly completed, Shir Shah one day left his camp standing and occupied HUMAYUN. 1-37 by a sufficient force to conceal his movement from CHAP. ii. the enemy, while he himself, with the choice of his army, made a secret march to the rear of s . ur P rise s him, and Humayun's position, and, returning in the night, disperses attacked him in three columns about daybreak, and completely surprised his camp. Humayim had only time to leap on horseback, and, though him- self disposed to make one effort, at least, against the enemy, he was urged by those around him to provide for his own safety ; and one of his prin- cipal officers, seizing his reins, in a manner com- pelled him to make his way to the river-side. The bridge, as has been mentioned, was not finished; and as Humayun had not a moment for delibe- ration, he plunged at once into the Ganges. Be- fore he reached the opposite bank his horse was exhausted, and sunk into the stream ; and Hu- mayun himself must have met with the same fate, if he had not been saved by a water-carrier who was crossing with the aid of the skin used to hold water which he had inflated like a bladder, and which enabled him to support the king's weight as well as his own. Thus rescued, Humayun pursued his flight, with a very small retinue, to Calpi, and thence proceeded to Agra, almost the whole of his army having been cut off by the enemy or drowned in the river. Humayun's queen, whom it had been the object of his last exertion to save, had already been surrounded, and fell into the hands of the enemy : she was treated by Shir Shah with scrupulous delicacy and attention, and was sent on 138 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the first opportunity to a place of safety. This ' tremendous disaster took place in the end of June, A. H. 946, 15,39.* Safar 6. ; A. D. 1539, Humayun's presence, discomfited as he' was, was of essential importance at Agra. While he was shut up in Bengal, Prince Hindal had begun to collect adherents at Agra, and being afterwards joined by the fugitives from Bengal, he went into open rebellion ; while Prince Camran, on being applied to by the king's representatives, immedi- ately set out from Cabul, professedly to support Humayun's interests, but in reality to be at hand to profit by any opportunity of advancing his own. The arrival of Humayun put a stop to all those designs. He pardoned Hindal at the intercession of Camran ; and the three brothers united their exertions to arrest the progress of their common enemy. While Humayun was occupied in repairing his losses, Shir Shah contented himself with retaining his acquisitions in Hisdostan, and proceeded to recover possession of Bengal, and to put all his former territories into a state of order. * Most writers ascribe Humayun's defeat to treachery, and say that Shir Shah attacked him during an armistice, or even after a peace had been signed. This account, in itself, does not seem improbable ; but that given by Colonel Price from Abul Fazl, although it occasionally applies opprobrious epithets to the enemy of Humayun, does great justice to Shir Shah in the facts, and asserts, on this occasion, that he delayed Humayun's retreat by amusing him with negotiations, but never professed to suspend his hostility, and was entirely indebted to his military skill for the success of his stratagem. HUMAYUN. 139 Eight or nine months were employed on both CHAP. sides in these transactions. Towards the end of the Mahometan year, Humayun once more moved A. 0.1540, from Agra, his own army being strengthened by a A. H. 946, reinforcement of 3000 men belonging to Camran, who himself retired to Lahor. By this time Shir Second Shah had reached the Ganges opposite Canouj ; and both parties seemed unwilling to offer an ad- vantage to the other ; until at length Sultan Mirza (a prince of the family of Tamerlane who had before been in rebellion) deserted from Humayun's camp with his followers ; and the example was so likely to be followed, that Humayun determined to bring the contest to an issue, and crossed the Ganges by a bridge of boats which he had con- structed. A general action ensued, in which Hu- Final 1378 780 Ahmed II. - - 1518 924 Gheias u din - 1397 799 Ala u din 11. - 1520 927 Shams u din - 1397 799 Wall ,.. fr: ;, - 1522 Firuz - 1397 800 Kalim - 1526 Hasan Gangu t, the first king of the Deckan, was Founded an Afghan of the lowest rank, and a native of Delhi. He farmed a small spot of land belonging to a Bramin astrologer, named Gangu, who was in favour with the king ; and having accidentally found a treasure in his field, he had the honesty to give notice of it to his landlord. The astrologer was so much struck with his integrity that he exerted all his influence at court to advance his fortunes. Ha- san thus rose to a great station in the Deckan, where his merit marked him out among his equals to be their leader in their revolt. He had before assumed the name of Gangu, in gratitude to his benefactor; * The accounts of the inferior Mahometan dynasties, where not otherwise specified, are taken from Ferishta, who has written a separate history of each (vols. ii., iii., and iv. of Col. Briggs's translation). f The royal title assumed by Hasan was Aid u din ; but to distinguish him from other kings of the same name, I have re- tained his original appellation. N 2 180 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and now, from a similar motive, added that of IL Bahmani (Bramin), by which his dynasty was after- wards distinguished. He fixed his capital at Cul- barga. The revolt of the raja of Warangol, and the foundation of the new government of Bijayanagar, were favourable to the insurgents at first, as they increased the embarrassments of Mohammed Togh- lak ; the raja of Warangol also sent a body of horse to assist Hasan Gangu in his final struggle ; but their establishment cut off a large portion of the Mussulman dominions towards the south, and soon led to boundary disputes which involved them in an unceasing war with the new monarchy. Wars with After the death of Hasan Gangu, these wars, theHinctts. . 3 .' especially that with >ijayanagar, continued, almost without intermission, until the end of his dynasty. They did not for a long time make much alteration in the Hindu and Mahometan limits : the rajas of A.D. i46i, Orissa and Telingana at one time made their way A.H. 865. , & * to the gates of Bidr, which was then the capital : but the Mahometans were gainers on the whole ; they occupied most of the country between the Kishna and Tumbadra; and in A.D. 1421, the Bahmani king, Ahmed Shah, took permanent pos- session of Warangol, and compelled the raja of Telingana to relinquish his ancient capital. At length, in the reign of Mohammed II., the last of the Bahmani kings who exercised the func- A.D. H7i, tions of sovereignty, Amber Rai, a relation of the A.H. 876. 3 J raja of Orissa, applied to the Mussulman prince to DECKAN BAHMANI DYNASTY. 181 assist him in asserting his right to that government, CHAP. promising, in the event of success, to become his _ ' tributary, and to cede to him the districts of Ra- jamandri and Condapili at the mouths of the Kishna and Godaveri. Mohammed accepted the offer, and sent an army to support the pretender. Amber Rai was put in possession of Orissa, and the two districts were made over to the Mussulmans, and occupied by their troops. Amber Rai subsequently endeavoured to regain possession of the districts he had ceded ; when Mohammed moved against him in person, invaded his country, reduced him ** 1477 to submission, and after settling Rajamandri and conquest Condapili, carried his arms to the southward along the coast ; annexed Masulipatam to his dominions, and pushed his incursions to the celebrated temple of Canchi, or Conjeveram, near Madras, which he plundered. The same king met with equal success on the opposite coast of India, his minister having acquired possession of the Concan, the tract between the Partial con- quest of western Ghats and the sea from Bombay to Goa. The Bahmani kings had been occupied in this con- A .^ quest for more than forty years, and had suffered A D * 471 severe losses in that rugged and woody country, A - H - 874 and, after all, were never able perfectly to subdue ***. 876. it. These long wars, on tolerably equal terms, ap- increased pear to have had some effect in mitigating the over- ^th the bearing conduct of the Mahometans towards the l Hindus. N 3 182 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Notwithstanding the close connection of Hasan . , Gangu with a Bramin, his son, Mohammed I., gave no quarter to Hindus in battle, and made a vow to carry on war until he had put 100,000 of that religion to death ; but this barbarity disgusted his own troops ; and so serious were their remon- strances, that the king made a vow never again to kill a prisoner in cold blood : and thenceforward, according to Ferishta, that part of the laws of war was observed to people of all sects. The last real king, Mohammed II., having killed a Bramin with his own hand, it was remarked that he was the first of his race that had thus outraged the sacred order ; and the ruin of the family was ascribed, even by the Mussulmans, to this inauspi- cious action. One of the Bahmani kings made it an article of a peace with the raja of Bejayanagar that he should give his daughter to the king in marriage ; and the connection, though commenced in violence, must have contributed to the blending of the people of the two religions. The more frequent admission of Hindus into confederacies formed by Mahometan princes against each other, must also have assisted to do away distinctions. Men of both religions seem freely to have en- tered into each other's service : the flower of the king of Malwa's army, during an invasion of the Bahmani territories, is said to have consisted of 12,000 Afghans and Rajputs, while Deo Rai, raja of Bijayanagar, recruited Mahometans, assigned DECKAN BAHMANI DYNASTY. 183 lands to their chiefs, and built a mosque at his CHAP. capital expressly for their encouragement. . The domestic history of the Bahmani dynasty is Rivalry much influenced by the rivalry between the foreign the shia and native troops. In most Asiatic despotisms, sects iiTthe the king first trusts to the army against the people, rt and and then to a body of foreign household troops, or Mamluks, against the rest of the army ; and these Mamluks, in the end, usurp the govern- ment. In the Deckan the course was different : the army which placed the Bahmani dynasty on the throne was chiefly composed of foreigners, and there seems to have been no guard more trusted to than the rest. In time, the native troops increased in number, and so nicely balanced the foreigners, that neither party ever obtained a permanent in- fluence over the government. At the time of the separation from Delhi, many of the foreign troops were probably Mogul con- verts ; in later times, according to Ferishta, they consisted of Persians and Turks, Georgians, Circas- sians, Calmucs and other Tartars ; the greater part of them were of the Shia sect ; and the con- test with the native troops was probably more be- tween Shias and Sunnis than between parties arising from difference of race. The latter party, or Dec- canis, as they were called, were always joined by the Abyssinian mercenaries, who came in numbers by the sea ports on the western coast. * * The Persian or Mogul party also chiefly received their N 4 184. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. States formed out of the Bahmani dominions. Bijapur. About A.D. 1489, A.H. 895. Ahmed- nagar. A.D. 1490, A.H. 896. Golconda. A.D. 1512, A.H. 918. Berar. Perhaps A.D. 1504, A.H. 910. These parties reached the highest pitch of ani- mosity in the reign of Ala u din II., in A. D. 1437. They occasioned continual jealousy and distraction, and were as injurious to the government by their intrigues at court as by their want of co-operation on service. They were kept in control under vigorous administrations ; but towards the end of the dynasty, Mahmud, a weak prince, was alter- nately the tool of the foreigners, whose chief was Eusof A'dil Khan, a Turk, and of the Deccanis, then under Nizam ul Mulk Behri, the son of a converted Hindu. The Deccanis having gained the ascendancy, Eusof A'dil retired to his govern- ment of Bijapur, where he afterwards took the title of king, and founded the dynasty of A'dil Shah. Nizam ul Mulk being afterwards assassinated by Kasim Barid, a Turk, his son Ahmed set up a separate dynasty called Nizam Shah, the capital of which was Ahmednagar. Kasim Barid was now the master at the court of Mahmud ; and two other great chiefs became in- dependent, although they did not, for some time, take the title of king. These were, Kutb Kuli, a Turkman, from Persia, and Imad ul Mulk, de- scended from Hindu converts : the former founded the dynasty of Kutb Shah, at Golconda, close to Heiderabad ; and the latter that of Imad Shah, at E'lichpur in Berar. Amir Barid, the son of Kasim, recruits by sea. It is difficult to account for the little influx of Arabs. BIJAPUR. 185 governed for some time under a succession of pa- geants : at length he threw off the mask, and was first of the Barid kings of Bidr; the family of Bah- mani being thenceforth no longer mentioned. The Bahmani kings were several times engaged in wars with those of Candesh and Malwa, gene- rally on the frontiers of Berar : on one occasion (A. D. 1461-2), the king of Malwa advanced to Bidr, then the capital, and might have taken it, but for the timely aid of the king of Guzerat. CHAP. I. A - H - 945 - Dynasty of A'dil Shah at Bijapur. FOUNDED BY EUSOF ADIL SHAH, A TURKISH SLAVE. Eusof A'dil Shah Ismael A'dil Shah Mallu A'dil Shah Tbrahim A'dil Shah A. D. A. H. 1489 895 1510 915 1534 941 - 1535 914 A.D. A. H. Ali A'dil Shah - 1557 965 I'brahim A'dil Shah II. - - 1579 987 Eusof A'dil Shah claimed an illustrious descent, supported by a plausible history. The Indian his- torians represent him as son of the Ottoman Sultan Amurath, and brother to Mohammed II., the con- queror of Constantinople. They relate that he was an infant at the accession of Mohammed, that he escaped being put to death with the rest of his brothers by the contrivance of his mother, and was by her means conveyed to Persia. Being obliged to fly from Persia at the age of 186 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK sixteen, on account of some suspicion of his birth, 1 . he was inveigled to the Bahmani court, and there sold as a slave. He rose, according to the course of Mamluk ad- venturers, until he assumed the crown, as has been related. From that time he was occupied in resisting Kasim Barid, the usurper of the Bahmani govern- ment, and in seizing the possessions of other chiefs around, who, like him, were endeavouring to assert their independence. He was also engaged in wars with the raja of Bijayanagar, in which, on the whole, he was successful. His conquests acquired solidity from a sort of partition treaty with the other two new kings (of Ahmednagar and Berar), by which the title of each to his possessions was recognised. Extent of A notion of the extent of his kingdom may be dom. 1 " 1 gained by assuming the Bima and Kishna rivers for his boundary on the east, the river Tumbadra on the south, the sea from near Goa to near Bom- bay on the west, and perhaps the Nira river on the north. Attempt to He afterwards involved himself in fresh troubles the shk by his zeal for the Shia religion, which he had im- eiglon ' bibed in Persia from some of the immediate fol- lowers of Shekh San". He declared that faith to be the established religion of the state ; and by a proceeding so unexampled in India, he caused much disaffection among his own subjects, and produced a combination of all the other Maho- BIJAPUR. 187 metan kings against him. He showed great reso- CHAP. lution in supporting himself against this confe- ' deracy, and great skill in disuniting the members ; but it was only by renouncing his innovations in religion that he was able, at last, to reconcile him- self to all his opponents. His son Ismael was a minor at his death. The Religious minister who acted as regent planned the usurp- ation of the government ; and with this view put himself at the head of the Sunni or native faction, and depressed and discharged the foreigners. His plan having failed, the young king became as violent a Shia, formed his army entirely of foreigners, and would enlist no Indian, unless he were the son of a foreigner, a Pitan*, or a Rajput. He affected foreign manners, and always used the Persian and Turki languages in preference to that of the Deckan.t rbrahim, the fourth king (the third having only reigned six months), was a zealous Sunni, and dis- charged all the foreign troops. They were recalled by his son Ali, an enthusiastic Shia. During the minority of Ali's son, Fbrahim II., there was a struggle between the factions, in which, at length, the Sunnis prevailed. A change of more importance than these revo- Rise of the lutions of sects was the rise of the Marattas. These * A name often applied by the Indians to the Afghans, but more generally to the Indian descendants of that people. f Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 72. The remark shows that Deckani (a dialect of Hindostani) was the usual language of the Mus- sulmans in the beginning of the sixteenth century. 188 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. Wars with the other Mahome- tan kings. Hindus, having fallen completely under the kings of Ahmednagar and Bijapur, in consequence of the extinction of their own raja of Deogiri, were treated as subjects, and employed without distrust. Eusof, the first A'dil Shah, is said -to have given a command of 12,000 infantry to a Maratta chief* ; and in the subsequent reigns they shared the for- tunes of the natives, being entertained in great numbers whenever that party prevailed. They were known under the name of Bergis, were often horse, and by their light and predatory operations contributed to introduce the system of defence to which (as will hereafter appear) the Bijapur go- vernment always had recourse when attacked. A remarkable innovation was introduced by Tbrahim (the fourth king). He directed the public accounts to be kept in the Maratta language instead of the Persian. Considering that this was the language of all the village accountants, and that the body of the officers of revenue and finance were also generally Hindus, it is surprising that the improvement was not introduced sooner, and more extensively copied. There were constant wars and shifting confede- racies among the Mussulman kings ; in both of which the raja of Bijayanagar often took a part, as did the kings of Candesh and Guzerat, the latter with much weight. In all these wars the constant enemy of the A'dil Shah was the Nizam Shah of Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 84. BIJAPUR. 189 Amednagar, their hostility being caused by rival CHAP. claims to the possession of Solapur and some other ' districts on the left bank of the Bima. League At length, the four great Mahometan govern- jayanagar. 1 " ments, A'dil Shah, Nizam Shah, Barid, and Kutb Shah, formed a league against Ram Raja, then ruling at Bijayanagar. A great battle took place on the Kishna, near Talicot, which, for the num- A . D . ises, bers engaged, the fierceness of the conflict, and A f . 972, the importance of the stake, resembled those of sauTsc." the early Mahometan invaders. The barbarous Battle of spirit of those days seemed also to be renewed in it ; for, on the defeat of the Hindus, their old and brave raja, being taken prisoner, was put to death in cold blood, and his head was kept till lately at Bijapur, as a trophy. This battle destroyed the monarchy of Bijayan- Fail of the agar, which, at that time, comprehended almost all the south of India. But it added little to the ter- gar< ritories of the victors; their mutual jealousies pre- vented each from much extending his frontier ; and the country fell into the hands of petty princes or of those insurgent officers of the old govern- ment, since so well known as zemindars or poli- gars.* The brother of the late raja removed his resi- dence further east, and finally settled at Chan- dragiri, about seventy miles north-west of Madras, * Briggs's Ferishta, vol. iii. pp. 127. 4-14. Wilson, Mackenzie Collection, vol. i. p. cli. Wilkes's Mysore, vol. i. p. 18. 190 HISTORY OF INDIA. VIII. Wars with the Portu- guese. BOOK at which last place his descendant first granted a settlement to the English, in A. D. 1640.* Among the other wars of the A'dil Shahi kings, those with the Portuguese are mentioned by the native historians with affected negligence. They state that Goa was lost under Eusof, retaken by that king in person, and lost again under his son Ismael t ; but as the kings of Bijapur and Ahmed- nagar afterwards made a simultaneous attack on the Portuguese at Goa and Choul (A. D. 1570), and were both repulsed, it is evident that they could not have been insensible to the formidable character of their antagonists, t This confederacy, as well as the battle of Tali- cota, was subsequent to the accession of Akber. When that emperor first interfered effectually in the affairs of the Deckan, the last mentioned king, I'brahim II., had emerged from a long minority, A.D. 1595, and was taking an active part in the internal dis- A.H. 1004. /> A i j putes of Ahmednagar. * Rennell's Hindostan, p. 291. f This was the second capture by Albuquerque in 1510. J Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 134. Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 77. AHMEDNAGAR. 191 Dynasty of Nizam Shah at Ahmednagar. FOUNDED BY AHMED, A HINDfJ CONVERT. A. D. A. H. A. D. A. H. Ahmed - 1490 896 Ismael - 1588 997 Burhan - 1508 914 Burhan II. - 1590 999 Husen - 1553 961 I'brahim - 1594 1003 Murtezza - 1565 972 Ahmed II. - 1594- 1004 Miran Husen - 1588 996 Bahadur - 1595 1004 CHAP. I. The father of Ahmed, the founder of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, was a Bramin of Bijapur. Having been taken prisoner, and sold for a slave to the Bahmani king, he was converted, and rose to the first dignity in the state, and his son declared him- self king (as has been related) on the dissolution of the Bahmani government. So far were his de- scendants from being ashamed of their origin, that they had frequent wars with the kings of Berar for the possession of Patri, a village in the latter coun- try, to which their Bramin ancestors had been hereditary accountants. In the same spirit Burhan (who was the second king) appointed a Bramin, named Kawar Sein, to be his peshwa, or prime minister, and derived great advantage from the confidence he reposed on him. This dynasty imi- tated that of Bijapur in employing Marattas, but not to the same extent. Those in their service were chiefly infantry, and much employed as gar- risons in hill forts. Their liberality to other religions did not save Religious factions. 192 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. A.D. 1537, A.B. 944. A.D. 1568,] A.H. 996. A.D. 1588, A.H. 997. Wars with the other kings of theDeckan. the Nizam Shahs from the influence of the sects in their own. The second king openly professed the Shia religion ; and, although assailed by tumults within, and a combination of the orthodox kings around, was more successful than his neighbour at Bijapur, and made good the establishment of his own sect. A change took place in consequence of the mur- der of Miran Husen, the fifth king, the foreigners by whom that act was effected being massacred, and the Sunni religion introduced. A "feud, however, broke out among the Sunnis themselves under the sixth king, Ismael, in con- sequence of a powerful prime minister declaring for a new sect called Mehdevi, or Gheir Mehdi, which is very odious to the other Mussulmans. It may have been owing to this division that we find the native Deckanis and the Abyssinians on different sides in the dissensions which ultimately destroyed the monarchy; but those dissensions had not much of a religious character. The share of the Ahmednagar governments in the wars and confederacies of the other kings has been noticed. It had also wars of its own with Candesh and Berar, the last of which kingdoms it subverted, in A.D. 1572, and annexed the territory to its own. Previous to this success, the Nizam Shahi king was subjected to a great humiliation, having been besieged in his capital by Bahadur Shah, king of Guzerat, and compelled to acknow- AHMEDNAGAR. 193 ledge his superiority, and to do homage to him in CHAP. very submissive forms.* A still greater degradation awaited his successor, A - D 153 . who was besieged in Ahmednagar, by Ram Raja of Bijayanagar, then combined with Bijapur, and reduced to accept an interview with him on terms of marked inferiority. It was the pride displayed by Ram Raja, on this and some other occasions, that led to the general combination against him, the result of which has A.U. 1555, u T A - H - 972 - been already mentioned. It gives a great idea of the power of Ahmed- , , , , neous facts. nagar, although on an unfortunate occasion, that in one campaign against the A'dil Shah, the king lost upwards of 600 guns. Many of these may have been mere swivels, but one was the famous cannon now at Bijapur, which is one of the largest pieces of brass ordnance in the world. t Ferishta mentions the great prevalence of duels (an uncommon practice in Asia) under this dynasty. They were occasioned by the most trifling dis- putes: it was reckoned dishonourable to decline them, and no blame was attached to the death of * On this occasion Bahadur Shah showed his superiority by speaking Guzerati, his own language, and the Nizam Shah re- plied in Persian, which might be considered as common to both. f Briggs's Ferishta, vol. iii. p. 243. This gun is four feet eight inches in diameter at the muzzle. The calibre is two feet four inches (Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 112.); it is only fifteen feet long (Colonel Sykes, Bombay Transactions, vol. iii. p. 62.); and weighs forty tons (Colonel Briggs, above quoted). VOL. II. O 194 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. Extent of the king- dom. the parties, provided the combat was a fair one. Ferishta himself witnessed a meeting of this sort, in which there were three on each side, and five of the combatants grey-bearded men, and in con- siderable estimation at court. Three were killed on the spot, and the survivors died of their wounds.* These duels were always fought with sabres. At its greatest extent the kingdom of Ahmed- nagar comprehended all that is now called the Subah of Aurangabad, and all the west of that of Berar. It also possessed a portion of the sea coast in the Concan, between the tracts belonging to Guzerat and Bijapur. Dynasty qfKutb Shah at Golconda. FOUNDED BY KtJTB KtlLI, A TtJRKMAN SOLDIER. Sultan Kiili Jamshld Sub-ban Kuli A. D. A. H. 1512 918 1543 940 1550 957 A. D. A. II. rbrahim - - 1550 957 Mohammed Kuli 1580 988 Sultan Kuli Kutb Shah, the founder of the dy- nasty, was a Turkman of Hamadan in Persia. He claimed descent from the head of his clan, and he certainly came to India a free man in quest of mili- tary service. He entered the guards of the Bah- mani king, distinguished himself on many occasions, Briggs's Ferishta, vol. iii. p. 208. GOLCONDA. 195 and was governor of Telingana when the monarchy CHAP. broke up. It is not certain when he assumed the 1 royal title, but he was king in substance from A.D. 1512, A. H. 918. He openly professed the Shia religion from his K6tb pro- accession, ana 1 met with no opposition in intro- shiaVeiT- ducing it into his dominions. At the end of a long reign he left a territory ex- Extent of tending from the Godaveri to beyond the Kishna, don,. IDg ~ and from the sea to a line drawn west of Heider- abad about the seventy-eighth degree of east longi- tude. The north-western districts of this territory were fragments of the Bahmani kingdom, and those on the south-west were gained from Bijayanagar; but by far the greater part of Sultan Kuli's con- Conquests quests were from the remains of the Warangol Hindus. family and other chiefs of Telingana. He gained a great victory at Condapilli over all those chiefs united, with the addition of the raja of Orissa ; and although the raja of Bijayanagar afterwards endeavoured to support the cause of his religion, the government of Warangol was never restored, nor the Mahometan power disturbed within the limits above mentioned. Sultan Kuli was sometimes interrupted in his wanwith operations against the Hindus by attacks from his Bfahome- Mussulman neighbours, especially Ismael A'dil tan kings> Shah. He however took a much less active share than the rest in the wars among the kings of the Deckan. He was murdered at the age of ninety by his o 2 196 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK son, Jamshid, who succeeded him, and reigned for VIII. , seven years. The third king was a minor, and only reigned a few months ; but I'brahim, the fourth of the line, reigned thirty years, and his time was marked by most of the few important transactions of the dynasty. FbraMm, He had a Hindu minister named Jagdeo, and king. most of his infantry and all his garrisons were com- posed of Telingas of the same religion. Jagdeo quarrelled with his master, fled to Berar, and was His wars, there appointed to a great command. He after- wards went over to Ram Raja of Bijayanagar, and by his influence a. combination, formed between the raja, Ali A'dil Shah, and Ali Barid Shah, was enabled to overrun a great part of I'brahim's coun- try, and shut him up in his capital : peace was however restored, and Fbrahim afterwards joined in the general confederacy against Ram Raja. The Kutb Shahi kings took part in the wars and alliances of the other Mahometan monarchs, in which they are generally connected with the kings of Ahmednagar ; but these occasioned no perma- nent change in their condition : their aggrandise- ment was always at the expense of the Hindus, rbrabim took advantage of the disturbances in Orissa, and the invasion of that country from Ben- Conquests gal, to recover Rajamandri and the country north of Cor* 8 of the Godaveri, up to Chicacol, which had been mandeL seized by the Hindus on the dissolution of the Bahmani kingdom ; and his successor, Mohammed Kuli, carried on his conquests to the south of the BERAR. Kishna, and added Gandicota, Cadapa, and the rest of the country, up to the river Penar, to his dominions. It was this last king who built Heiderabad. He at first gave it the name of Bhagnagar (by which the Hindus call it still), and to it he transferred his capital from the neighbouring site of Golconda. Mohammed Kuli reigned for many years after Akber's capture of Ahmednagar, but his situation was little affected by those remote transactions. 197 CHAP. I. Dynasty of Imdd Shdhi in Berdr. FOUNDED BY FATTEH ULLAH, DESCENDED FROM A CONVERTED HINDtJ. A. D. A. H. Fatteh Ullah - 1484 890 Ala u dm - - 1504 910 Deria (about) 1529 936 A.D. A. H. Burhan (perhaps) 1560 968 Tufal The little that is known of this small kingdom has found a place in the history of the neighbouring states. It extended from the Injadri hills to the Godaveri : on the west it bordered on Ahmedna- gar and Candesh, about the middle of the seventy- sixth degree of east longitude. On the east its limits are uncertain, but probably did not take in Nagpur. Though Fatteh Ullah exercised sovereign au- o 3 198 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK thority, yet Ala u din seems first to have taken the VIII. . . title of king.* During the minority of Burhan Imad Shah, who probably succeeded about 1560, his prime minister, Tufal, usurped the government, and the state merged in that of Ahmednagar in A. D. 1572, A. H. 980. Dynasty ofBarid Shah at Bidr. A. D. A. H. Kasim - - 1498 904 Amir - 1504 910 Ali - - - 1549 945 rbrahim - - 1562 990 Kasim II. Mirza Ali Amir II. A. D. A. H. - 1569 997 - 1572 1000 The Barids derived some importance at first from appearing as the ministers and representatives of the Bahmani kings ; but the illusion was not kept up beyond the life of Kasim : neither he nor Amir took the title of king. Their territories were small and ill-defined, and the period of their extinction is uncertain. Amir II. was reigning in A. D. 1609, A. H. 1018, when Ferishta closed that part of his history. * This is variously related in different places of Ferishta ; but see vol. iii. p. 350, 351. GUZERAT. 199 CHAP. II. OTHER KINGDOMS FORMED ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE EMPIRE. GUZERAT and Malwa became independent during CHAP. the feeble reign of Mali mud Toghlak, and pro- ' bably assumed the name of kingdoms after that title was abolished in Delhi, on the invasion of Tamerlane. Candesh, which had not joined the rebellion in the Deckan, afterwards followed the example of its northern neighbours. But although the revolt of the three provinces was simultaneous, it was not made in concert ; and whatever connection afterwards subsisted between their histories arose out of their wars rather than their alliances. Guzerdt. KINGS OF GUZERAT. A.D. A. H. Mozaffer Shah - 1396 799 Ahmed Shah - 1412 815 Mohammed Shah 1443 847 Kutb Shah - - 1451 855 David Shah reigned one week Mahmud Shah Be- gara - 1459 863 Mozaffer Shah II. 1511 917 A. D. A. H. Secander Shah - 1526 932 Mahmud Shah II. 1526 932 Bahadur Shah - 1526 932 Miran Mohammed Shah Farukhi - 1536 943 Mahmud Shah III. 1553 961 Ahmed Shah II. - 1561 969 Mozaffer Shah III. 1561 969 Guzerat is bounded on the north-east and east Descri by a hilly tract which connects the A'ravalli moun- o 4 200 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK tains with the Vindya chain ; on the south it has VIII. J the sea, which nearly surrounds a part of it, and forms a peninsula equal in extent to all the rest of the province ; on the west it has the desert, in- cluding that portion called the Rin. The only open part of the frontier is on the north-west, where a plain between the hills and the desert connects it with Mar war. The northern hills are steep and rugged ; and the branches which they send out towards the south are covered with thick woods, as are the numerous ravines which run from their base to the principal rivers. The country gradually gets more open as it recedes from the mountains, and the lower part stretching for about sixty miles in depth along the sea is a plain of extraordinary fertility. The peninsula is sometimes distinguished from the rest of Guzerat, and was formerly called Soreth (or Sourashtra), now Katiwar. It is for the most part composed of low hills, and is, in general, naked and unfertile ; but there are separate plains on the sea which extend to a great distance inland, and are rich and open. Nearly in the south is a hilly district, called Babriawar, which is covered with woods, original When Guzerat separated from Delhi, the new extent of . , , . . 11- the king- king had but a narrow territory on the plain. On the north-west were the independent rajas of Jhalor and Sirohi, from whom he occasionally levied con- tributions. The raja of I'dar, another Rajput prince, was in possession of the western part of the GUZERAT. 201 hills ; and though he was often obliged to pay CHAP. contributions, and sometimes regular tribute, yet those advantages were seldom gained without a struggle ; and he was a constant source of dis- turbance to the king of Guzerat, by joining his enemies and harbouring fugitives from his country. The rest of the hilly and forest tract was held by the mountain tribes of Bhils and Culis, among whom some Rajput princes, mostly connected with Mewar, had also founded petty states.* The peninsula was in the hands of nine or ten Hindu tribes, who had mostly come from Cach and Sind, at different periods, some centuries be- fore. They were, probably, tributary ; but by no means obedient. All these petty states preserved their existence during the ascendancy of the Mo- guls, and were, within a few years from the date when I am writing, almost as independent as under the kings of Guzerat. The real possessions of those kings, therefore, only included the plain be- tween the hills and the sea; and even of that the eastern part belonged to an independent raja, who resided in the hill fort of Champaner. On the other hand the Guzerat territory stretched along the sea to the south-east, so as to include the city of Surat and some of the country beyond it. With these small means, the kings of Guzerat made, at least, as considerable a figure as any of * Dongarpur, Bhanswara, &c. : these subsist to the present day. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the minor kings, except the Bahtnani family, in ' the Deckan. Mozaffer Shah. Founded Farhat ul Mulk was appointed governor of zaffer,the Guzerat in the reign of Firuz Toghlak. Having R$pfit a given great offence to the Mussulmans of the pro- convert, vinces, and even excited the suspicions of the court of Delhi, by the means he took to court the Hindus, he was displaced by Mahmud II., and A.D. 1391, Mozaffer Khan was appointed in his room. Farhat A.H. 791-2. opposed the entrance of the new governor with an army chiefly composed of Hindus ; he was de- feated, and Mozaffer took posession.* Mozaffer was the son of a Rajput convert, who had risen from a low station about the court to the highest offices. He had himself been brought up a Mus- sulman and a nobleman, and appears to have been rather desirous of making his origin be forgotten by hostility to the Hindus. It is uncertain when he took the title of king. His reign commenced in reality from the time A.I>. 1391, when he became governor. He was successful in C;"' ' 93 ' his wars. He occupied I'dar, and brought the His wars. raja to submission. He fought a great battle in the peninsula ; after which he took and retained Diu, on the sea coast : he went to war with the king of Candesh, about the district of Sultanpur ; * Mr. Bird's History of Guzerat, p. 181. and notes. GUZERAT. 203 and although hostilities were often renewed in CHAP. IT. after reigns, yet, for his time, the question was favourably settled. He once besieged Mandalghar, in Mewar, and extorted a contribution : he proceeded from that place to Ajmir, on a pilgrimage ; and on his way back plundered Jhalor, and destroyed the temples. His greatest war was with Malwa. Hushang cti/i 11- !/' pation and Mian, the second king, was suspected ot poisoning subsequent his father ; and as Mozaffer had been on very friendly terms with the deceased, he made the re- venge of his murder a pretext for invading Malwa. He was successful beyond his hopes : he defeated Husliang, made him prisoner, and got possession of the whole of his kingdom. He soon found, A.D. 1407, however, that he could not retain his conquest ; and perceiving that the inhabitants were about to set up another king, he thought it prudent to get what he could from his prisoner, and to restore him to the throne. During Mozaffer's govern- A .n. 1408, ment, Mahmud Toghlak came to Guzerat, on his flight from Delhi : he was ill received, and obliged to repair to Malwa. Hushang Shah did not feel his restoration as a Ahmed favour, for on the death of Mozaffer he took part A.n. 1411, with a faction opposed to the accession of that A - H - 8H - king's grandson, Ahmed Shah, and began a series His wars of wars between the two countries that lasted for Miiwa an d many years. Ahmed Shah thrice invaded Malwa, neighbours. and once penetrated to Saranpur, in the east of the kingdom, where he gained a victory. On the A.D. 1422, A.H. 825. 204 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. And with other Ma- hometan kings. other hand, the king of Malwa assisted Ahmed's enemies, Hindu as well as Mahometan ; combined with the refractory rajas within the territory of Guzerat, and twice made his way to the capital, but without any important result. Ahmed Shah made, also, the usual expeditions against I'dar, Jhalor, and the peninsula ; and had two wars with Candesh. On one occasion, he marched as far as Nagor, in the north of Marwar, where his uncle was in revolt against Seiad Khizr, of Delhi. He was obliged to retreat on the ad- A.D. 1416, vance of that prince, and was pursued as far as A.H. 819. _.. ,., Jhalor.* He was also engaged with a new enemy, in con- sequence of the capture of the islands of Bombay A.D. 1429, and Salsette, bv the Bahmani king of the Deckan, A.H. 833. , . during an attempt to subdue the Concan.t It does not appear how those places came into the hands of the king of Guzerat. It may be inferred that they were detached possessions, as the expedition to recover them was made by sea. The Bahmani king was driven out ; but remained hostile, and more than once joined the king of Candesh in his wars with Ahmed Shah. Not- withstanding all these disturbances, Ahmed Shah brought the interior of Guzerat into good order. He established forts in different places, to bridle the disaffected ; and built the town of Ahmednagar * Ferishta, vol. i. p. 509., vol. iv. p. 18., and Bird's Guzerat, p. 189. f Briggs's Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 413. A somewhat different order is given to the same events in vol. iv. p. 27. GUZERAT. 205 (the solid and extensive walls of which still re- CHAP. ii. main), as a check on the raja of I'dar. He also founded Ahmedabad, thenceforth his capital, and still one of the greatest cities in India, both from the number of the inhabitants and the magnificence of the buildings.* Ahmed Shah was a zealous Mussulman. He destroyed temples and built mosques ; and is said to have greatly contributed to extend his religion among his subjects. The usual contests with Malwa and I'dar con- Moham- tinued under the two next kings, Mohammed Shah A . D . 1449,* and Kutb Shah. The second of them (Kutb Shah) commenced a more serious war with Kumbho, the A - D - 145l A.H. 855. rana of Mewar, whose capital was Chitor. Mewar His wars had been invaded by Ahmed Shah in the time of M^wfo Mokal, the predecessor of Kumbho ; but the pre- sent war originated in the support given by Kutb Shah to his relation in Nagor against the Rajput prince, who was laying the foundation of that great power, afterwards employed by his grandson Sanga against Baber. In these wars the king of Guzerat had almost invariably the advantage. He gained two victories ; besieged Chitor ; took A'bu, a mountain celebrated for its sanctity, and subdued A n - 14 57, -_. A.H. 861 the raja of Sirohi, one of Kumbho's allies. * Ahmed Shah is said to have introduced the practice of giving to each soldier, land to the yearly value of half his pay, the whole having previously been issued in money. The mea- sure is spoken of by the Guzerat historian with applause, al- though it appears calculated to injure both the discipline and the comfort of the soldier. (Bird's History.) 206 HISTORY OF INDIA, BOOK On the death of Kutb Shah, his uncle, Daud VIII Khan, was placed on the throne. He was deposed within a few days for incapacity, and became an .A.D. 1459, eminent dervise. He was succeeded by Mahmud, surnamed Begarra, a brother of Kutb Shah. Mah- mu( j was fourteen years old at his accession ; A.D. 1459, reigned for fifty- two years, and was one of the A.D. 1511. greatest of the kings of Guzerat.* He soon His vigor- showed his vigour in repressing the turbulence of cms govern- . r> mem. his nobles ; and at an early period of his reign he He rescues made a diversion in favour of the former enemy of king his house, the Bahmani king of the Deckan, when besieged in his capital, and reduced to extremities A.D. 1462, by the king of Malwa. A.H. 866. J . Marches to His territory having been harassed by depre- the Indus. cations f rom Cach, he crossed the Rin, overran that country, carried his arms to the Indus, and defeated a considerable body of Beloches on its banks. * The European travellers of his day seem to have formed a tremendous idea of this monarch. Bartema (in llamusio, vol. i. p. 147.) and Barbosa are both full of him. One of them gives (Ramusio, vol. i. p. 296.) a formidable account of his personal appearance, and both agree that a principal part of his food consisted of mortal poisons ; and so impregnated was his system with this diet, that if a fly settled on him it instantly dropped down dea^l. His usual way of putting men of consequence to death was to blow on them after he had been chewing bitel. He is the original of Butler's " Prince of Cambay," whose " - daily food Is asp, and basilisk, and toad." The fate of his wives is related with perfect seriousness by the above authors. GUZERAT. His greatest exploits were, the reduction of Gir- CHAP. ii. nar, or Junaghar, and of Champaner. The first of ' these places (Girnar) is in the south of the penin- Takes Gir - nar and sula, and stands on a hill equally remarkable for its Cham- paner. strength and sanctity. These enterprises occupied several years*, and afforded examples of the usual desperation of the Rajputs, and of more than ordinary bigotry among the Mussulmans. The raja of Girnar was com- pelled to embrace the religion of Mahomet, and the raja of Champaner was put to death for a firm ad- herence to his own. Mahmud also quelled insurrections at home, and His wars levied tribute on I'dar. In one of his wars with hometan Candesh, he marched as far as Asirghar ; and, on a ^"fj^, previous occasion, he had obliged the Nizam Shahi A - H - 913 - king of Ahmednagar, in the Deckan, to raise the A. D . 1499. siege of Doulatabad. But what chiefly distinguishes him from former HI S m ari. Mussulman princes is the number of his maritime *' expeditions. He took the islands of Jigat and Bet, then, as in recent times, nests of pirates ; and sent out vessels mounting guns from Cambay, which A.D. 14^2, defeated the pirates of Balsar in an action at sea. He also sent a sea and land force against Bom- bay, then occupied by a revolted officer -of the Bahmani king. On this occasion, his fleet was de- stroyed in a storm, and he owed his recovery of * Girnar was annually attacked from A. D. 1468 to 1470, A. H. 873 to 875, and Champaner was not taken till A. D. 1483, A. H. 888. 908 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. A. D. 1494, A. H. 900. He co- operates with the Mamluks of Egypt in a naval war with the Portu- guese. A.B. 1.508, A.H. 913. Bombay to the co-operation of the king of the Deckan. He had afterwards a more conspicuous oppor- tunity for signalising his naval enterprise. The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt had equipped twelve ships in the Red Sea, for the purpose of attacking the Portuguese in India, and Mahmud entered zeal- ously into his views. He sailed, himself, to Daman, and afterwards to Bombay ; and at length sent a large fleet from Diu, under the command of A'iaz Sultani, an officer who had distinguished himself at Champaner. The Guzerat vessels, though much inferior in size to those of the Mamluks, were nu- merous ; and the combined fleets were strong enough to attack the Portuguese squadron in the harbour of Choul, south of Bombay. The particu- lars of the operations that followed belong to the history of the Portuguese. It may be sufficient to say, here, that the Mussulmans were successful in this first action, and that A'iaz is mentioned with applause by the Portuguese writers for his human- ity and courtesy on the occasion. The combined fleet was afterwards defeated, and the Mamluk part of it annihilated, in a great battle close to Diu.* * The Mahometan historians suppress this defeat, and say very little of their wars with the Portuguese, even when their own party was successful. Three or four years after this battle, an interview took place between Albuquerque and A'iaz, and the character of the latter, given by the Portuguese viceroy, is related in Faria (vol. i. p. 193.). " He said he had not seen a more perfect courtier, or fitter to deceive, and at the same time please, an understanding man." GUZERAT. 209 The Mamluks, however, continued to send CHAP. squadrons to the Indian seas, a practice which was . imitated by the Turks after their conquest of Egypt. Their object was to open the navigation of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; and for this purpose they assisted the native powers of India in their wars with the Portuguese ; but they never enter- tained any views towards obtaining possessions for themselves in that country. The reign of Mozaffer II. opened with a splen- Mozaffer did embassy from Shah Ismael, king of Persia. A . D . i 5n , The same compliment was paid to most of the In- A ' H ' 917 v dian princes, and was probably designed to con- ciliate their favour to the Shia religion, which Is- .-.j mael was so eager to introduce. The next six years were spent in inglorious wars with I'dar. A more honourable enterprise pre- Generosity sented itself at the end of that time. Mahmud, of Malwa. king of Malwa, having been almost entirely de- prived of his authority by Medni Rai, a Hindu chief to whom he had confided the management of his affairs, fled to Guzerat, and solicited the aid of Mozaffer, who went in person into Malwa, took the capital, compelled Rana Sanga, who was coming to the aid of the Hindu cause, to retreat ; and, after restoring Mahmud to his authority, withdrew to Guzerat without exacting any sacrifice in return. He had not long quitted Malwa before Sanga re- A.D. 1519, A H 924 turned, defeated Mahmud, and made him prisoner, Warwith but generously released him, and made an honour- able peace. Sanga was now able to revenge him- VOL. n. p 210 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK self on Mozaffer II., by marching to the assistance _; of the raja of I'dar, and plundering Guzerat as far as Ahmedabad. Next year, Mozaffer II. retaliated by sending an army, under A'iaz Sultani, against Sanga. A'iaz besieged the rana in Mandesor, and had granted him terms, when the king of Malwa arrived to co- operate with his army. The king earnestly pressed A'iaz to profit by this advantage ; but A'iaz was steady to his engagement, and withdrew his troops in spite of the king's remonstrances. A.H. 932. Mozaffer II. died in A. D. 1526, after a reign of fourteen years. Bahadur. The rapid disappearance of two sons and suc- cessors of Mahmud (whose names were Secander and Mahmud II.) left the throne open to Bahadur. This prince, though only the third of Mahmud's sons, seems always to have been looked on as the probable heir of his father: on some discontent, however, he had left the court and gone to Delhi, where he remained with Sultan Fbrahim Lodi until Baber's invasion. His absence occasioned his temporary exclusion ; but the assassination of one brother and the deposal of the other replaced him in his station. He had still to encounter opposition from a third brother, who was assisted by Sanga and some other Hindu chiefs. This last pretender being killed in action, Bahadur remained the only claimant to the throne. His first measure was to reduce the Rajput princes of I'dar and the neighbouring mountains. GUZERAT. He was soon after solicited by his nephew, the king CHAP. of Candesh, to come to his assistance and that of the king of Berar, who had confederated against Takes pan Burhan Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar. of the* The whole conduct of the war was conceded to , His su- Bahadur, and his permanent supremacy was formally acknow- acknowledged by the other kings. So successful lodged b y were his operations, that Nizam Shah, though joined by Barid Shah, king of Bidr, was obliged to yield Ahmed!" the points in contest with Candesh and Berar, and nagar ' to gratify the vanity of Bahadur Shah, by an act of personal homage, as has been mentioned in another place. Bahadur's next enterprise was attended with a Conquest still more splendid result. Mahmud, king of and hi I?- Malwa, who had been restored to his throne by 0"^* Mozaffer II., was not restrained by that obligation from intriguing against the son of his benefactor ; and with equal ingratitude he seized the opportunity of Rana Sanga's death to attack his successor, Rana Rattan Sing. The rana was before in close al- liance with Bahadur Shah, and they now united to revenge their common injuries. Mahmud was made prisoner in Mandu, his capital, and was sent A D . 1531, toGuzerat. He was afterwards put to death ; and A.V.TsT.' his dominions were taken possession of by Bahadur Shah, and annexed to his hereditary kingdom. Bahadur had not sufficient moderation long to Troubles enjoy so much good fortune. One of the principal instruments of the revolution in Malwa was Siihadi, HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK a Rajput, who had risen under Mahmud to the '__ government of Raisin, Bhilsa, and other places in the east of Malwa, to which he had since added the possession of Ujen. Bahadur Shah appears to have thought his con- quest incomplete, while so powerful a chief re- mained, especially as Silhadi was in some measure under the protection of the rana of Mewar. He therefore made him prisoner while on a visit to the royal camp ; and, taking advantage of the surprise occasioned by this act of treachery, got possession of the city of Ujen : Bopat Rai, the son of Silhadi, fled to Chitor ; and Raisin, a strong hill fort, be- longing to that chief, held out under his brother. It was long before Bahadur could overcome the opposition thus raised ; and he might have entirely failed in doing so, if Rattan Sing, the rana of Chitor, had not died and been succeeded by his son, Vicramajit, under whom that government lost much of its energy. During Bahadur's absence on this expedition, a serious attack had been made on Diu by a great armament of the Portuguese, but had been re- pulsed by the valour of the garrison (Feb. 1531). War with Having taken whatever measures were necessary against this enemy, Bahadur Shah again turned A.D. 1532, his attention to Chitor. So much was the power A H 938 of Mewar diminished, that he commenced his operations with the siege of the capital ; and at the end of three months constrained the raja to pur- chase peace by the payment of a heavy contri- GUZERAT. 213 bution.* It was about this time that Bahadur CHAP. Shah provoked the war with Humayun, the result ' of which has already been related.t During Baha- A - D - 1433 m * A.H. 940. dur's abode at Diu, he entered into negotiations with the Portuguese. Among other concessions, he gave them leave to build a factory ; and they furnished him, in return, with a body of 500 Europeans, to assist him in recovering his kingdom. As soon as Guzerat was settled after the retreat of Bahadur the Moguls, Bahadur Shah again turned his atten- kingdom, tion to Diu, where the Portuguese were surround- D . 1 ( s ,f"!; es o with the ing their new factory with a wall, and, as he con- Portuguese ' at Dm. ceived, converting it into a fortification. He there found Nuno de Cunha, the Portuguese viceroy, who had come with a fleet to secure his new acqui- sition. Remonstrances and explanations took place, to appearance on a friendly footing ; but both the Mussulman and Portuguese historians justify the belief that treachery was meditated by both parties, and that each was watching an opportunity to execute his design. Nuno de Cunha, when in- interview , . . , , . .-,. i i IT-* with the vited to visit the king, reigned sickness ; and ba- Portuguese hadur, to lull his suspicions, went on board his ship with a few attendants. When on board, Bahadur * Among the property given up on this occasion, was a girdle of jewels, which had been taken from a former king of Guzerat, and which was afterwards sent with Bahadur Shah's family to Medina, and found its way at last into the treasury of the grand signor. (Colonel Briggs's note on Ferishta, vol. L p. 141.) For the date of this first siege, see Bird's History of Gujrdt, p. 246. note. f See p. 125. P 3 214 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Shah was alarmed at some whispering and signs which passed between the viceroy and his at- tendants, and, taking a hasty leave, got into his Death of boat to go ashore. An affray took place, which the Portuguese represent as accidental, and the Mussulmans as designed ; and the result was, that several lives were lost on each side, and that Ba- hader Shah threw himself into the sea, and, after being stunned by a blow of an oar, was dispatched with a halbert. As both parties equally held that faith was not to be kept with infidels, neither has the slightest claim to a favourable construction ; but Bahadur could lave had no immediate act of perfidy in view when he came on board unattended ; and as the object of the Portuguese must have been to seize and not to murder the king, it is unlikely that they would, if prepared for such a step, have allowed him to leave the ship. The affray, therefore, probably arose unintentionally from the mutual alarm of the parties : if either was guilty of premeditated trea- A.D. 1537, chery, the greatest weight of suspicion rests on the A.H. 943 -|-k ^ Portuguese. * Bahadur Shah's natural heir was his nephew Mahmud, the son of Latif Khan, who had formerly been his rival ; but that prince was a prisoner in Miran MO- the hands of his cousin by the mother's side, Miran v j sLih? e Shah, king of Candesh ; and the latter availed him- self of the circumstance to claim the crown for * See a full and judicious examination of the accounts of both parties in a note on Colonel Briggs's Ferishta, vol. iv. p. 132. GUZERAT. himself. He, however, died a natural death within CHAR six weeks ; and, as his brother, who succeeded in ' Candesh, though in possession of the same advan- tages, was not so fortunate in profiting by them, Mahmud was at length set at liberty, and allowed to take possession of his right. He took the title of Mahmud III., and had a reign of sixteen years, remarkable for nothing but A D ' 1538 the intrigues and factions of his chiefs. His death A - H - 944 - was attended with circumstances sufficiently out of the ordinary course : he was assassinated by his domestic chaplain, whom he had at one time ordered to be built up to the neck in a wall and left to starve, and had released when nearly dead, on his attempting, even in that extremity, to bend his head to the king as he passed. The chaplain, after the murder, sent for the principal nobles, and put each privately to death as he appeared. He then assumed the crown ; but, as might have been expected, was put to death by the remaining offi- ADl553 _4 cers the moment he presented himself in public. A - H - ^^ Mahmud III. built the castle of Surat, which still remains ; and likewise inclosed a park of four- teen miles in circumference with a wall ; an un- usual work in a country where deer and game of all sorts are so abundant. A supposititious child was now set up by a party Amed n. under the name of Ahmed II. He lived to grow up, and probably to have a will of his own, for he A.D. isei, was assassinated after a reign of eight years. A similar pageant was next set up under the P 4 216 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK title of Mozaffer III., and the kingdom was par- VIII. . -TV titioned among the leading conspirators. Dissen- sions broke out among them, and the country became a scene of continual war, confusion, and Guzerat tumult, until finally settled by Akber, as will ap- conquered > * by Akber. p ear [ n h\ s re ign. A.D. 1572, A.H. 980. Wars in 1 1 in dost an and the Deckan. Mdlwa. FOUNDED BY DIL^WAR, OF A FAMILY FROM GUOR. KINGS OF MALWA. A. D. A.H. Dilawar Ghori - HOI 804 Husheng Ghori - 1405 808 Mohammed Ghori 1432 835 A. D. A. H. Mahmud Khilji - 1435 839 Gheias u din Khilji 1482 887 Nasir u din Khilji 1500 906 Mahmud II. Khilji 1512 916 It has been mentioned that Malwa became inde- pendent at the end of the reign of Sultan Firuz Toghlak. The first king was Dilawar Ghori, whose ancestors were natives of Ghor, and who claimed through his mother a connection with the royal family of that country. His successor founded the capital, Mandu, re- markable for its situation on a rich table land of thirty-seven miles circumference, surrounded by rocky precipices, as well as for the magnificence of its buildings.* He was engaged in those constant wars with Guzerat, which have already been related in the * Sir J. Malcolm's Central India, vol. i. pp. 29. 40, MALWA. 217 account of that kingdom. His successors were CHAP. generally at peace with Guzerat ; but they had _ frontier wars with the king of Juanpur on the Jamna, and with the king of Candesh on the A - H - 810 Tapti. They had also wars with the Bahmani A.D. 1432, kings in Berar ; and they once laid siege to Bidr, the capital of the last named monarch (A.D, 1461). One king, Mahmud I., besieged Delhi, and was defeated by Behlol Lodi, as has been related. A.D. 1440, The same prince began a series of wars with Kumbho Sing, the raja of Chitor or Mewar ; but, although they lasted upwards of fifteen years, in- A J r 43 volved other Hindu princes, and led to many A - H - 846 battles and sieges, they made no material changes A.D. 1458, i n i ~\ /r i A.H. 863. in the extent of the Mahometan territory. The reign of Mahmud II. was more fertile in Ma events than all that preceded it, and deserves to be more particularly noticed. Immediately on the accession of this prince he A .D. . . , . A.H. 916. was engaged in a civil war with his brother, Sahib Khan, in which his success was principally owing to the support of a Rajput chief named Medni Rai, who joined him at the commencement with a considerable body of his tribe. The struggle was Ascend- * * ancyof long and arduous, and was renewed, after an in- Medni Ra .... i , ,, , a Hindu terval with assistance to the pretender from the chief. king of Delhi ; but the courage and talents of Medni Rai again prevailed. These long-continued services gave the Rajput chief a complete ascendancy over his master, and threw the whole administration of the government 218 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK into his hands. The superiority thus conferred on ; _ _ a Hindu excited universal discontent among the Mahometans, and led to the rebellion of several governors of provinces, who were crushed in suc- cession by Medni Rai. By the results of these contests Medni Rai became all-powerful, removed every Mahometan from about the king's person, and filled the court and army with Rajputs. Mahmud at length be- came alarmed ; and, after an unsuccessful attempt to recover his authority, he felt that he was a prisoner in his own capital, and seized an oppor- A.D. 1517, tunity of escaping to Guzerat. Mozaffer Shah, Maimed king of that country, came to his assistance. The flies to war lasted for more than a year : Mandu, the Guzerat, capital, was taken after a desperate defence by the Rajputs ; and the king of Guzerat, having re- stored Mahmud to his authority, returned to his A.D. 1519, own dominions. Medni Rai had retired to Chan- ^ red deri, of which place he was perhaps the hereditary by Bahadur c hief. Mahmud marched against him, and found him strengthened by the alliance of Raja Sanga, who had come with the whole of his army to de- fend Chanderi. is defeated, A battle ensued, in which Mahmud was de- feated ; and as, although weak in other points, he was distinguished for his courage, he endeavoured taken pri- to maintain the combat until he was covered with soncr, wounds, unhorsed, and made prisoner. The Raj- and re- . . -i r leased by put prince treated him with courtesy, and alter a short interval generously released him. Mewar. CANDESH. 219 The mean spirit of Mahmud was incapable of CHAP. ii. imitating the magnanimity of his enemy. On the death of Sanga he thought to avail himself of the His mgra- difficulties of a new reign by attacking Rattan Sing, the son of the late raja. Rattan Sing applied to A.D. 1525, Bahadur Shah, who had succeeded Mozaffer on the throne of Guzerat, and who had likewise reason to complain of the ingratitude of the king of Malwa. Mahmud, unable to withstand so powerful He is de- f feated, and a confederacy, saw his capital taken by Bahadur his king- Shah, and was afterwards himself made prisoner: nexedto when the kingdom of Malwa was permanently ^ I9n annexed to Guzerat. A - H - 937> Cdndesh. FOUNDED BY MALIK RA\JA, A PERSON OF ARAB DESCENT. FARUKHI KINGS OF CANDESII. A. D. A. H. Malik Raja Nasir Khan (first king) - ' - 1399 801 Miran A'dil Khan 14-37 841 Miran Mobarik 1441 844 A'dil Khan I. - 1457 861 Baud Khan - 1503 909 A. D. A. H. A'dil Khan II. - 1510 916 Miran Mohammed Shah - - 1520 926 Miran Mobarik 1535 942 Miran Mohammed Khan - - 1566 974 Raja Ali Khan - 1576 984 Bahadur Shah - 1596 1005 The kingdom of Candesh was merely the lower part of the valley of the Tapti (the upper part being included in Berar) ; on the south it had the hills which support the table land of the Deckan, and 220 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK on the north the Injadri range. It was only sepa- rated from Guzerat by forests. It was a rich country, watered by innumerable streams. Its history is almost entirely comprised in the small portion which its wars and alliances contributed to that of the neighbouring countries. The first prince who threw off his dependence on Delhi claimed a descent from the Calif Omar. He was married to the daughter of the king of Guzerat, from whom his son received the title of king, and to whom both he and his successors acknowledged a sort of subordination. There is nothing to mention in their domestic history, except the taking of the strong hill fort of Asirghar by treachery from a Hindu chief, and the founding of the city of Burhanpur near that fortress. Burhanpur was made the capital. It is still a large city ; and the ruins of public edifices around it show it to have been formerly much more considerable. The whole of Candesh, in- deed, seems to have been in a high state of pro- sperity under its own kings : the numerous stone embankments by which the streams were rendered applicable to irrigation, are equal to any thing in India as works of industry and utility ; and, whe- ther they were made by the Hindus or the kings of Candesh, they must have been in use under the latter, though now in ruins and buried in woods. Conquered Candesh was rcaniicxed to Delhi by Akber, in by Akber. A.D.1599, A. D. 1599- JL.H. 1008. Prosperity of Candesh. THE RAJPUTS. The Rajput States. CHAP. ii. The Rajputs, who at the time of Sultan Mali- change in , ,, . c ,, , the condi- mud s invasion were in possession or all the go- tion of the vernments of India, sunk into the mass of the population as those governments were overturned ; and no longer appeared as rulers, except in places where the strength of the country afforded some protection against the Mussulman arms. Those on the Jamna and Ganges, and in ge- neral in all the completely conquered tracts, be- came what they are now ; and, though they still retained their high spirit and military figure, had adapted their habits to agriculture, and no longer aspired to a share in the government of the country. The remains of Rajput independence were pre- served on the table land in the centre of Hin- dostan, and in the sandy tract stretching west from it to the Indus. The degree of independence was in proportion to the strength of the country. Mewat, Bundelcand, Baghelcand, &c. lie on the slope towards the Jamna, and, though close to the level country on that river, are rough and broken : it is there that we find the tributaries so often in insurrection, and there also are the forts of Rintimbor, Gwalior, Calinjer, &c., the taking and retaking of some of which seem to occur in almost every reign. The open part of the table land is partially protected by this tract : it is easier of access from the north about Jeipur, which prin- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK cipality has always been submissive. Ajmir and Malvva, on the open part of the table land, were early conquered and easily retained. The east part of the rana of Oudipur's country (or Mewar) was equally defenceless, but he had an inexpugn- able retreat in the A'ravali mountains, and in the hills and forests connected with them, which form the northern boundary of Guzerat. The raja of Jodpur (or Marwar), with his kinsman the raja of Bikaner, the raja of Jesalmer, and some smaller rajas, were protected by the desert, with which the fertile parts of their territories are interspersed or surrounded. The government of the Rajputs, partly feudal and partly clannish, their high sense of honour, and their strong mutual attachment, have already been explained *, and had not degenerated in Akber's time. state of the The state of the different governments, at the remaining access j on o f t na t monarch, was as follows : Itajput princes at The family and tribe of the rana of Oudipur the acces- ofAtber. (which were first called Gehlot, and afterwards Sesodia,) are said to be descended from Rama, and, consequently, to draw their origin from Oud. They were afterwards settled in the peninsula of Guzerat, from whence they moved to I'dar, in the hills north of that province ; and ultimately esta- blished themselves at Chitor, Colonel Tod thinks early in the eighth century of our aera. They * See Vol. I. p. 606. THE RAJPUTS. 223 make no figure in history until A. D. 1303, when CHAP. Chitor was taken by Ala u din, and almost imme- diately after recovered by the rana. Hamir, by whom that exploit was performed, had a series of able successors, and by their means Mewar attained the ascendancy among the Rajputs, which enabled Sanga to bring them all into the field against Baber. The great defeat sustained in that contest weak- ened the power of Sanga's family, and at a later period it was so much reduced by the incapacity of his grandson, Bicarmajit, that Bahadur, king of Guzerat, was able to take Chitor, and would have turned his success to account, but for his defeat by Humayun, which immediately followed the capture of Chitor. From that time till the accession of Akber, the ranas remained in quiet possession of their territory, and retained their high rank among the Rajput princes, though they never recovered their political ascendancy, and were compelled, in the reign of Shir Shah, to acknowledge the sove- reignty of the king of Delhi. The next Rajput state in importance was that of the Rahtors in Marwar, the capital of which was Jodpur. The Rahtors were in possession of Ca- nouj when that kingdom was subverted by Shahab u din in A.D. 1194. After the conquest, part of the Rahtors remained on the Ganges, and occa- sionally revolted against the Mussulmans, until they became reconciled to the yoke ; but another portion, under two grandsons of the last king, pre- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ferred their liberty to their country, and retired to the desert between the table land and the Indus. They there subdued the old inhabitants of the race of Jats, dispossessed some small tribes of Rajputs, who had preceded them as colonists, and soon formed an extensive and powerful principality. A younger branch of the royal family at a later period (A. D. 1459) founded the separate state of Bikanir, and occupied an additional portion of the desert. The Rahtors do not seem to have been molested by the Mussulmans until the expedition of Shir Shah against Maldeo, and probably recovered their independence after that storm was blown over. Maldeo was still alive in the beginning of Akber's reign. In the western part of the desert were the Bhattis, under the raja of Jesalmer. The Bhattis claim to be of the tribe of Yadu, and consequently derived from Mattra on the Jamna. They were part of Crishna's colony in Guzerat, and were ex- pelled after the death of that hero. They then retired towards the Indus, and are lost in an un- usually thick cloud of Rajput fable, until they ap- pear at Tanot, north of Jesalmer, and within fifty miles of the Indus. From this period (which Co- lonel Tod thinks was in A. D. 731) their annals assume a historical character, but are marked by no important event, except the removal of their capital, in A. D. 1156, to Jesalmer. They came very little in contact with the Mussulmans till after Akber's time. THE RAJPUTS. 225 The rajas of Amber, or Jeipur, of the tribe of CHAP. Cachwaha, have, in modern times, stood on an equality with the rana of Oudipur and the raja Amber or of Jodpur ; but their rise into distinction is since the accession of Akber. They were ancient feud- atories of Ajmir, and probably remained in sub- mission to the Mahometans after the conquest of that kingdom. They may have increased their consequence during the weakness of the neigh- bouring governments in the fifteenth century, for they must have been held in consideration when Akber married the raja's daughter. The rajas of the tribe of Hara, who give their H^uti. name to Harauti, claim descent from the family that ruled in Ajmir before the Mahometans; and settled in their present possessions, of which Bundi was then the capital, in A. D. 1342. They were in some degree of feudal dependence on Oudipur. They are not noticed in Mahometan history till just before Akber, when the reigning raja obtained the famous fort of Rintimbor from the governor who had held it for the Afghan kings. Besides these greater states, there were several Petty states petty principalities, as the Chouhans of Parker, the desert. Sodas of Amercot, &c., which, being in the ex- treme west of the desert, were beyond the reach of Mussulman invaders ; and those of Sirohi Jhalor, &c., which, lying in the fertile tract be- neath the A'ravalli mountains, and on one road from Ajmir to Guzerat, were liable to constant invasion and exaction of tribute, VOL. II. Q. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK On the eastern slope of the table land, Mewat, Gwalior, Narwar, Panna, Orcha, Chanderi, and Petty states other places in Bundelcand, had been repeatedly of the attacked by Baber and Shir Shah, and were all tributary at the time of Akber's accession. They were mostly held by old Rajput families. Bengal. A. D. A. H. A. D. A. H. 1338 739 Fatteh - 1461 866 1340 741 Shahzadeh - 1481 886 Firuz - 1481 886 134-2 743 Mahmud - 1493 899 1357 759 Mozaff'er - 1494 900 1367 769 Ala u din II. - 1497 904 1374 775 Nasrat - 1521 927 1383 785 Mahmud - 1534 940 1386 788 Shir Shah - 1537 945 Selim - 1545 952 1392 795 A'dili - 1548 955 1409 812 Bahadur - 1553 961 1426 830 Jelal u dm - 1560 968 1426 830 Soliman Kirani - 1563 971 1428 1445 832 849 Bayazid Baud - 1573 - 1573 981 981 Fakhr u din * Ala u din Haji Elias (or Shams u din) - Secander - Gheias u din Sultan u Salatin Shams u din II. - Raja Kans - Jit Mai (or Jelal u din) Ahmed Nasir u din Nasir Barbik Eusof The kingdom of Bengal went on for upwards of two centuries after its revolt from Mohammed Toghlak, with frequent changes of dynasty, but without events worth recording. Among the * The early dates in this dynasty are uncertain. Ibn Batvita left Delhi in A.D. 1342, and found Fakhr u din alive in Bengal at least a year or two after. JUANPUR. 227 usurpers was Raja Kans, a Hindu zemindar. His son embraced the Mahometan religion. This kingdom seems at one time to have com- prehended North Behar. It included Sundergong (Dacca) : Jajnagar (Tipera) was tributary : Assam was occasionally plundered : Catak and the adjoin- ing parts of Orissa were not acquired till just before the extinction of the state. It was conquered by Shir Shah, as has been re- lated, and was in the hands of a revolted officer of one of his successors at the time of Akber's accession. CHAP. u. Juanpur. A. D. A. H. KhajaJehan - 1394 796 Mobarik - - 1399 802 I'brahim - - 1401 804 A. D. A. H. Mahmud - - 1440 844 Mohammed - 1457 862 Husen - - 1457 862 Khaja Jehan, the vizir at the time of Mahmud Toghlak's accession, seems to have been unable to retain his ascendancy during the minority, and to have retired to his government of Juanpur, and made himself independent. Four of his family followed him in succession, and carried on wars with the kings of Malwa and Delhi. They twice besieged the latter capital ; but, at length, their government was subverted, and their territory re- stored to Delhi by Behlol Lodi in A. D. 14-76. It was soon occupied by Baber after his con- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK quest ; was taken by Shir Shah : and, after the VIII '___ fall of his dynasty, passed through different hands till conquered by Akber early in his reign. It stretched along the Ganges from Canouj, on the north-west, to the frontier between Bengal and South Behar on the south-east. Sind. After the expulsion of the Arabs (A. D. 750), Sind, from Bakkar to the sea, remained in the hands of the Sumera Rajputs, until the end of the twelfth century ; when the reigning family became extinct, and the government, after some changes, fell into the hands of another Rajput tribe, called Sama. It is uncertain when the Sumeras first paid tri- bute to the Mahometans ; probably, about the beginning of the twelfth century, under Shahab u din Ghori, or his immediate successors. The early Samas seem to have been refractory, for one was invaded by Firuz Toghlak, as has been related (about A. D. 1361). The Samas were soon after converted to the Mahometan religion ; and kept the country till expelled by the Arghuns, who held it at Akber's accession. MULTAN. CHAP. II. Multdn. Multan revolted during the confusion which fol- lowed the invasion of Tamerlane. It fell into the hands of an Afghan family of the name of Langa, who held it for about a century. Early in the sixteenth century, they were dis- possessed by the Arghuns of Sind, who were, in their turn, expelled by Prince Camran, and Multan fell under the house of Teimur. Of the other provinces once belonging to Delhi, stateofthe it need only be said that they all became independ- f induf* ent after the invasion of Tamerlane ; and, although Behlol Lodi, Baber, Humayun, and Shir Shah had recovered many of them, yet at Akber's accession (with the exception of the Panjab, the possession of which was contested by Secander Sur,) they were all in the hands of adherents of the Afghan government. The petty states under the Hemalaya mountains, from Cashmir inclusive to the Bay of Bengal, were independent under sovereigns of their own. Many mountain and forest tribes throughout India were unsubdued, though they could scarcely be called independent : they were left out of the pale of society, which they sometimes disturbed by their depredations. 3 230 HISTORY OF INDIA. CHAP. III. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. BOOK OF the internal state of the Mahometan empire in _ _ India we have no means of obtaining more than a Internal slight view. state of the *''' it TT 1 he king s power was absolute. He was con- sidered as bound to observe the Mahometan law : 1 he king s power. k u t neither the U'Jema nor any other public body had the means of enforcing his obedience to it : the municipal institutions of villages, some local jurisdictions which will be mentioned, and some other means of passive resistance, obstructed his will on ordinary occasions j but when he was de- termined to persevere, there was no remedy short of rebellion. His mini- The duties of vizir, or prime minister, varied according to the abilities of the individual and the activity of the king. In some cases, he was an uncontrolled vicegerent ; in others, only the chief among the ministers. The others had their depart- ments, but not very strictly defined. The kings were easy of access : they inquired into petitions, and transacted a great deal of busi- ness in the daily assemblies of their court ; which, although it must have caused some confusion and loss of time, afforded them the advantage of in- formation from many quarters, besides giving pub- licity to their decisions and their principles of government. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 231 The governors of provinces exercised, each CHAP. in. within his jurisdiction, all the executive powers of the state. Several of the subordinate officers were Provinces, appointed by the king, but all were under the orders of the governor. In most provinces there were Hindu chiefs who retained a hereditary juris- diction : the most submissive of this class paid their revenue and furnished the aid of their troops and militia to the governor, and were subject to his control in cases where he thought it necessary, but were not interfered with in the ordinary course of their administration : the most independent only yielded a general obedience to the government, and afforded their aid to keep the peace ; but these last were confined to strong countries, or large tracts bordering on a province.* Part of the army were men hired singly by the Army. king, and mounted on his horses, but the greater number probably brought their own horsesand arms ; and these last would often come in parties, large or small, under leaders of their own. There was no feudal authority under the kings of Delhi. Firuz Shah Toghlak is said to have been the first that assigned land in lieu of pay ; and Ala u din * It was to these hereditary chiefs that the term zemindar was originally applied. The pride of the Mussulmans extended it to independent princes (like those of Oudipur and Jodpur), whom they affected to consider as subordinate to their govern- ment ; but it is only in comparatively modern times that it has been extended downwards, so as to include persons holding assignments of the government revenue, as well as district and village officers. (See Mr. Stirling, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 239.) Q 4 2 L 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK is said to have been extremely on his guard against VIII. J all grants, as tending to the independence of his officers.* Most governors had under them some portion of the regular army, in addition to their local troops ; and in case of disturbance, reinforcements were sent under separate commanders, who, when the force was considerable, were nearly on an equality with the governor. At other times governors were summoned to contribute to the formation of armies, and on those occasions they collected the contingents of their zemindars, took away as many as could be spared of the troops of the province, and, if their situ- ation was favourable, recruited new ones for the occasion. Law. By the original theory of Mahometan govern- ment the law was independent of the state, or, rather, the state was dependent on the law. The calif was not excluded from a control over the ad- ministration of justice; but in that, and even in his military and political transactions, he was to be guided by the rules of the Koran, and the decisions and practice of the Prophet and of his own prede- cessors. Before long, the accumulation of deci- sions, and the writings of learned lawyers, contri- buted to form a great body of jurisprudence, the interpretation of which required a distinct profes- sion. At the same time, the extension of the Mussulman conquests gave rise to a sort of common * History of Firuz Shah, by Sluunsi Surji. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 233 law not derived from the Koran, but from the cus- CHAP. torn of the country and the discretion of the kings. From these separate sources arose two distinct classes of tribunals : those of the cazis, which re- cognised the Mahometan law alone, and which only acted on application, and by fixed rules of pro- cedure ; and those of the officers of government, whose authority was arbitrary and undefined. Civil trials, about marriage, adoption, inherit- ance, and, generally speaking, all questions re- garding private property, ought properly to come before the cazi; who ought also to try all offences that did not threaten the safety of the state or the public tranquillity. The jurisdiction of the king's officers was not so well defined. We may presume that their inter- ference in civil cases would be rightly exercised in causes between servants of the government, and where there were parties of such power as to be beyond the reach of the cazi ; they might reason- ably be expected also to supply the defects of the Mahometan law in the case of Hindus ; and the revenue officers would be natural umpires in many disputes about land. In criminal cases, rebels, conspirators, and highway robbers, as well as per- sons embezzling public money, or otherwise offend- ing directly against the state, fell under the lawful jurisdiction of the same functionaries. In general, however, the governors and their officers were not scrupulous in confining themselves to those classes of trials. They received all complaints that were HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK made to them, giving summary decisions in many L_ cases, and referring those that turned on points of Mahometan law to the cazi, to whom also all causes that did not excite interest or promise profit would be left. The power of the cazis varied in different reigns. At some times we see the office, even in provincial courts, filled by men of celebrity ; and at those times, we must conclude, their authority was respected, as appeared likewise from the occa- sional resistance of the cazis to the governors : at others it probably sunk nearly to its present level, when the duty is reduced to performing marriages, registering and authenticating deeds, and similar unimportant functions. Church. There was no church establishment, or, rather, no church government : every man, king or sub- ject, who founded a mosque, left funds to maintain the priest (imam) and other persons required for public worship. Assignments were also made to holy men and their successors, and even to their tombs. There was in each district an officer called sadr, whose business it was to see that the objects of all these grants, or at least those made by the crown, were carried into effect ; and there was a sadr u sadur at the head of all the sadrs : their jurisdiction was only over the application of the funds ; the suc- cession was settled by the original grantor, and generally depended on the choice of the incum- bent, regulated by the opinion of the learned of the neighbourhood. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 235 Though there was no organised body of clergy, CHAP. there was a class (called moulavis or mullahs) from ' which judges, lawyers, and ministers of religion were generally or always taken. But these were rather graduates in law and divinity than ecclesi- astics. The degree was conferred by a meeting of some of the recognised members of the class, who were supposed to ascertain the learning and fitness of an individual, and who formally invested him with his new character, by tying on a peculiar kind of turban. He was bound by no vows, and was subject to no superior, but was controlled by public opinion and the hopes of preferment alone. Distinct from the ministers of religion was- a Fakir numerous class of monkish devotees, called der- vises in Persia, but in India more frequently fakirs. This is an excrescence on the Mahometan system, originating in the sanctity of particular persons. At first there were no saints, and the earliest instances of elevation to that character were in the case of martyrs, or of distinguished champions of the faith who fell in battle. By degrees, austere and religious lives led to this sort of canonisation, which was con- ferred by public opinion, and generally on living men. These saints were followed by disciples, who, by degrees, formed orders, always distin- guished by some watchword and some form of ini- tiation, and sometimes by peculiarities of dress or observances. Many of these became early extinct, while others branched out into new orders, Small 236 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK numbers of fakirs lived with their chiefs, and others __ were drawn together by charitable distributions, &c. ; but they had no monasteries like the Hindus. The most eminent among the saints were not impostors, although their followers might magnify the prophetic character of their predictions and the miraculous effects of their prayers : in later times, however, there was a lower class of fakirs, who supported their claims to supernatural powers by tricks with magnets, phosphorus, &c., and by legerdemain. Of the higher description many were treated with the utmost reverence even by kings ; and, although professing poverty and abstinence, were accustomed to live in great splendour, or at least to distribute vast sums in chanty * : and they often acquired such influence as to excite the jealousy of the government. Several instances occur of men of great sanctity being put to death for real or suspected plots against the state. t * Baha u din Zakariah, who died in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and is still one of the most revered saints, left enormous wealth to his heirs. (Briggs* Ferishta, vol. i. p. 377.) f- Ibn Batuta, in the middle of the thirteenth century, furnishes examples of all these kinds. A great fakir put to death for a conspiracy in his time has been mentioned. He met several really holy men who made no pretensions ; but he also met one who pretended to live almost without nourishment, and another who professed to remember a calif who died near 100 years before. The first of these also told Ibn Batuta's thoughts, and foretold events : another fakir had seven foxes that fol- lowed him like dogs, and a lion that lived in harmony with an antelope. For an account of the orders, the method of initia- tion, and the principal saints, see Herklot's Kdnuni Islam. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 237 The most flourishing period for these holy men CHAP. was the thirteenth and the beginning of the four- ' teenth centuries. Many saints of those and later times are still revered, and are the objects of vows and pilgrimages ; but the fakirs, their followers, though perhaps respected at first, have long lost their influence. Many of the superstitions of the age were un- connected with, and even opposed to, religion. Not only was the faith unbounded in astrology, divination, magic, and other arts discouraged by Mahomet ; but even practices of the Hindus, and prejudices originating in their religion, began to gain ground. The miracles of their jogis are re- lated by orthodox writers with as perfect a con- viction as could have been given to those in the Koran; witchcraft was universally believed ; omens and dreams were paid the greatest attention to : and this credulity was not influenced by the pre- valence of scepticism in religion ; it was admitted even by Akber, and exercised absolute sway over his son, while it was by no one treated so con- temptuously as by the bigoted Aurangzib. The Sects. Shia religion never made any progress in Hin- dostan, as it did in the Deckan : there were no sectarian animosities, and, altogether, theie was more superstition than fanaticism. The Hindus Hindus, were regarded with some contempt, but with no hostility. They were liable to a capitation tax (jezia) and some other invidious distinctions, but were not molested in the exercise of their religion. 238 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK The Hindus who are mentioned as military com- manders may perhaps have been zemindars, head- sions. ing their contingents, and not officers appointed by the crown : there is no doubt, however, that many were employed in civil offices, especially of revenue and accounts*; and we have seen that Hemu and Medni Rai were intrusted with all the powers of their respective governments, and that under Mobarik Khilji the whole spirit of the court and administration was Hindu. Conver- It is difficult to form an opinion as to the period when the conversions of Hindus were chiefly ac- complished, or in what circumstances they were brought about. The actual state of the population affords us little light. The largest proportion of Mussulmans to Hindus is probably in the remote districts in the east of Bengal ; while about the Mahometan capitals of Delhi and Agra it is much less considerable.! The terror of the arms of the Mahometans, and the novelty of their doctrines, led many to change their religion at first ; but when these were suc- ceeded by controversial discussion and more mo- * Baber informs us that when he arrived in India, " the officers of revenue, merchants, and workpeople were all Hindus." (Erskine's Baber, p. 232.) j- In Bengal, east of the Ganges, they are more than one half of the population. In most parts of Bengal they are one fourth ; but in the west of Behar and in Benares, not above one twentieth. See Lord Wellesley's interrogatories, in 1801, laid before parliament. Buchanan makes the Mahometans in the west of Behar one thirteenth. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 239 derate intolerance, a spirit opposed to conversion CHAP. would naturally arise. The whole of the Mussulmans in India at the present moment do not exceed one eighth of the population ; and, after allowing for the great and long-continued immigration, and for the natural increase, during eight centuries, of a favoured class whose circumstances gave great facility in rearing families, the number left for converts would not be very great. Even if the whole eighth part of the population were converts, the proportion would be surprisingly small compared to other Maho- metan countries.* The revenue system was probably the same as Revenue, now exists, and as existed under the Hindus ; for the alterations attempted by Shir Shah, and accom- plished by Akber, were not designed to change the system, but to render it more perfect. The confusion of new conquests, and the ignorance of foreign rulers, must, however, have led to many abuses and exactions. The condition of the people in ordinary times condition does not appear to have borne the marks of oppres- people, sion. The historian of Firuz Shah (A. D. 1351 to 1394) expatiates on the happy state of the ryots, the goodness of their houses and furniture, and the general use of gold and silver ornaments by their women. He is a panegyrical writer, and not much * The proportion of one eighth is from Hamilton's Descrip- tion of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 25. He does not give his autho- rity, but he is supported by the common opinion. commerce. 240 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK to be trusted ; but he says, among other things, that every ryot had a good bedstead and a neat garden : and the mere mention of such circum- stances shows a more minute attention to the com- forts of the people than would be met with in a modern author, state of the The general state of the country must, no doubt, country. have been flourishing. Nicolo di Conti, who tra- velled about A. D. 1420*, speaks highly of what he saw of Guzerat, and found the banks of the Ganges (or perhaps the Megna) covered with Towns and towns, amidst beautiful gardens and orchards, and f*f\mmt*Tf*a passed four famous cities before he reached Maa- razia, which he describes as a powerful city filled with gold, silver, and precious stones. Barbosa and Bartema, who travelled in the first years of the sixteenth century, corroborate those accounts, The former, in particular, describes Cambay as a re- markably well-built city, in a beautiful and fertile country, filled with merchants of all nations, and with artisans and manufacturers like those of Flan- ders.t Even Ibn Batuta, who travelled during the anarchy and oppression of Mohammed Togh- lak's reign (about 1440 or 1450), though insurrec- tions were raging in most parts through which he passed, enumerates many large and populous towns * RamusiOj vol. i. p. 359. f Barbosa is in Ramusio, vol. i. p. 288., and Bartema, in the same volume, p. 147. Cesare Federici, in 1563, gives a similar account of Guzerat, Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 386. (edition of 1606), and Hackluyt vol. ii. p. 343. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. and cities, and gives a high impression of the state CHAP. in which the country must have been before it fell ' into disorder. Baber, in the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury, although he regards Hindostan with the same dislike that Europeans still feel, speaks of it as a rich and noble country, abounding in gold and silver* ; and expresses his astonishment at the swarming population, and the innumerable work- men in every trade and profession.! The part of India still retained by the Hindus was nowise inferior to that possessed by the Ma- * Erskine's Baber, pp. 310. 333. f Ibid. pp. 315. 334. To all these accounts of the flourish- ing state of the country, it is natural to oppose the statement of Baber, that in his time elephants abounded about Calpl and in Karrah and Manikpur (Erskine's Baber, p. 315.), and the fact of Akber's falling in with a herd of those animals near Colaras in the east of Malwa (Briggs's Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 216.); from which we might suppose that those places were then amidst forests which have since been cleared away. I am dis- posed to think, however, that the disappearance of the elephants is to be ascribed to the activity of the Mahometan hunters, and not to the improvement of the country. Ibn Batuta, who wrote near two centuries before Baber, expressly says that Karrah and Manikpur were the two most populous districts in India (Lee's Ibn Batuta, p. 119.); small tracts of hills and jungle would be enough to shelter elephants, who would spread over the cultivated country for food ; and that there is no necessary connection between the residence of such animals and the ab- sence of population, appears from the facts that the rhinoceros is still common in the Rajmahal hills, close to the populous lands of Bengal, while in the vast forest on the east of Berar there are neither rhinoceroses nor elephants, except a few of the last, which are supposed to be tame ones which have escaped. VOL. IT. R 242 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK hometans. Besides the writers already mentioned, VIII. Abdurizak, an ambassador from the grandson of Tamerlane, visited the south of India in A. D. 1442*; and all concur in giving the impression of a prosperous country. Those of them who visited Bijayanagar are un- bounded in their admiration of the extent and grandeur of that city ; their descriptions of which, and of the wealth of the inhabitants and the pomp of the raja, are equal to those given by others of Delhi and Canouj.t Other populous towns are mentioned ; and Ibn Batuta speaks of Madura, at the extremity of the peninsula (then recently conquered by the Ma- hometans) as a city like Delhi. The same author says, that through the whole of Malabar, for two months' journey, there was not a span free from cultivation : every body had a garden, with his house placed in the middle of it, and a w r ooden fence round the whole, t The sea ports, above all, seem to have attracted admiration. Those on both coasts are described as large cities, the resort and habitation of mer- chants from every part of the world, and carrying * Murray's Discoveries in Asia, vol. ii. p. 18. j- Abdurizak's description of Bijayanagar is so glowing, That it is scarcely surpassed by that in the story of Prince Ahmed in the " Arabian Nights," which appears to be taken from it. Conti is so extravagant as to say that it is sixty miles in cir- cumference. Bartema says seven miles ; but adds, that it is very like Milan. J Lee's Ibn Batuta, p. 166. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 243 on trade with Africa, Arabia, Persia, and China.* CHAP. A great home trade was likewise carried on along the coast, and into the interior. The adulation of the historians of later kings has had a tendency to depreciate the state of improve- ment attained under the early dynasties. One claims the institution of posts for his hero, another the establishment of highways with caravanserais and rows of trees ; and Abul Fazl has been the occasion of most of the useful inventions in India being ascribed to Akber. But we have seen from Ibn Batuta that regular horse as well as foot posts existed under Mohammed Toghlak ; and foot posts, to a certain extent, must be coeval with village esta- blishments, t The roads may have been improved by Shir Shah ; but Ibn Batuta, 200 years before his time, found the highways shaded by trees, with resting houses and wells at regular intervals along a great part of the coast of Malabar, then under the Hindus ; and in an inscription lately dis- coveredt, which there is every reason to think is of the third century before Christ, there is an especial order by the king for digging wells and planting trees along the public highways. * Besides ships from Persia, Arabia, and other neighbouring countries, some of the ports of Malabar were frequented by large junks from China. (Ibn Batuta, pp. 169. 172.) f Each village has a public messenger ; and economy as well as dispatch would suggest to the head of a district to send his letters and orders by their means from village to village along the road. I See Vol I. pp. 265. 394-. R 2 244 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. Coinage. It has been said (though not by Abul Fazl) that Akber first coined silver or gold money. The assertion is inconsistent with all history: if the Hindus had not a coinage in those metals earlier, they at least adopted it from the Bactrian Greeks * about the beginning of the Christian gera. The Ghaznavites could not have dropped a practice observed by the Samanis and the califs ; and the second coin in Mr. Marsden's collection, belong- ing to the Delhi kings, is a silver one of Altamsh, who died in 1235.t If the value of the coins at different periods can be fixed at all, it can only be after a long inquiry by a person accustomed to such subjects. t The * Mr. Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 15., and his Researches in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. f Marsden's Numismata Orientalia, p. 521. \. Some notion of the fluctuations in this respect may be formed from the following statements: The dinar under the califs was about equal to 10*. 8d. (Marsden's Numismata, p. xvii.) In Ibn Batuta's time a western dinar was to an eastern as 4 to 1, and an eastern dinar seems to have been one tenth of a tankha, which, even supposing the tankha of that day to be equal to a rupee of Akber, would be only C 2d. (Ibn Batuta, p. 149.) A modern dinar, in Cabul, is so small, that it takes 200 to make an abassi, a coin of less value than a shilling. The tankha is said by Ferishta (vol. i. p. 360.) to have been, in Ala u din's time, equal to fifty jitals (a copper coin which some said was equal to a peisa), and in Mohammed Toghlak's time it was so debased as to be worth no more than 16 peisas. The tankha appears to be the coin represented by the modern rupee, and perhaps, when at its proper standard, was about the same value. The rupee of Akber contained 174*5 grains of pure silver, and was divided into 40 dams or peisas (of 191 J grains of copper each). The dam was divided into 25 jitals (probably a nominal INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 245 first princes used dinars and dirhems, like the califs ; these were succeeded by tankhas, divided into dams or jitals. Shir Shah changed the name of tankha to that of rupeia, or rupee, which was adopted by Akber ; and the latter prince fixed the weight and relative value of money on a scale which remained unaltered till the dissolution of the Mogul empire, and is the basis of that now in use. We are enabled, in some degree, to judge of the progress of the early Mussulmans by the specimens they have left of their architecture. The arches of the unfinished mosque near the Kutb Minar, besides their height and the rich ornamental in- scriptions with which they are covered, deserve mention, as early instances of the. pointed arch.* The centre arch appears, by the inscription, to have been finished in A. H. 594, A. D. 1197- Many coin). Queen Elizabeth's shilling contained 88-8 grains of pure silver ; Akber's rupee, therefore, was worth Is. ll^d. of English money of his time. Akber's standard remained almost un- altered, all over the Mogul dominions, until the breaking up of the empire in the middle of the last century, when numerous mints sprung up and issued much debased money. The rupee that now circulates in the Company's territories contains 176 grains of pure silver, and exchanges for 64- peisas, contain- ing 100 grains of copper each. * The Kutb Minar, finished by Altamsh between A. D. 1210 and A. D. 1236, has pointed arches in the doors. By examining the ruins of old and new Delhi alone, a view of the progress of Indian architecture might be made out which would throw light on the history of the art in the East. R 3 246 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK of the buildings of the later princes before Akber , have small pointed arches, and seem to betray the incapacity of the builders to erect a dome of any size. Their mosques are composed of a collection of small cupolas, each resting on four pillars; so that the whole mosque is only a succession of alleys between ranges of pillars, with no clear space of any extent. It is probable, however, that this form may have been retained, as that originally appropriated for mosques, by architects capable of constructing large cupolas. The Black Mosque at Delhi, for instance, is in the ancient style, though built in A. D. 1887, under Firuz Toghlak ; while the tomb of Gheias u din Toghlak, who died in A. D. 1325, is covered with one cupola of considerable mag- nitude. * The domes at first are low and flat ; they gra- dually gain elevation till the time of Jehangir, or Shah Jehan, when they take in considerably more than half of a sphere, and are raised upon a cylin- der. The arches, also, are different at different times; : the early ones are plain Gothic arches ; the latest ones are ogee and horse-shoe arches, feathered all round. The buildings after Akber's accession are much lighter, as well as more lofty and more splendid, than those of an earlier date ; which, on * The dome was, no doubt, borrowed from the buildings of the Greek empire ; but the mosques erected after it had once been fully established in India are incomparably superior in the elegance of their exterior to St. Sophia. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 247 the other hand, make a strong impression from their CHAP. massive and austere character. * Though the constant use of the pointed arch, the nature of the tracery, and some other particu- lars, create a resemblance between the Gothic and Indian architecture which strikes every one at first sight, yet the frequency and importance of domes, and the prevalence of horizontal lines in the In- dian, make an essential difference between the styles. The more ancient buildings in particular, which in other respects are most like the Gothic, are marked by a bold and unbroken cornice formed of flat stones, projecting very far, and supported by deep brackets or modilions of the same material. Even the abundance of turrets and pinnacles does not increase the resemblance to the Gothic ; for they seldom taper at all, and never much ; and they always end in a dome, which sometimes bulges out beyond the circumference of the turret. The early Mussulmans were stout and ruddy Manners. men, dressed in short tunics of thick cloth, and always in boots. Those of Aurangzib's time were generally slender, dark, and sallow, and wore long white gowns of the thinnest muslin, which spread out from the waist in innumerable folds, and scarcely showed the naked foot and embroidered slipper. It is difficult to ascertain the gradation * " These Patans built like giants, and finished their work like jewellers. Yet the ornaments, florid as they are in their proper places, are never thrown away, or allowed to interfere with the general severe and solemn character o their edifices.' (Bishop Hebers Journal, vol. i. p. 565.) R 4 248 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK by which this change, and a corresponding alter- ' ation in manners, were effected. It must have begun soon after the dissolution of the connection with Ghazni and Ghor. Ibn Ba- tuta, in the middle of the fourteenth century, men- tions the use of bitel, and notices peculiarities in the cookery, and what he calls oddity in the man- ners ; and Baber, early in the sixteenth, is shocked to find every thing so unlike what he is used to. * It is probable that the greatest alteration took place after the accession of the house of Teimur, when the influx of foreigners was stopped by hostile feel- ings towards the Uzbeks and Afghans, and by reli- gious prejudices against the Persians. t It was the direct policy of Akber that the manners of the * Baber's account is amusing, being written with all the violent prejudice still felt by persons just arrived from Cabul or from Europe. " Hindostan is a country that has few pleasures to recommend it. The people are not handsome. They have no idea of the charms of friendly society, of frankly mixing to- gether, or of familiar intercourse. They have no genius, no comprehension of mind, no politeness of manners, no kindness, no fellow feeling, no ingenuity or mechanical invention in planning or executing their handicraft works, no skill or know- ledge in design or architecture ; they have no good horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk melons, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good food or bread in their bazars, no baths or colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candlestick." He then goes on to ridicule their clumsy substitutes for the last useful articles. (Erskine's Bdber, p. 333.) j- So complete was the separation at last, that Aurangzib treats the Persians (the original models of the Indian Mussul- mans) as rude barbarians, and hardly ever mentions their name without a rhyming addition, which may be translated, " mon- sters of the wilds." INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. 249 Mahometans should assimilate to those of the ori- CHAP. in. ginal natives. . This mixture probably softened the manners of the people from the first ; but it was some time before it had any effect on the government. There were many more instances of cruelty and perfidy under the slave kings than in the time of Mahmud and his successors. Such atrocities under the suc- ceeding dynasties were generally owing to the tyrannical disposition of an individual, or the revolts of foreign troops ; and under most of the princes of the house of Teimur, the general character of the government approached to the mildness and moderation of European sovereignties. Purely Mahometan literature flourished most in Mahome- India during the period to which we are now ad- ture. 1 * verting, and fell off after the accession of Akber. Improvements in science were, doubtless, obtained from Hindu and European sources ; but, I believe, there is no eminent specimen of Persian compo- sition in India after the epoch mentioned. The great superiority of Mahometan writers over their predecessors in Shanscrit is in history, and is derived from the Arabs. Though often verbose on ordinary topics, and silent on those of interest, deficient in critical skill and philosophical spirit, and not exempt from occasional puerility and ex- aggeration, their histories always present a con- nected narrative of the progress of events, show a knowledge of geography, a minute attention to dates, and a laudable readiness to quote authorities, 250 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK VIII. Language. which place them immeasurably above the vague fables of the Bramins. It is surprising that so little is known of the modern language of the Indian Mahometans. After the founding of the kingdom of Delhi, the conversation of their wives and children, as well as their continual intercourse with the natives, must have taught the conquerors to speak the language of the country, in which most of the roots were Shanscrit, but the forms and inflexions more like modern Hindostani. It is not likely that this lan- guage remained long unmixed ; though the pro- gress of its change into that now spoken has not yet been traced by any orientalist. It is stated by a modern Mahometan writer * that the language took its present form during Teimur's invasion ; and, although it cannot be sup- posed that an incursion which lasted less than a year, and left no traces but in blood, could affect the language of a nation, yet it is not improbable that the beginning of the fifteenth century may have formed a marked epoch in the progress of Hindostani. It could have made little progress before the end of the twelfth century, as it is formed on the In- dian dialect of Canouj, and not on that of the Pan- jab, the only province previously occupied, t The use of this mixed language in composition must have been of a later date ; for though Mr. * Quoted in Dr. Gilchrist's Hindostani Philology, f Mr. Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. p. 220. INTERNAL STATE OF INDIA. Colebrooke mentions a Hindu poet who wrote at CHAP. . . HI. Amber (or Jeipur) about the beginning of the six- . teenth century, and who sometimes borrowed words from the Persian ; yet he states that even Maho- metan poets at first wrote in the pure local dialect above mentioned, which, he says, was called Hindi or Hindevi ; and the specimens given in a Persian book on the poets of India (written in A. D. 1752), although all composed by Mahometans, do not introduce Persian or Arabic till near the end of the series. The earliest of the celebrated poets in modern Hindostani is Wali, who wrote in the middle of the, seventeenth century. He is followed by a long train down to the present time. Their composi- tions are, in general, mere imitations of the Per- sians. It is probable, however, that they had the merit of introducing satires on manners and do- mestic life into Asia ; for those of the Arabs and Persians seem to have been invectives against in- dividuals, like Ferdousi's against Mahmud. The best author in this branch of poetry is Souda, who lived late in the last century. The other dialects (as those of Bengal, Guzerat, &c,), and also the languages of the Deckan, have admitted Persian and Arabic words in great num- bers, but without forming a new language like the Hindostani. 252 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK IX. AKBER. CHAP. I. FROM 1556 TO 1586. of Akber. Behram Khan. BOOK AKBER was only thirteen years and four months ' old at his father's death, and though unusually A.D. 1556, manly and intelligent for his age, was obviously A.H. 963. J Accession incapable of administering the government. He had been sent by Humayun as the nominal head of the army in the Panjab, but the real command was vested in Behram Khan ; and the same relation was preserved after Akber's accession. Behram received a title equivalent to that of " the king's father*," and was invested with the unlimited exercise of all the powers of sovereignty. The nobleman thus trusted was a Turkman by birth, and had been a distinguished officer under Humayun before his expulsion from India. In the final defeat of that monarch by Shir Shah, Behram was separated from his master, and made * It was " Khan Baba," which is the Persian for the title of Atabek, so common among the Turks, both meaning " Lord Father." AKBER. 253 his way, after a long series of dangers and adven- CHAP. tures, through Guzerat to Sind, where he joined Humayun, in the third year after his expulsion. He was received with joy by the whole of the exiled party, who seem already to have rightly estimated his value in times of difficulty. He be- came thenceforward the most confidential of Hu- mayun's officers ; and it would have been better for the affairs of his sovereign if they had borne more of the impress of his determined character. At the time of Humayun's death, Behram was engaged in putting an end to the resistance of Se- cander Sur, who had retired to the skirts of the northern mountains, and still retained his preten- sions to be king of Delhi and the Paniab. He had Loss of J Cabul. scarcely time to arrange the new government, when he received intelligence that Mirza Soliman of Ba- dakhshan had taken possession of Cabul and all that part of Humayun's late dominions ; and while he was considering of the means of repairing this disaster, he learned that Hemu had set out with an army on the part of Sultan A'dili, for the double purpose of expelling the Moguls and reducing the rebellion of Secander Sur. The result of this con- test has been already told.* The Afghans were A.D. 1555, Nov. 5* * defeated ; and Hemu, who fought with desperate A. H /964, valour, and had continued to resist after he had 2. received a mortal wound from an arrow through P efea tand death of the eye, at length fell senseless on his elephant, Hemu. * See p. 158. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and was taken prisoner and brought to Akber's ______ tent. Behram was desirous that Akber should give him the first wound, and thus, by imbruing his sword in the blood of so distinguished an in- fidel, should establish his right to the envied title of "Ghazi," or "Champion of the Faith;" but the spirited boy refused to strike a wounded enemy, and Behram, irritated by his scruples, himself cut off the captive's head at a blow. Recovery Akber soon after took possession of Delhi and and^grL Agra. He was, before long, obliged to return to Campaign the Panjab, by intelligence that Secander Sur had Panjab.* issued from the mountains and possessed himself ofsan s der of a g reat P ortion of the province. The plain country was easily recovered, and Secander retired to the strong fort of Mankot. He defended that place with obstinacy ; and it was not till after eight months' operations that he capitulated, and was allowed to retire to Bengal, which was still held by an officer of the Afghan dynasty. Arbitrary Th e real restoration of the house of Tamerlane mentor may be dated from this period : it had been brought Khan!! about entirely through the exertions of Behram Khan, whose power was now at the highest pitch ever reached by a subject, and already began to show distant indications of decline. Behram's military talents, and the boldness and vigour of his government, had enabled him to sur- mount external difficulties under which a less de- termined leader would have sunk ; and even his arbitrary and inflexible disposition was essential AKBER. 255 to the maintenance of subordination in an army of CHAP. adventurers, whose disorders Humayun had never ' been able to repress, and which must soon have overturned the government after it fell into the hands of a minor. His domination was therefore submitted to with- out a murmur as long as the general safety de- pended on his exercise of it ; but when the fear of immediate destruction was removed, the pressure of his rule began to be felt, and was rendered more intolerable by some of the vices of his nature. His temper was harsh and severe, his manners haughty and overbearing. He was jealous of his authority to the last degree, exacted unbounded obedience and respect, and could not suffer the smallest pre- tension to power or influence derived from any source but his favour. These qualities soon raised up a host of enemies, General disconter at court. and, in time, alienated the mind of the king, now discontent advancing towards manhood, and impatient of the insignificance to which he was reduced by the dic- tatorial proceedings of his minister. His indignation was increased by the injustice of some of Behram's acts of power. As early as the battle with Hemu, Behram took advantage of Ak- ber's absence on a hawking party, to put to death Tardi Beg, the former governor of Delhi, without even the ceremony of taking the king's orders on so solemn an occasion. The victim had been one of Baber's favourite companions, and had accom- panied Humayun in all his wanderings, but had no 256 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ' A.D. iseo, March; A.H. 667, Akbir 28. doubt exposed himself to punishment for his pre- mature evacuation of Delhi. One day, while Ak- ber was amusing himself with an elephant fight, one of these animals ran off the field, pursued by its antagonist, and followed by a promiscuous crowd of spectators : it rushed through the tents of Beh- ram, some of which were thrown down ; thus ex- posing the minister himself to danger, while it threw all around him into the utmost confusion and alarm. Irritated by this seeming affront, and per- haps suspecting a secret design against his life, Behram ordered the elephant driver to be put to death, and for some time maintained a reserved and sullen demeanour towards the king himself. A nobleman of consequence enough to oppose Behram was put to death on some slight charge by that minister. The king's own tutor, Pir Mo- hammed Khan, narrowly escaped the same fate, and was banished, on pretence of a pilgrimage to Mecca. Those about the king's person were con- stantly harassed by Behram's distrustful temper, and were provoked by his persecutions to realize his suspicions of their enmity. At length Akber was driven to make an effort to deliver himself from the thraldom in which he lived. He concerted a plan with those around him, and took occasion, when on a hunting party, to make an unexpected journey to Delhi, on the plea of a sudden illness of his mother. He was no sooner beyond the sphere . . of the minister's influence than he issued a pro- clamation, announcing that he had taken the go- AKBER. 257 vernment into his own hands, and forbidding obe- CHAP. dience to orders issued by any other than his au- thority. Behram's eyes were opened by these pro- Akber as - ceedirigs ; and he exerted himself, when too late, govern- to recover the king's confidence. He sent two of p er piexity his principal adherents to court ; but Akber, nowise ofBehranu mollified by this submission, refused to see the envoys, and soon after committed them to prison. This open separation was not long in producing its natural effect : all ranks forsook the falling minister, to court the sovereign, from whose youth- ful virtues, and even weaknesses, they expected a happy contrast to the strict control of Behram. The minister, thus left to his own resources, meditated various schemes for retrieving his power : he once thought of seizing the king's person, and afterwards of setting up an independent principality in Malwa ; but the support he met with did not encourage him, and he probably was at heart re- luctant to draw his sword against the son of his old master ; he therefore set off for Nagor, with the avowed intention of embarking, in Guzerat, for Mecca. At Nagor he lingered, as if in hopes of some change in his fortunes, until he received a message from Akber, dismissing him from his office, and directing him to proceed on his pilgrimage without delay. On this he sent his standards, kettle-drums, He revolt* and other ensigns of authority to the king, and set out, in a private character, on his way to Guzerat ; but, irritated at some further proceedings of Akber, VOL. II. S 258 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK he again changed his mind, assembled a body of ' troops, and, going openly into insurrection, at- tempted an invasion of the Panjab. He was disap- pointed in his reception in that province. Akber moved against him in person, and sent detachments to intercept him ; he was defeated by one of those detachments, constrained to fly to the hills, and at length reduced to throw himself on the king's Se D tember- mercv ' Akber did not, on this occasion, forget A. H. 968 : the great services of his former minister. He sent Moharram. ... His sub- ms principal nobility to meet him at some distance, pardon" and an( ^ ^ conduct him at once to the royal tent. When Behram appeared in Akber's presence, he threw himself at his feet, and, moved by former recollections, began to sob aloud. Akber instantly raised him with his own hand, seated him on his right, and, after investing him with a dress of honour, gave him his choice of one of the principal governments under the crown, a high station at court, or an honourable dismissal on his pilgrimage to Mecca. Behram's pride and prudence equally counselled the latter course. He was assigned a His death, liberal pension, and proceeded to Guzerat ; but, while he was preparing for his embarkation, he was assassinated by an Afghan, whose father he had killed in battle during the reign of Humayun. Difficult The charge which Akber had now taken on himself the U youn^ seemed beyond the strength of a youth of eighteen ; ung * but the young king was possessed of more than usual advantages, both from nature and education. He was born in the midst of hardships, and AKBER. 259 brought up in captivity. His courage was exer- CHAP. cised in his father's wars, and his prudence called forth by the delicacy of his situation during the ascendancy of Behram. He was engaging in his manners, well formed in his person, excelled in all exercises of strength and agility, and showed exu- berant courage even in his amusements ; as in taming unbroken horses and elephants, and in rash encounters with tigers and other wild beasts. Yet, with this disposition, and a passionate love of glory, he founded his hopes of fame at least as much on the wisdom and liberality of his government as on its military success. It required all his great qualities to maintain him in the situation in which he was placed. Of all the dynasties that had yet ruled in India, that of Tamerlane was the weakest and the most insecure in its foundations. The houses of Ghazni and Ghor depended on their native kingdom, which was contiguous to their Indian conquest ; and the slave dynasties were supported by the continual influx of their countrymen ; but, though Baber had been in some measure naturalised in Cabul, yet the separation of that country under Camran had broken its connection with India, and the rivalry of an Afghan dynasty turned the most warlike part of its inhabitants, as well as of the Indian Mussulmans, into enemies. The only adherents of the house of Tamerlane were a body of adventurers, whose sole bond of union was their common advantage during success. s 2 260 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK IX. His plan for restor- ing and consolidat- ing the empire. Extent of his terri- tory. A.D. 1559, A.H. 966. The weakness arising from this want of natural support had been shown in the easy expulsion of Humayun, and was still felt in the early part of the reign of his son. It was probably by these considerations, joined to a generous and candid nature, that Akber was led to form the noble design of putting himself at the head of the whole Indian nation, and forming the inhabitants of that vast territory, without dis- tinction of race or religion, into one community. This policy was steadily pursued throughout his reign. He admitted Hindus to every degree of power, and Mussulmans of every party to the highest stations in the service, according to their rank and merit ; until, as far as his dominions ex- tended, they were filled with a loyal and united people. But these were the fruits of time ; and the first calls on Akber's attention were of an urgent nature : 1. To establish his authority over his chiefs. 2. To recover the dominions of the crown. 3. To restore, in the internal administration of them, that order which had been lost amidst so many revolutions. In the first years of Akber's reign, his territory was confined to the Panjab and the country round Delhi and Agra. In the third year, he acquired Ajmir without a battle ; early in the fourth, he ob- tained the fort of Gualior ; and, not long before Behram's fall, he had driven the Afghans out of AKBER. 261 Lucknow, and the country on the Ganges as far CHAP. east as Juanpur. The adherents of the house of Sur that still re- nation and mained in those parts were under Shir Shah II., a rebellions son of the last king, A'dili ; and, soon after Akber 968, prepared for so sudden a crisis, lost no time in making his submission : his offence was readily pardoned ; but he was soon after removed from his government, which was given to the king's former tutor, Pir Mohammed Khan. This man, bred to letters, showed none of the virtues to be expected, either from his old profession or his present station. He was invaded by Baz Bahadur ; and, although he gained considerable successes- at first, he stained them by the massacre of the inhabitants of two cities of which he had obtained possession, and was ultimately defeated and drowned in the Nerbadda; the whole province falling into the hands of its old A.D. i.wi, possessor. Baz Bahadur was finally subdued by A.H. 969. Abdulla Khan Uzbek, whom Akber immediately sent against him. At a subsequent period, he en- tered the service of the emperor, whose liberal policy always left that resource for his conquered enemies. The ungovernable spirit of A'dam Khan was not tamed by his removal from power ; for, on pointed an hour to receive him, put on her most splendid dress, on which she sprinkled the richest perfumes, and lay down on a couch with her mantle drawn over her face. Her attendants thought that she had fallen asleep, but on endeavouring to wake her on the approach of the Khan, they found she had taken poison, and was already dead. (Khdfi Khdn\ AK13ER. 263 some subsequent rivalry with Akber's vizir, he CHAP. stabbed him, while at prayers, in a room adjoining ' to that occupied by the young king. Akber ran out on hearing the disturbance, and his first im- pulse was to revenge the death of his minister with his own hand: he restrained himself sufficiently to sheath his sword, but ordered the murderer to be thrown from the lofty building where his offence took place. Nor was Abdullah Khan less unruly A.D. 1552, , /r/1 ... .. A.H. 970. in his government of Malwa : within a little more than a year of the conquest of the province, he obliged Akber to move against him in person ; and having in vain attempted to oppose the royal army, he fled to Guzerat, and took refuge with the king of that country. His fate was viewed with dissatis- * D . 1553, faction by several other Uzbeks, who occupied commands in Akber's army. They suspected that the young monarch was actuated by a dislike to their race, such as a descendant of Baber might well be supposed to entertain ; and they shared with many military leaders in their impatience of the sub- ordination to which their class was about to be re- duced. In this spirit they revolted, and were joined A. D . 1554, A H 072 by Khan Zeman, before mentioned, and by Asof Khan, another nobleman, who had lately distin- guished himself by the conquest of Garrah, a prin- cipality on the Nerbadda, bordering on Bundelcand. It was governed by a queen, who opposed the Ma- hometan general in an unsuccessful action, when, seeing her army routed, and being herself severely wounded, she avoided falling into the hands of the s 4 264? HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK enemy by stabbing herself with her dagger. Her . treasures, which were of great value, fell into the hands of Asof Khan ; he secreted the greater part, and the detection of this embezzlement was the immediate cause of his revolt. The war with these rebels was attended with various success, and with alternate submission and renewed defection on the part of more than one of the chiefs. It occupied Akber for more than two years ; and was concluded by an act of courage very characteristic of the conqueror. Akber had made great progress in reducing the rebellion, when he was drawn off by an invasion of the Pan- jab, under his brother Hakim. This occupied him for several months ; and, on his return, he found the rebels had recovered their ground, and were in possession of most parts of the Subahs of Oud and Allahabad. He marched against them without delay, though it was the height of the rainy season ; drove them across the Ganges ; and, when they thought themselves secure behind that swollen river, he made a forced march through a flooded country, swam the Ganges at nightfall with his advanced guard of not 2000 men on horses and elephants, and, after lying concealed during the night, attacked the enemy about sun- rise. The rebels, though aware of the approach of a small body of horse, were quite unprepared for an attack ; and Khan Zeman having been killed, and another principal chief unhorsed and made wisoner. in the first confusion, they lost all AKBER. 265 the advantage of their numbers, fell into complete CHAP. disorder, and soon after dispersed and fled in all directions. Quelled The invasion from Cabul which had interrupted struggle of ATI, 11- *i i f seven years. Akber s operations, had its origin in much earlier Affairsof events. Two of Akber's chiefs, Abul Maali and c * bul - Sherf u din, had revolted at Nagor, before the Uzbek rebellion (in A. D. 1561, A. H. 969)> had defeated the king's troops, and advanced towards Delhi : they were afterwards driven back in their turn, and forced to seek for safety beyond the In- dus. They retired with the remains of their force to Cabul, where circumstances secured them a favourable reception. That kingdom was left at the death of Humayun Nominal i i /> i / govern- ' under the nominal government of his infant son, mentof Mirza Hakim, and immediately after was overrun, Hakim, as has been mentioned*, by his relation, Soliman b rot her! of Badakhshan ; and, though soon afterwards re- covered, was never really in obedience to Akber. The government was in the hands of the prince's mother, who maintained her difficult position with ability, though not more exposed to danger from foreign enemies than from the plots and usurpa- tions of her own ministers. She had recently been delivered from a crisis of the latter description, when she was joined by the rebellious chiefs from India ; and before long she was induced to confide the control of her affairs to Abul Maali. That adventurer at first * See p. 253. 266 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK showed himself a useful minister ; but his secret T ^C ' views were directed to objects very different from the establishment of the Begum's authority, and as soon as he had himself formed a party in the kingdom, he had her assassinated, and took the government into his own hands. The aid of Mirza Soliman was now invoked, and the result was the defeat and death of Abul Maali (1563). Mirza Soliman affected to leave his young relation in possession of Cabul, but really placed him under the tutelage of one of his dependents, whose yoke was so irksome that Mirza Hakim rose against it ; and, after a struggle with Soliman, was overcome and chaced out of Cabul. This took place in the H j kim J n " last year of the war with the Uzbek chiefs ; and vades the Panjab. Hakim, although he had received such assistance as the times admitted from Akber, yet, conceiving his brother's hands to be fully occupied with the rebellion, at once resolved to indemnify himself at his expense, seized on Lahor, and took possession of the greater part of the Panjab. This invasion ended in the expulsion of Prince Hakim from In- dia (November, 1566) ; and an opportune change of circumstances at the same moment opened the way for his return to Cabul, of which country he remained for a considerable period in undisturbed possession. Revolt of During these transactions, and before the final close of the operations against the Uzbeks, an- other revolt had taken place in India, which ultimately led to important consequences. Sultan AKBER. 267 Mirza, a prince of the house of Tamerlane, had CHAP. come to India with Baber; he had rebelled against _ Humayun, and though subdued and pardoned, his four sons and three nephews took advantage of the general disturbance just mentioned, and revolted at Sambal, the government which had been assigned to their father. At first they were overpowered without an effort ; and the danger from them seemed to be completely at an end, when they were compelled to fly to Guzerat (1566): yet they They % to there sowed the seeds of future troubles, which only ended with the subjugation of the kingdom. Some incidents occurred during the disturbances ous occur- above related, which, although they had no im- portant results, yet serve to show the state of society at the time. During the insurrection of Sherf u din, as Akber was going in procession to a celebrated shrine, an archer, who it afterwards appeared belonged to the rebel chief, mixed with the spectators, and, pre- tending to discharge his arrow at a bird which was flying over him, suddenly brought it down in the direction of the emperor, and lodged it some inches deep in his shoulder. He was instantly seized, and Akber was entreated to put off his execution, and to extort a disclosure of the name of his in- stigator ; but he said that a confession in such circumstances was more likely to criminate the in- nocent than the guilty, and allowed the punish- ment to take its course.* On another occasion, * Khafi Khan. Akbernameh. 268 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Khqja Moazzim, a man of rank, and remotely con- ' nected with Akber through his mother, had given way to a violent temper, and treated his wife with such brutality, that her relations applied to Akber to intercede with him, and prevail on him to leave her with her mother when he was about to remove to his jagir. Akber took an opportunity, while going out on a hunting party, to pay him a visit in his house near Delhi ; but the monster guessed his design, and running to his female apartment before Akber had alighted, stabbed his wife to the heart, and threw the bloody dagger from the window among the king's attendants. When Akber en- tered the house he found him armed for resistance, and narrowly escaped death from one of his slaves, who was cut down as he was making a blow at the emperor. Akber, incensed at these atrocities, or- dered Moazzim to be thrown headlong into the Jamna: he did not immediately sink; and Akber relented and ordered him to be taken out and im- prisoned in Gwalior, where he soon after died a maniac.* On one of Akber's marches he found two great bodies of Hindu devotees prepared, according to % their custom t, to contend sword in hand for the possession of a place for bathing during a great annual festival at Tanesar. He endeavoured at first by all means to bring about an amicable settle- ment ; but finding all was in vain, he determined * Akbernameh. f See Vol. I. p. 114. AKBER. 269 to allow them to fight it out, and looked on at the CHAP. conflict in which they immediately engaged. At ' length one party prevailed, and Akber, to prevent the slaughter that would have followed, ordered his guards to check the victors, and thus put an end to the battle.* During his struggle with the military aristocracy, Foreign affairs. Akber was fighting for his crown no less than in The Raj- his contests with the successors of Shir Shah ; but P by the time he had completed his twenty-fifth year he had crushed his adversaries by his vigour, or attached them by his clemency, and had time to turn his thoughts to foreign countries. The first which attracted his attention was that of the Rajput princes. Bahara Mai, the raja of Amber (now Jeipur) was always on friendly terms with him, and had, at an early period, given his daughter in mar- riage to Akber ; both he and his son, Bhagwan Das, being at the same time admitted to a high rank in the imperial army. Soon after the fall of Behram (A. D. 1561, A. H. 969) he had sent a force against Marwar, and by the capture of the strong fort of Mirta had made an impression on that country which he was unable to follow up. He now turned his arms against the rana of Chitor (or Oudipur). U'di Sing, the A. D .i567-8 / ,1 n T>/I ... A - H - 975. reigning rana, was the son ot Baber s competitor, Rana Sanga, but was a man of a feeble character. On the approach of Akber, he withdrew from * Akbernameh. 270 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Chitor, and retreated into the hilly and woody __!__ country north of Guzerat. His absence did not facilitate the capture of the fortress. There was still a strong garrison under Jei Mai, a chief of great courage and ability ; and the place, though twice taken before, was still regarded by the Raj- puts of Me war as a sort of sanctuary of their monarchy. Akber carried on his approaches with caution and regularity. His trenches are minutely described by Ferishta, and closely resemble those of modern Europe. They were zigzags, protected by gabions and by earth thrown from the trench. The object, however, was not to establish a breach- ing battery, but to get near enough for sinking mines. This was done in two places ; and the troops being prepared for the occasion, fire was set to the train. The explosion was the signal for the storming party to rush forward ; but it had only taken effect in one of the mines ; and while the soldiers were crowding up the breach, the second mine exploded, destroyed many of both parties, and struck such a panic as to occasion the immediate flight of the assailants. The operations of the siege had now to be 're- commenced; but Akber, one night, in visiting the trenches, perceived Jei Mai on the works, where he was superintending some repairs by torch-light; he immediately singled him out, and was so for- tunate as to shoot him through the head with his own hand. The garrison lost heart on the death of their gallant leader; and, with their usual in- AKBER. 271 fatuation, abandoned the breaches and withdrew to CHAP. the interior of the fort, where they devoted them- selves with the accustomed solemnities. The women were committed to the flames with the body of Jei Mai, and the men ran out to meet death from the Mussulmans, who had mounted the ramparts unopposed. Eight thousand men were A. n. ises, killed on this occasion, by the Rajput account ; A. H . 975, and the Mahometan writers make the number still greater.* The rana, notwithstanding the loss of his capital, remained independent in his fastnesses. Nine years afterwards his son and successor, Rana Pertab, was deprived of his strongholds of Komulner and Gogunda (probably in A, D. 1578, A. H. 986 1), and was compelled for a time to fly towards the Indus. But, unlike his father, he was an active, high-spirited prince ; and his perseverance was re- warded by success : before the death of Akber he recovered a great portion of the open part of his dominions, and founded the new capital called Oudipur, which is still occupied by his descend- ants, t His house, alone, of the Rajput royal families, has rejected all matrimonial connections with the kings of Delhi ; and has even renounced all affinity with the other rajas, looking on them as * One body of 2000 men escaped by an extraordinary stra- tagem : they bound the hands of their own women and chil- dren, and marched with them through the troops who had stormed the place, as if they had been a detachment of the be- siegers in charge of prisoners. t Ferishta. Muntakhab al Towarikh. J Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 332, &c. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK contaminated by their intercourse with an alien ix. * race. Such connections were zealously promoted by Akber, and were long kept up by his successors. He himself had two Rajput queens, of the houses of Jeipur and Mar war ; and his eldest son was married to another princess of Jeipur. The bride, on these occasions, acquired a natural influence over her husband ; her issue had equal claims to the throne with those born of a Mahometan mo- ther ; and the connection was on a footing of so much equality, that from being looked on with re- pugnance as a loss of cast, it soon came to be coveted as an honourable alliance with the family of the sovereign. In the course of the next year, Akber took the strong hill forts of Rintimbor and Calinjer : he went in person against the former place. On a subsequent occasion, being near the frontier of Jodpur, Maldeo, the old raja of Jodpur, sent his A. D. 1570, second son to meet him.* This Akber resented, A. H. 978. . . . as an imperfect substitute for his own appearance ; and afterwards, assuming a superiority to which he was not entitled, made a formal grant of Jodpur to A.D. 1572, j^i Sing of Bikanir, a junior member of the same A. H. 980. . , . . family. Rai Sing, however, did not obtain pos- session ; and, on the death of Maldeo, his son submitted, and was afterwards treated with the greatest favour and distinction by the emperor.t * Ferishta. f Tod's Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 34. AKBER. 273 Akber's attention was soon after drawn to an CHAP. enterprise of greater magnitude, involving the re- annexation of Guzerat to the empire. That king- Conquest dom had passed, on the death of Bahadur Shah, to his nephew, Madmud II. ; and on the death of the latter king, his favourite, Etimad Khan, who had been a Hindu slave, carried on the government in the name of a boy whom he pretended to be a son of Mahmud, and who bore the title of Mozaffer III. The usurpation was opposed by another chief named Chengiz Khan ; and it was with this last person that the Mirzas, whose revolt was men- tioned in A. D. 1566, took refuge on their flight. Their extravagant pretensions soon drove them into a quarrel with their protector ; and, after some partial success, they were expelled from Guzerat, and made an attempt to seize on Malwa, not long after the taking of Chitor, in A. D. 1568. Akber forthwith sent an army against them ; but its ser- vices were not required ; for Chengiz Khan had in the mean time been assassinated, and the Mirzas returned to Guzerat to take advantage of the con- fusions which followed. Those confusions con- tinued to rage without intermission till the year 1572, when Akber was solicited by Etimad Khan to put an end to the distractions of Guzerat by taking the kingdom into his own possession. He marched from Delhi in September, 1572, and soon A. D . 1572, reached Patan, between which place and Ahmed- A. H. 980, ' abad he was met by the pageant king Mozaffer, l who formally transferred his crown to the emperor VOL. IT, T 274 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK of Delhi. Some time was spent in reducing re- IX ' fractory chiefs ; in endeavours to seize the Mirzas, or, at least, to disperse their troops ; and in the siege of Surat, which was carried on by the king in person. Before the place was invested, the prin- cipal Mirzas quitted it with a light detachment, and endeavoured to join their main body in the north of Guzerat. Akber made a sudden and rapid movement to intercept them, and succeeded in overtaking them before they had attained their object. He had advanced with such inconsiderate haste that he found himself in front of his enemy, who were 1000 strong, with a party which, after waiting to allow stragglers to come up, amounted only to 156 men. With this handful he com- menced the attack, but was repulsed, and com- pelled to take his stand in some lanes formed by strong hedges of cactus, where not more than three horsemen could advance abreast. He was here hard pressed, and once was separated from his men, and nearly overpowered. But in his small band were several chiefs of note, and among the rest Raja Bhagwan Sing, of Jeipur, with his ne- phew and adopted son, Raja Man Sing ; and it was to the exertions of these two that Akber owed his personal deliverance, and the ultimate success of the day. The Mirzas, however, effected their junction with their troops. They afterwards dis- persed, met with different adventures, and came to various ends. One was cut off in Guzerat; the principal ones made their way to the north of AKBER. 275 India ; and, after suffering a defeat from Raja Kai CHAP. Sing near Nagor, revisited their original seat of Sambal ; and when driven thence, they plundered in the Panjab, and again pursued their flight to- wards the Indus, until they fell into the hands of the king's officers and were put to death. One only of the Mirzas, named Husen, fled from Guzerat into the hills near Candesh, and remained unnoticed ; while Akber returned to Agra, having *- D - I573 - ft June 4. ; once more annexed Guzerat to his crown. A - H - asi, Safar 2. He had not been a month at his capital, when he learned that Mirza Husen had again entered Guzerat, had been joined by one of the principal officers of the former king, and had already re- duced the royal troops of the province to a de- fensive position, which they found some difficulty in maintaining. The rains had also set in, so that the march of a regular army was impossible ; but Akber, with the activity, and perhaps temerity, that characterised him, at once determined to re- trieve his affairs in person. He sent off 2000 horse to make the best of their way to Patan, and soon after followed, himself, with 300 persons (chiefly men of rank) on camels. He performed the journey of more than 450 miles with such celerity that, in spite of the season, he had as- sembled his troops, and faced his enemy at the head of 3000 men, on the ninth day from leaving Agra. His force was still very unequal to that of the rebels ; but they were astonished at the sudden apparition of the emperor, and were, moreover, T 2 276 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK IX. Conquest of Bengal. engaged in a siege, and exposed to a sally from the garrison. Akber, therefore, though again exposed to imminent personal hazard from his own thought- less impetuosity, was at last successful. Both the insurgents were killed ; and tranquillity being com- pletely restored, he again returned to Agra.* Akber's next great enterprise was the conquest of Bengal. Part of Behar had been occupied after the defeat of Shir Shah II. in A. D. 1560 ; the rest of the province, with all the country to the east of it, was still to be subdued. Bengal had revolted from Sultan A'dili before the return of Humayun, and had remained under different Afghan kings till now. It was held by Daud, a weak and debauched prince, who had been nearly supplanted by his vizir, and was engaged in a civil war occasioned by his execution of this dangerous minister. Akber had profited by these dissensions to obtain a promise of tribute from Daud : a temporary pro- spect of security had led that unsteady prince to * Before this battle, while Akber was arming, he saw a stipling (the son of one of the Rajput rajas) labouring under the weight of a suit of mail, out of all proportion to his strength. He immediately exchanged it for a lighter suit of his own ; and seeing another raja unprovided, he told him to put on the heavy armour which had remained unoccupied. This raja was a rival of the father of the young Rajput, who was so indig- nant at the use made of his armour, that he tore off that given him by the king, and declared that he should go into the action without any armour at all. Akber took no notice of this disrespect, but to say, that he could not allow his chiefs to be more exposed than himself, and that he would also go unarmed into the battle. (Akbcrndmeh.) AKBEIl. 277 reassert his independence, and the king thought CHAP the occasion favourable for going against him in ' person. He left Agra in the height of the rainy season, availing himself of the Jamna and Ganges for the transport of his stores and part of his army. He scarcely met with any opposition during his A. n. 1575, advance into Behar. Daud Khan retired to Bengal Proper ; and Akber left his lieutenants to pursue the conquest, and returned himself to Agra. The reduction of Bengal did not prove so easy a task as was expected. Although Daud at first withdrew to Orissa, he afterwards twice encountered and routed the royal troops ; and when at length defeated himself, and driven to the shores of the Bay of Bengal, he was strong enough to make terms and to retain the province of Orissa for him- self. One of the most distinguished of the com- manders in this war was Raja Todar Mai, so cele- brated as Akber's minister of finance. He and the other commanders were withdrawn after the peace, and an officer of high rank was left as governor of Bengal. He died from the influence of the climate of Gour, or Lacnouti, the ancient capital, to which he had returned after it had been for some time deserted : and his successor had scarcely taken charge, when Daud renewed the war and overran Bengal, compelling the king's troops to concentrate and wait for assistance from Behar. A battle at length took place, and terminated in the defeat and death of Daud. Soon after, the fort of Rohtas, in Behar, which had held T 3 278 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK out till now, was compelled, by a long blockade, to surrender to a force employed for the purpose. IX. A. D. 1576, Bengal and Behar were now reannexed to the em- A. H. 984. pire ; and the remains of the Afghan monarchy in Hindostan were thus completely extinguished, state of But the situation of those provinces was unfavour- that pro- vince, able to their permanent tranquillity : the hilly and woody tract on the south, the vast mountains and forests on the north, the marshes and jungles towards the sea, still afforded a safe retreat for the turbulent; and there was no want of materials to spread dis- affection. Bengal had not before been subjugated by the Moguls, and was filled with Afghan settlers, whose numbers had been greatly increased by the retreat of such of their nation as refused to enter the service of the house of Tamerlane after its conquest of Upper Hindostan. The Mogul chiefs had pro- fited by the unsettled state of the country : they seized on the jagirs of the Afghans for their own benefit, and accounted for the rest of the roj'al Mutiny of revenue as expended on military operations. The the troops . in Bengal conquest was completed about the time ot Akber s great financial reform, and the governor was re- quired to remit a revenue to the treasury ; while all jagirs were strictly inquired into, and musters of the troops for which each was held were rigor- ously exacted. The new conquerors were too conscious of their strength to submit to these regu- lations. * They revolted first in Bengal, and soon afterwards in Behar ; when Akber found himself * Stewart's History of Bengal. Muntakhab al Tawarikh. AKBER. 79 completely dispossessed of the fruits of his victory, CHAP. and a formidable army of 30,000 men in the field [ to oppose him. After much ill success on the A. D . 1579, A. H. 987. part of the king's troops, Raja Todar Mai was sent to recover the province. He was at first success- full, partly owing to his influence with the Hindu zemindars ; but some harsh pecuniary demands on the part of the vizir at Delhi led to numerous desertions, even among the chiefs unconnected with the rebels, and it was not till the end of the third year from the breaking out of the rebellion that it was finally put an end to by Aziz, or A'zim Khan, who had succeeded Todar Mai, and seems to have bought off many chiefs, and continued their lands to many of the troops (Afghans as well as Moguls), who had heretofore enjoyed them.* The old Afghan adherents of Daud Khan had insun-ec- . .. tion of the not been idle during these dissensions among the Afghans in Moguls. They assembled soon after the rebellion broke out under a chief called Kuttu, and before long made themselves masters of Orissa and of all the country up to the river Damoder, near Bard- wan. Aziz, having left the province after the re- bellion was subdued, Raja Man Sing was sent from Cabul to conduct this new war. He entered the country held by the Afghans, and cantoned for the rains near the present site of Calcutta. A large detachment of his was afterwards defeated by the enemy, and his son, who commanded it, taken prisoner ; so that his affairs wore an unfavourable * Stewart's History of Bengal. T 4- 280 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK IX. Final set- tlement of the pro- vince after fifteen years of disturb- Revolt of Prince Hakim. A. D. 1581, February ; A. H. 989, Moharram. aspect; when Kuttu luckily died (1590), and I'sa, a prudent and moderate chief, became guardian to his sons. With this chief an agreement was soon concluded by Man Sing, allowing the sons of Knttu to retain Orissa as dependents or subjects of the emperor. After two years, I'sa died. His successor incurred general odium, by seizing on the revenues of the great temple of Jaganath. Akber took advantage of this mistake to send Man Sing again with an army, who defeated the Afghans on the borders of Bengal, drove them to Cattak, and, by concessions of jagirs, added to more rigor- ous measures, finally reduced them to submission. Their last struggle was in 1592 ; and thence- forth (although Osman, one of Kuttu's sons, re- belled again in A. D. 1600) the pretensions of the Afghans to the possession of the province may be considered as quite extinguished. While his officers were employed in the settle- ment of Bengal, Akber's own attention was drawn to a distant part of his dominions. His brother, Mirza Hakim, who had long been undisturbed in Cabul, was led, by a wish for further aggrandize- ment, again to invade the Panjab. Raja Man Sing, the governor, was compelled to retire before him, and to take refuge in Labor ; and Akber found it necessary to proceed, himself, with an army to raise the siege and deliver the province. Mirza Hakim retreated before him ; and the emperor, whose situation no longer required his allowing such attacks to pass with impunity, followed up his AKUER. 281 success, crossed the Indus, and, after a feeble op- CHAP. position on the part of his brother, took possession i. of Cabul. Mirza Hakim fled to the mountains. R F ed " c *. n of Cabul. He afterwards made his submission, and Akber generously restored him to his government. He thenceforth, probably, remained in real subordi- nation to his brother. After this settlement, Akber returned to Agra, leaving Raja Bhagwan Das of Jeipur governor of the Panjab. On his way he founded the fort which still stands at the principal ferry of the Indus, and gave it the name of Attoc Benaris. After the abdication of Mozaffer Shah of Guze- rat, he accompanied the army to Agra, and was kept for some time about the court. He had latterly been allowed to reside at a jagir, which had been given to him, and was no longer looked on with suspicion (from 1,573 to 1581). In this case, as in many others, Akber paid dear for his magnanimity. New intrigues arose in Guzerat, and Mozaffer was invited, by Shir Khan Fuladi, one of the principal actors in the former troubles, to fly from his residence in Hindostan, and put himself at the head of his old kingdom. An insur- A . D . issi, rection ensued, which reached to such a height that the king's troops were obliged to withdraw to Patan, in the north of Guzerat, while Mozaffer Shah occupied Ahmedabad, Baroch, and almost the whole of the province. Mirza Khan (the son of Behram Khan) was sent to quell this rebellion. He defeated Mozaffer, and recovered the conti- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK nental part of Guzerat j but Mozaffer retired among ' the almost independent chieftains of the peninsula, A. n. 1584, repelled the attacks of Mirza Khan, and made January ; . A.H. 992, various attempts, at different periods, to recover his dominions. His efforts were all unsuccessful ; but the endeavours of the Moguls to penetrate his retreat in the peninsula were attended with as little effect ; and no result was produced for a long period, except alternate victories and heavy loss on both sides. On one occasion, indeed, in A. D. 1589, Aziz made his way to the sea coast on the south, and fought a great battle. The victory was doubtful, but was followed by the retreat of the Moguls ; and it was not till four years after this period, and twelve after his rebellion (in A. D. 1593), that Mo- zaffer Shah was taken, on an incursion into the settled part of the province, and cut his throat with a razor while on his way to the court at Agra. AKBER. 283 CHAP. II. FROM 1586 TO THE DEATH OF AKBER. AFTER Mozaffer had been driven into the penin- CHAP. sula, Akber began to take part in the disputes of the Deckan (in A. D. 1586). His first attempts Akber in- 1 terteres in failed, as will hereafter be related ; and before long the disputes . . ' of the he was fully occupied by the affairs of his own Deckan. northern dominions. In the year 1585 his brother, Mirza Hakim, died ; and, although he had no dif- Akbcr ficulty in taking the territories held by that prince Attoc oa into his immediate possession, yet he heard, about the same time, that Mirza Soliman had been driven out of Badakhshan by Abdullah, the Khan of the Uzbeks ; and it was probably apprehension of the further progress of that formidable neighbour which chiefly induced him to go in person to Cabul. Ab- dullah Khan, however, was contented with Badakh- shan ; and as Akber made no attempt to recover that possession of his family, the peace remained undisturbed. The emperor was now in the neigh- bourhood of the northern mountains, a great por- tion of which was comprised within his dominions; and he was engaged by this circumstance in wars of a new description, attended with greater dif- ficulties than any he had yet encountered. The first was the conquest of Cashmir. That Congest celebrated kingdom is an extensive plain, situated 284 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK in the heart of the Hemalaya mountains, and more T "V" ' than halfway up their height. Placed, by its ele- vation, above the reach of the heat of Hindostan, and sheltered by the surrounding mountains from the blasts of the higher regions, it enjoys a delicious climate, and exhibits, in the midst of snowy sum- mits, a scene of continual verdure, and almost of perpetual spring. Trees belonging to different climates are scattered over its surface, while fruits of various kinds and flowers of innumerable de- scriptions are poured forth with spontaneous pro- fusion over the hills and plains. The level coun- try is watered by rills, which issue from the valleys or fall in cascades down the mountains, and collect in different places, especially in one lake, whose varied banks and floating gardens are the great boast of the valley. This terrestrial paradise can only be approached by difficult and dangerous passes. The road, though a steep ascent on the whole, often rises and descends over rocky ridges ; sometimes winds through long and close defiles ; and sometimes runs along the face of precipices overhanging deep and rapid rivers. The higher part of the mountain, from whence the descent into Cashmir commences, is at one season further obstructed, and in some places rendered impassable, by snow. Cashmir had been ruled by a long succession of Hindu, and sometimes, perhaps, of Tartar princes, from a very remote period till the beginning of the fourteenth century, when it fell into the hands of a A. D . A H 994 AKBER. 285 Mahometan adventurer, and was held by princes CHAP. of the same religion till the time of Akber's in- _ vasion.* The hopes of that enterprising monarch were excited by distractions which prevailed among the reigning family ; and while at Attok, in A. D. 1586, he sent a detachment, under Shah Rokh Mirza, the son of Mirza Soliman (who had entered his service when driven out of Badakhshan), and his own brother-in-law, Raja BhagwanDas of Jeipur, to take possession of the prize thus exposed to hazard by the contention of its owners. The obstacles already mentioned, especially the snow, retarded the progress of the army ; and although it, at last, penetrated through a pass which had not been guarded, yet its supplies had been exhausted in these unproductive and inaccessible mountains, and the remaining difficulties seemed so considerable that the two chiefs entered into a treaty with the ruling power of Cashmir, by which the sovereignty of Akber was acknowledged, but his practical interference with the province for- bidden. The emperor disapproved of this engage- * The History of Cashmir called the "Raj Taring!" is remark- able, as the only specimen of that department of literature in the Shanscrit language. It is executed by four different hands ; the first of whom wrote in A. D. 11 48, but quotes the works of earlier historians with a precision that gives confidence in his accuracy. The early part, as in all history, is fabulous, but it gradually approaches to consistency in facts and dates until about A. D. 600, from which period the chronology is perfectly accurate. (Wilson's History of Cashmir, Transactions of the Asiatic Society, vol. xv. pp. 3. 85.) 286 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK merit ; and next year sent another army, whose ' efforts were attended with more success. The dissensions which prevailed in Cashinir extended to the troops stationed to defend the pass : part came over to the Moguls ; the rest quitted their post and retired to the capital. The barrier once surmounted, Cashmir lay at the mercy of the in- vaders. The king submitted, was enrolled among the nobles of Delhi, and was assigned a large jagir in Behar. Akber afterwards made a journey to Cashmir to enjoy the pleasures of his new conquest. He only repeated his visit twice during the rest of his reign j but Cashmir became the favourite sum- mer retreat of his successors, and still maintains its celebrity as the most delicious spot in Asia, or in the world. Wars with Though Akber's next operations were not un- elstern provoked like those against Cashmir, they were opposed with much greater obstinacy, and termi- nated with less success. They were directed against the north-eastern tribes of the Afghans, who in- habit the hilly countries round the plain of Pesh- Descrip- awer. The plain is of great extent and prodigious Ih n se [ r jbes fertility, combining the productive soil of India country heir w * tn man y of the advantages of the temperate countries in the West. It is bounded on the north by the great chain of Hindu Cush ; on the west by the high range of Soliman ; and on the south by a lower range, called the hills of Kheiber, which extends from that of Soliman to the Indus. This tract forms about one tenth of the proper country AKBER. 287 of the Afghans. Its inhabitants are now called CHAP. ii. Berduranis, and are distinguished from the other Afghans by some peculiarities of dialect and man- ners. The northern part belongs to the Eusofzeis, who are by much the most considerable of these north-eastern tribes, and who afford a good specimen of the rest. Their territory includes the northern part of the plain of Peshawer, and stretches up the mountains to the snowy ridge of Hindu Cush, em- bracing some valleys of thirty or forty miles in length, and corresponding breadth, from each of which other valleys run up on both sides ; all rival- ling Cashmir in climate and beauty, and all ending in narrow glens, hemmed in by high precipices or lost in woods and forests. Such a country is full of intricacy and obstruction to an invading army, but affords easy communications to the natives, who know the passes from one valley to another, and who are used to make their way even when there is no path to assist them. The original population was Indian, consisting, probably, of descendants of the ancient Paropamisadce.* It had, at a comparatively recent period, been conquered and reduced to a sort of villanage by certain Afghan tribes; and they, in their turn, were dispossessed, about a century before this period, by the Eusofzeis, a tribe from near Can- dahar, which had just suffered a similar expulsion from its native seats. With such possessions, and * See Vol. I. p. 44-2. 288 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK with their numerous vassals, the Eusofzeis added IX the pride of wealth to the independence natural to mountaineers ; and their self-importance was in- creased by their democratic constitution. Though each of their clans had a hereditary chief, he had no authority in time of peace, except to consult the people and to make known their wishes to the other clans. Internal affairs were conducted by the inhabitants of each village ; causes were tried by a sort of jury, and meetings for one or other purpose were constantly held in the public apart- ment of the village, which served also as a place of relaxation for the inhabitants, and of entertainment to guests or passing strangers. The land was equally divided j and equality was maintained by new distributions of it from time to time. The Indian vassals were well treated, but they had no share in the government ; and the conquerors were not more distinguished by their fair com- plexions than the superiority apparent in their demeanour. The other tribes inhabiting the plains and the lower hills to the south had been longer settled there, and had had more intercourse with the Mahometans of India ; but some of those in the Solimani mountains had a still more rugged country and less civilised manners than the Eusofzeis. The emperor Baber had endeavoured to bring the north-eastern tribes under his dominion, and partially succeeded with some. He failed en- tirely with the Eusofzeis, though he employed AKBER. 289 the means of conciliation as well as destructive CHAP. inroads into the accessible part of their country. The present quarrel originated in a fanatical Sect of the spirit, which had sprung up, many years before, '" among this portion of the Afghans. A person named Bayazid had then assumed the character of a prophet; had set aside the Koran, and taught that nothing existed except God, who filled all space, and was the substance of all forms. The Divinity despised all worship and rejected all mortifications ; but he exacted implicit obedience to his prophet, who was the most perfect manifestation of himself. The believers were authorised to seize on the lands and property of infidels, and were promised, in time, the dominion of the whole earth. Bayazid soon formed a numerous sect (which took the name of Roushenia, or enlightened), and established his authority in the hills of Soliman and Kheiber, with an influence over the neighbouring tribes. He was so long successful, that the government was obliged to make an exertion to put him down. His own presumption and the blind confidence of his followers led him to meet the royal troops in the plain. He was defeated with great slaughter, and died soon after of fatigue and vexation.* His sons dug up his bones, and bore them, in an ark, at the head of their column ; but they ceased to be formidable beyond their hills till about A. D. 1585, when one of the youngest, named Jelala, assumed * Dr. Leyden's Account of the Kaushenia Sect, Asiatic Re- searches, vol. ii. p. 363. VOL. II. U 290 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the command, and exercised it with such vigour, that the ordinary government of Cabul was found incompetent to resist him. When prince Hakim died, and Cabul came directly under Akber, the government was given to Raja Man Sing, whose talents and connection with the emperor were sup- ported by the forces which he could draw from his hereditary dominions. Even these advantages did not prove effectual ; and one of the professed objects of Akber's expedition to the Indus was to settle the Afghans. With this view he sent successive detachments from his camp on the east bank of the Indus ; and commenced his operations by an attack on the Eusofzeis, although they had long before quarrelled with the Roushenias, and renounced the tenets of the sect. Destruc- The chief commanders in the force detached invading were Zein Khan, the emperor's foster-brother, and Raja Bir Bal, his greatest personal favourite. So great was the importance attached to this expedi- tion, that Abul Fazl relates that he himself drew lots with Bir Bal who should command one of the divisions, and was much mortified by being dis- A. D. 1586, appointed in this opportunity of distinguishing him- A* n x!*994, self: his brother Feizi accompanied the force.* The open country was soon overrun and laid waste ; but on Raja Bir Bal's advancing up one of the valleys, he found himself, by degrees, involved among defiles, where there was no outlet, and was at last obliged to give up the enterprise, and re- * Akbernameh. AKBER. 291 trace his steps to the plain. Zein Khan showed CHAP. more perseverance : he made his way through _ ' many rugged and dangerous mountains, and even built a redoubt in a place convenient for controlling the neighbourhood ; but his troops were by this time so much exhausted by fatigue, and so much harassed by the increasing numbers and audacity of their enemies, that he was compelled to form a junction with Bir Bal; and both combined would have been unable to pursue their operations if they had not received further reinforcements from Akber. They now resumed their plan of invasion. Bir Bal was on bad terms with Zein Khan, and it was contrary to the strongest remonstrances of the lat- ter that they determined to risk their whole force in a desperate attack on the Afghans. The reso- lution taken, they advanced into the mountains. They soon came to a strong pass, which Bir Bal succeeded in ascending ; but on reaching the top, after a day of fatigue, he was set on by the Af- ghans, with such effect, that his men dispersed, and made their way, as they best could, to the plain. Zein Khan, who had remained at the foot of the pass, was attacked at the same time, and defended himself with difficulty, during the night and part of the next day, when both chiefs were at last en- abled to come to a halt, and to collect their scat- tered forces. Zein Khan recommended that they should endeavour to capitulate with the enemy ; but Bir Bal could not be prevailed on to accede to u 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK any of his suggestions ; and, having received inform- ' ation that the Afghans intended to complete the ruin of the army by a night attack, he marched oft his troops without consulting Zein Khan, and en- deavoured to make his way through a defile, which would have afforded him the means of retreating to the open country. The intelligence was pro- bably given for the purpose of drawing him into an ambuscade, for he had no sooner reached the gorge at the head of the pass, than he was assailed on all sides by the Afghans, who overwhelmed him with showers of stones and arrows, and, rushing down the sides of the hills, fell, sword in hand, on his astonished soldiers. All attempts to preserve order on his part were vain ; men, horses, and ele- phants were huddled together in their flight down the defile ; and Bir Bal himself, with several other chiefs of note, were slain in the rout and slaughter which ensued. Nor was Zein Khan more for- tunate in his position on the plain : for, although during the day he kept up an orderly retreat, amidst swarms of archers, matchlockmen, and slingers ; yet, after a short respite which he was allowedin the evening, the alarm of " The Afghans !" was again raised, and his troops fled in disorder, during the darkness of the night, losing many men killed, and more prisoners, while he, himself, escaped on foot, and made his way with difficulty to Attok.* * Akbernameh. Muntakhab ul Tawarikh. Kliafi Khan. Abul Fazl must have been minutely informed of the real his- AKBER. 293 The news of this disaster spread alarm in the CHAP. ii. emperor's camp. One of his sons, Prince Morad, under the guidance of Raja Todar Mai, was or- dered out with a force to check the approach of the Afghans. After the first apprehension had subsided, the prince was recalled, and the force left under the command of Todar Mai and Raja Man Sing. Akber refused to see Zein Khan, and was long inconsolable for the death of Bir Bal. As the raja's body was never found, a report gained cur- rency that he was still alive among the prisoners : and it was so much encouraged by Akber, that, a long time afterwards, an impostor appeared in his name ; and as this second Bir Bal died before he reached the court, Akber again wore mourning as for his friend. Bir Bal's favour was owing to his companionable qualities, no less than to his solid merit. He was a man of very lively conversa- tory of this transaction ; but his anxiety to soften the disgrace of Akber's arms, and to refrain from any thing that may reflect on Bir Bal, was so great, that his account is confused and con- tradictory, and I have been obliged to supply his deficiencies from the " Muntakhab ul Tawarikh." As a proof of the de- fects I have ascribed to him, I may mention that, although he gives a full and even eloquent description of the total destruc- tion of the army, he concludes by stating the loss at 500 men. Khan Khan, with equal inaccuracy, asserts that of 40,000 or 50,000 horse and foot, not a single person escaped alive. The defeat seems to have taken place in the mountains of Swat, and the names given to the passes are Karali, or Karah-Korah, and Bilandzei. u 3 294 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK tion, and many of his witty sayings are still current in India. * The Eusofzeis made no attempt to pursue their advantages. Todar Mai and Man Sing took up and fortified positions in different parts of the country, and prevented the Eusofzeis from cultivating their portion of the plain. By these means, according to Abul Fazl, they were reduced to unqualified submission ; and, in reality, some temporary agree- ment or tacit understanding was brought about, so as to leave Man Sing at liberty to act against the Roushenias, under Jelala, in the southern and western hills. A. r. 1586, Accordingly, in the course of the same summer, he marched against them ; and, after being ex- posed to considerable hazard, he succeeded in gain- ing a partial success. The Roushenias, however, stood their ground, and the ascendancy of the A. n. 1587, government was not restored till the next year, when a combined attack was made by Man Sing, from Cabul, and a force detached by Akber, to cross the Indus to the south of the salt range, and come in on the enemy from their rear. Jelala was at that time completely defeated ; he, however, almost immediately renewed his operations, which From were kept up for many years, and were sometimes A ' *'to* aided by contests between the government and the ' Eusofzeis, which produced no permanent results. During this time, it was the policy of the Moguls * Chiefly from the Muntakhab ul Tawarikh. AKBER. to prevent the cultivation of the fertile plains and CHAP. valleys ; so that Jelala was often compelled, by want of supplies, to leave the strong countries he occu- pied, and expose himself to the risk of battles on more equal ground. He was several times obliged to fly to the mountains of the Cafirs, and once to the court of Abdullah, the Khan of the Uzbeks : still he always returned and renewed his attacks; and in A.D. 1600, he was in sufficient strength to obtain possession of the city of Ghazni. This was the last of Jelala's exploits. He was soon driven out of the city ; and, being repulsed and wounded in an attempt which he afterwards made to recover it, he was pursued on his retreat, and was overtaken and killed before he could make his way to a place of safety. The religious war was continued by his suc- cessors, during the two next reigns (of Jehangir and Shah Jehan); and when, at last, the enthu- siasm of the Roushenias wore out, the free spirit of the Afghans, which had owed nothing to its success, survived its extinction : the north-eastern tribes were never more formidable than in the reign of Aurangzib ; and the Eusofzeis have re- sisted repeated attacks from the Mogul emperors, and afterwards from the kings of Persia and Cabul, and retain their turbulent independence undimi- imperfect nished to the present day. * at thTend of fifteen * Abul Fazl's account of these wars is a curious specimen of his adulation and his inconsistency. Immediately after Bir Bal's calamity (that is, in the first year of the war), he says : U 4> years. 296 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK IX. Conquest of Sind. A. n. 1591, A. H. 999. The nature of the war with Jelala had not, lat- terly, been such as to prevent Akber's employing his troops in the adjoining countries. It was some years before the death of that leader that he made the important acquisitions of Sind and Candahar. The province of Sind had passed from the Ar- ghuns* into another family of military adventurers, and Akber took advantage of some dissensions which afterwards took place among these new usurpers, to endeavour to recover that old posses- sion of the kings of Delhi. He sent an army from Lahor, where he was himself at the time, to enter Sind from the north, and lay siege to the hill fort of Sehwan, the key to Lower Sind, and a place of great importance to the security of the whole province. The success of this attempt was prevented by the chief of Sind, who drew near with his army, " The highlands were soon cleared of the rubbish of rebellion. Many were killed, and a large number took refuge in I'ran and Turan (Persia and Tartary) ; and thus the countries of Bajaur, Swad, and Tirah, which are rarely to be equalled in the world for their climate and fertility, and the plenty of their fruits, were cleansed of these wicked wretches." Yet this alleged conclu- sion of the war does not prevent Abul Fazl's relating the various events which took place during the course of it in the remaining fifteen years that are included in his history. He even accounts for Akber's fourteen years' stay in the Panjab, by " his being at one time engaged in suppressing the Tajiks (Roushenias) and at another in reducing the inhabitants of the northern hills. (Clialmers's MS. Translations of the Akberndmeh.) * See pp. 14-0. 228. AKBER. and intrenched himself in such a situation that CHAP. Akber's general could neither attack him nor carry on the siege while he was so near. This difficulty was surmounted by the sagacity of the emperor himself. He sent another detach- ment to enter Sind by the way of Amercot ; and, by thus distracting the attention of the chief, de- prived him of the advantages of his position, and, before long, reduced him to give up the province. He received very favourable terms, and was ap- pointed by Akber, according to that monarch's practice, to a high rank among the nobles of the A. D . 1592, A. H. 1000. empire. It is mentioned in the " Akbernameh " that the chief of Sind employed Portuguese soldiers in this war, and had also 200 natives dressed as Eu- ropeans. These were, therefore, the first Sepoys in India. The same chief is also said to have had a fort defended by an Arab garrison : the first instance in which I have observed any mention of that description of mercenaries, afterwards so much esteemed. After the treacherous seizure of Candahar by Recovery Humayun, the king of Persia made several at- tempts to recover possession. He had no success until the beginning of Akber's reign, when the divided state of the monarchy enabled him to effect his purpose. Similar disorders in the early part of the reign of Shah Abbas gave a correspond ing- advantage to Akber. The Persian chiefs fell out A. D. A. H. 1O03. 298 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK among themselves ; one of them fled to India ; and all parties ultimately turned their eyes to the same quarter ; so that, at length, both the town and territory fell, without a blow, into the hands of the Mogul prince. These proceedings led to no quarrel with Persia: Shah Abbas was fully employed at home, and, being desirous of Akber's assistance against the Uzbeks, he soon after renewed the friendly in- tercourse which had long been suspended between the courts, and patiently waited his opportunity of recovering Candahar ; which did not present itself till after the death of Akber. Complete The acquisition of Candahar placed Akber in settlement . . . . of Hindos- complete possession or his hereditary kingdom be- tan. yond the Indus (the war with the north-eastern Afghans being now confined to the mountains) : and nearly at the same time he had completed the conquest of Hindostan Proper. Sind had fallen in 1592 ; the last attempt at rebellion in Cashmir was quashed about the same time ; the reduction of Bengal was completed by the submission of Orissaj and all disturbances in Guzerat terminated by the death of Mozaffer in 1593 ; so that the whole of Hindostan to the Nerbadda was more under Akber's authority than it had been under any former king. The rana of Oudipur, indeed, continued unsubdued; but the other Rajput chiefs were changed from jealous tributaries to active and attached adherents. Expedition The next object for Akber was to extend his to the Deckan. AKBER. 299 dominions over the Deckan. As early as A.D. 1586 CHAP. he had taken up the cause of Burhan, a brother of _ Murtezza Nizam Shah, the fourth king of Ahmed- nagar, who claimed to administer the government on the ground of the mental derangement of its actual possessor. An expedition sent by Akber from Malwa to support this claim had failed, and Burhan remained for some years under Akber's protection. At a later period (A. D. 1592), after his brother's death, Burhan acquired possession of his hereditary kingdom without any aid from Ak- ber ; but he found it divided by internal faction, and engaged in war with his neighbour the king of Bijapur. All these distractions were increased on the death of Burhan. That event happened after a short reign ; and in A. D. 1595 there were no less than four parties in the field, each supporting a separate claimant. The chief of the party that was in possession of the capital had recourse to the aid of the Moguls ; and, at his invitation, Prince Morad entered the Deckan from Guzerat, and Mirza Khan, the Khani Khanan, from Malwa, the two armies forming a junction within a short dis- tance of Ahmednagar. But, in the mean time, the A - D - 1595 > about Nov.; chief by whom they were called in had been A. H . 1004, . , . , , -. . , about the obliged to leave the capital, and it was now in the end of Rabi hands of Chand Sultana, or Chand Bibi, one of the chandSui- most distinguished women that have ever appeared tdna - in India. This princess was acting as regent for her infant nephew, Bahadur Nizam Shah, and she no sooner was aware of the approach of the Mo- 300 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK guls than she applied herself to conciliate the king of Bijapur, her relation, and at the same time to reconcile the heads of the other internal parties ; that all might, for a time at least, unite to resist the power whose ambition threatened equal danger to them all. So successful was her appeal, that one of the chiefs, Nehang, an Abyssinian, imme- diately set out to join her, and cut his way into Ahmednagar while the Moguls were in the act of investing the place : the other two likewise laid aside their private animosities, and joined the army of Bijapur, then marching against the Moguls. Her de- Th esc preparations increased the eagerness of Prince Morad. He pressed on the siege, and had already run two mines under the works, when they were discovered and rendered useless by the countermines of the besieged, Chand Bibi herself superintending the workmen, and exposing herself to the same dangers as the rest. The third mine was fired before the means taken to render it in- effectual were completed : the counterminers were blown up, a wide breach was made in the wall, and such a sudden terror was struck among those who defended it, that they were on the point of deserting their posts and leaving the road open to the storming party which was advancing. But they were soon recalled by Chand Bibi, who flew to the breach in full armour, with a veil over her face and a naked sword in her hand ; and having thus checked the first assault of the Moguls, she continued her exertions till every power within AKBER. 301 the place was called forth against them : matchlock- CHAP. balls and arrows poured on them from the works ; . guns were brought to bear upon the breach ; rockets, gunpowder, and other combustibles were thrown among the crowd in the ditch ; and the garrison in front opposed so steady a resistance, that, after an obstinate and bloody contest, which lasted till evening, the Moguls were obliged to draw off their troops and postpone the renewal of the assault till the next day. But the garrison and inhabitants had been raised to enthusiasm by the example of the regent ; and, as her activity and energy were not slackened during the night, the Moguls found, when the day dawned, that the breach had been built up to such a height as to render it impossible to mount it without new mines. Meanwhile the confederates drew near; and, though the Moguls were still superior in the field, they were unwilling to risk all on the chance of a battle. Chand Bibi, on the other hand, was well aware of the precarious duration of a combination like the present ; and both parties were well satis- fied to come to terms, the king of Ahmednagar , . , i -i agreed on. surrendering to the emperor his claims on Berar, A . . 1004 of which he had recently made a conquest.* SKiss about * Chand Bibi is the favourite heroine of the Deckan, and is February. the subject of many fabulous stories. Even Khafi Khan men- tions her having fired silver balls into the Mogul camp ; and the common tradition at Ahmednagar is, that when her shot was expended, she loaded her guns successively with copper, with silver, and with gold coin, and that it was not till she had begun to fire away jewels, that she consented to make peace. 302 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK The Moguls had not long withdrawn, when fresh ' dissensions broke out in Ahmednagar. One Mo- War re- hammed Khan, whom Chand Bibi had appointed newed, and ^ ... . extended to peshwa*, or prime minister, plotted against her of the authority, and finally applied for aid to Prince Morad. The prince was already engaged in a dis- pute with the Deckan princes about the boundaries of Berar ; both parties had once more recourse to hostilities, and before the expiration of a year from the peace they again met each other in the field in greater force than before. The king of Candesh, who acknowledged him- self Akber*s subject, appeared on his side on this occasion, while the king of Golconda had now joined his forces to those of Bijapur and Ahmed- nagar. The battle took place on the river Godaveri : though maintained with great fury for two days, A.D. 1596, its result was indecisive. The Moguls claimed the December, or victory, but made no attempt to advance ; and their ill success, together with the disagreement between Prince Morad and the Khani Khanan, in- duced Akber to recall them both. Abul Fazl (the author), who was his prime minister, and had been lately in temporary disgrace, was sent to remove the prince ; and, if necessary, to take the com- Akbergoes mand of the army. His representations convinced in person . , , . . . -11 to the Akber that his own presence was required : he Deckan. * The title of peshwa (i. e. leader) had been used under the Bahmani sovereigns. It has since become famous as that under which the Bramin ministers of the raja of Satara so long governed the Maratta empire. AKBER. 303 therefore left the Panjab towards the end of 1598 CHAP. (after a residence of fourteen years in the countries ' near the Indus) ; and before the middle of 1599 he arrived on the river Nerbadda. The strong fortress of Doulatabad had been taken before he appeared; several other hill forts fell about the same time ; and as soon as the royal army reached Burhanpur, on the Tapti, a force was sent for- ward under his son, Prince Danial, and the Khani Khanan, to lay siege to Ahmednagar. Chand Bibi's government was now in a more disturbed state than ever. Nehang, the Abyssinian chief, who had joined her in Ahmednagar at the beginning of the former siege, was now besieging her. He drew off on the approach of the Moguls ; but the intestine disturbances still rendered a defence hope- less ; and Chand Bibi was negotiating a peace with the Moguls, when the soldiery, instigated by her factious opponents, burst into the female apart- ments and put her to death. Their treason brought Death of its own reward : in a few days the breach was tana" practicable ; the storm took place ; the Moguls gave no quarter to the fighting men.; and the young king, who fell into their hands, was sent prisoner to the hill fort of Gwalior. But the fall Taking of of the capital did not produce the submission of n^r. d ~ the kingdom. Another pageant king was set up, A - D - 1600 3 . 7 about July; and the dynasty was not finally extinguished till * H. 1009, the reign of Shah Jehan, in A. D. W3J. Before the siege of Ahmednagar, a disagreement conquest had taken place between Akber and his vassal, 304 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the former king of Candesh, which induced the IX ' emperor to annex that country to his immediate turns to dominions. The military operations which ensued Hindostan. i A i i n i -n occupied Akber tor nearly a year, and it was not till some months after the storm of Ahmednagar that the reduction of the province was completed by the fall of Asirghar, when Akber appointed Prince Danial viceroy of Candesh and Berar, with the Khani Khanan for his adviser ; and marched, him- self, to Agra, leaving the command in the Deckan Spring of and the prosecution of the conquest of Ahmed- A.n. J601, end of nagar to Abul Fazl. Before his departure Akber had received em- ^assies an( ^ presents from the kings of Bijapur and son, Seiim. Golconda, and had married his son Danial to the daughter of the former prince.* Akber's return to Hindostan was rendered necessary by the re- fractory conduct of his eldest son Selim.t The prince, who was now turned of thirty, does not appear to have been deficient in natural abilities ; but his temper had been exasperated, and his un- derstanding impaired, by the excessive use of wine and opium, t He had always looked on Abul * The account of the operations in the Deckan is from the " Akbernameh," and Ferishta, especially his " History of Ahmednagar," voL iii. f Afterwards the Emperor Jehangir. J His own account is, that in his youth he used to drink at least twenty cups of wine a day, each cup containing half a sir (six ounces, i. e. nearly half a pint) ; and that if he was a single hour without his beverage, his hands began to shake, and he was unable to sit at rest. After he came to the throne, he AKBER. 305 Fazl as his mortal enemy ; and the temporary dis- CHAP. grace of that minister, and his subsequent removal to the Deckan, were concessions made by Akber to the complaints and jealousy of his son. On his own departure for the Deckan, Akber declared Selim his successor, appointed him viceroy of Ajmir, and committed to him the conduct of the war with the rana of Oudipur, sending Raja Man Sing to assist him with his arms and counsels. After much loss of time Selim set forth on this duty, and had made some progress in the fulfilment of it, when intelligence arrived of the revolt under Osman in Bengal, of which province Man Sing was the viceroy. He immediately set off for his government ; and Selim, now free from all control, and seeing the emperor's whole force employed in other quarters, was tempted to seize on the pro- vinces of Hindostan for himself. He marched to Agra ; and, as the governor of that city contrived A - isoo, ,,,.-, i f> , about Nov.; to elude his demands tor its surrender, he pro- A. H . 1009, ceeded to Allahabad, and took possession of the says, he drank only five cups (i.e. little more than a quart), and only took it after nightfall. It does not appear how long he adhered to this sobriety. (Price's Jehdngir, pp. 6, 7.) Drinking seems to have been the vice of the age among the Mahometan kings and great men : Baber and Humayun both drank hard : the princes of Turk dynasties seem all to have had the same propensity ; and even the Sofis of Persia, so lately elevated by the sanctity of their family, not only drank to excess in private, but made their piles of cups and flagons of gold and jewels compose a great part of the splendour of their court. VOL. II. X 306 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK surrounding countries of Oud and Behar. He at ix ' the same time seized on the local treasure, amount- ing to thirty lacs of rupees (300,000/.) and assumed the title of king. However much Akber may have been afflicted by this conduct, he determined not to drive his son to extremities. He wrote a temperate letter, warning him of the consequences of his conduct, and assuring him of his own undiminished affec- tion, if he would in time return to the path of his duty. As these remonstrances were soon followed by Akber's return to Agra, Selim replied in the most submissive terms, and actually marched as far as Etayah with the professed intention of waiting on his father. Whether he in reality intended his approach to be hostile, or entertained apprehensions for his own safety, he spared no efforts to raise troops, and had assembled such a body that Akber sent to desire him to advance slightly attended, or else to return to Allahabad. Selim chose the latter course. It is not improbable that this retreat was procured by negotiation ; for it was soon fol- lowed by a grant of Bengal and Orissa by Akber to his son, and by renewed professions of fidelity Murder of and devotion on the part of the latter. During Abul Fazl. i . i r> i i i 11 this deceitful calm, the prince had an opportunity, which he did not let slip, of revenging his own supposed injuries, while he inflicted the severest blow on the feelings of his father. Abul Fazl had at this time been recalled from the Deckan, and was advancing with a small escort towards Gwalior, AKBER. 307 when he fell into an ambuscade laid for him by CHAP. Narsing Deo, raja of O'rcha in Bundelcand, at the IL instigation of Prince Selim ; and although he de- fended himself with great gallantry, he was cut off with most of his attendants, and his head sent to the prince.* Akber was deeply affected by the A . D . 1602, intelligence of this event. He shed abundance of J tears, and passed two days and nights without food or sleep. He immediately sent a force against Nar- sing Deo, with orders to seize his family, ravage his country, and exercise such severities as on other occasions he never permitted. He does not seem to have known of his son's share in the crime : so far from interrupting his intercourse with him, he sent Selima Sultana, one of his wives, who had adopted Selim after his own mother's death, to endeavour to soothe his mind and bring about an entire reconciliation. This embassy was attended with the desired R eC onciiia- effect. Selim soon after repaired to court and Akberwith made his submission. Akber received him with St ' lim- his usual kindness, and conferred on him the pri- vilege of using the royal ornaments. Selim was * Selim, in his Memoirs, written after he was emperor, ac- knowledges the murder, and defends it on the ground that Abul Fazl had persuaded Akber to renounce the Koran, and to deny the divine mission of Mahomet. On the same ground he jus- tifies his own rebellion against his father. (Prices Memoirs of Jehdngir, p. 33.) One of his first acts after his accession was to promote the murderer, Narsing Deo (who had escaped the unrelenting pursuit of Akber), to a high station, and he always continued to treat him with favour and confidence. A. n. A. H. 1012. 308 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK soon after again dispatched with a force against the rana of Oudipiir ; but he protracted his march Continued on various pretences, and showed so little dispo- misconduct of Seiim. sition to involve himself in a permanent contest of that nature, that Akber, desirous to avoid a rup- ture at all costs, sent him leave to return to his almost independent residence of Allahabad. Here he gave himself up more than ever to debauchery. He had always entertained a peculiar dislike for his eldest son, Prince Khusru, whose own levity and violence seem to have given him reason for his displeasure. Some circumstance in their disputes at this time so affected Khusru's mother (the sister of Raja Man Sing) that she swallowed poison, and thus added a fresh sting to the already inflamed mind of her husband. Selim's irascibility now became so great that his attendants were afraid to approach him ; and he was guilty of cruelties which had been so long disused that they excited horror among all who heard of them, and which were peculiarly repugnant to the humane nature of Akber. * The emperor was much perplexed as to the course to pursue, and determined to try the effect of a personal interview with his son. He therefore set off for Allahabad, and had advanced one or two * On one occasion Selim ordered an offender to be flayed alive, and Akber could not conceal his disgust when he heard of it, but said he wondered how the son of a man who could not see a dead beast flayed without pain could be guilty of such cruelty to a human being. AKBER. 309 marches, when he heard of the alarming illness of CHAP. his own mother, and returned iust in time to re- . l ceive her last breath. On hearing of this journey, and the cause of its suspension, Selim, perhaps animated by some sense of duty or natural affection, or perhaps conceiving that his interests would be best served by his pre- sence at court, determined to repair to Agra, and to submit in good earnest to his father. On reaching Agra he was kindly received, but was He is for a short time placed under restraint ; and either Ender re - to lessen the disgrace of his confinement, or to pre- sooTlfte" vent his indulging in his usual excesses, he was put released - under the care of a physician. Before long he was restored to freedom and to favour. Still the vio- His lence of his temper does not -appear to have abated ; own mm, * and his jealousy of his son Khusru led to such a Khu disorderly scene at an elephant fight in Akber's presence, that he was in imminent danger of again incurring the public displeasure of the emperor. Khusru took up the quarrel with as much vehe- mence as his father, and did all he could to ex- asperate Akber against him. It is even probable that Khusru had, long ere this, entertained views of supplanting his father in the succession ; and Selim, in his Memoirs, appears to have been con- vinced that Akber at one time had serious thoughts of such a supersession * ; but the real favourite with Akber, as well as with Selim himself, was Khur- * Price's Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 33. x 3 310 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ram*, the third and youngest son of the latter; ' and their preference of that prince was among the principal causes of the discontent of his elder bro- ther. Death of Akber had, some years before, lost his eldest Akbet's son Morad : he now received accounts of the death third son. o f n j s third son, Danial, who fell a victim to intem- perance in the thirtieth year of his age. His health having already received a severe shock from his excess, he was obliged to pledge his word to his father to leave off the use of wine, and was so sur- rounded by people of the emperor's, that he was unable to gratify his propensity, which had become irresistible. His resource was to have liquor se- cretly conveyed to him in the barrel of a fowling piece ; and having thus again free access to indul- gence, he soon brought his life to a close. This calamity was felt by Akber in the degree that was to be expected from the strength of his attach- ments ; and it is probable that his domestic afflic- tions, and the loss of his intimate friends, began to prey upon his spirits and undermine his health, sickness of -^ e a PP ears to have been for some time illt, Akber. when, in the middle of September, 1605, his com- plaint came on with additional violence, accom- panied by total loss of appetite ; and it became apparent, before long, that there were little hopes of his recovery. For the last ten days he was con- fined to his bed ; and although he appears to have * Afterwards Shah Jehan. f Price's Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 70. AKBER. 311 retained his faculties to the last, he was no longer CHAP. . ii. capable of taking part in business. From this time .. at ion to set aside Selim. all eyes were directed to the succession, and the intrigues regarding court became an arena for the struggles of the con- the tending parties, Selim was the acknowledged heir, and the only remaining son of the emperor ; but his rebellion had weakened his reputation, and he was now in a sort of disgrace, removed from his troops, and from all those over whom he was uc- customed to exercise authority. On the other hand, Raja Man Sing was maternal uncle to Khtisru, f who was moreover married to the daughter of Aziz, the Khan i A'zim, the first of Akber's generals ; and those great personages, foreseeing an increase to their own power in the succession of their young relation, took immediate measures for securing the palace, which forms also the citadel of Agra, and made all dispositions for placing Khusru on the throne. Selim was now justly alarmed for his personal safety, and forbore visiting the palace on pretence of illness. His son, Prince Khurram, though only a boy, disregarded both his father's injunctions and his own danger, and declared that he would never quit his grandfather while he con- tinued to live. Akber was distressed by his son's absence, of which he surmised the cause. He re- peatedly expressed his anxiety to see him, and again pronounced him the lawful successor to the king- dom, while he expressed his desire that Khusru should be provided for by a grant of the province of Bengal. These declarations, together with the x 4 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK exertions of some of the most respectable nobles, IX ' who still adhered to Selim, had a great effect in drawing off the inferior chiefs who had attached themselves to the opposite party ; and Aziz soon perceived that he was likely to be deserted if he persevered, and took the prudent course of opening a private negotiation with Selim. Man Sing, whose influence depended on the loyalty of his followers to himself and not to the emperor, was not exposed to the same danger ; but, finding himself left alone, and having received flattering overtures from Selim, he also at length promised his support to the heir apparent, who now repaired to the palace, and was affectionately received by the dying monarch. The last moments of Akber are only recorded by his Death of successor. He says that, at this interview, Akber desired him to bring all his omrahs into the cham- ber where he was lying ; " for," said he, " I cannot bear that any misunderstanding should subsist be- tween you and those who have, for so many years, shared in my toils and been the companions of my glory." When they were assembled he delivered a suitable address to them ; and, after wistfully regarding them all round, he desired them to for- give any offences of which he might have been guilty towards any of them. Selim now threw himself at his feet, and burst into a passion of tears ; but Akber pointed to his favourite scymitar, and made signs to his son to bind it on in his presence. He seems afterwards to have recovered from this exhaustion : he addressed himself to Selim, and AKBER. 313 earnestly conjured him to look to the comfort of CHAP. the ladies of his family, and not to forget or for- ' sake his old friends and dependents. After this he permitted one of the chief mullahs, who was a per- sonal friend of Selim's, to be brought to him, and in his presence he repeated the Mahometan con- fession of faith, and died in all the forms of a good Mussulman.* Akber is described as a strongly built and hand- His cha- racter. some man, with an agreeable expression of coun- tenance, and very captivating manners, t He was endowed with great personal strength and activity. In his youth he indulged in w r ine and good living, but early became sober and abstemious, refraining from animal food on particular days, making alto- gether nearly a fourth part of the year. He was * Akber was buried near Agra. His tomb is thus described by Bishop Heber. The central building " is a sort of solid pyramid, surrounded externally with cloisters, galleries, and domes, diminishing gradually on ascending it, till it ends in a square platform of white marble surrounded by the most elaborate lattice-work of the same material, in the centre of which is a small altar tomb, also of white marble, carved with a delicacy and beauty which do full justice to the material, and to the graceful forms of the Arabic characters which form its chief ornament." (Bishop Heber's Narrative, vol. i. p. 587.) This immense pile served as quarters to an European regi- ment of dragoons for a year or two after the first conquest of that territory by the British. f Price's Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 4-5. The following is the account given of him by the Portuguese Jesuits who went to visit him from Goa. He was about " fifty years old, white like an European, and of sagacious intellect. He received them with singular affability, &c." (Murray s Discoveries in Asia, vol. ii. p. 89.) 314 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK always satisfied with very little sleep, and f're- ' quently spent whole nights in those philosophical discussions of which he was so fond. Although so constantly engaged in wars, and although he made greater improvements in civil government than any other king of India ; yet, by his judicious distribu- tion of his time, and by his talents for the dispatch of business, he always enjoyed abundant leisure for study and amusement. He was fond of witnessing fights of animals, and all exercises of strength and skill ; but his greatest pleasure was in hunting, especially in cases like the destruction of tigers, or the capture of herds of wild elephants, which gave a scope to his enjoyment of adventure and exertion. He sometimes also underwent fatigue for the mere pleasure of the exercise, as when he rode from Ajmir to Agra (220 miles) in two successive days, and in many similar journeys on horseback, besides walks on foot of thirty or forty miles in a day. His history is filled with instances of romantic courage, and he seems to have been stimulated by a sort of instinctive love of danger as often as by any rational motive. Yet he showed no fondness for war : he was always ready to take the field and to remain there, exerting all his talents and energy, while his presence was required ; but when the fate of a war was once decided, he returned to the general government of his empire, and left it to his lieutenants to carry on the remaining military operations. These were, in some cases, very long protracted ; but his conquests, when concluded, AKBEK, 315 were complete ; and no part of India, except that CHAP. near the capital, can be said to have been thoroughly subdued until his time. He was not free from ambition; but as the countries he invaded had been formerly subject to Delhi, he would have incurred more blame than praise among his contemporaries if he had forborne from attempting to recover them. 316 HISTORY OF INDIA. CHAP. III. INTERNAL POLICY. BOOK BUT it is to his internal policy that Akber owes his place in that highest order of princes, whose His inter- re igns have been 'd blessing to mankind ; and that nal policy, religious policy shows itself in different shapes, as it affects and civil. -. f . i His general religion or civil government. Akbei s tolerant IndTmpar- s P n 'it was displayed early in his reign, and appears tiaiity. to h ave been entirely independent of any doubts on the divine origin of the Mahometan faith. It led him, however, to listen, without prejudice, to the doctrines of other religions, and involved him in enmity with the bigoted members of his own ; and must thus have contributed to shake his early belief, and to dispose him to question the infallible authority of the Koran. The political advantages of a new religion, which should take in all classes of his subjects, could not fail, moreover, to occur to Progress of him. In the first part of his reign, he was assiduous m visiting sacred places, and in attendance on holy men : even in the twenty-first year of his reign, he spoke seriously of performing the pilgrimage to Mecca; and it was not till the twenty-fourth year (A. D. 1579), that he made open profession of his latitudinarian opinions. It is not impossible that some even of the holy persons whom he visited may have held the free AKBER. 317 notions common with particular sects of Mahometan CHAP. ascetics ; but the blame of corrupting Akber's or- ' thodoxy is thrown by all Mussulman writers on Feizi and his brother Abul Fazl. These eminent Feizi. persons were the sons of a learned man named Mo- barik, who was probably a native of Nagor, and who, at one time, taught a college or school of law and divinity at Agra. He was at first a Sunni, but turned Shia ; and afterwards took to reading the philosophical works of the ancients, and became a freethinker, or, according to his enemies, an atheist. So great a persecution was raised against him on this account, that he was constrained to give up his school, and fly with his family from Agra. His sons conformed, in all respects, to the Mahometan religion ; though it is probable that they never were deeply imbued with attachment to the sect. Feizi was the first Mussulman that applied him- His trans- self to a diligent study of Hindu literature and science. It does not appear whether his atten- scrit - tion was directed to these researches by Akber, or whether he undertook them of his own accord. It was, however, by the aid and under the direction of the emperor that he conducted a systematic inquiry into every branch of the knowledge of the Bramins. Besides Shanscrit works in poetry * and * He translated the " Nala and Damyanta," an episode of the " Maha Bharat." (See Vol. I. p. 293.) Feizi was likewise author of a great deal of original poetry, and of other works, in Persian. He seems to have been more studious and less a man of the world than Abul Fazl. 318 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK philosophy, he made a version of the " Bija Ga- ' nita" and " Lilawati " of Bhascara Acharya, the best Hindu books on algebra and arithmetic. He super- He likewise superintended translations made translations from the Shaiiscnt by other learned men, including one at le ^ st ' of tne Vedas, the two great historical languages. an( | h ero i c poems the " Maha Bharat " and " Ra- mayana," and the " History of Cashmir," the only specimen of that sort of composition in Shanscrit prose. * Akber's acquisitions of this nature were not con- fined to Shanscrit. He prevailed on a Christian priest, whom Abul Fazl calls Padre Farabatun, and describes as learned in science and history, to come from Goa, and undertake the education of a few youths destined to be employed in translating the productions of Greek literature into Persian. Feizi himself was directed to make a correct version of the Evangelists, t Fazi. Feizi was first presented to Akber in the twelfth * Muntukhab ul Tawarikh. f The taste for literature and accomplishments seems to have been much diffused in Akber's court : Aziz (or Khani A'zim) was a man of great learning; Mirza Khan (Khan Khanan), son of Behram Khan, and the second of Akber's generals, made the excellent Persian translation now extant of Baber's " Memoirs," from the Turkish. Among the distinguished men of this time, all historians mention Tansen, a celebrated composer, whose music is still much admired. Even Zein Khan (so often men- tioned as an able and active general) is said to have played well on several instruments. Akber encouraged schools, at which Hindu as well as Mahometan learning was taught, and " every one was educated according to his circumstances and particular views in life." (Akberndmeh.) AKBER. 319 year of his reign, and introduced Abul Fazl six CHAP. years later, in A. D. 1574. Those brothers soon became the intimate friends Akber's at- tachment and inseparable companions of their sovereign, to those They not only were the confidants of all his new opinions in religion, and his advisers in his patron- age of literature, both in foreign countries and in his own, but were consulted and employed in the most important affairs of government. Feizi was sent on a special embassy to the kings of the Deckan previous to the invasion of that country ; and Abul Fazl lived to attain the highest military rank, and to hold the office of prime minister. Akber's distress at the loss of Abul Fazl has been mentioned, and the account of his behaviour at the death of Feizi is the more to be relied on as it is given by an enemy. It was midnight when the news was brought to him that Feizi was dying ; on which he hastened to his apartment, but found him already nearly insensible : he raised his head, and called out to him, with a familiar term of endear- ment, " Shekhji ! I have brought AH the physician to you ; why do not you speak?" Finding that he received no answer, he threw his turban on the ground and burst into the strongest expressions of sorrow. When he had recovered his composure, he went to Abul Fazl, who had withdrawn from the scene of death, and remained for some time endeavouring to console him, before he returned to his palace. * * Muntakhab ul Tawarikh. The same author, whose name 320 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Along with Feizi and Abul Fazl, there were IX ' many other learned men of all religions about the Akber's re- court ; and it was the delight of Akber to assemble ligious and phiiosophi- them, and sit for whole nights assisting at their phi- losophical discussions. His regular meetings were on Friday ; but he often sent for single Bramins or Mahometan Sufis on other occasions, and entered into long inquiries regarding the tenets of their different schools. * Some specimens of the discussions at those meetings (probably imaginary ones) are given in the " Dabistan," a learned Persian work on the various religions of Asia. was Abdul Kadir, relates that Feizi continued to blaspheme in his dying moments, and that at last he barked like a dog, while his face became disfigured and his lips black, as if he already bore the impress of the damnation that awaited him. Abdul Kadir inserts in his book a letter in his favour from Feizi to Akber, and defends himself from the charge of ingratitude in defaming his benefactor after his death, by saying that it was a paramount duty he owed to God and to religion. The letter shows Feizi's zeal for his friends in a strong point of view. It expatiates on the services of the bearer, and his ill luck in their not having attracted notice ; speaks of him in the warmest terms as an intimate acquaintance of thirty-seven years' stand- ing, a true and faithful friend, and a person of many virtues and accomplishments; and ends by strongly recommending him to the emperor. Though Abdul Kadir had quarrelled with Feizi and Abul Fazl on points of religion, this dispute does not seem to have led to his disgrace with Akber ; for he mentions that he was employed by that monarch to make a catalogue of Feizi's library after his death, and that it consisted of 4060 books, carefully corrected and well bound, on poetry and literature, moral and physical science, and theology. * Akbernameh. Muntakhab ul Tawarikh. AKBER. 321 The fullest is a dialogue between a Bramin, a CHAP. Mussulman, a worshipper of fire, a Jew, a Christian, ' and a philosopher. * The representative of each religion brings forth his arguments ; which are successively condemned, some on account of the vicious character of their founders, and all for the absurdity of their doctrines, and the want of proof of their alleged miracles. The philosopher winds up the discourse by recommending a system which shall have no ground but reason and virtue. An account of a real debate of this kind is given in the " Akbernameh." It was carried on before an assembly of the learned of all religions, between Padre Redif, a Christian priest, and a body of Ma- hometan mullahs : a decided advantage, both in temper and argument, is given to the Christian. It was concluded by Akber's reproving the mullahs for their violence, and expressing his own opinion, that God could only be adequately worshipped by following reason, and not yielding implicit faith to any alleged revelation, t * Translated by Colonel Kennedy, Transactions of the Bom- bay Literary Society, vol. ii. p. 247, &c. t A circumstance is related regarding this meeting of which the Christians and Mahometans give different accounts ; and, what is rather unusual in controversies, each tells the story in the way least favourable to his own faith. The disputants having split on the divinity of their respective scriptures, the Christian, according to Abul Fazl, offered to walk into a flaming furnace, bearing the Bible, if the Mahometan would show a similar confidence in the protection of the Koran. To this, he says, the Mussulmans only answered by reproaches. The mis- sionaries, on the other hand, say the proposal came from the VOL. II. Y 322 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK IX. Religious system of Akber. The religion of Akber himself may be inferred from what has been said. It seems to have been pure deism ; in addition to which some ceremonies were permitted in consideration of human infirmity. It maintained that we ought to reverence God ac- cording to the knowledge of him derived from our own reason, by which his unity and benevolence are sufficiently established ; that we ought to serve him, and to seek for our future happiness by sub- duing our bad passions, and practising such virtues as are beneficial to mankind ; but that we should not adopt a creed, or practise a ritual, on the au- thority of any MAN, as all were liable to vice and error like ourselves. If it were absolutely necessary for men to have some visible object of adoration, by means of which they might raise their soul to the Divinity, Akber recommended that the sun, the Mussulmans, and was rejected by them, contrary to the wish of Akber. (Murray 's Asiatic Discoveries, vol. ii. p. 91.) The probability is, that Akber may have taken this way of amusing himself with the extravagance of both parties. It does not appear that he had any design to turn the Christians at least into derision. The missionaries, provoked at the disappoint- ment of their sanguine hopes of converting the emperor, appear at length to have suspected that he had no object in en- couraging them, except to gratify his taste with their pictures and images, and to swell the pomp of his court by their attend- ance (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 91.) ; but, besides his intense curiosity about the religious opinions of all sects, both Abul Fazl and Abdul Kadir represent him as entertaining a real respect for Christianity. The latter author says that he made his son Morad be instructed in the GospeJ, and that those lessons were not begun according to the usual form, " In the name of God," but, " In the name of Jesus Christ." AKBER. 323 planets, or fire, should be the symbols. He had no CHAP. priests, no public worship, and no restrictions about ' food, except a recommendation of abstinence, as tending to exalt the mind. His only observances were salutations to the sun, prayers at midnight and day-break, and meditations at noon on the sun. He professed to sanction this sort of devotion, from regard to the prejudices of the people, and not from his own belief in their efficacy. It is, indeed, related by Abul Fazl, that, being once entreated to pray for rain, he refused, observing that God knew our wants and wishes better than we did ourselves, and did not require to be reminded, to exert his power for our benefit. But as Akber practised all his ceremonies, as well as permitted them, it may be doubted whether they had not gained some hold on his imagination. He seems to have been by nature devout, and, with all his scepticism, to have inclined even to superstitions that promised him a closer connection with the Deity than was afforded by the religion which his reason approved. To this feeling we may ascribe, among other in- stances, the awe and veneration with which he adored the images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin, when they were shown to him by the mission- aries. * Notwithstanding the adulation of his courtiers, and some expressions in the formulae of his own religion, Akber never seems to have entertained the least intention of laying claims to supernatural * Murray, vol. ii. p. 89. Y 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK illumination. His fundamental doctrine was, that IX ' there were no prophets; his appeal on all occasions was to human reason ; and his right to interfere at all with religion was grounded on his duty as civil magistrate.* He took the precaution, on promul- gating his innovations, to obtain the legal opinions of the principal Mahometan lawyers, that the king was the head of the church, and had a right to A. D. 1579, govern according to his own judgment t, and to A. H. 987, i i 11 i* i i ' in Rejib. decide all disputes among its members ; and, in his new confession of faith, it was declared that " There was no God but God, and that Akber was his calif." In the propagation of his opinions, Akber con- fined himself to persuasion, and made little pro- gress except among the people about his court and a few learned men ; but his measures were much stronger in abrogating the obligations of the Mus- sulman religion, which, till now, had been enforced by law. Prayers, fasts, alms, pilgrimages, and pub- lic worship were left optional : the prohibition of unclean animals, that of the moderate use of wine, and that of gaming with dice, were taken off; and circumcision was not permitted until the age of twelve, when the person to undergo it could judge of the propriety of the rite.1: * Some of his practices, as breathing on his disciples, &c. } which have been mentioned as implying pretensions to miracu- lous powers, are the common forms used by spiritual instructors throughout India. t Muntakhab ul Tawarlkh. | Colonel Kennedy adds that the marriage of more than one wife was forbidden. AKBER, 325 Some of the other measures adopted seemed to CHAP. go beyond indifference, and to show a wish to dis- countenance the Mahometan religion. The aera of Hisdis- courage- the Hijra and the Arabian months were changed for ment of the . . Mahome- a solar year, dating from the vernal equinox nearest tan P ecu- the king's accession, and divided into months named after those of ancient Persia. The study of the Arabic language was discouraged : Arabian names (as Mohammed, Ali, &c.) were disused. The or- dinary salutation of Salam alekum! (Peace be unto you !) was changed into Allaho Akber ! (God is most great!) ; to which the answer was, Jilli Jela- lihu! (May his brightness shine forth!).* Even wearing the beard, a practice enjoined by the Ko- ran, was so offensive to Akber, that he would scarcely admit a person to his presence who con- formed to it. This last prohibition gave peculiar disgust to the Mahometans, as did a regulation in- troducing on certain occasions the Persian custom of prostration (or kissing the ground, as it was called) before the king; a mark of respect regarded by the Mahometans as exclusively appropriated to the Deity. As the Hindus had not been supported by the Hisrestric- -,-., , ,, tions on the government, Akber had less occasion to interfere Hindu su - with them ; and, indeed, from the tolerant and in- p offensive character of their religion, he seems to have had little inclination. He however forbade trials by ordeal, and marriages before the age of * These phrases include the emperor's name, Jelal u din Akber. Y 3 326 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK puberty, and the slaughter of animals for sacrifice. ' He also permitted widows to marry a second time, contrary to the Hindu law * : above all, he positively prohibited the burning of Hindu widows against their will, and took effectual precautions to ascer- tain that their resolution was free and uninfluenced. On one occasion, hearing that the raja of Jodpur was about to force his son's widow to the pile, he mounted his horse and rode post to the spot to prevent the intended sacrifice, t His gene- His most important measures connected with the genceto Hindus were of a purely favourable nature, but us ' had been adopted many years before his inno- vations in religion. His employment of them equally with Mahometans began with his assump- tion of the government. In the seventh year of his reign he abolished the jezia or capitation tax on infidels ; an odious impost which served to keep up animosity between people of the predominant faith and those under them. About the same time he abolished all taxes on pilgrims ; observing that, " although the tax fell on a vain superstition, yet, as all modes of worship were designed for one great Being, it was wrong to throw an obstacle in the way of the devout, and to cut them off from their mode of intercourse with their Maker." t Another humane edict, issued still earlier (A. D. 1561), though not limited to any one class, was, in practice, mainly beneficial to the Hindus : it was * Colonel Kennedy, Bombay Transactions, vol. ii. p. 261. f- Akbernameh. Chalmers's MS. translation of the " Akbernameh." AKBER. 327 a prohibition against making slaves of persons taken CHAP. in war. It appears that in the previous disturb- ances this abuse had been carried to such a height, that not only was it practised towards the wives and children of garrisons who stood a storm, but even peaceable inhabitants of a hostile country were seized and sold for slaves. All this was posi- tively prohibited. Although Akber's religious innovations were Discon- not all introduced at once, and although some among the of those found to be particularly obnoxious to ma u n s ^ ul " censure were cancelled or confined to the palace, yet they did not fail to excite great discontent among the stricter Mussulmans, and especially among the mullahs, whose disgust was increased by some changes affecting lands granted for re- ligious purposes, which took place in the course of the general revenue reform. The complaints of these classes are zealously set forth by an author already often referred to*, who accuses Akber of systematic depression of the Mussulman religion, and even of persecution of such persons as distin- guished themselves by adhering to it. It is not improbable that he showed some prejudice against those who were active in opposing him ; and he certainly restricted his patronage to the more com- pliant ; but in all the instances of harsh language and conduct to individuals, brought forward by this writer, Akber seems to have been justified by par- * Abdul Kadir, the writer of the " Muntakhab ul Tawarikh." Y 4 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ticular acts of disrespect or factious conduct. The IX cases in question are not confined to Mullahs. One of his principal courtiers was ordered out of the royal apartment for attacking his proceedings, and asking what he imagined orthodox princes of other countries would say of them ? and another, who applied the epithet "hellish" to the king's advisers, was told that such language deserved to be an- swered by a blow. The most considerable of these malcontents was Aziz (the Khan i A'zim), who was Akber's foster-brother, and one of his best generals. This nobleman having been long absent in the government of Guzerat, his mother prevailed on Akber to invite him to come to court. Aziz excused himself; and it appeared that his real ob- jection was to shaving his beard and performing the prostration. Akber, on this, wrote him a good- humoured remonstrance ; but, Aziz persevering, he sent him a positive order to come to the capital. Aziz, on this, threw up his government ; and after writing an insolent and reproachful letter to Akber, in which he asked him if he had received a book * from heaven, or if he could work miracles like Mahomet, that he presumed to introduce a new religion, warned him that he was on the way to eternal perdition, and concluded with a prayer to God to bring him back into the path of salvation. After this explosion of zeal he embarked for Mecca * The Koran, the Old and New Testament, and the Psalms of David, are called books by way of excellence, and their fol- lowers, " People of the Book." AKBER. 329 without leave or notice. In a short, time, however, CHAP. he found his situation irksome in that country, and returned to India, where he made his submission, and was restored at once to his former place in the emperor's favour and confidence. But although this sort of opposition was sur- Limited mounted, Akber's religion was too spiritual and ab- h[own stracted to be successful with the bulk of mankind. re lgl011 It seems never to have gone beyond a few philo- sophers and some interested priests and courtiers ; and, on Akber's death, it expired of itself, and the Mussulman forms were quietly and almost silently restored by Jehangir. The solar year was retained for some time longer, on account of its intrinsic advantages. A liberal spirit of inquiry, however, survived the system to which it owed its rise ; and if extrinsic causes had not interrupted its progress, it might have ripened into some great reform of the existing superstitions. Akber cannot claim the merit of originality for his doctrines. The learned Hindus had always maintained the real unity of God, and had re- spected, without believing, the mythological part of their creed. The Cabir Pantis, a Hindu sect which sprung up nearly a century before Akber, had come still nearer to his views; and from them he appears to have borrowed some of the arbitrary parts of his religious rules : still he excelled all his predecessors in his conception of the Divine na- ture ; and the general freedom which he allowed to private judgment was a much more generous effort 330 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK in a powerful monarch than in a recluse reformer, himself likely to be an object of persecution.* Akber's revenue system, though so celebrated for the benefits it conferred on India, presented no new invention. It only carried the previous system into effect with greater precision and correctness : it was, in fact, only a continuation of a plan com- menced by Shir Shah, whose short reign did not admit of his extending it to all parts of his king- dom. The objects of it were 1. To obtain a correct measurement of the land. 2. To ascertain the amount of the produce of each bigaht of land, and to fix the proportion of that amount that each ought to pay to the government. 3. To settle an equivalent for the proportion so fixed, in money. 1. For the first purpose Akber established an uniform standard to supersede the various measures formerly employed even by public officers. He also improved the instruments of mensuration, and he then deputed persons to make a complete mea- surement of all the lands capable of cultivation within the empire. * In comparing Akber's attempt to found a system of pure deism with similar experiments by modern governments, we must remember the incurable defects of all the religions with which he was acquainted, and must distinguish between the merit of a man who takes the lead of his generation, and that of another who follows the crowd even in its errors and extra- vagances. f An Indian land measure, considerably more than half an acre. AKBER. 331 2. The assessment was not so simple as the CHAP. in. measurement. The land was divided into three classes, according to its fertility ; the amount of each sort of produce that a bigah of each class would yield was ascertained : the average of the three was assumed as the produce of a bigah, and one- third of that produce formed the government demand. * But this assessment seems to have been only designed to fix a maximum, for every cultivator who thought the amount claimed too high might insist on an actual measurement and division of the crop. As lands of equal fertility might be differently circumstanced in other respects, the following classi- fication was formed for modifying that first men- tioned: 1. Land which never required a fallow paid * Thus, assuming the produce of a bigah of wheat, in mans (a measure of something less than forty pounds), mans. sers. Class 1. would yield - 18 Class 2. 12 Class 3. - ' - - - 8 35 Aggregate 38 35 which, divided by 3, gives the average 12 maunds 38J sers ; and that again divided by 3 gives the king's demand on each bigah 4f mans 12f sers. If the produce of a bigah of cotton be assumed, mans. sers. Class 1. will yield - ; ^ 10 Class 2. 7 20 Class 3. 5 Aggregate 22 20 Average of the three classes - 7 20 King's demand (one third of 1 g_ the average) - - J 332 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the full demand every harvest. 2. Land which IX required fallows only paid when under cultivation. 3. Land which had suffered from inundation, &c., or which had been three years out of cultivation and required some expense to reclaim it, paid only two fifths for the first year, but went on increasing till the fifth year, when it paid the full demand. 4. Land which had been more than five years out of cultivation enjoyed still more favourable terms for the first four years. It is not explained in the " A'yeni Akberi" how the comparative fertility of fields was ascertained. It is probable that the three classes were formed for each village, in consultation with the inha- bitants, and the process would be greatly facilitated by another classification made by the villagers for their own use, which seems to have subsisted from time immemorial. By that distribution, all the land of every village is divided into a great many classes, according to its qualities ; as black mould, red mould, gravelly, sandy, black mould mixed with stones, &c. Other circumstances are also con- sidered, such as command of water, vicinity to the village, &c. ; and great pains are taken so to ap- portion the different descriptions among the cul- tivators as to give equal advantages to all. 3. The quantity of produce due to the govern- ment being settled, it was next to be commuted for a money payment. For this purpose, statements of prices current for the nineteen years preceding the survey were called for from every town and village ; AKBER. 333 and the produce was turned into money according CHAP. to the average of the rates shown in those state- . ments. The commutation was occasionally recon- sidered, with reference to the actual market prices ; and every husbandman was allowed to pay in kind if he thought the money rate was fixed too high. All these settlements were at first made annually ; but their continual recurrence being found to be vexatious, the settlement was afterwards made for ten years, on an average of the payments of the preceding ten. The prolongation of the term mitigated another evil inherent in the system ; for, as the assessment varied with the sort of cultivation, it had all the effect of a tithe in indisposing the husbandman to cultivate a richer description of produce, which, though it might yield a greater profit, would have a higher tax to pay at the next settlement. The above measurements and classifications were all carefully recorded ; the distribution of land, and increase or diminution of revenue, were all yearly entered into the village registers agreeably to them ; and they still continue in use, even in parts of India which had not been conquered in Akber's time, and where their own merits have since intro- duced them. At the same time when Akber made these im- provements respecting the land tax, he abolished a vast number of vexatious taxes and fees to officers. He also made a new revenue division of the country into portions, each yielding a cror (z. e. 10,000,000) of dams, equal to 250,000 rupees, or 334 HISTORY OF INDIA. B K 25,000/. ; the collector of each of which was called the crori. This arrangement did not last, and the ancient Hindu division is again universally esta- blished. The result of these measures was, to reduce the amount of the public demand considerably, but to diminish the defalcation in realising it ; so that the profit to the state remained nearly the same, while the pressure on individuals was much less- ened. Abul Fazl even asserts that the assessment was lighter than that of Shir Shah, although he professed to take only one fourth of the produce, while Akber took one third. Akber's instructions to his revenue officers have come down to us, and show his anxiety for the liberal administration of his system, and for the ease and comfort of his subjects. Some particulars of his mode of management also appear in those instructions. There is no farming of any branch of the revenue, and the collectors are enjoined, in their agreements and collections, to deal directly with individual cultivators, and not to depend implicitly on the headman and accountant of the village. * On the whole, this great reform, much as it pro- moted the happiness of the existing generation, contained no principle of progressive improvement, and held out no hopes to the rural population by opening paths by which it might spread into other occupations, or rise by individual exertions within its own. No mode of administration, in- * Gladwin's A'yeni Akberi, vol. i. pp. 303312. AKBER. 335 deed, could effect these objects as long as the CHAP. subdivision of land by inheritance checked all ex- tensive improvement in husbandry, at the same time that it attached to the soil those members of each family who might have betaken themselves to commerce, or other pursuits, such as would have increased the value of raw produce, and raised the price of agricultural labour, by diminishing the competition for that species of employment. The author of the reform was Raja Todar Mai, by whose name it is still called everywhere. The military services of this minister have already been mentioned. Abul Fazl describes him as entirely devoid of avarice, and quite sincere, but of a mali- cious and vindictive temper, and so observant of the fasts and other superstitions of the Hindu religion, as to draw down on him reproof even from Akber. * Though we have not a particular explanation of Akber's system in other departments, as we have in that of revenue, a general notion of it may be made out from his instructions to his officers, t The empire was divided into fifteen subahs or pro- Subahs > r govern- vinces.t The chief officer in each was the viceroy ments,and * Chalmers's MS. translation of the " Akbermameh." f Gladwin's Ayeni Akberi, vol. i. pp. 29303. J Twelve of these were in Hindostan and three in the Deckan : these last were increased, after the conquest of Bijapur and Golconda, to six. The title of sipah salar was changed after Akber's time to subahdar, and an additional officer was introduced under the title of diwan, for the purpose of super- intending the finances of the province. He was subordinate to the subahdar, but was appointed by the king. 336 HISTORY OF INDIA, BOOK (sipah salar), who had the complete control, civil . and military, subject to the instructions of the king, their esta- Under him were the revenue functionaries above bhshments, military, mentioned, and also the military commanders of and police, districts (foujdars), whose authority extended over the local soldiery or militia, and over all military establishments and lands assigned to military pur- poses, as well as over the regular troops within their jurisdiction ; and whose duty it was to sup- press all disorders that required force within the same limits. Justice was administered by a court composed of an officer named mir adel (lord justice), and a cazi. The latter conducted the trial and stated the law ; the other passed judgment, and seems to have been the superior authority ; the distinction probably arising from the modifications introduced by the will of the prince and the customs of the country into the strict Mahometan law, of which the cazi was the organ. The police of considerable towns was under an officer called the cotwal ; in smaller places it was under the revenue officer ; and in villages, of course, under the internal authorities. The tone of instructions to all these functionaries is just and benevolent, though by no means exempt from the vagueness and puerility that is natural to Asiatic writings of this sort. Those to the cotwal keep up the prying and meddling character of the police under a despotism : they prohibit forestalling and regrating, &c. ; and AKBER. 337 in the midst of some very sensible directions, there CHAP. in. is an order that any one who drinks out of the cup ' of the common executioner shall lose his hand ; a law worthy of Menu, and the more surprising as the spirit of all the rules for administering justice is liberal and humane. A letter of instructions to the governor of Guzerat, preserved in a separate history of that province, restricts his punishments to putting in irons, whipping, and death ; enjoin- ing him to be sparing in capital punishments, and, unless in cases of dangerous sedition, to inflict none until he has sent the proceedings to court and re- ceived the emperor's confirmation. Capital punish- ment is not to be attended with any additional severity. * Amidst the reforms of other departments, Akber Reformand did not forget his army. If it had cost a long and ofThT dangerous struggle to bring that body to submit to a orders, it scarcely required a less exertion, at a later period, to introduce economy and efficiency into the management of it. It had been usual to grant lands and assignments on the revenue, and leave the holder to realise them without check ; while musters were irregular and deceptive, being often made up by servants and camp followers mounted for the day on bor- rowed horses. Akber put a stop to the first of these abuses, by paying the troops in cash from the treasury when- * Bird's History of Guzerat, p. 391. VOL. II. Z 338 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ever it was practicable ; and establishing checks on ' jagirs, where such existed. The other was cured by rendering musters necessary before pay, by de- scribing every man's features and person on the roll, and branding every horse with the king's mark that ever had been numbered in his service. Camels, oxen, carts, and all things necessary for the move- ment of troops, were also mustered and paid at fixed rates. But even in its highest state of perfection the army was not very well organised. It was not divided into bodies, each of a certain number, and with a fixed proportion of officers : the system was, for the king to name officers as he thought neces- sary, who were called mansabdars, and who were divided into classes of commanders of 10,000, commanders of 5000, &c., down to commanders of 10, These numbers, in all but the lowest classes, were merely nominal, and were adopted to fix the rank and pay of the holders. Each entertained whatever number he was specially authorised to keep (sometimes not a tenth of his nominal com- mand), and that number was mustered, and paid from the treasury. Their united quotas made up the army ; and when a force went on service, the king appointed the commander and some of the chief officers, below whom there was, probably, no chain of subordination, except what arose from each man's authority over his own quota. None but the king's sons held a rank above the command of 5000 ; and of the latter class there were only AKBER. 339 thirty persons, including princes of the blood and CHAP. Rajput rajas. The whole number, down to com- manders of 200, was not 450. * Each mansabdar was required to keep half as many infantry as horsemen ; and of the infantry, a fourth were required to be matchlockmen j the rest might be archers. Besides these troops under mansabdars, there was a considerable body of the best description of horsemen, who took service individually, and were called ahdis (i. e. single men, or individuals). Their pay depended on their merits ; it was always much higher than that of a common horseman. These last, if from beyond the Indus, received 25 rupees a month ; and if Indian, 20. The matchlockmen received 6 rupees at most, and the archers as low as 2^. The mansabdars were very liberally paidt, but no part of their emoluments or commands were hereditary. On a chief's death, the king con- ferred some rank generally a moderate one at * These numbers are from the list in the " Ayeni Akberi ;" it is uncertain to which period of the reign it refers. The ex- tremely small number of officers is explained by the absence of discipline and of instruction in tactics, as well as by the character of the horsemen, who were a sort of gentlemen, and more in- telligent than ordinary troopers in a regular army. j- The sums in the tables in the " Ayeni Akberi " cannot relate to personal allowances alone ; but see Bernier, vol. i. p. 289. He mentions that his patron, Danishmand Khan, had the rank of 5000, with the real command of 500 horse, and had near 5000 crowns of pay per mensem. z 2 S40 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK first on his son, and added a pension if the ' father's merits entitled him to it. We have no means of guessing the number of the troops. In later times, Aurangzib was con- jectured to have had 200,000 effective cavalry, besides artillery and undisciplined infantry.* It is not likely that Akber had as many. Abul Fazl says the local militia of the provinces amounted to 4,400,000 ; but this is probably an exaggerated account of those bound by their tenure to give a limited service in certain cases : probably few could be called on for more than a day or two to beat the woods for a hunting party ; and many, no doubt, belonged to hill rajas and tribes who never served at all. Fortifica- Besides the fort of Attok, already mentioned, public many military works were erected by Akber. The walls and citadels of Agra and Allahabad much surpass the rest : they are lofty curtains and towers of cut stone, with deep ditches, and ornamented, in the Indian way, with turrets, domes, and battle- ments ; each of the gateways being a stately edifice that would make a suitable entrance to a royal palace. He also built and fortified the town of Fattehpur Sikri, which was his principal residence, and which, though now deserted, is one of the most splendid specimens that remain of the former grandeur of India, t * Bernier. f Bishop Heber describes its commanding situation on a hill, the noble flight of steps which ascends to the portal tower, the extent and rich carving of the palace ; above all, the mosque, AKBER. 341 The same methodical system was carried through all branches of Akber's service. The " A'yeni Ak- beri" (Regulations of Akber) by A'bul Fazl, from which the above account of the civil and military arrangements is mostly taken, contains a minute description of the establishment and regulations of every department, from the Mint and the Treasury down to the fruit, perfumery, and flower offices, the kitchen, and the kennel. The whole presents an astonishing picture of magnificence and good order; where unwieldy numbers are managed without disturbance, and economy is attended to in the midst of profusion. The extent of these establishments appears from the work just mentioned and the contemporary historians * ; but the effect can be best judged of with the majestic proportions and beautiful architecture of the quadrangle and cloisters, of which it forms one side. (Vol. i. p. 596.) The same judicious observer gives an account of the buildings within Agra. The principal are, " a beautiful mosque of white marble, carved with exquisite simplicity and elegance ;" and the palace, built mostly of the same material, and contain- ing some noble rooms. The great hall is " a splendid edifice, supported by pillars and arches of white marble, more nobly simple than that of Delhi. The ornaments, carving, and mosaic of the smaller apartments are equal or superior to any thing which is described as found in the Alhambra." (Vol. i. p. 587.) Among Akber's principal works must be mentioned the tomb of Humayun at Delhi, a great and solid edifice erected on a terrace raised above the surrounding country, and surmounted by a vast dome of white marble. * Akber had never less than 5000 elephants and 12,000 stable horse, besides vast hunting and hawking establishments, &c. &c. (Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 281.) z 3 342 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK by the descriptions of the Europeans who saw ' them in Akber's own time, or under the reign of his immediate successor, Jehangir. His camp equipage consisted of tents and port- able houses, in an inclosure formed by a high wall of canvas skreens, and containing great halls for public receptions, apartments for feasting, galleries for exercise, and chambers for retirement ; all framed of the most costly materials, and adapted to the most luxurious enjoyment. The inclosure was 1530 yards square. The tents and wall were of various colours and patterns within, but all red on the outside, and crowned with gilded globes and pinnacles, forming a sort of castle in the midst of the camp. The camp itself showed like a beautiful city of tents of many co- lours, disposed in streets without the least disorder, covering a space of about five miles across, and affording a glorious spectacle when seen at once from a height. * The greatest displays of his grandeur were at the annual feasts of the vernal equinox, and the king's birthday. They lasted for several days, during which there was a general fair and many pro- cessions and other pompous shows. The king's usual place was in a rich tent, in the midst of awn- ings to keep off the sun. At least two acres were thus spread with silk and gold carpets and hang- ings, as rich as velvet, embroidered with gold, pearl, * Sir Thomas Roe, in " Churchill's Voyages." Terry's Voyage, p. 398. AKBER. 343 and precious stones, could make them.* The no- CHAP. bility had similar pavilions, where they received visits from each other, and sometimes from the king; dresses, jewels, horses, and elephants were bestowed on the nobility ; the king was weighed in golden scales against silver, gold, perfumes, and other substances, in succession, which were dis- tributed among the spectators. Almonds and other fruits, of gold and silver, were scattered by the king's own hand, and eagerly caught up by the courtiers, though of little intrinsic value. On the great day of each festival, the king was seated on his throne, in a marble palace, surrounded by nobles wearing high heron plumes and " sparkling with diamonds like the firmament." t Many hun- dred elephants passed before him in companies, all most richly adorned, and the leading elephant of each company with gold plates on its head and breast, set with rubies and emeralds. $ Trains of caparisoned horses followed ; and after them, rhinoceroses, lions, tigers and panthers, hunt- ing leopards, hounds, and hawks ; the whole concluding with an innumerable host of cavalry glittering with cloth of gold. In the midst of all this splendour, Akber ap- peared with as much simplicity as dignity. He is thus described by two European eye-witnesses, * Hawkins, in " Purchas's Pilgrims," vol. i. f Sir T. Roe says, " I own I never saw such inestimable wealth." J Sir T. Roe. Bernier, vol. i. p. 4-2. z 4 344 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK with some parts of whose account I shall close his ix . history.* After remarking that he had less show or state than other Asiatic princes, and that he stood or sat below the throne to administer justice, they say, that " he is affable and majestical, merci- ful and severe ;" that he is skilful in mechanical arts, as " making guns, casting ordnance, &c. ; of sparing diet, sleeps but three hours a day, curiously industrious, affable to the vulgar, seeming to grace them and their presents with more respective cere- monies than the grandees ; loved and feared of his own, terrible to his enemies." t * Purchas, vol. v. p. 516. f The principal authorities for this account of Akber's reign are, Ferishta, the " Akbernameh" by Abul Fazl, the " Muntak- hab ul Tawarikh," Khafi Khan, and the Kholasat ul Tawarikh." Abul Fazl, in this reign, shows all his usual merits, and more than his usual defects. (See p. 122.) Every event that had a tendency to take from the goodness, wisdom, or power of Akber, is passed over or misstated ; and a uniform strain of panegyric and triumph is kept up, which disgusts the reader with the author, and almost with the hero. Amidst these un- meaning flourishes, the real merits of Akber disappear, and it is from other authors that we learn the motives of his actions, the difficulties he had to contend with, and the resources by which they were surmounted. The gross flattery of a book written by one so well acquainted with Akber's disposition, and submitted, it appears, to his own inspection, leaves an im- pression of the vanity of that prince, which is almost the only blot on his otherwise admirable character. The " Akbernameh" was brought down by Abul Fazl nearly to the time of his own death, in the forty-seven thy ear of the reign, and was continued for the remaining period of upwards of three years by a person named Enayet Ullah, or Mohammed Salia. I could never have availed myself of this work without the aid of a manuscript translation of Lieutenant Chalmers of the Madras army, in the AKBER, 345 possession of the Royal Asiatic Society. The " Muntakhab ul CHAP. Tawarikh" was finished in the end of the fortieth year of the III reign. It is written by Abdul Kadir of Badayun, and is a his- ' tory of the Mahometan kings of India. The facts are chiefly taken from the " Tabakati Akberi," down to the thirty-seventh year of Akber's reign, when that book ends. The whole of that reign, however, has many additions from the author's own know- ledge, and takes its colour from his prejudices. Abdul Kadir was a learned man employed by Akber to make translations from Shanscrit ; but, being a bigoted Mussulman, he quarrelled with Abul Fazl and Feizi, and has filled his book with invectives against their irreligion and that of Akber (see page 319., note). He has also recorded many other grievances complained of at that time, and has disclosed those parts of the picture which were thrown into the shade by Abul Fazl. The impression of Akber left by this almost hostile narrative is much more favour- able than that made by his panegyrist. Khafi Khan and the author of the " Kholasat ul Tawarikh" are later compilers. The " Tabakati Akberi," written by Nizam u din Hervi, is a history of the Mahometan kings down to the thirty-seventh of Akber, and is said to be a work of great merit ; but, although I have access to a copy, I am unable to avail myself of it, for want of the assistance I require to make out the character. Besides the original of Khafi Khan, I am indebted to the kindness of Major A. Gordon of the Bengal cavalry, for the use of a manu- script translation made by him of the work of that historian down to near the end of Jehangir's reign. It is much to be regretted that this excellent translation has not been carried on to the end of the history, which comes down to recent times, and affords the only full and connected account of the whole period which it embraces. 346 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. JEHANGIR SHAH JEHAN. BOOK X. A. D. 1605, October ; A. H. 1014, Jetnadi ul akhir. State of India at the acces- sion of Je- bangir. Moderate measures at the com- CHAP. I. JEHANGfR. SELIM took possession of the government imme- diately on his father's death, and assumed the title of Jehangir (Conqueror of the World). He found the whole of his dominions on the north of the Nerbadda in a state of as great tran- quillity as could be expected in so extensive an empire. The rebellion of Osman continued in Bengal, but was confined to part of that province. The contest with the rana of Oudipur was a foreign war, and the success, though not complete, was on the side of the emperor. Affairs wore a worse aspect in the Deckan, where the Nizam Shahi government of Ahmed- nagar seemed to be recovering from the loss of its capital, and more likely to regain some of the terri- tory it had been deprived of than to be completely subverted by the arms of the Moguls. Jehangir's first measures were of a much more benevolent and judicious character than might JEHANGIR. 347 have been expected of him. He confirmed most CHAP. of his father's old officers in their stations ; and issued edicts, remitting some vexatious duties which menc of his had survived Akber's reforms, forbidding the reign, bales of merchants to be opened by persons in au- thority without their free consent, directing that no soldiers or servants of the state should quarter themselves on private houses, abolishing the punish- ments of cutting off ears and noses, and introducing other salutary regulations. Notwithstanding his own notorious habits, he strictly forbade the use of wine, and regulated that of opium ; subjecting all offenders against his rules to severe punishment. He restored the Mahometan confession of faith on his coin, together with most of the forms of that religion. He, however, kept up some of Akber's rules regarding abstinence from meat on particular days. He observed some of his superstitious de- votions ; he exacted the ceremony of prostration from all who approached him ; and although, in his writings, he affects the devout style usual to all Mussulmans, he never acquired, and probably did not seriously pretend to, the character of a religious man. The general impression is, that, though more superstitious, he was less devout, than Akber, and had little feeling of religion even when ab- stracted from all peculiar tenets. Among his earliest measures was one for afford- ing easy access to complaints, on which he valued himself at least as highly as the efficacy of the in- vention deserved : a chain was hung from a part of 348 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the wall of the citadel, accessible, without difficulty, \f to all descriptions of people ; it communicated with a clustre of golden bells within the emperor's own apartment, and he was immediately apprised, by the sound, of the appearance of a suitor, and thus rendered independent of any officers inclined to keep back information. Flight of The hatred which had so long subsisted between Khusru. the new emperor and his eldest son was not likely to have been diminished by the events which pre- ceded the accession. Khusru had ever since re- mained in a state of sullenness and dejection ; and it is by no means probable that Jehangir's treat- ment of him was such as would be likely to soothe his feelings. His behaviour does not appear to have given rise to any suspicion, until upwards of A. D. leoe, four months after the accession; when Jehangir A. H. 1014, was awaited, at midnight, with the intelligence that his son had fled, with a few attendants, and taken the road to Delhi. He immediately dispatched a light force in pursuit of him, and followed, him- self, in the morning, with all the troops he could collect. HU rebel- Khusru was joined, soon after leaving Agra, by a body of 300 horse, whom he met on their march to the capital. He proceeded by Delhi, subsisting his troops by plunder, and, by the time he reached the Panjab, had collected a body of upwards of 10,000 men. The city of Lahor was betrayed to him, and he was making an ineffectual attempt to reduce the citadel, when he was disturbed by the JEHANGIR. 349 approach of his father's advanced guard. When CHAP. this was announced to him, he drew his force out ' of Lahor, and attacked the royal troops ; but, al- though he had the advantage of engaging a detach- ment, he was unable to offer a successful opposition. He was totally defeated, and, having fled in the direction of Cabul, he was run aground in a boat as he was passing the Hydaspes, and was seized and brought in chains before his father. The Quashed. ; whole rebellion did not last above a month. Khusru's principal advisers, and many of his Barbarous common followers, fell into the hands of the em- of the peror, and afforded him an opportunity of display- ing all the ferocity of his character. He ordered 700 of the prisoners to be impaled in a line leading from the gate of Lahor ; and he expatiates, in his Memoirs, on the long duration of their frightful agonies. * To complete his barbarity, he made his son Khusru be carried along the line on an ele- phant, while a mace-bearer called out to him, with mock solemnity, to receive the salutations of his servants, t The unhappy Khusru passed three imprison. I* i i / i j. inent of days, in tears and groans, without tasting rood? ; and remained for long after a prey to the deepest melancholy. Prince Parviz, the emperor's second son, had * Price's Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 88. f Khafi Khjjn. J Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 89. The general account of the rebellion is from Jehangir's Memoirs, Khafi Khan, and Glad- win. 350 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK A. D. 1606, March ; A. H. 1015, rj* TT A. D. 1607, A. H. 1016. Wars in in the Deckan. pretended to i6io, to 1019. m success of the war been sent, under the guidance of Asof Khan, against the rana of Oudipur, very soon after the accession : he was recalled on the flight of Khusru, but in that short interval he had effected an ac- commodation with the rana, and now joined his father's camp. I n the spring of the next year Jehaimir went f to Cabul ; and, when at that city, he showed some ' * * favour to Khusru, ordering his chains to be taken off, and allowing him to walk in a garden within the upper citadel. If he had any disposition to carry his forgiveness further, it was checked by a conspiracy, which was detected some time after, to release Khusru and to assassinate the emperor. On his return to Agra, Jehangir sent an army, u der Mohabat Khan, against the rana of Oudi- p ur w ith whom the war had been renewed ; and another, under the Khan Khanan, to effect a settle- ment of the Deckan. Prince Parviz was afterwards made nominal commander of the latter force : he was too young to exercise any real authority. The only event of importance in the following years was an insurrection at Patna by a man of the l west order, who assumed the character of Khusru, an( j, seizing on the city in consequence of the su- pineness of the local officers, drew together so many followers, that he engaged the governor of the province in the field, and some time elapsed before he was driven back into Patna, made prisoner, and put to death. In the end of the year 1610, affairs in the JEHANGIR. 351 Deckan assumed a serious aspect. After the taking CHAP. of Ahmednagar, the conduct of the government ' of the new king fell into the hands of an Abyssinian in the * Deckan. named Malik Amber. This minister founded a Malik new capital on the site of the present Aurangabad j Amber - and maintained, for a long series of years, the ap- parently sinking fortunes of the Nizam Shahi go- vernment. His talents were not confined to war : he introduced a new revenue system into the Deckan, perhaps in imitation of Todar Mai ; and it has given his name an universal celebrity in the Deckan equal to that enjoyed in Hindostan by the other great financier. * Malik Amber profited by some dissensions which fell out between the Khani Khanan and the other generals ; and prosecuted his advantages with such success that he repeatedly defeated the Mogul troops, retook Ahmednagar, Here >- vers Ah- and compelled the Khani Khanan himself to retire mednagar. to Burhanpur. In these circumstances, Jehangir recalled his general, and conferred the command on Khan Jehan. It was in the sixth year of his reign that Jehangir A< D - 1611 > contracted a marriage with the celebrated Nur Marriage Jehan, an event which influenced all the succeed- emperor ing transactions of his life. jSSi?** The grandfather of this lady was a native of Her his- Teheran, in Persia, and held a high civil office under the government of that country. His son, Mirza Gheias, was reduced to poverty, and deter- * Grant's History of the Marrattas, vol. i. p. 95. 352 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK mined to seek for a maintenance by emigrating, ' with his wife, and a family consisting of two sons and a daughter, to India. He was pursued by misfortune even in this attempt ; and by the time the caravan with which he travelled reached Can- dahar, he was reduced to circumstances of great distress. Immediately on his arrival in that city his wife was delivered of Nur Jehan ; and into so abject a condition had they fallen, that the parents were unable to provide for the conveyance of their infant, or to maintain the mother so as to admit of her giving it support. The future empress was therefore exposed on the road by which the caravan was next morning to proceed. She was observed by a principal merchant of the party, who felt com- passion for her situation, and was struck with her beauty : he took her up, and resolved to educate her as his own. As a woman in a situation to act as a nurse was not easy to be found in a caravan, it is a matter of no surprise that her own mother should have been the person employed in that capacity ; and the merchant's attention being thus drawn to the dis- tresses of the family, he relieved their immediate wants ; and perceiving the father and his eldest son to be men much above their present condition, he employed them in matters connected with his business, and became much interested in their fate. By his means they were introduced to Akber; and, being placed in some subordinate employments, they soon rose by their own abilities. JEHANGIR. 353 In the mean time Niir Jehan grew up, and began CHAP. to excite admiration by her beauty and elegance. She often accompanied her mother, who had free access to the harem of Akber, and there attracted the notice of Jehangir, then Prince Selim. His behaviour gave so much uneasiness to her mother, as to induce her to speak of it to the princess whom she was visiting. Through her, the case was laid before Akber, who remonstrated with his son ; and, at the same time, recommended that Nur Jehan should be married, and removed from the prince's sight. She was bestowed on Shir Afgan Khan, a young Persian lately come into the service, and to him Akber gave a jagir in Bengal. But these means were not sufficient to efface the impression made on Jehangir ; and, after he had been about a year on the throne, he took the opportunity of his foster-brother Kutb u din's going as viceroy of Bengal to charge him to pro- cure for him the possession of the object of his passion. It was probably expected that all opposition from the husband would be prevented by influence and promises ; but Shir Afgan had a higher sense of honour ; and no sooner suspected the designs that were entertained, than he resigned his com- mand, and left off* wearing arms, as a sign that he was no longer in the king's service. The further progress of the affair does not ap- pear : it must have been such as to alarm Shir VOL. II. A A 354f HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Afgan ; for, the viceroy having taken occasion to visit the part of the province where he resided, and having sent to invite his attendance, he went to pay Ins visit with a dagger concealed in his dress. An interview begun in such a spirit might be expected to close in blood. Shir Afgan, in- sulted by the proposals and enraged at the threats of the viceroy, took his revenge with his dagger, and was himself immediately dispatched by the attendants. The murder of the viceroy, which was ascribed to a treasonable conspiracy, gave a colour to all proceedings against the family of the assassin. Nur Jehan was seized, and sent as a prisoner to Delhi. Jehangir soon after offered her marriage, and ap- plied all his address to soothe and conciliate her ; but Nur Jehan was a high-spirited as well as an artful woman ; and it is not improbable that she was sincere in her rejection of all overtures from one whom she looked on as the murderer of her husband. Her repugnance was so strongly dis- played as to disgust Jehangir. He at length placed her among the attendants on his mother, and ap- peared to have entirely dismissed her from his thoughts. His passion, however, was afterwards revived ; and reflection having led his mistress to think more favourably of his offers, their marriage was cele- brated with great pomp ; and Nur Jehan was raised to honours such as had never before been enjoyed JEHANGIR. 355 by the consort of any king in India.* From this CHAP. period her ascendancy knew no bounds : her father ' was made prime minister : her brother was placed Her in - . * . fluenee. in a high station; the emperor took no step with- out consulting her ; and, on every affair in which she took an interest, her will was law. Though her sway produced bad consequences in the end, it was beneficial on the whole. Her father was a wise and upright minister ; and it must have been, in part at least, owing to her influence that so great an improvement took place in the conduct of Je- hangir after the first few years of his reign. He was still capricious and tyrannical, but he was no longer guilty of such barbarous cruelties as before ; and although he still carried his excess in wine to the lowest stage of inebriety, yet it was at night, and in his private apartments. In the occupations which kept him all day before the eyes of his sub- jects he seems to have supported his character with sufficient dignity, and without any breaches of de- corum. Nur Jehan's capacity was not less remark- able than her grace and beauty : it was exerted in matters proper to her sex as well as in state affairs. The magnificence of the emperor's court was increased by her taste, and the expense was diminished by her good arrangements. She con- trived improvements in the furniture of apart- ments ; introduced female dresses more becoming: ' O than any in use before her time ; and it is a ques- * Among other marks of sovereignty, her name was put on the coin along with the emperor's. A A 2 356 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. A. D. 1612, A. H. 1021. Combined attack on Ahmed- nagar. Defeated by Malik Amber. tion in India whether it is to her or her mother that they owe the invention of ottar of roses.* One of the accomplishments by which she capti- vated Jehangir is said to have been her facility in composing extemporary verses. It was not long after the time of this marriage that the disturbances in Bengal were put an end to by the defeat and death of Osman. The satis- faction derived from this event was more than counterbalanced by the ill success of the war in the Deckan. Jehangir had determined to make up for the languor of his former operations by a combined attack from all the neighbouring pro- vinces. Abdullah Khan, viceroy of Guzerat, was to invade Malik Amber's territory from that pro- vince at the same moment that the armies under Prince Parviz and Khan Jehan Lodi, reinforced by Raja Man Sing, were to advance from Candesh and Berar. But this well-concerted plan entirely failed in the execution. Abdullah Khan advanced prematurely from Guzerat, and Malik Amber did not lose a moment in profiting by his mistake. His mode of war was much the same as that of the modern Marattas. Owing to the neighbourhood of the European ports, his artillery was superior to that of the emperor, and afforded a rallying point * Great improvements must have taken place in later times ; for Khan Khan mentions that the same quantity of ottar (one tola), which he remembers selling in the beginning of Aurang- zlb's reign for eighty rupees, was to be had, when he wrote, for geven or eight. JEHANGIR. 357 on which he could always collect his army ; but CHAP. his active means of offence were his light cavalry. He intercepted the supplies and harassed the inarch of the Moguls ; he hovered round their army when halted ; alarmed them with false at- tacks; and often made real incursions into different parts of the encampment, carrying off much booty, and keeping up continual disorder and trepidation. Abdullah Khan was so completely worn out by this sort of warfare, that he soon determined to retire. The consequences of a retreat before such an enemy were easy to be foreseen : all his evils multiplied upon him from the day that it com- menced ; his rear-guard was cut to pieces ; and his march had nearly become a flight before he found refuge in the hills and jungles of Baglana, whence he proceeded without molestation into Guzerat. The other armies had by this time taken the field ; but seeing Malik Amber, on his return, flushed with success over their colleague, they A . D . 1512, thought it prudent to avoid a similar calamity, and concentrated at Burhanpur. Jehangir's arms were attended with better for- warwith tune in his war with the rana of Oudipur ; and his success was the more welcome, as the fruit of the abilities of his favourite son. Mohabat Khan, when first sent on that service, had gained a victory over the rana, but was unable to do anything de- cisive from the strength of thfe country into which he, as usual, retreated. The same fortune attended Abdullah Khan, afterwards appointed to succeed A A 3 358 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. Victories and mode- ration of Shah J6han (Prince Khurram). The rana submits on honourable terms. A. D. 1614,' A. H. 1023. Influence of Shah Jehan. Mohabat ; but Prince Khurram (Shah Jehan)*, who was now sent with an army of 20,000 men, evinced so much spirit in his attacks on the Rajput troops, and so much perseverance in bearing up against the strength of the country and the un- healthiness of the climate, that the rana was at last induced to sue for peace ; and his offer being readily accepted, he waited on Shah Jehan in per- son, made offerings in token of submission, and sent his son to accompany the prince to Delhi. Shah Jehan, on this occasion, did not forget the policy of Akber. The moment the rana's homage was paid, he raised him in his arms, seated him by his side, and treated him with every form of respect and attention. All the country conquered from him since the invasion of Akber was restored ; and his son, after an honourable reception from Jehangir, was raised to a high rank among the military chiefs of the empire. The merit of this campaign belonged exclu- sively to Shah Jehan ; for Aziz, who had been sent to assist him, had behaved to him with so much arrogance, that Jehangir was soon obliged to remove him, and commit him for a time to con- finement. This exploit raised Shah Jehan's credit to the highest pitch ; and, as he had lately married the * The name of this prince was Khurram, and he bore no other at the commencement of his father's reign ; but as he received the title of Shah Jehan long before his own accession, it will prevent confusion to give him that name from the first. JEHANGIIU 359 niece of Nur Jehan, he was supported by her CHAP. powerful influence, and was generally looked on _ ' as the chosen successor to the empire. Supported . .by Nur During these events, Raja Man Sing died in Jehan. the Deckan. A rebellion of the Roushenias, which insurrec- tion in broke out in 1611, and in which the city of Cabul Cabui had been exposed to danger, was now terminated by the death of Ahdad, the grandson and spiritual successor of Bayazid. Abdullah Khan, viceroy of Guzerat, having incurred the king's displeasure, by oppressions in the province, and by the in- dignity with which he treated the royal news- writer, was ordered to be seized and sent to the capital. He anticipated the order by setting off on foot, with his troops and attendants following at a great distance. He came to court barefooted and in chains, and threw himself at the king's feet; but was pardoned, and not long after restored to favour, at the intercession of Shah Jehan. It was not long after the return of Shah Jehan Embassy of that Sir T. Roe arrived at the court, as ambassador from King James I.* His accounts enable us to judge of the state of India under Jehangir. The sea-ports and the customs were full of gross Hisac- abuses, the governors seizing on goods at arbitrary theempire, prices. Even Roe, though otherwise treated with chSjS d hospitality and respect, had his baggage searched fjeh a n g' ir - * He arrived at Ajmir on December 23. 1615, accompanied the king to Mandu and Guzerat, and left him in the end of 1618. A A 4 360 HISTORY OF INDIA, BOOK and some articles taken by the governor.* His journey from Surat, by Burhanpur and Chitor, to Ajmir, lay through the Deckan, where war was raging, and the rana's country, where it had just ceased ; yet he met with no obstruction or alarm, except from mountaineers, who then, as now, rendered the roads unsafe in times of trouble. The Deckan bore strong marks of devastation and neglect. Burhanpur, which had before, as it has since, been a fine city, contained only four or five good houses amidst a collection of mud huts ; and the court of Parviz, held in that town, had no pretensions to splendour. In other places he was struck with the decay and desertion of some towns, contrasted with the prosperity of others. The former were, in some instances at least, deserted capitals t; and their decline affords no argument against the general prosperity. The administration of the country had rapidly * It must, however, be observed, that this governor, Zulfikar Khan, was very inimical to the English, and had lately con- cluded an agreement with the Portuguese, by which he engaged to exclude English vessels from his ports. The agreement was not ratified by the emperor ; and Zulfikar was constrained, by his duty to his own government, to maintain outward ap- pearances towards a foreign ambassador. (Orme, vol. iii. p. 361, &c.) j- Such were Mandu and Todah, of both of which he speaks in the highest terms of admiration. Mandu, the former capital of Mdlwa, is still generally known ; but Todah (the capital of a Rajput prince in the province of Ajmir) enjoys no such cele- brity. JEHANGIll. 361 declined since Akber's time. The governments CHAP. were farmed, and the governors exacters and '. tyrannical. Though a judicious and sober writer, Roe is profuse in his praise of the magnificence of the court; and he speaks in high terms of the courtesy of the nobility, and of the order and elegance of the entertainments they gave to him. His recep- tion, indeed, was in all respects most hospitable, though the very moderate scale of his presents and retinue was not likely to conciliate a welcome where state was so generally maintained. He was excused all humiliating ceremonials, was allowed to take the highest place in the court on public occasions, and was continually admitted into fami- liar intercourse with the emperor himself. The scenes he witnessed at his private inter- views form a curious contrast to the grandeur with which the Mogul was surrounded. He sat on a low throne all covered with diamonds, pearls, and rubies ; and had a great display of gold plate, vases, and goblets, set with jewels. The party was free from all restraint, scarcely one of them re- maining sober except Sir Thomas and a few other grave personages, who were cautious in their in- dulgence. Jehangir himself never left off till he dropped asleep, when the lights were extinguished and the company withdrew. On these occasions he was overflowing with kindness, which increased with the effects of the wine; and once, after talking with great liberality of all religions, "he fell to HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK weeping, and to various passions, which kept them ' to midnight." But he did not retain these sociable feelings in the morning. On one occasion, when a courtier indiscreetly alluded in public to a debauch of the night before, Jehangir affected surprise, inquired what other persons had shared in this breach of the law, and ordered those named to be so severely bastinadoed that one of them died. He always observed great strictness in public, and never ad- mitted a person into his presence who, from his breath or otherwise, gave any signs of having been drinking wine. His reserve, however, was of little use : like great men at present, he was surrounded by newswriters ; and his most secret proceedings, and even the most minute actions of his life, were known to every man in the capital within a few hours after they took place. Notwithstanding the case above mentioned, and some other instances of inhumanity, Roe seems to consider Jehangir as neither wanting in good feel- ings nor good sense ; although his claim to the latter quality is impaired by some weaknesses which Sir Thomas himself relates. In one case he seized on a convoy coming to the ambassador from Surat, and consisting of presents intended for himself and his court, together with the property of some mer- chants who took advantage of the escort : he rum- maged the packages himself with childish curiosity ; and had recourse to the meanest apologies to appease JEHANGIK. 363 and cajole Roe, who was much provoked at this CHAP. disregard of common honesty. Though Roe speaks highly in some respects of particular great men, he represents the class as unprincipled, and all open to corruption. The treaty he had to negotiate hung on for upwards of two years, until he bribed Asof Khan with a valuable pearl ; after which all went on well and smoothly. Both Roe and other contemporary travellers represent the military spirit as already much declined, and speak of the Rajputs and Patans as the only brave soldiers to be found.* The manual arts were in a high state, and were not confined to those peculiar to the country. One of Sir T. Roe's presents was a coach, and within a very short period several others were constructed, very superior in materials and fully equal in work- manship. Sir Thomas also gave a picture to the Mogul, and was soon after presented with several copies, among which he had great difficulty in distinguishing the original. t There was a great influx of Europeans, and considerable encourage- ment to their religion. Jehangir had figures of Christ and the Virgin at the head of his rosary ; and two of his nephews embraced Christianity, with his full approbation, t * Roe. Terry. Hawkins. f Among the articles he recommends for presents, are his- torical paintings, night pieces, and landscapes : " but good, for they understand them as well as we." $ Roe. Hawkins. Terry. Coryat. 364 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. Prince Khusru. Unpopu- larity of Shh Julian. The language of the court was Persian, but all classes spoke Hindostani ; and Hawkins, who only knew Turkish, found the emperor himself and the Khani Khanan well versed in that tongue. No subject seems to have excited more interest, both in the ambassador and the court, than the fate of Prince Khusru. All his bad qualities were forgotten in his misfortunes ; he was supposed to be endowed with every virtue ; the greatest joy prevailed when any sign appeared of his restoration to favour, and corresponding indignation when he fell into the power of his enemies. Even the king was supposed to be attached to him, though wrought on by the influence of Shah Jehan and the arts of Asof Khan and Nur Jehan.* Khusru's exclusion was not the more popular for its being in favour of Shah Jehan ; who, according to Sir T. Roe, was " flattered by some, envied by others, loved by none." Roe himself represents him as a bigot and a tyrant ; but as his conduct shows nothing but ability and correctness, it is probable that he owed his unpopularity to his cold and haughty manners ; the ambassador himself remark- ing, that he never saw so settled a countenance, or any man keep so constant a gravity, never smiling, * Sir T. Roe once met Khusru, while moving in loose cus- tody, along with the army. He stopped under the shade of a tree during the heat, and sent for Sir Thomas, who was near. His person was comely, his countenance cheerful, and his beard was grown down to his girdle. He knew nothing of what was passing, and had not heard either of the English or their am- bassador. JEHANGIR. 365 nor by his looks showing any respect or distinction CHAP. of persons, but entire pride and contempt for all. - ! Yet the prince could not at that time have been older than twenty-five. Shah Jehan might have expected to find a Prince formidable rival in Parviz, his elder brother ; but that prince, though sometimes an object of jea- lousy to him, could offer no really formidable oppo- sition to the superior abilities of Shah Jehan, sup- ported by the influence of the empress. A final blow was given to any hopes that Parviz Shah Jehan may have entertained, by the elevation of his bro- heir a ppa - ther to the title of king *, on his undertaking a great expedition against the Deckan. He was in- Sent to . , , . . i settle the vested with ample powers on this occasion ; and Deckan. ror moves Jehangir himself moved to Mandu, to be at hand , n . to support him in case of need. to Roe accompanied the emperor on this march; October ; ' and his account of the movement of the army z'i^&uf 5 ' forms a striking contrast to the good order and dis- sirT. Roe's cipline he had hitherto admired. The court and of his camp, while halted, were as regular as ever; but the demand for carriage cattle created a general scramble and confusion. The Persian ambassador and Roe were left for some days at Ajmir, from the want of conveyance for their baggage ; and the tents of the soldiers and followers were set fire to, to compel them to proceed, though ill provided. When actually in motion, the same want of ar- * From this time some writers call him Shah Khusru, and others, Shah Jehan. 366 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ' Complete shah A. D. 1617, " A. D. lei?, Residence of the em- peror and Shah Jehan in Guzerat. rangement was felt: sometimes there was a de- ficiency of water ; and sometimes, in long and difficult marches through woods and mountains, the road was scattered with coaches, carts, and camels, unable to proceed to the stage. * The state of affairs in the Deckan was very favourable to Shah Jehan. The ascendancy of a private person, like Malik Amber, led to jealousy among his confederates, and even his own officers. In consequence of these dissensions, he had suffered a defeat, which produced still further discourage- ment among the allies; so that when Shah Jehan entered the Deckan, he found little difficulty in de- taching the king ofBijapur from the confederacy; and Amber, seeing himself entirely deserted, was likewise compelled to make submission on the part of his nominal sovereign, Nizam Shah ; and to re- store the fort of Ahmednagar and all the other territory which he had re-conquered from the Mo- guls. After this glorious termination of the war, Shah Jehan returned to Mandu, and joined his father, within a twelvemonth of the time when they had marched from Ajmir. Jehansrir took this occasion to visit the province of Guzerat ; he remained there for near a year, and ' i n i i added the viceroyalty or that province to the governments previously held by Shah Jehan. * " In following the Mogul's court," says Roe, " I en- countered all the inconveniences that men are subject to under an ill government and an intemperate climate." JEHANGIR. 367 He quitted Guzerat in September 1618 ; and CHAP. the next two years are marked by no events, ex- cept an insurrection in the Panjab ; the capture of ^ m 7 ' the fort of Kangra or Nagarcot, under the moun- tains ; and a journey of the emperor to Cashmir. While in that valley, he received intelligence of Renewal of a renewal of the war in the Deckan. It seems to ancesinthe have been begun, without provocation, by Malik A. D. 1621, Amber, who probably was tempted by some negli- A - H - 103 - gence on the other side, for he had little difficulty in taking possession of the open country, and driving the Mogul commanders into Burhanpur, from whence they sent most earnest entreaties for help from Jehangir. Shah Jehan was again or- shahjehan dered to march with a powerful army ; and great treasures were collected to supply him after he reached the frontier. From some rising distrust in his mind, he refused to march, unless his brother, prince Khusru, were made over to his custody, and allowed to go with him to the Deckan. Being gratified in this respect, he entered on the service with his usual ability. Before he reached Malwa, a detachment of Malik Amber's had crossed the Nerbadda, and burned the suburbs of Mandu ; but they were driven back as the prince advanced ; and he, in turn, crossed the Nerbadda, and began offensive operations. Malik Amber had recourse to his usual mode of war, cut off supplies and de- tachments, hung upon the line of march, and attempted, by long and rapid marches, to surprise the camp. He found Shah Jehan always on his 368 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. His success in the field. He comes to terms with Malik Amber. Dangerous illness of the empe- ror. Measures of Parviz and Shah Jehan. A. D. 1621, about Sept.; A. H. 1030. Suspicious death of Khusru. Alienation of the em- press from Shah Jehan. guard ; was at last compelled to risk the fate of the campaign in a general action, and was defeated with considerable loss. But although Shah Jehan had a clear superiority in the field, he still found a serious obstruction in the exhausted state of the country. It was there- fore with great satisfaction that he received over- tures from Amber, offering a further cession, and agreeing to pay a sum of money. Not long after this success, Jehangir was seized with a violent attack of asthma, a complaint from which he suffered severely during the rest of his life. He was for some time in such imminent danger, as to lead to expectations of an immediate vacancy of the throne. Parviz hastened to court, but was sent back to his government with a reprimand ; and though Shah Jehan had not time to take such a step be- fore he heard of his father's recovery, yet the sud- den death of Prince Khusru, which happened at this juncture, was so opportune, that it brought the strongest suspicions of violence against the rival to whose custody he had been intrusted. We ought not, however, too readily to believe that a life not sullied by any other crime could be stained by one of so deep a dye. This event, which seemed to complete the se- curity of Shah Jehan's succession, was, in reality, the cause of a series of dangers and disasters that nearly ended in his ruin. Up to this period, his own influence had been strengthened by the all- JEHANGIR. 369 powerful support of Nur Jehan ; but, about the time CHAP. of his departure for the Deckan, that princess had ' affianced her daughter by Shir Afgan to Prince Shehriar, the youngest son of Jehangir* ; a con- nection of itself sufficient to undermine her ex- clusive attachment to the party of her more distant relative. But her views were further changed by a consideration of the impossibility of her gaining an ascendancy, such as she now possessed, over an active and intelligent prince like Shah Jehan. During her father's lifetime, she had been kept within bounds of moderation by his prudent coun- cils : after his death, which happened about this time, she exercised her dominion over the em- peror without the least control ; her brother, Asof Khan (to whose daughter Shah Jehan was married) being a mere instrument of her will. Unwilling to relinquish such unlimited power, she determined by all means to oppose the succession of Shah Je- han ; and, warned by the death of Khusru, and the danger of Jehangir, she saw that she had not a moment to lose in cutting off the resources which might at any time enable the prince to overcome her opposition. An opportunity was not long wanting of pursu- Candahar ing this design. Candahar having been taken by the Persians, it was pointed out as an enterprise . . , worthy of the conqueror of the Deckan, to recover *. H . 1031. that ancient possession. Shah Jehan at first gave ordel^t retake it. * Khdfi Khdn. VOL. II. B B sians ' A. D. 1621, 370 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK in to the project, and advanced as far as Mandu, ' on his way to the north ; but, perceiving, before long, that the object was to remove him from the country where his influence was established, and engage him in a remote and difficult command, he put off his further march, on pretext of the season and the state of his troops, and began to stipulate for some securities to be given to him before he Hisreiuc- should venture to move out of India. These de- leave in- mands were represented to Jehangir as arising from a project of independence ; and Shah Jehan was directed, in reply, to send the greater part of his army to the capital, in order that it might accom- The enter- pany Shehriar, to whom the recovery of Candahar prise com- mined to was to be committed. Orders were also sent direct Shehriar; to the principal officers, to leave Shah Jehan's camp TO whom an( j repair to that of Shehriar. This drew a re- most of shah je- monstrance from Shah Jehan, who now desired to ban's troops are trans- be allowed to wait on his father, while the other as peremptorily ordered him to return to the Deckan. The jagirs which Shah Jehan held in Hindostan were transferred to Shehriar during these discus- sions; and Shah Jehan, who had not been con- sulted in the arrangement, was desired to select an Mohabat equivalent in the Deckan and Guzerat. As things called to drew towards a crisis, Nur Jehan, distrusting both the military talents of her brother and his zeal in press ' her present cause, cast her eyes on Mohabat Khan, the most rising general of the time, but hitherto the particular enemy of Asof Khan. He was accordingly summoned to court from his govern- JEHANGIR. 371 ment of Cabul, and was treated with every mark CHAP. of favour and confidence. Jehangir, who had been again in Cashmir, re- A - D - 1622, about Oct.; turned on the commencement of these discussions, A. H. 1031. and fixed his court at Lahor, to be at hand in case his presence should be required. In the mean time messages passed between Shah increased Jehan and the emperor, but with so little effect in between producing a reconciliation, that Jehangir put several persons to death on suspicion of a plot with his son ; and Shah Jehan, finding that his fate was Rebellion sealed, marched from Mandu with his army to- j e han? wards Agra. Jehangir, on this, marched from La- Advance of the em- hor, and, passing through the capital, arrived within peror. twenty miles of the rebel army lying at Belochpur, forty miles south of Delhi. Shah Jehan retired into A - H - 1032 the neighbouring hills of Mewat, and disposed his troops so as to shut the passes against a force which the emperor detached in quest of him. A partial and indecisive action took place, and is said to have been followed by negotiations. The result was, that Shah Jehan determined to retire, and set out Retreat of Shah on his march for Mandu. Jehan. It does not appear what induced him to adopt its conse- . . i i t it i quences. this step : it was attended with all the consequences usual with attempts to recede in civil wars. Je- hangir advanced in person to Ajmir, and sent on a strong force, under Prince Parviz and Mohabat Khan, to follow up the retiring rebels. Rustam Khan, whom Shah Jehan had left to defend the hills on the Chambal, deserted to the enemy ; the B B 2 372 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK province of Guzerat expelled his governor, and he _ was himself compelled, by the advance of the im- perial army, to cross the Nerbadda and retire to Burhanpur. Nor was he long permitted to remain there in tranquillity ; for Mohabat Khan, having blinded him by some delusive negotiations, crossed the Nerbadda, and was joined by the Khani Kha- nan, who till this time had been attached to Shah Jehan. The rains were at their height when Shah shah Jehan Jehan commenced his retreat into Telingana, and intoTeiin- a great part of his forces had deserted him before he directed his course to Masulipatam, with the Makes his intention of making his way to Bengal. He ac- complished this long and arduous march by the A. D . 1624, early part of the succeeding year, and met with no V H 1 OSS opposition in Bengal, until he reached Raj Mahal, where the governor of the province engaged him, obtains and was defeated in a pitched battle. By this vic- tory Shah Jehan obtained possession of Bengal, and lar ' was enabled to seize on Behar, and to send on a detachment under Bhim Sing, the brother of the rana of Oudipur, to endeavour to secure the fort of Allahabad. He is pur- In the mean time prince Parviz and Mohabat I * prince* Khan, after chasing Shah Jehan from the Deckan, MohabaT d had cantoned for the rainy season at Burhanpur. On hearing of his arrival and rapid progress in Bengal, they put themselves in motion in the di- rection of Allahabad. Shah Jehan crossed the Ganges to meet them ; but the people of the country, who were not inclined to enter on oppo- JEHANGIR. 373 sition to the emperor, refused to bring in supplies CHAP. to his camp, or to assist in keeping up his commu- nications by means of the boats on the Ganges. The discouragement and privations which were the consequence of this state of things led to the desertion of the new levies which Shah Jehan had raised in Bengal ; and when, at last, he came to an action with his opponents, he was is defeated, easily overpowered, his army dispersed, and himself JheDe'ckan. constrained once more to seek for refuge in the Deckan. Affairs in that quarter were favourable to his views. During his first flight to the Deckan state of the the king of Bijapur and Malik Amber had both re- mained steady to their engagement with Jehangir ; and the king of Golconda had shown no disposi- tion to assist him during his retreat through Telin- gana. Since that time the Moguls had taken part on the side of the king of Bijapur in a dispute be- tween him and Malik Amber ; and the latter chief retaliated by invading the Mogul dominions, and carrying his ravages to the neighbourhood of Bur- h an pur. He was therefore prepared to receive Shah Jehan with open arms; and wrote to press shahjehan him to undertake the siege of Burhanpur. Shah Malik Im^ Jehan complied, and commenced his operations. ber- The place made an obstinate defence; and, in the Pressed by end, the return of Parviz and Mohabat to the M^hlbaT Nerbadda obliged him to raise the siege and attend to his own safety. His adherents now deserted Deserted him in greater numbers than before ; and, being arm. dispirited by ill health as well as adverse fortune, BBS 374 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK he wrote to beg his father's forgiveness, and to ' express his readiness to submit to his commands. offers his Jehangir directed him to give up the forts of Rotas to the em" in Bchar, and Asirghar in the Deckan, both of which were still in his possession, and to send two A. D. 1625. A. H. 1034. of his sons, Dara Sheko and Aurangzib, to court, as hostages for his good behaviour. These demands were complied with ; but we are prevented judging of the treatment designed for Shah Jehan by an event which, for a time, threw the whole empire into confusion. After the first retreat of Shah Jehan to the Deckan, Jehangir returned from Ajmir to Delhi ; and believing all serious danger to his government to be at an end, he went on his usual expedition to Cashmir, and repeated it in the following year. On the third year he was induced, by a new revolt The empe- of the Roushenias, to change his destination for against the Cabul j and although he soon heard of the sup- in Cabal!* 5 pression of the rebellion, and received the head of Ahmed, the son of Ahdad, who was the leader of it, he made no change in his determination. But he was not destined to accomplish this journey in tranquillity ; for no sooner was Shah Jehan reduced to submission than the domineering press ' spirit of Nur Jehan proceeded to raise up new His his- enemies. Mohabat Khan was the son of Ghor Beg, a native of Cabul.* He had attained the rank of a commander of 500 under Akber, and * Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 30. JEHANGIR. 375 was raised to the highest dignities and employ- CHAP. ments by Jehangir. He had long enjoyed a high '_ place in the opinion of the people*, and might now be considered as the most eminent of all the emperor's subjects. This circumstance alone might have been sufficient to excite the jealousy of Nur Jehan. It is probable, however, that she also dis- trusted Mohabat for his old enmity to her brother, and his recent connection with Parviz. Whatever might be the motive, he was now sum- He is sum- moned to court to answer charges of oppression ^url and embezzlement during the time of his occu- pation of Bengal. He at first made excuses for not attending, and was supported by Parviz ; but, rinding that his appearance was insisted on, he set out on his journey, accompanied by a body of 5000 Rajputs whom he had contrived to attach to his service. Before his arrival, he betrothed his daughter to Brutal i T-> -i i i / i treatment a young nobleman named Berkhordar, without ofhis first asking the emperor's leave, as was usual with "" persons of his high rank. Jehangir was enraged at peror " this apparent defiance : he sent for Berkhordar, and, in one of those fits of brutality which still broke out, he ordered him to be stripped naked and beaten with thorns in his own presence ; and then seized on the dowry he had received from Mohabat, and sequestrated all his other property. * Sir T. Roe, in A. D. 1616, says of him, that he is a noble and generous man, well beloved by all men, and the king's only favourite, but cares not for the prince (Shah Jehan). B B 4 376 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK When Mohabat himself approached the camp, ' he was informed that he would not be admitted to sezes on the emperor's presence ; and, perceiving that his ruin was predetermined, he resolved not to wait till he should be separated from his troops, but to strike a blow, the very audacity of which should go far to insure its success. Jehangir was at this time encamped on the Hy- . . . , the em- daspes ; and was preparing to cross it, by a bridge person. of boats, on his way to Cabul. He sent the army A. D. 1626, across the river in the first instance, intending to March ; A. H. 1035, follow at his leisure when the crowd and confusion Jemadi 2. should be over. The whole of the troops had passed, and the emperor remained with his personal guards and attendants, when Mohabat, getting his men under arms a little before day- break, sent a detach- ment of 2000 men to seize the bridge, and moved, himself, with all speed, to the spot where the em- peror was encamped. The place was quickly sur- rounded by his troops ; while he himself, at the head of a chosen body of 200 men, pushed straight for the emperor's tent. The attendants were overthrown and dispersed before they were aware of the nature of the attack ; and Jehangir, who was not quite recovered from the effects of his last night's debauch, was awakened by the rush of armed men around his bed : he started up, seized his sword, and, after staring wildly round, he per- ceived what had befallen him, and exclaimed, " Ah ! Mohabat Khan ! traitor ! what is this ?" Mohabat Khan replied by prostrating himself on JEHANGIR. 377 the ground, and lamenting that the persecution of CHAP. his enemies had forced him to have recourse to _____ violence to obtain access to his master. Jehangir at first could scarcely restrain his indignation ; but, observing, amidst all Mohabat's humility, that he was not disposed to be trifled with, he gradually accommodated himself to his circumstances, and endeavoured to conciliate his captor. Mohabat now suggested to him that, as it was near his usual time of mounting, it was desirable that he should show himself in public to remove alarm, and check the misrepresentations of the ill disposed. Jehan- gir assented, and endeavoured to withdraw, on pre- tence of dressing, to his female apartments, where he hoped to have an opportunity of consulting with Nur Jehan : being prevented from executing this design, he prepared himself where he was, and at first mounted a horse of his own in the midst of the Rajputs, who received him with respectful obeisances ; but Mohabat, reflecting that he would be in safer custody, as well as more conspicuous, on an elephant whose driver could be depended on, urged him to adopt that mode of conveyance, and placed him on one of those animals with two armed Rajputs by his side. At this moment, the chief elephant driver, attempting to force his way through the Rajputs, and to seat the emperor on an elephant of his own, was dispatched on a sign from Mohabat. One of Jehangir's personal at- tendants who reached the elephant, not without a wound, was allowed to mount with his master, and 378 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the same permission was given to the servant who ' was intrusted with the bottle and goblet, so es- sential to Jehangir's existence. These examples of the consequences of resist- ance had their full effect on the emperor ; and he proceeded very tractably to the tents of Mohabat Khan. Spirited Meanwhile, Nur Jehan, though dismayed at this unexpected calamity, did not lose her presence of mind. When she found all access cut off to the emperor, she immediately put on a disguise, and set out for the bridge in a litter of the most ordi- nary description. As the guards were ordered to let every one pass, but permit no one to return, she crossed the river without obstruction, and was soon safe in the midst of the royal camp. She im- mediately sent for her brother and the principal chiefs, and bitterly reproached them with their cowardice and neglect, in allowing their sovereign to be made a prisoner before their eyes. She did not confine herself to invectives, but made imme- diate preparations to rescue her husband by force ; and although Jehangir, probably in real appre- hension of what might happen to himself in the confusion, sent a messenger with his signet to en- treat that no attack might be made, she treated the message as a trick of Mohabat's, and only suspended her proceedings until she could ascertain the real position of the enemy's camp, and the part of it inhabited by the emperor. During the night, a nobleman named Fedai Khan made an attempt to JEHANGIR. 379 carry off Jehangir by swimming the river at the CHAP. head of a small body of horse : his approach was discovered, and it was with difficulty he effected his escape, after losing several of his companions killed and drowned in the river. Next morning, the whole army moved down to she attacks the attack. It was headed by Nur Jehan herself, camp! who appeared on the howdah of a high elephant, with a bow and two quivers of arrows. The bridge had been burned by the Rajputs, and the army be- gan to cross by a ford which they had discovered lower down the river. It was a narrow shoal, be- tween deep water, and full of dangerous pools ; so that the passage was not effected without the ut- most disorder ; many were obliged to swim, and all landed with their powder wetted, weighed down with their drenched clothes and armour, and obliged to engage hand to hand before they could make good their footing on the beach. Nur Jehan was among the foremost, on her elephant, with her brother and some of the principal chiefs around her : she with difficulty effected a landing, but found it impossible to make any impression on the enemy. The Rajputs had the advantage of the ground ; they poured down showers of balls, ar- rows, and rockets on the troops in the ford ; and, rushing down on those who were landing, drove them back into the water sword in hand. A scene of universal tumult and confusion en- sued : the ford was choked with horses and ele- phants j some fell and were trampled under foot; 380 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK others sunk in the pools, and were unable to regain ' the shoal ; and numbers plunged into the river, and ran the chance of making good their passage, or being swept away by the stream. The most furious assault was directed on Nur Jehan : her elephant was surrounded by a crowd of Rajputs ; her guards were overpowered and cut down at its feet j balls and arrows fell thick round her how- dah ; and one of the latter wounded the infant daughter of Shehriar, who was seated in her lap. is repulsed At length her driver was killed ; and her elephant, with heavy loss. having received a cut on the proboscis, dashed into the river, and soon sunk in deep water, and was carried down by the stream : after several plunges, he swam out and reached the shore, when Nur Jehan was surrounded by her women, who came shrieking and lamenting, and found her howdah stained with blood, and herself busied in extracting the arrow, and binding up the wound of the infant. Fedai Khan had made another attempt, during the confusion of the battle, to enter the enemy's camp at an unsuspected point, and had penetrated so far that his balls and arrows fell within the tent where Jehangir was seated ; but the general repulse forced him also to retire. He effected his retreat, wounded, and with the loss of many of his men, and imme- diately retired to the neighbouring fort of Rohtas, of which he was the governor. she joins Nur Jehan now saw that there was no hope of ror iThis rescuing her husband by force ; and she deter- ment? 6 mined to join him in his captivity, and trust to JEHANGIR. 381 fortune and her own arts for effecting his deliver- CHAP. ance. Mohabat Khan, after his success at the Hy- insecurity J of Moha- daspes, advanced to Attok, where Asof Khan had bat's power, retired. His authority was now so well established that it was recognised by most of the army ; and Asof Khan, and such leaders as attempted to hold out, were obliged in the end to give themselves up as prisoners. But the security and even the ex- tent of Mohabat's power was far from being so great as it appeared : his haughty and violent be- haviour to those who had been opposed to him took deep root in their breasts. The ascendancy of the Rajputs was offensive to the other troops ; and, as the provinces were still faithful to the emperor, and two of his sons at large, Mohabat was obliged to use great management in his treatment of his prisoner, and to effect his objects by per- suasion rather than by force or fear. Jehangir, Artifices of tutored by Nur Jehan, took full advantage of the circumstances in which he was placed: he affected to enter into Mohabat's views with his usual facility ; expressed himself pleased to be delivered from the thraldom in which he had been kept by Asof Khan ; and even carried his duplicity so far as to warn Mohabat that he must not think Nur Jehan was as well disposed to him as he was him- self; and to put him on his guard against little plots that were occasionally formed for thwarting his measures. Mohabat was completely blinded by these artifices ; and thinking himself sure of 382 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the emperor, he gave less heed to the designs of others. During these proceedings the army advanced to Cabul ; the neighbourhood of the Afghans made it necessary to increase the king's guard, and Nur Jehan seized the opportunity of getting persons in her interest to offer their services in such a way as to avoid suspicion. Jehangir was allowed, at this time, to go out to shoot on an elephant ; always surrounded by Rajputs, and with one in particular, the Rajputs wno stuck to him like his shadow, and never for a and the king's moment let him out of his sight. On one of these occasions an affray took place between the Rajputs with the emperor and some of the ahdis, a select body of single horsemen, whose duty it was to attend on His Majesty. The largest part of the escort being composed of Rajputs, the ahdis were overpowered and several of them killed ; and on their complaining to Mohabat, he said he would be happy to punish the offence if they could bring it home to any individuals. The ahdis, incensed at this evasion, fell with their whole force on a body of Rajputs, killed many, and drove others into the hills, where they were made slaves by the Hazarehs. Mohabat himself was exposed to so much danger in this disturbance that he was forced to take refuge in the king's tent. Next day the ringleaders were punished ; but a portion of the army was left in open enmity with the Rajputs, whose numbers were also diminished ; and the Afghans of the neighbourhood showed every disposition to JEHANGIR. 383 take part with the emperor. Nur Jehan could CHAP. therefore pursue her schemes with less obstruction and less fear of detection. She employed agents riots and . . ' prepara- to enlist fit men in scattered points at a distance, tions of , , . .,, . Nur Jehan. whence some were to straggle into camp as if in quest of service, while the others were to remain at their positions, and await her further orders. She next made Jehangir suggest a muster of the troops of all the jagirdars ; and when she was sum- moned to produce her contingent, she affected to be indignant at being put on a level with an or- dinary subject, and said she would take care that her muster should not turn out to her discredit. Accordingly she dressed out her old troops so as to make the smallness of their number conspicuous, entertained new levies as if to complete her con- tingent, and at the same time directed her recruits in the country to repair by twos and threes to the army. All this could not be done without some Rescueof alarm to Mohabat Khan ; but he was no longer able to crush opposition by force, and he suffered himself to be persuaded by Jehangir to avoid per- sonal risk by forbearing to accompany him to the muster of Nur Jehan's contingent. Jehangir ad- vanced alone to the review ; and he had no sooner got to the centre of the line, than the troops closed in on him, cut off the Rajput horse by whom he was guarded ; and, being speedily joined by their confederates, rendered it impossible to make any attempt to seize his person. Mohabat Khan per- ceived that his power was irretrievably lost ; and 384 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. Terms granted to Mohabat Khan. He is sent against Shah Joliaii. He breaks with the emperor, and immediately withdrew to a distance with his troops, and entered on negotiation to procure his pardon and assurances of safety. Jehangir was now restored to liberty, and Nur Jehan to power. She had relinquished none of her designs during the period of her adversity; and as she was obliged to make terms with Mohabat, to procure the release of her brother, who was his prisoner, she determined to connect the pardon of one enemy with the destruction of another ; and made it a condition of the emperor's reconciliation with Mohabat, that he should immediately have the use of his services against Shah Jehan. That prince, after his own submission and the misfortune of his father, had come from the Deckan to Ajmir with only 1000 men, in the hopes that his army might increase as he advanced ; but Raja Kishen Sing, his principal adherent, dying at that place, instead of an accession, he suffered the loss of half his numbers, and was obliged, as the only means of securing his personal safety, to fly across the desert to Sind. He was then in the lowest state of depression, and would have retired to Persia if he had not been prevented by ill health. From this time his fortunes began to brighten : he heard of the death of Parviz at Burhanpur, and learned also that Mohabat, instead of pursuing him, was now himself pursued by an army of the emperor, with whom he had again come to a rupture. Encouraged by these circumstances, he set off, through Guzerat, for the Deckan, where he was JEHANGIR. 385 soon joined by Mohabat, with such part of his force CHAP. as still remained.* ' Jehangir, soon after his deliverance, marched >?'"? Shah Jehan. back from Cabul to Lahor. Some time was spent in restoring every branch of the government to its old footing ; and when all had been satisfactorily arranged the emperor set off on his annual visit to Cashmir. Some time after his arrival in that valley, Sheh- riar was seized with so violent an illness that he was obliged to leave Cashmir for the warmer cli- mate of Lahor. Not long after his departure, sicknes* Jehangir was himself taken ill with a severe return of his asthma; and it soon became evident that his life was in great danger. An attempt was made to remove him to Lahor; his complaint was increased by the motion and passage of the mountains ; and before he had got over a third of his journey he had a severe attack, and died soon after reaching his and death i i r i of Jehangir. tent, in the sixtieth year or his age. A D 1627 Several of the great men of the time of Akber c ^ ; 7 died shortly before Jehangir. Aziz died before the ^^ 28 - usurpation of Mohabat ; Malik Amber, during its continuance; and Mirza Khan (the Khani Khanan), shortly after it was suppressed. * Gladwin's Jehangir. Khafi Khan makes an intermediate reconciliation between Mohabat and Jehangir, and another visit of the former to court, followed by a fresh revolt : but these rapid changes appear inexplicable ; and it is not easy to believe that if Mohabat had been in Nur Jehan's hands, having no longer her brother for a hostage, he would again have been allowed to retire in safety. VOL. II. C C 386 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Among the occurrences of Jehangir's reign may be mentioned an edict against the use of tobacco, which was then a novelty. It would be curious, as marking the epoch of the introduction of a prac- tice now universal in Asia, if the name of tambacu, by which it is known in most eastern countries, were not of itself sufficient to show its American origin.* * Where no other authority is quoted for facts in this reign, they are taken from Khafi Khan, from Gladwin's " Reign of Jehanglr," or from the autobiographical Memoirs of the emperor. Khafi Khan's history is compiled from various accounts written and oral. Mr. Gladwin's is evidently all drawn from written histories, but he only quotes the " Maasiri Jehangiri," and the Memoirs of the emperor, of which last he possessed a much more complete copy than that translated by Major Price. The Memoirs themselves contain a great deal of information regard- ing particular periods and the characters of individuals ; and though written in a rambling and inaccurate manner, are not without signs of talent. A large portion of them is composed of stories of magical performances ; some, though greatly ex- aggerated, are obviously tricks of ventriloquism and legerde- main, but all regarded by the emperor as in some degree the result of supernatural power. Those fables would lead to a lower estimate of his intelligence, if we did not remember the demonology of his contemporary in England. SHAH JEHAN. 387 CHAP. II. SHAH JEHAN, TILL 1657. THE influence of Nur Jehan expired with her hus- CHAP. band ; and the fruit of all her long intrigues was lost in a moment. Her favourite, Shehriar, was absent, and Asof Khan, who was all along deter- Asof Khan . Ti m mined to support bhah Jehan, immediately sent off with shah a messenger to summon him from the Deckan. In the mean time, to sanction his own measures by the appearance of legal authority, he released Prince Dawar, the son of Khusru, from prison, and proclaimed him king. * Nur Jehan, endea- imprisons vouring to support the cause of Shehriar, was placed press. under a temporary restraint by her brother ; and from that time, although she survived for many years, her name is never again mentioned in his- tory. t Asof Khan then continued his march to Labor. Defeats Shehriar, who was already in that city, seized the w h C ITput royal treasure, bought over the troops, and, form- *' ing a coalition with two sons of his uncle, the late * KhafiKhan. f She died in A. D. 1646, A. H. 1055. She was treated with respect, and allowed a stipend of 250,000. a year. She wore no colour but white after Jehangir's death, abstained from all en- tertainments, and appeared to devote her life to the memory of her husband : she was buried in a tomb she had herself erected close to that of Jehangir at Lahor. (Khafi Khan.) C C 2 388 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Prince Danial, marched out to oppose Asof Khan. The battle ended in his defeat : he fled into the citadel, was given up by his adherents, and he was afterwards put to death with the sons of Danial, by orders from Shah Jehan.* shah Jehan The new emperor lost no time in obeying the summons of Asof Khan. He left the Deckan ac- companied by Mohabat, and on his arrival at Agra caused his accession to be proclaimed, and took A. n. 1628, formal possession of the throne, t Jan. 26. ; A. H. 1037, The highest honours were conferred on Asof ?. Khan and Mohabat, and great promotions and dis- tributions of money were made to the friends and adherents of the emperor. Among his first acts were, to abolish the ceremony of prostration ; to restore the Mahometan lunar year in ordinary cor- respondence ; and to make some other slight changes favourable to the Mussulman religion. When firmly established in his government, Shah Jehan seems to have indemnified himself for his late fatigues and privations, by giving a loose to his passion for magnificent buildings and expensive entertainments. He erected palaces in his prin- cipal cities ; and, on the first anniversary of his accession, he had a suite of tents prepared in Cash- mir, which, if we are to believe his historian t, it Khdfi Khan. -j- Dawar Sheko (also called Bolaki), who had been set up for king by Asof Khan, found means to escape to Persia, where he was afterwards seen by the Holstein ambassadors in 1633. (Olearius, Ambassadors Travels, p. 190.) " Khafi Khan. SHAH JEHAN. 389 took two months to pitch. He introduced new CHAP. forms of lavish expenditure on that occasion ; for, . besides the usual ceremony of being weighed against precious substances, he had vessels filled with jewels waved round his head, or poured over his person (according to the superstition that such offerings would avert misfortunes) ; and all the wealth so devoted was immediately scattered among the bystanders, or given away in presents. The whole expense of the festival, including gifts of money, jewels, rich dresses and arms, elephants and horses, amounted, by the account of the same historian, to 1,600,000/. sterling. He was disturbed in these enjoyments by an L cal dis- J J turbances. irruption of the Uzbeks into Cabul : they ravaged the country and besieged the capital, but retired on the approach of a light force, followed up by an army under Mohabat Khan. To this invasion suc- ceeded the revolt of Narsing Deo, the murderer of Abul Fazl. He opposed a long resistance in Bundelcand, before he was brought to submit. * Mohabat had only reached Sirhind on his way to Cabul, when the intelligence of the retreat of the Uzbeks was received. He was immediately recalled to the capital, and directed to prepare for a march into the Deckan. Khan Jehan Lodi was an Afghan of low birth, History of but with all the pride and unruliness of his nation i^L/di. in India. He had held great military charges in * Khafi Khan. c c 3 390 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the reign of Jehangir, and commanded in the A.. Deckan under Parviz at the time of that prince's death. Being left with undivided authority, he thought it for his advantage, perhaps for that of the state, to make peace with the son of Malik Amber, now at the head of the Nizam Shahi go- vernment. He gave up what still remained to the Moguls of Shah Jehan's conquests, and entered into a close intimacy with his late enemies. When Shah Jehan set out to assume the throne, he refused to join him, marched into Malwa, laid siege to Mandu, and seemed to be aiming at inde- pendence. He returned to obedience when Shah Jehan's accession was secure ; and it was thought prudent, at first, to confirm him in his government, and afterwards to be content with removing him to that of Malwa, while the Deckan was given to Mohabat Khan. Having co-operated in the reduction of Raja Narsing Deo, he was invited to court, and treated with great attention ; but, before he had been long there, he received intimations from some of his friends that the emperor harboured designs against him, and was only waiting an opportunity to find him off his guard. These suggestions, whether true or false, made an impression on his jealous nature. He refused to attend on the king, assem- bled his troops round the palace he inhabited, and stood prepared to defend himself against any at- tempt that might be made on him. Negotiations then took place, and were so successful that all SHAH JEHAN. differences appeared to be removed, when some CHAP. new circumstance excited Khan Jehan's distrust, ' and decided him to run all risks rather than remain within the power of men on whose faith he could not rely. One night, soon after dark, he assembled His flight all his troops, placed his women in the centre on elephants, and marched openly out of Agra with his kettle-drums beating, at the head of 2000 vete- ran Afghans, and accompanied by twelve of his own sons. He was pursued within two hours by a strong body of the royal troops, w r ho overtook him at the river Chambal. He had scarcely time to send his family across the river, when he was obliged to cover their retreat by engaging the very superior force that was in pursuit of him. The severest part of the action was between the Afghans and a body of Rajputs, who dismounted and charged with pikes, according to their national custom. Raja Pirti Sing Rahtor and Khan Jehan were en- gaged hand to hand, and separated with mutual wounds. After a long resistance, Khan Jehan plunged into the stream, and effected his passage with the loss of a few men drowned, besides those he had lost in the action. The royal troops did not, at first, venture to follow him j and- when they had been joined by reinforcements, and were em- boldened to renew the pursuit, Khan Jehan had got so much the start of them, that he was able to make his way through Bundelcand into the wild and woody country of Gondwana, from whence he c c 4 392 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK soon opened a communication with his old ally, ' the king of Ahmednagar. His pro- The affair now assumed so serious an aspect that ceedmgs in (-,,,. T Shah Jelian thought it necessary to take the field m person, and moved into the Deckan at the head ^ a S reat armament. A. D. 1629, He halted, himself, at Burhanpur, and sent on October; .- . A. H. 1039, three detachments, or rather armies*, into the hos- Rabi ul ., awai. tile territory. state of the The three Deckan monarchies had, at this time, Deckan. 11- * recovered their ancient limits, and (except the fort of Ahmednagar, which still held out in disregard of Khan Jehan's cession) the Moguls were re- duced to the eastern half of Candesh and an ad- joining portion of Berar. The greatest of the Deckan kingdoms was that of Ahmednagar, which was contiguous to the Mogul territory. Mortezza Nizam Shah (the king set up by Malik Amber) was well inclined to act for himself on the death of that minister ; but he would, perhaps, have re- mained a pageant, if the sons of Malik Amber had possessed talents equal to their father's. The fact was far otherwise ; and Mortezza soon displaced and imprisoned Fatten Khan, the eldest of them, and afterwards conducted the administration him- self. He did so with so little ability, that his king- dom became a scene of faction, affording every advantage to his foreign enemies.! rbrahim A'dil Shah of Bijapur, who died about * The native historian estimates them at 50,000 men each. f Grant Duff. Khafi Khan. SHAH JEHAN. 393 the same time with Amber, had left his country in CHAP. a much more prosperous condition to his son, Mo- hammed A'dil Shah ; and Abdullah Kutb Shah of Golconda, who was probably aggrandising himself at the expense of his Hindu neighbours in Telin- gana, took no part in the quarrels of the Maho- metan kings. By the time Shah Jehan reached Burhanpur, Khan Jehan had moved from Gondwana into the country under Ahmednagar. The Mogul armies, in consequence, marched into that territory, and were assisted by a simultaneous movement from the side of Guzerat. Khan Jehan, after some un- K han j e - availing attempts by himself and his allies to make out ofAh! head against this disproportioned force, retired to medna g ar - the southward, and eluded the Mogul detachments by moving from place to place. At length A'zim Pursued Khan, the most active of Shah Jehan's officers, by ^ y h f zim a succession of forced marches, succeeded in sur- prising him, took his baggage, and forced him to seek shelter by retiring among the hills and woods, where the whole of the enemy's force could not be brought to bear on him. He then kept retreat- ing ; sometimes checking his pursuers by defend- ing favourable positions, and sometimes escaping from them by long and unexpected marches. In this manner he reached Bijapur. He expected to persuade the king to take his part; but he found Fails bob- Mohammed A'dil Shah entirely disinclined to enter ^"S on such a contest, and was obliged once more to B 'J a P" n return to the territories of the king of Ahmed- 394> HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK nagar. Mortezza Nizam Shah had himself been ' hard pressed during this interval, and two of the His ally, greatest of the Hindu chiefs under him had gone the king of l Ahmed- over to the enemy. He had still sufficient con- feated. fidence to try the effect of a decisive battle. He assembled his army at Doulatabad, and took post in strong ground among the neighbouring passes : this advantage did not compensate for the superior numbers of his enemies ; he was defeated, and obliged to seek protection in his forts and in de- KhiinJe- sultory warfare. Meanwhile Khan Jehan, over- fromthe whelmed by the defeat of his allies, the destruction of their country, and the additional calamities of famine and pestilence with which it was now visited, determined to quit the scene, and to take refuge (as was supposed) with the Afghans near Peshawer, where all the north-eastern tribes were at that time up in arms. If such was his intention, he was un- able to accomplish it : after passing the Nerbadda near the frontier of Guzerat, he crossed all Malwa towards Bundelcand, where he hoped to be able to revive the spirit of insurrection ; but the raja of that country turned against him, and cut off his rear-guard under his long-tried and attached friend Deria Khan ; and, being overtaken by the Moguls, he sent off his wounded, and made a stand with the remains of his force, now reduced to 400 Afghans. His resistance, though long and desperate, was vain : his party was destroyed or dispersed, and he was obliged to fly with a few devoted adherents. He endeavoured to force his way into the hill fort SHAH JEHAN. 395 of Calinjer, was repulsed with the loss of his son, CHAP. and was at last overtaken at a pool where he had ' stopped from exhaustion : and, after defending . Is cut f, 3 in Bundel- himself with his usual gallantry and receiving many cand. wounds, was struck through with a pike by a Raj- put, and his head was sent as a most acceptable A. D . IGSO, ., , T , A. H. 1040. present to the Mogul emperor. * The war with Nizam Shah was not concluded Continu- , ,,,..., ... ance of the by the removal or its original cause. At this time war with a destructive famine desolated the Deckan. It began from a failure of the periodical rains in A. D. Fa pestilence 1629, and was raised to a frightful pitch by a re- in tbe Deckan. currence of the same misfortune in 1630. Thou- sands of people emigrated, and many perished be- fore they reached more favoured provinces ; vast numbers died at home ; whole districts were de- populated ; and some had not recovered at the end of forty years, t The famine was accompanied by a total failure of forage, and by the death of all the cattle ; and the miseries of the people were com- pleted by a pestilence such as is usually the conse- quence of the other calamities. In the midst of these horrors, A'zim Khan carried on his operations against Mortezza Nizam Shah ; and that prince, ascribing all his disasters to the misconduct of his minister, removed him from his office, and conferred it on Fatteh Khan, son of Malik Amber, whom he released from prison for the purpose. The prospect of the ruin of the Nizam Shah, The king of Bijapur * Grant Duff. Khafi Khan. f Khafi Khan. 396 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK which now seemed at hand, alarmed Mohammed x ' A'dil Shah, who, though pleased, at first, with the joins the humiliation of his hereditary enemy, was not in- mednagar. sensible of the danger certain to result to himself from the entire subversion of the neighbouring monarchy. He therefore brought a seasonable relief to the weaker party, by declaring war with the Moguls. But his assistance came too late to preserve Mortezza Nizam Shah from the conse- quences of his own imprudence : Fatteh Khan, more mindful of former injuries than recent favours, and ambitious of recovering the authority once possessed by his father, applied all the power which had been confided to him to the destruction of the donor ; and, aided by the weakness and unpopu- larity of Mortezza himself, was soon strong enough to put that prince and his chief adherents to death, and to take the government into his own hands. Murder of At the same time, he sent to offer submission, and Ahmed- a large contribution to the Moguls, and placed an hisfminf- infant on the throne, with an open profession that Khan Fatt< 1 ne was * n ld his dignity in subordination to Shah Jehan. who sub- His terms were immediately accepted, and Shah Jehan turned his whole force against Bijapur. Mn> Fatteh Khan, however, evaded the fulfilment of War with Bijapur his promises, was again attacked by the Moguls, continues. . . . -11 o A / vi an d once more joined his cause with that or A cm Faiteh f Shah - He was afterwards reconciled to the Mo- Khan. g u ] s . an( j various similar changes took place in the SHAH JEHAN. 397 progress of the war, from his perfidious and shifting CHAP. policy. ' During one of those vicissitudes, the king of siege of Bijapur. Bijapur was borne down by the superior force of his enemies, and was constrained to take refuge in his capital, where he was besieged by a great army under the command of Asof Khan. In this despe- rate situation, he must have shared the fate of his former rival, if he had not found resources in his own abilities and address. While he used every exertion to defend his town, and to harass the as- sailants, he amused Asof Khan, and delayed his operations by a variety of well-contrived artifices : sometimes he entered on negotiations himself, and held out hopes of his immediately yielding to Shah Jehan's demand, without the risk of further hos- tilities ; at other times, he engaged Asof Khan in intrigues with chieftains who pretended to make bargains for their defection, and sometimes led him into disasters by feigned offers from individuals to desert their posts when attacked, or to admit his troops by night into parts of the fortifications in- trusted to their charge. During all this time, disease and famine were playing their parts in the camp of Asof Khan ; and he at last found himself under the necessity of raising the siege, and re- venged himself by cruelly ravaging the unexhausted Failure of ,, , , . , the siege. parts of the kingdom. * It was about the time of this failure that Shah The em - peror re- turns to * Grant Duff. Khafi Khan. Delhi. 398 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Jehan returned to his capital, leaving Mohabat _ Khan in the supreme government of the Deckan.* A.D. 1632, The operations carried on under that general led, March ; A. H. 1041, at length, to Fatten Khan's being shut up in the Iiamzn. fort of Doulatabad, where he defended himself, with occasional assistance from the king of Bijapur ; and the fate of the Nizam Shahi monarchy seemed to rest on the result of the struggle. It was de- cided by a general action, in which the combined force of the Deckanis was defeated in an attempt to raise the siege, and Fatteh Khan soon after sur- rendered and entered into the Mogul service, while A.D. less, the king whom he had set up was sent off a prisoner February ; , , . , , A. H. 1042. to Cjualior.T in success The king of Bijapur, being now left alone, made rations m 6 overtures of negotiation, which were not favourably received. He then continued to defend himself; and all the efforts of Mohabat Khan were ineffectual to subdue him. An important point of the war was the siege of Perinda, on his failure in which, Mohabat Khan was obliged to fall back on Bur- A. D. iG34. hanpur and desist from aggressive operations, t He had before been put under the nominal command of the emperor's second son, Shuja, who was a boy ; and he was now recalled to court, and the Deckan was divided into two commands, under Khani Douran and Khani Zeman. These officers were less successful than their * KMfi Khdn. t Grant Duff. J Grant Duff. There is a considerable difference between his dates and those of Khan* Khan at this period. SHAH JEHAN. 399 predecessor. Mohammed A'dil Shah continued to CHAP. hold out, and the Nizam Shah monarchy, which ' seemed to have come to an end on the surrender of Fatteh Khan, was revived by a chief whose family were afterwards to act an important part as the founders of the Maratta nation. This was Shahii shahji Bosla at- Bosla, who had risen to considerable rank in the tempts to time of Malik Amber, and had distinguished him- klngS AH- self as a partisan during the late wars. After the medna s ar - fall of Doulatabad, he drew off to the rugged country in the west of the Deckan j and, some time after, was so strong as to set up a new pre- tender to the throne of Ahmednagar ; and, in time, to get possession of all the districts of that kingdom from the sea to the capital. * The Deckan, therefore, was as far as ever from being subdued ; and Shah Jehan perceived the necessity of returning in person to that country, to make another effort to reduce it. He marched from Agra towards the end of The em pe - 1635 1, and, on arriving in the Deckan, he adopted to'the^ his former plan of breaking his army into divisions, and sent them, in the first instance, to recover the November; A. H. 1O45 kingdom of Ahmednagar. When they had driven Jamidi ui' Shahji from the open country, and reduced many of his principal forts, Shah Jehan turned his whole force on Bijapur, took several strong places, and constrained Mohammed A'dil Shah once more to Failure of shut himself up in his capital. The talents which ^mpt^if Bijapur. * Grant Duff. Khafi Khan. f Khafi Khan. 400 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK had delivered him during the former siege did not _ desert him on this occasion. He laid waste the country for twenty miles round Bijapur, destroying every particle of food or forage ; filled up the wells, drained off the reservoirs, and rendered it impos- sible for any army to support itself during an attack on the city. The Moguls were therefore reduced to the plun- der of his territories, and met with frequent losses from the spirit and activity of his detachments. Both parties, ere long, were wearied with this sort of warfare ; and, A'dil Shah making the first over- Peace with ture p eace was concluded, on terms much more Bijapur. A. D. 1636, favourable than he could have expected. He con- sented to an annual payment of 200,000/. a year to Shah Jehan ; but he was to receive, in return, a share of the Nizam Shahi dominions, which much extended his territory on the north and east. Submission Shahji held out for some time longer : at length J1 he also submitted, gave up his pretended king, and entered into the service of the king of Bijapur with the consent of Shah Jehan. The empe- At an early period of this invasion, Shah Jehan tribute s * had overawed the king of Golconda, and had forced c6!da. G him to desist from reciting the name of the king of Persia in the public prayers, and to agree to pay a regular tribute. * Returns to These transactions being concluded, Shah Jehan A. n. 1637, returned to his capital, and the kingdom of Ahmed- A. H . 1046. na g ar was a t length extinguished for ever. * Grant Duff. Khafi Khan. SHAH JEHAN. 401 While Shah Jehan's attention was principally CHAP. ii. engaged with the Deckan, some events of less moment were taking place in other quarters. The Local dis - /^i turbances Portuguese fort of Hugli, not far from Calcutta, and sue- f, . n -r cesses in was taken, atter a siege, by the governor or 13en- Hindostan. gal (1631.) There were revolts of the Bundelas, in the first of which the son of Narsing Deo was killed. One portion of the troops on the eastern frontier completed the settlement of Little Tibet (l63i and 1636); another was defeated and al- most destroyed in an attempt to conquer Srinagar (1634) ; and a third, which invaded the petty state of Cuch Behar from Bengal, was compelled, by the unhealthiness of the climate, to relinquish the country after they were in possession (1637). The most important occurrence of these times Recovery was the acquisition of Candahar, the governor of bar. a which, Ali Merdan Khan, found himself exposed AH Merda to so much danger from the tyranny of his sove- reign, the king of Persia, that he gave up the place to Shah Jehan, and himself took refuge at Delhi. A. r>. 1537, - i n * H - 1047. He was received with great honour, and was after- wards, at different times, made governor of Cash- mir and Cabul, and employed on various wars and other duties. He excited universal admiration at the court by the skill and judgment of his public works, of which the canal which bears his name at Delhi still affords a proof, and by the taste and elegance he displayed on all occasions of show and festivity. His military talents were first tried in an invasion invasion VOL. II. DD fBalkh - 402 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK of Balkh and Badakhshan. Those provinces had ' remained in the hands of the Uzbeks since they were lost by Mirza Soliman, and were now held by Nazar Mohammed, the younger brother of Imam Kuli, sovereign of all the territory beyond the Oxus, from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus. The revolt of Nazar Mohammed's son, Abdul Aziz, encouraged by his powerful uncle, tempted Shah Jehan, who had enjoyed several years of A. D. iG44, repose, to assert the dormant rights of his family : A. n. 1054. \ AH Merdan penetrated the range of Hindu Cush and ravaged Badakhshan ; but the advance of the winter, and the fear of being cut off from the southern countries, compelled him to retreat with- out having gained any solid advantage. Next year, the enterprise was attempted by Raja Jagat Sing*, whose chief strength lay in a body of 14,000 Rajputs, raised in his own country, but paid by the emperor. Services of The spirit of the Rajputs never shone more brilliantly than in this unusual duty : they stormed moun tain passes, made forced marches over snow, Cush. constructed redoubts by their own labour, the raja himself taking an axe like the rest, and bore up against the tempests of that frozen region as firmly as against the fierce and repeated attacks of the Uzbeks. But, with all these exertions, the enterprise now appeared so arduous that Shah Jehan himself re- * Probably the raja of Cota. SHAH JEHAN. 403 solved to move to Cabul, and to send on his son, CHAP. Prince Morad, under the guidance of All Merdan ' Khan, with a large army, into Balkh.* This ex- A - D - 1645 Jy A, H. 1055. pedition was completely successful: Morad was shahjehan joined by some of Nazar Mohammed's sons, and cdS tc afterwards received the submission of that chief; Balkh r e- duced by but, just as he had taken possession of the capital, Prince , . . ^ Morad and a new rupture took place (with some suspicion or AH Merdan bad faith on the part of the Moguls). Nazar Mo- hammed, now divested of his defensible places, was obliged to fly to Persia ; and his dominions were annexed, by proclamation, to those of Shah Jehan. But this conquest was not long left undis- A. D . i646, turbed : Abdul Aziz collected a force beyond the A. n.'ip56, Oxus, and sent numerous bands of plunderers to dkhir. lay waste the newly conquered territory. Shah ^u^ sent aainst Jehan had, by this time, returned to Delhi ; and from be - yond the Morad, tired of the service, and impatient of the Oxus. control of Ali Merdan, had left his province with- out leave, and was sent away from court in dis- grace. The charge of restoring order was there- -r A /\ i -i i i fore imposed on rrince Aurangzib, while the king them. himself again repaired to Cabul to support him. A - n - 1647 > A. H. 1057. Aurangzib at first obtained a great victory over the Uzbeks ; its effects, however, were by no means decisive, for Abdul Aziz crossed the Oxus in per- son, and so harassed the Moguls, that Aurangzib, after some partial successes, was obliged to seek . Is Besieged protection from the walls of Balkh itself. * Khafi Khan says 50,000 cavalry and 10,000 foot. D D 2 404 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. Shah Jeban abandons his con- quest. Disastrous retreat of Aurangzib. About the end of A. D. 1647, A. H. 1057. Candahar retaken by the Per- Mans. About this time, Nazar Mohammed, having failed to obtain aid in Persia, threw himself on the clemency of Shah Jehan ; and the latter prince, perceiving how little his prospects were advanced by such an expenditure of blood and treasure, came to the prudent resolution of withdrawing from the contest : and that he might do so with the less humiliation, he transferred his rights to Nazar Mo- hammed, then a suppliant at his court. Aurangzib was accordingly directed to make over the places that remained in his possession ; and he began his retreat from Balkh under continual attacks from the Uzbeks of Abdul Aziz's party. When he reached the passes of Hindu Cush, the persecution was taken up, for the sake of plunder, by the mountaineers of the Hazareh tribes, and, to complete his misfortunes, the winter set in with violence ; and though the prince himself reached Cabul with a light detach- ment, yet the main body of his army was inter- cepted by the snow, and suffered so much, in this helpless condition, from the unremitting assaults of the Hazarehs, that they were glad to escape in separate bodies with the loss of all their baggage and almost all their horses. The tranquillity purchased by the relinquish- ment of Balkh was first disturbed by an attack on Candahar by the Persians. During the weak and tyrannical reign of Shah Safi, and the minority of his son, Shah Abbas II., the Moguls had been Khafi Khan. SHAH JEHAN. 405 allowed to enjoy the fruits of All Mercian's deser- CHAP. tion unmolested ; but as Abbas advanced towards . manhood, his ministers induced him to assert the dignity of his monarchy by restoring it to its ancient limits. He assembled a large army, and A. D . 1648, marched against Candahar. He showed much judgment in beginning the siege in winter, when the communication between India and Cabul was cut off by the snow, while his own operations went on unobstructed in the mild climate of Candahar. The consequence was, that, although Aurangzib and the vizir, Saad Ullah Khan, were ordered off in all haste from the Panjab, and although they made their way with great exertions through the mountains, they arrived too late to save Candahar, which had been taken after a siege of two months and a half. The exhausted condition of the army after their winter march compelled Aurangzib and Saad Ullah to halt and refit at Cabul ; while the king of Persia withdrew to Herat, leaving a strong garrison in Candahar.* The Indian army came before that city in May, Aurangzib 1649. They immediately opened their batteries, cover h and the contest was actively conducted on both A. H . 1059, * Jamadi al sides, with springing of mines, assaults by the awai. besiegers, and sallies by the garrison. These ope- rations were not interrupted by the approach of an army sent by Shah Abbas to raise the seige. Au- rangzib was contented with sending a detachment * Khafi Khan. D D 3 406 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. A. . 1649, aboutSept.; A. H. 1059, Ruin/un. Fails in the siege of Candahar. A. D. 1651, A. H. 1060. Second at- tempt on Candahar under Au- rangzib. A. D. 1652, A. H. 1061.' to oppose the attack, and remained, himself, in his lines before the city. The force he had employed was sufficient to repel the Persians, but it could not prevent their destroying the forage and cutting off the supplies of the besiegers ; and as the go- vernor defended his town with as much skill as ob- stinacy, Aurangzib was at length constrained to raise the siege, and commence his retreat to Cabul above four months after he had opened his bat- teries.* Shah Jehan, who had followed Aurang- zib to Cabul, marched from that city before the prince's return, and was not overtaken by him until he had reached Lahor. The next year passed in inaction, to which the king's usual visit to Cashmir forms no exception. The time he spent in that delicious retirement was devoted to feasts and dances, to gardens, excur- sions by land and water, and other pleasures con- genial to the climate and scenery. In the year next succeeding, Aurangzib and the vizir, Saad Ullah, were again dispatched to Can- dahar, with a numerous and well-equipped army and ample provision of tools and workmen to con- duct all the operations of a siege.t These great preparations were as unavailing as before ; and Aurangzib, after exhausting every resource supplied by the skill and courage of Saad * Khafi KMn. j- It is worthy of remark,, that, with so great a force assembled on purpose for a siege, there were only eight battering guns, and twenty smaller pieces of ordnance. SHAH JEHAN. 407 Ullah and the bravery of the Rajputs, was com- CHAP. pelled to return to Cabul, and was sent to be vice- roy of the Deckan. its failure. Shah Jehan was not discouraged by his repeated failures, and next year prepared for a still greater effort than had yet been put forth. His eldest son, Dara Sheko, though treated as Great ex - .... , pedition superior in station to the rest, was kept at court, under and looked with envy on the opportunities of dis- n^T tinction enjoyed by his brothers, especially Aurang- Sheko ~ zib, of whom he seems to have entertained a sort of instinctive jealousy. Urged by these feelings, he entreated Shah Jehan to allow him to try his skill and fortune at the siege of Candahar, and was put at the head of an army much exceeding that formerly employed. It assembled at Lahor in the winter of 1652, and commenced its march in the spring of the next year, Shah Jehan himself follow- A. D . 1653, . " ' A. u. 1063. ing as usual to Cabul. Dara opened his trenches, as Aurangzib had siege of done before him, on a day and hour fixed by the astrologers, and ordered by the emperor before the army set out on its march. He began the siege on a scale proportioned to his armament. He mounted a battery of ten guns on a high and solid mound of earth, raised for the purpose of enabling him to command the town ; and he pushed his operations with his characteristic im- petuosity, increased, in this instance, by rivalry with his brother. He assembled his chiefs, and besought them to support his honour, declaring D D 4 408 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK his intention never to quit the place till it was ' taken ; he urged on the mines, directed the ap- proaches, and, the beseiged having brought their guns to bear on his own tent, he maintained his position until their fire could be silenced by that of his artillery. But, after the failure of several attempts to storm, and the disappointment of near prospects of success, his mind appears to have given way to the dread of defeat and humiliation ; he entreated his officers not to reduce him to a level with the twice-beaten Aurangzib ; and he had recourse to magicians and other impostors, who promised to put him in possession of the place by supernatural means. Such expedients portended an unfavourable issue ; and accordingly, after a last A. D.I 653, desperate assault, which commenced before day- September; A. H. 1063, break, and in which his troops had at one time Shawal 9. -it gained the summit or the rampart, he was com- pelled to renounce all hope, and to raise the siege, after having lost the flower of his army in the pro- secution of it. He was harassed on his retreat Failure and \) O ^ by the Persians and Afghans : and it was not retreat of J Dara without additional losses that he made his way to Sheko. f . " A. r,. 1653, Cabul, whence he pursued his march to Lahor. ^TJoS! Thus terminated the last attempt of the Moguls Mohan-am. to recover Candaliar, of which they had held but a precarious possession from the first conquest of it by Baber. End of It was followed by nearly two years of undis- to 1655, turbed tranquillity. During that time Shah Jehan, and ices, having completed a revenue survey of his posses- SHAH JEHAN. 409 sions in the Deckan, which is said to have occupied CHAP. him for nearly twenty years *, gave orders for the ' adoption of the system of assessment and collection introduced by Todar Mai. t The same period is marked by the death of the Death of vizir, Saad Ullah Khan, the most able and upright Saad uiiah . . . i * T T TT Khan. minister that ever appeared in India. He makes a conspicuous figure in all the transactions of Shah Jehan, and is constantly referred to as a model in the correspondence of Aurangzib during the long reign of that monarch. Khafi Khan says that his descendants, in his time, were still distinguished for their virtues and intelligence, near a century after the death of their ancestor ; and contrasts the respectability of their conduct with the effeminacy and frivolity of the other nobles of that sera. The next year was destined to put an end to Renewal of I . r 11-1 n th this state or repose, and to light up a conflagration th which was never effectually suppressed, and was not extinguished until it had consumed the empire. Since the last pacification, Abdullah Kutb Shah had paid his tribute regularly, and had shown a desire to secure the favour of Shah Jehan, who, but for a particular concurrence of circumstances, would probably never have wished to molest him. The prime minister of Abdullah was a person intrigues named Mir Jumla. He had formerly been a diamond rfb a^cS merchant, and had been known and respected throughout the Deckan for his wealth and abilities * Grant Duff's " History of the Marattas," vol. i. p. 126. f Khdfi Khan. 410 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK long before he attained his present high station. x ' m His son, Mohammed Amin, a dissolute and violent young man, had drawn on himself the resentment of Abdullah Kutb Shah, and had involved his father in a dispute with the court. Mir Jumla was absent in command of an army in the eastern part of the kingdom of Golconda ; and, finding himself unable to obtain such concessions as he desired from his own sovereign, determined to throw him- self on the protection of the Mogul. He applied to Aurangzib, to whom, as w r ell as to the emperor, he was already known. Such an opportunity of interference afforded an irresistible temptation to a man of Aurangzib's intriguing disposition, and he strongly recommended the case of Mir Jumla to his father's favour. Shah Jehan, influenced by this advice, dispatched a haughty mandate to Ab- dullah Shah to redress the complaints of his mini- ster ; but Abdullah was further irritated by this encroachment on his independence, and committed Amin to prison, while he sequestrated the property of Mir Jumla. Shah Jehan, now provoked in his turn, sent orders to his son to carry his demands into effect by force of arms ; and Aurangzib, who had been waiting impatiently for this result, entered with alacrity on the duty, and executed it in a manner entirely suitable to his wily nature. Treacher- Without any further manifestation of hostility, on S Heider- ^ e S6n ^ OU ^ a cn Sen force, Ulldei* pretence of CS- dbad by corting his son, Sultan Mohammed, to Bengal, for Aurangzib. the purpose of celebrating his nuptials with the SHAH JEHAN. 41 1 daughter of his own brother, Prince Shuja, who CHAP. was viceroy of that province. The road from ' Aurangabad to Bengal made a circuit by Masuli- A - D - '656, patam, so as to avoid the forests of Gondwana, A. H.io' 11 11 ' i Rabi al and thus naturally brought the prince within a awai. short distance of Heiderabad, the capital of Gol- conda. Abdullah Shah was preparing an enter- tainment for his reception, when he suddenly ad- vanced as an enemy, and took the king so com- pletely by surprise that he had only time to fly to the hill fort of Golconda, six or eight miles from the city ; while Heiderabad fell into the hands of the Moguls, and was plundered and half burned before the troops could be brought into order. Aurangzib had, before this, found a pretence for assembling an army on the nearest point of his province ; and being joined by fresh troops from Malwa, he had ample means of sending on rein- forcements to Golconda. Mir Jumla also in time drew near, and was ready to turn his master's arms against himself. Abdullah Shah, on his first flight to the hill fort, had released Mohammed Amin, and given up the sequestrated property ; and he did all in his power to negotiate a reasonable ac- commodation ; while at the same time he spared no effort to procure aid from Bijapur : no aid came, and the Moguls were inexorable ; and, after several attempts to raise the siege by force, he was at last under the necessity of accepting the severe terms imposed on him; to agree to give his daughter in marriage to Sultan Mohammed, with a 412 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK dowry in territory and money ; to pay a crore of ' rupees (1,000,000/. sterling) as the first instalment S f Ub h"k S - ion ^ a vear ty tribute ; and promise to make up the of Goicon- arrears of past payments within two years. Shah Jehan would have been content with easier terms, and did in fact make a great remission in the pecuniary part of those agreed on ; but the rest were executed, and the Mogul prince returned A. D. 1656, to Aurangabad. Mir Jumla remained in the Mogul A. H. 1066 service, became the chosen counsellor of Aurang- zib, and was afterwards one of the most useful in- struments of his ambitious designs; Unpro- Aurangzib had scarcely reaped the fruits of his voked war with Bija- success in Golconda before an opportunity was afforded him of gaining similar advantages over the neighbouring kingdom. The peace with Bijapur had remained unbroken since the last treaty. Mo- hammed A'dil Shah had successfully cultivated the friendship of Shah Jehan, but had excited the per- sonal enmity of Aurangzib by a close connection with Dara Sheko. On his death, which took place in November, 1656 *, he was succeeded by his son, Ali, a youth of nineteen ; and Shah Jehan was tempted, by the persuasion of his younger son, to deny that the minor was the real issue of the late king, and to assert his own right to decide on the succession to his tributary. Though the force of the kingdom of Bijapur was still un- diminished, it was in no state of preparation for * Grant Duff. It corresponds to Moharram 1067. SHAH JEHAN. 413 war ; and a large portion of its army was employed CHAP. at a distance in wars with the Hindu petty princes of Carnata. Aurangzib, therefore, met with little difficulty in his invasion of the territory j and a fortunate accident having thrown the strong frontier fort of Bidr into his hands, he advanced without further obstruction to the capital.* The sudden- A . D . 1657, ness of the attack had prevented the mode of de- A. fence by destroying the country, so successfully practised on former occasions. No resource, there- fore, was left to the new king, but to sue for peace on the most unfavourable terms. Even those were peremptorily rejected by Aurangzib ; and he would probably ere long have obtained possession both of the capital and the county, if he had not been called off by a matter that touched him more nearly than the conquest of any foreign kingdom. * Grant Duff. 414 HISTORY OF INDIA. CHAP. III. FROM 1657 TO THE DEPOSAL OF SHAH JEHAN. BOOK THE emperor had been seized with an illness of so ' serious a nature, that it not only threatened an Dangerous immediate transfer of the crown to Dara Sheko, illness of the empe- but invested him at the moment with the admini- stration of his father's government. This state of affairs, involving all Aurangzib's prospects of aggrandizement and even of safety, turned his ex- ertions towards the seat of the monarchy, and for a long time withdrew his attention from the affairs of the Deckan. Characters Shah Jchan had four sons, all of an age to render them impatient of a subordinate station. Dara Sheko was in his forty-second year ; Shuja was forty ; and Aurangzib thirty-eight. Even Morad, the youngest, had long been employed in great D^ra commands.* Dara Sheko was a frank and high- spirited prince, dignified in his manners, generous in his expense, liberal in his opinions, open in his enmities ; but impetuous, impatient of opposition, and despising the ordinary rules of prudence as signs of weakness and artifice. His overbearing temper made him many enemies; while his habitual indiscretion lessened the number as well as the con- * Gladwin's History of Jelmngir. SHAH JEHAN. 415 fidence of his adherents. Shuia was not destitute CHAP. J in. of abilities, but given up to wine and pleasure. Aurangzib was a perfect contrast to Dara Sheko. He was a man of a mild temper and a cold heart ; cautious, artful, designing ; a perfect master of dissimulation ; acute and sagacious, though not extended in his views ; and ever on the watch to gain friends and to propitiate enemies. To these less brilliant qualities he joined great courage, and skill in military exercises ; a handsome, though not athletic, form j affable and gracious manners ; and lively agreeable conversation. He was so great a dissembler in other matters, that he has been sup- posed a hypocrite in religion. But, although re- ligion was a great instrument of his policy, he was, beyond doubt, a sincere and bigoted Mussulman. He had been brought up by men of known sanc- tity, and had himself shown an early turn for de- votion : he at one time professed an intention of renouncing the world, and taking the habit of a fakir ; and throughout his whole life he evinced a real attachment to his faith in many things in- different to his interest, and some most seriously opposed to it. His zeal was shown in prayers and reading the Koran, in pious discourses, in ab- stemiousness (which he affected to carry so far as to subsist on the earnings of his manual labour), in humility of deportment, patience under provoca- tion, and resignation in misfortunes ; but, above all, in constant and earnest endeavours to promote his own faith and to discourage idolatry and in- 416 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK fidelity. But neither religion nor morality stood ' for a moment in his way when they interfered with his ambition ; and, though full of scruples at other times, he would stick at no crime that was re- quisite for the gratification of that passion. His political use of religion arose from a correct view of the feelings of the time. Akber's innova- tions had shocked most Mahometans, who, besides the usual dislike of the vulgar to toleration, felt that a direct attack was made on their own faith. Jehangir's restoration of the old ritual was too cold to give full satisfaction ; and though Shah Jehan was a more zealous Mussulman, Dara openly pro- fessed the tenets of Akber, and had written a book to reconcile the Hindu and Mahometan doctrines. No topic, therefore, could be selected more likely to make that prince unpopular than his infidelity, and in no light could the really religious Aurangzib be so favourably opposed to him as in that of the champion of Islam. In this character he had also an advantage over Shuja, who was looked on with aversion by the orthodox Mahometans from his attachment to the Persian sect of the Shias. Morad was brave and generous, but dull in in- tellect, and vulgar in his pursuits. He was abun- dantly presumptuous and self-willed ; but his object never was more exalted than the indulgence of his humours, and the enjoyment of sensual pleasures.* * The characters of the princes are taken from Bernier, modi- fied by the facts in Khan' Khan, and by some passages in Aurangzlb's letters. The following is given by that monarch SHAH JEHAN. 417 Shah Jehan had, by the same mother as his CHAP. / / IIL sons*, two daughters. To the eldest, Padshah Begam, he was devotedly attached. She was en- dowed with beauty and talents, and was a great sup- port to the interest of Dara Sheko. Roushanara, the second daughter, had fewer personal attractions and less influence ; but her talent for intrigue, and her knowledge of the secrets of the harem, en- abled her to be of the greatest assistance to her favourite brother, Aurangzib. It was from this princess that Aurangzib ob- tained the intelligence on which he now acted. Though Shah Jehan had only attained his sixty- Dara ad- seventh year, the habits of indolence and pleasure in which he had indulged seem to have latterly diminished his attention to business, and allowed a greater share of influence to Dara Sheko, on whom, as heir apparent, he devolved such of his duties as he did not himself perform. Things were in this state when the emperor was seized with a sudden as Shah Jehan's opinion of his four sons. Dara (he said) had talents for command, and the dignity becoming the royal office, but was intolerant of all who had any pretensions to eminence ; whence he was " bad to the good, and good to the bad." Shuja was a mere drunkard ; and Morad, a glutton and a sensualist. Aurangzib excelled both in action and counsel, was well fitted to undertake the burden of public affairs, but full of subtle suspicions, and never likely to find any one whom he could trust. (Letter from Aurangzib to his son, in the " Dastur al Amal A'gdhi.") * Gladwin's History of Jehangir. VOL. II. E E 418 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. A.D. 1657, October ; A.H. 1O67, Zi Ilaj 7. Rebellion of Shuj/i, and of MoraU Cautious measures of Aurang- zib. His col- lusion with Mir Jumla. disorder in his kidneys, together with a suppression of urine, which entirely incapacitated him from business, and soon brought him to the brink of the grave.* During this crisis Dara stopped all correspondence, and detained all travellers likely to spread the news of the king's danger through- out the provinces. He could not, however, long elude the vigilance of his brothers. Aurangzib in particular was minutely informed of all his pro- ceedings during the whole of the struggle which followed. The first to act on the emergency was Prince Shuja, the viceroy of Bengal. He assembled the troops of his province, and immediately marched into Behar on his way to the capital. Prince Morad, viceroy of Guzerat, soon followed his example : he seized on all the money in the district treasuries, and laid siege to Surat, where there was a governor independent of his authority, and where he thought there was a considerable sum in deposit. Aurangzib conducted himself with more caution. He did not assume the royal title, as Shuja and Morad had done ; and although he instantly moved to his northern frontier, and urged on the pre- paration of his army, he made no open declaration till orders came from Dara, in the emperor's name, to direct Mir Jumla and the other military com- manders to quit his standard. Mir Jumla, after * Khafi Khan. SHAH JEHAN. 419 he joined the Moguls, had been summoned to the CHAP. capital, and had for a time been intrusted with the highest offices in the state. He had afterwards been sent back to the Deckan ; but his family was still at Agra, and the fear of the consequences to them made him hesitate to oppose an order of the emperor. But his embarrassment was removed by a stratagem suggested by Aurangzib. According to a concerted plan, he sent for Mir Jumla to his court ; and when that commander, after some affected delays and alarms, presented himself, he ordered him to be made prisoner and confined in the fort of Doulatabad, while his prin- cipal officers, secretly influenced by their com- mander, continued to serve with Auransrzib. Even Hema to join when he had thrown off the mask he still pro- ceeded with his usual policy. He left Dara and Shuja to weaken each other for his profit, and applied all his art to gain Morad, whom he might hope to render an instrument in his own hands. He wrote to him with the most vehement professions of attachment, congratulating him on his accession to the crown, and declaring his own intention of renouncing the world and indulging his love of devotion in retirement at Mecca. He nevertheless offered his zealous services against the irreligious Dara, and advised that, as their father was still alive, they should present themselves before him, when, if received with favour, they should secure him from undue influence, while they interceded for the pardon of their erring brother j meanwhile E E 2 420 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. Defensive measures of Dara. A. D. 1657, November ; A. H. 1O68, Rebi al awal 4. Shah Je- han re- assumes the govern- ment. Shuja con- tinues to advance on Agra. they should unite their forces and proceed to en- gage the infidel Jeswant Sing, who, it was under- stood, had been sent against them. * It seems incredible that Morad should have been deceived by so improbable a profession, but the coarseness of the artifice was disguised by the masterly ex- ecution ; and the assiduous flatteries of Aurangzib found a willing auditor in his brother, naturally unsuspicious, and dazzled by the prospect of assist- ance so necessary to the support of his feeble cause. Before this period Dara had taken measures to resist the threatened attacks of his rivals. He sent Raja Jeswant Sing into Malwa to watch Morad and Aurangzib ; and to act against them, with his whole army, or by dividing it, as circumstances might suggest. At the same time he himself ad- vanced to Agra, and dispatched an army under the command of his own son, Soliman Sheko, assisted by Raja Jei Sing, to oppose the approach of Shuja. By this time Shah Jehan was sufficiently recovered to resume the general control of the government ; but his confidence in Dara was only increased by the misconduct of the other princes. He wrote to Shuja, commanding him in positive terms to re- turn to his government. Shuja pretended to con- sider these orders as dictated by Dara Sheko, and probably still looked on the emperor's recovery as doubtful. He continued to move on until he met Soliman Sheko in the neighbourhood of Benares. * Khafi Khan. SHAH JEHAN. A battle then took place, and Shuja, though his CHAP. army was not dispersed, was defeated, and com- _ pelled to return into Bengal. - Is defeated . , bySoliman, Meanwhile Aurangzib quitted Burhanpur* arid son of i i ir 1 1 r i ' Dara, and marched into Malwa. He there formed a junction returns to with Morad ; and the combined armies marched to A. D. 1658, attack Raja Jeswant Sing, who was encamped near Uien. The raja drew up his armv on the bank A. H . loss, , . J * Jamadi al or the river bipra, which at that season was nearly akhir 25. dry, but still presented a formidable obstruction j from the rocky nature of its bed. Ra"ab 68 ' The battle was bravely contested by the Rajputs, Aurangzib . /. - , and Morad who were ill supported by the rest or the troops, defeat the It was chiefly decided by the gallantry of Morad : army under Jeswant Sing retired in disorder to his own coun- sing at try, and the rest of the army dispersed, t On re- Ujen ' warding his chiefs after this battle, Aurangzib sent them all to return their thanks to Morad, as if he alone were the fountain of all honour. On the first junction he had taken an oath to adhere to that prince, and renewed all his promises with every appearance of warmth and sincerity ; and through- out the whole campaign, although his abilities gave him the real control of all operations, he continued his professions of devotion and humility, always acknowledging Morad as his superior, and treating * Khafi Khan. -j- Khafi Khan. Bernier. The latter, who soon after joined the emperor's army, accuses Kasim Khan, who commanded along with Jeswant Sing, of disaffection. E E 3 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK X. A. D. 1658, May; A. H. 1068, from Rejab 27. to Shaban 25. Sh4h Je- han's an- xiety for an accom- modation. him on all occasions with the utmost respect and attention.* After this victory the princes advanced by slow marches to the Chambal, near Gwalior.t Some dispositions made by Dara Sheko for the defence of that river were rendered ineffectual by the manoeuvres of Aurangzib, and the army crossed without opposition. Before Jeswant Sing's defeat, Shah Jehan, un- able to bear the heat of the season, had set out on his way to Delhi. The news of that misfortune recalled him, much against his will, to Agra. He found that during his absence Dara had thrown Amin, the son of Mir Jumla, into confinement ; but, as he disapproved of the proceeding, it was immediately countermanded by the prince himself. Shah Jehan, at this time, notwithstanding his feeble health, had ordered his tents to be prepared, and intended to take the field in person. His hope was, that he should be able to bring about an ad- justment by his presence and authority, and to avoid a war which could not but bring many dan- gers and calamities on himself and all the parties en- gaged. He was dissuaded from this resolution by his brother-in-law, Shaista Khan. If it had been pursued, it would have had no effect on the princes, whatever it might on the armies ; for all were now too far engaged to recede, or to trust their future safety to any thing so precarious as the life of Shah Jehan. Dara likewise looked with an ill eye on * Khafi Khan. Bernier. f Khafi Khdn. SHAH JEHAN. an accommodation that must have removed him CHAP. from almost unlimited power, and restored the ad- ' ministration to its ordinary train under the imme- Dar4 marches diate control of the emperor. Urged on by this from Agra . ,* i . * . * oppose consideration, and confident in his superior ntim- hubro- bers, he refused even to wait for Soliman, then on ag Sst the his march from Benares with the most efficient - part of the army. Contrary to the earnest injunc- h * n ' tions of Shah Jehan he marched out at the head of an army which seemed irresistible from its num- bers and equipment, but was rendered weak, in reality, by the arrogance of the commander, the disaffection of the chiefs, and the absence of the flower of the fighting men.* On the 6th of Ramzan, 1068, the two armies A.D. less, approached each other at Samaghar, one march of June. from Agra : they drew up face to face on the next day, but did not join battle until the succeeding morning. The action began by a charge of a body of is totally Dara's cavalry, under Rustam Khan. It was un- able to penetrate a row of guns chained together in front of Aurangzib's line. A second and more powerful charge, headed by Dara himself, was equally unsuccessful ; but his attack was renewed and kept up without intermission on the centre, * Khafi Khan says the army consisted at Agra of upwards 70,000 horse, with innumerable elephants and guns. Bernier, though generally distrustful of native numbers, thinks it may have been 100,000 horse, 20,000 foot, and 80 pieces of artillery. He reckons Aurangzib and Morad's army at 30,000 or 35,000 horse. E E 4 424 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK where Aurangzib was stationed. In the mean x ' time Morad was attacked by 3000 Uzbeks, who poured in flights of arrows on him, with such rapidity that it was with difficulty he could bear up against them. His elephant gave way before the storm, and would have run off the field if Mo- rad had not ordered its feet to be chained ; thus cutting off the power of retreat for himself. This sharp contest with the Uzbeks was succeeded by a much more formidable attack. A large body of Rajputs rushed on the prince with an impetuosity that nothing could resist. Ram Sing, their raja, in a saffron robe, and with a chaplet of pearls on his head, ran up to Morad's elephant, and hurled his pike at the prince, while he shouted to the driver to make the elephant kneel down. Morad received the pike on his shield, and nearly at the same moment laid the raja dead with an arrow.* His death only exasperated the Rajputs, who fought with desperate fury, and fell in heaps round the prince's elephant. At this time Aurangzib was about to move to his brother's assistance, but he had soon full employment where he was ; for Dara, having at length broken through the line of guns, charged his centre at full speed, and carried all before him, by the united force of velocity and numbers. * Khafi Khan. Bernier. Colonel Tod (vol. ii. p. 4.81.) ascribes this action to Raja Chitar Sal of Bundi, who was a distinguished commander in the reign of Shah Jehan, and was likewise killed in this battle. SHAH JEHAN. 425 Aurangzib alone remained unshaken : he pre- CHAP. in sented his elephant wherever there was the greatest ". danger, and called aloud to his troops that " God was with them, and that they had no other refuge or retreat."* In the height of this contest Raja Rup Sing leaped from his horse, and running up to Aurangzib's elephant, began to cut away the girths with his sword. Aurangzib was struck with his audacity, and even in that moment of alarm called out to his men to spare him ; but before his voice could be heard the raja had fallen, almost cut to pieces. At this critical juncture, Morad, having at length repelled the Rajputs, was able to turn his attention to the centre ; and Dara, who found his right thereby exposed, was obliged to abate the vigour of his front attack. His numbers, however, might in the end have prevailed ; but as he was pressing forward on his elephant, conspicuous to all his troops, whom he was encouraging by his voice, and by waving his hand to them to advance, a rocket from the enemy struck the elephant, and rendered it so ungovernable that Dara had no choice but to throw himself from its back and to mount a horse with all expedition. His disappear- ance struck a sudden alarm among the distant troops ; and an attendant being carried off by a shot at his side, while fastening on his quiver after he mounted, those immediately round him were also thrown into confusion : the panic spread, and its * Bernier has preserved his words in the original Hindos- tani. 426 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK effects were soon felt throughout the whole army. ' The death of an Asiatic leader is often the loss of the battle : in a civil war it is the annihilation of the cause. Success seemed now useless, and every man's thoughts were turned to safety. Even the part of the line which was not engaged began to waver, while the princes pressed forward amidst the disorder of the centre, and compelled the troops opposed to them, and even Dara himself, to take to flight. The victory was no sooner decided than Aurang- zib threw himself on his knees and returned his thanks to Divine Providence for the mercy it had vouchsafed to him. His next care was to salute his brother, and congratulate him on the acquisition of a kingdom. He found Morad's howdah bristled with arrows, and himself wounded in several places; and, after expressing the greatest joy at his vic- tory, he began to wipe the blood from his face, and to show the most affectionate attention to his suf- ferings.* Dara flies While this was passing on the field, the unfor- tunate Dara pursued his flight towards the city : he arrived in the evening, with 2000 horse, many of them wounded; all he now had of the great force with which he had so lately marched out. He was ashamed to present himself before his father, to the disregard of whose opinion he owed * Morad's howdah was preserved as a curiosity to the time of Ferokhsir, when it was seen by Khafi Khan, who says it was stuck as full of arrows as a porcupine is of quills. SHAH JEHAN. 427 his ruin ; and after securing some valuables at his CHAP. own palace, he continued his flight towards Delhi, ' accompanied by his wife and two of his children. He had already reached the third regular stage from Agra, before he was overtaken by 5000 horse, sent by Shah Jehan to his assistance.* Aurangzib marched to Agra three days after Aurangzib the battle. He encamped before the walls, and A gra . took immediate possession of the city. Some more j' U n' e ! 658 ' days elapsed before he interfered with the interior *-," I 06 , 8 ' * RamzanlO. of the royal residence. He employed the interval in humble messages to his father, pleading the necessity of his case, and protesting his inviolable Dara< * In the account of the battle I have taken some circum- stances from Bernier, but have preferred the general narrative of Khafi Khan, who, besides his access to verbal and written evidence, refers to his own father, who was present in the action. Bernier lived nearer the time, and is an excellent writer ; but his acquaintance both with men and books must have been limited, and his means of judging Indians imperfect ; his relation, besides, is mixed with some anecdotes which look like popular inventions. Dara's descent from his elephant (for instance) is ascribed to the insidious advice of a traitor in the moment of victory ; while Khafi Khan says he was obliged to get down in such precipitation, that he left his slippers, and mounted his horse with bare feet and without arms. Bernier afterwards relates a plot of Shah Jehan to seize Aurangzib, and a counter plot of the latter, which ended in the seizure of Shah Jehan ; but the story is improbable in itself, and is not alluded to by Khafi Khan. It is necessary throughout to look closely into the accounts which favour Aurangzib ; for though Bernier himself is captivated with the open character of Dara, his master was a personal enemy of that prince, against whom Khafi Khan also has a strong prejudice; and both wrote after Aurangzib had been successful, and was cried up as the Mussulman hero and the greatest of emperors. 428 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK respect and duty : it is probable, indeed, that he ' was sincerely desirous of conciliating his father, and would have preferred carrying on the govern- ment in his name ; but he found it impossible to gain his confidence or to shake his attachment to Dara ; and at length sent his own son, Mohammed Sultan, to take complete possession of the citadel, and to prevent all communications between the Rainzani?. emperor and every one beyond its walls. Shah . I n s s nfined Jehan was still treated with the highest respect; palace. fo^ although he lived for seven years longer, his reign ends at this period. It seems unaccountable that so able a prince should have thus been de- throned without any of his old servants attempting to stir in his favour : the truth is, that his babits of indulgence had impaired his energy ; and as he had long ceased to head his armies, the troops turned their eyes to the princes who led them in the field, and who had the immediate distri- bution of their honours and rewards. To this must be added the peculiar abilities of Aurangzib; who was more successful in defeating conspiracies and managing factions than in any other branch of government, though he was good in all. Having now no further use for Morad, Aurang- zib dismissed him from his pretended sovereignty, without even the ceremony of a quarrel or a corn- govern- plaint. He kept up the delusion of that simple prince by submissive behaviour and constant pre- sents and attentions, till they had marched from Agra in pursuit of Dara ; when he one day in- SHAH JEHAN. 429 vited Morad to supper, and so far waved his own CHAP. in scruples as to allow the free use of the goblet ; of ' which Morad so fully availed himself that he was soon in a state of helpless intoxication. On this he was stripped of his arms without resistance, was cast into chains, and sent oif on an elephant to Selimghar, part of the citadel of Delhi ; while three other elephants were dispatched, under similar escorts, in different directions, to mislead people as to his place of confinement. He was afterwards removed to Gwalior, the great state prison of those days. Aurangzib then continued his march to Delhi, where he caused himself to be proclaimed emperor.* He did not put his name on the coin, A . D . 1658) and was not crowned until the first anniversary of A.^'K^ his accession; a circumstance which has introduced Zl c * ad !< some confusion into the dates of his reign. The reign of Shah Jehan, thus harshly closed, High pro- was perhaps the most prosperous ever known in in e d "* y u [ India. Though sometimes engaged in foreign wars, his own dominions enjoyed almost uninter- rupted tranquillity, together with a larger share of good government than often falls to the lot of Asiatic nations. Notwithstanding Shah Jehan's love of ease and pleasure, and the time spent in his visits to Cash- mir and the erection of those celebrated structures in which he took so much delight, he never re- mitted his vigilance over his internal government j * Khafi Khan. 430 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and by this, and the judicious choice of his mini- ~\r sters, he prevented any relaxation in the system, and even introduced important improvements, such as his survey of the Deckan. Khafi Khan, the best historian of those times, gives his opinion, that, although Akber was pre- eminent as a conqueror and a lawgiver, yet, for the order and arrangement of his territory and finances, and the good administration of every de- partment of the state, no prince ever reigned in India that could be compared to Shah Jehan. Whatever might be the relative excellence of his government, we must not suppose that it was exempt from the evils inherent in a despotism : we may assume some degree of fraudulent ex- action in the officers of revenue, and of corruption in those of justice ; and we have the testimony of European travellers to acts of extortion by custom- house officers, and of arbitrary power by governors of provinces ; but, after all deductions on these accounts, there will remain enough to convince us that the state of India under Shah Jehan was one of great ease and prosperity. * * Tavernier, who had repeatedly visited most parts of India, says that Shah Jehan " reigned not so much as a king over his subjects, but rather as a father over his family and children," and goes on to commend the strictness of his civil government, and to speak in high terms of the security enjoyed under it. (Page 108. of the English translation of 1678.) Pietro Delia Valle, who wrote in the last years of Jehangir (1623), when things were in a worse state than under his son, gives the fol- lowing account : " Hence, generally, all live much after a SHAH JEHAN. 431 The erection of such a capital as Delhi proves CHAP. great private as well as public wealth. Mandesloe describes Agra as at least twice as large as Isfahan (then in its greatest glory) ; with fine streets, good shops, and numerous baths and caravanserais. Nor was this prosperity confined to royal residences ; all travellers speak with admiration of the grandeur of the cities, even in remote provinces, and of the fertile and productive countries in which they stood. * Those who look on India in its present state may be inclined to suspect the native writers of exagge- rating its former prosperity ; but the deserted cities, ruined palaces, and choked up aqueducts which we still see, with the great reservoirs and embank- ments in the midst, of jungles, and the decayed causeways, wells, and caravanserais of the royal roads, concur with the evidence of contemporary travellers in convincing us that those historians had good grounds for their commendation. The whole continent of India, however, was far from being in a uniform state : vast tracts were still covered with forests ; and the mountainous genteel way ; and they do it securely as well, because the king does not persecute his subjects with false accusations, nor de- prive them of any thing when he sees them live splendidly, and with the appearance of riches (as is often done in other Maho- metan countries), as because the Indians are inclined to those vanities, &c. &c." (Page 22. English translation of 1665.) * Mandesloe, for Guzerat ; Graaf and Bruton (in Murray's Asiatic Discovery), for Bengal, Behar, and Orissa ; and Taver- nier, for most parts of the empire. 432 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ranges often harboured wild and predatory inha- ' bitants. Even in the best cleared parts, there were sometimes revolts of subject rajas, as in Bunclel- cand, during the present reign ; but in that case the disturbance was confined to a district of less extent than the Tyrol, while populous provinces as large as France or England were scarcely aware of its existence. But, after all allowances, the state of the people must have been worse than in an indifferently governed country in modern Europe. On the one side, there are the absence of slavery and poly- gamy, less personal oppression by the great, and less fear of scarcity and consequent disease ; while on the other there is nothing to oppose but lighter taxation and freedom from a meddling and compli- cated system of law and regulation. A fairer ob- ject of comparison would be the Roman Empire, under such a prince as Severus : we should there find the same general tranquillity and good govern- ment, with similar examples of disturbance and oppression ; the same enjoyment of physical happi- ness, with the same absence of that spirit which would tend to increase the present felicity, and which might afford some security for its duration beyond the life of the reigning monarch. The institutions, traditions, and opinions which remained from better times, must, even in this case, have given a superiority to the European empire. Magnifi. Shah Jehan was the most magnificent prince I'C'IK'O of shahje- that ever appeared in India. His retinue, his ban. *SHAH JEHAN. 433 state establishments, his largesses, and all the pomp CHAP. of his court, were much increased beyond the ex- ' cess they had attained to under his predecessors. His expenses in these departments can only be pal- liated by the fact that they neither occasioned any increase to his exactions nor any embarrassment to his finances. The most striking instance of his pomp and prodigality was his construction of the famous peacock throne. It took its name from a peacock with its tail spread (represented in its natural colours in sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and other appropriate jewels), which formed the chief ornament of a mass of diamonds and precious stones that dazzled every beholder. Tavernier, a jeweller by profession, reports, without apparent distrust, the common belief, that it cost 160,500,000 livres, nearly six millions and a half sterling. But his greatest splendour was shown in his His build- ItlffS buildings. He founded a new city at Delhi, built on a regular plan, and far surpassing the old one in magnificence : three wide streets (one of great length, ornamented by a canal and rows of trees, and composed of houses rising over a line of shops under arcades), led to a spacious esplanade, in the centre of which, and on the Jamna, stood the fortified palace ; the spacious courts, marble halls, and golden domes of which have so often been the subject of enthusiastic description. The great mosque of the same city is a work of extraordinary elegance and grandeur. But of all the structures erected by Shah Jehan, The raj Mahal. VOL. IT. F F 434 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK there is none that bears any comparison with the ' Taj Mahal at Agra, a mausoleum of white marble decorated with mosaics, which, for the richness of the material, the chasteness of the design, and the effect at once brilliant and solemn, is not surpassed by any other edifice, either in Europe or Asia. * * Taj Mahal is a corruption of Mumtaz Mahal, the name of Shah Jehan's queen, whose sepulchre it forms. It stands on a marble terrace over the Jamna, is flanked at a moderate dis- tance by two mosques, and is surrounded by extensive gardens. The building itself, on the outside, is of white marble, with a high cupola and four minarets. In the centre of the inside is a lofty hall of a circular form under a dome, in the middle of which is the tomb, inclosed within an open screen of elaborate tracery formed of marble and mosaics. The walls are of white marble, with borders of a running pattern of flowers in mosaic. The graceful flow, the harmonious colours, and, above all, the sparing use of this rich ornament, with the mild lustre of the marble on which it is displayed, form the peculiar charm of the building, and distinguish it from any other in the world. The materials are lapis lazuli, jasper, heliotrope or blood stone, a sort of golden stone (not well understood), with calcedony and other agates, cornelians, jade, and various stones of the same description. " A single flower in the screen," says Mr. Voysey, (Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 4?34?.) " contains a hundred stones, each cut to the exact shape necessary, and highly polished ;" and " yet," says Bishop Heber, " though every thing is finished like an ornament for a drawing-room chimney-piece, the gene- ral effect produced is rather solemn and impressive than gaudy." In the minute beauties of execution, however, these flowers are by no means equal to those on tables and other small works in " Pietra Dura " at Florence. It is the taste displayed in the outline and application of this ornament, combined with the lightness and simplicity of the building, which gives it so pro- digious an advantage over the gloomy panels of the chapel of the Medici. The mosaics of the Taj are said, with great pro- bability, to be the workmanship of Italians. It is singular that artists of that nation should receive lessons of taste from the Indians. SHAH JEHAN. 435 All these vast undertakings were managed with CHAP. so much economy that, after defraying the expenses of his great expeditions to Candahar, his wars in Balkh, and other heavy charges, and maintaining a regular army of 200,000 horse, Shah Jehan left a treasure, which some reckon at near six, and some at twenty-four millions sterling, in coin, besides his vast accumulations in wrought gold and silver, and in jewels.* Notwithstanding the unamiable character given of him in his youth, the personal conduct of Shah Jehan seems to have been blameless when on the throne. His treatment of his people was beneficent and paternal, and his liberal sentiments towards those around him cannot be better shown than by the confidence which (unlike most Eastern princes) he so generously reposed in his sons. Shah Jehan had reigned thirty years ; he was sixty-seven years old when he was deposed, and seventy-four when he died. * Bernier says under 6,000,0007. (vol. i. p. 305.). Khan Khan says 24^000,0007., and he is not likely to exaggerate, for he makes Shah Jehan's revenue 23,000,0007. (only 1,000,0007. more than that now collected in the British portion of India), while it is generally reckoned to have been 32,000,0007., and is ad- mitted by Bernier, when depreciating it, to be greater than that of Persia and Turkey put together (vol. i. p. 303.). in. His eco- nomy. F F 436 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. AURANGZIB (OR ALAMGIR*). CHAP. I. FROM 1658 TO 1662. BOOK THOUGH Aurangzib' s main object was the pursuit ' of Dara, he did not fail to attend to the motions Soiiman of Soliman, who was marching to his father's aid at by Jei sing the time of the fatal battle. He was a young man Khan. 11 of twenty-five, and was assisted in his command by Raja Jei Sing, and accompanied by another general named Dilir Khan. Jei Sing, like the other Raj- put princes, had adhered to Dara, as well on ac- count of his lawful claims as of his liberal principles in religion ; but though he had acted with decision against Shuja, the case was different with Aurang- zib. His inclinations probably favoured that prince, with whom he had served in Balkh, and his interest counselled him against opposition to the actual pos- * Aurangzib, on his accession, took the title of A'lamgir, by which he is designated in Indian history and in all regular documents. Europeans, however, as well as some of his own countrymen, still call him Aurangzib (properly pronounced Ourangzib). AURANGZIB. 437 sessor of the throne. He determined to abandon CHAP. Soliman ; Dilir Khan took the same resolution ; ' and their defection was aggravated rather than pal- liated by the paltry pretexts they employed to ex- cuse it. Soliman, thus deprived of the strength of his army, formed a design of avoiding Aurangzib by keeping close to the mountains, and thus making his way to join his father at Lahor. Aurangzib frustrated his project by sending a detachment to Hardwar to intercept him ; and this disappoint- ment occasioned the desertion of most of his re- maining troops. He next sought refuge in Sirina- gar ; but the raja refused him an asylum unless he would send away the 500 horse that still adhered to him. After a vain attempt to return to the fort of Allahabad, in which his small band was reduced to 200, he agreed to the raja of Sirinagar's terms, entered his fort with five or six attendants, and, wies to P Sirinagar, though treated with civility, soon found that he and is made was, in reality, in a sort of confinement. the raja. Aurangzib did not wait till the conclusion of these operations. After settling his affairs at Delhi, from Delhi he continued his march against Dara. That un- of'Sari fortunate prince, at the commencement of his J-J*- ^ 5 f flight, had halted for a few days at Delhi, where A - *-, 1068 Zi Cada 7. he obtained some treasure, and collected some thousand troops : he then marched rapidly to La- hor, and, finding a large sum of money in the royal treasury, began to raise an army. Before he had made much progress, he heard of the advance of Aurangzib, and soon after, of the near approach of F F 3 438 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Dara flies from Labor. Aurangzib returns to Delhi. A.'D. 1658, from Sept. 30. to Nov. 21. ; A. H. 1069, from Moharram 12. to Rabi al Awal 4. Marches against Sliuja, who is advanc- ing from Bengal. A. D. 1659, Jan. S. ; A. H. 1069, Rabi Se- cond 17. Treacher- ous attack on his bag. a light detachment sent on in pursuit of him. Shah Jehan had written to Mohabat Khan (son of the great general), who was viceroy of Cabul ; and it is probable that Dara had been expecting encou- ragement from him. Besides the troops of the province, Cabul would have afforded a ready re- fuge, in case of need, among the Afghan tribes, and an easy exit to the territories of the Uzbeks or the Persians ; but these views, if entertained, were disconcerted by the prompt measures of Aurangzib ; and Dara, unable to resist the force that threatened him, left Lahor with 3000 or 4000 horse, and took the road of Multan on his way to Sind. On this, Aurangzib, who had already crossed the Satlaj, altered his course for Multan. Before he reached that city, he heard that Dara had pro- ceeded on his flight, and at the same time received intelligence of the advance of his brother Shuja from Bengal. He therefore gave up his march to the westward, and returned without delay to Delhi. Meanwhile, Shuja had advanced to Benares with 25,000 horse and a numerous train of artillery ; and Aurangzib, after some stay at Delhi, set out to arrest his progress. They met at Cajwa, half way between Allahabad and Etaya. Shuja was advan- tageously posted ; and, though both drew up their armies, neither was anxious to begin the attack. On the third or fourth day, Aurangzib was forming his line before daybreak, according to his usual practice, when he was surprised by a prodigious uproar that suddenly arose in his rear. This was AURANGZIB. 439 occasioned by Raja Jeswant Sing, who, though CHAP. now serving in his camp, had treacherously attacked his baggage. gage by Jeswant The raja had submitted when Dara's case be- sing. came hopeless : he had not been received with the confidence or distinction he expected, and had en- tered on a correspondence with Shuja, promising to fall upon the baggage at a particular hour, when the prince's army was also to attack in front. Had the co-operation been complete, it must have been entirely successful ; for, although Shuja was not at his post in time, it had nearly occasioned the dis- persion of his rival's army. The tumult created by the unexpected onset, combined with the dark- ness and their ignorance of the cause, spread the greatest confusion among the troops who were forming : some left the field, others flew to protect their baggage, and a few went over to the enemy. In the midst of this perturbation, Aurangzib dis- mounted and seated himself on a portable throne, from which he issued his directions with a serene and cheerful countenance, sent a party to repel the attack, and took measures for checking the dis- order which had already spread so far. In the mean time, Jeswant found that he was not supported; and, expecting to have the whole army turned upon him, was glad to recall his troops from plunder, and to retire to a place out of reach, where he could await in safety the event of the approaching contest. By this time the sun had risen, and Shuja was F F 4 440 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Defeat of Shuja. A. D. 1659, Jan. 15. ; A. H. 1069, Jamadi al Awal 1. Jeswant Sing threatens Agra and flies to Marwar. seen advancing to the attack. The battle began by a cannonade, soon followed by a close action : Aurangzib's right was forced back, and his centre, where he was himself, was hard pressed. He was often in imminent danger ; and his elephant was charged by another of greater strength, and would have been borne to the ground if the opposite driver had not been shot by one of the king's guards. But he still continued to press upon the enemy's centre, until they at length gave way and fled from the field, leaving 114 pieces of cannon and many elephants to the victor. Aurangzib sent his son, Prince Mohammed Sul- tan, in pursuit of Shuja from the field of battle, and some days after dispatched a regular army to support the prince, under the command of Mir Jumla, who, having been released from his mock imprisonment, had joined the army a day or two before the engagement, and acted as second in command on that occasion. Having made these dispositions, he returned to Agra. That city, the most vulnerable point of his pos- sessions, had just been exposed to considerable alarm and danger. Jeswant Sing, as soon as he perceived the victory to incline to his enemies, commenced his retreat towards his own country, and unexpectedly presented himself at Agra before the result of the battle was accurately known. He had it in his power to have made an effort for delivering and restoring Shah Jehan ; and it is pro- bable the popular feeling was already strongly in- AURANGZIB. 441 clined in that direction ; for Shaista Khan, who CHAP. was governor, had given himself up to despair, and ' was on the point of swallowing poison.* He was relieved by the departure of Jeswant ; who, con- sidering how much he might lose by pushing things to extremities, pursued his march, and was soon safe among the hills and sands of Jodpur. Aurangzib, on reaching Agra, dispatched a force A. D . 1559, of 10,000 men in pursuit of him ; and about the A . H. foeg, same time he received a report from Prince Sultan A^ai IT: that the fort of Allahabad had been given up by Shuja's governor, and that Shuja himself had re- tired to Bengal. These successes were more than counterbalanced by the intelligence he received of the proceedings of Dara Sheko. By the last accounts, that prince had deposited his baggage at Bakkar on the Indus ; and, being forced by the desertion of his men and the death of his carriage cattle to relinquish his design on Sind, he had no means of escaping the detachment in pursuit of him, but by endeavouring to cross the desert to Cach. It now appeared that he had made little stay in that district, that he had entered Guzerat, and had been joined by the go- vernor, Shah Nawaz Khan, (one of whose daughters was married to Morad, and another to Aurangzib himself,) and by Ids powerful assistance had occu- pied the whole province, including Surat and Ba- roch. He had opened a negotiation with the kings * Bernier. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK of the Deckan ; but had turned his immediate XI ' attention to a march to Hindostan, and a junction He sets out w ^ n Jeswant Sing. Amidst the surprise occa- to join Jes- want sing, sioned by this rapid change of circumstances, Au- shiglswon rangzib did not fail to perceive the increased im- overby portance of the Raiput prince, whose territories Aurangzib. r r extended from Guzerat to Ajmir ; and as he never allowed his passions to interfere with his interests, he forgot the perfidy and outrage with which he had just been treated, and set all his usual arts to work to win over his rebellious dependant. He wrote a complimentary letter with his own hand, conceding the rank and titles his previous refusal of which was the ground of Jeswant' s discontent; and at the same time he called in the aid of Jei Sing, to convince his brother raja of the confidence that might be placed in the king's good will, and of the ruin that awaited all who joined the hopeless cause of his rival. These arguments and conces- sions had their weight with Jeswant ; and although A. D. 1659, Dara had marched from Ahmedabad, and was Feb. 14.; A. H. ip69, arrived within fifty miles of Jodpur, he sent to apprise him that he felt himself unable to contend alone with the power of Aurangzib, and could not undertake to join him unless some other of the great Rajput princes could be prevailed on to em- Abandons bark in the same cause. After repeated attempts to bring back Jeswant to his former views and promises, Dara was obliged to renounce all hopes of his assistance, and to move with his own forces into the adjoining province of Ajmir. He had AURANGZIB. 443 assembled an army of 20,000 men in little more CHAP. than a month after his arrival in Guzerat, and had left that province with a considerable increase of numbers, and with the addition of thirty or forty guns. With this force he took up and fortified a commanding position on the hills near Ajmir. Aurangzib, who inarched from Agra as soon as Dard is at- he heard of the proceedings in Guzerat, was now defeated by at Jeipur, and soon arrived in front of Dara's posi- tion. After cannonading for three days with loss to his own army, he ordered a general assault. It was obstinately resisted for many hours, till the death of Shah Nawaz, who fell just as a party of Aurangzib's troops had mounted the rampart, so disheartened Dara, that he fled with precipitation, and his troops dispersed in all directions. Even the body of horse that adhered to his person gra- dually straggled and fell off, and some even plun- dered the treasure which he was endeavouring to save from the wreck of his resources. He reached the neighbourhood of Ahmedabad Disasters of f, -11 i-i ^ i his flight to after eight days and nights or almost incessant Guzerat. marching, rendered nearly intolerable by the heat and dust of a scorching season. To this were lat- terly added the merciless attacks of the Colis in the hills, who hung upon his devoted band, and stripped or massacred every man who fell into the rear. It was in the midst of these calamities that Dara was met by the celebrated traveller Bernier, He is met who was on his way to Delhi, unconscious of what by Bermer - what had just been passing. As Dara's wife was 444 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK wounded, and he had no physician, he obliged ' Bernier to turn back with him, and they remained together for three days. On the fourth they were within a march of Ahmedabad, where they counted on a secure refuge and on some repose after all their sufferings. They slept that night in a cara- vanserai, which afforded them protection from the attacks of the Colis, but was so confined that Ber- nier was only separated by a canvas screen from the princesses of Dara's family. About daybreak, when they were preparing for what they thought the last of their distressing marches, news was Ahmed- brought to Dara that the gates of Ahmedabad " on were shut against him, and that if he had any re- gard for his own safety, he would instantly remove from the neighbourhood. These tidings were first made known to Bernier by the cries and lament- ations of the women, and soon after Dara came forth half dead with consternation. The bystanders received him with a blank silence, and Bernier could not refrain from tears when he saw him ad- dressing himself to each of them, down to the meanest soldier, conscious that he was deserted by all the world, and distracted with the thoughts of what would become of himself and his family. Bernier saw him depart with the most melancholy He flies forebodings. He was accompanied by four or five sllX horsemen and two elephants : with these he made his way to Cach, and was there joined by about fifty horse and two hundred matchlockmen, who had accompanied one of his faithful adherents from AURANGZIB. Guzerat. The chief of Cach, who had been hearty CHAP. in his cause when he first entered Guzerat, now received him coldly. He pursued his march to- wards Candahar, and reached the small territory of Jun, or Juin, on the eastern frontier of Sind. The chief of the place, who seems to have "been an Afghan, was under great obligations to Dara, and received him with every demonstration of attach- ment, while his only thought was how to betray him to his enemies. Dara's wife (the daughter of his uncle, Parviz) died at this place of her fatigues and sufferings ; and the prince, with a disregard of circumstances that looks like infatuation, sent a portion of his small escort, with two of his most confidential servants, to attend her remains to La- hor. When the period of mourning permitted, he set out on prosecution of his journey to the Indus. The chief of Jun accompanied him for one march, and then returned on some pretext, leaving his brother and a body of troops, as if to attend the prince to the frontier. No sooner was he gone Heisbe- than his brother fell suddenly on Dara, made him S chief of and his son, Sepehr Sheko, prisoners, and sent to adhered all the king's officers to announce his capture. The news reached Aurangzib while he was cele- brating the first anniversary of his accession. He it began concealed the intelligence until it was confirmed June e.^ ' beyond doubt, when he ordered public rejoicings, and directed the feast of the accession to be pro- longed. It had scarcely expired, when his pri- H C is soners arrived at the capital. Dara, by special Delhi. 1 446 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. A. B. 1659, July 26. ; A.H. 1069, ZiCaadl5. Sympathy of the people. He is put to death. orders, was brought in, loaded with chains, on a sorry elephant, without housings, and was thus conducted up the most populous streets of the city. The sight awakened a general feeling of compassion and indignation ; and Bernier thought an insurrection so probable, that he went into the street armed and prepared for any exigency that might arise ; but the sympathy of the people was only shown in tears and groans. Dara was ex- posed through all the principal places, and then led off to a prison in old Delhi. The inhabitants were less patient on the next day, when the chief of Jun was recognised on his way to court. A mob immediately assembled, who first assailed him with reproaches and curses ; and, growing warmer as their numbers increased, began to throw mud ; then tiles and stones ; and, at last, got to such a pitch of fury, that several lives were lost, and the chief himself would have been torn to pieces if he had not been rescued by the police. Next day the leader of the riot was put to death. A few days after this tumult, a mock consultation was held with some of the king's counsellors and some learned lawyers, at which Dara was pro- nounced worthy of death, as an apostate from the Mahometan religion. Aurangzib, with seeming reluctance, gave his orders conformably to this opinion, and a personal enemy was selected to carry the sentence into effect. Dara was, with his son, preparing some lentils, the only food they would touch, for fear of poison, when he saw the AURANGZIB. 44-7 executioners, and at once guessed his fate : he CHAP. snatched up a small knife which he had just been . , using, and defended himself manfully, until op- pressed by numbers. His body was exhibited to the populace on an elephant ; his head was cut off and carried to Aurangzib, who ordered it to be placed on a platter, and to be wiped and washed in his presence. When he had satisfied himself that it was the real head of Dara, he began to weep, and, with many expressions of sorrow, di- rected it to be interred in the tomb of Humayun. Sepehr Sheko was sent away, in confinement, to Gwalior.* During these transactions, prince Sultan and Operations irf T i against Mir J umla were carrying on their operations against shuja by Shuja. That prince, on retiring towards Bengal, suitSand had taken up a position at Mongir, and had thrown Mir Jumla ' up a strong intrenchment between the hills and * Almost all the account of Dara's proceedings is taken from Khafi Khan. I have seldom used Bernier's delightful narrative, except when he was an eye-witness ; for, although he does not differ in the main from the native historian, he introduces many particulars not probable in themselves, and not alluded to by the other. It is true that he must have received his accounts from persons engaged in the transactions, and that almost im- mediately after they had occurred ; but such fresh materials have their disadvantages as well as their advantages. Before the subjects have been discussed and examined, each man knows but a fragment of the whole, and to it he adapts the reports he hears from others : the beaten party have always some act of treachery, or some extraordinary accident, with which to excuse their defeat ; and all men take a pleasure in discovering secret histories and latent motives, which are soon forgotten unless confirmed by further testimony. 44-8 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the Ganges ; but Mir Jumla turned his left flank XI . by a march through the hills, and compelled him to fall back on Raj Mahal, where, during his long government of Bengal, he had established a sort of capital. The rainy season now set in, which, in that country, puts an end to every sort of move- ment by land, and Mir Jumla cantoned at some distance from Raj Mahal. An important event to both parties had taken place before this pause. Prince Sultan had long been discontented with playing the part of a pageant under the authority of Mir Jumla ; and his impatience became so un- governable, that, although he was the eldest son and recognised heir of Aurangzib, he entered into Prince a correspondence with Shuja, and finally deserted overTo^ 8 to his camp. Shuja received him with honour, and gave him his daughter in marriage ; but, either June ; ' from disappointed expectations or natural levity of A. H. 1069, c\ t / t IT / 1 1 Ramzan. temper, Sultan became as much dissatisfied in his new situation as he had been before ; and after taking an active part in the hostilities which re- Returns to commenced after the rainy season, he again de- gianteT serted his party, and returned to Mir Jumla's A. n. i860, camp. Jan. 27. ; A.H. 1070, Aurangzib, who had at one time determined on Jamadi u -rtiii* i/->i> sdni e. ; a journey to Bengal, had given it up before this news reached him. He showed himself little af- fected by his son's behaviour : he ordered him to and is im- be committed to prison, and kept him in confine- ment for many years. From this time Shuja's af- fairs went progressively to decay. AURANGZIB. 449 After a series of unsuccessful struggles, he was CHAP. compelled to retreat to Dacca ; and, Mir Jumla continuing to press him with vigour, he quitted ^jj fl je s his army, fled with a few attendants, and took A . D . 1660 , refuge with the raja of Aracan. His subsequent Ma" l ; r story is uncertain. It would appear that the raja siSbl^m took some unfair steps to prevent his leaving Ara- Ramz * n - can, and that Shuja entered into a plot with the tamty re- Mussulmans of the country to overturn the raja's fate. mg government : this much is certain, that Shuja and all his family were cut off, and, though there were many rumours regarding them, were never heard of more. His ignorance of Shuja's fate left Aurangzib in some uneasiness for a time ; but that, and all his other grounds of anxiety, were removed before the end of the next year. He had attempted, by means of threats, and afterwards by force, to com- pel the raja of Sirinagar to give up Soliman Sheko. The raja (whether from avarice, or policy, or sense of honour) withstood all his demands, until he had recourse to Jei Sing, his zealous agent in all nego- tiations with Hindus. By that chief's persuasion, the raja was, at length, induced to make over Soliman to the imperial officers, and by them he Sirina ar - . . A.D. 1661, was conveyed to Delhi.* j an . s.-, He was paraded through the city on an elephant, jamadiai' and then brought before the emperor. The chains Awal n * were taken off his legs, but his hands were still * Khafi Khan. VOL. II. G G 450 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK secured in gilded fetters. His appearance affected ' many of the courtiers to tears. Even Aurangzib put on an appearance of compassion ; and when he entreated that, rather than have his strength and reason undermined by drugs (as was thought to be often the fate of captive princes), he might be put to death at once, the emperor addressed him in the mildest accents, and assured him of safety and good treatment.* It was not believed that he kept his word, for Soliman, his brother Sepehr Sheko, and the young son of Morad, all died in Gwalior within a short space t j while the emperor's own son, Sultan, who was confined in the same fort, lived several years, and was partially restored to free- dom. Morad The atrocious murder of Morad, which took place a few months after Soliman's imprisonment, justifies the worst suspicions. That unfortunate prince had endeavoured to escape by means of a rope let down from the battlements ; but the wail- ing of a Hindu concubine, of whom he was taking leave, drew the attention of the guard, and led to the discovery of his design. Aurangzib felt that his own security was incomplete while his brother lived ; and, as he had not even the shadow of an offence to allege against him, he instigated the son of a man who had been arbitrarily put to death by the prince while viceroy of Guzerat to complain of him as a murderer; when, after the ceremony of a * Bernier ; who was present at the interview. f Ibid. AURANGZIB. 4-51 trial, and a legal sentence, the unhappy Morad was CHAP. executed in his prison.* Some time before this period Aurangzib sent a A. D . r> ,' f> -r'i j November; force against the raja of Bikanir, who had deserted A. H . 1072, him in the Deckan, and still held out against him. He was reduced to submission by this expedition. When the quiet of Bengal had been restored by Expedition _ _ _ x . - , of Mir the successes or Mir Jumla, it seems to have been jumiato an object with Aurangzib to find employment for that powerful minister. To that end he engaged him in the conquest of Assam, a rich country lying along the river Barampater, and shut in on both sides by woody mountains. Mir Jumla marched from Dacca, up the river, conquered the petty principality of Cuch Behar, overran the plain of Assam, and took possession of Ghergong, the capi- tal. He announced his success with great exult- A - D - 1662 > March 12.; ation to the emperor, and boasted of his intention A.H. 1072, . . . Shabane. ot pursuing his conquests, and opening the way to China. Soon after this the rainy season set in ; the whole plain was flooded ; the cavalry could not march, nor even forage ; the natives assembled on all sides, cut off supplies and stragglers, and distressed the camp ; and, as the rains subsided, a pestilential disorder broke out among the troops ; so that when the season opened, Mir Jumla, al- though he had received reinforcements, was obliged to renounce his magnificent projects, and even re- quired the exertion of his known talents to obtain * Khafi Khan. Bernier. G G 2 ' 452 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK such contributions and cessions from the raja as might save his honour from the appearance of a >. lees, defeat. When he had accomplished this object he A!H. 1073, withdrew his army ; but died before he reached co a ^d e! " Dacca, worn out with the fatigues and sufferings A. i>. Death of which, though at a very advanced age, he had Mir Jumla. y A. D. 1663, encountered equally with the humblest soldier.* The emperor immediately raised his son, Moham- 2. met j Amin, to the high rank and honours which had been possessed by the deceased. Dangerous The death of this powerful subject seemed to AurSigzib. relieve Aurangzib from every ground for jealousy or apprehension ; but he had recently received a severe warning of the precarious terms on which he still held his life and empire. Soon after the fifth anniversary of his accession he was seized with a violent illness, which at first threatened his im- mediate death, and afterwards left him in a state of extreme bodily weakness, and almost entirely de- prived of the use of speech. This unexpected calamity shook his newly established government intrigues to its foundations. Reports were current that Raja tion. Jeswant was in full march to release Shah Jehan, and that Mohabat Khan was coming from Cabul with the same intention. The partisans of the deposed monarch began to intrigue at the capital ; while two parties were formed among the emperor's own adherents ; one anxious to secure the succes- sion to his second son, Moazzim ; and the other, to * Khafi Khan. Bernier. AURANGZIB. 4.53 raise his third son, Akber, to the throne. These CHAP. dangers were averted by the constancy and force ' of mind of Aurangzib himself. On the fifth day Firmness J and self- of his illness, though scarcely rescued from the possession jaws of death, he caused himself to be raised up, zib. and received the homage of his principal courtiers ; and on a subsequent day, when his having a fainting fit had led to a general report that he was dead, he summoned two. or three of the greatest nobles to his bed side ; and although not yet recovered from the paralysis which had affected his tongue, he wrote an order, in their presence, to his sister Roushanara, to send his great seal, which had been intrusted to her, and placed it near himself, that no use might be made of it without his special orders. The respect and admiration inspired by his conduct on these occasions had as much effect in suppressing disturbances as the prospect they afforded of his recovery.* As soon as he was able to travel he set off for H Cashmir, where he hoped to regain his strength sooner than at any place in the plains.t Dec - 6 - While Aurangzib was seeking repose in the Disturb- , . . ances in the north, a scene was opening in the Deckan with Deckan. which his thoughts were soon to be fully em- ployed. The Maratta race, it will be remembered, in- pescrip- 1-1 -i n tion of the habits the country lying between the range ot Maratta mountains which stretches along the south of the * Bernier. Khafi Khan merely mentions a dangerous illness. J- Bernier. G G 3 454> HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Nerbadda, parallel to the Vindya chain ; and a XI " line drawn from Goa, on the sea coast, through Bidr to Chanda, on the Warda. That river is its boundary on the east, as the sea is on the west. The great feature of the country is the range of Siadri, more commonly called the Ghats, which runs along the western part of it, thirty or forty miles from the sea ; and, though only from 3000 to 5000 feet high, is made very remarkable by its own peculiarities, and by the difference between the tracts which it divides. On the west it rises abruptly nearly from the level of the sea, and, on that side, presents an almost inaccessible barrier ; but, on the east, it supports a table land 1500 or 2000 feet high, extending eastward with a gradual slope, far beyond the Maratta limits, to the Bay of Bengal. The strip of land between the Ghats and the sea is called the Concan, and is, in general, very rugged. Towards the coast are small rich plains producing rice ; the rest is almost impervious from rocks and forests, cut by numerous torrents, which change, when near the sea, into muddy creeks, among thickets of mangrove.* The summits of the ridge itself are bare rocks ; its sides are thickly covered with tall trees mixed with underwood. The forest spreads over the contiguous part of the table land to the east, a tract broken by deep * The native legends relate that the sea once washed the foot of the Ghats, and that the Concan was rescued from it, by a miracle of one of the gods. AURANGZIB. 455 winding valleys and ravines, forming fit haunts for CHAP. the wild beasts with which the range is peopled. ' Fifteen or twenty miles from the ridge, the valleys become wide and fertile, and, by degrees, are lost in open plains, which stretch away to the eastward, covered with cultivation, but bare of trees, and rarely crossed by ranges of moderate hills. The great chain of the Ghats receives the whole fury of the south-west monsoon, the force of which is thus broken before it reaches the plains. For several months the high points are wrapped in clouds, and beaten by rains and tempests. The moisture soon runs off from the upper tracts, but renders the Concan damp and insalubrious throughout the year. The greatest of the inferior branches of hills which run east from the Ghats is that called the range of Chandor, from one of the forts constructed on its summits. It separates the low basin of the Tapti from that of the Godaveri, on the table land. The basin of the Tapti is composed of Candesh and Berar, fertile plains, only separated from Gu- zerat by the forest tract of Baglana, and differing, in many respects, from the high country, which is more peculiarly that of the Marattas. The whole of the Ghats and neighbouring moun- tains often terminate towards the top in a wall of smooth rock, the highest points of which, as well as detached portions on insulated hills, form natural fortresses, where the only labour required is to get access to the level space, which generally lies on G G 4i 456 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the summit. Various princes, at different times, XI ' have profited by these positions. They have cut flights of steps or winding roads up the rocks, fortified the entrance with a succession of gateways, and erected towers to command the approaches ; and thus studded the whole of the region about the Ghats and their branches with forts, which, but for frequent experience, would be deemed im- pregnable. Account of Though the Marattas had never appeared in the nation. .. . history as a nation, they had as strongly marked a character as if they had always formed a united commonwealth. Though more like to the lower orders in Hindostan than to their southern neigh- bours in Canara and Telingana, they could never, for a moment, be confounded with either. They are small sturdy men, well made, though not handsome. They are all active, laborious, hardy, and persevering. If they have none of the pride and dignity of the Rajputs, they have none of their indolence or their want of worldly wisdom. A Rajput warrior, as long as he does not dishonour his race, seems almost indifferent to the result of any contest he is engaged in. A Maratta thinks of nothing but the result, and cares little for the means, if he can attain his object. For this pur- pose he will strain his wits, renounce his pleasures, and hazard his person ; but he has not a con- ception of sacrificing his life, or even his interest, for a point of honour. This difference of senti- ment affects the outward appearance of the two AURANGZIB. 457 nations : there is something noble in the carriage CHAP. even of an ordinary Rajput; and something vulgar ' in that of the most distinguished Maratta. The Rajput is the most worthy antagonist ; the Maratta the most formidable enemy ; for he will not fail in boldness and enterprise when they are indispensable, and will always support them, or supply their place by stratagem, activity, and per- severance. All this applies chiefly to the soldiery, to whom more bad qualities might fairly be ascribed. The mere husbandmen are sober, frugal, and in- dustrious ; and, though they have a dash of the national cunning, are neither turbulent nor in- sincere. Their chiefs, in those days, were men of families who had for generations filled the old Hindu offices of heads of villages or functionaries of districts *, and had often been employed as partisans under the governments of Ahmednagar and Bijapur. They were all Sudras, of the same cast with their people ; though some tried to raise their conse- quence by claiming an infusion of Rajput blood. The early Mahometan writers do not seem to have been aware of the existence of the Marattas. We can perceive, by the surnames of some chiefs whom they mention, that they must have belonged to that race ; but the word Maratta first occurs in Ferishta, in the transactions of the year A.D. 1485; and is not then applied in a general sense. It has * Patels, desmukhs, despandis, &c. &c. See Vol. I. pp. 117. 476. 458 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK been mentioned that, in the middle of the sixteenth XI ' century, the king of Bijapur adopted the Maratta language, instead of Persian, for his financial pa- pers ; and, as he was substituting natives of the Deckan for foreigners in his armies, he enlisted a considerable number of Marattas among them. They were at first chiefly employed in the lowest military capacity, that of garrisoning forts : by de- grees their aptitude for service as light cavalry was discovered, and they began to obtain military rank under the governments of Bijapur and Ahmed- nagar ; while individuals were also engaged in the service of the Kubt Shah, king of Golconda. Still they are very little mentioned by the Mussulman writers, until the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury. In the time of Malik Amber they emerge into notice, and thenceforward occupy a conspicu- ous part in the history of the Deckan.* Rise of the Among the officers of Malik Amber was a person ' named Maloji, of a respectable, though not a con- siderable, family, the surname of which was Bosla. He served with a few men mounted on his own horses, and was especially dependent on the pro- tection of Jadu Rao. If any Maratta had a claim to Rajput descent, it was the family of Jadu. The name is that of one of the Rajput tribes : it was borne at the first Mahometan invasion by the raja of Deogiri, the greatest prince in the Deckan ; and it is not im- * Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 7396. AURANGZIB. 459 probable that the protector of Maloji (who was CHAP. desmukh of a district not far from Deogiri, may have been descended from that stock. Whatever was his origin, Lukji Jadu Rao had attained to a command of 10,000 men under Malik Amber, and was a person of such consequence that his de- sertion to Shah Jehan turned the fate of a war against his former master. It was long before this defection that Maloji Bosla attended a great Hindu festival at the house of Jadu, accompanied by his son, Shahji, a boy of five years old. During the merriment natural to such an occasion Jadu Rao took young Shahji and his own daughter, a girl of three years old, on his knees, and said, laughing, " that they were a fine couple, and ought to be man and wife." To his sur- prise, Maloji instantly started up, and called on the company to witness that the daughter of Jadu was affianced to his son. It did not require the pride of birth to raise Jadti's indignation at the advantage taken of him ; and the consequence was, a rupture between him and his dependant. But Maloji was by this time on the road to fortune : he acquired a considerable sum of money, increased his party, and, being an active partisan, rose at last to a com- mand of 5000 horse in the service of Ahmednagar, and to the possession of a large jagir, of which the chief place was Puna. He had still kept up his son's claim to the daughter of Jadu Rao, which, in his present prosperity, was no longer looked on as so unreasonable j and Jadu Rao at last consent- 460 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ing, his daughter was regularly married to Shahji. . One of the fruits of this union was Sevaji, the founder of the Maratta empire,* Shahji Shahii has already been mentioned as a great 1 ' ' 1 actor in the last events of the kingdom of Ahmed- nagar.t He then entered the service of Bijapur, and was continued in his jagir, which had fallen to that state in the partition of the Ahmednagar ter- ritory. He was afterwards employed on conquests to the southward, and obtained a much more con- siderable jagir in the Mysore country, including the towns of Sira and Bangalor. s^vaji As all Maratta chiefs were wholly illiterate, their n /. / affairs were managed by Bramins, who formed a numerous class of men of business, even under the Mahometans. A person of that cast, therefore, whose name was Dadaji Condu, was left in charge of the jagir at Puna, and to him was committed the care of the chief's second son, Sevaji ; the elder accompanying his father to the Mysore. The education of a young Maratta consisted in horse- manship, hunting, and military exercises ; and, as Puna is situated at the junction of the hilly country with the plains, Sevaji's principal associates were the soldiery belonging to his father's horse, or the plundering highlanders of the neighbouring Ghats. From such companions he imbibed an early love of adventure, which was increased by his fondness for listening to the ballads of his country. By the * He was born in May, 1627. (Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 122.) f A. D. 1636. See p. 399. AURANGZIB. 461 time he was sixteen he began to be beyond the CHAP. control of Dadaji, by whom he had been admitted ' to a share in the management of the jagir ; and Hi rob - though he was generally popular for his conciliating manners, he was already suspected of sharing in several extensive gang robberies committed in the Concan. Those practices and his hunting excur- sions made him familiar with every path and defile throughout the Ghats ; and he was, before, well acquainted with their wild inhabitants. Those in the parts of the range north of Puna were Bhils and Colis *, and those to the south, Ramusis ; but immediately to the west of Puna were Marattas, who had long braved the dangers and hardships of that uncultivated region, and who were called Mawalis, from the appellation of the valleys where they resided. It was from among these last that His ad- Sevaji chose his earliest adherents ; and, as he was remarkably quick and observing, he soon perceived a way of employing them on higher objects than he had yet been engaged with. The hill forts belonging to Bijapur were gene- He SU r- rally much neglected j being remote and unhealthy, bin fort, they were sometimes occupied by a single Maho- metan officer, with a small garrison of ill-paid local troops ; at other times they were left in charge of the nearest desmukh, or other revenue officer. Among those in the last predicament was Torna, a strong fort, twenty miles south-west of Puna. Of this place Sevaji contrived to get possession t, * Hill tribes. See Vol. I. p. 367. f Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 131. 462 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and succeeded, by a proper application of argu- ' ments and money, in convincing the court of Bija- A. D. 1646. p ur that it was better in his hands than in those of the desmukh. But on his afterwards fortifying a neighbouring hill, the attention of the government was seriously drawn to him, and remonstrances were addressed to Shahji on his son's proceedings, Shahji made the best excuse he could, and wrote in strong terms to Dadaji and Sevaji to forbid their attempting any further encroachments. The Bra- min used all his endeavours to persuade his young chief to attend to these injunctions ; but he did not long survive the receipt of them, and Sevaji, when freed from his control, pursued his enter- He usurps prises with more audacity than before. He with- jagir* held the revenue of the jagir which was due to Shahji ; and as there were two forts within it (Chakan and Supa), held by officers immediately under his father, he gained over the first and sur- prised the second ; and, being now master within his own jagir, he proceeded to more extensive un- obtains - dertakings. He bribed the Mahometan governor possession i /> i / cc i i MI p of several to surrender Condana, or ainghar, a strong hill tort near Puna ; and, by taking advantage of a dispute between two Bramin brothers, friends of his own, who were contesting the command of the still stronger hill fort of Purandar, he introduced a body A. D. 1647. of Mawalis into the place, and treacherously took possession of it for himself. * As all these acquisitions were made without * Grant Duff'. AURANGZIB. 463 bloodshed, and without disturbing the neighbour- CHAP. ing districts, they called forth no exertion on the ' part of the king of Bijapur, who was at this time occupied with conquests to the southward, and with the magnificent buildings which he was erect- ing at his capital.* 'r But the time was come when Sevan's own views Revolts against the required that he should throw off the mask, t The govem- signal of open rebellion was the plunder of a con- Bija P 6r. voy of royal treasure in the Con can ; and before A- D - 1648 - the court recovered its surprise at this outrage, it heard that five of the principal hill forts in the Ghats had fallen into the hands of Sevan. Almost Takes P os- . / i session of immediately after this, a Bramin officer of his sur- the north- prised and made prisoner the Mahometan governor of the northern Concan, and not only took posses- sion of Calian, where he resided, but occupied the whole of his province, and compelled him to give orders for the surrender of all his forts. Sevaji was transported with this success. He received the governor with respect, and dismissed him with * " Thus did Sevaji obtain possession of the tract between Chakun and the Neera; and the manner in which he established himself, watching and crouching like the wily tiger of his own mountain valleys, until he had stolen into a situation from whence he could at once spring on his prey, accounts both for the difficulty found in tracing his early rise, and the astonishing rapidity with which he extended his power, when his progress had attracted notice, and longer concealment was impossible." (Grant Duff; of whose clear and animated account of Sevaji that inserted in the text is a mere abstract.) f Grant Duff. 464 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK honour. His first care in his conquest was, to re- XI ' store Hindu endowments, and revive old institu- His attach- tions. He had been brought up in a strong Hindu the HineM feeling, which, perhaps, was, at first, as much na- tional as religious; and out of this sprung up a rooted hatred to the Mussulmans, and an increasing attachment to his own superstitions. This inclina- - tion fell so well in with his policy, that he began to affect peculiar piety, and to lay claim to pro- phetic dreams, and other manifestations of the favour of the gods. The go- The court of Bijapur, when at length awakened of Bijapur to Sevaji's designs, was still misled by the belief that he was instigated by his father. They there- f ore di ssem bled their displeasure until they had an opportunity of making Shahji prisoner. His seizure was effected under pretence of a friendly enter- tainment by a chief of the family of Gorpara, on whom Sevaji afterwards most amply revenged his . 1649. treachery.* Shahji's assurances that he was inno- cent of his son's transgressions received little credit from the court of Bijapur ; and, after being allowed a reasonable time to put a stop to the insurrection, he was thrown into a dungeon, and told that the entrance would be built up after a certain period, unless Sevaji should make his submission in the interval. Sevaji was seriously alarmed by this threat ; but reflection convinced him that sub- mission was not the way to gain safety from so * Grant Duff. AURANGZIB. 465 treacherous an enemy. He held out as before, CHAP. and made overtures to Shah Jehan, whose terri- ! tories he had carefully abstained from injuring. The emperor received his application favourably, took him into his service, and appointed him to the rank of a commander of 5000. It was pro- bably owing to his powerful interposition that Shahji was released from his dungeon, although he remained for four years a prisoner at large in Bi- A. D . 1649 , m -i,. .1 . to 1653. japur. 1 ranquillity prevailed during this interval, Sevaji being restrained by fears for his father, and the government of Bijapur by the apprehension that Sevaji might call in the Moguls. At the end of that time the disorders in Carnata Shahji re- IflttSficL rendered Shahji's presence necessary to the in- terests of the government. His own jagir had been overrun, and his eldest son killed, whil$ all the surrounding country was in arms, and threat- ened the speedy expulsion of the Bijapur autho- rities. No sooner was his father released and the atten- Renewal of tion of the Bijapur government turned to the affairs encroach- of Carnata, than Sevaji began with fresh activity to n renew his plans of aggrandizement. The whole of the hilly country south of Puna, from the Ghats inclusive to the upper Kishna, was in the hands of a Hindu raja, whom Sevaji could never prevail on to join in his rebellion. He now procured his assassination, and profited by the consternation which ensued to seize on his territory. After this atrocity he surprised some hill forts and built others, VOL. II. H H 466 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and went on extending his authority until Prince ' Aurangzib was sent down to the Deckan in 1655. Sevaji at first addressed the prince as a servant of the Mogul government, and obtained a confirmation Plunders of his possessions from the imperial authority. But provinces, when he found Aurangzib engaged in war with the king of Golconda, and fancied he saw the pro- spect of long troubles, he determined to profit by the confusion at the expense of all the combatants, and for the first time invaded the Mogul territories. He surprised the town of Juner, and carried off a large booty ; and afterwards attempted the same operation at Ahmednagar, where he met with only partial success. The rapid conquests of Aurangzib disappointed all his hopes ; and, during the prince's operations against Bijapur, he endeavoured, by every sort of excuse and promise, to obtain forgive- obtains ness for his rash attack. When the sickness of from A u- Shah Jehan called off Aurangzib to Delhi, Sevaji continued to profess his devotion, and offered his A. D. 1 658. zealous services, provided attention were paid to some claims he pretended to possess within the Mogul territory. The prince readily granted him forgiveness on his engaging to send a body of horse to the army, but endeavoured to reserve the ques- tion of his claims for future inquiry ; and Sevaji, who was as artful as himself, in like manner sus- pended the dispatch of his horse, and confined his services to promises and professions. AfzaiKhdn He now renewed his attacks on Bijapur (where him from st the king had been succeeded by his son, a minor) ; Bijapur. AURANGZIB. and the regency, at length aware of the danger of CHAP. neglecting his advances to power, dispatched a large army against him. The commander was Afzal Khan, who to the usual arrogance of a Ma- hometan noble joined an especial contempt for his present enemy. But that enemy knew well how to turn his presumption to account : he affected to be awed by the reputation of Afzal Khan, and to give up all hopes of resisting his arms. He sent humble offers of submission to the khan, who de- puted a Bramin high in his confidence to complete the negotiation. This man Sevaji won over, and by his assistance Afzal Khan was easily persuaded that Sevaji was in a state of great alarm, and was only prevented surrendering by his apprehension of the consequences. During these negotiations, Afzal advanced through intricate and woody valleys to the neighbourhood of the hill fort of Partabghar, where Sevaji was residing, and the Maratta con- sented to receive his assurances of forgiveness at a personal interview, if the khan would concede so much to his fears as to come unattended for the purpose of meeting him. Afzal Khan on this quitted his army, and went forward with an escort, which he was afterwards persuaded to leave behind and advance with a single attendant. He was dressed in a thin muslin robe, and carried a straight sword, more for state than any expectation of being required to use it. During this time Sevaji was seen slowly descending from the fort : he advanced with a timid and hesitating air, accompanied by H H 2 468 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Is assassi- nated by Sevaji, one attendant, and to all appearance entirely un- armed ; but under his cotton tunic he wore a shirt of chain armour, and besides a concealed dagger, he was armed with sharp hooks of steel, which are fastened on the fingers, but lie concealed in the closed hand, and are known by the de- scriptive name of " tiger's claws." The khan looked with contempt on the diminutive figure which came crouching on to perform the usual ceremonies of meeting ; but at the moment of the embrace, Sevaji struck his claws into his unsuspect- ing adversary, and, before he could recover from his astonishment, dispatched him with his dagger. He had, before this, drawn his troops from all quarters by secret paths into the woods round Afzal's army ; and, on a signal from the fort, they rushed at once on the Mussulmans, who were re- posing in insolent security, and slaughtered and dispersed them almost without resistance. * As soon as the victory was secure, Sevaji issued orders to spare the fugitives : vast numbers fell into the hands of the conqueror, after wandering in the woods until subdued by hunger. They were all treated with humanity : many of them who were Marattas entered into Sevaji's service, and a chief of that nation, who refused to forfeit his allegiance, was dismissed with presents. During his whole career, Sevaji, though he inflicted death and torture to force confessions of concealed treasure, was never personally guilty of any useless cruelty. * Grant Duff. and his army dis- persed. AURANGZIB. 469 This victory gave a fresh impulse to Sevajfs pro- CHAP. gress. He overran all the country near the Ghats, and took possession of all the hill forts, and was Another army sent going on to complete the reduction of the Concan, from Bija- when he was recalled by the march from Bijapur of an army much more formidable than the first. He threw part of his troops into forts, and employed the rest to cut off the enemy's supplies* ; but he A : D - J 66o, allowed himself to be shut up in the almost inac- cessible fort of Panala, and would have been com- pelled to surrender after a siege of four months, if he had not contrived, with his usual mixture of boldness and dexterity, to quit the place during a dark night, after he had amused the besiegers with the prospect of a capitulation. His escape was ascribed at Bijapur to treachery in their general, Sidi Johar, an Abyssinian, whose indignation was excited by this calumny, and added to the elements of discord already abundant at Bijapur. The king now took the field in person, and The kin g of Bijapur brought such a force along with him as Sevaji was takes the unable to resist. His operations during the whole A D 1661 of this invasion were desultory and ill-directed ; Januar y- and before the end of a year he found himself Recovers stripped of almost all his conquests. The king of sdwy?s Bijapur's affairs now obliged him to turn his atten- c tion to Carnata, where his presence was further required by the revolt of Sidi Johar. He was em- A. ployed in that country for two whole years, during * Grant Duff. H H 3 470 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK which Sevan recovered and increased his terri- XI. tones. s^aj' 1 At the end of that time a peace was mediated makes a x very fa- by Shahji ; and Sevaji remained in possession of a vourable . -IT r> -1/^1 peace. territory including upwards or 250 miles or the MS terri^ country on the sea (being the part of the Concan tory- between Goa and Calian), while above the Ghats its length was more than 150 miles from the north of Puna to the south of Mirich on the Kishna. Its breadth, from east to west, was, at the widest part, 100 miles. In this small territory the hardiness A. D. 1662. and predatory habits of his soldiers enabled him to maintain an army of 7000 horse and 50,000 foot.* * Grant Duff. AURANGZIB. 471 CHAP. II. FROM 1662 TO 1681. IT was about this period that Aurangzib was at- CHAP. ' . ii tacked by the violent sickness which exposed his ' life to so much danger.* He had previously ap- pointed his maternal uncle, Shaista Khan, to the with the viceroyalty of the Deckan, and that officer was now residing at Aurangabad. T"!, i662 It does not appear what led to an open rupture A - H - 1073 - between Sevaji and the Moguls ; but soon after the peace with Bijapur we find Sevaji's horse ra- vaging their country nearly to Aurangabad, and himself taking their forts in the neighbourhood of Juner. To put an end to these aggressions, Shaista Khan shdista marched from Aurangabad, drove Sevaji's army mi ^!hes out of the field, took the fort of Chakan, and finally hlst took up his ground at Puna, within twelve miles of Occupies Singhar, the hill fort into which Sevaji had retired. At Puna, Shaista occupied the house in which Sevaji had passed his early days ; and it was pro- bably the local knowledge thus acquired that sug- gested a plan for chastising the intruder. The Night ex. khan had taken every precaution to guard against the advance of troops, and also against the admis- See page 462. H H 4 4/72 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK sion of Marattas individually into the town ; and ' in these circumstances, and with his troops can- toned around him, he thought himself as secure as if he were in a peaceful country. But Sevaji, who was well aware of all that was passing, left Singhar one evening after dark, and, posting small bodies of infantry on the road to support him, went on with twenty-five Mawalis to the town. He gained ad- mission by joining a marriage procession, with the conductor of which he had a previous concert. Being now within the line of guards, he proceeded direct to the house, and entered by a back door before any person within had a suspicion of danger. So completely was Shaista Khan surprised, that he had barely time to escape from his bedchamber, and received a blow from a sword which cut off two of his fingers as he was letting himself down from a window into the court below. His son and most of his attendants were cut to pieces in a moment. Sevaji's retreat was as rapid as his attack : he was joined by his parties on the road as he retired, and ascended to Singhar amidst a blaze of torches, which made his triumph visible from every part of the Mogul camp. This ex- ploit, so congenial to the disposition of his coun- trymen, is the one of all his actions of which the Marattas still speak with the greatest exult- ation. It was attended with consequences that could scarcely have been foreseen ; for Shaista Khan imputed his danger to treachery on the part of Raja Jeswant Sing, who had, not long before, AURANGZIB. been sent to reinforce him ; and the dissensions of CHAR the leaders crippled the army, until Aurangzib removed Shaista Khan to the government of Ben- Prince M6- , . . , T , j azzim sent gal, and sent his son, rnnce Moazzim, to command, against with the assistance of Jeswant Sing. Before the prince's arrival, Jeswant had withdrawn to Aurang- abad, after an attempt to reduce Singhar ; and Sevaji was preparing to take a full retaliation for the attack he had been exposed to. During his operations in the mountains, his chief force was in his infantry ; but the Marattas had been dis- tinguished in the Bijapur armies for their services as light cavalry, and it was in this shape that Sevaji Sevaji , , , , . ,, ... plunders now resolved to employ them. Alter gaming in- surat. telligence of the state of affairs where he was going, and deceiving his enemies by various feigned move- ments, he suddenly set off with 4000 horse, and came at once on the rich and defenceless city of Surat, in a part of the country which was thought A- n. 1664, to be beyond the reach of his arms. He plundered A. ii. 1074, it at leisure for six days ; and though beaten off condYs. e from the English and Dutch factories, where some of the native merchants had also taken refuge, he carried off an ample booty, and lodged it in safety in his fort of Reri, or Raighar, in the Concan. Death of It was soon after this expedition that Sevaji heard of the death of Shahji. Although of a great age, he was killed by a fall in hunting. He had His posses- restored his jagir to perfect order, and had ex- south 'of tended his conquests to the southward (under the name of the king of Bijapur), until they compre- 474 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK bended the country near Madras and the princi- XI. pality of Tanjore. Maritime Sevaji was now again at war with Bijapur, and of sevaji. chiefly carried on his operations in the Concan, where he had established his capital at Raighar. He collected a fleet, took many Mogul ships, and on one occasion embarked with a force of 4000 men on 87 vessels, and, landing at a remote point in the province of Canara, sacked Barcelor, a wealthy sea-port belonging to Bijapur, and plundered all the adjoining tract, where there was not the slightest A. D. 1665, apprehension of a visit from such an enemy. Nor February. .. 1 . 1 . . . - . did he, during these employments, leave the country quiet above the Ghats : he sent troops to ravage the territory of Bijapur, and led, in person, a de- structive inroad into the Mogul dominions. This injury did not exasperate Aurangzib so much as the capture of some vessels conveying pilgrims to Mecca, and the violation of Surat, which derives a sort of sanctity from being the place of embarkation Sevaji as- for those devotees. Sevaji had added another pro- vocation to these offences : soon after his father's death, he had assumed the title of raja, and began to coin money, one of the most decisive marks of independent sovereignty. A large army was there- fore sent to the Deckan, at the head of which was Raja Jei Sing, the constant engine in all difficult affairs with Hindus ; but the emperor's suspicious temper made him still adhere to the system of divided authority, and Dilir Khan was associated on equal terms in the command. These appoint- AURANGZIB. 475 merits superseded Jeswant Sing and Prince Moaz- CHAP. zim, who returned to Delhi. As Aurangzib an- ticipated little opposition from Sevaji, Jei Sing had orders, as soon as he should have reduced the Maratta, to employ his arms in the conquest of Bijapur. These chiefs crossed the Nerbadda in February, Submission . J of Sevaji. and advanced unopposed to Puna, when Jei Sing A>D> 1665 . undertook the siege of Singhar, and Dilir Khan that of Purandar. Both places held out ; but Se- vaji seems himself to have despaired of successful resistance ; and he may, perhaps, have looked to some recompence for the temporary sacrifice of his pride, in the advantages he might gain by * co- operating with the Moguls against Bijapur. He opened a negotiation with Jei Sing ; and, after re- ceiving assurances, not only of safety, but of favour, from the emperor, he privately withdrew himself from his own army, and went, with a few attend- ants, to the raja's camp. He was received with great distinction, and on his part made the humblest professions of fidelity. An agreement was con- cluded, by which Sevaji was to give up twenty out of the thirty-two forts he possessed, together with the territory attached to them. The remaining twelve forts, with their territory, and all his other possessions, he was to hold as a jagir from the Mogul emperor, in whose service his son Sambaji, a boy of five years old, was to receive the rank of a commander of 5000. In addition to these advantages, Sevaji was to be entitled to a sort of HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK per centage on the revenue of each district under XI Bijapur : and this grant was the foundation of the ill-defined claims of the Marattas, which afforded them such constant pretexts for encroachment on foreign territories in later times. These terms, except the last (which was not noticed), were dis- tinctly confirmed in a letter from Aurangzib to He co- Sevaii. He now joined the Imperial army with operates with Jei 2000 horse and 8000 infantry ; and the whole body against commenced its march on an invasion of Bijapur. The Marattas distinguished themselves in this campaign, and Sevaji was gratified by two letters from Aurangzib ; one complimenting him on his services, and the other containing great but general promises of advancement, and inviting him to court, with a promise that he should be allowed to Goes to return to the Deckan. Won by these attentions, and by the cordiality with which he was treated by Jei Sing, Sevaji made over his jagir to three of his chief dependents, and set off for Delhi, accompanied by his son Sambaji, and escorted by 500 chosen horse and 1000 Mawalis. Haughty Aurangzib had now an opportunity of uniting b^Tulang- Sevaji's interests to his own by liberal treatment, and of turning a formidable enemy into a zealous servant, as had been done before with so many other Hindu princes : but his views in politics were as narrow as in religion ; and, although he could easily suppress his feelings to gain any immediate advantage, he was incapable of laying aside his prejudices, or making such full and free concessions, AURANGZIB. 477 as might secure permanent attachment. Moreover, CHAP. he despised as well as disliked Sevaji : he felt the ' insults offered to his religion and his dignity the more, because they came from so ignoble a hand ; and he so far mistook the person he had to deal with as to think he would be most easily managed by making him sensible of his own insignificance. Accordingly, when Sevaji was about to enter Delhi, an officer of inferior rank was sent, on the emperor's part, along with Ram Sing, the son of Jei Sing, who went out to meet him ; and his re- ception, when he came to court, was conducted in the same spirit. Sevaji performed his obeisance, and presented his offerings, in the most respectful manner, and probably intended to have made his way, as usual, by suppleness and humility ; but when he found he was received without notice, and placed, undistinguished, among the officers of the third rank*, he was unable any longer to control his feelings of shame and indignation ; he changed colour, and, stepping back behind the line of courtiers, sank to the ground in a swoon. When he came to himself, he reproached Ram Sing with the breach of his father's promises, and called on the government to take his life, as it had already deprived him of his honour. He then retired, without taking leave, or receiving the honorary dress usual on such occasions, t Aurangzib was * Commanders of 5000, the station which had been promised to his infant son. t Khafi Khan. 4*78 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK not prepared for this decided conduct j he ordered - Sevaji's motions to be watched, while he professed to wait for a report from Jei Sing as to the promises he had really made to him. From this time, Sevaji's whole thoughts were turned to the means of making his escape, which was soon rendered more difficult by guards being posted round his residence. He applied for leave to send back his escort, with whom he said the climate of Delhi did not agree ; and, as this ar- rangement seemed to leave him more than ever in the power of the government, it was willingly agreed to. He next took to his bed on pretence of sickness, gained over some of the Hindu phy- sicians who were allowed to attend him, and by their means established a communication with his friends without. He also made a practice of send- ing presents of sweetmeats and provisions to be distributed among fakirs and other holy men, Ma- hometan as well as Hindu ; and thus accustomed his guards to the passage of the large baskets and hampers in which those donations were conveyed. S( 5 va ji At length, one evening, when he had concerted his measures with those without, he concealed himself ' m one o j-j ie hampers, and his son in another, and was carried out unquestioned through the midst of the centinels. His bed was occupied by a servant 5 and a long time elapsed before his escape was suspected. In the mean time, he repaired to an obscure spot, where he had a horse posted, mounted it with his son behind him, and made the best of AURANGZIB. 479 his way to Mattra. At this place were some of his CHAP. chosen companions in assumed characters ; and he himself put on the dress of a Hindu religious men- dicant, shaving off his hair and whiskers, and rub- bing over his face with ashes. In this disguise he pursued his journey by the least suspected roads, to the Deckan, leaving his son at Mattra in charge of a Maratta Bramin. It must have required much address to elude his Arrives at 1111 i -if Raighar. pursuers, who had a long time to be prepared tor him before he made good his retreat to Raighar. He reached that place, on his return, nine months *. n. IGSG, after his departure for Delhi. * Soon after Sevajfs flight died Shah Jehan. Death of Though always confined 'to the citadel of Agra, he Jehan. had been treated with great respect, and allowed 1; n - 16 . 66 * December j an ample establishment and complete authority A. H.IOTS, within the palace. He carried this control so far as to prevent the removal of Dara's daughter, whom Aurangzib wished to marry to a son of his own ; and also to withhold some valuable crown jewels which the emperor was anxious to possess : on these subjects, several letters of remonstrance and expostulation passed between him and his son. This was the most prosperous period of the reign Prosperous PA 'U T f 1 ' A ' stateofAu- ol Aurangzib. livery part ot his own dominions rangzib's was in the enjoyment of perfect tranquillity. His governor of Cashmir had just brought Little Tibet * The English "^factors at Carwar, in the Concan, write, Sep- tember 29th, " Tfitbe true that Sevaji has escaped, Aurangzib will quickly hear of him to his sorrow." 480 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Failure of Jei Sing's attack on Bijapur. under his authority ; and his viceroy of Bengal made an acquisition of more real value in the fine country of Chittagong, on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. He had also received marks of respect from most of the neighbouring powers. The sherif of Mecca, and several other princes of Arabia, sent embassies ; as did the king of Abyssinia, and the khan of the Uzbeks. The most important came from the king of Persia, and was returned by an embassy of un- usual splendour. But this last interchange of missions did not lead to permanent friendship ; for some questions of etiquette arose between the monarchs, which led to so much irritation on the part of Shah Abbas II., that he assembled an army in the neighbourhood of Candahar ; and Aurang- zib was thinking seriously of moving in person against him, when he heard of the shah's death, and the discontinuance of all his preparations. The only exception to the general prosperity of the empire was the ill success of its army in the territory of Bijapur. Jei Sing's operations in that country had at first gone on to his wish ; but as soon as he had formed the siege of the capital, the old plan of defence was adopted against him : the surrounding country was reduced to a desert, and all his supplies were cut off by plundering horse. The king of Golconda also secretly assisted his neighbour ; and Jei Sing, perceiving that he had no chance of success, retreated, not without loss and difficulty, to Aurangabad. He was removed AURANGZIB. 481 after this failure, and died on his way to Delhi. CHAP. ii. Prince Moazzim was sent to replace him, with Jes- ' want Sing to assist : Dilir Khan, who was unac- His death - ceptable to the prince as well as to the raja, was p^" Ol left as an additional check on both. znTTe Jei Sing's misfortune was of the utmost import- wantsin g- ance to Sevaji. During his struggle and retreat A '.H. 1077'. he had withdrawn all his troops from the country Progress O f * Sevaji. near the Ghats, had evacuated many forts, and left others with scarcely any garrisons. Many of these were occupied by Sevaji's officers before he himself reached the Deckan ; and his own arrival was speedily followed by still more extensive ac- quisitions. The change in the Mogul commanders was yet more to Sevaji's advantage. Jeswant Sing had a great ascendancy over Prince Moazzim, and was much better disposed to the Hindus than to the government which he served; and it was, more- over, believed that he was not inaccessible to the influence of money. By these means combined, Sevaji enlisted him on his side ; and, through his He makes and the prince's aid, obtained a peace with Au- {heempe- rangzib on terms exceeding his most sanguine ror ' hopes. A considerable portion of territory was restored to him, and a new jagir granted to him in Berar. His title of raja was acknowledged, and all his former offences seemed to be buried in oblivion. Thus delivered from his most powerful enemy, Levies tri- bute on VOL. II. I 1 482 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Bijapur and Gol- conda. His in- ternal arrange- ments. A. D. 1668 and 1669, A. H. 1078 and 1079. Sevaji turned his arms against Bijapur and Gol- conda ; and those states, weak within, and threat- ened by the Moguls, were unwilling to enter on a new contest with their formidable neighbour, and averted the evil by the humiliating expedient of agreeing to an annual tribute. A long period of tranquillity which followed was employed by Sevaji in giving a regular form to his government ; and none of his military successes raise so high an idea of his talents as the spirit of his domestic administration. Instead of the rules of a captain of banditti, we are surprised to find a system more strict and methodical than that of the Moguls. The army, both horse and foot, was formed into uniform divisions, commanded by a regular chain of officers, from heads often, of fifty, &c. &c., up to heads of 5000, above which there was no authority except that of the general ap- pointed to command a particular army ; and these officers were not feudal chiefs, but servants of the government, placed over soldiers mustered and paid by its agents. Both troops and officers re- ceived high pay, but were obliged to give up their plunder of every description to the state. The most minute attention to economy pervaded every department of Sevajf s service. His civil government was equally regular, and very rigorous, both towards its own officers and the heads of villages ; and this, in checking oppression of the cultivators, no less than frauds against the state. His civil officers were all Bramins, and AURANGZIB. 483 those of the highest rank were often employed in CHAP. military commands also. The real motive of Aurangzib's concessions was Schemes of the hope of getting Sevaji again into his power, to U eutrop without the expense and damage of a protracted s war with him. He pursued his object with his usual patience, enjoining Prince Moazzim and Jes- want Sing to keep up a constant intercourse with Sevaji, and let slip no opportunity of making him their prisoner. They were even directed to feign disaffection to his own government, and to show a disposition for a secret and separate alliance with the Marattas.* But Sevaji turned all the em- A. n. i67o, A. H. 1080. * Grant Duff. He, however, doubts whether Moazzim ever gave in at all to the emperor's design, and whether he ever attempted to deceive Sevaji by a show of disaffection ; but it seems probable that he must, to a certain extent, have con- formed to his instructions ; and that it was his consequent pro- ceedings that gave rise to the story first told by Catrou (or Manucci), of a mock rebellion of Prince Moazzim, got up by his father's desire, for the double purpose of finding out his secret enemies and of discrediting his son, in case that prince should ever be disposed to rebel in earnest. According to this account, Prince Moazzim openly declared against his father, and was joined by Jei Sing and all the rest of the army, except Dilir Khan, and had actually marched to the river Chambal (towards Agra), before he professed to renounce his design. The only use (it says) made by Aurangzlb of the knowledge obtained at so great a hazard was, to secure himself against one of his enemies by poisoning Jei Sing. But Jei Sing had been re- moved from the Deckan before the prince's arrival, and was dead before the date of the pretended insurrection. This last inconsistency was discovered by Orme, who does not doubt the rest of the story ; but the absurdity of the whole is laid open in a few words by Grant Duff (vol. i. p. 221.). It is not the I I 2 484 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK peror's plans against himself: he conciliated M6- ' azzim and Jeswant by bribes and presents, and made them his instruments in deceiving Aurang- zib. That monarch was too sagacious not to dis- cover in time the failure of his scheme ; and when he had ascertained it beyond doubt, he gave orders for an open attempt to seize Sevaji ; which of course breaks the -11 1/^1 peace. involved a renewal ot the war. Sevaji sur- The first blow struck by Sevaji was the re- covery of Singhar, near Puna. The Moguls were as sensible as he was of the importance of this place, and maintained in it a strong garrison of Rajputs, under an experienced officer. Yet it was surprised by 1000 Mawalis, under Sevaji's great friend and confidant, Tanaji Malusri, who contrived to climb up that apparently inaccessible rock in the night time, and to escalade the walls, before they were discovered by the guards. They, how- ever, met with an obstinate resistance ; and it was not without the loss of their leader, and a large proportion of their number, that they at length only occasion in which the wily character of Aurangzib has led to his being suspected of deep schemes and intrigues in which he never was engaged. Dow substitutes Jeswant Sing for Jei Sing, and makes Moazzim's rebellion a real one, which, he says, was only frustrated by a succession of skilful operations on the part of Dilir Khan, after Aurangzib himself had been obliged to take the field. He seems to draw his account from the " Bondela Memoirs," afterwards translated by Scott (Deckan, vol. ii. p. 24-.); but he goes beyond his authority in some things, and omits the Bondela's statement (doubtless an erroneous one) that Sevaji actually joined the prince. AURANGZlB. 485 overpowered the garrison. Sevaji was so much CHAP. impressed with the difficulty and importance of the ' undertaking, that he conferred a silver bracelet on every individual of the survivors. He failed in some attacks on other forts, but re- Ravages duced a much greater number, and occupied much territory, territory : he also again plundered Surat, carried his ravages over Candesh, and, for the first time, A-D. lero, December ; levied the chout, afterwards so celebrated in Ma- A. H. iosi. ratta history. It was a permanent contribution of Chout one fourth of the revenue, and exempted the dis- tricts that agreed to it from plunder as long as it was regularly paid. Sevaji also equipped a power- ful fleet, and renewed his attacks on his old enemies, the Abyssinians of Jinjera, who held a small prin- cipality as admirals to the king of Bijapur. This attack was injudicious; for it led to the Abyssi- nians placing themselves under the Moguls, and thus increasing the power of Sevaji's only for- midable enemy. The rapidity of Sevaji's progress was owing to the inadequacy of the force under Moazzim, whom Aurangzib long refused to reinforce from distrust : and when, at last, he was convinced of the neces- sity of having more troops in the Deckan, he sent down an army of 40,000 men, under Mohabat Khan, and entirely independent of the prince's authority. Nor was he by any means entirely A> D . 1671 satisfied even with this new commander : shortly A .H. losi. before his march from Delhi he took offence at some of his proceedings, and ordered one of the i i 3 486 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ministers to remonstrate with him in private. The XI ' arrival of his army was attended with no corre- sponding result. Moazzim remained inactive at Aurangabad ; and Mohabat Khan, after under- taking some sieges, was obliged to suspend his proceedings by the approach of the rainy season. Defeats the When he again began operations, Sevaji sent an Moguls in a . . - \ , . . - - i / 1 field action, army to raise a siege in which Mohabat was en- gaged, and the latter, in an injudicious attempt to cover the siege, exposed a body of 20,000 men to A. n. 1672, a total defeat by the Marattas.* This was the first A. H. 1082. , . field action won by aevaji s troops, and the first instance of success in a fair conflict with the Mo- Khan j e - guls. It seems to have made a strong impression viceroy 6 f on the beaten party:- they immediately concen- an> trated their forces on Aurangabad, and both Mo- azzim and Mohabat were soon after recalled ; Khan Jehan, the viceroy of Guzerat, was sent to take their place ; Aurangzib's exertions were re- Suspension quired in another quarter, and the war languished of active operations tor a period of several years. What drew off Aurangzib's attention was, the increasing importance of a war which had for some occupied by a war with time been going on with the north-eastern Afghans. the north- eastern Jt was always a matter of difficulty to remain at Afghans. i i -11 peace with those tribes ; but, as the communi- cation with Cabul and other western countries lay * There are doubts about this battle, which some say was with a detachment of Dilir Khan's, and others, of Mohabat's. The obscurity arises from the same cause as the defeat, the divided command of the Mogul army. AURANGZIB. 487 through their lands, it was necessary to find some CHAP. means of keeping them quiet; and as the tribes upon the road were also the most open to attack, it was generally managed, between threats and pensions, to retain them in a certain degree of submission to the royal government. The more powerful tribes were let alone, and remained quiet within their own limits. But, from the numerous small communities, and the weakness of the in- ternal government even in the large ones, there must often have been acts of aggression by indi- viduals, which required forbearance on the part of the royal officers. As Aurangzib was very jealous of his authority, and as he knew nothing of the structure of society among the Afghans, it is not unlikely that he suspected the chiefs of counte- nancing these irregularities underhand ; but, from whatever cause it proceeded, he fell out with the whole of the tribes, even including the Eusofzeis. This was the state of things in A. D. 1667* when Amin Khan, the son of the celebrated Mir Jumla, and the successor to his rank and title, was ap- pointed governor of Cabul, and gained such success as for a time prevented the disturbances increasing, although they never were entirely suspended. But, in A. D. 1670, the Afghans regained their supe- riority, defeated Amin Khan in a great battle, and totally destoyed his army : even his women and children fell into their hands, and were obliged to be redeemed by the payment of a ransom. i i 4- 488 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. A. D. 1673, about Jan. ; A. H. 1083, Ramzan. From A. D. 1673, January, to A. D. 1675, October ; A. H. 1083, Ramzan, to A. H. 1086, Jamadi 2., or there- abouts. The Afghans, about the same time, set up a king, and coined money in his name.* The emperor at last determined to conduct the war in person. He marched to Hasan Abdal, and sent on his son, Prince Sultan, whom he had now released and intrusted with the command of an army. He probably was prevented going himself by the fear of committing his dignity in a strong country, where great blows could not be struck, and where great reverses might be sustained. This war occupied Aurangzib for more than two years t, and was carried on through his lieutenants after his own return to Delhi, until the increased disturbances in India, and the hopelessness of suc- cess, at length compelled him to be contented with a very imperfect settlement. But although the contest was of such importance at the time, it had no permanent influence on the history of India ; and the events of it, though varied and interesting, may be imagined from those already related under the reign of Akber. t * The Indian writers seem to consider this person as an Afghan chief; but such a nomination is equally inconsistent with the feelings and institutions of that people; and (although the authority is, no doubt, inferior) I am inclined to believe, with the Europeans, that the pretended king was an impostor, who was passed off for Shuja, whom the Afghans represented to have taken refuge among them, and whose pretensions to the throne of India would furnish good means of annoying Au- rangzib. f Khan Khan. J This war derives additional interest from the picture of it preserved by one of the principal actors. Khush Khal, the khan AURANGZIB. 489 The emperor had scarcely returned from this CHAP unsuccessful expedition, when an extraordinary insurrection broke out near the capital. A sect of * Hindu devotees, called Satnaramis, were settled near the town of Narnol : they were principally DeihT. S engaged in trade and agriculture : and, though insurrec- tion of the generally peaceable, carried arms, and were always Satnarami J religionists. ready to use them m their own defence. One or their body, having been mobbed and beaten by the comrades of a soldier of the police, with whom he had quarrelled, collected some of his brethren to retaliate on the police. Lives were lost, and the affray increased till several thousand Satnaramis were assembled ; and the chief authority of the place having taken part against them, they defeated a band of troops, regular and local, which he had got together ; and finally took possession of the town of Narnol. An inadequate force sent against them from Delhi was defeated, and served only to add to their reputation ; a repetition of the same circumstance raised the wonder of the country, and, joined to their religious character, soon led to a belief that they were possessed of magical powers: swords would not cut, nor bullets pierce them ; while their enchanted weapons dealt death at every of the tribe of Khatak, was a voluminous author, and has left several poems, written at this time, for the purpose of exciting the national enthusiasm of his countrymen. They are remark- able for their high and ardent tone, and for their spirit of patriotism and independence, so unlike the usual character of Asiatics. 490 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK blow. The belief that they were invincible nearly V T ' made them so in reality. Many of the zemindars of the neighbourhood took part with them ; no troops could be got to face them ; and as they approached Delhi, Aurangzib ordered his tents to be prepared to take the field, and with his own hand wrote ex- tracts from the Koran, to be fastened to the stand- ards, as a protection against enchantment. The absolute necessity of resistance, and the exertions of some chiefs, both Mussulman and Hindu, at last prevailed on the royal troops to make a stand, when the insurgents were defeated and dispersed with great loss. But the previous success had tempted many of the Hindu population to take up arms, and had thrown the whole provinces of Ajmir and Agra into such confusion that Aurangzib thought his own presence necessary to restore order. * Aurang- These disturbances had irritated his temper, bigotry. already ruffled by his failure beyond the Indus ; and led him, while he was still in Delhi, to take the last step in a long course of bigotry and im- policy, by reviving the jezia or capitation tax on Hindus. At the second anniversary of his accession (A. D. 16,59), he forbade the solar aera, as an in- vention of fire worshippers, and directed the Ma- hometan lunar year to be used on all occasions ; and in this resolution he persevered, notwithstand- * Khafi Khan. AURANGZIB. 491 ing long-continued remonstrances from his official CHAP. people, on the disadvantage of a calendar that did ' not agree with the seasons. * At the same time he appointed a mullah, with a His vexa- r> i iii- 11 tious treat- party ot horse attached to him, to suppress all mentofthe drinking and gambling houses, and to check all ostentatious display of idol worship, t Not long afterwards, he abolished all taxes not expressly au- thorised by the Mahometan law, and all duties on goods sold at the great Hindu fairs, which he con- sidered as polluted by their original connection with idolatry. His remissions, as far as they were carried into effect, were productive of great in- equality ; the unauthorised taxes being chiefly those that fell on bankers, great traders, and other inhabitants of towns, whom the new rule would have left nearly exempt from contribution. The land revenue remained as before ; and the customs and road duties, which were by much the most vexatious of all, were rather increased than di- minished, t But, in fact, the alteration produced a heavy loss to the state, without affording any relief to the sub- ject ; except in a few cases where the exaction was likely to attract notice-, the revenue officers and jagirdars confined the remission to their ac- counts with the government, and levied the taxes without diminution on those under their authority. Some years later he forbade fairs on Hindu festivals * Khafi Khan. f Ibid. i Ibid. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK altogether ; and about the same time he issued an _ edict against music, dancing, and buffoons, and dis- charged all the singers and musicians attached to the palace. He likewise forbade astrology, and dismissed the astrologers previously attached to the court. He also discountenanced poets, who used to be honoured and pensioned, and abolished the office and salary of royal poet. It is even distinctly related that he prohibited the composition and recitation of poetry*; but this extreme austerity must have been of very short duration, for his own notes and letters are filled with poetical quotations, and sometimes with extemporary verses made by himself. His prohibition of history was more per- manent ; he not only discontinued the regular an- nals of the empire, which had before been kept by a royal historiographer, but so effectually put a stop to all record of his transactions, that, from the eleventh year of his reign, the course of events can only be traced through the means of letters on business and of notes taken clandestinely by private individuals. A few years later he took off one half of the customs paid by Mahometans,- while he left those of Hindus undiminished. Among other minute reforms, he made further changes in the mode of saluting him ; and discontinued his public appearance at the window of his palace, for fear of affording an opportunity for the ceremony of adora- tion. Though few of these alterations bore di- * Khafi Khan. AURANGZIB. 493 rectly on the Hindus, they all tended to stir up a CHAP. scrupulous and captious spirit, and to mark the ' line between the followers of the two religions which it had been the policy of former monarchs to efface. His present measures were far more decidedly intolerant ; for, although he began with an equitable edict, by which all claims on the government were to be received in the courts, and tried according to the Mahometan law, yet, at the same time, a cir- cular order was sent to all governors and persons in authority to entertain no more Hindus, but to confer all the offices immediately under them on Mahometans only. It was found quite impracticable to comply with this order ; and, in fact, most of the above edicts remained a dead letter, and had no other effect but to excite alarm and disaffection. But no such laxity appeared in the levy of the He revives jezia. The poll tax so called was imposed, during orVoii'tax the early conquests, on all infidels who submitted oninfi e ' to the Mahometan rule, and was the test by which they were- distinguished from those who remained in a state of hostility. The revival of it excited the utmost discontent among the Hindus. Those at Delhi and the neighbourhood assembled in crowds, and besieged the king's palace with their complaints and clamours. No attention was paid to these remonstrances. On the next Friday, when the king was going in procession to the mosque, he found the streets completely choked 494 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK by the crowd of suppliants. He waited some time * in hopes that a passage might be opened by fair means ; but as the mob continued to hold their ground, he ordered his retinue to force their way through ; and many persons were trampled under foot by the horses and elephants. This harsh con- A. D. 1677, duct was successful in striking terror, and the tax was submitted to without further demur. General The effects of th cse fanatical proceedings were of the C * 1 n t long in showing themselves. At the beginning re jg n> ti ie Hindus served the state as zea- lously as the Mussulmans ; and that, even when employed against people of their own religion ; but their attachment declined as they had ex- perience of the new system ; discontent spread among the inhabitants of the emperor's own do- minions ; the Rajputs began to be disaffected ; and every Hindu in the Deckan became at heart a partisan of the Marattas.* * Khafi Khan. The general sentiment of the time is well shown in a letter to Aurangzib, commonly ascribed to Jeswant Sing. It cannot be his work ; for it is the letter of an open enemy, whose dominions are about to be invaded ;' and Jeswant Sing was serving against the Afghans when the jezia was im- posed, and continued beyond the Indus till his death : it must, besides, have been written at a later period, after the decline of the empire had become apparent. It is also assigned to Raj Sing, rana of Oudipur, as well as to a raja named Subah Sing; and the Marattas claim it for Sevajl (Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 219.). It is not improbable that it is the work of some private Hindu politician, who chose this way of publishing a sort of manifesto against the government. It is not destitute of ability. It main- tains the manciples of toleration, which are violated by the jezfa ; AURANGZIB. These religious animosities were kindled into a CHAP. flame by an event which took place a few months after the imposition of the jezia. Raja Jeswant Sing died at Cabal, leaving a widow and two in- tlT and fant sons. The widow immediately set out for < ^| r }" i f India without leave or passports ; and, on her being want Sin s- stopped at the Indus, her escort made an attempt to force the guard at Attok, and afterwards did effect their passage by some neglected ford. This violence afforded a pretext for Aurangzib to get the children into his power. He refused them admission into Delhi, and surrounded their en- campment with his troops. But on this occasion the Rajputs united con- They siderable address to their accustomed courage, from Delhi. Their leader, Durga Das, obtained leave to send off part of the escort with their women and children to their own country : along with this party he dispatched the rani and her infants in disguise, while he substituted two children of the same age for the young princes, and employed one of her female attendants to personate the rani ; all which was rendered more easy by the privacy of the exalts the liberality of the former princes of the house of Tei- mur; and contrasts the flourishing state of the empire in their time with that of the present reign; when men of all classes and religions are discontented, the revenue gone to ruin, the people oppressed and yet the treasury empty, the police neglected, the cities insecure, and the forts falling into decay. [A translation of this letter is given in " Orme's Fragments," p. 252. A closer translation, with the Persian, was published by Mr. Weston, in 1803.] 4<96 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK women's apartments. In spite of these precautions ' many hours had not elapsed before Aurangzib's suspicions were awakened, and he sent orders that the rani and her children should be brought into the citadel. His fears of their actual escape were for the time removed by the obstinacy of the Rajputs, who refused to give up the widow and children of their raja, and declared themselves ready to die in their defence. His attention was now occupied in overcoming their resistance : troops were sent against them, whom they gallantly re- pulsed ; at length, after the loss of the greater part of their number, the supposed rani and her family were seized, while Durga Das and the survivors dispersed for the time ; and, again assembling at a distance, retired to their own country. Their pro- tracted defence had given time for the rani to effect her escape. She arrived in safety in Jodpur, and her eldest son, Ajit Sing, lived to enjoy a long reign over Mar war, and to be a formidable enemy to Aurangzib for all the rest of that monarch's life. His identity, however, was long exposed to ques- tion ; for Aurangzib, with his usual adroitness, re- ceived the supposititious children as the undoubted issue of Raja Jeswant Sing, directed them to be honourably treated, and afterwards employed their pretensions in aid of his attacks on Jodpur. Combina- This outrage towards the family of one of their n^puts. C body, combined with the imposition of the jezia, disposed the Rajputs to unite in their own defence. Raja Ram Sing of Jeipur or Amber, whose family AURANGZJB. 497 was connected with that of the emperor by so CHAP. many intermarriages and the distinguished services ' of several generations, retained his attachment even at the present crisis; but Raj Sing, rana of Oudipur or Mewar, entered heartily into the cause of the children of Jeswant Sing, and at the same time peremptorily refused to agree to the jezia. The Theempe- f* i p T- / / i ror marches whole or the western part or Kajputana being now against opposed to him, Aurangzib assembled an army and marched to Ajmir.* From that place he sent on A. . 1579, detachments to ravage Mar war ; and, with his main A . H. 1039, army, he made so great an impression on the rana as to reduce him to send in overtures of submis- mission. He was allowed very favourable terms : Grants fa- a small cession of territory being accepted in lieu terms to of the jezia, and no other sacrifice demanded but S^JJ* of a promise not to assist Jodpur. This arrangement concluded, the emperor re- turned to Delhi, having been absent less than eight months.t He had scarcely reached his capital, The rana when he learned that the rana had broken the * treaty (probably by giving secret assistance to A - n - 1679 Jodpur), and before many months were over he A. H. '1090, . f, A . , y-^. . . ! Rajab. again set out tor Ajmir. On this occasion, he put forth his utmost strength and applied all his energy to the speedy suppression of the combination against him. He summoned Prince Moazzim from the Deckan and Prince A'zim from Bengal ; and at a later period he ordered the viceroy of * KhafiKhan. f Ibid. VOL. II. K K 498 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Guzerat to invade the Rajput territory from that , quarter also. But the principal attack was made by his own army, which was sent under Prince Akber (assisted by Tohavvar Khan) direct to Oudipur, while the rana, intimidated by the forces which threatened him on all sides, abandoned his capital, and took refuge in the Aravalli mountains. He was pursued into his retreat by Akber, who left a detachment behind him to ravage the open plains. Prince Moazzim had by this time reached U'jen, and was ordered to adopt the same course ; and Prince A'zim, on his arrival, was directed against the Jodpur territory and the adjoining Devasta- part of the rana's. Their orders were, to employ part of their troops to cut off all supplies from the fugitives in the hills ; and with the rest to lay waste the country, burn and destroy the villages, cut down the fruit trees, and carry off the women and children ; so as to make the enemy feel all the evils of war in their utmost severity. Permanent ^ is consistent with Aurangzib's character to on?? 1011 su PP ose tnat these inhuman orders were dictated K%uts. by an unfeeling policy alone ; but his religious pre- judices and his hatred of opposition make it pro- bable that anger and revenge also had an influence even on his calculating temper. Whatever were the motives, the effect was to complete for ever the alienation of the Rajputs. They were afterwards often at peace with Aurangzib's successors, and they sometimes even furnished their contingents and professed their allegiance ; but their service AURANGZIB. 4-99 was yielded with constraint and distrust, very im- CHAP. like the zealous attachment which formerly made them the prop of the monarchy. During all this time, the Rajputs kept a body of 25,000 horse, chiefly Rahtors of Jodpur, in the field, with which, aided by their infantry in the hills, they occasioned much distress and some danger to their adversaries : they cut off convoys, attacked detachments, defended favourable posi- tions, and sometimes gained important advantages by surprises and night attacks. But Durga Das, who still acted a prominent part in their councils, did not trust to force alone for the deliverance of his country. He endeavoured to open a nego- prince tiation with Prince Moazzim, and to draw him off from his allegiance by offers to support him in pos- sessing himself of the crown. These prospects seem, for a time, to have had some charms even for Moazzim, a prince of mature years, and next in succession to the throne ; but on his rejection of them, they were eagerly embraced by Prince Akber, the youngest of the brothers, who was then only twenty-three, and who, in his boyhood, had been considered as the chosen heir of his father. * He at once entered into Durga Das's views ; and although Prince Moazzim warned the emperor of the plots which were going on, yet Aurangzib was attached to Akber, whose youth, he thought, pre- vented his being dangerous, and at the same time, * Bernier, vol. i. p. 193. K K 2 with his army. 500 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK he entertained the greatest jealousy of Moazzim himself. He therefore set down his information to envy, or some worse motive, and took no step to guard against Akber's infidelity, until he heard that Durga Das was encamped beside him, and is pro- that he had assumed the title and all the functions emperor, of a king. Tohavvar Khan became his prime minister ; Majahid Khan, another great nobleman, also accepted of an office ; and the rest of the army, destitute of a leader, continued submissive to the authority which they had been accustomed to obey. Marches Aurangzib had sent all his troops on different de- against Aurangzib. tachments ; and had scarcely 1000 men with him at Ajmir, when he heard that Akber was in full march against him. He instantly called in Mo- azzim, with as many of his troops as he could as- semble ; but they produced nothing capable of opposing Akber, now at the head of 70,000 men. Dangerous Aurangzib's situation seemed hopeless ; and, to situation of . . .,. . the em- render it still more desperate, he gave way to his old suspicions of Moazzim, and ordered his guns His P re- to be pointed on that prince's division. But he did sence of . . . ... , mind. not lose his penetration even in this perplexity : conjecturing that the bulk of Akber's army had been surprised into revolt, rather than led to it by any real disaffection, he sent an officer of ability, who was brother to Majahid Khan, with a small body of horse, to get as near as he could to the enemy, and try to open a communication with his brother. Majahid, who had never sincerely united with Akber, took the first opportunity of coming AURANGZIB. 501 over to his brother. His example was followed CHAP. jj by other chiefs ; and the general inclination was ' so evident, that Tohavvar Khan, when next day sent out with the advanced guard, came forward as army- if to engage with that opposed to him, and at once passed over to the emperor's side. It is not clear whether there was a real or affected suspicion that he came over with treacherous in- tentions ; or whether, which is extremely impro- bable, he really did entertain such designs ; but a report was set on foot, that he intended to assas- sinate the emperor, and, on his refusing to give up his arms, force was used, and he was cut down close to the royal pavilion. Meanwhile, his desertion, and that of so many Akber flics other men of all ranks, struck the Rajputs with ra ttas e . dismay ; and, finding themselves left to oppose the whole Mussulman army, they thought it necessary at last to attend to their own safety ; only Durga Das remaining, with 3000 horse, to protect Prince Akber on his retreat. That prince was left with scarcely a single Mahometan soldier ; and all he could expect from the Rajputs was to be allowed to share in their privations. He therefore resolved to seek an asylum with the Marattas ; and, eluding pursuit by a march through the hills into Guzerat, he made his way to the Concan, and arrived in safety, still escorted by Durga Das, with 500 T> / f . Kajputs. * Letters from Bombay, quoted in Orme's " Fragments," p. 267. K K 3 A. D . June 1. 502 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Protracted war with the R&j. puts. But the war with Mewar and Jodpur, though it had returned into its old channel, continued un- abated. The Moguls went on with their ravages : the Rajputs retaliated by similar inroads into Malwa ; and having, at length, caught the spirit of in- tolerance from their persecutors, they plundered the mosques, burned the Koran, and insulted the mullahs. The chief sufferer by this system of hostility was the rana of Oudipur, whose fertile territory lay nearest the Moguls, and was occu- pied by their troops ; while the remote and barren tracts under Jodpur were less exposed to such an impression. Aurangzib himself was desirous of putting an end to a struggle which withdrew him from more important affairs ; and, by his con- trivance, the rana was induced to make overtures, which were immediately and favourably received. The jezia was passed over in silence, the small cession formerly made in lieu of that impost was now given as a penalty for having assisted Akber ; but all the other articles were favourable to the rana, whose honour was saved by a clause pro- mising the restoration of Ajit Sing's country to him when he should come of age.* This treaty allowed Aurangzib to draw off his army, without discredit, to the Deckan, where its presence could no longer be dispensed with ; but it did little towards the real restoration of tranquillity. The western Rajputs were still in arms ; the war with Orme's Fragments, p. 106. Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 388. AURANGZ1B. 503 the rana was renewed at no distant period, and CHAP. the whole of the Rajput states, except Jeipur and __. the little principalities towards the east, continued in a state of open hostility till the end of Aurang- zib's reign. The capitals remained in the hands of the Moguls ; but, though the dissensions among the Rajputs prevented their making solid acqui- sitions, they still severely harassed the troops in their own country, and often laid waste the neigh- bouring provinces. * * Tod's Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 69, &c. Colonel Tod's account of the transactions subsequent to the treaty is probably rectified from the Mahometan newspapers (akhbars) of the day, which he mentions were in his possession. It is certainly quite un- like the Rajput legends; being distinct and consistent, and con- stantly referring to dates, which coincide with those of events related by other authors. K K 4 501* HISTORY OF INDIA. CHAP. III. FROM 1681 TO 1698. BOOK THE continuance of this warfare did not prevent Aurangzib from turning all the resources he could XL Affairs of command to the settlement of the Deckan, where the Deckan resumed, many changes of moment had taken place while he was engaged in other quarters. When his forces were first drawn off for the war with the Afghans (A. D. 1672), Khan Jehan, his general in the Deckan, found himself too weak to prosecute ac- tive hostilities against the Marattas ; and would probably have been unable to defend his own pro- vince, if their leader had been disposed to attack it. Sevajfs But while things were in this position, the king of from U Bija- Bijapur died, and the state of discord into which his country fell offered greater temptations to Se- vaji than were presented by any attack on the Moguls. The part of Bijapur which most attracted him on this occasion, was that on the sea, with the adjoining Ghats ; and in the course of the years 1673 and 1674 A. D., after a succession of battles and sieges, he made himself master of the whole of the southern Concan (except the points held by the English, Abyssinians, and Portuguese), and of a tract above the Ghats, extending further to the east than the upper course of the Kishna. Though Sevaji had long borne the privileges of sovereignty, AURANGZIB. 505 he conceived it suitable to the undertakings he CHAP. in. had now in view to assume the exercise of them with greater solemnity than before. He was there- Is crowned J at Raighar fore again inaugurated at Raighar with all the cere- with addi- f * it - i s\ i j "" i i tioiial so- monies or a Mogul coronation, including his being weighed in gold and distributing rich presents to all around him. At the same time he changed the titles of his principal officers from Persian to Shan- scrit ; and while he thenceforth assumed all the pomp of a Mahometan prince, he redoubled his attention to the duties of his religion, and affected greater scrupulosity than ever in food and other things connected with cast.* The long period for which Sevaji had been Makes an .... . . _ _ . incursion employed in his conquests encouraged the Moguls into the , . . Mogul ter- to make an incursion into his possessions soon after r itor y , this ceremony ; but they had reason to repent their temerity. Sevaji, without moving in person, sent detachments into the Imperial territory, and these bands took two forts, plundered the country to the heart of Candesh and Berar, and even penetrated into Guzerat as far as Baroch, where for the first time they crossed the river Nerbadda. These incursions took place in 1675 ; and as he and first i i i i IT r> hoped they might induce the Moguls to refrain from disturbing him again, they left Sevaji at liberty to execute a design that had long occupied * Mr, Oxenden, who was envoy from Bombay to Sevaji, was present at his coronation, and describes it as much more splendid than would have been expected among early Marattas. It took place on the 6th of June, 1674. ,506 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK his thoughts. This was the recovery of his father's ' jaglr, and a further extension of his conquests in Sevaji'sex- the south of India. The jasrir had hitherto re- pedition to the south mained in the hands of his younger brother, Vencaji, who held it under the nominal supremacy of the government of Bijapur. Sevaji was there- fore now at liberty either to claim it as heir, or to conquer it as an enemy ; and his views were par- ticularly directed to it from his having lately been joined by Ragunat Narain, the Bramin who had formerly managed it on the part of Shahji, and had afterwards been minister to Vencaji, until a recent quarrel. This man was useful to Sevaji both from his knowledge and connections. But as he could not safely set out on so remote an expedition without leaving a friend in his rear, he took advantage of the jealousy of Bijapur and fears of the Moguls entertained by the king of Golconda, and proposed an alliance to him against their com- mon enemies. His overtures being encouraged, Towards he marched for Golconda with an army of 30,000 A. D. 1676. horse and 40,000 infantry. He halted for some time at Golconda to make a definitive settlement of his alliance ; when it was agreed that he was to share with the king whatever conquests he made beyond his father's jagir, and that the king was to supply him with a sum of money and a train of artillery, reserving all his other forces to keep the armies of Bijapur and the Moguls in check. Having thus secured his rear, Sevaji A. D. 1677, crossed the Kishna at Carnul, proceeded through March. AURANGZIB. 507 Cadapa, and, passing close to Madras *, presented CHAP. himself before Jinji (Gingee) 600 miles from his own territories. Jinji was a strong and important hill fort belonging to Bijapur, but was given up in consequence of a previous understanding with the commander. The heavy part of his army, which he had left behind, next laid siege to, and ultimately took, Vellor ; while Sevaji had a per- an d sonal interview with his brother, and endeavoured to persuade him to give him a share of their father's possessions. Having failed in this nego- tiation, he took A'rni and various other forts, and forcibly occupied the whole of Shahji's jagir in and the Mysore. While thus employed, he heard of the invasion of Golconda by the Moguls and the government of Bijapur ; on which he marched off to the north, leaving his conquests in charge of his half-brother, Santaji, who had joined him on his first arrival. As soon as Sevaji was out of reach, Vencaji made an attempt to recover his pos- sessions ; and the dispute terminated in a com- promise, by which Vencaji was to retain the jagir, but pay half the revenue to Sevaji, who was to keep to himself the places which he had conquered from Bijapur. The king of Golconda had by this time come to a settlement with the Moguls ; and Sevaji, after conquering the districts of Belari and Adoni on his way, passed on to Raighar, which About the he reached after an absence of eighteen months. * First week of May, 1677. Wilks's Mysore, from the " Madras Records." 508 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK The invasion of Golconda was owing to a change ' in the policy of the Moguls. Khan Jehan had The MO- been removed, and succeeded by Dilir Khan, per- guls, under piiirKhan, haps the best of Aurangzib's officers. His force was still small ; but a considerable portion of his troops were Patans, like himself, and he made up for all deficiencies by his own vigour and activity. The king of Bijapur was still a minor, and various revolutions had taken place among his ministers and guardians. Dilir formed a union with one of them, and made the above-mentioned attack on Golconda. The regent of Bijapur, who acted with him on that occasion, died soon after ; and Dilir, by supporting the claims of an Abyssinian, named Masaud, to succeed him, acquired a perfect ascendancy in the councils of Bijapur. But Au- rangzib, not satisfied with these advantages, sent down prince Moazzim, as viceroy, to advance fur- ther demands, which Dilir, as general, was to en- force. In execution of this plan, Dilir renewed to Bijapiir. . A. i). 1679. tne war Wltn Bijapur, and laid siege to the capital. The regent, in despair, had recourse to Sevaji, who, not finding himself strong enough to attack the besieging army, invaded and laid waste the Mogul territory with more than ordinary severity. He was nearly cut off, on his retreat, or rather flight, from one of those inroads ; but, almost im- mediately afterwards, appeared in greater strength than ever, and took several forts from the Moguls. But Dilir Khan still persevered in the siege, and the regent, reduced to extremity, entreated Sevaji AURANGZIB. 509 to come to his assistance before it was too late. CHAP. Sevaji had set off for this purpose, when he was ' surprised bv the intelligence that his son, Sambaji, * r , - liad deserted to the Moguls. This young man, baji, deserts .. . * totheMo- who had none or his father s qualities, except his gu is. courage, had given himself up to debauchery ; and having attempted to violate the wife of a Bramin, was imprisoned, by Sevaji, in one of his hill forts. He now escaped from his place of confinement, and fled to Dilir, who received him with open arms, intending to make use of him among the Marattas as a counterpoise to his father. The embarrassment this occasioned to Sevaji was only temporary, for Aurangzib, disapproving of Dilir's views, ordered Sambaji to he sent prisoner to his own camp ; and Dilir, whose honour was pledged He returns for his safety, connived at his return to his father, ther!" Meanwhile, the defence of Bijapur had surpassed expectation : Sevaji, as soon as he recovered from his first surprise, had renewed his exertions ; and Dilir Khan, finding his supplies cut off, was obliged siege of to raise the siege. The price of Sevaji's alliance was a cession of the territory between the Tum- badra and Kishna, and of all the king's rights over the jagir of Shahji. This last acquisition gave him the right, as his success did the power, of exercising a more effectual control over his brother; and Vencaji's mortification at the .change had led him to the thoughts of renouncing worldly affairs ; when all Sevaji's designs were cut short by an 510 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK illness which carried him off on the~5th of April, XI. 1680, in the fifty-third year of his age. Death of Though the son of a powerful chief, he had HU cha- begun life as a daring and artful captain of banditti, racter. fraft r ip ene d into a skilful general and an able statesman, and left a character which has never since been equalled or approached by any of his countrymen. The distracted state of the neigh- bouring countries presented openings by which an inferior leader might have profited; but it required a genius like his to avail himself as he did of the mistakes of Aurangzib, by kindling a zeal for reli- gion, and, through that, a national spirit among the Marattas. It was by these feelings that his government was upheld after it passed into feeble hands, and was kept together, in spite of numerous internal disorders, until it had established its su- premacy over the greater part of India. Though a predatory war, such as he conducted, must ne- cessarily inflict extensive misery, his enemies bear witness to his anxiety to mitigate the evils of it by humane regulations, which were strictly enforced. His devotion latterly degenerated into extrava- gances of superstition and austerity, but seems never to have obscured his talents or soured his temper. Unsuccess- When Sambaii returned from the Mogul camp, ful attempt . . to set aside he was again placed in confinement at Jranalla, and was there when his father died. This circumstance, and some expressions of uneasiness which had fallen from Sevaji regarding the future conduct of his AURANGZIB. 511 eldest son, afforded a pretext for alleging that he CHAP. designed the succession for the second, Raja Ram, ' a boy of ten years old. The intrigues of this young prince's mother gained acceptance to the story ; and the Bramin ministers, who dreaded Sambajf s violence, and looked with pleasure to a long minority, affected to receive it as authentic, and sent orders for the close arrest of Sambaji, con- cealing Sevaji's death till that object should be accomplished. But Sambaji, who was a prisoner at large within He is T- /ii i r> i acknow- Jranalla, contrived to get possession or the secret, iedgedr%. and announced his own accession to the garrison, who immediately acknowledged his authority. He did not at first venture out of his strong hold ; but the public opinion was favourable to his right ; the Bramin ministers fell out among themselves ; a force that was sent to besiege him was gained over to his interest; and he at length made his entry into Raighar as undisputed sovereign (June, 1680). His prudence, up to this time, had gone far to Sambaji's remove the prejudice entertained against him; but the favourable impression was effaced by his cruel- ties after his accession. He put the widow of Sevaji to a painful and lingering death ; he impri- soned her son, Raja Ram ; threw the Bramin ministers, who had been most active against him, into irons ; and beheaded such of his other enemies as were not protected by the sanctity of their class. The same prevalence of passion over policy ap- 512 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XL His obsti- nacy in besieging Jinjera. Joined by Prince Akber. Plots against his authority. Execu- tions. Gives him- self up to a favourite, Calusha. peared in his foreign proceedings. Sevaji had always been in a state of hostility with the Abys- sinians of Jinjera, and had occasionally made great efforts to reduce them. Sambaji's first operations were against these people ; and, as they were near neighbours to his capital, he took a personal inter- est in the war, and for a long time gave up his whole thoughts to subduing them, as if he had had no other enemy in the world. He was not diverted from this pursuit even by the arrival of Prince Akber in his camp (June, 1681). He received the prince with honour, and acknowledged him as emperor, yet showed no intention of rendering his pretensions useful by supporting them against Au- rangzib. The arrival of Akber suggested to the party still secretly opposed to Sambaji the possi- bility of obtaining his sanction to the claim of Raja Ram. Their plot was soon discovered ; many of their leaders were trampled to death by elephants ; and among the sufferers was one of the chief Bra- min ministers, whose eminent services to Sevaji seemed to protect him from capital punishment almost as much as his sacred order. The disaffection to Sambaji's government pro- duced by these executions was increased by other causes. He neglected or persecuted his father's ministers, while he threw his own affairs, without reserve, into the hands of Calusha, a Bramin from Hindostan, who had gained his favour by encou- raging his vices, as well as by his insinuating man- ners and superficial accomplishments. AURANGZIB. With the aid of this counsellor, he eagerly pro- CHAP. secuted his operations against Jinjera (A. D. 1682). ' He endeavoured to construct a mound to connect Fails at the island with the main land, and he afterwards attempted an assault by means of boats. All his exertions were in vain ; and when he was con- strained to raise the siege, the Abyssinians in- creased his mortification by sallying out and plun- dering his villages. They soon after injured him still more sensibly by entirely defeating his fleet at sea. Exasperated by these affronts, he charged the Europeans settled on the coast with having contri- buted to produce them : he began hostilities in person against the Portuguese, with whom Sevaji had also been at war, and nearly proceeded to the same extremity with the English, although they had hitherto always been treated as friends. These petty operations were interrupted by attacks from the Moguls, the precursors of the appearance of Aurangzib. Sambaji's chiefs had not been entirely Decline of inactive in the Deckan during his own occupation i^the' with the Abyssinians ; but great relaxation had been introduced into discipline ; and it was increased, along with all other disorders, by the habits to which the raja had given himself up. His whole time was spent in idleness and debauchery : the vast treasures left by Sevaji were soon dissipated ; and, although Calusha added to the general dis- affection by increasing the land revenue, the income of the state was inadequate to its expenditure. The troops, left long in arrears, appropriated the plun- VOL. II. L L 514 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK "X I A. D. ices. His views. A.I). 1683. der taken on expeditions to their own use, and degenerated from the comparatively regular bands of Sevaji into the hordes of rapacious and destruc- tive freebooters which they have ever since re- mained. By this time Aurangzib had made his treaty with the rana-of Oudipur ; and, after leaving a detachment to ravage the Jodpur territory, moved with the whole force of his empire to the conquest of the Deckan. It would appear to have been sound policy for Aurangzib to have combined with the kings of Bijapur and Golconda in putting down Sambaji, and restoring the tranquillity of the Deckan ; but he, perhaps, thought that those monarchs were more jealous of him than of the Marattas, and would not sincerely unite with him, so that Sam- baji would never want a retreat while they had dominions in which to harbour him. It is at least as probable that the acquisition of the kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda was Aurangzib's primary object, and that he judged the reduction of Sam- baji to be a necessary consequence of success in his other more important undertaking. He had seen with pleasure the wars of those kings with each other, and with the Marattas ; had fomented their internal disorders ; and seemed so far blinded as to think that every thing that threw the Deckan into confusion must turn to his advantage. His first advance was to Burhanpur, where he made a long halt, as he afterwards did at Aurang- AURANGZIB. 515 abad. He was occupied during those periods on CHAP. political and financial arrangements ; and, by a sort ' of infatuation, he took this occasion to enforce the strict exaction of the jezia, which the common sense of his officers had led them to avoid. Before he had left Burhanpur, he sent Prince His first A / i T i i r- -i 11-11 operations. A zim with a considerable force to reduce the hill forts near the junction of the Chandor range with the Ghats, and Prince Moazzim, with a still larger one, to overrun the Concan, and penetrate to the south of Sambaji's country, and the borders of that of Bijapur. It is as difficult to see any general A. D . 1684. design in the employment of these armies as to understand the principles on which their operations were conducted. The strong fort of Saler was given up by previous concert to Prince A'zim, and this petty intrigue may have tempted Aurangzib to detach a force to this unconnected point ; but to send a large army of cavalry* among the rocks and thickets of the Concan, where there were no roads, no forage, and no field for the employment of horse, shows a want of judgment that it is quite impossible to explain. Moazzim marched the Destruc- whole length of the Concan unopposed ; yet, by p^nce the time he got to the neighbourhood of Goa, he JSj^T'" had lost almost the whole of his horses and cattle, theConcan - and even his men began to suffer from scarcity. The pressure was increased by Sambaji, who stopped up the Ghats, while his cruizers cut off * Orme says 40,000. L JL 2 516 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the vessels that were sent with supplies by sea ; "Y- i~ ' and Moazzim thought himself fortunate when he was able to emerge into the country above the Ghats with the remains of his dismounted army. He was pursued by the effects of an unwholesome climate and unusual food, and lost a great portion of his men by an epidemic which broke out at Walwa, near Mirich, on the Kishna, where he en- camped for the period of the rains, invasion of When the season opened he was directed to *R' * ' enter the territory of Bijapur from the south-west, so as to co-operate with Prince A'zim, who, after failing in his expedition against the forts, was dis- patched with a powerful army to invade Bijapur ; while Aurangzib himself advanced to Ahmednagar, leaving a reserve under Khan Jehan at Aurangabad. A. D. less. This movement gave Sambaji an opportunity to retaliate the invasion of his country. He gradually assembled a body of horse in the north of the Concan, behind the right flank of Aurangzib's armies, which from thence moved rapidly along their rear, sacked and burned the great city of Burhanpur, and then drew off again to the Con- can, leaving all the country through which it had passed in a blaze. So secret as well as rapid were the movements of this body, that Khan Jehan, marching on a point where he thought to inter- cept it, found himself entirely off the line of its retreat. Meanwhile Prince A'zim had taken Solapur, and was advancing towards Bijapur ; but he found AURANGZIB. 517 himself unable to cope with the army that was CHAP. sent out to oppose him, and was compelled to retreat beyond the Bima ; while Moazzim, too weak to attempt any movement by himself, was obliged to wait for reinforcements, by which he was escorted to Ahmednagar with the wreck of his fine army. After these failures Aurangzib advanced in per- Failure of o/i / i T- A / ',11- the invasion son to bolapur, and sent on rnnce A zim with his O f army reinforced : although the distance was so short, the Bijapur troops cut off the prince's sup- plies, and would have destroyed his army, if a large convoy of grain had not been skilfully conducted into his camp by Ghazi u din.* The impression he made was still small, until Aurangzib, at a later A . D . 1686 . period, moved on to the siege in person. It was in the present stage of the war that the Marattas, seeing the Moguls drawn off to the south, Baroch. made another bold inroad into the territory in their rear, plundered the city of Baroch, and retreated after ravaging the adjoining part of Guzerat. It is not clear whether Sambaji sent out this ex- pedition from motives of his own, or in concert with the Deckan kings. He had about this time entered into a defensive alliance with the king of Golconda ; and on this fact becoming known to Aurangzib, he did not allow his attention to be drawn off to Sambaji, but immediately made it a ground of quarrel with Golconda, and sent an * The ancestor of the present Nizam. L L 3 518 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK army to invade that kingdom. From his usual ' distrust of powerful armies and great commanders, force he sent was insufficient ; and ere lone; he invades Goiconda. was constrained to send his son, Prince Moazzim, with a large body of troops, to support the first army, and take the command of the whole. The government of Goiconda was in a very different state from the distracted condition of Bijapur. The king, Abul Hasan, though indolent and voluptuous, was popular ; and his government and finances were ably conducted by Madna Pant, a Bramin, to whom he wisely gave his full confidence. But the exclusive employment of this minister was odious to the Mussulmans, and especially to rbrahim Khan, the commander-in-chief, into whose hands the power would probably have fallen under any different arrangement. When Moazzim drew near, this man deserted to him with the greater part of his army. Madna Pant was murdered in a simul- taneous tumult in the city ; the king fled to the hill fort of Goiconda, and Heiderabad was seized and plundered for three successive days. Moazzim did his best to check this breach of discipline ; and it gave the utmost displeasure to the emperor, not so much from humanity, or even policy, as on account of the quantity of treasure lost to the crown, which he violently suspected that Moazzim had embezzled for his own ambitious purposes, as he himself had done on a similar occasion under Shah Jehan. Having thus effectually crippled the king of Goiconda, he granted him peace for a AURANGZIB. 519 great pecuniary payment, and turned his whole CHAP. forces to the reduction of Bijapur. - The army of that monarchy appears at this time Makes peace with to have melted away ; for, although the walls or the king. the city are six miles in circumference, Aurangzib was able to invest it completely, while he employed a portion of his army on a regular attack and breach. So well was the blockade kept up, that by the time the breach was practicable the town was distressed for provisions ; and as the garrison, though small, was composed of Patans, it was thought prudent to give them favourable terms : Aurangzib entered the place on a portable throne Takes the 1111,1 i i capital, and through the breach, the young king was made destroys prisoner, and Bijapur, ceasing to be a capital, was arch " soon reduced to the deserted condition in which it A - D - 1686 Oct. 15. now stands.* * " The walls, which are of hewn stone, and very lofty, are to this day entire, and, being surmounted by the cupolas and minarets of public buildings, still present to the spectator, from without, the appearance of a flourishing city ; but, within, all is solitude, silence, and desolation. The deep moat, the double rampart, and the ruins of the splendid palaces in the citadel, attest the former magnificence of the court. The great mosque is a grand edifice, and the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah, already mentioned, is remarkable for its elegant and graceful archi- tecture ; but the chief feature in the scene is the mausoleum of Mohummud Adil Shah, the dome of which fills the eye from every point of view ; and, though in itself entirely devoid of ornament, its enormous dimensions and austere simplicity invest it with an air of melancholy grandeur, which harmonises with the wreck and desolation that surround it." (.Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 34-0.) One is at a loss, in seeing these- ruins, to con- jecture how so small a state could have maintained such a capital. I, L 4 520 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XL Aurangzib breaks the peace with Golconda. A. D. 1687, September. Imprisons Prince Moazzim. No sooner had Bijapur fallen than Aurangzib determined to break the peace with Golconda; and the means he employed were as base as the design was perfidious. He drew his army near on pretext of a pilgrimage, and he obtained jewels and gifts of all sorts from the unfortunate king, anxious at any cost to purchase his friendship, or at least his compassion ; but during all this in- terval he was intriguing with the ministers of Gol- conda, and debauching the troops ; and when his plot was ripe for execution, he published a ma- nifesto denouncing the king as a protector of in- fidels, and soon after laid siege to his fort. From this moment Abul Hasan seemed to cast aside his effeminacy ; and, though deserted by his troops, he bravely defended Golconda for seven months, till it also was given up by treachery ; and he then bore his misfortunes with a dignity and resignation that has endeared his memory to his subjects and their descendants even to this day. During this siege, the unsleeping suspicions of Aurangzib were stirred up by some indiscreet communications between Abul Hasan and Prince Moazzim. The object of this intercourse was to procure the prince's intercession with his father ; but to Aurangzib it appeared to afford a confirma- tion of all his former surmises, and he lost no time in securing Moazzim, who remained in more or less strict confinement for nearly seven years. Moazzim seems never to have given any cause for these alarms. All accounts give him credit for AURANGZIB. caution and moderation. Bernier says, no slave CHAP. . in. could be more obedient, or seem more devoid of ambition : he, however, hints that this was rather too like Aurangzib's own conduct in his youth ; and perhaps the same reflection may have occurred to the emperor.* Aurangzib had now attained the summit of his Effects of i 111 i r* i i i i these coo- WlSheS, but had sown a harvest or which he and quests. his posterity were to reap the bitter produce. The governments which in some degree kept up order Disordered in the Deckan being annihilated, the frame of " society which depended on them was dissolved, and the scattered materials remained as elements of discord. Though the Patans and foreign mer- cenaries may have obtained service with the em- peror, the rest of the troops of both armies were obliged to join Sambaji, or to plunder on their own account. The distant zemindars seized every opportunity to make themselves independent, and, among all the wars and robberies to which they betook themselves, were always ready to befriend the Marattas, whom they looked on as the pa- trons of anarchy : those most within reach of the Moguls were disaffected to their conquerors ; and from this motive, and the new-born feeling of re- ligious opposition, were always ready to assist their enemies : so that, in spite of a short gleam of prosperity after the fall of Golconda, Aurangzib might date from that event a train of vexations and disasters which followed him to the grave. * Bernier, vol. i. p. 120. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK He was not remiss in taking advantage of his XT ' present good fortune, He took possession of all Aurangzib the territories of Bijapur and Golconda, even their takes pos- , , . session of latest southern conquests : he seized on bnanji s - jagir in the Mysore, confining Vencaji to Tanjore, &r aa Tan- ana " compelling the Marattas in Sevaji's late acquisi- tions to fly to their forts : but in all these countries A. D. 1688. 1 he had little more than a military occupation : the districts were farmed to the Desmuks and other zemindars, and were governed by military leaders, who received 25 per cent, for the expense of col- lecting, and who sent up the balance, after paying their troops, to the king ; unless, as often happened, assignments were made for a period of years on fixed districts for the payment of other chiefs. inactivity During all these great events Sambaji remained lbajl * in a state of personal inertness, ascribed by the Maratta historians to the enchantments of Calusha, but naturally explained by the stupor and mental debility produced by a course of drunkenness and debauchery. Prince Ak- Prince Akber, disgusted with his manners, and ' hoping nothing from such an ally, quitted his court and repaired to Persia, where he lived till A. D. 1706. The chiefs exerted themselves individually against the Moguls, notwithstanding the inefficiency of their raja ; but, in spite of their resistance, the open country belonging to the Marattas was gra- dually taken possession of, and Aurangzib was pre- paring for a systematic attack on the forts, when the activity of one of his officers unexpectedly AURANGZIB. 523 threw his principal enemy into his hands. Sambaji CHAP. was enjoying himself, with a small party of attend- ants, in a favourite pleasure-house, at Sangameswar Sambaji in the Concan, when intelligence of his unguarded situation was brought to Tokarrab Khan, the Mogul officer at Colapur.* Though this place is only fifty or sixty miles from Sangameswar, it is sepa- rated from it by the range of Ghats ; and as Tokarrab Khan was only a governor of a district, his neighbourhood (if it could so be called) gave little uneasiness to Sambaji or those about him. Being an active and enterprising soldier, he set off with a small body of troops, and took his measures so well that he reached Sangameswar before his march was suspected. Sambaji might still have escaped ; for, before his house was surrounded, some of his followers ran in with information of the arrival of the Moguls ; but Sambaji was in a state of intoxication, and replied by threatening them with punishment for such insulting intelligence. Soon after Tokarrab made his appearance ; most of the attendants fled ; Calusha was wounded in endeavouring to save his master ; and both were made prisoners and sent in triumph to the im- perial head quarters.! * Grant Duff. From a letter in the "Rakaimi Karaim" (the forty-first in the India House copy), it appears that the plan originated with Aurangzib himself, and was executed in strict conformity to his orders. Tokarrab, by that letter, seems to have been besieging Parnala. f Calusha is generally, but erroneously, believed to have be- trayed his master. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK They were led through the camp on camels, ' amidst the din of drums and other noisy instru- ments, and surrounded by an innumerable multi- tude, who flocked to see their dreaded enemy; and, after being exhibited before Aurangzib, they were ordered into confinement. Aurangzib probably in- tended to spare his prisoner, for a time at least, as an instrument for gaining possession of his forts ; but Sambaji, now roused to a sense of his degrada- tion, courted death, and replied to an invitation to become a Mussulman by language so insulting to the emperor, and so impious towards his prophet, that an order was given for his immediate execu- Putto tion. The sentence was probably issued on the ground of blasphemy ; for it was attended with studied barbarity, very unlike the usual practice of Aurangzib. His eyes were first destroyed with a A.D. 1689, hot iron, his tongue was cut out, and lie was at last beheaded along with his favourite, Calusha. Though his person had been despised by the Ma- rattas, his fate was pitied and resented ; and the indignation and religious hatred of the nation was raised to a higher pitch than ever. Weakness Strong as was the animosity of the Marattas, their chance of resistance -appeared to be very small. The overwhelming force of Aurangzib, his personal reputation, even the pomp and grandeur which surrounded him, and the very name of the Great Mogul, struck them with an awe which they had not experienced in their former wars with his lieutenants. Their weakness became more con- rattas. AURANGZIB. spicuous when Aurangzib, remaining, himself, near CHAP. Puna, sent a force to lay siege to their capital of Raighar. The principal chiefs had assembled there on the death of Sambaji, had acknowledged his tachmentto infant son, afterwards called Saho, as raja, and had nominated his uncle, Raja Ram, to be regent. They then, after providing the fortress with a Regency of , .. .,IT -,i,i Raja Ram. garrison and provisions, withdrew with the regent, to be ready for any service that migKt arise. Raighar held out for several months, until a secret ascent was disclosed to the Moguls by a Mawali chief, whom some personal disgust, combined with Raighar the general despondency, induced to this act of treason.* On this it was resolved that the regent, A . n . 1690. instead of exposing to risk the last representative of Sevaji, should withdraw to the distant fortress of Jinji in the Carnatic ; while his forts in the Deckan were to be put in a good state of defence, and his troops dispersed in their villages, ready to profit by better times. Ram Raja accordingly Raja Ram proceeded with a few followers in disguise through * It seems unaccountable that these forts, which, at some times, are taken by a dozen at a time, at others held out for years against well-equipped armies ; but they are often ill gar- risoned, and without provisions ; the garrison is often paid by lands which lie under the fort, and make them dependent on the enemy ; even good garrisons are often surprised from over- confidence in the strength of the place, and sudden despair when they find difficulties overcome which they thought insurmount- able. When such forts are in good order, with properly pre- pared garrisons and stores, it requires all the military resources and active courage of Europeans to make an impression on them. 526 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the hostile provinces between him andjinji. When V T ' he reached that place, he proclaimed his arrival, is pro- and assumed the title of raja, on the ground of the claimed *._ i TT (* raja, captivity or his nephew. He was fortunate in an System of adviser in Prillad, one of the Bramin ministers, who defence . . . adopted by had sufficient talents to gain an ascendancy over rattas. the other ministers and chiefs, and judgment to see that it was not desirable, even if it had been prac- ticable, to do more than give a common scope to the general efforts. Without the pervading genius of Sevaji, the Ma- rattas would never have been formed into a nation ; but now, when all were animated by one spirit, the nature of the people and their mode of war re- quired that it should be left to operate by individual exertions. The plan best adapted to them was, to 1)end before a blow, to offer nothing tangible for the enemy to attack, and to return to the charge with undiminished vigour whenever it suited them to take the part of assailants. Accordingly, their chiefs who were in possession of lands lost no time in making their submission to the Mogul, and none were louder in professions of zeal and attachment than they ; but they almost all kept up a commu- nication with the rebels, allowed their retainers to join them, even sent parties secretly under their own relations to share in plundering expeditions, and did more mischief as spies and hollow confede- rates than they could have done as open enemies. The soldiers, also, when they had no efficient government or regular treasury to look to, formed AURANGZIB. 527 each his own plan for his individual profit. The CHAP. thirst for plunder was always the strongest passion _ of the nation, from the first robbers under Sevaji to the most opulent times of the monarchy. Their only word for a victory is, " to plunder the enemy; " and though they readily combine for common objects, yet even then the mass is moved by each man's eagerness for his separate booty. When this spirit was called into activity, it required but a moderate interference on the part of the govern- ment to give it a direction that rendered it more formidable than the courage of disciplined armies. When the Maratta government appeared to have been expelled from the Deckan, Aurangzib dis- sent to re. patched Zulfikar Khan, the son of Assad Khan, who had distinguished himself by the capture of Raighar, to give it its death-blow by the reduction of Jinji. Zulfikar, on his arrival, found that his force, though considerable,; was not sufficient to reduce, or even to invest, the place. He applied to Aurangzib for reinforcements, and in the mean time employed part of his army in levying contri- butions on Tanjore* and other southern countries. Aurangzib was in no condition to furnish the re- inforcements desired. He had sent his son, Cam- bakhsh, with an army to reduce Wakinkera, a fort not far from Bijapur, which, though only held by the head of one of the predatory tribes of the Deckan, was strong enough to baffle all his efforts. * Called by the Marattas " Chandawar." HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Marattas renew the war by desultory operations under in- dependent leaders. A. D. 1692. A still greater demand for troops was created by the re-appearance of the Marattas themselves. No sooner was Ram Raja settled in Jinji, than he dispatched his two most active chiefs, Santaji Gor- para and Danaji Jadu, to make a diversion in his own country. Before they arrived, some bands of discharged Bijapur troops had begun to plunder on their own account ; and as soon as these well-known leaders made their appearance, Maratta horsemen issued from every village, and flocked to join their standards. Ram Chander Pant, who was left at Sattara, in the civil charge of what little territory remained to the Marattas, had assembled some troops within his own districts, and by appealing to the predatory spirit before adverted to, he now called a new and most efficient army at once into existence. His plan was, to confer on every man of influence amongst the soldiery a right to levy the chouty and other claims of the Maratta government, on all places not in its possession, and to plunder and lay waste every country that refused this tribute. The contributions were to go to the pay- ment of the troops, the booty to the actual captors, and each chief was authorised to impose, for his personal benefit, a new exaction, called ghds ddna, or corn and hay money. This invitation put every horseman in the country in motion. Most of the principal Maratta names appear (and many for the first time) as leaders of independent parties of various strength, which set out to enrich themselves at the expense of the Mogul's subjects; sometimes AURANGZIB. each acting singly, and sometimes with a general CHAP. concert, and fixed plans for rendezvous and retreat. ' The armies of Santaji and Danaji, though under the control of those chiefs, acted much on the same system : the Marattas spread, at once, in all directions, and the whole Deckan was filled with fire and rapine, terror and confusion. It was now that the Mogul and Maratta systems Compari- of war were fairly brought into competition, and it Mogul and soon appeared with which side the advantage lay. The long tranquillity and mild government and manners established by Akber, and the greater mixture with the Hindus, first began to soften the character of the northern conquerors of India. The negligence of Jehangir's reign, and the in- ternal quiet of Shah Jehan's, were respectively un- favourable to discipline and to military spirit ; and by the time we are speaking of, both were very sensibly impaired. The nobles had far advanced towards the sloth and effeminacy for which they have since been noted ; and even those who re- tained their energy were unsuited to active service. They all went into the field in coats of wadding, that would resist a sword, and over that chain or plate armour, and were mounted on large and showy horses, with huge saddles, and ample hous- ings of cloth or velvet, from which many streamers of different coloured satin, and often pairs of the bushy ox tails of Tibet, hung down on each side. The horse's neck, and all the harness, were loaded with chains, bells, and ornaments of the VOL. II. M M 530 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK precious metals ; and as each soldier imitated his ' superior as far as his means would admit, they formed a cavalry admirably fitted to prance in a procession, and not ill adapted to a charge in a pitched battle, but not capable of any long exertion, and still less of any continuance of fatigue and hardship. To their individual inefficiency was added a total relaxation of discipline. In spite of all Aurangzib's boasted vigilance, the grossest abuses had crept into the military department. Many officers only kept up half the number of their men. and others filled the ranks with their menials and slaves. Such comrades corrupted the soldiers by their example, and extinguished spirit by degrading the military character. The indulgence and con- nivance necessary for chiefs so conscious of their own delinquencies completed the ruin of the troops. They could neither be got to keep watch nor to remain alert on picket, and their sluggish habits would have prevented them ever turning out on an emergency, even if the time required to adjust their bulky housings and heavy defensive armour had not put it out of the question.* The emperor's camp equipage was in all the pomp of peaceful times. Each nobleman endea- * " The Frenchmen praised the high pay, and said the ser- vice was diversion : nobody would fight or keep watch, and only forfeited a day's pay when they failed to do either." (Gemelli Carreri, in Churchill's Collection^ vol. iv.) See also the Bon- dela Narrative in Scott's Deckan" vol. ii. AURANGZIB. voured to imitate this magnificence ; even private CHAP. soldiers attended to comfort in their tents, and the line of march presented a long train of elephants, camels, carts, and oxen, mixed up with a crowd of camp followers, women of all ranks, merchants, shopkeepers, servants, cooks, and all kinds of mini- sters of luxury, amounting to ten times the number of the fighting men. This unwieldy host soon eat up a country, and the people suffered further from the insolence and licence of the soldiery.* The Marattas, as has been said, were little active men, accustomed to hard work and hard fare. Their usual food was a cake of millet with per- haps an onion ; their dress, a small turban, tight breeches covering their thighs, and a scarf or sash rolled round their middle. When their body was not bare, it was covered by a light cotton tunic. Their arms were a sword and a matchlock, but oftener a bamboo spear 13 or 14 feet long ; their national weapon, which they used with extraordi- nary skill. Their horses were those of their own country ; small, strong, and active ; capable of en- during great fatigue ; and taught to bound forward, or stop, or to wheel round when at full speed, on the slightest pressure from their rider's leg. They had a pad for a saddle, with a blanket folded over * Gemelli Carreri saw Aurangzlb's cantonment at Galgala (March, 1695). He describes it as an enormous assemblage, said greatly to exceed a million. The king's and prince's tents occupied a space of upwards of three miles in circumference, and were fortified with a ditch, palisades, and falconets. M M 2 532 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK it. When stationary, few except the chiefs had ' tents ; and on their inroads, each man slept on the ground, with his spear stuck by him and his bridle tied to his arm, ready to leap on horseback on the slightest alarm of the approach of an enemy. An assemblage of such troops never stood the heavy charge of a body of Moguls, but dispersed at once, and scampered off singly to the nearest hills or broken ground. If the enemy left their ranks to pursue them, they cut off single horse- men, or rapidly assembled behind a ravine, or in some other situation where it was not safe for small parties to attack them ; and, when the disheartened pursuers turned back with their horses exhausted, theMarattas were upon them in a moment, charged in on them, if there was an opening or confusion, but generally hung loosely on their flanks and rear, sometimes dashing up singly to fire their match- locks into the mass, or even to dispatch a straggler with their long spears. Their chief excellence, as well as their delight, was in the plunder of a con- voy. The favour of the country people gave them full information, while it kept the Moguls in dark- ness, till they were suddenly assailed on the line of march, and saw the camels and cattle, carrying the grain and stores they were escorting, swept off in a moment. They would then form a compact body to protect those which were carrying treasure; but, with such a prize before them, the Marattas were irresistible : the party was generally obliged to take post ; the Marattas cut off the communications, and AURANGZIB. 533 perhaps even the water ; and, at the end of a day CHAP. or two, the Moguls were obliged to surrender ; the ' men were stripped of their horses and their valu- ables, and the chiefs detained for a ransom. As Aurangzib drew a great proportion of his recruits and treasures from Hindostan, Santaji and Danaji threw themselves between his army and that country. They intercepted several convoys, defeated more than one detachment, and gained such a superiority that the Moguls began to change A . D . legs. their contempt for them into fear and dread. In this state of discouragement Aurangzib per- siege of n Jinji com- ceived the necessity or adopting some measure mittedto which, if it did not bring the war to an end, might c"m- C recover his reputation and restore the spirit of his troops. He resolved on the vigorous prosecution of the operations against Jinji : he had withdrawn Cambakhsh from Wakinkera, and he now sent that prince with a fresh army to assume the conduct of the siege ; but, according to his usual practice, he appointed Assad Khan, the father of Zulfikar Khan, A. D . 1594. to serve with him, and committed the real direction of all operations to those noblemen. This arrange- Disgust of ment disgusted both parties : the prince was dis- pleased at the little solid authority intrusted to him, and the others thought it hard that Zulfikar should be deprived of the dignity of the command and the honour of the victory.* So completely was Zulfikar led away by his re- * Grant Duff; KhafiKhan; and the Bondela Narrative, in Scott's Deckan. M M 3 534 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK sentment, that he listened to overtures from the XI ' Maratta Bramins (ever on the watch to profit by He ob- such dissensions) ; and by indecisive operations on structs the J ... siege. his own part, as well as by affording intelligence to the enemy, he enabled them to spin out the siege for no less than three years. At the end of that time, Santaji Gorpara resolved to on a bold attempt to relieve his raja. Leaving the rais* the rest Q f tne Maratta hordes to keep Aurangzib in A. D. 1697. occupation, he called in Danaji Jadu, and set off for Jinji with 20,000 of their best cavalry. He passed rapidly through the intervening country, and came on the besieging army with such celerity, that before they could arrange their cumbrous body for mutual support, his advance had surprised one of their divisions, plundered its tents, and made the commander prisoner ; and he himself immediately after defeated a considerable body of troops sent out in haste to oppose him. He then drove in the outposts, destroyed the foragers, and cut off all supplies and intelligence from the camp. He next circulated reports of the emperor's death, which were easily believed in such a moment of calamity ; and under favour of that rumour, he made proposals to Cambakhsh to support his claim to the throne. Cambakhsh, who seems to have apprehended sinister designs on the part of Assad and Zulfikar, gave ear to these communications, while his intercourse with the enemy in like man- cimbakhsh ner alarmed those officers. One night Cambakhsh ordered his immediate contingent to get under AURANGZ1B. 535 arms, and the two generals assuming (whether CHAP. justly or otherwise) that this was a direct attempt '__ to go over to the Marattas, immediately placed the straint by . . Zulfikar. prince under restraint.* This step increased the Retreat of alarms and dissensions in the army to such a pitch, that they were soon compelled to blow up their cannon, abandon their batteries, and concentrate on one spot, where they intrenched themselves, and were besieged in their turn. At length an agree- ment was entered into between the parties ; the Moguls were to be allowed to withdraw about twenty miles to Vandiwash, and were there to await the further orders of the emperor. On the first advance of Cambakhsh and Assad Khan, Aurangzib had moved southward, and can- toned at Galgala on the Kishna. In the next year he retired to Birmapuri, near Panderpur, on the Bima, where he erected a permanent cantonment, and remained for several years. He now made a movement to Bijapur, and at the same time sent orders expressing his total disapprobation of the proceedings of his generals. He directed Cam- Releases bakhsh to be sent up to court, and received him with marked kindness t : at the same time he recalled Assad Khan ; but, with unaccountable inconsistency, left the sole command of the army to Zulfikar Khan, who, though the ablest of his * Report of Assad and Zulfikar to Aurangzib, quoted by the emperor in the forty-seventh note of the " Rakaim i Karaim :" also Grant Duff; Khafi Khan ; and Bondela Narrative. f Forty-eighth and forty-ninth notes of the " Rakaim i Karaim." M M 4 536 HJSTORY OF INDIA. BOOK officers, he could not now expect to find the best ' affected. The war, when renewed, assumed a de- increased sultory character. Zulfikar levied contributions at disaffection * of Zulfikar. Tanjore ; and Santaji totally destroyed a very strong Mogul detachment under an officer of rank and reputation near Chitaldrug in the Mysore : other conflicts took place, with various success, in different parts of the country ; but the general re- result must have been favourable to the Moguls, as A. D. 1697. they were able, in the end, to resume the siege of Jinji. He renews During the operations in the field, Zulfikar per- butpro-' formed the part of a zealous and able officer ; but, tracts the . . i i operations, on recommencing the siege, he renewed his inter- course with the Marattas, and evidently made it his object to protract the fall of the place.* Resent- But it was difficult to carry on such practices ment of the emperor. under a prince of Aurangzib's penetration ; and in the course of the next year Zulfikar found that he must either take Jinji or expect to be recalled in disgrace. He performed a last act of friendship in advising Raja Ram to escape ; and then, prose- Jinji taken, cuting his operations with vigour and in earnest, he, before long, made himself master of the fortress. * All Zulfikar's intrigues with the enemy appear from Ma- ratta MSS. referred to by Captain Grant Duff, and are asserted (probably on similar authority procured at Mysore) by Colonel Wilks. They are unknown to the writers on the Mogul side ; but the Bondela accuses Zulfikar of purposely prolonging the war. His object, probably, was to retain his large command and important possession until the death of the emperor, which his very advanced age made men expect to be of early oc- currence. AURANGZIB, 53? CHAP. IV. FROM 1698 TO THE DEATH OF AURANGzfB. THE unexpected recovery of Zulfikar's strength, CHAP. which had put it in his power to renew the siege, was probably occasioned by dissensions among the Marattas, which now broke into an open quarrel. * on % the Marattas. Danaji Jadu had fallen out with Santaji, and had received the support of the raja, who was jealous of the renown of the latter chief; and as Santaji was unpopular, in consequence of his attempts to keep up discipline, a party was formed in his own camp ; he was compelled to fly, and was at length overtaken and put to death on the spot. Before Murder of this catastrophe, Raja Ram had established his residence at Sattara, and he now assumed the active R ?-> a Rdm takes the control of the whole government. He took the field in person. field himself, at the head of the largest Maratta army that had ever yet been assembled, and, pro- ceeding to the north of the Godaveri, levied the chout and other dues on such places as submitted, and ravaged the rest as far as Jalna in Berar. At this point his progress was checked in consequence of a change in the system of the Moguls. Hitherto New plan Aurangzib had, for the most part, had his head- ran gz ib,_ quarters at Birmapuri, sometimes sending a de- tachment under his son, Prince A'zim, to reduce a suin s arm > r - hill fort or repel an incursion, but generally trust- 538 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ing the defence of the country to detachments ' stationed at different parts of it. At present his plan was to bring his whole force into efficiency, by leading one part, in person, against the enemy's forts, while another under Zulfikar Khan, nomi- nally commanded by one of his grandsons, should pursue their field armies wherever they might direct their course. Had this plan been earlier adopted, it might have been attended with success; but disturbances had reached too great a height to be put down by any merely military dispositions. Although Zulfikar Khan began by driving back Raja Ram, as has been mentioned, and during the succeeding years repeatedly defeated the Ma- rattas, and in some degree restored the courage of the Mussulmans, yet he found himself, at the end of that time, in a worse situation than when he began. A defeat to the Marattas was like a blow given to water, which offers no resistance to the stroke and retains no impression of its effect : their army dispersed at the moment to unite again on Exhaustion the same day or the next. But a defeat to the of the Mo- guls. Moguls was attended with loss and humiliation ; and even their partial success did not stop the waste of their resources and embarrassment of the finances of their government, which every day increased their difficulties and undermined their strength. sieges by Aurangzib's personal operations gave a promise peror in of more solid advantage. He quitted his canton- ment, to the great regret of his officers, who had AURANGZIB. 539 erected comfortable dwellings, and founded a sort CHAP. of city ; and, after reducing some other forts, he ' sat down before Sattara. By a dexterous feint he Takes Sattara. contrived to take that place unprepared : it never- theless made a desperate defence, and did not sur- A - 17 April. render till the siege had lasted for several months. Before it fell, Ram Raia had died, and had been Death of ' > Rj a R m . succeeded by his son, Sevaji, under the regency of Tara Bai, the widow of the deceased and mother of the young raja. This event had little effect on the war. Aurangzib went on with his plan ; Aurangzib and in the course of the next four or five years faking" had taken almost all the principal forts possessed by the Marattas. Many of the sieges were long and bloody *, and various expedients and stratagems were employed by both parties in the conduct of them ; but they were too monotonous to bear description, and the result was as has been stated. In reviewing these laborious undertakings, it is Spirit and ., , , . persever- impossible not to admire the persevering spirit anceof with which Aurangzib bore up against the dif- ficulties and misfortunes that overshadowed his declining years. He was near sixty-five when he crossed the Nerbadda to begin on this long war, * Aurangzib writes thus of one of them to his son, Prince A'zim : " You will have received accounts of the calamities of the siege of Kelna, and of the unheard-of condition and in- tolerable sufferings of the followers of Islam. Praise be to God that the afflictions of this devout band have at length been brought to a conclusion." He then prays for happy results, and ascribes the past disasters to a judgment on his own wickedness and neglect. (Thirty-eighth note of the " Dastur ul Ami/') 540 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and had attained his eighty-first year before he ' quitted his cantonment at Birmapuri. The fatigues Difficulties of marches and sieges were little suited to such an and hard- _ . . n t T i n ships to age ; and in spite or the display or luxury in his wJex- e camp equipage, he suffered hardships that would pose(L have tried the constitution of a younger man. While he was yet at Birmapuri, a sudden flood of the Bima overwhelmed his cantonment in the darkness of the night, and during the violence of one of those falls of rain which are only seen in tropical climates : a great portion of the canton- ment was swept away and the rest laid under water ; the alarm and confusion increased the evil ; 12,000 persons are said to have perished, and horses, camels, and cattle without number. The emperor himself was in danger, the inundation rising over the elevated spot which he occupied, when it was arrested (as his courtiers averred) by the efficacy of his prayers. A similar disaster was produced by the descent of a torrent during the siege of Parli, the fort he took next after Sattara ; and, indeed, the storms of that inclement region must have exposed him to many sufferings, during the numerous rainy seasons he spent within it. The impassable streams, the flooded valleys, the miry bottoms, and narrow ways, caused still greater difficulties when he was in motion ; compelled him to halt were no provisions were to be had ; and were so destructive to his cattle as sometimes entirely to cripple his army. The violent heats, in tents, and during marches, were distressing at AURANGZIB. other seasons, and often rendered overpowering by CHAP. failure of water : general famines and pestilences came more than once, in addition to the scarcity and sickness to which his own camp was often liable ; and all was aggravated by accounts of the havoc and destruction committed by the enemy in the countries beyond the reach of those visita- tions. But in all these discouragements Aurangzib retained his vigour. He alone conducted every _ . . fatigable branch or his government, in the most minute industry. detail. He planned campaigns and issued instruc- tions during their progress ; drawings of forts were sent for him to fix on the points of attack ; his letters embrace measures for keeping open the roads in the Afghan country, for quelling dis- turbances at Multan and Agra, and even for re- covering possession of Candahar ; and, at the same time, there is scarcely a detachment marches or a convoy moves in the Deckan without some orders from Aurangzib's own hand. The appointment of the lowest revenue officer Hisatten. of a district, or the selection of a clerk in an office, details. is not beneath his attention ; and the conduct of all these functionaries is watched by means of spies and of prying inquiries from all comers, and they are constantly kept on the alert by admo- nitions founded on such information. This atten- tion to particulars is not favourable to the real progress of business, any more than it is indicative of an enlarged genius ; but, combined, as it was in Aurangzib, with unremitting vigilance in all the 542 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK greater affairs of the state, it shows an activity of ' mind that would be wonderful at any age. Hisdistmst These labours were the penalty he paid for his around former offences against his father. The fate of Shah Jehan seems never for an instant to have been absent from his thoughts. To avoid a similar destiny, he retains all power and all patronage, and by removing his chiefs from place to place prevents their forming permanent connections His ma- with anybody but himself. His sons are the con- oniirsons, stant objects of his observation and his manage- ment : he surrounds them with spies, gives them colleagues in command, places trustworthy persons in inferior situations about them, exercises an open control over all their proceedings ; and at the same time never fails, by familiar and affectionate letters, and by constant presents and attentions, to con- ciliate their attachment and prevent their feeling and cour- the irksomeness of their situation. To similar motives also, though partly to his natural dis- position, must be attributed the considerate manner in which he treats his officers, and the sort of court which he appears to pay to all of them : he condoles with their loss of relations ; inquires about their illnesses ; confers honours in a flattering manner ; makes his presents more acceptable by the gracious way in which they are given ; and scarcely ever passes a censure without softening it by some obliging expression. His extreme leniency to all offences that do not touch his power or his religious prejudices seems also tiers. AURANGZIB. 543 to have had its source in an unwillingness to make CHAP. enemies, no less than in the real easiness of his temper. After all, he does not seem to have been successful in winning attachment ; and with his sons, he seems at heart to have trusted much more to fear than affection. Though he released Moazzim after seven years' imprisonment (A. D. 1694), he seems always to have regarded him with dislike and apprehension. He sent him to the re- mote government of Cabul, constantly resisted his wishes to return, even for a time, and endeavoured to engage him in an expedition which might carry him to the most distant part of his province and might completely absorb his resources. He at first approved of the seizure of Cambakhsh, though afterwards convinced of his innocence ; and his behaviour on one occasion to his favourite, Prince A'zim, shows at once his policy in the manage- ment of his sons and his innate love of artifice and dissimulation. Having imbibed a suspicion that this prince was meditating independence, he sent for him to court ; and as the prince made excuses and showed alarm, he offered to meet him slightly attended on a hunting party. A'zim, on this, set out, and Aurangzib secretly surrounded the place of meeting with chosen troops : as the prince got more and more within his toils, the old emperor found a succession of pretences for requiring him gradually to diminish the number of his attend- ants, until, when he reached the place where his father was, they were reduced to three persons. 544 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK As nobody offered to undertake the duty, he was ' obliged to leave two of his companions to hold his horses ; and he with the remaining attendant were disarmed before they were admitted to the royal presence. On this he gave himself up for lost, and had no doubt that he was doomed to a long or perpetual imprisonment. But when he was intro- duced to his father, he was received with an affectionate embrace : Aurangzib, who was pre- pared for shooting, gave his loaded gun to him to hold, and then led him into a retired tent, where he showed him a curious family sword, and put it naked into his hand that he might examine it ; after which he threw open his vest, on pretence of heat, but in reality to show that he had no hidden armour. After this display of confidence, he loaded A'zim with presents, and at last said he had better think of retiring, or his people would be alarmed at his detention. This advice was not premature : A'zim, on his return, found his whole camp on the point of breaking up, and his women weeping and lamenting his supposed fate. Whether he felt grateful for his easy dismission does not appear ; but it is recorded that he never after received a letter from his father without turning pale, or recovered his composure until he had satisfied himself of the contents of it.* increased But all Aurangzib's arts and all his industry thestate S . f were insufficient to resist the increasing disorders .,. * KhafiKhan. AURANGZIB. 545 of the state, which now pressed upon him from CHAP. every quarter. The Rajputs were still in open hostility : their example had long since been fol- lowed by the Jats near Agra : against these last, as at a later period against some insurgents at Mul- tan *, it had been necessary to send a force under a prince of the blood. Zulfikar's force began to be exhausted, and the inefficacy of his former exertions became more and more apparent. The Marattas seemed to multiply as the Mogul armies decayed : successes after reducing the Deckan to a desert, they had rattas! spread over Malwa and made a powerful inroad into Guzerat ; leaving their traces every where, in pillaged towns, ravaged fields, and smoking vil- lages. The grand army still went on taking forts ; but its last success was scarcely less ignominious than a defeat : it was the taking of Wakinkera, which, though only a fortified village, belonging to a chief of banditti, required the presence of the emperor and a siege of several months to subdue it. These acquisitions began at this time to be balanced by corresponding losses. The Marattas were in a con- They begin -,. . f> i , -. , to recover dition to attempt the recovery of their strong holds, their forts, and the forts which it had cost so many labours to gain, were one by one falling into their possession. As the calls on the grand army increased, its power went on to decline. The troops became Exhausted . - i , , state of the more timid than ever ; the cattle were worn out army. * Probably the Sfks, under Guru Govind. VOL. II. N N 546 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Disorder of the finances. Grand army hard pressed by the Ma- raltas. and could not be replaced from the wasted state of the country ; provisions failed from the same reason, and the means of obtaining them from a distance were cut off by the emptiness of the treasury. Notwithstanding vast remittances from Hin- dostan, the finances had long since fallen into con- fusion ; and as their state became more painful, Aurangzib withdrew his attention from them.* He was irritated by applications for arrears of pay, and used peevishly to answer such demands by saying that he did not want the troops, and if they were not pleased with his service they might quit it.t He even disbanded some bodies of horse, with the intention of easing the finances. But regular pay was indispensable to troops situated like his ; and when it had been long withheld, they began to break into open mutinies, which were quieted by temporary expedients.^ All his difficulties were increased as the Marattas drew closer round the army. At times they plun- dered up to the very skirts of the camp, intercepted * Aurangzib's letters, and Khafi Khan. t Khafi Khan. The army was for a long time very regularly paid. Gemelli Carreri, in 1795, says the troops were paid punc- tually every two months, and would not bear any irregularity. J He writes, on one occasion, to Zulfikar Khan, that he is stunned with the clamours of " these infernal foot soldiers," who are croaking like crows in an invaded rookery. In another letter he reminds him of the wants of the exchequer, and presses him to search for hidden treasures, and to hunt out any that may have fallen into the hands of individuals. Many of his notes dwell on his pecuniary embarrassments. AURANGZIB. 547 the supplies, carried off the cattle, cut up the CHAP. . iv. foragers, insulted the pickets, and made it impos- ' sible for any one to show his head out of the lines without a powerful escort. If an ordinary detach- ment was sent to check them, they repelled or destroyed it. If a great effort was made, they vanished, and perhaps did not again appear till they had plundered some distant town, and left time for their pursuers to weary themselves by forced marches in a wrong direction.* They now treated the power of the emperor with derision. Those in his service mixed and feasted with those opposed to him, and on such occasions they used to mimic the pompous manners and devout ejacu- lations of the Mussulmans, and to pray with mock solemnity for long life to their best patron, Aurang- zib. So low was the emperor reduced, that he was persuaded by Cambakhsh to authorise overtures to the enemy ; and if the negotiations had not been broken off by the exorbitance and insolence of the Marattas, he would probably have agreed to release Saho Raja, and grant (in such forms as might save his dignity) an annual per centage on the revenue of the Deckan. Aurangzib's last military operation was a retreat Retreats to to Ahmednagar, the nature of which may be con- ceived from his exhausted cattle and dispirited troops. All hurried on in disorder and dejection, deafened with the incessant firing kept up by the * Bondela Narrative, in Scott's " Deckan,'' vol. ii. N N 2 Ahmed- nagar. 548 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Declining health of the em- peror. His fears of encoun- tering the fate of Shah Je- lutii. marksmen, alarmed by the shouts and charges of the lancers, and every moment expecting a general attack to complete their dispersion and destruction, Such,[indeed, was the fate of a portion of the army ; and it is a subject of pious exultation to the Mus- sulman historians that the emperor himself escaped falling into the hands of the enemies whom he had once so much despised.* Ahmednagar, from whence, twenty years before, he had marched in so much power and splendour on his conquests, received the remains of his ruined greatness, and was soon to witness the close of his earthly career. His health had, of late, become gradually im- paired ; he with difficulty overcame one illness that threatened his life ; and although he continued his public appearance and his attention to business, his spirit at length began to sink under the accumu- lated burden of anxiety and disease. On reaching Ahmednagar, he said he had now come to the end of all his journeys ; and from his last letters we perceive, at once, the extent of his bodily suffer- ings, the failure of his hopes in this world, and his dread of that to come. The remembrance of Shah Jehan seemed to haunt him more than ever ; he nowhere expresses remorse for his share in that monarch's fate, but he shows by all his actions how much he fears that a like measure may be meted out to him. * Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 409. AURANGZ1B. Prince Moazzim having proposed some arrange- CHAP. ments which common prudence required at such a crisis, he interprets them into a design to seize on s SUS P-. cions of his the government while he was yet alive. When a sons. letter from Prince A'zim was read to him, entreat- ing permission to come to Ahmednagar, on the ground that the air of Guzerat was ruining his health, he abruptly remarked, " That is exactly the pretext I used to Shah Jehan in his illness;" and added, that " no air was so unwholesome as the fumes of ambition :" and although afterwards pre- vailed on by A'zim's importunity to allow him to pay him a visit on his way to his new government of Malwa, yet one of the last exertions of his authority was, to compel the prince to proceed on his journey, and to prevent his finding any excuse for remaining about the court. He had just before sent off Cambakhsh to Bijapur ; but this seems rather to have been done to gratify A'zim than from any apprehensions of his own. These measures had not been long completed His alarms before he became sensible that his end was ap- ptoad^of proaching. In this awful moment, he wrote, or death> dictated, a letter to Prince A'zim, in which his worldly counsels and his adieus are mixed with broken sentences giving utterance to the feelings of remorse and terror with which his soul was agitated, and which he closes with a sort of desperate resig- nation, " Come what come may, I have launched my vessel on the waves." ..." Farewell! farewell! farewell ! " N N 3 550 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK He also wrote to his youngest, and, latterly, his , favourite, son, Cambakhsh. His letter, as to a much younger man, is more one of advice and admonition than that to A'zim. It shows that he retained his favourite habits to the last. " Your courtiers," he says, " however deceitful, must not be ill-treated : it is necessary to gain your views by gentleness and art," &c. Even in this letter, his sense of his own situation breaks out from time to time. " Wherever I look 1 see nothing but the Divinity." ..." I have committed numerous crimes, and I know not with what punishments I may be seized." ..." The agonies of death come upon me fast." ..." I am going. Whatever good or evil I have done, it was for you."* It must have been about the same time that he drew up a sort of will, which was found under his pillow on his death. He there recommends that Moaz- zim should be recognised as emperor, and that he and A'zim should divide the empire, one taking the northern and eastern provinces, with Delhi for his capital ; and the other, Agra, with all the country to the south and south-west of it, including all the Deckan, except the kingdoms of Golconda and Bijapur. These last were assigned to Cambakhsh.t * I have taken the translation in Scott's " Deckan," vol. ii. page 8. of the Memoirs, though the original of it must have differed in some slight particulars from the Persian copy at the India House. \ He left another will, seemingly prepared when under less agitation. It contains some general maxims of government, and AURANGZIB. 5,51 He expired on the 21st of February, A.D. 170? CHAP. in the eighty-ninth year of his life, and fiftieth of ' his reign.* His death, A native historian, impressed with the courage, and cha- wisdom, and ability of Aurangzib, is at a loss to account for the ill success of his reign. The real defect was in his heart. Had he been capable of any generous or liberal sentiment, he would have been a great prince ; his subjects would not have been alienated by his narrow views in religion, nor would the powers of his officers have been cramped, and their zeal chilled, by a constant spirit of suspi- cion and distrust. t In alluding, for the last time, instructions about his funeral; the expense of which was to be defrayed by a sum of four rupees and a half (about ten shillings), saved from the price of caps which he had made and sold. Eight hundred and five rupees, which he had gained by copy- ing Korans, was to be given to the poor. (See Asiatic Register for 1801.) * These are solar years. He was born the 15th Zi Caad, 1027, about the end of October, 1618. (Khafi Khan. Glad- win's Jehdngir, p. 45.) -{- " Of all the house of Teimur, indeed of all the kings of Delhi, none since the time of Secander Lodi ever appeared so distinguished, in point of devotion, austerity, and justice ; and in courage, patience, and sound judgment, he was without a peer: but as, from reverence to the injunctions of the Divine law, he did not inflict punishment, and as without punishment no country can be kept in order in consequence, also, of the dissensions arising from rivalry among his nobles every plan and design which he formed came to little good, and every en- terprise drew into delay, and never attained its object. Though he had lived ninety years, yet none of his five senses were at all impaired, except his hearing in a small degree, but not so that others could perceive it." (Khdfi Khan.) N N 4 552 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK to his narrow views in religion, which contributed XI ' so largely to the ruin of his empire, it is well worth while to observe by how little direct persecution that evil result was produced. The Hindus seem rather to have been irritated by systematic dis- couragement than inflamed by acts of cruelty or oppression. They were excluded from office ; they were degraded by a special tax ; their fairs and festivals were forbidden ; their temples were sometimes insulted and destroyed ; and it was suf- ficient to procure the abolition of any ceremony or practice of the court that it seemed to give a coun- tenance to their superstition : but it does not ap- pear that a single Hindu suffered death, imprison- ment, or loss of property for his religion, or, indeed, that any individual was ever questioned for the open exercise of the worship of his fathers. Yet such is the effect of mutual jealousy and animosity in matters of religion, that the most violent out- rages have seldom raised up so obstinate a spirit of resistance as was engendered by the partiality and prejudices of this emperor. Some hundreds of Aurangzib's letters have been preserved, from which we may glean some par- ticulars of his character, in addition to the great lines marked by his actions. With all his bigotry he was not superstitious. He cordially detests the Hindus, and has very little more good will towards the Shias ; but he lays out no money on mosques or endowments, shows no sign of being under the influence of the recognised clergy, and often ex- AURANGZIB. 553 presses his contempt for the assumed sanctity of CHAP. fakirs and der vises. . His government is a system of continual mis- trust : every man's character is secretly investigated, and colleagues are so selected, that each may be a check on his neighbour ; yet there never was a prince so much cheated or so ill served. The coldness of his heart is conspicuous in the manner in which he receives the accounts of the death of his oldest and most intimate friends. In so long a life such events often occur, and they always draw forth some pious or philosophical re- flection, followed up by strict orders to seize on the property of the deceased, to see that none is embezzled, to hunt out all deposits, and to be care- ful in recovering all outstanding debts. His letters almost invariably include some poetical His letters, quotation, or some verse from the Koran. They are sometimes familiar, and even jocose, especially those to his sons. One, written after he was eighty, ends with some burlesque verses, of two or three words long, each of which gives a ludicrous de- scription of the present occupations of some one of the principal people about his court.* * There are three collections of his letters: First, the " Kalamat i Taibat," published by one of his chief secretaries, Enayat Ullah ; second, the " Rokaimi i Karaim," by the son of another secretary ; and, third, the " Dastur ul Ami Agahi," collected from all quarters, thirty-eight years after his death. The two first collections profess to be merely the rough drafts or notes which he wrote with his own hand for his secretaries. Most of the third collection have the same appearance. They 554 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XI. Miscella- neous transac- tions. Gemelli Carreri, who saw Aurangzib in trie seventy-eighth year of his age, describes him as of low stature, slender, and stooping with age, with a long nose and a round beard, the whiteness of which was more visible on his olive skin. He was dressed in plain white muslin, with one emerald of great size in his turban. He stood amidst his omrahs, leaning on a staff; received petitions ; read them without spectacles, endorsed them with his own hand, " and, by his cheerful smiling coun- tenance, seemed to be pleased with the employ- ment."* Of all the kings of India, Aurangzib is the most admired among the Mussulmans. There are few who are quite blind to the lustre of Akber's cha- racter, but fewer still whose deliberate judgment would not give the preference to Aurangzib. There are some unconnected events which should not be entirely omitted in an account of this reign. The insurrection of the Jats has been mentioned ; they are a Hindu people of the Sudra class, who inhabit a tract near Agra, of which the capital is Bhartpur. Though in an open country, and close to Agra and Mattra, they occasioned much embar- rassment to the government even during this reign, and rose to so much greater consequence in are without dates or order, and are often obscure, from their brevity and our ignorance of the subjects alluded to. * Gemelli Carreri, in Churchill, vol. iv. AURANGZIB. 555 those that followed, that at one time they were in CHAP. J , iv. possession of Agra; and were the last people in the plains of India that have offered any serious ob- stacle to the British power. In the thirty- eighth year of the king's reign, A.D. 1693, a ship bound from Surat to Mecca with pilgrims, which Khafi Khan describes as carrying 80 guns *, and furnished with 400 muskets, was attacked by an English ship of small size. A gun burst on board the king's ship ; the English boarded, and " although the Christians have no courage at the sword, yet by bad management the vessel was taken." On this Aurangzib ordered the English factors at his ports to be seized, and directed the Abys- synians to take Bombay. The English retaliated by seizing the king's offi- cers, and the Abyssinians, who (by Khafi Khan's account) were on a friendly footing with them, showed no inclination to break it off. At length Khafi Khan himself was sent on a mission from the viceroy of Guzerat to Bombay. He describes his reception as being conducted with great dig- nity and good order, and with a considerable dis- play of military power. He negotiated with elderly gentlemen in rich clothes, and, although they some- times laughed more heartily than became so grave * The number is probably not exaggerated, though the guns must have been light. Some of the Company's ships of 600 tons carried seventy guns. (See Macpliersoris Commerce of India, p. 133.) 556 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK an occasion, yet he seems to have been favourably . impressed with their acuteness and intelligence. The English alleged, apparently with truth, that the king's ship had been taken by pirates, for whom they were not answerable ; and explained their coining money in their own king's name (which was another complaint against them) by stating that they had to purchase investments at places where the Mogul's money did not pass. Nothing is stated to have been settled on this occasion ; but it appears from other sources that the English compounded for some pecuniary pay- ments.* It is curious that Khafi Khan (though, in this case, he relates a transaction of small moment in which he was personally engaged) takes no notice of the war made on Aurangzib by the English on both sides of India, which was of so much con- sequence in the history of the East India Com- pany. He did not foresee the future importance of those unskilful antagonists. * Grant Duff. BAHADUR SHAH. 557 BOOK XII. SUCCESSORS OF AURANGZIB. CHAP. I. TO THE ACCESSION OF MOHAMMED SHAH. Bahadur Shah. As soon as Prince A'zim heard of his father's CHAP. death, he returned to camp, and within a week was proclaimed sovereign of all India, in perfect dis- Contest between regard of the late emperor's will. ** ri ? ce A zim and Prince Moazzim, with better reason, assumed his eider the crown at Cabul, with the title of Bahadur Shah ; Prince' , , , , , , Moazzim. and both brothers prepared to assert their preten- sions by force of arms. In spite of the exhausted state of the empire, they assembled very large armies, and met at length not far to the south of Agra. A bloody battle ensued, in which Prince A'zim and his two grown up sons were killed, and victory of i . . /> , Moazzim, his youngest son, an infant, was taken prisoner, hencefbr- Prince A'zim had disgusted many of his principal SLur officers by his arrogance : among others, Assad Sh4h- Khan, and his son, Zulfikar Khan, had quitted his June, camp, and remained spectators of the contest. Rabiai When the event was known, they sent their sub- mission to the victor. Bahadur Shah received 558 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Revolt of Prince Deckan, His defeat A D 1708, February; A. H. 1119, zi Caad. proceedings them graciously, and promoted them to the highest honours in the state. He showed like indulgence towards the other adherents of A'zim Shah ; but his confidence was chiefly reposed in Monim Khan, who had been his own principal officer at Cabul, and was now appointed vizir. Monim was an equally able and well-intentioned minister ; and as the king's only fault was too great facility of tem- per, his accession was welcomed by the great body of his subjects, who looked to some relief from the religious austerity of Aurangzib, and the sacrifices entailed on them by his obstinate wars. Prince Cambakhsh, though a vain and violent . . , . , . . /- -i- young man, had admitted the sovereignty ot Prince A'zim, and had been confirmed in his appanage ; but he' refused to acknowledge Bahadur Shah ; and that king, after attempting in vain to win him over by concessions, marched against him to the Deckan, and defeated him in a battle near Heider- , where Cambakhsh died of his wounds on the state of the Marattas. Factions of and Ja Tara The emperor's presence in the Deckan made it necessary to consider what course should be adopted towards the Marattas. It was easier at this time to effect an accommodation with them than could have been expected from the state of affairs at Aurangzib's death. At that period, Saho, the rightful raja, was still a prisoner in the hands of the Moguls, and the government was carried on by Tara Bai, the widow of his uncle, Raja Ram, in the name of her infant son. But though the BAHADUR SHAH. 559 necessity of having an efficient chief had induced CHAP. the Marattas to place Raja Ram on their throne after the taking of Raighar, they had not forgotten the hereditary claim of his nephew, and were not pleased to see him again excluded without the same motive as before. With a view to profit by these contending claims, Prince A'zim, on his march against Bahadur Shah, released Saho, who was now grown up, and promised him peace on favourable terms if he should succeed in establishing his title. This plan was adopted at the suggestion of Zul- fikar Khan, and completely answered its end. The Maratta chiefs took different sides ; and instead of overwhelming their enemies, who seemed incapa- ble of further resistance, they fell into civil war among themselves, and left the Moguls undis- turbed at the moment of their greatest weakness. When Bahadur Shah turned his attention to the Marattas, Saho seemed likely to prevail in the contest ; and Zulfikar, who was now in great fa- vour, was anxious that peace should be concluded with him, at the price of the concessions formerly offered by Aurangzib. But Monim Khan, the vizir, though willing to agree to the terms, wished them to be granted to Tara Bai, and the whole negotiation fell to the ground. On Bahadur's departure, he gave the viceroyalty Baud of the Deckan to Zulfikar; and, as that chief could Pannikft not be spared from court, he left the administration J," c ^ Tse of the government to Daud Khan Panni, a Patan Khan. 560 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. Makes a truce with the Ma- rattas. Transac- tions with the Raj- puts. officer already distinguished in Aurangzib's wars, who was to act as his lieutenant. Daud followed up the views of his principal, and concluded a personal agreement with Saho, con- senting that the chout, or fourth, should be paid while he remained in office, but stipulating that it should be collected by agents of his own, without the interference of the Marattas. This arrangement kept the Deckan quiet till the end of the present reign, and allowed Bahadur to turn his thoughts to other scenes where his exer- tions were scarcely less required. While he was on his march against Cambakhsh, he had endea- voured to make a settlement of his disputes with the Rajputs. He had entered into a treaty with the rana of Oudipur, restoring all conquests, re- establishing religious affairs on the footing on which they stood in Akber's time, releasing the rana from the obligation to furnish a contingent in the Deckan, and, in fact, acknowledging his entire independence in every thing but the name.* He had concluded a treaty, apparently on similar terms, with Ajit Sing, the raja of Marwar, except that, in the latter case, the service of the contingent was still retained. On Jei Sing, the raja of Jeipur, (who, though he had never asserted his independ- ence, had joined with Prince A'zim in the late civil war,) he had imposed more rigorous terms. He had left a garrison in his capital j and, although he * Colonel Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 395. BAHADUR SHAH. 561 allowed him to command the Jeipur contingent CHAP. with the army, he seems to have deprived him of all authority in his own principality. By the time the army reached the Nerbadda on its advance, Ajit Sing also had received some cause of offence ; and the two rajas went off together, with their troops, and entered into a league to resist the Mogul authority. As soon as the contest in the Deckan was put an end to by the death of Cam- bakhsh, Bahadur Shah turned his attention to breaking up the confederacy j but, before he reached the Rajput country, he received intelli- gence of the capture of Sirhind by the Siks, and of such a state of affairs in the Panjab, as left him no time for his intended operations.* In these circumstances, he became anxious to Peace with i -i i T- / / i i th at power. make peace with the Rajputs ; and, as the great obstacle to an accommodation arose from their fears of treachery, he sent his own son, Prince A'zim u Shan, to accompany them to a meeting which took place on the emperor's line of march, and at which the rajas appeared at the head of their own armies. All their demands were agreed to, and they were probably left on the same footing as the rana of A. D . 1709, 1 / A. H. 1121. Oudipur. The Siks, against whom the emperor was obliged Rise of the to march, had originally been a religious sect; were then rising into a nation ; and have, in our times, * Scott's Memoirs of Eradat Khan, p. 58. Tod's Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 77j &c. VOL, II. O O 562 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK attained to considerable political influence among ' the states of India. Peaceful Their founder, Nanik, flourished about the end character of their sect, of the fifteenth century. He was a disciple of Kabir, and consequently a sort of Hindu deist, but his peculiar tenet was universal toleration. He . maintained that devotion was due to God, but that forms were immaterial, and that Hindu and Ma- hometan worship were the same in the sight of the Persecuted Deity.* The spirit of this religion promised to by the .Ma- * _ hometans. keep its votaries at peace with all mankind ; but such views of comprehensive charity were par- ticularly odious to the bigoted part of the Ma- hometans ; and accordingly, after the sect had silently increased for more than a century, it excited the jealousy of the Mussulman govern- ment, and its spiritual chief was put to death in A. D..l606t, within a year after the decease of Their re- Akber. This act of tyranny changed the Siks from inoffensive quietists into fanatical warriors. They took up arms under Har Govind, the son of their martyred pontiff, who inspired them with his own spirit of revenge and of hatred to their op- pressors. Being now open enemies of the govern- ment, the Siks were expelled from the neighbour- hood of Lahor, which had hitherto been their seat, and constrained to take refuge in the northern * Professor Wilson, in the Asiatic Researches) vol. xvii. p. 233. f Sir J. Malcolm, Ibid. vol. xi. p. 212. BAHADUR SHAH. mountains.* Notwithstanding dissensions which CHAP. broke out among themselves, they continued their ' animosity to the Mussulmans, and confirmed their martial habits, until the accession (A. D. 1675) of Gum Go- Guru Govind, the grandson of Har Govind, and the tenth spiritual chief from Nanik. This leader He forms the Siks first conceived the idea of forming the Siks into a into a re- religious and military commonwealth, and executed military 3 " his design with the systematic spirit of a Grecian we^iTh"" lawgiver. To increase the numbers of his society, he abo- Their doc- lished all distinctions of cast among its members, admitting all converts, whether Mahometan or Hindu, Bramin or Chandala, to a perfect equality ; while, to preserve its unity, he instituted a peculiar dress and peculiar manners, by which his followers were to be distinguished from all the rest of man- kind. Each was to be a vowed soldier from his birth or initiation, was always to carry steel in some form about his person, to wear blue clothes, allow his hair and beard to grow, and neither to clip nor remove the hairs on any other part of his body. Reverence for the Hindu gods, and respect for Bramins, were maintained, and the slaughter of kine was most positively forbidden ; but all other prohibitions relating to food and liquors were abolished ; the usual forms of worship were laid aside ; new modes of salutation, and new ceremo- nies on the principal events of life, were intro- * Sir J. Malcolm, p. 214. o o 564- HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK duced * ; and so effectual was the change operated - on the people, that the Siks have now (after part- ing with several of their singularities) as distinct a national character as any of the original races in India. They are tall and thin, dark for so northern a people, active horsemen, and good matchlock- men : they are still all soldiers, but no longer fanatics ; though unpolished, they are frank and sociable, and are devoted to pleasure of every description and degree. They are jr ar different was their character under Guru overpow- ered at first. Govind, when they were filled with zeal for their faith and rancour against their enemies, and were prepared to do or surfer any thing to promote the success of their cause. But their numbers were inadequate to accomplish their plans of resistance and revenge : after a long struggle, Guru Govind saw his strong holds taken, his mother and his children massacred, and his followers slain, muti- lated, or dispersed. His misfortunes impaired his reason, or at least destroyed his energy ; for so little formidable had he become, that he was allowed to enter the Mogul dominions unmo- lested, and was murdered by a private enemy, at Nander, in the Deckan.t But although it is sometimes possible to crush a religion even after * Sir J. Malcolm, Asiatic Researches, voh xi. p. 219, 220. 284. 288. f Sir J. Malcolm. Forster's Travels, p. 263. The latter author states that Guru Govind had a small command in the Mogul service ; which is confirmed by Khafi Kha"n. BAHADUR SHAH. 565 it has taken root, it can only be done by long CHAP. and steady persecution ; and that the internal ' disturbances of the Moguls prevented their apply- ing. Their seventies only exalted the fanaticism of Their fen*. ticism. the Siks, and inspired a gloomy spirit of vengeance, which soon broke out into fury. Under a new Their sue- chief named Bandu, who had been bred a religious ascetic, and who combined a most sanguinary dis- position with bold and daring counsels, they broke Bandu - from their retreat, and overran the east of the Pan- jab, committing unheard-of cruelties wherever they directed their steps. The mosques, of course, were destroyed, and the mullahs butchered ; but the rage of the Siks was not restrained by any con- siderations of religion, or by any mercy for age or sex : whole towns were massacred with wanton barbarity ; and even the bodies of the dead were dug up and thrown out to the birds and beasts of prey. The principal scene of these atrocities was Sir- hind, which the Siks occupied after defeating the governor in a pitched battle ; but the same horrors marked their route through the country eastward of the Satlaj and Jainna, into which they penetrated as far as Seharanpur. They at length received a check from the local authorities, and retired to the country on the upper course of the Satlaj, between Lodiana and the mountains. This seems, at that time, to have been their principal seat ; and it was well suited to their condition, as they had a near o o 3 566 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and easy retreat from it when forced to leave the XII. open country. Their retirement, on the present occasion, was of no long continuance ; and on their next incur- sions they ravaged the country as far as the neigh- bourhood of Lahor on the one side, and of Delhi itself on the other. Bahadur It was the extent of these depredations that marches . / -n i / i against made it necessary for Bahadur to come .against them in person. He soon drove them within their They are own limits, and then obliged them to take refuge tbehflk. in the hills : to subdue them effectually, however, required a considerable exertion ; and after Bandu had at length been reduced to take refuge in a fort, it was only by means of famine that the emperor could hope to take the place. A long and strict blockade was therefore set on foot ; but,, although the Siks endured the utmost extremities of hunger, and died in vast numbers, they still continued the Escape of defence. When further resistance became hope- Bandu. less, a desperate sally was made by the besieged : many of the partakers in this bold enterprise were killed, and the Mussulmans took possession of the fort without further resistance. A person who seemed to be their chief, and had used every means of making himself conspicuous, was made prisoner, and carried off in triumph : when he arrived in camp, it was found that he was a Hindu convert who had sacrificed himself to save his leader, and that Bandu himself had escaped during the sally. The emperor, though sufficiently struck by BAHADUR SHAH. 56? the prisoner's self-devotion to spare his life, was CHAP. yet so ungenerous as to order him to be shut up in ' an iron cage and sent to Delhi. * After this success, the emperor returned to La- bor, leaving a detachment to watch the Siks, and to check their depredations. This object was not fully attained, and the power of the Siks was again on the ascendant, when Bahadur Shah died at Death of Labor, in the seventy-first lunar year of his age, shah. UI and fifth of his reign. The death of Bahadur Shah was followed by r J Moharram. the usual struggle among his sons. The incapacity Contest of the eldest (afterwards Jehandar Shah) had sons. given a great ascendancy to the second, whose name was A'zim u Shan ; and as he was supported by most of the nobility and of the army, he ap- peared to have an irresistible superiority over his competitors. But his three brothers joined their interests, and Artifices of were kept together by the persuasions and false Kh an . ar promises of Zulfikar Khan, whose love of intrigue was still as strong as ever. Their concord was of short duration, but lasted until the defeat and death of A'zim u Shan. Two of the surviving brothers soon after came to an open conflict, and the third attacked the victor on the morning after the battle: he was, however, repulsed and slain ; and Je- He secures the victory * The proceedings of the Siks, till their capture of Seha- *s h Jj; Mn(Wr ranpur, is from Sir J. Malcolm, Foster, and Khafi Khan : the subsequent narrative is from Khafi Khan alone. o o 4 568 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK bandar Shah remained undisputed master of the XII. throne. A. D. 1712, May or A. H.I 124, Jehdnddr Shah. Jamadi al Accession Immediately on his accession, Jehandar appointed Zulfikdr Khan to be vizir. This crafty and able chief had supported Jehandar through the whole P3citv. of the preceding contest ; judging, from the low and slothful habits of that prince, that he was best suited for a tool in the hands of an ambitious minister. Arrogance Accordingly, he assumed the control of the govern- Khan. ment from the first, and treated the emperor with the utmost arrogance and disdain. He could not have ventured to adopt this course, if Jehandar, besides degrading his own dignity by his vices and follies, had not provoked the nobility by his par- tiality for the relations of his favourite mistress. This woman had been a public dancer, and her family were of the same discreditable class : yet they were exalted to high stations, to the exclusion of the nobles, whom they were also allowed on several General occasions to insult with impunity. But though their disgust at such proceedings prevented the nobility from taking part with the emperor, it did not reconcile them to the pride and tyranny of Zulfikar, which soon came to be displayed towards all ranks ; and it is not improbable that their dis- contents might have led to open opposition, if the attention of all had not been attracted by a danger from without. JEHANDAR SHAH. 56Q One of Jehandar's first acts had been to put all CHAP. the princes of the blood, within his reach, to death : ' among those whom he could not get into his power Revolt of was Farokhsir, the son of A'zim u Shan, who was rokhsir in in Bengal at the time of Bahadur Shah's death. After that event, and the ruin of A'zim u Shan, he He is sup- threw himself on the compassion and fidelity of Abdullah Seiad Hosen Ali, the governor of Behar, an old ^ go ser adherent of his father's, who warmly espoused his cause, and prevailed on his brother, Seiad Ab- dullah, governor of Albahabad, to adopt the same course. By the aid of these noblemen, Farokhsir assem- bled an army at Allahabad, repelled a force sent to oppose him on his advance, and had marched to the neighbourhood of Agra, when he was met by Jehandar and Zulfikar with an army of 70,000 men. The battle was fiercely contested ; and Hosen Ali, the soul of Farokhsir's enterprise, was left for dead upon the field. But success at length declared for the rebels : the emperor himself fled in disguise to Delhi ; whither Zulfikar retreated at the head of Defeats the .. TI/IX i-T-vii- imperial his remaining troops. Jehandar, on reaching Delhi, army. repaired to the house of Assad Khan, the father of Zulfikar : this practised traitor immediately com- mitted him to custody ; and, on the arrival of Zul- fikar, persuaded him, though at first unwilling to part with the instrument of his ambition, to en- deavour to make his peace with the new emperor by the sacrifice of his rival. Accordingly, as Farokhsir approached the capi- betrays 570 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK tal, both father and son went out to meet him, and XII ' delivered their late unfortunate master into his hands. Assad Khan's life was spared : but Zul- Shah to the . enemy; fikar paid the penalty of his selfish and perfidious to death career, and was strangled before he left the im- - 11 perial tent. Jehandar was put to death at the same time ; and these severities were followed by A. D. 1713, Feb. 4. ; many other executions. A. H. 1125, Moharram 17. Farokhstr. The accession of Farokhsir was naturally accom- Great panied by the elevation of his protectors. Abdul- lah Khan, the eldest brother, was made vizir ; and Hosen received the rank of amir at 6mra (or com- mander-in-chief), which was the second in the state. These brothers were sprung from a numer- ous and respected family of descendants of the Prophet, who were settled in the town of Bara; and in consequence of this origin, they are best known in India by the name of the Seiads. They had expected, from their services, as well as from the grovelling disposition of Farokhsir, and his submissive behaviour while courting their sup- port, that they would be allowed to exercise all the real power of the state, leaving to the emperor only the pageantry, and such a command of wealth and honours as might enable him to gratify his fa- of vourites. But neither Farokhsir nor his favourites were so easily contented. His principal confidant was a person who had been cazi at Dacca, in Ben- FAROKHSIR. 571 gal, and on whom he conferred the high title of CHAP. Mir Jumla. This man, though devoid of capacity, ' had an obstinate perseverance in his narrow views, which was well suited to gain an ascendancy over a mind like Farokhsir's, incapable of comprehend- ing a great design, and too irresolute to execute even a small one without support. It was no difficult task to make the emperor jealous of the authority which he was so incom- petent to exercise, and the overbearing conduct of the Seiads gave him a reasonable motive for coun- teracting them. The first scheme contrived in his secret cabinet ni s ; n . was to weaken the brothers by a. division of their tngues - force. For this purpose Hosen Ali was sent against Hose ' n Ali - / i i sent against Ajit Sing of Marwar, while secret messages were Ajjt Sm g , transmitted to the Rajput prince, intimating that Marwar. he could do nothing more acceptable to the em- peror than by offering an obstinate resistance to his lieutenant. But Hosen Ali was too well aware of the danger occasioned by his absence to insist on terms that might protract the war ; and Ajit, when his own interests were secured, had no inducement to make sacrifices for those of the emperor. Peace Makes an ,. , TIT honourable was accordingly concluded, on terms, to appear- peace, ance, honourable to Farokhsir ; the raja engaging to send his son to Delhi, and to give his daughter in marriage to the emperor. The mutual distrust of the parties at court was increased increased after Hosen Ali returned, and Farokhsir, as destitute of prudence and steadiness as faith and 572 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK honour, was exactly the sort of person with whom J it was least possible to feel secure. The Seiads, conceiving (probably with good reason) that their lives were aimed at, assembled their troops about their palaces, and refused to go to court. It was now the king's turn to be alarmed, and the preparations of the contending factions threw the capital into the utmost confusion and distress ; and there remained no alternative but an immediate conflict, or the submission of the Submission least determined of the parties. The king was emperor, therefore prevailed on to allow the gates of the citadel, in which was his palace, to be occupied by the guards of the Seiads, while they waited on him for the purpose of settling the terms of a recon- ciliation. It was there agreed that Mir Jumla should be made governor of Behar, and removed from court ; that Abdullah Khan should continue to exercise the functions of vizir, but that Hosen should undertake the government of the Deckan, and proceed immediately with his army to that distant province. Harmony being to appearance restored, the em- peror's nuptials with the daughter of Ajit Sing were celebrated with unprecedented splendour, and the Rahtor raja, from his independent terri- tory, saw his importance acknowledged at the capital whence he had in his infancy been conveyed with so much difficulty to escape the tyranny of Aurangzib. Hosin AH After this ceremony, Hosen Ali set off for the marches to FAROKHSIR. 573 Deckan. He was well aware that his continued CHAP. absence would be the signal for the recall of Mir Jumla, and he told the emperor, at parting, that if he heard of any attempt to disturb his brother's A. D . 1715, authority, he should be at Delhi with his army A . H . 1 127,' within three weeks of the intelligence. But Farokhsir did not trust to the ordinary Farokhsir i ,-, r ir> i* i i instigates chances or war tor arrordmg employment to his Baud general. He had recourse for this purpose to Pann to Daud Khan Panni, who was renowned throughout reslst him ' India for his reckless courage, and whose memory still survives in the tales and proverbs of the Deckan. Daud Khan had been removed on the accession of Farokhsir to the province of Guzerat, to which that of Candesh was now added ; and, being an old fellow-soldier of Zulfikar Khan, could be relied on for zeal against the instrument of his ruin. He was secretly instructed to repair imme- diately to Candesh, to carry with him all the troops he could collect, to exercise his influence with the Marattas and other chiefs of the Deckan, and, under pretence of co-operating with Hosen Ali, to take the first opportunity of accomplishing his destruction. Daud's manner of executing these orders was conformable to his established character. He at once set Hosen Ali at defiance, proceeded to engage him as an open enemy, and soon brought the question to a trial of strength in the field. The impetuosity of his charge on this occasion entirely disconcerted Hosen Ali's army ; they began to disperse in all directions, while Daud Khan, at the ,574 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK head of 300 chosen men of his tribe, armed with XII battle-axes, pushed straight at the person of his Defeat and opponent. At this decisive moment, Daud re- Sid ceived a ball through his head, and his fall imme- diately turned the fortune of the day. His wife, a A. n. me, Hindu princess, who had accompanied him to AH 11 29 Candesh, stabbed herself on hearing of his death. Hosen Ali, after his victory, proceeded to his operations against the Marattas, without imputing to the emperor any share in the opposition which he had met with.* Renewed Meanwhile, the long-continued dissensions timuof 'the amon g the Mussulmans had afforded an oppor- Siks - tunity to the Siks to recruit their strength. Bandu had issued from his retreat, defeated the imperial troops, and ravaged the level country with greater fury than before. At length an army was sent against him, under an able chief named Abdusemed They are Khan. By him the Siks were beaten in repeated and nearly actions, and Bandu was at last made prisoner with a number of his men, and some of his principal followers. Most of these persons were executed on the spot ; but 740 were selected and sent with Bandu to Delhi. They were paraded through the streets on camels, dressed in black sheepskins, with the wool outside (in derision of the shaggy appear- ance they affected), and were exposed to the male- dictions of the populace, which, it must be owned, they had well deserved. Their punishment ex- * The above account is from the " Seir Mutakherfn " and Scott's " Deckan," who have both borrowed from Khafi Khan. FAROKHSIR. 575 ceeded the measure of offences even such as theirs. CHAP. They were all beheaded on seven successive days, and died with the utmost firmness, disdaining every offer to save their lives at the expense of their re- ligion. Bandu was reserved for greater cruelties. He Cruel exe- ,.,.,. . . , cution of was exhibited in an iron cage, clad in a robe or Bandu. cloth of gold, and a scarlet turban ; an executioner stood behind him with a drawn sword ; around him were the heads of his followers on pikes, and even a dead cat was stuck on a similar weapon to indicate the extirpation of every thing belonging to him. He was then given a dagger, and ordered to stab his infant son ; and on his refusing, the child was butchered before his eyes, and its heart thrown in his face. He was at last torn to pieces with hot pincers, and died with unshaken constancy, glorying in having been raised up by God to be a scourge to the iniquities and oppressions of the age. The Siks who were still at large were hunted down like wild beasts, and it was not till after a long interval that they again appeared in force, and once more renewed their depredations. But the Siks, when at the strongest, were not Progress of numerous, and they were never formidable beyond a certain not very extensive tract.* It was with a different sort of enemy that the Moguls had to contend in the Deckan ; to which country we must now return. The removal of Baud Khan * The Siks have never been so flourishing as they are now (1839), and they are confined to the Panjab and the neigh- 576 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK (A.D. 1713) had dissolved his engagements with ' the Marattas. His successor, Chin Kilich Khan Chin Ki- Cafterwards so we ^ known under the titles of Nizam hch Khan v (afterwards ul Mulk and Asof Jali), was a man of much ability Asof Jah). ' and more cunning ; and as the feud among the Marattas now raged with more bitterness than ever, he contrived, by favouring the weaker party, not only to foment their internal dissensions, but to induce several of their chiefs to espouse the Mogul cause. But these measures, though they prevented the increase of the Maratta power, had little effect in restoring the tranquillity of the country ; and the removal of Chin Kilich Khan, to make way for Hosen Ali, put an end to the little good they had produced. Bands of Marattas ravaged the Mogul territory as before, and individuals of that nation seized on villages within its limits, and turned them in success into forts, from whence they plundered the adioin- of Hosen AIL ing districts. * The most troublesome of these, at the time of Hosen Ali's arrival, was a chief whose family name was Dabari : he occupied a line of fortified villages in Candesh, and, by his depredations on caravans and travellers, shut up the great road from Hin- dostan and the Deckan to Surat. bouring countries : their numbers do not exceed 500,000 souls ; and they are supposed to have 3,000,000 subjects by no means well affected to their government. * Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 431. Briggs's Seir ul Mutakherin, vol. i. p. 141. FAROKHSIIi. 577 Soon after the defeat of Baud Khan, a very CHAP. strong detachment was sent to remedy this pressing evil, and was opposed by the usual Maratta tactics. The villages were evacuated as the Moguls ad- vanced, and re-occupied as soon as they had passed by ; and Dabari, after affecting to fly till he reached a convenient scene of action, suffered himself to be overtaken, when his men dispersed in small parties among the hills and broken ground with which the place was surrounded. The Moguls, elated with their victory, broke up to pursue the fugitives. The Marattas allowed them to involve themselves in the ravines until they could no longer assemble, and then turned on them at once, cut the general and most of the detachment to pieces, and did not suffer one to escape till he was stripped of his horse, arms, and even clothes.* The further pro- gress of the campaign corresponded to this in- auspicious commencement; and the Marattas, in addition to the manifest inefficiency of their ene- mies, were encouraged by the intrigues of Farokhsir himself. At length Hosen Ali, finding that his He makes 111 i -i T-V 1 1 i peace with presence could no longer be spared at Delhi, made Raja Saho, a treaty with Raja Saho, and agreed to acknow- mit s S topay ledoje his claim to the whole of the territory for- the chout ' * A.D. 1717f. merly possessed by Sevaji, with the addition of later conquests ; to restore all the forts in his pos- session within that tract ; to allow the levy of the chout, or fourth, over the whole of the Deckan ; * Seir ul Mutakhesin, vol. i. p. 14-2, t Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 446. VOL. ii. r p 578 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and to make a further payment of one tenth on the ' remaining revenue, under the name of jsirdesmuki. This tenth, with the cession of part of the territory, was all that had been demanded in the last ne- gotiation with Aurangzib. In return, Saho was to pay a tribute of ten lacs of rupees ; to furnish 15,000 horse, to preserve the tranquillity of the country, and to be answerable for any loss occa- sioned by depredations, from whatever quarter. Though Saho had at this time a superiority in the Maratta civil war, a great part of the country thus acknowledged to be his was not in his pos- session, and he was entirely unable to check the depredations of the hostile party, if he could those of his own adherents. But Hosen All's object was attained by being enabled to withdraw his troops from the Deckan, and by obtaining the assistance of a body of 10,000 Marattas on his march to Delhi. * Farokhsir refused to ratify this disgrace- ntitydie ftd treat y- His refusal only served to hasten the treaty. cr i s is of the dispute between him and the Seiads. The ultimate occurrence of such an event had long become inevitable. state of the Abdullah Khan, the elder of the brothers, though a man of talents, was indolent and fond of pleasure. His business of vizir, therefore, was left to his deputy, a Hindu named Rattan Chand, whose strict measures and arbitrary temper made his ad- piotsof ministration very unpopular. Encouraged by this * Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 144, &c. FAROKHSIll. 579 circumstance, and by Abdullah's want of vigilance, CHAP. Farokhsir began to form schemes for the recovery ' of his independence ; and reports arose of an in- tention on his part to seize on the vizir's person. These rumours seemed confirmed by the proceed- ings of some large bodies of troops who had been suddenly dismissed from the king's service, and by the unexpected appearance of Mir Jumla, who made a rapid and secret journey from Behar to Delhi. He represented himself as obliged to fly from the dangers to which he was exposed by the disaffection of the troops in his province : he was very coldly received by the emperor ; and he ostensibly threw himself on the vizir's protection, professing to have renounced all thoughts of public employment. But these appearances did not satisfy the vizir. He assembled his adherents, and pre- pared for the worst that might occur. If the emperor had entertained the design imputed to him, he had not the courage to carry it through. Overawed by the vizir's preparations, he hastened to appease his resentment ; protested his anxious wish to maintain the administration on its present footing, and dismissed Mir Jumla to his native town of Mult n- But this reconciliation was only superficial ; the vizir retained a well-founded conviction of the emperor's insincerity ; and the other almost im- mediately renewed his plots, which he took up with as much levity, and abandoned with as much p F 2 580 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK pusillanimity, as before. His plan now was, to form ' a combination of the principal persons who were Combina- discontented with the vizir. Among these was tion of . c greatnobies Jei Sing, raja of Amber. This chieftain had been to support . t1 . 1T/ 1111 him. previously employed against the Jats, and had, by a long course of operations, reduced them to ex- tremities, when the vizir opened a direct nego- tiation with an agent whom they had sent to Delhi, and granted them peace in a manner very deroga- tory to the honour of Jei Sing. Chin Kilich Khan, who had been removed from the viceroyalty of the Deckan to the petty government of Moradabad, was also ready to revenge the injury, and was sum- moned to Delhi : he was joined by Sirbuland Khan, governor of Behar : Raja Ajit Sing, the emperor's father-in-law, was also sent for, but showed no inclination to embark in an enterprise directed by such unsteady hands, and soon after openly attached himself to the prevailing party. The other conspirators, however, were zealous ; and it was determined to assassinate the vizir on the occasion of a great annual solemnity, at which the number of troops well affected to the king would much His levity surpass that of Abdullah's guards. But Farokhsii had now got a new favourite, a Cashmirian of low birth and profligate manners, on whom he conferred the title of Rokn u Doula. By this man's per- suasion, which fell in with his natural timidity, he postponed the execution of the concerted plot, and he afterwards promised to his favourite the suc- cession to the office of prime minister, and con- FAROKHSIIl. 581 ferred on him, as a private jagir, the veiy district CHAP. of which Chin Kilich Khan was governor. , Disappointed and disgusted with this preference, Disgusts and convinced that Farokhsir's irresolution must be federates, fatal to any plan in which he was an actor, his con- federates, with the exception of Jei Sing, lost no time in making their peace with the vizir. That Return of minister, whose fears had been awakened by the accompa- *' previous appearances, had already called for the "o!ooo y Ma- assistance of his brother from the Deckan ; and rattas " Hosen Ali, who kept his army at his devotion, by carefully excluding all persons appointed by the court from command, was now in full march on the capital. Jei Sing endeavoured to excite the A. D . 1718, . . . December; emperor to take some decisive step during the A.H.USI*, short interval that was left, but was unable to ani- mate that feeble prince even with the courage of despair ; and Hosen Ali's first demand, on his arrival, was for the dismission of the raja to his own territory. Farokhsir, thus at the mercy of his enemies, had recourse to the most abject sub- mission. Hosen Ali remained encamped without the city ; but the vizir's guards were admitted into the palace, and it only remained to the brothers to decide on the fate of its tenant. In this state of affairs, some nobles who remained faithful to the * This is the date of his march from Candesh, taken from Khafi Khan ; Grant Duff also confirms the year. The " Seir Mutakherin" (Briggs's translation, vol. i. p. 164.) makes the year A. D. 1719, A.H. 1132; and many of its subsequent dates differ, in the same manner, from all other authorities. p p 3 582 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. Farokhsir deposed and put to death. A. D. 1719, February ; A. H. 1131, Rabi u Sani. Nominal emperors set up by the Seiads. Raf i u Dirjat. A. D. 1719, February ; A. H. 1131, Rabi u Sani. Raf i u Doula. A. D. 1719, May ; A. H. 1131, Rajab. emperor, set out with their retainers to his assist- ance j and a rising of the townspeople for the purpose of massacring the Marattas took place at the same time. In consequence of the confusion which followed, Hosen AH marched into the city, of which he took possession after some opposition. It seemed no longer safe to spare Farokhsir ; and that unfortunate shadow of a king was dragged from his hiding-place in the seraglio and privately put to death. Some of the fruits of Aurangzib's religious policy appeared during this reign. Enayat Ullah, who had been secretary to that monarch, being appointed to the head of the finance, endeavoured to enforce the capitation tax on Hindus with the rigour of his former master ; but he was soon forced to desist by the public clamour, and the tax was formally abolished in the next reign. There was a violent affray between the Shias and Sunnis in the capital, and a still more serious one, in Ahmedabad, between the Hindus and Mus- sulmans, in winch many lives were lost : on this occasion the Mussulman governor (Daud Khan Panni) took part with the Hindus. On the deposition of Farokhsir, the Seiads set up a young prince of the blood, to whom they gave the title of Rafi u Dirjat, He died in little more than three months, of a consumption ; when another youth of the same description was set up under the name of Rafi u Doula, and came to the same end in a still shorter period. FAROKHsili. 583 These princes had been brought up in the re- CHAP. cesses of the seraglio, without any prospect of the succession, and had the ideas of women super- induced on those of children. Their deaths must have been inconvenient to the Seiads, and they pitched on a healthier young man as their suc- cessor. This was Roushen Akhter : he had no advantages in previous situation over the others ; but his mother was a woman of ability, and had perhaps helped to form his character, as she subse- quently influenced his conduct. He was raised to the throne by the title of J med Shah. Mohammed Shah. * A< . 1719> September; * At Mohammed's accession it was determined that the ^^A 131 ' ii Cada. names of his two predecessors should be left out of the list of kings, and that his reign should commence from the death of Farokhsir. (Seir Mutdkherin, vol. i. p. 197. Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 450. Marsden, Numismata Orientalia.) P P 4- 584, HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. A. D. 1719, September ; A. H. 1131, Zi Cada. General in- dignation against the Seiads. Internal dissensions of their party. Insurrec- tions. CHAP. II. TO THE DEPARTURE OF NADIR SHAH. Mohammed Shah. THE murder of Farokhsir (in spite of his personal character, and the familiarity of such a catastrophe in Asia) produced a general feeling of horror, and led to suspicions regarding the premature deaths of his successors. The frequent change of pageants also drew attention to the moving power which they were intended to veil. The authority of the Seiads, thus shaken in the public opinion, was further impaired by their own disagreement, as well as by the discontent of some of their principal adherents, and soon began to show signs of weakness in the inefficiency of the internal government. The governor of Allahabad (a Hindu) rebelled ; and, although Hosen Ali went against him in person, he only gave up his province on condition that he should receive that of Oud in exchange : the tributary state of Bundi required a strong force to settle some disturbances that broke out there ; while the Afghan chief of Kosur, in the south of the Panjab, revolted, defeated the royal troops, and was not subdued without an effort. A furious contest between Hindus and Mussulmans also took MOHAMMED SHAH. 585 place in Cashmir, in which the efforts of the go- CHAP. vernment to maintain tranquillity were unavailing, until some thousand persons had fallen on the two sides, and much loss of property had been sustained. The most alarming sign of the times was in the Proceed - ings of proceedings of Chin Kilich Khan. This chief Asof jab. (whom, anticipating the title, I shall henceforth call Asof Jah, and whose descendants are known to Europeans as Nizams of the Deckan) was of a re- spectable Turk family, and was the son of Ghazi u din, a favourite officer of Aurangzib, under which emperor he also distinguished himself. He showed spirit in maintaining his dignity during the de- pression of the nobility by the mistress of Jehandar Shah and her relations* ; and subsequently rose to importance (as has been related) by his services as viceroy of the Deckan. He had quitted the party of Farokhsir because he found he was not to be prime minister ; and yet, on the success of his new allies, he was not even restored to his vice- royalty, but made governor of the single province of Malwa. The disturbed state of that country gave him a pretence for raising troops j and he became so for- * Being rudely stopped in a narrow street, to make way for a woman who had unbounded influence with the mistress, and through her with the emperor, lie ordered his attendants to repel force with force, dispersed the favourite's retinue, and compelled her to quit her elephant, and escape on foot to the palace. 586 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK midable to the Seiads, that they made a feeble XII ' attempt to remove him, offering him the choice of four other governments. This only showed Asof Jah that the time for dissembling was passed ; and as he saw the difficulty of establishing a permanent control at the capital, he determined to lay the foundations of his power on a firmer basis, and turned his first attention to the conquest of the Deckan. He had there many old connections both with the Mussulmans and the Marattas. A. D. 1720, Immediately on his revolt he marched to the A. H. UBS, Nerbadda. By intrigue and money he obtained stm? possession of the fort of Asirghar, and procured the ?* sta :. junction of several officers of the province. He bushes his ' power in W as pursued from Hindostan by a force under the Deckan. Defeats the Dilawci* Khan (a Seiad of Bara), and another thfSiads. under A/lam Ali Kh ^ n ( the nephew of the usurp- ing brothers) was awaiting him at Aurangabad. Taking advantage of the impetuous character of Dilawer, he drew him into an engagement before he could be supported by his colleague, and totally defeated him in a battle fought near Burhanpur ; A. D. 17.20, Dilawer Khan himself was among the slain. He then turned against A'lam Ali, whose force, though weakened by the desertion of some chiefs gained by Asof Jah, was still very powerful. A battle took place at Ballapur in Berar, in which large bodies of Marattas were engaged on both sides, A. D. 1720, and which terminated in the defeat and death of A'lam Ali. Alarm at These events threw the Seiads into consterna- Delhi. MOHAMMED SHAH. 587 tion, and, though secretly agreeable to the emperor CHAP. and many of the nobility, filled the minds of re- ' fleeting men with dismal forebodings of the ruin of the empire. This gloom was rendered deeper among a superstitious people by a violent earth- quake which occurred about this time, and seemed to threaten the existence of the capital ; and in these depressing circumstances the brothers be- trayed those signs of irresolution which are often the forerunners of great calamities, Mohammed Shah (tutored by his mother) had p ru dent carefully avoided any opposition to the Seiads, and jfotam- patiently waited for some change of circumstances mcd Shah< favourable to the assertion of his own authority. He now began, with the utmost secrecy, to de- liberate what could be done to accelerate his deliverance. His counsellor in this dangerous un- His plans dertaking was Mohammed Amin Khan, one of the sSads!* noblemen who had deserted Farokhsir when he Moham - med Amin proved a traitor to his own cause, and who had Khan, since adhered so the Seiads, though full of envy and disgust at their power and arrogance. He was in the habit of conversing in Turki with Mohammed, and by means of that language, which was un- known to Indian Seiads, he was able to ascertain the sentiments of the emperor, although closely surrounded by the connections and creatures of the brothers. Hints interchanged in this manner Sadat paved the way to more private communications, Khan ' and a party was gradually formed, the second place in which was occupied by Sadat Khan, originally a 588 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. Hosen All marches against Asof Jah, accompa- nied by the emperor. Assassina- tion of Hosen Ali. A. D. 1720, October ; A. H. 1132, Zi Haj 6. merchant of Khorasan, who had risen to a military command, and was the progenitor of the present kings of Oud. These combinations, however secret, did not fail to excite obscure apprehensions in the minds of the Seiads, and occasioned much perplexity about the manner of disposing of the emperor during the approaching contest with Asof Jah. It was at length decided that Hosen Ali should march to the Deckan, and should carry the emperor and some of the suspected nobles along with him, while Abdullah should remain at Delhi, and watch over the interests of his family at home. After much hesitation the brothers quitted Agra, and each marched off towards his destined station. The separation was judged by the conspirators to afford an opportunity for executing their designs. It was determined to assassinate Hosen Ali, and Mir Heider, a savage Calmuc, who (though a man of some rank in his own country) was ready for the most desperate enterprise, was pitched on to strike the blow. He waited for his victim as he passed in his palankin, and attracted his attention by holding up a petition. Hosen Ali made a sign to his attendants to allow him to approach, and was about to read the petition, when Mir Heider plunged his dagger into his body. The blow was fatal : Hosen Ali rolled out a corpse from the opposite side of the palankin, and Mir Heider was cut to pieces in an instant by the fury of the attendants. The death of this powerful minister threw the whole camp into commotion. A fierce MOHAMMED SHAH. 589 conflict took place between his adherents, many of CHAP. TT whom were Seiads like himself, and the partisans ' of the conspirators, who were joined by numbers whose only object was to protect the emperor. Mohammed was with some difficulty prevailed on to show himself at the head of his own friends, and his appearance materially contributed to decide the fate of the day. The party of the Seiads was driven from the field, and many of its members, t with all the neutral part of the army, made their submission to the emperor. The intelligence of this event reached Abdullah Difficult TT-I / r -i i /- situation of Khan before he entered Delhi. Painful as it was Abdullah . 1J? . , . Khan. in itself, it was as alarming in its consequences. Abdullah had now to oppose his sovereign without either right or any popular pretext in his favour; and he was made aware of his situation by the im- mediate breaking out of disturbances in the country around him. But his energy rose with his danger. He proclaimed one of the princes confined at He sets up Delhi king, conferred offices and dignities in his pe ror. name, and applied himself with vigour to strength- ening his cause by securing the services of troops and officers. Few men of rank adhered to him ; but by means Assembles of high pay he drew together a large, though ill- disciplined, army. He marched in little more than a fortnight after his brother's death, and was joined as he advanced by Choraman, the raja of the Jats, and by many of his brother's soldiers who deserted after having submitted to the emperor. 590 HISTORY OF INDIA, BOOK XII. A. D. 1720, November ; A. H. 1133, Moharram. Is defeated and taken prisoner. A. D. 1720, Nov. or Dec. ; A. H. 1133, Safar. Sudden death of Moham- med A min, the new vizir. A. D. 1721, January ; A. H. 1133, Rabi al Awal. On the other hand, Mohammed was reinforced by the arrival of 4000 horse, hastily sent forward by Raja Jei Sing, and of some chiefs of the Rohilla Afghans. The armies met between Agra and Delhi. Abdullah was defeated and taken prisoner; his life was spared, probably from respect for his sacred lineage. Mohammed Shah immediately proceeded to Delhi, which he entered in great pomp, and celebrated his emancipation by an ex- tensive distribution of offices and rewards. Mo- hammed Amin was made vizir ; but he had scarcely entered on his office, when he was taken ill, and died in a few hours. In most cases, the sudden death of a prime minister would have been attributed to poison ; but in this instance there was a manner of accounting for it still more acceptable to the popular love of wonder. An impostor had made his appearance at Delhi some years before, who produced a new scripture, written in a language of his own inven- tion, framed from those spoken in ancient Persia, and had founded a sect in which the teachers were called Bekuks arid the disciples Ferabuds. He had become so considerable at the accession of Mohammed, that the new vizir sent a party of soldiers to apprehend him. Before he was taken into custody, the vizir was seized with a violent illness, and his family, in alarm, endeavoured by presents and entreaties to avert the anger of the holy man. The Bekuk boldly avowed the miracle, but said his shaft, once shot, could not be recalled. MOHAMMED SHAH. 591 He was nevertheless left undisturbed, and lived for CHAP. some years after. The office of vizir was only filled by a temporary substitute, being ultimately designed for Asof Jah. Meanwhile, every day brought some fresh proof Rapid de- of the decline of the monarchy. The government mo^chy/ of Guzerat had been conferred on Raja Ajit Sing as a reward for his adherence to the Seiads ; the addition of that of Ajmir had been secretly pro- mised by Mohammed, as the price of his friendship or neutrality in the contest between himself and those brothers, and a grant for life of both govern- ments had been delivered to him under the royal seal. In spite of these engagements, Ajit was now removed from Guzerat ; and although his deputy, a Rajput, endeavoured to keep possession by force, he was driven out by the Mussulmans of the pro- vince, and compelled to take refuge with his master at Jodpur. Ajit Sing, on this, occupied Ajmir with a large army of Rajputs, took and plundered Narnol, and advanced his parties to Rewari, within fifty miles of Delhi. All attempts to check his progress had been rendered ineffectual by the dis- sensions of the generals ordered against him, and their reluctance to undertake the duty ; and when, at last, the commander-in-chief moved out to pro- tect the capital, he was glad to agree to the terms originally proposed by Ajit, that he should submit to the loss of Guzerat on condition of being con- A.D. 1721, t* ! * ' ' it A. H. 1133. firmed in Ajmir.* * Seir Mutakherin. Tod's Rajasthan. 592 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Soon after this, Asof Jah arrived at Delhi, and XII ' took possession of the office of vizir. Though lie Asof Jah had for some time been apprised of his appoint- A. D. 1722, rnent, he thought it of more importance to secure J^pffai ms independence in the Deckan than to seize on Rain u ^e authority held out to him at the capital. He had been engaged in many transactions with the Marattas, who were rapidly assuming the form of a regular government, and it was not till he had settled affairs in that quarter to his satisfaction that he repaired to Delhi. He found the court in indolence a state of the utmost weakness and disorder. The of the em- . ,.,-,. peror. emperor was given up to pleasure ; his favourite advisers were young men of the same pursuits, and His favour- his mistress had such an ascendancy over him, that ites. she was allowed to keep his private signet, and to His dislike use it at her discretion. This state of things arave to Asof Jah. great disgust to Asof Jah, brought up at the austere court of Aurangzib, and, in spite of his predilection for intrigue, both able and willing to conduct a vigorous administration : but he had neither the boldness nor the power to seize the government by force ; and he made no progress in gaining the confidence of the emperor, who felt himself constrained by his grave manners, and im- portuned by his attempts to draw attention to public business, and who had no greater pleasure than to see his antiquated dress and formal cour- tesy burlesqued by his own dissolute companions. Asof jh After some months of mutual dissatisfaction, the sent against . . 11, therefrac- emperor and his favourites thought they had de- MOHAMMED SHAH. 5Q3 vised a plan to free themselves from their trouble- CHAP. some counsellor. Heider Culi, the governor of . d Guzerat, though one of the principal actors in the revolution which restored the royal authority, was offensive to the cabal for his proud and inflexible disposition ; and they hoped, by embroiling him with Asof Jah, that both might be rendered more dependent on the court. They accordingly di- rected Heider Culi to give up his government to Asof Jah ; on which the former chief, as they ex- pected, repaired to his station, and made ready to defend his possession of it by force of arms. But Quells the this deep-laid scheme ended in sudden disappoint- tion, and ment ; for their subtle adversary so well employed his talents for intrigue and corruption, that his rival's army deserted almost in a body, and he speedily returned to Delhi, strengthened by the addition of a rich province to his former exorbitant command. No event of importance succeeded to Asof Expedition Jah's return, except the murder of the deputy jf^'of 11 "* governor of Agra by the Jats ; on which Raja Jei Bhart P' ir - Sing *, the old enemy of that people, was appointed governor of Agra for the purpose of revenging the outrage. Choraman, the aged raja of the Jats, happened to die during the expedition ; and Jei Sing, by dexterously supporting his nephew against his son and successor, brought about a * Khafi Khan. Scott's Deckan, vol. ii. p. 187. Briggs and Grant Duff make it Ajit Sing, as floes the old translation of the " Seir Mutakherin ;" but probably all on one authority. VOL. II. Q Q 594 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK division among the Jats, and at last placed the ' nephew in possession on condition of his paying tribute to Delhi. Disgust of The mutual aversion of the emperor and his vizir were not diminished after the return of the latter ; and it was probably, at the moment, a relief He resigns to Mohammed, when his minister, after securing his office, . . and sets off his safety, by removing, on some pretence, from the capital, sent in his resignation and marched off A. D. 1723, f or t} ie Deckan. But this measure amounted, in October ; A. H. 1136, reality, to a declaration of independence, and was Moharram. , . viewed in that light by the emperor himself, who, although he graciously accepted Asof Jah's re- signation, and conferred on him the highest titles that could be held by a subject, did not on that account remit his active hostility. He sent orders The em- toMobariz Khan, thelocal governor of Heiderabad, peror insti- , ... , gates MO- to endeavour to dispossess the viceroy, and assume gove'mo/of the government of the whole Deckan in his stead. SdftHup- Mobariz entered zealously on the task imposed on plant him. jj^ . an( j foy j.j ie sanc tion of the emperor's name, joined to his own influence and the enmity of individuals to his rival, he succeeded in collecting a powerful army. Asof Jah, always more inclined to art than force, protracted his negotiations for several months, during which he endeavoured to sow sedition among Mobariz's adherents. As he made little progress in this mode of hostility, he at last came to open war, and soon gained a decided victory over Mobariz, who lost his life in the and slain, battle. As the emperor had not avowed the MOHAMMED SHAH. 5Q5 attack which he had instigated, Asof Jah, not to CHAP. be outdone in dissimulation, sent the head of ' Mobariz to court with his own congratulations on A - D - 1724 October ; the extinction of the rebellion. He then fixed A. H . 1137, i TT -i /i / i 11 11 Moharram. his residence at Heiderabad ; and, though he con- tinued to send honorary presents, on fixed occa- sions, to the emperor, he thenceforth conducted himself, in other respects, as an independent prince. But, although he was now beyond the reach Asof J ^' s t policy to- of attack from his former sovereign, he was by wards the no means equally secure from his neighbours the Marattas. Their power, being now concentrated and in able hands, was too great for any resistance that he could oppose to it, and all the refinements of his artful policy were for a time employed to divert it from himself, and to turn it against his enemies at Delhi. The change in the state of the Maratta govern- Consolida- tion of the ment had been gradually brought about during Maratta i i i i i i i govern- a considerable period, and requires to be taken ment. up from the commencement. Though Saho had been set up as raja by the Moguls, it suited the policy of Asof Jah, during his first government of the Deckan (A. D. 1713 to A. D. 1716), to assist his rival, Samba, at that time the weaker of the competitors. Other circumstances tended, soon after, to depress the party of Saho, who would never have recovered his superiority, but for the abilities of his minister, Balaji Wiswanat. This person (the founder of the Bramin dynasty BaiajiWis- of Peshwas) was the hereditary accountant of a 596 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK village in the Concan. He afterwards entered XII ' into the service of a chief of the Jadu family, whence he was transferred to that of the raja. He distinguished himself by many services ; the most important of which was his bringing over A'ngria (a powerful chief as well as famous pirate), in the Concan, from the side of Samba to that of Saho. His merits were at length rewarded with the office of peshwa, at that time the second in the state ; the pirti nidhi, or delegate of the raja, being the first. It was through his means that the cession of territory and tribute was obtained from Hosen AH Khan (A. D. 1717)> and he was joint com- mander of the Maratta force that accompanied that minister to Delhi. At that time Saho (with- out in other respects laying aside the titles or the independence assumed by his predecessors) was content, in his intercourse with the Mogul court, to acknowledge himself a vassal of the empire. It was professedly in this quality that his troops accompanied Hosen AH ; and the fall of that chief did not necessarily make any change in their relation to the government. Under this view Balaji remained at Delhi after the death of Farokhsir, and ultimately obtained a ratification of the treaty by Mohammed Shah (A. D. 1720). This recognition of his authority, together with Establishes other advantages, had established the ascendancy meTo?" 1 " of Sdho over his rival ; and Balaji, before his death, Saho. MOHAMMED SHAH. 59? (which happened in October, 1720,) had the satis- CHAP. faction of seeing him placed above the assaults of ' enemies, either foreign or domestic. Dies - The cessions by the treaty having given legality His coin- to what before was mere robbery, enabled Balaji revenue to introduce some degree of order into the ys Maratta mode of collection. It appears extra- ordinary, at first sight, that he did not prefer a solid territorial possession to assignments on other pro- prietors, such as the chout and sirdesmuki; or that he did not, at least, consolidate those dues, by throwing those on the same territory into one head, and uniting it with the land revenue where that also belonged to the Marattas. But it was His mo- by no means his object to simplify the claims of his government. He knew, from the relative power of the parties, that the raja would be a gainer in all disputed points with the Moguls, and was more anxious to obtain a pretext for inter- ference and encroachment over an extensive territory than clearly defined rights within a small one. In furtherance of this policy, he claimed, as chout, one fourth of the permanent revenue fixed by Todar Mai and Malik Amber, of which but a small portion was now realised from the exhausted country ; and, although he did not enforce this principle to its full extent, it still served to keep his claim undefined. It was not in dealing with the Moguls alone that he profited by keeping up this system of confusion : by granting the chout and sirdesmuki to different persons, and even QQ 3 598 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK inventing new subdivisions, so as to admit of , further partition, he parcelled out the revenues of every district among several Marratta chiefs ; so that while each had an interest in increasing the contributions to the general stock, none had a compact property such as might render him in- dependent of the government. The intricacy pro- duced in the affairs of the Maratta chiefs, by these innumerable fractions of revenue, led to another effect that Balaji had quite as much at heart : it threw them entirely into the hands of their Bramin agents, and strengthened the peshwa's power by increasing that of his cast. But, though this system of subdivision was general, it was not universal : some chiefs had already landed pos- sessions in the old territory ; and similar grants, more or less extensive, continued to be made from special favour. Every chief required a village or two for his head quarters, and all were anxious to possess the government claims on those of which they were natives or hereditary officers. Baji iuo Balaji Wiswanath was succeeded by his son, peshwa. B - i 1Uo> the ablegt of aU the Bramin C i ynas ty 5 His enter- and of all the Maratta nation, except Scvaji. Baji policy 8 Rao did not at once enjoy the whole authority that had been possessed by his father. He had a powerful rival in the pirti nidhi, and the interests of those politicians were not more opposed than their opinions. The pirti nidhi was sincerely apprehensive of the effects of a further diffusion of the Maratta power ; and he strenuously contended MOHAMMED SHAH. 599 for the necessity of consolidating the raja's pre- CHAP. sent possessions, suppressing civil discord, and acquiring a firm hold on the countries in the south of the peninsula, before attempting to make any conquests in Hindostan. Baji Rao took a wiser as well as bolder view. He saw that the hordes of predatory horse, who were so useful in an enemy's country, would be utterly ungovernable at home ; and that it was only by forming an army, and establishing, a military command, that an efficient internal government could be brought into exist- ence. He therefore counselled an immediate in- vasion of the northern provinces, and pointed out the inward weakness of the Mogul empire, which was nowhere so rotten as at the core : " Let us strike," said he, " the withered trunk, and the branches will fall of themselves." The eloquence and earnestness with which he pressed his advice overcame all the doubts of the raja ; and when urged by Baji Rao to allow him to carry his standard beyond the Nerbadda, he exclaimed, with enthusiasm, ''You shall plant it on Hemalaya." * The results of these debates gave Baji Rao a preponderance in the councils of the raja, and his ascendancy daily increased from the necessity for his assistance. Though Saho was not destitute character of abilities, his education in a Mussulman seraglio was alike unfavourable to hardiness of body and activity of mind; while Baji Rao, born in a camp Rao. * Grant Duff, and Maratta MSS. quoted by that author, vol. i. p. 4-824-86. Q Q 4 600 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. Baji Rao ravages Malwa. Obtains a cession by the gover- nor of the chout of Guzer&t. A. D. 1725, A. H. 1138. Asof Jah foments the dissensions of the Ma- rattas. and trained up a statesman and diplomatist, com- bined the habits of a Maratta horseman with an enlarged judgment and extensive knowledge. Un- like his cold-blooded brethren of the priestly class, his temper was ardent and his manner frank ; he never flinched from fatigue or danger, and could make a meal of dry grain rubbed out of the husks between his hands as he rode along on a march. His designs on the northern provinces were aided by the Moguls themselves. Shortly before the battle with Mobariz, Azof Jah was removed from his governments of Malwa and Guzerat. Raja Girdhar was appointed to the former province, and found no difficulty in occupying it, while the troops were drawn off to the contest in the Deck an ; but was unable to defend it from the incursions of Baji Rao ; and in Guzerat, Hamid Khan, AsoPs uncle, not only offered a strenuous resistance him- self, but directly called in the aid of the Marattas. In return, he gave up to them the chout and sirdesmuki of the country under him ; and Sir- buland Khan, the lawful governor, though suc- cessful in expelling Hamid, was, after a long strug- gle, obliged to confirm the grant. Notwithstanding the loss of these governments, Asof Jah's power was now so well established in the Deckan, that he thought he might venture on an attempt to reduce that of his formidable neigh- bours. For this purpose, he again availed himself of their internal dissensions. He first applied himself to the pirti nidhi, and by his means had MOHAMMED SHAH. 601 nearly concluded a treaty, by which the chout CHAP. and sirdesmuki on the country round his new - capital were to be commuted for a territorial cession and a fixed pecuniary payment ; but Baji Rao, faithful to his system of indefinite claims, ^nd no doubt offended by the interference of his old rival, gave his decided opposition to the execution of the agreement ; and Asof gained nothing by the negotiation, except the advantage of exasperating the jealousies of the Maratta ministers. His next attempt of the same nature was of more importance. Samba, the claimant to the Maratta throne, though eclipsed by the superior fortune of Saho, had fixed the seat of his govern- ment at Colapur, and retained the southern part of the dominions of his family, while he continued to assert his claim to the whole. Asof Jah, without formally espousing his cause, affected to be in doubt to whom he ought to pay the money due from his country to the Marattas, and called on the parties to exhibit the grounds of their respec- tive claims. This demand was highly resented by He is at. Saho, and his anger found a willing instrument compelled in Baji Rao. At the end of the rainy season, the peshwa invaded Asof's territories, and first sions> threatened Burhanpur ; but when Asof Jah (now A! H.I HO.' openly joined by Samba) moved to the relief of that city, Baji Rao changed the direction of his march, made a rapid incursion into Guzerat, where the chout had not at that time been con- 602 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK firmed), and after ravaging the province with fire 1_ and sword, returned with equal celerity to the Deckan. He now laid waste the country round Asof's army, and so straitened his supplies, by the usual Maratta means, that he was obliged to renounce his connection with Samba, and to con- cede some other advantages to the Maratta govern- ment. After this adjustment, Baji Rao crossed the Nerbadda to ravage Malwa, and to extort A.D. nag, Sirbuland Khan's confirmation of his predecessor's A.H.1141-2. grant of the chout of Guzerat. During his absence the pirti nidhi surprised dation be- tween Saho and defeated Samba, and at last compelled him and his . 11-0/1 i rival, to sign a treaty acknowledging aahos right to the whole Maratta country except a tract round Colapur, bounded on the west by the sea. This portion he was himself to retain, with the title of raja, and the same dignity as that assumed by 1 H 114' Saho. Though this success raised the reputation of the pirti nidhi, it did not enable him to enter the lists with the peshwa, and Asof was obliged to look out for some other instrument to disturb the Maratta government. Renewed He found one in the head of the family of Dabari, the hereditary senapati or commander-in- chief. This leader had been the principal means great Ma- ratta chief of establishing the Maratta power in Guzerat, and saw with indignation the fruit of his labours carried off by another. His jealousy derived additional bitterness from the ascendancy acquired by the peshwa, who now conducted the government with MOHAMMED SHAH. 5 603 out the least control on the part of the raja. In- CHAP. cited by these feelings, and the promise of powerful co-operation from Asof Jah, Dabari assembled an Marches to depose the army or 55,000 men, and^set out for the Deckan, p&hwa. with the professed object of delivering the raja from the thraldom of his minister. Baji Rao had not an equal force at his disposal; isantici- but what he had was composed of old troops, and Baji Rao, he saw the advantage of promptitude in acting against a combination. Without allowing time for Asof Jah to declare himself, he crossed the Ner- badda, entered Guzerat, and encountered Dabari not far from Barodra. The superiority of his A. D. 1731, veterans over Dabari's less experienced troops de- cided the victory in his favour, and he used it with ShawaL prudence and moderation. Dabari having fallen i i n i i rr> i / - in the action, he conterred his omce, in the raja s Rao, in name, on his son, and left him in possession of the Guzerft. Maratta rights in Guzerat on condition of his paying half the produce, through the peshwa, to the government. As the son was an infant, his mother was appointed his guardian, and Guzerat was to be administered in his behalf by Pilaji Geikwar, an adherent of his father's, and ancestor of the Geikwar family that still rules in Guzerat. Most of the other great Maratta families had Origin of also their origin a little before this time. When orpl^r,' Baji Rao began his incursions into Malwa he gave and sln commands to U'daji Puar, Malhar Rao Holcar, and Ranaji Sindia. The first of these was a chief before his connection with the peshwa : he soon 604< HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK acquired a territory about Dhar, on the borders of Guzerat and Malwa ; but never rose to such power as his colleagues or their descendants. Holcar was a shepherd on the Nira, south of Puna; and Sindia, though of a respectable family near Sattara, was in such abject poverty as to be a menial servant of Baji Rao's. These chiefs, and others of this period, were no longer adventurers warring at the head of their own retainers, but officers of the peshwa, commanding divisions of his troops, and acting under his commission. Baji Rao had now the means of punishing the tween Baji machinations of Asof Jah ; but both parties began Asof a j a ii. to perceive the advantages of a mutual good un- derstanding : Baji Rao saw how much his supre- macy at home would be endangered, during remote expeditions, by the enmity of so powerful and so insidious a neighbour ; and Asof, besides other grounds of apprehension, felt by no means secure that the emperor might not revenge his defiance of the royal authority by transferring the vice- royalty to the peshwa, in whose hands such a title would not be inoperative. Accordingly, not long after Baji Rao's return, the two usurpers entered into a secret compact, by which it was settled that Asof should support the government of Baji Rao, while the other carried his arms into Malwa, and pushed his conquests over the emperor's remaining dominions. Raja Abhi Baji Rao had, at this period, strong motives of Sing of , . p , . , . . . Ins own tor extending his views m the country MOHAMMED SHAH. 605 beyond the Nerbadda. Immediately after his de- CHAP. parture from Guzerat, the court of Delhi refused ' to ratify the grant of chout, removed Sirbuland viceroy of Guzerat. Khan from the government, and conferred it on Abhi Sing, raja of Jodpur. The appointment of an independent prince to such a charge would have been objectionable at any time ; and the profligate character of Abhi Sing, who had acquired his power by the murder of his father, Ajit*, did not promise much fidelity on his part ; but he possessed resources not en- joyed by the Mogul government, and seemed able by his own means, both to expel Sirbuland, and to defend the province against the Marattas. The first of these objects was attained in one campaign ; the second was not so easy of accom- A . D. mo. plishment. Pilaji Geikwar, though driven out of Barodra, still continued so formidable that the un- principled Abhi Sing saw no means of overcoming him except by procuring his assassination. This A . 0.1732. crime only roused the indignation of the Marattas, Procures * the assas- without weakening their power. The son and sinatumof Pilaji brother of Pilaji appeared in greater force than Geikwar. ever, and not only ravaged Guzerat themselves, ^th^Ma" but raised all the surrounding hill tribes of Bhils and rattas - Culis, and threw the whole province into revolt and confusion. While the Rajput prince was completely occupied by these disturbances, the Geikwars made a sudden irruption into his hereditary terri- * Tod's Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 91. 606 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK tory, and penetrated to the neighbourhood of J6d- ' pur itself. This attack, and the threatening aspect bhi sing o f the Maratta force in Malwa, compelled Abhi retires to . .... Marwar. oing to withdraw to his own principality, and the deputy whom he left in Guzerat could make but a feeble stand against the Marattas. The affairs of that nation were not less pro- sperous in Malwa. Girdhar Sing, the governor of that province, had fallen in a battle with Baji Rao's officers (in 1729) ; and his nephew, Deia Ram, who succeeded him, and had opposed a gallant resistance till this time, was defeated by A. D . 1732. Chimnaji, the peshwa's brother, and lost his life in the battle. Successes When Baji Rao entered Malwa in person (1732), Rao in the government was in the hands of Mohammed J\Tcll W3- Khan Bangash, an Afghan chief, who was also governor of Allahabad. He was at that period employed against a raja in Bundelcand, which lay between his two provinces ; and the raja, reduced to extremities, had recourse to the aid of the Ma- rattas. Baji Rao immediately obeyed the sum- mons, came suddenly on Mohammed Khan, and before long compelled him to take refuge in a fort. The government of Delhi was too weak to afford him any relief, and he must have surrendered at discretion, but for the exertions of his own family. His wife sent her veil (the strongest appeal to Afghan honour) to her countrymen in Rohilcand. His son put himself at the head of the volunteers thus assembled, and by these means he was de- MOHAMMED SHAH. 6(>7 livered from his difficulties and escorted to Allah- CHAP. abad. But this rescue of his person did nothing ' for his province. The raia of Btindelcand ceded Obtains possessions the territory of Jansi on the Jamna in return for in Bundei- the services of Baji Rao ; and afterwards, at his death, left him rights in Bundelcand, which in time led to the occupation of the whole of that country by the Marattas. Mohammed Khan's ill success procured his re- moval from Malwa, and the province was con- ferred on Raja Jei Sing of Amber. This prince, whose love of science makes him Ra>jei r> i 111 f i Sing II. one ot the most remarkable persons of his nation, viceroy of was by no means so distinguished for his firmness or decision. His hereditary connection with the Marattas, although not sufficient to induce him to betray his trust, facilitated an accommodation after he found resistance desperate ; and the result was, that, in the succeeding year, he surrendered his A. n. 1734. province to the peshwa, with the tacit concurrence SU r S re nder of the emperor, on whose behalf the territory was ^c^toThe Still tO be held. Marattas. But if the Moguls thought to obtain permanent forbearance from Baji Rao by concession, they knew little of him or his nation ; for though he for a time turned his attention to the internal affairs of the Deckan, he continued to press the formal cession of the chout and sirdesmuki of Malwa and Guzerat, and directed the chiefs whom he had left behind him to carry their incursions up to Agra. The Moguls on their part made 60S HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK great demonstrations, and sent out unwieldy and "* feebly conducted armies, whose operations served only to expose them to the contempt of the enemy. After some lapse of time Bail Rao again took ... . up the negotiation in person ; and in proportion as A. D. 1736. the progress of it disclosed the weakness of his ad- versaries, he continued to rise in his demands, until at length he insisted on the grant of a jagir, com- prising the province of Malwa and all the country south of the Chambal, together with the holy cities of Mattra, Allahabad, and Benares. The emperor, though all his attempts at open resistance proved futile, was not reduced quite so low as to submit to such terms. He endeavoured to pacify the Marattas by minor sacrifices, and those they ac- cepted without receding from their great object. Further Among the concessions were a right to levy tribute cessions by the em- on the Rajputs, and to increase that already due from the territories of Asof Jah. These were, doubtless, given with a view to embroil the Ma- rattas with the last-named powers, and they did Alarm of not quite fail of their purpose; for Asof Jah be- Asof Jah. . gan to perceive that he was pushing his present policy too far, and that he had now as much to fear from the weakness of the emperor, as he for- merly had from his enmity. At the same time he was assiduously courted by the cabinet of Delhi, who no longer looked on him as a rebellious sub- ject, but as a natural ally, capable of rescuing them from the danger that hung over them. He is re- Tlie result of this state of circumstances was to conciled to MOHAMMED SHAH. 609 determine Asof Jah to support the emperor ; but CHAP. while he was engaged in these deliberations, Baji Rao was advancing towards the capital. By the the em- time he had himself arrived within forty miles of Agra his light troops were ravaging the country beyond the Jamna, under the command of Malhar Rao Holcar ; and while so employed they were attacked and driven back on the main body by Sadat Khan, governor of Oud, who, with a spirit very unlike his contemporaries, issued from his own province to defend that adjoining. This check, which was magnified into a great victory, and ac- companied by reports of the retreat to the Deckan of the whole Maratta army, only stimulated Baji Rao to wipe off the disgrace, and (as he said him- self) to show the emperor that he was still in Hindostan. An army had been sent out to oppose him under the vizir, Kamr u din Khan. While it lay inactive near Mattra, Baji Rao suddenly quitted the Jamna, passed off about fourteen miles to the right of the Mogul army, and, advancing by pro- digious marches, all at once presented himself be- Bitji Rao fore the gates of Delhi. The consternation produced by his appearance may easily be imagined; but as his object was to A>H - 1149 intimidate, and not provoke the emperor, he fore- bore from further aggression, and endeavoured to prevent the destruction of the suburbs. He was unable entirely to restrain the devastation of his followers, and he made that a pretext for drawing VOL. II. R R 610 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. Here- treats. off to some distance from the city. This retro- grade movement induced the Moguls to attempt a sally, and they were driven back into the town with heavy loss. By this time, however, the vizir had been joined by Sadat Khan, and was on his march to relieve the capital ; and Baji Rai deemed it prudent to commence his retreat, a step involving no dishonour, according to the Maratta rules of war. His intention, at the time, was to have crossed the Jamna lower down, and to have plundered the country between that river and the Ganges ; but the approach of the rainy season, and the advance of Asof Jah, determined him to return at once to A.D. 1737, t ne Deckan, where his presence was also required A. H. 1150. Arrival of far other objects. After the peshwa's retreat, Asof Jah pursued his march to Delhi, and was invested with full powers to call out all the resources of the state ; while the governments of Malwa and Gu- zerat were conferred on his eldest son, Ghazi u din. But to so low a point was the power of the empire reduced, that, with all the means at his disposal, he could only complete the army under his personal command to the number of 34,000 men. He was, however, furnished with a fine train of artillery, and supported by a reserve under the command of Safdar Jang, the nephew of Sadat Khan of Oud. With this force he advanced to Seronj, while Baji Rao crossed theNerbadda at the head of an army, said by himself to be 80,000 Strong, and probably superior in numbers to that Asof Jah at Delhi Marches against Baji Rao. MOHAMMED SHAH. 611 of Asof Jah.* This disparity ought not to have CHAP. deterred the Mogul general from an engagement ; ' for the Marattas had never been formidable in pitched battles ; and with them, more even than with other enemies, it was of importance to assume a superiority at the commencement of a campaign. Asof Jah, on the contrary, probably from reliance on his artillery, as well as the caution natural to his disposition and his advanced age, determined to await an attack in a favourable situation, close to the fort of Bopal. The strength of his position *- D - m January. availed him nothing against such an enemy : the is attacked Marattas laid waste the country round him, inter- R^O, near cepted his supplies, attacked every detachment opa> that attempted to show itself beyond his lines, and completely broke off the communication between him and his reserve. The effects of tljese operations so straitened Asof Jah, that at the end of a month or six weeks he was obliged to attempt a retreat towards the north. He had probably lost many of his cattle, and, although he left his baggage at Bopal, he had still a heavy train to drag along with him : his movements, in such -circumstances, were slow, and were further impeded by the Marattas. Though deterred by his artillery from attempting a general attack, they harassed him with rockets, and hung * According to the present way of speaking among the Ma- rattas, " lak fouj," which ought to mean 100,000 horse, will seldom be found to imply more than 10,000 or 15,000 fighting men. R R 2 612 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. and con- strained to make great cessions on the empe- ror's part. A.D. 1738, February ; A. H. 1150, Ramzan. Invasion of Nadir Shah. Previous transac- tions in Persia. Western Afghans. on his rear with their cavalry, until, after some marches at the rate of three or four miles a-day, he was obliged to submit to his fate, and enter into terms with the peshwa. By this convention, he engaged to cede all the country from the Nerbadda to the Chambal (including all Malwa), and to use his best endeavours to procure from the emperor a confirmation of the cession, and a payment of fifty lacs of rupees. * Asof Jah was then permitted to pursue his re- treat to Delhi, and Baji Rao took possession of his conquests : but before he could receive the pro- mised confirmation from the emperor, the progress of the transaction was arrested by one of those tremendous visitations which, for a time, render mem insensible to all other considerations. The empire was again reduced to the same state of decay which had on former occasions invited the invasions of Tamerlane and Baber ; and a train of events in Persia led to a similar attack from that country. The family of Safavi, after having reigned for 200 years (about the usual duration of an Asiatic dynasty), fell into a state of corruption and decay, and was at last dethroned by the Afghans of Can- dahar. An account has already been given of the north- eastern portion of the Afghan nation t; but the western tribes, who were the actors in the revolu- * 500,ooo/. f Page 286. MOHAMMED SHAH. 613 tion in Persia, differ from those described, in more CHAP. points than one. Their country is on the high table land * which is supported on the east by the mountains of Soli- man, and separated by them from the plain on the Indus. On the north, a similar bulwark is formed by the range anciently called Caucasus, which overlooks the low level of the Oxus and of the Cas- pian Sea.t The part of this table land westward of Herat belongs to the Persians ; and that east- ward of the same city, to the Afghans. There are fertile plains in this tract, and on the most extensive of them are the cities of Cabul, Ghazni, Candahar, and Herat t; but the greater part consists of high downs, ill-suited to agricul- ture, and inhabited by pastoral tribes, w T ho live in tents. They have the same government and the same character as the north-eastern Afghans, ex- cept that they are much less turbulent and con- tentious. In the pastoral tracts, the Afghans are almost unmixed ; but a great part of the popula- tion of the plains, including the cities, consists of Tajiks, who speak Persian, and are the same peo- * The city of Cabul is 6000 feet above the sea. (Burnes's Travels, vol. i. p. 151.) f See an essay by Mr. J. Baillie Fraser, in Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society. \ Herat is just beyond the ridge which divides the waters that run to the south from those that flow northward to the Oxus ; but it is on the same level with the rest of the table land, and may be regarded as forming a part of it. R R 3 614 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK pie that occupy similar situations in Persia and Transoxiana. The plains alone formed the conquests of the Persian and Indian kings. The Afghan tribes re- mained independent ; though those near the pos- sessions of the two great monarchies must no . doubt have been influenced by their power.* The greatest of the western tribes were the Ghiijeis, who inhabited the country round Candahar, and the alis (or Abdalis t, whose original seat was in the mountains Duranis). of Ghor, but who chiefly resided at the time now spoken of in the country round Herat. These tribes were always rivals, and often at war with each other. Revolt During the reign of Shah Hosen (the last of the Safavis), the Ghiijeis had given such offence to Persia as to provoke a formidable expedition against them. Gurgin Khan, the prince of Georgia (a convert from Christianity to the Mahometan reli- gion), was sent to Candahar with an army of up- wards of 20,000 men t, a force his opponents were unable to withstand. But so galling was the yoke of the Persians, that the Ghiijeis, ere long, resolved to run all risks to throw it off. They were headed by Mir Weis, their hereditary chief, a man of talents and enterprise, and well aware of the feeble con. * The Abdalis agreed about the beginning of the seven- teenth century to pay tribute to Persia on condition of pro- tection against the Uzbeks. j- Now called Duranis. J Malcolm's Persia, vol. i. p. 601. MOHAMMED SHAH. 615 clition of the Persian empire. Conducting his CHAP. operations with equal caution and boldness, Mir _ Weis surprised Candahar, expelled the Persians from the surrounding country, and formed his ac- quisitions, with the original possessions of his tribe, into an independent state. This achievement took place in 1708, and was followed by repeated at- tempts of the Persians to recover Candahar, in which they were at one time assisted by the Ab- dalis. In A. D. 1716 that tribe joined the Ghil- jeis against them, and took Herat, and overran the greater part of Persian Khorasan. The two tribes, however, continued their mutual hostilities : the Persians profited by their disunion, and persevered in operations against both until 1720 j when the chief of the Ghiljeis formed the bold resolution of carrying the war into Persia, and striking at once at the existence of the government which had op- pressed him and his people. Mir Weis had died in A.D. 1?I<5, and was at first Conquest succeeded by his brother ; but his son, whose name by thT' 3 was Mahmud, before long seized on the govern- ( ment ; and it was by him that the invasion of Per- sia was planned. The Persians had before this been defeated in a great battle with the Abdalis, who now threatened Meshhed, and whose progress was assisted by the incursions of the Uzbeks from the Oxus. The north-western part of Persia, also, had been invaded by the Lezgis, from Mount Caucacus ; R R 4 616 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and the misconduct of the government itself made XII it weaker than those foreign attacks. Mahmud left Candahar with 25,000 men. He first marched to Kirman, and thence to Yezd, from which place he moved directly on Isfa- han. * He was opposed at Gulnabad, in the neighbour- hood of that capital, by an army of very superior numbers, admirably equipped, and furnished with twenty-four pieces of cannon, t But the spirit of the Persians was declined and their councils di- vided : the Afghans obtained a complete victory, and soon after began operations against the town. Isfahan had at this time attained to its highest pitch of magnificence and population, t The last advantage became a calamity on the present occa- sion ; for the Afghans, finding themselves unable * He had before been, for a time, in possession of Kirman, while in a temporary alliance with Persia against the Abdalis. (Jones s Histoire de Nadir Shah, introduction, sect. 6.) j- " The Persian soldiers looked fresh and showy, and all their equipments,, from their tents in which they reposed, and the dresses they wore, to the gold and enamelled furniture of the sleek horses on which they rode, were rich and splendid. The Afghans had hardly a tent to cover them, their horses were lean from fatigue, the men were clothed in tatters, and tanned by the rays of the sun ; and, throughout their whole camp, it was emphatically observed, nothing glittered ' but their swords arid lances.' " (Malcolm's Persia, vol. i. p. 623.) J Hanway, following Chardin, states the inhabitants at 600,000 souls (vol.ii. p. 164-.); and although the comparisons drawn by travellers between this city and those of India render so great a population incredible, yet it cannot be unreasonable to admit one third of it, or 200,000 souls. MOHAMMED SHAH. 6lJ to make an impression on the walls, had recourse CHAP. to intercepting the supplies. It seemed a wild ' project to blockade so extensive a city with 20,000 men, to which amount the Afghans were now re- duced ; yet so well did Mahmud supply the want of numbers by vigilance and activity, that the in- habitants before long began to suffer all the horrors of famine. The extent of this calamity, and the miseries endured by the besieged, are described by most writers as surpassing the greatest extremities ever known on such occasions.* This dispropor- tioned contest continued for no less than six months; a proof of the prostration of the courage of the Persians as well as of their powers of endurance. At length, after all their sallies had been repulsed, and all the attempts of troops from the provinces to force in convoys had failed, the necessity of sub- mission became apparent. The king went forth with all his principal courtiers in deep mourning, surrendered himself to Mahmud, and with his own hand placed the diadem on the head of the con- queror (October, 1722). Mahmud's government was, at first, exercised Their t y - . , ii ii' /"! rannical with unexpected leniency; but his garrison in Laz- g0 vem- vin having been surprised and massacred by the inhabitants of that city, he became alarmed for his own safety, put several of the Persian chiefs to * The poet Mohammed AH Hazin, however (who was in Isfahan during the siege), contradicts these statements, and doubts if any man actually died of hunger. (Belfour s Memoirs of Hazin, p. 122.) 618 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK death, and compelled all the armed part of the ~\ TT " population to quit the city on pain of a similar fate. Though the cruelties of the Ghiljeis have been extravagantly exaggerated *, it is easy to imagine the insolence and barbarity of a tribe of shepherds suddenly raised to uncontrolled power over their former oppressors, and rendered deaf to compas- sion by a consciousness of numerical insignificance which could find no protection but from terror. * An example may be found in the different accounts of the transaction just mentioned. Hanway, who is by no means given to exaggeration, but who sometimes drew his information from popular rumour or from worse authority, asserts that Mahmud extirpated the whole of the nobility, and hunted down their children, turning them out, one by one, like beasts of chase ; and that he afterwards ordered the slaughter of every man, civil or military, who had received pay (in however humble a capacity) from the former government, commencing the massacre by the execution of 3000 of the late king's guards. On the other hand, the author of the " Nadirnameh," whose statement may almost be considered as official, and who certainly had no wish to extenuate the atrocities of Mahmud, relates that "he formed a design to massacre the Persians ; and, on the same day on which the Afghans arrived from Cazvtn, he caused one hundred and fourteen persons to be put to death, confounding the good with the bad, and the small with the great." (From Sir W. Jones's French translation, vol. v. of his Works, p. 12.) The same author relates that soon afterwards his evil genius led him to massacre all the princes of the blood, and that he put them to death, to the number of thirty-nine. These statements are not very consistent with the idea of a massacre by thousands ; and it may be observed, that, during all this time, Shah Hosen was left alive, and so far from being cruelly treated, he com- , plained of his condition because he was confined to a small palace, and only attended by five male and five female servants. (Malcolms History of Persia, vol. i. p. 644.) MOHAMMED SHAH. Mahmud had not reigned two years when the CHAP. agitation and anxiety he was exposed to, together ' with the effect of religious austerities and penances which he superstitiously imposed on himself, un- settled his reason. He became raving mad, and either died or was put to death ; when he was suc- ceeded by his nephew, Ashref (April, The new king was a man of talents and vigour. Their wars Before he had completed the conquest of Persia, Turks and he was assailed at once by the Russians and Turks, who had entered into a confederacy for dismember- ing the kingdom. The western provinces were to belong to the Porte, and the northern, as far as the Araxes, to Russia. Ashref turned his attention in the first instance to the Turks : he defeated them in repeated actions, and compelled them to acknowledge his title; but he was not able to expel them from the conquests they had made. The Russians, though led by the czar Peter in person, were less dangerous, from the strong country through which they had to advance : they had, however, made their way to Resh't, on the south of the Caspian Sea, when their career was interrupted, and afterwards abandoned, in consequence of the death of the czar. But Ashref 's most formidable enemy was now niseof rising nearer home. Tahmasp, the son of Hosen, siTah. r had fled from Isfahan, and had remained under the protection of the tribe of Kajar, on the shore of the Caspian, with nothing of the royal dignity but the name. The first sign of a change of fortune 620 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK was his being joined by Nadir Culi, the greatest ' warrior Persia has ever produced. This chief, who had first collected troops as a freebooter, now appeared as the deliverer of his country. He raised the courage of the Persians by his example and his success, called forth their religious zeal, and revived their national pride, until, by degrees, he elevated them from the abject condition into which they had sunk, to as high a pitch of military glory as they had ever before enjoyed. He drives His first exploits were the capture of Meshhed Ghiijeis, and the recovery of Khorasan from the Abdalis covers and Mohammed Khan of Sistan, who had seized fr^the" on part of that province : he afterwards engaged Abdaiis. t j ie G-hiijeig under Ashref, who advanced to the northern frontier to attack him, drove them, in a succession of battles, to the southern limit of the kingdom, and so effectually wore down their army that they at last dispersed, and gave up the posses- sion of their conquest, which they had retained for seven years. Most of their number were killed in the war or perished in the desert on their return home. Ashref was murdered by a Beloch chief between Kirman and Candahar (January, 17^9) Nadir next marched against the Turks, whose treaty with Ashref left them in possession of part of the Persian territories. He had already re- covered Tabriz, when he received intelligence of a rising of the Abdalis, and was obliged to return to Khorasan. MOHAMMED SHAH. On his former successful expedition against CHAP. that tribe, he had followed up his victory by mea- sures of conciliation. By those means, and from their common enmity to the Ghiljeis, he gained a strong party among the Abdalis, and to its leader he confided the charge of Herat. The other party had now gained the ascendancy, had Renewed overrun Khorasan, and laid siege to Meshhed, ihTAb- then held by Nadir's brother, Tbrahim, whom they twelvemonth that Nadir ventured on an assault of Candahar : even then he was more than once re- pulsed before the city fell into his hands (March, 1738). While the siege was pending, he settled the greater part of the surrounding country ; and, at the same time, his son, Reza Culi Mirza, who had marched from Meshhed against the Uzbeks, not only conquered the province of Balkh, but * Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. ii. p. 68. Hanway (vol.ii. p. 355.) says that this army of 80,000 men was closely followed by another of 30,000 ; but these great numbers do not seem probable to the west of the Indus, where the vast armies, com- mon in India, are very seldom seen. 624 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK gained a victory on the Oxus, over the king of XII. ?> i i / Bokhara, in person. His con- Nadir's conduct towards the Ghiljeis was mode- ciliatory - .. . , . .. policy., rate and politic : he took no vindictive measures in retaliation for the invasion of Persia ; he treated the Ghiljeis like his other subjects, and enrolled many of them in his army ; but he removed a portion of the tribe from their lands round Can- dahar, which he made over to the Abdalis, and particularly to that part of them who had been settled about Nishapur, in the west of Khorasan.* His differ- The acquisition of the Ghiljei territory brought the govern- Nadir to the frontier of the Mogul empire. The India. extreme weakness of that monarchy could not escape his observation ; and the prospect of repair- ing the exhausted resources of Persia from so rich * Jones's Nadirnameh, Works, vol. v. p. 275. The account of the Ghiljei conquest is almost entirely drawn from Hanway and the "Nadirnameh:" that of Nadir Shah's proceedings chiefly from the latter work. Hanway is himself a man of judgment and veracity, but his facts seem sometimes to rest on the authority of the " Derniere Revolution de la Perse," a sort of version (we are told) of the notes of Father Krusinski, a Polish Jesuit, which, though founded on good information, is too fanciful and highly coloured to be at all depended upon. It bears a con- siderable resemblance, in these respects, to Catrou, formerly mentioned (in the reign of Shah Jehan). Krusinski's own work has since been published in Germany, but I have never seen it. The " Nadirnameh " is a Persian history, by Mirza Mehdi (who is stated by Sir J. Malcolm to have been confidential secretary of Nadir Shah). Though a minister and a panegyrist, he is a much more faithful historian than Abul Fazl, and his style (in Sir W. Jones's French translation at least) is much clearer and more compact. MOHAMMED SHAH. 625 a mine was scarcely a greater temptation than the CHAP. means of employing the warlike tribes now subject .. to his authority, and combining their rival energies in an undertaking so acceptable to them all. While engaged in the siege of Candahar, he had applied to the court of Delhi for the seizure or expulsion of some Afghans who had fled into the country near Ghazni. The Indian government was probably unable to comply with this demand, and they seem also to have had some hesitation in acknowledging Nadir Shah's title : for these rea- sons they allowed a long period to elapse without returning an answer. Nadir Shah remonstrated in strong terms against this neglect of his application, and without further delay advanced on Ghazni and Cabul. Another messenger, whom he now dis- A D 1738 patched to Delhi, having been cut off by the ^ y; 1151 Afghans in the mountains, Nadir thought himself Safar - fully justified in an invasion of India. Cabul had fallen into his hands with little difficulty ; but he remained in that neighbourhood for some months for the purpose of settling the country, and did not commence his march to the eastward till near the approach of winter. The court of Delhi had A . D . ms, been too much absorbed in the dread of the Ma- *.. 115*1, rattas and its own internal factions to pay much Shab * n - 1 ' Supineness attention to the proceedings of Nadir. As long of the court . ... of Delhi. as he was engaged in a contest within the old territory of Persia, they looked on with total indif- ference ; and even when he had invaded their own VOL. n. s s 626 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK territory and taken Cabul, they still expected that * the mountain tribes between that city and Pesh- awar would check his further advance. But the money which, in regular times, was paid for the purpose of keeping up an influence with those tribes, had for some years been withheld ; and they had no inclination, if they had possessed the Nadir in- power, of interfering in favour of the Moguls. It was therefore with dismay proportioned to their for- mer supineness that the Moguls learned that Nadir had passed the mountains, had defeated a small force under one of their governors, had thrown a A. D. 1738, bridge of boats over the Indus, and was advancing November ; . . T / 1 A. H. 1151, into the ranjab. Notwithstanding a faint show of opposition at- tempted by the governor of Lahor, Nadir met with no real obstruction till he approached the Jamna, within 100 miles of Delhi, when he found himself in the neighbourhood of the Indian army. Defeats Mohammed Shah had at length exerted himself to collect his force : he had been joined by Asof Jah, and had moved to Carnal, where he occupied a fortified camp. Sadat Khan, the viceroy of Oud, arrived in the neighbourhood of this camp about the same time with Nadir Shah ; and an attempt to intercept him by the Persians brought on a partial action, which ended in a general engage- ment. The Indians would in no circumstances have been a match for the hardy and experienced soldiers opposed to them ; and they were now brought up in confusion and without concert, Asof MOHAMMED SHAH. Jah having, from some real or pretended miscon- CHAP. * ' ception, taken no part in the action. The result was the rout of the Indian army : Khani Douran, the commander-in-chief, was killed, and Sadat Khan taken prisoner; and Mohammed A. D . 1739, had no resource but to send Asof Jah to offer his A. H . iisi, submission, and repair, himself, with a few attend- ants, to the Persian camp. Nadir Shah received him with great courtesy, and allowed him to return on the same day to his own encampment. He did not on that account desist from pressing his advan- tages ; for he soon after obliged Mohammed to join his army, and in this manner the two kings marched on towards Delhi. Different accounts are given of the negotiations carried on during the interval, which were embarrassed by the rivalry of Asof Jah and Sadat Khan ; but such intrigues could have no result of consequence, for Nadir had the power completely in his own hands, and required no prompter to tell him how to exercise it. The army reached Delhi in the beginning of Advances March, when both kings took up their residence in e 1739 the royal paluce. Nadir distributed a portion of his Marc \{ 3 troops throughout the town ; he ordered strict dis- zi Haj. cipline to be observed, and placed safeguards in * The journal translated by Fraser (Life of Nadir, p. 154?.) makes Nadir's whole army, with the followers, who were all armed, amount to 160,000; but an enumeration, by a news- writer in his camp, states his whole force, when at Peshdwer, at 64,500 fighting men, and 4000 followers. (Ibid. pp. 140, 141.) S S 2 6'28 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK different places for the protection of the inhabit- XII. ants. insurrec- These precautions did not succeed in concili- tion of the . i T i* 1111 in r* inhabitants, atmg the Indians, who looked on the ferocity of these strangers with terror, and on their intrusion with disgust.* On the second day after the occu- pation of the city a report was spread that Nadir Shah was dead, on which the hatred of the Indians broke forth without restraint. They fell on all the Persians within their reach ; and from the manner in which those troops were scattered throughout the city, a considerable number fell sacrifices to the popular fury. The Indian nobles made no effort to protect the Persians ; some even gave those up to be murdered who had been furnished for the protec- tion of their palaces, t Nadir Shah at first applied his whole attention to suppressing the tumult, and, though provoked to find that it continued during the whole night, and seemed rather to increase than diminish, he mounted his horse at daybreak, in the hope that his presence would restore quiet. The first objects that met his eyes in the streets were the dead bodies of his countrymen ; and he was soon assailed with General stones, arrows, and firearms, from the houses. At b y the Per- last one of his chiefs was killed at his side, by a shot * Fraser. f Hazln states the number cut off at 700 (p. 281. of Mr. Bel- four's edition of the original : in the translation, p. 299., it is 7000, but doubtless from an error of the press). Scott (vol. ii. p. 207.) makes it 1000. MOHAMMED SHAH. aimed at himself; when he gave way to his passion, CHAP. and ordered a general massacre of the Indians. * ' The slaughter raged from sunrise till the day was far advanced, and was attended with all the horrors that could he inspired by rapine, lust, and thirst of vengeance. The city was set on fire in several places, and was soon involved in one scene of de- struction, blood, and terror. At length Nadir, satiated with carnage, allowed himself to be prevailed on by the intercession of the emperor or his prime minister, and gave an order to stop the massacre ; and, to the infinite credit of his discipline, it was immediately obeyed, t * Fraser, p. 183. f The authentic accounts differ about the suspension of the massacre. It is said that Nadir, during the whole period, sat in gloomy silence in the little mosque of Rokn u doula, in the Great Bazar ; where Mohammed Shah and his nobles at length took courage to present themselves. They stood before him with downcast eyes, until Nadir commanded them to speak; when Mohammed burst into tears, and entreated Nadir to spare his subjects. I wish there was better authority than Dow for this not improbable anecdote. The best accounts of the mas- sacre are that of Hazin, who was an eye-witness, and whose narrative is copied, almost verbatim, by the author of the " Seir Mutakherin;" and the journal of a native Indian, who was secretary to Sirbuland, given by Fraser. in his " History of Nadir Shah." The succeeding transactions (in some of which the writer must have been an actor) are minutely recorded in the same journal. Hazin informs us the massacre lasted for half the day, and that the numbers slaLi were beyond calcula- tion. Fraser makes the amount from 120,000 to 150,000; but the author of the " Nadirnameh " seems nearest the truth, and probably below it, in stating that the slaughter continued for almost the whole day, and that about 30,000 persons were put S S 3 630 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK But the sufferings of the people of Delhi did not XII cease with this tragedy. Nadir's sole object in Nadir's ex- invading India was to enrich himself by its plunder, tortions. / and he began to discuss the contributions from the moment of his victory. His first adviser was Sadat Khan : that nobleman died soon after reaching Delhi, when the work of exaction was committed to Sirbuland Khan and a Persian named Tahmasp Khan ; and their proceedings, which were suf- ficiently rigorous of themselves, were urged on by the violence and impatience of Nadir. They first took possession of the imperial trea- sures and jewels, including the celebrated peacock throne. They afterwards seized on the whole effects of some great nobles, and compelled the rest to sacrifice the largest part of their property as a His rapa- ransom for the remainder. They then fell on the city and violence, inferior officers and on the common inhabitants : guards were stationed to prevent people leaving the city, and every man was constrained to disclose the amount of his fortune, and to pay accordingly. Every species of cruelty was employed to extort these contributions. Even men of consequence were beaten to draw forth confessions. Great num- bers of the inhabitants died of the usage they re- ceived, and many destroyed themselves to avoid to the sword during the course of it. Scott (vol. ii. p. 207.) restricts the number to 8000, but he does not give his authority; and it is incredible that so small a result should be produced by many hours of unresisted butchery by a detachment of 20,000 men, which was the body employed on it. MOHAMMED SHAH. 631 the disgrace and torture. " Sleep and rest forsook CHAP. the city. In every chamber and house was heard the cry of affliction. It was, before, a general massacre ; but, now, the murder of individuals."* Contributions were also levied on the governors He of provinces ; until Nadir was at length convinced that he had exhausted all the sources from which wealth was to be obtained, and prepared himself to return to his own dominions. He made a treaty The coun- with Mohammed Shah, by which all the country the Indus west of the Indus was ceded to him. He married {Jim! his son to a princess of the house of Teimur, and . med Shah at last he seated Mohammed on the throne, in- restored. vested him, with his own hand, with the ornaments of the diadem, and enjoined all the Indian nobles to obey him implicitly, on pain of his future indig- nation and vengeance. At length he marched from Delhi, after a resi- Amount of dence of fifty-eight days, carrying with him a surest- treasure in money, amounting, by the lowest com- Nddir y putation, to eight or nine millions sterling, besides Shah> several millions in gold and silver plate, valuable furniture, and rich stuffs of every description ; and this does not include the jewels, which were in- estimable. He also carried off many elephants, horses, and camels, and led away the most skilful * The words between inverted commas are drawn from Scott (vol. ii. p. 210); but the substance is the same in all the nar- ratives. S S 4 632 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK workmen and artisans, to the number of some hun- XII. areas. * * The various sums of money enumerated by Scott amount to between 8,000,000/. and 9,000,OOOJ. The "Nadirnameh" says fifteen crores of rupees ; Fraser, thirty crores of rupees ; and Hanway, thirty crores, which he estimates at 37,500,000/. : and all these sums are the money alone. The imperial trea- sures must have been greatly encroached on since the reign of Shah Jehan : the peacock throne, which Tavernier esti- mated at 6,000,000/., is only valued, in the " Nadirnameh," at 2,000,OOOJ., and in Scott, only at 1,000,000/. Many stories which were current at the time, about the causes of this in- vasion, are preserved in Dow's " Hindostan." According to those narratives, Nadir was invited to India by Asof Jah and Sadat Khan, and the loss of the battle of Carnal was concerted between those chiefs. Nadir Shah rewarded their treachery by spitting on their beards, and ordering them to be driven from his court. The two nobles, thus disgraced, agreed to end their shame by a voluntary death ; but, as they were rivals,_and each suspected the sincerity of the other, they sent spies to discover whether the resolution was carried into effect. Asof Jah, the more crafty of the two, took an innocent draught, and soon after pretended to fall down dead ; on which Sadat, de- ceived by the artifice, swallowed real poison, and forthwith ex- pired. These fictions, like many others which are believed in times of agitation, disappear when full light is thrown on the period. MOHAMMED SHAH. 633 CHAP. III. TO THE DEATH OF MOHAMMED SH^H. FOR some time after Nadir Shah's departure, the CHAP. inhabitants of Delhi remained in a sort of stupor. They had not yet recovered the terror of the past, Deplorable and the destruction of their fortunes : many of their O f the houses were in ruins ; much of the city was entirely deserted, and the whole infected by the stench of the bodies which still lay unburied in the streets. It was not till long after Nadir was gone, that the court awoke as if from a lethargy. * The view of and of the the empire which presented itself was as full of e ruin and desolation as the capital. The army was destroyed, the treasury emptied, the finances all but annihilated ; the Marattas still threatened on the south, and the only provinces which had not been laid waste by their ravages had now been destroyed by Nadir's army. To these unavoidable evils the court added internal IT rr\i ! c L' dissensions. internal dissension. Ihe prevailing faction was formed of a few great families who, from their Turk descent, were called the Turani nobles : the heads were the vizir Kamr u din Khan and Asof Jah ; and they were connected by intermarriages as well as by party. To them were opposed all those de- * Frascr. 634< HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK sirous of supplanting them, or jealous of their ' ascendancy ; among which number the emperor himself was thought to be included. This divided government would have fallen an easy prey to the Marattas, had not circumstances procured it a respite from the encroachments of Proceed- those invaders. If the power of Nadir Shah had M?rattas. ie been underrated by the Moguls, it was probably quite unknown to Baji Rao : and he seems to have been struck with amazement at the appearance of this terrible antagonist, in a field which he expected to have traversed unopposed. His first thought was to suspend all his plans of aggrandizement, and form a general league for the defence of India. " Our domestic quarrels (he writes) are now in- significant : there is but one enemy in Hindostan." ..." Hindus and Mussulmans, the whole power of the Deckan, must assemble."* When he was re- lieved from the fear of Nadir Shah, he returned to B a ji Rao his old designs. He had a ground of quarrel with resumes offensive the Moguls, as the agreement made by Asof Jah had not been formally ratified by the emperor, and the obvious course for him was to have enforced his claim at Delhi : but he was led to choose the Deckan for the theatre of the war, that he might be at hand to watch the proceedings of the Bosla of Berar and the Geikwar of Guzerat, who were plotting to overthrow his power under pretence of Attacks emancipating the raja. He disposed of the Bosla Asof Jah's possessions. * Grant Duff, vol. I p. 547. MOHAMMED SHAH. 635 by engaging him in a remote expedition into the CHAP Carnatic, and then attacked Nasir Jang, the second _ son of Asof Jah, who had been left in charge of his father's government, and was encamped with 10,000 men at Burhanpur. Baii Rao at first surrounded A. D. 1740, A. H. 1 153. him, and probably expected the same success as he had lately met with against Asof Jah himself; but the young viceroy showed a vigour unusual to the Moguls of that day ; and, being joined by a rein- forcement, he attacked the Marattas, broke through their army, and had advanced to Ahmednagar on his way to Puna, when Baii Rao thought it pru- Is pui*d J J by Asof's dent to come to an accommodation with him. The son. Ndsir peshwa seems now to have been reduced to per- p erp iexcd plexity by the variety of embarrassments which he 5&n^ had brought on himself*, and was returning to Hindostan (for what purpose is not known), when his plans were arrested by his death, which took His death. place on the Nerbadda. Ap D rii 28. / He left three sons : Balaji Rao, who succeeded sk him as peshwa ; Ragonat Rao, or Ragoba, who was His sons - at one time much connected with the English, and was the father of the last peshwa ; and Shamshir Bahadur, to whom (though an illegitimate son by a Mahometan woman, and brought up in his * He writes thus to his spiritual guide : " I am involved in difficulties, in debt, and in disappointments ; and like a man ready to swallow poison : near the raja are my enemies, and should I go at this time to Sattara, they will put their feet on my breast. I should be thankful if I could meet death." (Grant Duff, vol. i. p. 559.) 636 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK mother's religion) he left all his possessions and ' pretensions in Bundelcand. Wars in During the last years of Baji Rao's administra- tion he had been engaged in wars in the Concan. They were chiefly conducted by his brother, Chim- naji ; and, from the position of his enemies in forts and islands, protected on one side by the sea, and on the other by hills and jungles, required extra- ordinary exertions, and were attended with imper- fect success. with A'n- These enemies were A'ngria of Colaba, the Abyssinians of Jinjera, and the Portuguese. A'n- gria, after his acknowledgment of Saho Raja, re- mained in nominal dependence on the Maratta state, but employed his own resources with little or no control. His piracies (which he called "levying chout on the sea") rendered him for- midable to all his neighbours. The English made repeated attacks on him with considerable naval forces ; and, on one occasion, with the co-operation of the Portuguese (A. D. 1719) ; yet failed in all their attempts. The Dutch also sent a strong force against him at a later period (A. D. 1724) with equal ill success. The peshwa interposed in a dis- pute between two brothers of the family, and re- ceived from one of the competitors two forts which they possessed in the Ghats (about A. D. 1734-). The contest, however, continued ; and the peshwa, though latterly assisted by an English fleet, was unable to bring it to a conclusion till the time of Baji Rao's death.* * Grant Duff. MOHAMMED SHAH. 637 The war with the Abyssinians was still less sue- CHAP. HI. cessful. Those Mussulmans were as powerful at ' sea as A'ngria. They were, besides, in the practice with the of ravaging the Maratta territories on the main simans of land, and had even seized on some of their forts. The utmost result of the peshwa's efforts was to procure forbearance from those aggressions (A. D. 17-S6).* The war with the Portuguese originated in the with the .... . _ Portu- contest between the A ngnas (A, D. 1737). It gu ese. ended in the loss of the Portuguese possessions in Salsette, Bassein, and the neighbouring parts of the Concan (A. D. 1739). The difficulties encountered by the Marattas in this conquest may be estimated from their loss at the siege of Bassein, which they themselves admit to have amounted to 5000 killed and wounded.t The storms which were gathering round Baji BaiajiRAo. Rao at his death might have been expected to overwhelm his successor ; but Balaji, however in- ferior to his father in other respects, was at least his equal in address ; and the skill with which he availed himself of some favourable circumstances effected his deliverance from the difficulties with which he was surrounded. The dangers felt by Baji Rao, besides his ill suc- cess against Nasir Jang, were caused by his financial embarrassments and his domestic enemies. The Domestic chief of his enemies were, the pirti nidhi, Raguji B^jTiTao. * Grant Duff. f Ibid. 638 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Bosla, and Damaji Geikwar. The first was the ' old rival of his family* ; and, though much de- The pirti pressed, was still formidable. Parsoji, the founder Raguji of the Boslas, afterwards rajas of Berar, was a pri- vate horseman from the neighbourhood of Sattara : though he bore the same name with the house of Sevaji, there is no proof that he was of the same descent. He, however, rose to distinction ; and, being one of the first to join Raja Saho when he returned from Delhi, was further advanced by that prince, and invested with a right to collect all the Maratta dues in Berar and the forest country far- ther to the east. Raguji, his cousin, who was a favourite of Saho, and married to his sister-in-law, was raised to his station on his death, in preference to his son, who ought to have succeeded him. Raguji had given offence to the peshwa by levying contributions to the north of the Nerbadda, in the tract which had been appropriated to the latter chief: he was likewise an object of jealousy, from the apprehension that he might prevail on Saho to Damaji keep up the name of Bosla by adopting him. The Geikwar had been the guardian, and was now the representative, of Dabari, the chief of Guzerat, another of the peshwa' s rivals, whose own ignorance and debauchery incapacitated him for business.* The last of Baji Rao's difficulties arose from the enormous debts incurred in his military expeditions, which, from the exhausted state of the country, * See p. 598. MOHAMMED SHAH. 639 and some changes in the mode of war, no longer CHAP. paid their own expenses. His principal creditor, Baramatiker, was himself a man of some consequence, and of immense wealth : his unsatisfied demand had led to quarrels with Baji Rao, and Raguji secured his co-operation by promising to support his claims, and even to pro- cure for him an indemnity, in the succession to the high office lately held by his debtor. Raguji, as has been mentioned, was on an expe- Their in- dition to the Carnatic, and was besieging Trichino- p^fvenV" poly, when he heard of the peshwa's death ; and, c B e f d t g su t o" although he instantly hastened to Sattara to oppose *^ e ^ a Balaji's succession, he was obliged to leave the greater part of his army behind him : his views, also, were as inconsistent with those of the pirti nidhi as with the peshwa's; and he had, therefore, no concert with that minister. Damaji Geikwar was not ready to take the field ; and Nasir Jang, who soon after rebelled against his father, was too much occupied to profit by the Maratta dissen- sions. On the other hand, Balaji was already near the capital : he had been joined by a portion of his father's troops under his uncle, Chimnaji, and the rest were disposable and at hand : the raja was surrounded by his creatures ; and, above all, he was the head of the Bramin party ; and as all the business, even of his enemies, was in the hands of that class, he had a prodigious advantage in every contest. He was accordingly appointed peshwa in A . D . 1740, spite of all opposition, and Raguji returned to his ugust> 640 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK army at Trichinopoly, whither Baramatiker, in this change of circumstances, was glad to accompany Success of him. Balaji, however, did not fail to apply himself to the liquidation of his debts ; a task for which he was much better fitted than his father. Baiaji After more than a year spent on internal arrange- intoMaLa ments, Balaji turned his attention to his claims on Hindostan which had been encroached on by Ra- guji Bosla. For this purpose he procured from the raja a distinct assignment of all the Maratta rights and all tribute that might be collected to the north of the Nerbadda, excepting in the province of Gu- zerat. To give reality to this grant, Balaji marched towards the point from which he could most easily check the interference of Raguji : he crossed the Nerbadda, took Garra and Mandala, and was about to move on Allahabad, when he was recalled by an invasion of Malwa by Damaji Geikwar from Guzerat. Damaji, who, perhaps, had no object but to make a diversion in favour of Raguji, retired Revives his on his approach ; and Balaji took advantage of his mands on position in Malwa to press the court of Delhi for of e Deihi. a confirmation of the grant of that province extorted by Baji Rao from Asof Jah, which had remained in suspense during the Persian invasion. His views on this subject were facilitated by those very en- croachments of Raguji which it had been so much his desire to check, invasion of This chief had, on his return from the Carnatic, Bengal by . . ... Raguji ' sent a force into Bengal, under his Bramin minister, Basker Pandit, which had ravaged the province, MOHAMMED SHAH. 641 threatening the viceroy himself when his troops CH j AP> were dispersed, and retiring into the southern and western hills, when he was in force. AH Verdi Khan*, then viceroy, maintained a good resistance to Basker Pandit ; but he was alarmed at the ad- vance of Raguji in person, and besought the em- peror to afford him immediate assistan.ee, if he did not wish to lose the province. The emperor, con- The em. scious of his own weakness, ordered Safder Jang chases the (who had succeeded his father, Sadat Khan, as B^iby viceroy of Oud) to undertake the task ; at the same cession"^ time he took the more effectual measure of calling M * lwa - in the aid of Balaji Rao, and purchased it by a confirmation of the grant of Malwa.f Nothing could be more agreeable to Balaji Rao than this invitation. He immediately marched by Allah- abad and Behar, and reached Murshidabad, the capital of the province, in time to protect it from Raguji, who was approaching from the south-west. He here received from AH Verdi the payment of an assignment granted to him by the court of Delhi on the arrears of the revenue of Bengal ; and being now zealous in the cause which he was so well paid * Called also Mohabat Jang. f Captain Grant Duff states that the grant was not confirmed until after the expulsion of Raguji, in A.D. 174-3; and it may not have been formally delivered over till then ; but his own abstract of the grant (vol. ii. p. 15.) bears the date of Jamadi ul Awal, in the twenty-fourth year of Mohammed Shah's reign, which would be about May, 174*2. Balaji, on his part, was to furnish 4000 horse at his own cost, and 8000 more to be paid by the emperor. VOL. II. T T 642 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK for espousing, he marched against the invader. Ra- ' guji retired before him, but was overtaken, and suffered a rout, and the loss of his baggage, before he was completely driven out of the province. After this success Balaji returned to Malwa, A. H. use. whence, after some time, he set out for Sattara. Fresh com- jji s presence was at no time more required : for binations _ * against the Raguji, on his return from Bengal, determined to profit by Balaji's absence, and was on full march for the capital. Damaji Geikwar was also ap- proaching from Guzerat, and the agent of the pirti nidhi (who was himself disabled by sickness) was in active preparation to assist him. Balaji must have formed a high estimate of the power of this combination, since he thought the dissolution of it worth the sacrifice of those exclusive rights beyond the Nerbadda for which he had so successfully con- He buys tended. He conceded to Raguii the right of levy- over Raguji & J * by liberal ing tribute in all Bengal and Behar, if not also in A n. 1744 Allahabad and Oud. By this adjustment the other A. H. 1157. confederates were left without support; but it suited .the peshwa's projects to temporise with them, and the storm which threatened so much disturbance was thus quietly dispelled. The con- cession to Raguji seems to have been dictated by sound policy : his views were henceforth turned towards the east, and his designs on the succession to the raja appear to have been laid aside. Bengal, indeed, soon afforded him sufficient employment. Raguji Basker Pandit was again sent into that province : again in- his operations in the field were successful j but he Bengal. MOHAMMED SHAH. 643 suffered himself to be inveigled into an interview CHAP. with Ali Verdi, by whom he was treacherously murdered, and at the same moment his army was His general * murdered attacked and dispersed. Bengal was thus, for a by the vice- time, delivered from the Marattas. But Ali A D 1745j Verdi's chief support in his wars had been a body A i crowned tribes and countries, before the end of the year he king at was formally declared king at Candahar. From Oct 1747 some superstitious motive he changed the name of changes his tribe from Abdali to Durani, by which it has of^ltSs been since known.* He modelled his court on to Durdms - His skilful that of Nadir Shah, and assumed all the preten- mana ge - /-. i it ' i i -11 ment of his sions or that monarch, but exercised them with the unruly sub- moderation that was required by his circumstances. Jec He was absolute in the plains and cities, as well as in Balkh, Sind, Cashmir, and other conquered pro- vinces ; he left the Afghan tribes to their internal government, retaining only power enough to secure their contingents of troops or money, and to preserve tranquillity. Belochistan, Sistan, and some other places remained under their native chiefs, and owed allegiance and military service. The dissensions of Persia prevented his being disturbed on that side, and enabled him to take possession of most of cleran (Nddirndmeh, vol. v. of Jones, p. 274. ). His object pro- bably was to keep him at a distance from his tribe as long as the country was unsettled; for it appears, from a contemporary writer, who accompanied the Persian camp, that " Nadir Shah always kept a watchful eye over him ; but the officers of all ranks treated him, in private, with great respect." (Memoirs of Abdoolkereem, p. 176.) * By an unaccountable confusion the least informed Indians often call the Duranis, Ghiljeis ; in the north they are also called Khorasanis ; but Durani is the usual as well as the cor- rect appellation. 656 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. His view on India. He occu- pies the Panjab. He is re- pulsed by an Indian Khorasan ; but he saw the difficulties of further progress in that direction, and contented himself with protecting Shah Rokh, the son of Nadir Shah, in Meshhed, while his own immediate de- pendencies were confined to the east of that city. It was to India that he looked for conquest, as well as for pecuniary resources and employment for his army ; and his first operations in that king- dom took precedence, in point of time, of the set- tlement of several of the other countries just men- tioned. His coronation, indeed, was scarcely over, when he began his march for the east, and soon brought all the country up to the Indus under his authority. The circumstances of the Panjab invited his further advance. The viceroy was in revolt, and had no aid from Delhi, so that he offered but a feeble opposition ; and Ahmed, after taking possession of Lahor and other towns on the road, pursued his march to the Satlaj. When he reached that river, he found the fords occupied by the Mogul army, which had been sent from Delhi to oppose him, under Prince Ahmed, the heir apparent, and the vizir, Kamr u din Khan. Though his force did not exceed 12,000 men *, he saw that his best * He marched with this number from Candahar; and al- though it was probably increased before he crossed the Indus, it would necessarily be again reduced by the garrisons in the Panjab. The " Seir Mutakherln : ' says he had " not more tJtan 67,000 horse;" which would be a greater army than that of Nadir Shah : but the life of Hafiz Rehmet, translated by Mr. Elliott, gives the more reasonable number of 15,000 men (page 25.). MOHAMMED SHAH. 657 chance lay in a vigorous use of it ; he crossed the CHAP. river where there was no ford, left the Indians in _ his rear, and took Sirhind, where their baggage art "y under and stores had been deposited. Among other med, the advantages of this success, he got possession of parent, some guns, with which he was before entirely unpro- vided. His boldness intimidated the enemy, who halted when they approached him, and intrenched their camp. A small body of horse could do little in such circumstances ; and although the Mogul vizir was killed by a cannon ball, while at prayers in his tent, yet his army continued to repel the Duranis till the tenth day, when, after a general and desperate attack on the intrench men ts, during which a party of them made its way into the midst of the camp, the assailants were totally repulsed and defeated, and compelled to march off home- * D - ^48, . . r March; wards during the ensuing night. A. H . ii6i, ry^i T% /t i V > r i i Rabi ul J he Mogul prince forthwith sent a viceroy to Awai 26. the Panjab ; but as he was immediately afterwards recalled to Delhi by the illness of his father, Ahmed Shah turned back before he had reached the Indus, and did not quit the Panjab until the new viceroy had engaged to pay a permanent tribute. Mohammed Shah expired within a month after Death of the battle of Sirhind, and was succeeded by his med shah. son, who bore the same name as his Durani neigh- April* 748 ' bour A>H - 116Ip Rabiu Sani 26. VOL. II. U U 658 HISTORY OF INDIA, BOOK XII. A. H. 1161. Internal arrange- ments of the new- king. CHAP. IV. TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE. Ahmed Shah. THE return of the Afghan monarch to the Panjab, combined with his well-known power and activity, 1 kept the new sovereign in a state of continued anxiety, and obliged him to sacrifice a portion of his independence for the sake of such allies as might secure him from foreign conquest. He therefore offered the appointment of vizir to Asof Jah ; and on his declining it (which was soon fol- lowed by his death), he invited Nasir Jang (who succeeded Asof in the Deckan) to move to his assistance with all the troops he could assemble. But it was not long before he learned that the Durani king was occupied in the western part of his dominions ; in consequence of which intelligence he was enabled to dispense with the aid he had solicited, and was left to make his internal arrange- ments in the way best suited to his own views. He appointed Safder Jang, the son of Sadat Khan, to be vizir ; and as that nobleman retained his vice- royalty of Oud, the first efforts of the imperial go- vernment were directed to the suppression of the Rohillas, who had again become formidable in the northern part of that province. AHMED SHAH. 659 Safder Jang's prospect was favourable, for AH CHAP. Mohammed was dead ; and he engaged Caiam Khan Bangash, the Afghan jagirdar of Farokh- abad, to conduct the war against his countrymen : but Caiam Khan, though at first successful, lost ? afder 4 , Jang, the his life in battle ; and Safder Jang, disappointed in " zir - his main object, turned his misfortune to account, December'; by dispossessing the widow of his ally of the greater zi Haj! 61 ' part of her territory. His ungenerous conduct brought him no advantage : the people of Caiam Khan's country rose upon his agent, and called in the Rohillas ; against whom the vizir was obliged to march in person. He was accompanied by a very numerous army ; but so ill disciplined, that they sacked their own town of Bara (so famous as being peopled by descendants of the Prophet), and massacred many of the inhabitants who resisted the outrage. It is not surprising that such an The vizir j i c p rrti marches army was routed by a very interior force. Ihe against vizir himself was wounded; the Rohillas proceeded per^nTand to carry their arms into his country ; and, though ls defeated - * J ' & A. D. 1750, beaten off from Lucknow and Belgram, they pene- A. H . lies. trated to Allahabad, and set the power of the vizir and the emperor alike at defiance. Safder Jang saw his embarrassments increasing, He calls in while his own power of resisting them was ex- hausted, and had recourse to the humiliating ex- pedient of calling in the Marattas. He applied to Malhar Rao Holcar, and Jeiapa Sindia (whom the peshwa had recently sent back into Malwa), and induced them, by the promise of a large sub- u u 2 the Ma- rattas. 660 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK sidy, to join him with the greater part of their ' forces. By the same means he obtained a renewal of the services of Suraj Mai, raja of the Jats, who had been his confederate on the former expedi- A. D. i75i, tion. With these auxiliaries, he defeated the Ro- hillas in a pitched battle, overran their country, and drove them into the lower branches of Hema- laya, which form their boundary on the north-east. To satisfy the claims of the Marattas, he authorised them to levy their subsidy from the conquered territory, and their ravages reduced it to a state from which it did not recover for years. who com- By the activity of these plunderers the llohillas to were reduced to such difficulties for subsistence, that they submitted to Safder Jang, and were con- tent with the assignment of a few villages for the maintenance of their chiefs.* Defeat of The little advantage which the Mogul govern- Hai troops men t gained by this success was more than corn- in Marwar. p ensa t e d by the defeat of the governor of Ajmir, who had interfered in a civil war between two claimants to the principality of Jodpur. Second in- While the weakness of the Mogul government vasion of ., TI i 1 1 i Ahmed was thus daily more displayed, intelligence arrived rani. that Ahmed Shah Durani had again invaded the Panjab ; and it was soon followed up by accounts of his having obtained complete possession, and by an ambassador demanding a formal cession of the province. The visit of Nadir Shah was still suffi- * The "Life of Hafiz Rehmet" gives an account more favour- able to the success of the Rohillas. AHMED SHAH. 661 ciently remembered to produce a ready compli- CHAP. ance with the demand ; and when the vizir arrived ' at Delhi with his Maratta allies, he found the ar- Cession of the Panjab. rangement concluded. There is no reason to doubt that he would himself have agreed to it if he had been on the spot, or that he would have disregarded it after it was made, if he had thought that he could gain by infringing it ; but he had other grounds of dissatisfaction with the court, and he made this cession, which he represented as degrad- ing, the pretext of his complaints. During his Discontent .. -i i n 11^ Safder absence in Itohilcand, his influence at court had Jang, the been supplanted by a eunuch named Jawid, who was favoured both by the emperor and his mother. Safder Jang, finding that his presence did not re- He assassi- store his authority, took a course which had become emperor's familiar at Delhi : he invited Jawid to an entertain- ment, and had him murdered during the banquet. The emperor was naturally exasperated at this outrage, and he soon got a suitable instrument to avenge him on the vizir. Ghazi u din, the eldest Ghazi u din son of Asof Jah, had remained at Delhi during the younger, first part of the contest between his younger bro- thers j but, seeing an opening afterwards, he entered into a connection with the peshwa, and set off for the Deckan, accompanied by Holcar and Sindia. He died soon after his arrival at Aurangabad ; and his son, a mere youth, whom he had left at Delhi, was promoted, by the vizir's favour, to the title of Ghazi u din, and the high office of commander-in- chief. It was this young man that now guided u u 3 662 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the operations designed against his benefactor. He ' was a specimen of such of the Mogul courtiers as were not quite sunk in sloth. Restless and am- bitious, as skilful in dissembling his passions as incapable of controlling them, he looked on per- fidy and murder as the natural means of attaining his ends, and was as reckless of consequences as regardless of principle. Resists the The result of his measures was a civil war; not determined, as usual, by a battle in the field, but carried on for six months in daily combats in the streets of Delhi. The factious hostility of the par- ties was embittered by religious fury : the vizir was a Shia, and the test-word of his sect, and that of the Sunnis, became the war-cries of the combatants on each side. At length, the vizir, finding his posi- tion becoming weaker, and alarmed at the approach Calls in the of the Marattas under Malhar Rao, whom Ghazi and expeis u din had called in as an auxiliary, consented to the vizir. * . r> , i make peace, retaining possession or the provinces of Oud and Allahabad. Ghazi u din, thus relieved, and anxious to employ his Maratta friends, while he revenged himself on a partisan of the vizir, marched out against Suraj Mai, the raja of the Jats, in the siege of whose strong forts, especially Dig and Bhartpur, he found ample occupation for his army. The em- But the emperor was by this time more disgusted peror plots . . , . 1 . against with his arrogant and overbearing temper than he lp had ever been with Safder Jang ; and moved out with what troops he could assemble, on pretence of hunting, but really to profit by the difficulties in AHMED SHAH. 663 which Ghazi u din was entangled. So little judg- CHAP. ment was shown in his ill-concerted operations that ' no step had been taken to secure the co-operation of Safder Jang ; and it did not require the acute- ness and activity of Ghazi u din to turn the whole scheme against his enemy. Without discontinuing is defeated i'ii 11 i an i de- the siege on which he was employed, he sent his posed. Maratta confederate against Ahmed ; but when he heard that the emperor was taken prisoner in the battle which followed, he repaired in person to the camp, deposed the captive king, and put out his eyes, as well as those of the queen, his mother. He then fixed on one of the princes of the blood for successor to the throne, and proclaimed him A. D . 1754, by the title of Alamgir II.* Shaban. ir II. Safder Jang died soon after this revolution, arid A. D . 1754, Ghazi u din took the office of vizir to himself, A.H'TIG?,' leaving Shuja u doula, the son of Safder Jang, in JJ?^ possession of his father's provinces, of which he din > vizir - was unable to dispossess him. A longer period of His violent tranquillity now elapsed than might have been men*' expected from the restless ambition of the new vizir ; but his internal government was still as arbitrary as ever. At length he provoked a His life in numerous body of troops to mutiny, and made mutiny. 1 " a himself personally so odious, that he was seized by * The above account is from the " Seir Mutakherin," and Grant Duff's " History of the Marattas." U U 4 66 i HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII.' His sus- picions of the em- peror. A. i>. 1756, A. H. 1170-71. His trea- cherous seizure of Ahmed Shah Du- rani's go- vernor of the Panjab. the insurgents and dragged through the streets without his slippers or his turban. Though threat- ened with instant death, he continued to revile his captors, and to say that they should pay for their insolence with their heads. At length he was rescued by the interposition of the officers ; when he instantly ordered a massacre of the whole body, giving up their tents, horses, and property to plunder, so as not to leave a vestige remaining of the corps. A'lamgir, on pretence of saving the life of Ghazi u din, had offered, while the disturbance was at its height, to pay to the mutineers a con- siderable sum of arrears, if they would deliver their prisoner into his hands ; but the proposal served only to awaken the suspicions of the vizir, who took additional measures to guard against the possible intrigues of his nominal sovereign. When interrupted by this adventure, Ghazi u din was on his march towards Labor, and he now continued his progress. Mir Manu, the Mogul governor of the Panjab, whom Ahmed Shah had continued in his office after the cession, had died. His son had been appointed his successor by the Durani monarch, but was an infant under the tutelage of his mother. This state of things pre- sented an irresistible temptation to the young vizir : he immediately entered into a most amicable cor- respondence with the widow, claiming the hand of her daughter, to whom he had really been affianced, and advancing towards Lahor as if to ALAMGIIl II. 665 celebrate the marriage : when he had completely CHAP. lulled all suspicion, he surprised the town and made the governess prisoner in her bed. While they were conveying her to the camp she broke into invectives against the treachery of her son-in- law, and prophesied the ruin of India, and the slaughter of its inhabitants, as the certain con- sequence of the vengeance of Ahmed Shah. Her Third in. prediction was but too early accomplished ; for Ahmed Ahmed no sooner heard of the outrage offered to him than he flew to revenge it ; and, speedily effecting his march from Candahar, passed through the Panjab without opposition, and soon presented himself within twenty miles of Delhi. Ghazi u din, having contrived to pacify the widow of Mir Manu and to procure her intercession, repaired at once to the Durani camp, and received pardon as far as his own person. Ahmed Shah, however, insisted on pecuniary compensation, and inarched on to Delhi to enforce his demand. Nearly all Retakes the horrors of Nadir Shah's invasion were repeated on his arrival ; for though not himself cruel like that monarch, he had much less command over his troops ; and the city again became a scene of rapine, violence, and murder. Nor were these sufferings confined to the capital ; Massacres Ahmed Shah sent a detachment of his army, with Ghazi u din, to levy a contribution from Shuja u doula, and marched, himself, with a similar intention against the Jats. He took a fort called Balamghar after an obstinate resistance, and put the garrison HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK to the sword ; but the action which leaves the V TT ' deepest stain on his character, or rather on that of his nation, was the massacre at Mattra. This city (one of the most holy among the Hindus) was surprised by a light detachment during the height of a religious festival, and the unoffending votaries were slaughtered with all the indifference that might be expected from a barbarous people, accustomed to serve under Nadir, and equally filled with con- tempt for Indians and hatred for idolatry. Mean- while Ahmed himself was advancing towards Agra, to which city, as well as to one of the Jat forts, he laid siege. But by this time the summer was far advanced, and a mortality broke out among the Duranis, who are incapable of bearing heat : he His return was therefore obliged to be content with the money to his own ,,,,., dominions, he had levied, and to direct his course towards his own dominions. Before he went he married a princess A.H. 1171, o f t^ h ouse o f Delhi, and contracted another to Shawal. Hisar- his son, afterwards Teimur Shah ; and having been entreated by the emperor not to leave him at the niercy of the vizir, he appointed Najib u doula, ]L I 1 :, a ? al j, st a Rohilla chief of abilities and of excellent cha- Gnaziudm. Najib u racter, to be commander-in-chief at Delhi ; in the minister. hope that his own influence, even when at a dis- tance, would render that nobleman a counterpoise to Ghazi u din.* * The above account is chiefly from the " Seir Mutak- herin :" it agrees, in most respects, with the Afghan accounts ; but the latter state that Ahmed Shah did not leave Delhi, and that the whole expedition to Agra, as well as that to Mattra, was commanded by Sirdar Jehan Khan. ALAMGIR II. 667 But no sooner had he quitted India, than Ghazi. CHAP. u din once more set him at defiance. He was at ' trans- actions that nation. Farokhabad when the Afghan king departed, and applies for he immediately gave the appointment of com- theassist- J , ance of the mander-in-chief to Ahmed Khan Bangash, the Marattas. chief of that place, in supersession of Najib u doula. But as he was not sufficiently strong to eifect another revolution by himself, he called in the aid of the Marattas, who were now in greater power than ever. Although Balaji made peace with Salabat Jang Previous (as has been stated) in the beginning of A. D. 1752, actions of it was no obstacle to his entering into fresh in- trigues with Ghazi u din the elder, the brother and competitor of Salabat. On the arrival of that prince from Delhi, Balaji joined him at Aurang- abad with all his forces ; and so numerous was the combined army, that even the aid of Bussy might have been insufficient to have saved Salabat Jang, if the danger had not been averted by the sudden death of Ghazi u din. After this Balaji became involved in affairs to the southward, and transac- tions with the French and English, which will be best related with the history of those nations. But as his government got settled at home, he ventured to release Damaji Geikwar, and to avail himself of his assistance in settling the province of Guzerat. He made severe terms, involving payments and reservations which led to many disputes in the end : but at first all went prosperously. Damaji set out in company with the peshwa's brother, 668 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ' peshwas brother, marches to snpport Ghazi u din the Takes Escape of the heir apparent, ioula ' A. D. 1758, A.H. in). Ragoba takes P os. the Panjab. Ragoba (A. D. 1755), and they soon reduced the whole province to complete subjection and obe- dience. Ragoba next levied contributions on the Rajput states, and returned through Malwa to the Deckan. In the end of A. D. 1756 he was again sen t into Malwa ; and it was to him that the pre- sent application was made by young Ghazi u din. . , Supported by this ally, the vizir advanced on Delhi, occupied the city, and laid siege to the fortified palace, which held out more than a month. It was, nevertheless, evident that Najib u doula cou ^d no longer withstand his enemies ; and the emperor had already taken the precaution of send- ' ing his son, afterwards Shah A 'lam, to a place of safety ; the escape of Najib himself w r as the prin- cipal difficulty remaining, and it was accomplished by means of a bribe to Malhar Rao Holcar. The emperor then opened his gates and received Ghazi u din as his vizir. Najib u doula retired to his own country, which was about Seharanpur to the north of Delhi, and divided from Rohilcand by the Ganges. After the taking of Delhi, Ragoba remained encam ped near that city, until he was called away J J to an important and easy conquest. When Ahmed Shah withdrew from India in the preceding year (A. D. 1757)j he left his son Teimur in charge of the Panjab, under the guidance of Sirdar Jehan Khan. Their most dangerous opponent was Adina Beg, a man of a turbulent and artful character, who had been deputy to Mir Manu, and whose ALAMGIR II. 669 intrigues had mainly contributed to the various CHAP. disturbances and revolutions in the Panjab. He ' had fled from the province when it was occupied by Ahmed Shah, and now returned for the purpose of continuing his factious designs. He first em- ployed his influence with the Siks, who had re- covered their strength during the past disorders ; but not finding their power sufficient for his pur- pose, he applied to Ragoba, and pointed out the ease with which he might gain a rich prize for his countrymen. Ragoba marched accordingly, took possession of Lahor in May, 1?58, and occupied A. D . 1753, the whole of the Panjab , the Duranis retiring A. ^.'1171, across the Indus without attempting a battle. The government was conferred on Adina Beg ; and on his death, which happened soon after, a native Maratta was appointed his successor. Before this change, Ragoba had set off for the Deckan, leaving the Panjab in temporary security, and the Maratta affairs prosperous in other parts of Hindostan. A force had marched from Delhi under Dataji Sindia, for the purpose of pursuing Najib u doula into his retreat ; and Najib, unable to resist, left his country to be plundered, and took post at Sakertal, a de- fensible ford of the Ganges. He maintained him- self with difficulty in this position through the whole of the rainy season : and during this period there A . D . 1759, was time to mature a combination, to which all the September; neighbouring princes were called by a common A - H - 1172 - and urgent danger. The Marattas were already masters of the Pan- Marattas 670 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. for the con- quest of Hindostan. General combina- tion of the Maho- metan princes. The Ma- rattas in- vade R6- hilcand. A. D. 1759, November ; A. H. 1173, Jamadi ul Awal. Fourth in- vasion of Ahmed Shah. jab : they had concerted with Ghazi u din a plan for taking possession of Oud ; and they talked without the least reserve of their intended con- quest of the whole of Hindostan. The appre- hensions excited by this state of things induced Shuja u doula to forget his old enmities, and to enter into a league with Najib u doula and his former opponents the Rohillas, the most consider- able of whom was Hafiz Rehmet Khan. As soon as Datta Sindia was apprised of this confederacy he detached Govind Rao Bondela* to invade Ro- hilcand. So effectually was the order performed that 1300 villages were destroyed in little more than a month, while the Rohillas were obliged to retreat for safety into the mountains. They were relieved from this distress by Shuja u doula. He marched from Lucknow immediately on the in- vasion, surprised the Marattas, and drove them with heavy loss across the Ganges. Datta Sindia's force was weakened by the losses of his detach- ment ; but he had a stronger motive for desiring peace, in the reported approach of Ahmed Shah from Cabul : terms were therefore proposed to Shuja u doula and the confederates, and a peace was concluded, which was of no long continuance. t The Afghan king was occupied in the north- western part of his dominions, when his son was * A Maratta Bramin, so called from his employment in " Bund^lcand," and ancestor of the late chief of Sagar and Calpi. t Seir Mutakherin, and Grant Duff. ALAMGIR II. 671 expelled from the Panjab (A. D. 1758) ; and, when about to march to recover that country, he was arrested by the revolt of Nasir Khan, the ruler of the Beloches, who made an attempt to establish his entire independence. The operations neces- sary to place the affairs of that country on a satis- factory footing delayed Ahmed Shah for a con- siderable time ; after which he moved by the southern road of Shikarpur to the Indus ; and, marching up that river to Peshawer, he crossed it in the month of September, and advanced into the Panjab. The Marattas offered no opposition, and he avoided the swollen rivers and exhausted country A - H - 1173 > * Moharram. by keeping near the northern hills, until he crossed the Jamna opposite Seharanpur. During the shah's advance, Ghazi u din, mindful of A'lamgir's con- nection with that monarch and with Najib u doula, took alarm at the thoughts of his intrigues and his vengeance. He therefore at once gave orders for Murder of his assassination, and raised another member of the n. a by 8ir royal family to the throne. This prince's title was never acknowledged : Shah A'Jam, the heir ap- November; * A. JT. 1 1 i ^. parent, was absent on a scheme for getting a foot- Rabi u ing in Bengal ; and the confederate princes carried on their operations without any ostensible head.* At this time the Marattas, though not supported The Ma - * * t ratta troops by their allies the Jats, had 30,000 horse of their in Hmdos- tan dis- own in the field ; but they were in two bodies at persed by some distance from each other ; and the hatred of shah. * Seir Mutakherln. Ahmed Shah's proceedings are from \fghan accounts. 672 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK the country people, who were exasperated by their ' depredations, kept them in ignorance of the move- ments of the enemy. Ahmed Shah came sud- denly on the body under Dattaji Sindia, and so effectually surprised it that the chief and two thirds of the force were cut to pieces before they could escape. The other division under Malhar Rao Holcar was still at a distance, and commenced its flight towards the country south of the Chambal : it was drawn from the direct line by the temptation of plundering a convoy, and was overtaken and almost destroyed by a Durani detachment which had made a prodigious march for the purpose.* Long before these reverses, Ragoba had arrived in the Deckan. The glory of his conquests did not reconcile the Maratta court to the financial results which they produced : instead of an ample harvest of plunder, as used to be customary, he had brought home near a million sterling of debt. This unpro- ductive campaign appeared to more disadvantage when contrasted with that in which the peshwa's cousin, Sedasheo Rao Bhao (best known in India as "the Bhao")> was engaged : he had remained as home minister and commander-in-chief in the Deckan, had just obtained possession of Ahmed- nagar, and was on the eve of a settlement, after- wards concluded at U'dgir, by which territorial and pecuniary cessions of great extent were ob- tained from Salabat Jang, and such a burden im- * Seir MufSkherin. Grant Duff. EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. posed on the Mogul government in the Deckan as CHAP. it never was able to recover. This contrast led to jealousy on the part of Ragoba, who, to Sedasheo's remonstrances on the profusion of his expenditure, replied that the Bhao had better undertake the next expedition himself, when he would find the difference between that and serving in the Deckan. Sedasheo took him at his word, and an exchange of duties was forthwith agreed on. The Maratta power was at this time at its zenith. Power of Their frontier extended on the north to the Indus rattasatits and Hemalaya, and on the south nearly to the ex- tremity of the peninsula : all the territory within those limits that was not their own paid tribute. The whole of this great power was wielded by one hand : a settlement had been made with Tara Bai, by which the person of the raja was consigned to his nominal minister, and all pretensions of every description were concentrated in the peshwa,* The establishments of the Maratta government Their had increased with its power. Its force was no longer composed of predatory bands alone ; it included an army of well-paid and well-mounted cavalry in the direct service of the state, and 10,000 disciplined infantry, who, though a very imper- fect copy of that commanded by Europeans, were far superior to any infantry previously known in India. The Marattas had now also a train of artillery * Chiefly Grant Duff. VOL. II. X X 674 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK surpassing that of the Moguls, which they had so ' long regarded with awe and envy. They even endeavoured to assume the pomp which was charac- teristic of their rivals. Rich dresses, spacious tents, and splendid caparisons became common among them, and their courts and retinues were formed on the Mogul model. This show of greatness did not seem misplaced in the peshwa and his ministers, who were Concan Bramins, a comely race, prepared by the mildness and gravity of their manners to take up dignity without any appearance of incongruity ; but it sat very ill on the little active Marattas, whose sturdy figures and vulgar manners gave a ludicrous effect to their attempts at a stately demeanour. Great P re- Whatever the nation possessed either of power fortSe" 18 or magnificence was brought forth to give weight Hfadostan. to Sedasheo Bhao. The news of the misfortunes of Sindia and Holcar were only a fresh stimulus to exertion ; and it seemed to be resolved, by one great and decisive effort, to put the finishing stroke to the conquest of Hindostan.* Arrogance The prince th us elevated was naturally haughty Zander, 01 "" and overbearing, proud of the new greatness of his family, and puffed up by recent success into an overweening confidence in his own abilities both as a statesman and a soldier. He was accompanied by Wiswas Rao, the peshwa's youthful son and heir apparent, and by all the great Bramin and * Seir Mutakherin. Grant Duff. EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. 67-5 Maratta chiefs without exception. Many Rajput CHAP. detachments were sent to join him as he advanced, ' and Suraj Mai is said to have reinforced him with a body of 30,000 Jats. This experienced old chief, who had long been accustomed to act with the Marattas, took occasion to advise the Bhao to leave his infantry and guns, and all his heavy baggage, in the Jat territory, where it would be protected by strong forts, to advance with his horse alone, to harass his enemies in the Maratta manner, and protract the war until the Duranis, who had already been many months in India, should be constrained by the climate to withdraw to their native mountains. This prudent counsel, though seconded by the Maratta chiefs, was at once rejected by their commander, who looked down on a victory obtained by such means, and who also attached an undue importance to his regular infantry and guns. This was not the only occasion on which he slighted Suraj Mai, whom he treated as a petty zemindar, incapable of judg- ing of politics on a large scale. He also offended his Maratta chiefs by his Bramin pride, as well as his imperious manner of exercising his command, and the absence of the freedom and familiarity to which they were accustomed in their leaders. In Retake* this manner he advanced to Delhi, which was held by a small garrison of Duranis and their partisans, Ghazi u din having taken refuge in the Jat coun- try. The great extent of the city walls enabled a party of Marattas to climb up a neglected bastion, x x 2 676 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII Ahmed Sh&h's ne- gotiation and the citadel yielded to the artillery after at- tempting a short defence. The Bhao made an injudicious as well as ungenerous use of this con- quest. He defaced the palaces, tombs, and shrines, for the sake of the rich ornaments which had been spared by the Persians and Afghans. He tore down the silver ceiling of the hall of audience, which was coined into seventeen lacs of rupees *, and seized on the throne (no longer so precious as of old), and on all other royal ornaments. He even proposed to proclaim Wiswas Rao emperor of India, and was only prevailed on to postpone the measure until he should have driven the Duranis across the Indus. All these proceedings alarmed and disgusted Suraj Mai, who was unwilling to go to extremities with his own near neighbours. He soon after entered on a secret consultation with Shuja u doula, and withdrew to his own territory without openly renouncing his alliance with the Marattas. The Bhao affected to treat this defec- tion as a matter beneath his notice. During this time the shah was cantoned for the rains at Anupshehr, on the frontier of Oud, whither he had been drawn by an important negotiation. He was sure of cordial assistance from Najib and the Rohillas, but the co-operation of Shuja u doula was by no means equally certain. Though that ruler could not declare against the Mahometans, * 170,000/. Casi fiai's Narrative (Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 97.). Grant Duff makes the 110,0001. include all the plate in the palace. EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. 677 his interests counselled neutrality, and he had a hereditary disinclination to joining Ahmed Shah, to whom his father, Safder Jang, had been openly opposed. It was to influence him that the shah advanced to Anupshehr ; and this movement, with the persuasion of Najib u doula, who paid him a who joins visit for the purpose, succeeded in procuring his accession to the Mussulman cause. He nevertheless kept up a constant communi- cation with the Marattas, which might serve to A -, H - 1 . 173 secure an accommodation, if expedient, and was in the mean time a useful channel for overtures be- tween that people and the shah.* After this arrangement was concluded, Ahmed Ahmed was still prevented moving by the violence of the marches periodical rains ; but before that season was well SSeo over, he broke up his cantonment, and marched BMo ' towards Delhi. His movement was accelerated by hearing that the Bhao had set out with a picked force to attack Cunjpura, on the Jamna, sixty miles above Delhi, where there was a Durani garrison, under an officer of distinction. On reaching that river, near the capital, he found it still swollen and rapid : he proceeded up the banks in search of a ford, until he got near Cunjpura, where he had the mortification to hear that the place had been taken, and the whole garrison put to the sword. Enraged at this disgrace inflicted almost before his His bold eyes, the shah passed the river, between fording * Casi Rai, the author of the Narrative, was one of the agents in this intercourse. x x 3 678 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK and swimming ; and though he lost many men in ' this bold undertaking, it made so great an impres- A.; D . 1760, sion on the enemy, that they hastened to remove Oct. 25. , \ . Marattas ou -t t nis reach, and soon retired to Jrampat, where they threw up works round their camp, encom- trench passed by a broad and deep ditch, and protected their camp, by their numerous artillery. The Bhao's force j^J"" " consisted of 55,000 cavalry in regular pay, with at least 15,000 predatory Maratta horse, and 15,000 infantry, of whom 9000 were disciplined Sepoys, under I'brahim Khan Gardi, a Mussulman deserter from the French service. He had 200 guns, with numerous wall pieces, and a great supply of rockets, which is a favourite weapon with the Marattas. These troops, with their numerous followers, made the numbers within his lines amount to 500,000 men.* Force Ahmed Shah had about 40,000 Afghans and Ahmed Persians, 13,000 Indian horse, and a force of In- dian infantry estimated at 38,000, of which the part consisting of Rohilla Afghans would be very efficient, but the great majority the usual rabble of Indian foot soldiers.! He had, also, about thirty * Grant Duff agrees with Casi Rai in making the paid horse and infantry 70,000, as above, and estimates the predatory horse and followers at 200,000. Casi Rai states the whole number at 500,000. (Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 123.) j- The accounts of the Duranis themselves make the number of the army that crossed the Indus 63,000 ; but, from a com- parison with Nadir Shah's force, and that of Shah Zeman, in later times, as well as from the incorrectness of Asiatic muster- rolls, I conceive the amount to be much exaggerated. There EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. 679 pieces of cannon of different calibres, chiefly be- CHAP. longing to the Indian allies, and a number of wall ' pieces. The inferiority of the shah's force making an p ro tracted attack on the enemy's camp impossible, he was oper obliged to encamp also, and to throw up lines round his army. The occurrence of a general action being thus suspended, the Bhao's prospects were by no means unfavourable. He had ordered Govind Rao Bondela to collect what troops he could on the lower course of the Jamna, and that chief now appeared with 10,000 or 12,000 horse in the rear of the Durani camp. He kept at a safe distance from the army, but spread over the country in the Maratta manner, so as to intercept all supplies. It is probable that the Bhao em- ployed his own light cavalry in the same manner; for before much time had elapsed, the Mussulman camp began to suffer severely from the scarcity of provisions. But although the Duranis were not accustomed Failure of to the desultory warfare used by the Marattas, they made up for their deficiency by the bold and must also have been a great reduction from garrisons in the Panjab and other places, casualties in action, and deaths from the climate during the hot season and rains ; so that I think 40,000 a sufficient allowance for the Afghans. The Indian numbers are from Casi Rai : Shuja u Doula had only 2000 horse and the same number of foot. Casi Rai's statement, that the Duranis had forty guns of their own, is quite contrary to their own account and to all probability. x x 4 680 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK rapid movements of their detachments ; and on this XII ' occasion, a body of their horse under Attai Khan, the grand vizir's nephew, made a march of up- wards of sixty miles, surprised Govind Rao's camp about daybreak, and completely destroyed his party, Govind Rao himself falling in the action. When the Duranis had got the command of the open country, the Bhao soon felt the difficulty of his situation, inclosed in a fortified camp with such a multitude as he commanded. The Marattas are excellent foragers. Every morning at day-break, long lines of men on small horses and ponies are seen issuing from their camps in all directions, who return before night loaded with fodder for the cattle, with firewood torn down from houses, and grain dug up from the pits, where it had been concealed by the villagers; detach- ments go to a distance for some days, and collect proportionately larger supplies of the same kind ; and convoys, each of many thousands of oxen, are also brought in from remote countries bybanjarras, a sort of camp grain dealers, who partake of the character of the soldiery more than of the mercan- tile body. All these resources were now cut off; and after the Marattas had entirely eaten up and consumed the town of Panipat, which was within their lines, they began to feel the severest pressure of want. While things ^were tending to this conclusion, neither party was inactive in its efforts to hasten the crisis. Continual skirmishes went on between EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. 681 the armies : the Marattas made three vigorous CHAP. attacks on the Durani lines ; convoys were always . attempting to make their way into the camp ; and though one charged with treasure from Delhi fell into the hands of the Afghans, others were secretly forwarded by Suraj Mai and the Rajput chiefs ; and as the Bhao bore his difficulties with dignity and resolution, their extent and daily increase were unknown to his enemies. In these circumstances, the Indian allies lost all patience, and wearied Ahmed Shah with their importunities that he would put an end to their fatigues by a decisive action : but his constant answer was, " This is a matter of war with which you are not acquainted. In other affairs do as you please ; but leave this to me." He had a small red tent pitched in front of his in- trenchment, to which he repaired every morning in time for prayers at day-break, and where he generally returned to dine in the evening. He was on horse- back for the whole day, visiting his posts, and re- connoitring the enemy ; and never rode less than fifty or sixty miles a day. At night he placed a picket of 5,000 horse as near as he could to the enemy, while other parties went the rounds of the whole encampment. " He used to say to the Hin- dostani chiefs, * Do you sleep ; I will take care that no harm befalls you ; ' and to say the truth, his orders were obeyed like destiny, no man daring to hesitate or delay one moment in executing them."* * Casi Rai. HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Durino; this time, the Bhao's embarrassments XII. became daily more urgent ; and he made frequent applications to Shuja u doula through Casi Rai (the author of our Narrative) to mediate a peace between him and the Mussulmans. When his pro- posals were made known to the shah, he replied that he was only an auxiliary, and had no views of his own ; that he claimed the entire control of the war, but left the Hindostani chiefs to carry on their negotiations as they pleased. The majority of those chiefs were well disposed to an accommoda- tion, which would have been particularly acceptable to Shuja u doula ; but Najib always steadily op- posed the overtures, and succeeded in impressing on the rest the ruin to which they would be ex- posed if the shah left India while the Maratta power was still entire. It is not difficult to conceive what must now have been the state of the Maratta host, cooped up amidst the stench of a blockaded camp, among dead and dying animals, surrounded by famished followers, and threatened with the terrible consummation of the evils which they already suffered. Among their last efforts, they sent out a foraging party, with innu- merable camp followers, to endeavour to bring in some relief; but the helpless crowd was discovered by the enemy, and slaughtered in prodigious num- bers. On this the chiefs and soldiers surrounded the Bhao's tent ki a body ; they said that they had entirely exhausted the last remains of their provi- sions, and that it was better to run any risk in the EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR IT. 683 field than to perish in misery. The Bhao agreed CHAP. to their wish : they all partook of bitel leaf, and ______ swore to fight to the last ; and orders were given to make the attack on the next morning before daybreak. In this extremity the Bhao wrote to Casi Rai a short note with his own hand : " The cup is now full to the brim, and cannot hold another drop. If any thing can be done, do it, or else answer me plainly at once; hereafter there will be no time for writing or speaking." Casi Rai was communicating this note to Shuja Battle of -TA i i i e i Panipat. u Doula about three in the morning, when his spies came to report that the Marattas were getting under arms. Shuja immediately repaired to the shah's tent, and desired he might be awakened without delay. The shah soon made his appear- ance, ready dressed ; and, mounting a horse which always stood saddled by his door, he rode towards the enemy, ordering his own troops out as he ad- vanced. One of his first steps was to send for Casi Rai, and interrogate him about the source of the in- telligence he had communicated. This he did as he was moving forward, until, about a mile from the camp, he met some Durani horsemen loaded with plunder, who reported that the Marattas had deserted their camp and fled. On hearing this, Ahmed turned to Casi Rai and asked him what he said to that ? but while he was yet speaking, the Marattas announced their presence by a gene- 684 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK ral discharge of their artillery along the whole of their line. " On this the shah, who was sitting upon his horse smoking a Persian kallian, gave it to his servant, and with great calmness said to the nabob (Shuja), * Your servant's news is very true I see." 1 He then sent orders to hasten the ad- vance of his own army. When objects became discernible, the colours of the Marattas were seen advancing slowly and regularly, with their artillery in front. The shah drew up his army opposite, and, himself, took post at his little red tent, which was now in the rear of the line. The Mussulmans did not make much use of their guns ; and as those of the Marattas approached, the shot went over the heads of their adversaries. The actual engagement was begun by I'brahim Khan Gardi, who rode up to the Bhao, respect- fully saluted him, and said, " You have often been offended with me for insisting on regular pay to my men ; you shall now see that we have not earned it in vain." He then seized a colour with his own hand, and ordered his battalions to cease firing and charge bayonets. Their attack fell on the Rohillas, whose undisciplined valour only in- creased their loss, and who were broken after a prodigious slaughter. Their defeat laid open the right of the grand vizir, who commanded the centre of the Durani line, and who was now charged by the Bhao and Wiswas Rao with the flower of the Maratta army. In this charge, Attai Khan, the vizir's nephew, was killed by his side, and his EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. Duranis were forced to give ground ; but he him- CHAP. self dismounted, and, with the few that were near him, determined to die at his post. Shuja u doula was next to the grand vizir's division, but could not see what.was passing for the dust : finding the sound of men and horses in that quarter suddenly diminish, he sent Casi Rai to inquire the cause. He found the grand vizir on foot in full armour, in an agony of rage and despair, reproaching his men for quitting him, and endeavouring to bring them back to their ranks. " Ride to Shuja u doula," said he, " and tell him that if he does not support me immediately, I must perish." But Shuja, though he kept his ground, did not venture to take part in the action. Meanwhile these transactions had not escaped Ahmed Shah ; and the reserve which he had ordered up arrived at the critical moment to pre- vent the destruction of the grand vizir. The battle now became stationary, but the advantage still in- clined to the Marattas ; until Ahmed, after rallying the fugitives and ordering all who refused to return to be cut down, gave orders for an advance of his own line, and at the same time directed a division on his left to wheel up and take the enemy in flank. This manoeuvre was decisive ; for, though the closest combat was raging in the centre, where the Bhao and Wiswas were engaged on horseback, and where they fought on both sides with spears, swords, battle-axes, and even daggers, yet, " all at once, as if by enchantment, the whole Maratta 686 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK XII. Destruc- tion of the Maratta army. army turned their backs, and fled at full speed, leaving the field of battle covered with heaps of dead." The victors pursued them with the utmost fury ; and as they gave no quarter, the slaughter is scarcely to be conceived ; the pursuit continuing in every direction for fifteen or twenty miles. A large proportion of those who escaped from the enemy were cut off by the peasants ; and great numbers, who fell alive into the hands of the Duranis, were cruelly massacred in cold blood. The shah himself was not exempt from a share in these barbarities : for he not only took no means to prevent them, but, at the instigation of Najib, he made a strict search for Jancoji Sindia, who was concealed by a Durani chief, and who was made away with to prevent detection. He also compelled Shuja u doula to give up the gallant Tbrahim Khan, who had been made prisoner ; sent for him into his presence to reproach him ; and then gave him over to the grand vizir to be placed in confinement, where he died of his wounds within a week.* The body of Wiswas Rao was found, and a headless trunk which was believed to be Bhao's ; but the fate of the latter was so far from certain, that, many years after, an impostor obtained credit for a time by assuming his character. The whole * Casi Rai says he was treated with the greatest cruelty, and that it was reported that poison was put into his wounds ; but that was not a moment when vengeance (if there had been any motive for it) would have taken so indirect a course. EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF ALAMGIR II. 687 number of the slain is said to have amounted to CHAP. near 200,000.* Almost all the great Maratta IV ' chiefs were killed or wounded, except those who had been left with a force at Delhi ; and Malhar Rao Holcar, who was accused of too early a re- treat. Mahaji Sindia, afterwards the founder of a great state, was lamed for life ; and Nana Farnavis, who long kept off the downfal of the peshwa's government, narrowly escaped by flight.t Never was a defeat more complete, and never Despond- was there a calamity that diffused so much con- Maratta sternation. Grief and despondency spread over " the whole Maratta people; most had to mourn relations, and all felt the destruction of the army as a death-blow to their national greatness. The peshwa never recovered the shock. He slowly retreated from his frontier towards Puna, and died Death of in a temple which he had himself erected near that city.t The wreck of the army retired beyond the Nerbadda, evacuating almost all their acquisitions in Hindostan. Dissensions soon broke out after the death of Balaji, and the government of the peshwa never regained its vigour. Most of the * Grant Duff, vol. ii. p. 156. f- The account of Sedasheo Rao Bhao's campaign is com- piled from Grant Duff, the " Seir Mutakherin," and Cast Rai's account of the battle of Panipat (in vol. iii. of the Asiatic Re- searches, p. 91, &c.). This last is, perhaps, the best specimen to be found of narrative by an Indian. The Afghan accounts of Ahmed Shah's proceedings also furnish some information. J Grant Duff. Sir J. Malcolm's Malwa, vol. i. p. 120, 121. 688 HISTORY OF INDIA. BOOK Maratta conquests were recovered at a subsequent XII ' period ; but it was by independent chiefs, with the Dissolution a id of European officers and disciplined Sepoys. hometan The confederacy of the Mahometan princes dis- rlTy? * solved on the cessation of their common danger. Ahmed Shah returned home without attempting to profit by his victory, and never afterwards took any share in the affairs of India. Extinction The actors in the last transactions having now Mogul all left the stage, the history of the Mogul empire empire. ^QJQ closes of itself. Its territory is broken into separate states ; the capital is deserted ; the claim- ant to the name of emperor is an exile and a de- pendent ; while a new race of conquerors has already commenced its career, which may again unite the empire under better auspices than be- fore. END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. LONDON : Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE, , Ne\r- Street-Square. ALBEMARLE STREET, MARCH, 1841. THE FOLLOWING WORKS ARE IN THE PRESS. BIBLICAL RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE, MOUNT SINAI, AND ARABIA PETR^EA, being a Journal of Travels in the year 1838, undertaken in reference to Biblical Geography. By the Rev. Dr. ROBINSON and the Rev. ELI SMITH. Drawn up from Notes made on the spot, with Historical Illustrations by EDWARD ROBINSON, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature in the New York Theological Seminary, and Author of " A Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament." With Maps and Plans of Jerusalem, Palestine, and Mount Sinai, from original Measurements and Observations, in five sheets. 3 vols. 8vo. " The Work on Palestine by the Rev. Dr. Robinson is very different from the hasty journals hitherto published by many Tourists in the same region. It is the result of studies connected with long preparation, and of an important enterprise in behalf of a deeper scientific investigation of the geographical, historical, and antiquarian relations of the Holy Land. This enterprise has been happily carried out upon the spot under the most favourable circum- stances ; and the work thus resulting from it, with its historical illustrations, has been prepared with the aid of the richest literary means, and will cer- tainly occupy one of the most important places among the sources for the study of the geography and antiquities of the Scriptures." " This work, by its numerous discoveries and new investigations, will be of lasting value for the knowledge of the East, and for the historical part of theological study. It contains in itself the materials for an entire transformation of the Cartography of Palestine ; hitherto so defective, as is proved by the very im- portant maps already constructed, founded on the new observations afforded by this journey. These as an accompaniment to the text, give the latter a peculiar value which can be regarded only as highly desirable." Profettur Carl Ritter of Berlin. II. SELECTIONS FROM THE DISPATCHES, GENERAL ORDERS, &c. OF FIELD-MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. By Lieut.- Col. GURWOOD, Esquire to His Grace as Knight of the Bath. One volume. 8vo. in. THE RELIGION, AGRICULTURE, &c. OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. By Sir GARDNER WILKINSON. Being a Second Series of the " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians." With very many Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo., and a volume of Plates. 31. 3s. (Nearly ready). IV. A HISTORY OF INDIA. By the Hon. MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. The HINDOO and MAHOMEDAN PERIODS. With a large Map. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. (Ready.) WORKS IN THE PRESS. v. ANCIENT SPANISH BALLADS, Historical and Romantic. Trans- lated, with Notes, by J. G. LOCKHART, Esq. A New Edition revised, with numerous Original Illustrations and Illuminations from Drawings by WM. ALLAN, R.A., W. SIMSON, HENHY WARREN, and OWEN JONES, Architect, Author of " The Alhambra." 4to. " These Spanish Ballads are known to our public, but generally with inconceiv- able advantage, by the very fine and animated translations of Mr. Lockhart." Hallam's Literary Hittory of Europe. " We gladly hail the republication of Mr. Lockhart's translations, which have been selected by him with excellent judgment, and translated with unusual vigour, animation, and fidelity. Rich as is our own literature in these ancient reliques, they cannot compete with those of the Peninsula in number, importance, or antiquity." London and Westmimter lieview. VI. A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY TO THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER OXUS, by the Indus, Cabool, and Budukshan, performed under the sanction of the Supreme Government of India. By Lieut. JOHN WOOD, Indian Navy. With a Map. 8vo. 14*. (Ready). " Forming a Sequel to Sir Alexander Burnes' Voyage on the Induo." VII. A JOURNAL OF A SECOND EXCURSION IN ASIA MINOR, with an ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES MADE IN ANCIENT LYCIA. By CHARLES FELLOWS, Esq. With Plates, Maps, and Woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. (Nearly ready.) " I have in this tour discovered seven ancient Lycian cities, of which I have, by numerous inscriptions and coins, ascertained the names, and many other piles of ruined towns and castles, still nameless. You cannot imagine the pleasurable excitement of discovering in these cities the works of art, and objects of the highest interest to the archaeologist. The age is probably earlier than the fourth century before the Christian era, and the works are illus- trativeof Homer and Herodotus." Letter from the Author in THB ATHEN^UM. Till. AN ACCOUNT OF THE GIPSIES OF SPAIN, with an Original Collection of their SONGS and POETRY, and a Vocabulary of their Lan- guage, explained in Spanish and English. By GEORGE BORROW, Esq., late Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Spain. 2 vols. post 8vo. IX. MOORCROFT AND TREBECK'S TRAVELS IN PESHAWAR, CABOOL, KUNDUZ, and BOKHARA. Prepared for the Press by H. H. WILSON, M.A., Professor of Sanscrit in the University of Oxford. With Illustrations and a Map by JOHN ARROWSMITH. 2 vols. 8vo, 30*. * # * This Work, which has been delayed through the want of the Map, is now ready. X. CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. By LORD BYRON. An entirely New and beautifully illustrated Edition, with Sixty Vignette En- gravings by W. & E. FI.NDEN, from original Drawings of the most eminent Artists. Royal 8vo. WORKS IN THE PRESS. THE CORRESPONDENCE OF RICHARD BENTLEY, D.D. Edited and arranged by Dr. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, Head Master of Harrow. 8vo. 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With many illustrative Woodcuts. A New and Cheaper Edition, fcap. 8vo. 6s. (Ready.) XXVIII. SENTENCES FROM THE PROVERBS AND THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES, in ENGLISH, FRENCH, ITALIAN, and GERMAN, intended for the USE OF YOUNG PERSONS studying those languages. Containing one Sentence for every day in the Year except Sundays and Festivals. By A LADY. 16mo. 3s. 6rf. (Ready.) WORKS IN THE PRESS. XXIX. A SUMMER'S DAY AT WINDSOR, AND A VISIT TO ETON. By EDWAKD JESSE, Surveyor of Her Majesty's Parks and Palaces. Highly Illustrated. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. (Ready.) XXX. A NEW CLASSICAL DICTIONARY OF ANCIENT MYTHO - LOGY, HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, and GEOGRAPH * ; for the Use of Colleges and Schools. One closely printed volume, 8vo. XXXI. M. TULLII CICERONIS DE OFFICIIS LIBRI TRES; DE SENECTUTE, ET DE AMICITIA, DIALOGI : cum notis Variorum Selectis, imprimis Heusingerorum, Zumptii, et Gernhardi, in usum Scholarum. Edidit CAR. WORDSWORTH, M.A. One vol. 12mo. XXXII. HOMERUS; PART FIRST. By the Rev. 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With Illus- trations, 2 vols., post 8vo. XXXVII. AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MYVYRIAN ARCHAIOLOGY OF WALES. By the Rev. JOHN WILLIAMS, M.A. F.R.S.E., Archdeacon of Cardigan, and Rector of the Edinburgh Academy. To be published by Subscription in Parti. WORKS IN THE PRESS. XXXVIII. A COLLECTION OF THE MOST POPULAR SEA SONGS of the late CHARLES DIBDIN. Edited by his SON. With Illustrations by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. 1 vol. fcap. 8vo. 5s. (Ready.) This work is published under the sanction and patronage of the Lords of the Admiralty. XXXIX. HAND-BOOK FOE TRAVELLERS IN THE NORTHERN AND MIDLAND COUNTIES OF ENGLAND ; including the Lakes of Cumberland, Yorkshire, North and South Wales, Derbyshire, the Ma- nufacturing Districts, &c. With detailed Descriptions of all the Railroads, the principal Post and High Roads, the Chief Cities and Towns, the most interesting Scenery, Antiquities, Parks, Mansions, Collections of Art and Natural History, Cathedrals, and Churches ; with Directions for Travellers, Information respecting Inns, Conveyances, &c. &c. With a Map. PostSvo. XL. HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN COUNTIES OF ENGLAND. With a Map. Post 8vo. XLI. HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT. By Sir GARDNER WILKINSON. With Maps. Post 8vo. XLII. HAND-BOOK FOR LONDON, PAST AND PRESENT. Intended as a complete Guide to Strangers, and a Book of agreeable Reference for the Inhabitants, in the Localities and Antiquities of the British Metro- polis. By T. CROFTON CHOKER, Esq. With a Map. Post 8vo. XLIII. HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN NORTHERN ITALY. With a Map. Post 8vo. XLIV. HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN SOUTHERN ITALY AND SICILY. With Maps. Post 8vo. XLV. HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN FRANCE. With a Map. Post 8vo. XLVI. HAND-BOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN SPAIN. With a Map. Post 8vo. *#* The above HAND-BOOKS are all in active preparation, and win be publithed early in the season. ALBEMARLE STREET, MARCH, 1841. THE FOLLOWING WORKS HAVE RECENTLY BEEN PUBLISHED. THE DISPATCHES AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. Edited by LIEUT.-COLONEL GBRWOOD. 12 Vols. 8vo, 20s. each, and Index, 10s. n. THE HISTORY OF THE POPES OF ROME during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Derived principally from unpublished Docu- ments and Records preserved at Vienna, Venice, Rome, and Bologna. By LEOPOLD VON RANKE. Translated by SARAH AUSTIN. 3 vols. 8vo, 36s. " To the high qualifications of profound research, careful accuracy, great fairness and candour, with a constant reference to the genius and spirit of each successive age, common to the historians of Germany, Mr. Ranke adds the charm of a singularly lucid, terse, and agreeable style." Quarterly Review. " It is hardly necessary for ns to say, that this is an excellent book, excellently translated. The original work of Professor Ranke is known and esteemed wherever German literature is studied ; and has been found interesting even in a most inaccurate and dishonest French version. It is, indeed, the work of a mind fitted both for minute researches and for large speculations. It is written also in an admirable spirit, equally remote from levity and bigotry ; serious and earnest, yet tolerant and impartial. It is, therefore, with the greatest pleasure that we now see it take its place among the English Classics. Of the translation we need only say, that it is such as might be expected from the skill, the taste, and the scrupulous integrity of the accomplished lady, who, as an interpreter between the mind of Germany and the mind of Britain, has already deserved so well of both countries." Edinburgh Review. " With Jlrs. Austin for a translator of his work Mr. Ranke has been far more happy i and w e cannot praise too highly the simplicity and elegance of the English into which she has rendered the original text. She has put us in pos- session of a book extraordinary for its learning and impartiality, and for its just and liberal views of the times and men it describes. The best compli- ment that can be paid to Mr. Ranke is, that each side has accused him of partiality to its opponent the German Protestants complaining that his work is written in too Catholic a spirit the Catholics declaring, that generally impartial as he is, it is clear to perceive the Protestant tendency of the history." Timet. III. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY HISTORY OF ^EUROPE in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. By HENRY HALLAH, Esq. 4 vols. 8vo, 15s. each. " We must remember that this is the first great general map or chart of the intel- lectual world attempted in this country. To all lovers of literature it will be acceptable ; to the young, we conceive, invaluable. We almost wish that we could renew our own youth, in order to profit by its instructions ; it would have prevented us from reading a vast number of very bad books, and induced us, perhaps, to read some good ones." Quarterly Review. " We have delayed for a long time to notice this great work, the most important contribution to literary history which English libraries have received for many years ; and our excuse for the delay must be found in the high character of the author, as well as the importance of the subject Even for the purpose of the very brief observations which we can hazard, an attentive study of its contents was more than usually necessary." Edinburgh Review. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. MEMOIRS AND LETTERS OF SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY ; with his POLITICAL DIARY. Edited by his SONS. Portrait, &c. Second Edition. 3 vols. 8vo, 30s. From M. Dumont of Geneva to Sir Samuel Romilly't Executor. " There is, I think, no other work of this kind which could produce the same moral effects upon a youthful mind. On one side one sees great talents, great reputation, and ample fortune ; and. on the other, an obscure origin, scarcely any education, years lost, and all these dLsadvantages overcome by unwearied application, and by efforts constantly directed towards the same end. It is a lesson composed entirely of facts, worth more than volumes of moral sentiments ; to which none of those pretences, by which young people com- monly reconcile to themselves their own nothingness, can be suggested as an answer A charm, too, is spread over the whole work, and it leaves in the mind a feeling of affection for the author; and this because he displays himself without pretension, and because the picture he draws relates only to those moral feelings, those private virtues, which every one can imitate, and to that domestic life, the happiness of which, as it is derived from the purest and most amiable feelings, creates jealousy in the breast of no one. Mere men of the world will probably disbelieve it: in their eyes it will appear a romance, but one that will not offend them ; and, by the middling ranks, the most numerous class of society, these memoirs will he read with the same feeling as that which dictated their composition." v. GIBBON'S HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. An entirely New Edition, edited, with Notes, by the Rev. H. H. MILMAN, and illustrated with original Historical Maps. 12 vols. 8vo, 9*. each. "I felt that this book, hi spite of its faults, will always be a noble work and that we may correct the Author's errors and combat his prejudices, without ceasing to admit that few men have combined, if we are not to say in so high a degree, at least in a manner so complete and so well regulated, the necessary qualifications for a writer of history." Guizot. " There can be no question that this edition of Gibbon is the only one extant to which Parents and Guardians and Academical Authorities ought to give any measure of countenance." Quarterly Review. " Gibbon's History, especially as edited by Mr. Milman, is a work for all time and for all classes. It never before was a work which could be safely put into the hands of the young, or of those whose opportunities and means for de- tecting its perversions were few. Now, however, the errors of this luminous and imposing history have been skilfully and convincingly noted. The poison, if not extracted, lias been made palpable." Monthly Review. VI. THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Death of Queen Anne to the Reign of George II. By LORD MAHON. Second Edition, 3 void. 8vo, 36*. " Lord Mahon has shown throughout excellent skill in combining, as well as con- trasting, the various elements of interest which his materials afforded ; he lias drawn his historical portraits with a firm and easy hand, and no one can lay down the book without feeling that he has been under the guidance of a sin- gularly clear, high-principled, and humane mind ; one uniting a very searching shrewdness with a pure and unaffected charity. The author has shown equal courage, judgment, and taste, in availing himself of minute details, so us to give his narrative the picturesqueness of a memoir, without sacrificing one jot of the real dignity of history." Quarterly Review. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, from the Birth of Christ to the Extinction of Paganism in the Roman Empire. By the Rev. H. H. MILMAN. 3 vols. 8vo, 36*. "Evincing great research and exhibiting profound knowledge of the subject, it breathes a spirit of peace and tolerance and conciliation which are or ought to be the characteristics of all ministers of the gospel. " We see nothing in Mr. Milman's Indulgent views beyond those which the most orthodox minister may take, nor are his opinions anything which the high churchman may not conscientiously and consistently maintain." John Bull. VIII. THE CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM PITT, FIRST EARL OF CHATHAM. Edited by WM. 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' ' Mr. Kinnear, a recent traveller, and, like most travellers, a little biassed in favour of Mehemet, but a sensible, and on the whole a fair witness." Quarterly Rev. " Mr. Kinnear's Narrative is short, pleasant, and interesting, and we find our- selves, when we close his book, in a tolerable state of familiarity with Eastern manners." Times. " This volume is of a very agreeable and lively character. Competently read, especially in the Bible, and possessing a good deal of native shrewdness and judgment, Mr, Kinnear has stamped upon his page the charm of simplicity and utility." Spectator. " Mr. Kinnear accompanied Mr. David Roberts the artist, and he writes extremely well, and his descriptions proclaim him a good observer." Examiner. " We were unprepared for the scriptural and historical criticism with which Mr. Kinnear so modestly, and yet so judiciously, intersperses his narrative; evincing a mind well acquainted with biblical learning, and the works of com- mentators which bear upon the ancient inquiries it involves." literary Gazette. x. AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRIVATE LIFE, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, derived from the Study of Hieroglyphics, Sculpture, Paintings, and other Works of Art, still existing, compared with the Accounts of Ancient Authors. By SIR GARDNER WILKINSON. With 406 Engravings from Original Drawings made from the Tombs. 3 vols. 8vo, 3/. 3. 10 WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. XI. CHURCH PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED IN THEIR RESULTS. By W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P., late Student of Christ Church. 8vo. 12s. CONTENTS : 1. INTRODUCTORY 2. RATIONALISM 3. THE CHURCH 4. THE SACRAMENTS 5. THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION 6. SPECIFIC CLAIMS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 7. 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Royal 8vo, '21. 2s. XVII. THE COURT OF SPAIN UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. Extracted from the Correspondence of the Hon. ALEXANDER STANHOPE, British Minister at Madrid from 1690 to 1700. Selected from the Originals at Chevening. By LORD MAHON. 8vo, 5s. 6rf. XVIII. LETTERS FROM ITALY to a YOUNGER SISTER. By CATHARINE TAYLOR. Post 8vo, 8s. 6rf. XIX. THE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY ; or, the Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants considered as Illustrative of Geology. By CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S. Sixth Edition, revised, with more than 250 Illustrations. 3 vols. 12mo, 24s. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 11 xx. NOTES, CRITICAL AND DISSERTATORY, on the GOSPEL and EPISTLES of ST. JOHN. By the late REV. R. SHEPHERD, D.D., Archdeacon of Bedford, &c. A New Edition. Royal 8vo, 15*. XXI. THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, AND THE REMEDY FOR IT. By SIR THOMAS POWELL BUXTON, Bart. Second Edition, with Map of Africa, 8vo, 5s. An Abridgment of the above Work for circulation. 8vo, Is. XXII. A SERIES OF PICTURESQUE VIEWS ON THE RIVER NIGER, sketched during Lander's last Visit in 1832-33. By Commander WILLIAM ALLEN, R.N. Published under the Auspices of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, and for the Colonization of Africa. Im- perial 4to, 25s. " The Author of this little work, who is about to take a part in this honourable mission (the Civilization of Africa), hopes that an endeavour to delineate the features of the country, and the manners of the people, may not at this time prove unacceptable." " The sketches were made on the spot during Lander's expedition, which he ac- companied, by order of the Admiralty, for the purpose of making a survey of the river ; and while he would claim some indulgence for them, ou the plea of their having been taken when he was suffering severely from the effect of the climate, he takes confidence from the goodness of the cause, and from the high auspices under which he appears before the public." 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