OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Univ. of California 
 Withdrawn
 
 HISTORY OF INDIA 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY 
 
 FOR THE USE OK STUDENTS AND COLLEGES 
 
 Return to 
 
 BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
 University of California 
 
 BY 
 
 H G KEENE CIE 
 
 HON MA OXON 
 
 Author of " The fall of the Mughal Empire " " The Turks 
 in India " &c 
 
 VOL I 
 
 LONDON 
 
 W H ALLEN & CO LIMITED 
 
 to te gjnfci 
 13 WATERLOO PLACE SW 
 
 1893
 
 pm, 
 
 WYMAN AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 PR I NTERS, 
 LONDON AND RED! I ILL.
 
 BUR. OT N 
 INT. DEL. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT is in no spirit of disparagement towards the works of pre- 
 decessors that the following pages are offered to the reader. 
 Many of those works are, in their several ways, of much value. 
 Nevertheless, all are open to some objection : are too bulky ; 
 have grown obsolete owing to the discovery of new matter ; 
 or are insufficient for the purposes of the student. It is 
 with a full sense of the difficulties of their task that the 
 present work has been undertaken. The writer has en- 
 deavoured to give, without prolixity, a statement of the 
 relevant facts at present available, both in regard to the 
 origin of the more important Indian races, and in regard to 
 their progress before they came under the unifying processes 
 of modern administration : and the tracing of that evolution 
 forms the subject of the first chapters. In the residue will be 
 found the brief relation of that unprecedented series of events 
 under which a remote commercial people have begun to weld 
 those races into a single nationality. 
 
 The obstacles to success in both of these respects were 
 perceived by Mr. Elphinstone, whose own labours have
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 done so much for students of the subject. So far back as 
 1833, apparently contemplating a complete treatment of both 
 the periods of Indian history, he wrote to Erskine, the 
 translator of Babar's memoirs, endeavouring to convince hin. 
 that a history of the' Mughal Empire would necessarily in- 
 volve "a complete history of India,'' extending at least as far 
 down as Warren Hastings, the inadequacy of whose record 
 by James Mill he was the first to point out. Some years after- 
 wards Elphinstone took in hand a portion of the task, and 
 recorded in his diary the noble conception that sound know- 
 ledge and opinions ought to be diffused through India, till the 
 people were capable of producing indigenous statesmanship 
 for the government of themselves. "Should such a period 
 arrive, the most interesting subject to the Indians as they 
 will then be and to all the world, to which they will then 
 become interesting, will be the progress of improvement and 
 of liberal ideas among them. A history, of little other merit, 
 which shall preserve the otherwise perishable record of that prc- 
 gress, will be read with the deepest interest in India and with 
 attention elsewhere." 
 
 Such was Elphinstone's ideal ; not destined to be fully 
 realised by him : and where so competent a man failed others 
 may well feel anxious. The present writer, however, has 
 found in his experience as an examiner that the ideal is still 
 unattained ; and he may add that he knows his own feeling
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 to be widely shared by examiners and teachers, alike in India 
 and in England. There is no work which relates the whole 
 growth of India, from Chaos to Cosmos, in a consecutive 
 order, so as to give students in both countries a rational 
 view of the matter, mentioning really operative facts, yet not 
 dwelling too minutely on the details of battles, sieges, or the 
 intrigues and crimes of high-placed individuals. 
 
 Within the last few years, too, materials have accumulated 
 to an extent which gives a further excuse for a new work. 
 For the early periods we have the researches of Kaegi, 
 Zimmer, and other German scholars, together with the Re- 
 ports of the Archaeological Survey of India. Ed. Thomas's 
 works on Coins, and the writings of Messrs. Fleet, Sewell, and 
 Burnell, have given solid results on mediaeval chronology, 
 while the late Professor Dowson's edition of Sir H. M. Elliot's 
 " Muhamadan Historians" and Beale's "Oriental Biographical 
 Dictionary" have supplied facts about the various Muslim 
 dynasties to which Mr. Elphinstone had not the opportunity to 
 refer. The edition of the first volume of the " Ain Akbari," by 
 Prof. Blochmann, and the biography of the Emperor Akbar, 
 by Count v. Noer, are exact and exhaustive, so far as they 
 go. The rise of British power has been illustrated with much 
 research by the posthumous papers of Elphinstone, edited by 
 Sir E. Colebrooke ; and the work of Sir James F. Stephen 
 and of Sir J. Strachey has co-operated with Prof. Forrest's
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 selections from Government records to throw much new light 
 upon the career and conduct of the misunderstood and 
 ungratefully treated Warren Hastings. The Wellesley and 
 Wellington Selections of Mr. Sidney Owen are also valuable. 
 Above almost all new matter should be mentioned the two 
 great works of Sir W. Hunter, K.C.S.I. : namely, "The Indian 
 Empire" (3rd Edition, 1893); and still more the "Imperial 
 Gazetteer of India," a work which, by its completeness and 
 accuracy, has filled a great vacuum, and is indeed essential 
 to a due knowledge of Indian history. 
 
 In respect of the vexed question of spelling oriental wor4s, 
 the author can only trust to the indulgence of those who know 
 the difficulties. There are Indian words which have taken 
 their place in British history, consecrated by the glory of great 
 deeds or by the pathos of great suffering. To write Bharatptir, 
 Kalighata, Kanhpiir, Kodangalur, or Shrirangapatanam, would 
 be to offer readers a mystification which would be more likely 
 to disgust than to edify. It is better to accept frankly the 
 perversions which ignorance and a bad ear established in the 
 last century, and to write "Calcutta," "Cawnpore," "Cranga- 
 nore," and " Seringapatam." In other cases proper names for 
 example it has appeared best to use a phonetic practice 
 which might help in denoting the general sound without 
 pedantic accuracy. The vowels as in the Jones system, 
 partially adopted by the Indian Government have the Italian
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 value rather than that usual in English: of which, however, 
 instances occur in such English words as " ruminant " and 
 " obey." Where it seemed absolutely necessary to contrast 
 one syllable with another, especially where an (a) was used, 
 an acute accent appears over the long syllable, but the multi- 
 plication of accents has been avoided.* Where strange con- 
 sonants are involved no attempt has been made to imitate the 
 sound. What can be more unsightly in an English book than 
 Qandahar? The rules followed, therefore, are three : 
 
 1. Well-known words are represented by their conventional 
 spelling, which, though sometimes absurd, is not always worse 
 than the proposed substitutes (e.g., " Masulipatam " sometimes 
 rendered Machlipatanam). 
 
 2. Other words are given a kind of phonetic form, based 
 upon the Italian use of vowels. 
 
 3. Consonants are expressed by their nearest English 
 equivalents. 
 
 To those who are inclined to find fault with the small 
 scale which has been applied to a vast matter it may be 
 observed that, in our crowded time, a big book is more 
 than ever in danger of being a big nuisance. The author 
 
 * The abuse of the accent is becoming almost as misleading a practice 
 with Anglo-Indians as that of the aspirated consonant once was. Al- 
 though we do not so often meet with the Baiza " Bhai," or the Dehra 
 "Dhun" as we did formerly, there still occur such solecisms as Hafiz 
 " Rahmat " and Taj " Mahal."
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 would only hope that there will be readers who will welcome 
 a miniature when they might look upon a wide canvas as 
 occupying more space than they could spare. And especially 
 he must plead that his book is declared upon the title-page to 
 be, primarily at least, intended for the use of " students " ; 
 a class on whose attention too many claims are made to 
 allow of undue importunity from one. 
 
 Finally, the author of this work has to acknowledge the 
 courteous help of the India Office alike in the use of books 
 and of documents and, more especially, the permission of 
 the Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs and for India, to 
 refer to papers on the subject of the first Afghan war which 
 had not before been accessible to the public, and which throw 
 new light upon that unfortunate transaction.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY 1-24 
 
 Description of country Early inhabitants Aryan settle- 
 ment. 
 
 CHAPTER II. PR.E-MUSLIM TIMES 2 5-5 
 
 Rise of Buddhism India as known to the Greeks The 
 Eve of the Conquest. 
 
 CHAPTER III. THE MUSLIM CONQUEST 5-79 
 
 Houses of Ghazni and Gur Slave Dynasty Aggressions 
 in the Deccan. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. END OF THE " PATHANS " 80-119 
 
 House of Tughlak and Invasion of Tamerlane Line of 
 Lodi, and New Mughals AdventuresTof Babar, etc. 
 
 CHAPTER V. THE^MUGHAL EMPIRE^!? 120-160 
 
 Rise of Empire Equilibrium Early Europeans. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. DECLINE OF MUGHAL EMPIRE .... 161-201 
 
 Decline Mahratta Confederacy English Company. 
 CHAPTER VII. HINDU REVIVAL AND RISE OF 
 
 BRITISH 202-247 
 
 English in Bengal Restoration of Empire First Minis- 
 try of Sindia. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. FINAL OVERTHROW OF FRENCH. . 248-282 
 
 Haidar Ali Second Mysore War ; destruction of French 
 power Sindia. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. THE END OF ANARCHY 283-321 
 
 Cornwallis as a Reformer Sindia's second Administration 
 Wars in Deccan and destruction of Tipu. 
 
 CHAPTER X. THE WARS OF WELLESLEY 322-379 
 
 India in 1799-1802 Mahratta Empire Wellesley's con- 
 quests. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. THE EVE OF EMPIRE 380-419 
 
 Non-intervention Minto's administration Revenue, Jus- 
 tice, Public debt. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. REVIEW OF FOREGOING 420-450 
 
 First Muslim period (1193-1398), Mughal Empire (1586- 
 1748) End of prce-British period.
 
 LIST OF MAPS VOL. I. 
 
 SKETCH MAP, to show places in Hindustan at the time 
 
 of the first Muslim Invasion . . . . . . 57 
 
 STATE OF DECCAN, I2TH CENTURY . . .. .. 73 
 
 HINDUSTAN AND THE DECCAN, 1524-1526 . . . . 97 
 
 STATE OF DECCAN, 15 AND i6ra CENTURIES . . 108 
 SKETCH MAP, to shew Main Division of India, 
 
 1748-1803 . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 
 
 BATTLE FIELDS OF THE CARNATIC . . . . . . 205 
 
 SKETCH OF THE SIEGE OF SERINGPATAM .. .. 319 
 
 SKETCH OF THE SEAT OF THE WAR FROM 1803-1806 360 
 
 MAP OF HINDUSTAN (WITH THE DECCAN) . . . . 428
 
 HISTORY OF INDIA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Section i : Description of the country. Section 2 : The early inhabitants 
 and their descendants. Section 3 : The Aryan settlement. 
 
 SECTION i. India is the vast and varied Italy of Asia: a 
 great promontory, imperfectly fenced on the north by a snowy 
 highland, jutting southward into the ocean, with a detached 
 island at its foot. Across the northern barrier invading hordes 
 have poured in all ages, sometimes bringing rapine, sometimes 
 conquest of a more or less beneficial kind. On the side of 
 the sea the movement has been that of departure and emigra- 
 tion, traces of which are found not only in the adjacent island 
 of Ceylon, but farther off, in Burma, Siam, and Cambodia, and 
 in the islands of the Equatorial belt. 
 
 Of these movements, however, we possess but an indirect 
 record. The early inhabitants were too rude and savage ; the 
 early conquerors took to other paths of learning, but had no 
 taste for history. It is thus that we are driven to the study of 
 the map when we would learn anything of the remote past ; 
 and to found our historical edifice on the shifting basis of 
 conjecture. 
 
 The India, or " Hindustan/' of geographers then is a vast 
 triangular peninsula, lying between the 68th and Q6th meridians
 
 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 of east longitude, and extended from the 36th parallel of north 
 latitude to a point within 8 of the Equator. In respect of 
 area and of population the country is about equal to all Europe 
 west of the river Vistula; and its Alpine barrier is nearly twice 
 as high as that of Italy, while its rivers are generally, whether 
 for length or for area of drainage, among the greatest in the 
 world. The base of the triangle is the above-mentioned 
 Alpine barrier a double range of enormous mountains, be- 
 tween whose almost parallel walls rise two rapid streams, 
 running east and west until they break into the plains through 
 which, on either side, they pursue their slackened but majestic 
 course into the Bay of Bengal on the one hand, the Arabian 
 Sea on the other. Of the detritus that these rivers bring 
 down have bjen formed vast alluvial tracts as wide as an 
 European kingdom. The mighty hills which are their cradle 
 are known as Himala or, popularly, Himalaya the name 
 being, perhaps, akin to the Greek " Haemus," and signifying 
 " a land of snow," or of perpetual winter.* The width of this 
 range is estimated at two hundred miles, and its extreme 
 length at fifteen hundred ; and it has been stated that if all 
 the mountains of Switzerland could be thrown down there in 
 one place the group would ba hardly noticed at a short dis- 
 tance. To the north-east of the Himala are treeless plateaux 
 tributary to the Emperor of China ; on the western side are 
 the countries subject to the Czar of Muscovy, and the hilly 
 provinces under the direct administration of the Amir of 
 Kabul. The higher crests are covered by glaciers and eternal 
 snow, which terminate at a line higher on the Indian side 
 than that which they attain to the northward, looking down 
 on the plateau of Thibet or the valleys of the Oxus and the 
 Zarafshan. Above the southern snow fine are no fixed abodes 
 
 * The author once experienced a snow-storm on the 24th May at the 
 source of the Jumna, on the south side of the range.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 of man, barring a few holy places maintained as an attraction 
 to pilgrims from India. 
 
 Through the gorges of this range the tribes of the north 
 have often issued to ravage or take possession of the fertile 
 lands below. Some of these invaders and the most savage 
 and destructive among them were of Turanian blood, coming 
 from Mongolia and the Siberian steppes. Others were of Aryan 
 race, the overflow of the Medes and Persians. The one party 
 has left fragments in the valleys between Kabul and Cashmere ; 
 the other is represented by the hill folk of Nipal and Bhutan. 
 Midway are mountain clans of more recent Hindu origin, and 
 the fair-complexioned Brahmans and Rajputs of Kashmir, 
 Kulu, and Kangra. The climate of these elevated regions is 
 mild and temperate, except on the extreme heights, where the 
 cold forbids human habitation, and in some of the valleys, which 
 are close and malarious. But the important element, for India, 
 of the Himalayan climate is the effect produced on the seasons 
 by the condensing influence of the vast and eternal ice-fields and 
 snow-beds upon the vapours arising out of the Indian Ocean. 
 Towards the end of winter this appears to create a region of low 
 pressure, lowest towards the east (where the greatest mass of 
 snow is situated), and thus forming a slope down which the 
 vapour-laden air flows from the north of the Equator. This 
 current is the " south-west monsoon," which travels up until it 
 meets the line of cold at an average height of 20,000 feet 
 above sea level, where the vapours are turned back, condensed, 
 to fall in the form of cloud and rain upon the thirsty plains 
 below. Most rain ordinarily falls where the bulk of the 
 current infringes on the greatest mass of snow and glacier, so 
 that the cooling process is most rapidly effected : thus, in the 
 hills bordering Bengal, and the area subtended by the great 
 peaks and ranges, the rainfall is sometimes as much as 500 
 inches in the year twenty or thirty times as much as falls 
 at the other extremity. At the end of the rainy season the 
 
 2
 
 4 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 pressure on the mountains rises, and an anti-monsoon is gene- 
 rated, travelling from the north-east ; and it is when this 
 period, with the subsequent equilibrium, is unduly prolonged 
 that those great droughts occur which have caused the terrible 
 famines from which India has, from time to time, so severely 
 suffered. Thus, the Himala range has had an influence upon 
 the fortunes of the Indian races far beyond any action that it 
 may have exercised in the way of protecting them against 
 invasion. For, in the first place, it has rendered them de- 
 pendent on a periodical supply of rain, which sometimes falls 
 short or altogether fails ; and secondly, the snows, dissolving 
 under the sunshine of the hot season, fall down the southern 
 slopes in great streams of water which while they tear the 
 upper hills and hinder vegetation in the steeper parts pro- 
 duce an abundant supply lower down. Wherever a strong and 
 wise government exists this supply can be directed and utilised, 
 so that artificial irrigation can be positively depended on to 
 supply (so far as it can extend) the occasional defect of nature. 
 And this at the precise period when such a supply is most 
 required. 
 
 Thus much as to the Himala region; the rest of the country 
 may be most properly considered from the native point of 
 view ; that is to say, as divided into the alluvial tract and 
 the southern peninsula, or " Hindustan and Deccan." The 
 former comprises all those broad lands through which, after 
 leaving their native mountains, the rivers flow, east and 
 west, to the sea. Reference to a map will show that there 
 is a svatershed a few miles to the west of the river Jumna, 
 in the region of Sirhind : the actual spot is in the State 
 of Sirmur, a plateau about one thousand five hundred feet above 
 sea-level in east longitude, 77-5 to 77*50. From this neigh- 
 bourhood the rivers of the Punjab run to the west and join the 
 Indus. Then comes a vast expanse of waterless desert, known 
 as "Thur," to the south of which flow other rivers, the Luni, the
 
 INTRO D UC TOR Y. 5 
 
 Sabarmati, and the Mahi, all flowing into the " Runn " of Cutch 
 or the Gulf of Canbay. On the other side of the Sirmur water- 
 shed run the rivers of Hindustan proper; the Jumna and Ganges 
 which, after forming a riverine tract known as the Duab 
 ( = Mesopotamia, land between tsvo rivers), unite at Allahabad; 
 and all the minor drainage-lines which finally fall into the Bay 
 of Bengal, in the channel of the Hughli, or Lower Ganges. 
 Still farther east the rivers Sanpu and Dihong unite and cleave 
 the hills at Dibrugarh, whence they descend into the mighty 
 stream of the Barhamputar, take up the Meghna on the east 
 and sink into the Gangetic Delta. 
 
 Finally, the south, or Dakhan (" Deccan " of English his- 
 torians) is a wholly separate land, parted from the northern 
 region by the Narbada river (west) and the Mahanadi (east) 
 and having a river system entirely its own. 
 
 Of the northern region, with which the work before us will 
 be principally concerned, it need only be added here that it 
 consists of three great primary divisions : namely, the Punjab, 
 or land of the " five-waters," between the Indus and the 
 Jumna ; the provinces of Hindustan proper, from Delhi to 
 Benares ; and those of Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa, making to- 
 gether what the native historians have called "The Eastern 
 Subah." Many of the rivers of this wide expanse are 
 navigable, especially the Indus on the westward and the 
 Ganges to the east ; and the fact already mentioned of 
 their being fed by the melting of the mountain snows in 
 summer causes them to be particularly useful for the purposes 
 of agricultural irrigation. This is rendered almost necessary by 
 two causes ; the inequality of the level (amounting to one thou- 
 sand five hundred feet) and the uncertainty of the rainfall. From 
 the circumstance of the snow melting most when the heat is 
 greatest it happens that the supply of water is greatest in the time 
 of greatest need. So far all is well; but the rivers in descending 
 from so great a height have scooped out their beds, so that
 
 6 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 they flow at levels constantly lower and lower than the level of 
 the land. Hence it becomes important that their water- 
 supply should be tapped at their highest points after leaving 
 the hills ; so that it may be delivered in the plains at ap- 
 propriate spots by means of artificial channels. The earliest 
 known attempts of this sort were made by some of the Muslim 
 rulers; but the works of those days have been enormously 
 developed and extended by the British in modern times. 
 Thus, for example, the west Jumna Canal was opened about 
 A.D. 1350 by Firoz Shah Tughlak, but had only a feeble 
 '. irrigation : falling into neglect and decay after the irruption 
 ) ofJTaimur, it was subsequently repaired in the reign of 
 Akbar about the year 1558 A.D. And, finally much im- 
 proved and extended by order of the Emperor Shah Jahan 
 some sixty years later it delivered water into the palaces 
 and streets of Delhi. Having quite ceased to flow in the 
 great anarchy of the i8th Century it was taken in hand 
 by the British, under Lord Hastings, and now measures 
 four hundred and thirty-three miles with two hundred 
 and fifty-nine miles of distributing channels, irrigating nearly 
 four hundred thousand acres of land and returning to 
 the State an annual profit of over 10 per cent. The great 
 Gangetic system entirely new can supply water to close 
 upon one-and-a-half million acres : the cost has exceeded five 
 millions of Rs.x.* But the interest returned is over 6 
 per cent, per annum, besides the action of the outlay as a 
 famine insurance for so wide a tract of country. The Ganges 
 Canals are navigable for at least eight hundred miles and afford 
 a useful alternative to the railway, for the transport of heavy 
 goods. The climate, however, of the country under notice i? 
 still dependent on the natural water supply ; and the character 
 
 * That is the integer of Anglo-Indian finance ; once (but not now) 
 equivalent to ^i. sterling.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 of the inhabitants has varied accordingly. Thus, in the Punjab 
 and in the Indus desert, where the earth has only yielded her 
 increase to strenuous labour, the peasantry are strong and 
 warlike ; in the eastern provinces, where the water supply is 
 abundant, the inhabitants are densely packed but physically 
 weak ; in the central parts the conditions are of an inter- 
 mediate character; a fertility somewhat less than in Bengal 
 and with less certainty of rainfall, prcduces races which, from 
 Audh to the Narbada, have always been robust and laborious, 
 almost but not quite as much so as in the drier regions of 
 the far west. In all the three regions the agricultural system 
 is somewhat uniform : there is the autumn harvest, sown in 
 the beginning of the spring and consisting of semi-tropical 
 crops, such as cotton, sugar, millet, and rice ; then the land 
 has rest during the great dryness of the hot season ; the crops 
 are reaped at the end of the rainy season ; and in the 
 beginning of winter the fields reserved for the spring harvest 
 are got ready for the cereals and other products of the temper- 
 ate zone. Wheat, the chief spring crop of Upper India, is 
 produced for the markets rather than for the consumption of 
 the rural communities, who mostly share with their cattle the 
 less valuable products : the wheat goes in large quantities to 
 Bombay, and the exportation is becoming more and more 
 important, alike to India which benefits by its sale and to 
 Britain which is largely dependent on its purchase.* This 
 region also produces several kinds of fruit-trees and of timber; 
 and groves are usually to be met with near the villages and 
 beside the wells and roads. To the S.W. of the Ganges the 
 country is somewhat hilly, and the people though belonging 
 mostly to the races of Hindustan are in a more backward 
 condition and considerably less numerous by the square mile. 
 
 * During the past ten years the quantity of Indian wheat exported 
 chiefly to England has averaged near twenty million cwt. per annum,
 
 8 HISTORY OF .INDIA. 
 
 On the west of the Jumna are found the ancient principalities 
 of the Rajputs, typical Hindus of the purest blood and most 
 unquestioned orthodoxy : and still farther to south and west 
 are the Mahratta States of Gujarat and Malwa, the valley of 
 the Indus and the primitive principalities of the peninsular 
 Kathiawar. 
 
 The South, or Deccan, is a triangular and sloping table, 
 rising to considerable altitude on the west, so that all its more 
 important rivers flow eastward into the Bay of Bengal. On 
 that side also are mountains, though not continuous, and the 
 eastern and western ranges meet in the peak of Dodabetta, 
 8,760 feet above sea-level, with the Nilghiri highlands to the 
 east and the Arabian sea bathing the Malabar coast a few 
 miles from its western foot. This country is of great area, 
 stretching from the Tropic of Cancer to within eight degrees 
 north of the Equator, and more than eight hundred miles 
 across in its greatest breadth. It is inhabited by about one 
 hundred millions of human beings, some of whom are Muslims 
 by race, and some descended from northern Hindus ; but the 
 greater number are of races more resembling the Talaings of 
 Burma, or the Malays of the Tropic islands, and the people of 
 Ceylon. The rivers and mountains that separate the Deccan 
 from the northern regions may have impeded immigration 
 though they did not wholly prevent it ; and the southern races 
 have preserved much peculiarity of race and language, though 
 they have adopted Hindu influence in matters of religious 
 belief. Parallel to the Vindhya hills, though at some distance 
 to the south of their course, flows the Narbada river, from its 
 source in the Maikal range (about 82 degrees east longitude) 
 traversing a breadth of nearly eight hundred miles, but rocky 
 and rapid to an extent that makes it of little use to man, 
 whether for agriculture or for irrigation. South of the Narbada 
 runs another parallel river the Tapti and south of that 
 another chain of hills of moderate elevation, called Satpurn ;
 
 INT ROD UCTOR Y. g 
 
 the Maikals are held to be the -easternmost link of this chain ; 
 and the two rivers here spoken of as running parallel to it are 
 the only considerable streams of the south which do not flow 
 into the Bay of Bengal. On the left, or southern, bank of the 
 Tapti commence the western ghats, and they run down the 
 western coast in an unbroken line of some seven hundred 
 miles. The chief points or peaks of this range are crowned by 
 the almost inaccessible fastnesses from which in the days of their 
 vigour the Mahratta hosts used to pour down on the plains, 
 to levy blackmail or to defy the cumbrous armies of the Great 
 Moghul. Those plains, watered by mighty rivers, were the 
 seats of ancient Hindu kingdoms succeeded, in more recent 
 times, by four or five Turkish States. The most northerly of 
 those rivers is the Mahanadi, rising on the easterly slope of the 
 same range which forms the cradle on the other slope in 
 which the infant Narbada reposes : the course of the Mahanadi 
 is almost clue east for a distance of five hundred and twenty 
 miles ; and though rocks impede the navigation, boats and 
 rafts use its waters in all but the very driest season of the 
 year. The river is subject to occasional high floods ; and the 
 lower water has been diverted by weirs into four different 
 canals, calculated, when complete, to irrigate a total of one 
 million six hundred acres. South of this the next large river 
 is the Godavari, the pass by which it cleaves the eastern ghats 
 being twenty miles in length. This river is nowhere used for 
 navigation of any importance ; but like the Mahanadi it has 
 a vast delta which has long been filled with irrigation works 
 that water half-a-million of acres, besides returning a hand- 
 some dividend to the state. The Krishna crosses the Deccan 
 for a distance of eight hundred miles, and is formed out of 
 two tributaries, the Bhima and the Tunga-Bhadra, which rise 
 in the eastern ghats : it flows into the Bay of Bengal, near 
 Masulipatam, and, like the other rivers, has a delta full of 
 canals. Farther south are the two Panars, and the Kavari,
 
 io HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 four hundred and seventy-five miles in length, which passes 
 through Mysore and the famous town known in military history 
 as Seringapatam. Its lower waters divide, and the northern 
 channel falls into the Bay near Tanjore, under the name of 
 the Coleroon* ; in this portion of its course it has been 
 utilised to irrigate over eight hundred thousand acres of land. 
 Like Hindustan, the Deccan is largely occupied by agricul- 
 turists; but it also produces gold, diamonds, iron, and coal ; and 
 it is thought that this mineral wealth is still capable of farther 
 development. The interior hills and forests can hardly be 
 said to have been hitherto fully explored or developed ; but 
 they are known to be inhabited by tribes of the aborigines 
 who have never yet been completely assimilated to the 
 manners and customs of the Hindus. The more civilised in- 
 habitants are, for the most part, members of one or other of 
 four great races, who are also, perhaps, indigenous; though 
 they have been supposed to be descended from the ancient 
 Medes, and to be of - kin to the present inhabitants of the 
 Indus Valley. The languages used by these races have 
 received from European science the technical title of 
 "Dravidian," and their occurrence may.be traced in geo- 
 graphical succession ; the Tamil, which is regarded as the 
 representative of cultivated Dravidian, is chiefly used in the 
 south, from Tinevelli to Nellore ; the Telugu, which from its 
 sweet and musical sounds has been compared to the language 
 of Tuscany, is found over the north from Nellore to the banks 
 of the Mahanadi ; the Kanarese and Malayalim are spoken 
 from the head of the Malabar coast down to Travancore. The 
 Dravidian races, if not aboriginal, probably entered the Deccan 
 many centuries before the Aryan settlement of Hindustan to 
 be hereafter described ; and it is thought that they possessed 
 
 * In these Deccan names the conventional spelling has been retained, 
 as the words are for the most part known in English literature.
 
 IN TROD UC TOR Y. \ i 
 
 rudiments of civilisation and even of literature so long ago 
 as the tenth century before the Christian era. Of this there 
 is no certainty, but some of their states, or kingdoms, were 
 known to Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, who wrote in the 
 second century after Christ, and who derived his information 
 from earlier writers.* 
 
 It has appeared needful to give this slight description of the 
 scene on which were acted the events which will be found 
 briefly narrated in the following pages; and from what has 
 been said it will be perceived that the land now known as 
 " India " is by no means homogeneous in any respect. It is 
 not positively known to have been ever united under one 
 empire, or to have otherwise formed, in any period, the home 
 of a combined nationality ; but such words as " Bhartkhand " 
 or " Jambudwipa " are found in old writings, and may, perhaps, 
 be taken as indications of a sense that the peninsula ought to 
 be united : and the later Hindu books (Purdnas, hereafter 
 described)! contain perhaps a similar ideal in the vain ascription 
 to mythical rulers of the feat of bringing all the country "under 
 one umbrella," the realisation of which was reserved for a 
 race of remote foreigners in the distant future. It will be 
 sufficient here to resume the main facts of the past. The 
 Himalayan range is the wall which has maintained the specific 
 existence of the Indian populations, while its gaps have ad- 
 mitted the occasional inroads of bold and hardy immigrants. 
 These, following the courses of the rivers, have effected settle- 
 ments upon the plains, as will presently appear. The central 
 belt forms the arena on which these immigrants have lived 
 and fought, and laid the foundations of their power. The 
 southern triangle has also received colonists, and has formed 
 a hunting-ground for adventurous foreigners for more than 
 two hundred centuries. 
 
 * These were the States of Pandiya, Chera, and Chola (v. ch. II.) 
 f v. ch. II.
 
 12 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the landscape, let us now 
 proceed to inquire what manner of people may have lived 
 within its limits from the earliest times and prepared, by 
 their thoughts and actions, the events and characters of later 
 times. 
 
 SECTION 2. Peninsular India, or the Deccan and Vindhya 
 region, is an old Palaeozoic formation ; and in such a situation 
 aboriginal man may well have appeared in Miocene times and 
 carried on his obscure and barren existence for ages, in the 
 state in which the people of the Andaman islands were still 
 living in the middle of the nineteenth century. Similar human 
 beings spread northward in Asia and Europe after the retreat 
 of the glaciers had begun in those regions ; and they have left 
 their traces in caves and stone weapons, and perhaps in the 
 persons of the Finns and Basques and the less-favoured 
 branches of European society. The characteristics of such 
 races are short stature, straight black hair, dark eyes and skin. 
 Flint implements, cup-marked stones, and such-like remains 
 of man's ruder development, have been found in the Deccan 
 and as far as the north scarp of the Narbada valley. After 
 this " neolithic " period came one of iron-workers, who raised 
 stone circles, and who buried their dead under earthen mounds 
 and under slabs of rock ; at some far-distant, though unfixable, 
 epoch they had already learned the art of making round pots 
 of hard, thin earthenware ; and they knew how to provide 
 themselves with rude ornaments and jewelry of gold and 
 copper. These iron-workers appear to have protracted their 
 form of existence down ro the times of the Roman Emperors 
 whose coins have been found in the cemeteries ascribed to 
 them ; unless, indeed, as we know to have occurred elsewhere, 
 these cemeteries may have been used by others who succeeded 
 them in the more accessible parts of India. Certain it is that 
 of both these races, the neolithic and the early iron-workers, 
 descendants are still found in the forest-clad mountains of 
 central and southern India; and the bulk of the Hindu popu-
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 lations, with the exception of the Brahmans, is more or less 
 supplied with their blood. 
 
 For, like most other nations of whose origin we have any 
 adequate knowledge, the Hindus are easily seen to be of 
 mixed descent. In India, as in Greece, Italy, and many other 
 countries, the rude primaeval occupants of fertile regions have 
 been disturbed by visits from stronger races of men who killed 
 or drove away their righting men, married their women, and 
 made slaves of their children. In this way was established a 
 servile stratum of society held down by a higher one, which, 
 like the Eupatrids and the Populus of European nations, 
 originated a religious and civil aristocracy. Putting aside 
 obscure and unimportant movements of Mongolians from the 
 north-east, the Dravidian tribes may have entered India from 
 the north in prehistoric times, although now only met with 
 in the Deccan. But by far the most lasting and important 
 conquests were those of the Aryan races who, coming through 
 the Hindukush passes, brought their physical and mental 
 superiority to bear in an irresistible and generally beneficial 
 manner on the Punjab and Hindustan in succession; ulti- 
 mately introducing their civilisation into the southernmost 
 limits of the whole country. In the most ancient sacred 
 songs of this people they are found calling themselves "Arya;" 
 and the fact that a province of Persia was formerly known as 
 as "Ariana," while the whole country is still denominated in 
 the local language "Iran," serves to strengthen the inference 
 that this was the old home of the conquerors of India. This 
 conclusion is further affirmed by the evidence of language. 
 The race was originally of agricultural habits ; and its warlike 
 energies were stimulated by the everlasting struggle with the 
 pastoral nomads who, under the generic name of "Turan," 
 figure as the perpetual enemies of the race.* The Aryans of 
 
 * The names of Iran and Turan will be found reproduced in compara- 
 tively recent Indian history to denote the chronic opposition between the 
 Persian and Turkman parties in the Moghul Empire.
 
 14 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Persia were a religious people ; and their southward migration 
 may have been due to one or both of these causes ; dissidence 
 of creed, and strife between the agricultural and the pastoral 
 communities. The subject of the invasion of India by what 
 may be conveniently styled the " Vedic Aryans " is dealt with 
 more fully hereafter ; we need only notice here that they were 
 a mild and well-favoured race, whose relative advantages are 
 still, to some extent at least, maintained by the Brahmans in 
 India, who have ever since preserved a certain superiority 
 over the other inhabitants of the country by means of the 
 laws of caste. Other and later immigrations are thought to 
 be traceable, which have left effects less evident, perhaps, but 
 scarcely less important than those attributable to the Vedic 
 Aryans. Such were those of the tribes known as Kagar, Tak- 
 shak, Jat, etc., all described as " Scythians," although the 
 word cannot be taken to have any precise scientific import. 
 Assuming, however, that the Scythians were another branch 
 of the Aryan race, the apparent identity of such names as 
 " Oxydracae " and " Getae " has been taken as establishing their 
 parentage of the Kshatryas and Jats, or Jats ; in that case the 
 Scythians have wandered over a great part of India, and have 
 founded kingdoms everywhere, from the shores of the Arabian 
 Sea to the banks of the Ganges. Reserving some further 
 details of these successive invasions, we must for the present 
 take notice of some of the more prominent of the non-Aryan 
 tribes whom they disturbed and suppressed. 
 
 Beginning in the north we find tribes of non-Aryan blood in 
 the Gakkars, Gonds, Bhars, Bundeiaa, Santals ; while the 
 once intractable Bhils are now almost completely reclaimed in 
 the Narbada valley. Indeed, most of the tribes here named 
 have embraced Hinduism, or, in rarer cases, the creed of 
 Islam ; the former being that with which they have been 
 in most close and constant contact. Their total number has 
 been estimated at over twenty millions, while their blood is
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 mingled with that of perhaps one hundred and twenty more 
 of the general population. Only about fifteen millions among 
 the Hindus appear to be of pure Aryan descent. 
 
 Some of the non-Aryans rank, as we have already observed, 
 with the dwarfish folk of the islands. These, so lately as 1855, 
 were in a state of piimal savagery ; entirely unclothed, sus- 
 pected of cannibalism, and prepared to repel the visits of 
 strangers with poisoned arrows. This is what is known as the 
 " Negrito " family ; they have no sense of religion, except of 
 a mysterious and malevolent power which delights to afflict 
 mankind. That state of existence is still represented on the 
 continent by a few scattered tribes of shy savages in the hilly 
 forests of East and Central India. The rest of the non- Aryans are 
 believed to be descended from invaders from the east and north- 
 east ; with the important exception of the Uravidians, already 
 mentioned in connection with the Deccan as having been, per- 
 haps, a north-western people. These are remarkable for having 
 maintained a number of highly-developed non-Aryan languages, 
 and for being of peaceful, docile, and intelligent character. 
 The word " Dravida" in Sanskrit literature applies to popula- 
 tions not regarded as hostile, like the indigenous enemies 
 encountered in other parts ; and it has been thought that the 
 mythic history of the hero, Rama, as set forth in the epic poem 
 to be hereafter noted, relates to a peaceful visit of the Aryans 
 introductive of agriculture and other civilising arts. The 
 Dravidian people seem to have welcomed such visits : and the 
 memory of one at least of the Aryan missionaries is preserved 
 near " Rama's Bridge," at the extreme south, where the peak 
 of Agastya towers over Cape Comorin. The date of the 
 missionary whose name this mountain bears varies from the 
 sixth century before Christ to the seventh century after that 
 era : so hard is the task of introducing accuracy into these 
 subjects. But it is to be noted that while the earliest scriptures 
 of the Deccan are in Sanskrit, the people learned to use their
 
 16 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 own vernacular, and that this movement has been ascribed to 
 the struggle of Buddhism, somewhat earlier than the later of 
 the conjectured dates. 
 
 If at that time Buddhism was the popular creed its defenders 
 would naturally adopt the popular language ; and the Tamil 
 was certainly employed in anti-Brahman writings at a later 
 date, for the books are still forthcoming. The Dravidians-- 
 estimated at twenty million are now Hindus, though not of 
 the most orthodox type ; they preserve the old mildness of 
 their manners, though their lower lower castes have always 
 produced good soldiers ; and, with an admixture of northern 
 blood, they have given rise to the enterprising Mahrattas of 
 whom we hear so much in Indian history. 
 
 SECTION 3. It is impossible to describe the conquest of 
 Upper India by the Vedic Aryans in the same purely historical 
 manner as that which is applied to the Hebrews in Palestine or 
 the Normans in England. All that can be done, in the absence 
 of actual contemporaneous records and dates, is to make use of 
 such evidence as we have, and to complete our picture from con- 
 jecture and from the unanimous conclusions of the best modern 
 authorities. Using such methods we find the proofs of Aryan 
 colonisation, not only in the languages of Upper India but 
 also in laws, customs, and religious beliefs. There was, 
 probably, a time when the Aryan races though now widely 
 scattered over all the world once had a common origin and 
 a common home : and the fact that most words used in family 
 life, and in peaceful occupations, are identical or closely similar 
 in many of their most widely-separated tongues may be taken 
 as a strong confirmation of this belief. Where the same name 
 is used for the same idea by remote races, it can hardly be 
 doubted that the subject was familiar to their forefathers before 
 they were separated and dispersed. So also there are laws 
 and customs amongst equally scattered nations which could 
 hardly have arisen but from a similar state of things. And
 
 INTRO D UCTOR Y. 17 
 
 so again of some of the fundamental religious conceptions. 
 " Diespitar " in the name of the Heavenly Father alike among 
 the Romans and the Vedic Aryans ; and the patria potestas of 
 the former not only existed amongst the latter, but might have 
 been described by almost the same name. Cattle, horse, water, 
 the "daughter" who milked the cow, the king and his royal 
 power, are all common objects described by cognate words alike 
 in Greek and German, in Ancient Irish and in Archaic Indian. 
 The very word " Aryan " is thought to come from a root which, 
 in many Indo-Germanic languages, denotes the " earing " of 
 "arable" land (earth), and points to the agricultural habits of the 
 race. It is not possible to decide at what time the departure oc- 
 curred among the Asiatic section of this race, whereby the Aryan 
 empire was established in the Punjab and Hindustan. Early 
 Anglo-Indian scholars, adopting the estimates of their Brahman 
 guides, assigned a very ancient date to the first invasion; though 
 we know hardly anything to warrant very positive conclusions. 
 All that can be with any confidence asserted is that, under 
 pressure of some disturbance in Balkh and Khorasan, whether 
 soaaj 1 _ojiticj^ 1 __orreligjous 1 _.some tribes or families of tall 
 stature and comparatively fair complexion, speaking a language 
 akin to the Zend, or ancient Persic, crossed the Hindukush 
 passes, bringing with them some rude sacrificial hymns, and a 
 simple faith in the sacredness of fire, and the value of pro. 
 pitiating certain elemental deities. But their social ideas held 
 germs of useful development ; the integer of society as in 
 the related societies of Germany, Greece, and Rome was the 
 corporate family whose head (the father) was also priest, and 
 the mother an activejmd_respected partner. These families 
 were loosely tied together in the various tribes or clans who 
 maintained the tradition of a common ancestry. Moreover, each 
 clan was ruled by a chief, the head, perhaps, of what was be- 
 lieved to be the founding family ; which chief had a sort of Bardic 
 college as his assessors. Thus much has been gathered from 
 
 c
 
 18 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the Vedic hymns, which internal evidence shows to be of the 
 highest antiquity. Most of the hymns, we are told, are in a 
 language so rugged as to prove that they were written before 
 the formation of classical Sanskrit, the later poems being in a 
 style more conformed to classic usage, though still preserving 
 an archaic form. No materials have been as yet discovered 
 from which to form any approximate date, either for the 
 earlier hymns or for the formation of the existing canon by 
 virtue of which they have been incorporated with later texts 
 to form the Vedic Scripture. The Hindu chronologers boldly 
 claim for these books an origin in the 3ist century before 
 Christ ; while modern European scholars place them at dates 
 varying between the i4th and the nth. All therefore that 
 / remains is, assuming that these hymns reveal the condition of 
 the invaders a little before and a little after their migration, 
 to extract from them some information as to the laws and 
 manners of the founders of the Indian polity. 
 
 Now, in the first place, let it be borne in mind that the two 
 elements already noted as existing in the Hindu scriptures call 
 for caution on the part of those who would seek to learn from 
 them the facts of ancient life. There may for all we know 
 be as long a period between the old Vedic hymns and the later 
 Brahman rubrics as there is between the oldest traditions of 
 the Hebrew wanderings in the wilderness and the story of Ezra 
 and his reforms. Thoughts and words, the structure of the 
 language and the framework of society, all must vary in the 
 course of centuries : and the condition of a Hindu kingdom in 
 Bihar could not be reasonably expected to resemble that of a 
 nomad tribe' in the passes of the Hindukush. To take one 
 simple illustration, the early hymns suggest fire-worship and 
 the use of Bacchic rites in which fermented liquor played a 
 part : there is neither priestly caste nor consecrated animal. 
 Later accretions, made when the people had begun to settle 
 in valleys and plains under a burning sun and subject to
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 19 
 
 occasional drought, show the Godhead passing from the Spirit 
 of the Fire to the Lord of Tempests, and provide ritual and 
 calendar for the propitiation of the Rain-god and the worship 
 of the rivers. Accumulated ceremonies will be found to have 
 led to the existence of a special class of hereditary ministers, 
 and the indispensable ox to have become a national totem, 
 almost an Incarnation like Apis. But these changes were 
 slow. 
 
 In those writings which linguistic and other evidence show 
 to be oldest, a simple society is revealed, not unlike that 
 attributed to ancient Germany. Each householder is the 
 leader of his family's devotions, each family shares a common 
 dwelling : a number of such dwellings forms the tribal town, 
 enclosed by a palisade as a protection against the wandering 
 of the herds and the depredations of the aborigines. The 
 sexes are equal, and the women free, always under the control 
 of the paterfamilias ; widow-burning is unknown. 
 
 The Aryans are traceable as they slowly spread east and 
 south from the Punjab towards the Ganges, exterminating those 
 of the inhabitants who resist them, but accepting those who 
 submit, as serfs and clients, and thus anticipating the policy of 
 their kinsfolk the Romans, as laid down by Virgil. Their 
 onward progress from the cold mountains to the sunny plains 
 leads them to modify their worship of the sun and the Fire- 
 God ; they find that warmth may be taken for granted, while 
 their welfare as husbandmen is become dependent upon 
 clouds and rain. The brimming rivers where they bathe 
 and water their cattle are named with gratitude and devotion ; 
 in the order of their march ; in short, it was no longer needful, 
 or even always agreeable, to pray for heat ; but prayers for 
 water would appear more and more appropriate, and, thus, 
 the Rain-God, and the fertilising streams absorb their worship. 
 Going still farther eastward their foremost tribes were pressed 
 on to regions where a constant supply of water was yielded by 
 
 C 2
 
 20 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the two monsoons, and by the great increase of the volume of 
 drainage. The cloud-compelling Indra then, in his turn, 
 retires, to make way for a triad of almost metaphysical powers, 
 more suited to a community at last settled, amid the prodigal 
 gifts of Nature, in the Gangetic valley ; and, thus, the quasi- 
 abstract conception of a triune Godhead, Creator, Destroyer, 
 Preserver, took a place in popular estimation, and prepared 
 a pantheon for the boundless mythology of the modern 
 Hindus.* 
 
 Accordingly, we find the later portions of the sacred writings 
 indicating, by a complication of ritual and of sacrificial obser- 
 vances the change that was coming over the once simple life of 
 the conquerors ; the language becomes more artificial, and a 
 specialised class is evolved to commit the rites and rules to 
 memory and carry them into practice. By degrees the tribes, 
 multiplying and abandoning their wandering habits, grew into 
 a nation; then the confederation of those tribes broke up, and 
 separate states began to be created. Kings and hereditary 
 families of chiefs were needed to judge the people and lead 
 them in war ; and a second class arose in addition to that of 
 the sacrificers. The members of the general community were 
 now regarded as confined to the care of herds and tillage; and 
 the system of caste originated. The Brahmans, Kshatryas, 
 and Vaisyas were the hereditary castes or classes of the "Twice 
 born"; the subjugated clients, or Sudras, were "once-born," 
 and were prohibited the use of the scriptures. We are re- 
 minded of the early society of Rome, and the distinction 
 between Plebs and Populus. 
 
 The next literary monument of social progress is to be found 
 in the political and legal writings of a considerably later period. 
 It used to be thought that the Dharm-shdstar, or " Code of 
 Manu," afforded a complete picture of the state of Indian 
 society in ancient times. But the opinion now usually sup- 
 
 * See next chapter.
 
 INTRQD UC TOR Y. 3 1 
 
 ported by scholars is that this work is a compilation not much 
 earlier than the Christian era. It is nevertheless of some value, 
 as it is held to have been in great measure composed from 
 older documents, and to represent the spirit and character of 
 some part of the Hindu world after the caste system had been 
 firmly and thoroughly organised. As a "code of laws" the 
 work is of no great authority, being no more than the latest 
 embodiment of the views of a school of commentators called 
 Manavas, from whom it takes its title. As a political treatise, 
 however, it is believed to be a description, for the information 
 of a southern chief, of society such as it existed, or ought 
 to exist, in a Brahmanic ideal. It does this by marking off the 
 employment of the castes in subordination to the Brahmans, 
 and laying down regulations in the manner of an Atlantis or 
 Utopia, for eating, marriage, social intercourse, education, 
 government; in a word, for life and for death. Although such a 
 work must have had great influence in fixing the habits and 
 institutions of the Hindus, yet it must be taken rather as show- 
 ing what was desired at the time of publication than what was 
 always done. We may safely assume that the picture was one 
 of an ideal which, though conceived by a man of genius as 
 arising out of the needs of his society, was one for whose 
 immediate fulfilment actual facts were still wanting, if not 
 positively unfit. The author would not have assigned, for 
 example, so much authority to the higher orders, so much 
 docility to the lower, had those relations been already in full 
 and unquestioned operation. What he could do was to draw 
 an attractive picture, not at variance with the traditions of the 
 past and capable of affording a pattern for the future. 
 
 From other sources it may be inferred that the Brahmans 
 did not obtain their supremacy without considerable opposi- 
 tion, and that the caste system, in marriage especially, was not 
 at first rigid. It is not improbable that by their almost exclu- 
 sive possession of records and traditions the priestly class sue-
 
 22 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 ceeded in making these subservient to their social and political 
 ambitions. Nevertheless, the vigilance of modern criticism 
 has detected in the old literature indications of a struggle 
 between the two higher classes for the rights of sacrifice, and 
 the general leadership of the simple but superstitious people. 
 It is even thought that the Kshatrya, or military aristocracy, 
 was so much worsted in these contentions as to be either de- 
 stroyed or expelled from Hindustan ; though it appears more 
 likely that a large number of them settled in Maharashtra, 
 Gujarat, and Central India, where they founded the famous 
 Rajput dynasties of those regions, and by intermarriage with 
 the earlier inhabitants gave birth to warlike races of mixed 
 blood. The Brahmans alone of all the Aryan tribes have any 
 claim to have preserved their purity of descent, having been 
 enabled to keep themselves separate by the twofold superiority 
 of religious and social privilege. On the whole, therefore, it 
 may be concluded that the actual conditions of the four-fold 
 division of the Aryans as described in " Manu " was originally 
 rather ideal than actual. 
 
 Whatever may have been the frame of their early society, 
 the Aryans soon became too numerous for the limits of the 
 Punjab. Westward the Indus and the mountains held them 
 in, combined with some dread of the populations of those 
 quarters, who appear in the Vedic record as impure Aryans, 
 contact with whom was a pollution. To the South, again, the 
 way was blocked by various obstacles, of which the most for- 
 midable would be that great expanse of arid and uninviting 
 sand, which extends from about the 3oth parallel of latitude 
 in a southerly direction for nearly four hundred miles to 
 the Runn of Catch. Thus compressed, the migration would 
 naturally take the line of least resistance, namely, the outlet 
 afforded by the rivers trending towards the East. After cross- 
 ing the Saraswati which after a short attempt to seek the 
 Indus is now lost in the sand they would come to the
 
 IN TROD UC TOR Y. 23 
 
 Jumna and the fertile plains between that river and the 
 Upper Ganges. Here, between the Sutlej and the Ganges, 
 they founded the famous cities of Indrapat and Hastinapur. 
 And here are to be found the legendary scenes of the great 
 epic of the Mahabharat, and also the fields of real historic bat- 
 tles. After settlement of unknown duration in the Madhya- 
 Des, or " Midland," the Aryans pushed forth fresh branches 
 into Bihar, where Buddhism originated, and whence set forth 
 the expedition to the Deccan already mentioned as forming 
 the subject of the second great epic, the Ramdyana. The 
 exact era of these movements is concealed by the mists which 
 hang over all Hindu chronology, save at those rare points 
 where India comes in contact with the history of other coun- 
 tries. We cannot even say whether the migration had any con- 
 nection with the rise of Buddhism or not. All that can be cer- 
 tainly said is that there was a reformation of religion in Bihar, 
 and that there was a migration from Bihar into the Deccan, 
 but we cannot be sure which took place before the other. 
 There is indeed a presumption that the migration preceded 
 the reform ; but it is not a very strong presumption ; it rests 
 upon the fact that Sanskrit was originally the language of 
 science and religion among the Dravidians, who did not use the 
 Tamil for those purposes until much later. Hence it may be 
 plausibly argued that they used the language of their instruc- 
 tors as long as the authority of the latter was undisputed, and 
 only fell back on the vernacular when driven to seek popular 
 favour by the rise of controversy. Coming to the time of the 
 Buddhist reform and fo the almost immediately succeeding 
 notices af Greek intercourse with India we meet with evidence 
 that demands a somewhat more careful examination. 
 
 [Among authorities to be consulted on the subjects dealt 
 with in this chapter are : " The Imperial Gazetteer of 
 India," 14 vols, Triibner and Co., 1887 ; " History of India," 
 by M. Elphinstone (Cowell's Notes); the Maps contained in the
 
 24 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 "Progress Statement" for 1882-3; Part. II. Hansard, 1885; 
 Muir's " Sanskrit Texts," 3 vols. ; " The Laws of Manu," 
 Biihler ("Sacred Books of the East"), 1888; Max Miiller's 
 " Essays," passim ; Weber's " Indian Literature " (Triibner's 
 " Oriental Series"), 1878; " Altindisches Leben," H. Zimmer, 
 Berlin, 1879 ; "Der Rigveda, die alteste Literatur des Inder," 
 Leipzic, 1881; "Indo-Aryans," by Rajendradala Mitra, C.I.E, 
 2 vols, London, 1881. There are two editions of Dr. Muir's 
 book, the latest published 1868-73.]
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PR^-MUSLIM TIMES. 
 
 Section I : Rise of Buddhism. Section 2 : India as known to the 
 Greeks. Section 3 : India on the eve of the Muslim conquest. 
 
 SECTION i. Up to the great religious schism we have as 
 has been already stated no historical record in regard to the 
 people in any part of India. The national mind, if such an 
 expression may be permitted, has never shown any aptitude 
 for that branch of letters. Reference has been already made 
 to the ancient scriptural hymns, and to the scarcely less sacred 
 commentaries of sages ; and two great epic poems have been 
 mentioned in which real events may be supposed to have 
 afforded a groundwork for imaginative and mythologic em- 
 broidery. Of speculation there was no lack ; and it can 
 scarcely be doubted that there was a tendency towards many 
 branches of science. But for concrete facts, the dates of events 
 and their successive evolution, the Hindus have never shown 
 the slightest taste or curiosity. Some admixture of possible 
 biography in their poems, and one set of provincial annals, are 
 all that they have done in that kind during a period of, say, 
 twenty centuries. This peculiarity may have been the result of 
 the very love of speculative philosophy, the taste for abstract 
 reasoning which bred a conviction of the unreality of matter 
 and its appearances. Something, also, may be due to a turn 
 for the marvellous acquired by the conquerors from the ruder 
 
 * The " Rajatarangani."
 
 26 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 aborigines amo.igst whom their lives were led, and to the natural 
 desire to give their own conditions a .heroic scale of propor- 
 tion. However caused, the scorn of facts and figures is unde- 
 niable ; and it is likely to keep posterity from all detailed know- 
 ledge of the historyof the Vedic Aryans. Our information shows 
 them to us as a pastoral people, who also practised agriculture 
 and made war on the aborigines and among themselves. Gradu- 
 ally settling in villages and towns, they built up a kind of 
 cellular social tissue based on the family as a rudimental organ. 
 The family : which with them meant a permanent incorporation 
 whose managing partner was the father, while the mother was 
 free, but kept to her particular sphere of labour. The sons 
 also worked for the common good, with some voice in council, 
 some latent claim to separate their respective shares of the 
 joint estate ; but ordinarily that estate was probably undivided 
 at first, and the private property of the sons was confined to 
 everything that they might earn without using family capital. 
 The daughters, like their mother, had their prescribed occupa- 
 tion the name is connected with the milking of cattle* and 
 were allowed some freedom in the choice of husbands. Mon- 
 ogamy was the rule; and when, in certain cases, a second wife 
 could be taken, the original consort remained in the position 
 of " Housewife." When the father became decrepit the eldest 
 son took his place in the management ; and when the father 
 died the women came entirely under charge of him who kept 
 the homestead, ordinarily the eldest son. The manes of 
 fathers continued a hypothetic presence, but were not deified ; 
 and the performance of certain rites for their spiritual welfare 
 was a necessary part and condition of the administration of 
 the estate. The Deity was regarded as an immanent Power 
 latent in Nature, but capable of representation by one force or 
 
 * Cf. " Dug," and " Dairy." The Aryan languages have the same word 
 for daughter from East to West Sanskrit, Persian, German, Greek, &c.
 
 PR&-MUSL1M TIMES. 27 
 
 another, which became the object of what Professor F. M. 
 Miiller has called " henotheistic " worship. The typical mani- 
 festations of that power in the phenomenal universe were, 
 as we have seen, chosen according to the varying pressure 
 of environments ; first ADITI, SAVITRI, or by whatever name 
 the Sun might be indicated, and AGNI, or Fire, the Sun's agent 
 on earth : then came INDRA, VAHU, the wind. And this early 
 Trinity was the object of veneration and propitiation before 
 the growth of a cumbrous ritual, and a specialised priesthood 
 had begun to act and react upon each other, and to create 
 the system of Vedantic Brahmanism contemplated in the 
 " code of Manu," developing by degrees into an oppressive 
 clericalism. 
 
 The exact period of the first reaction against this system is 
 subject to much of the uncertainty that pertains to all Hindu 
 chronology. According to the ordinary view, the Buddha was 
 a Prince of Bihar, who died B.C. 543. The latest European 
 estimates bring this date to B.C. 477. Some of these critics 
 question if he ever existed at all; and the earliest date that can 
 be actually determined is, perhaps, that of a great council 
 convened at Patna B.C. 244, from which the establishment of 
 Buddhism as a religion unquestionably dates. But this brings 
 us to a date later than that of the Macedonian intercourse with 
 Upper India, at which time the reformation had already 
 begun. We shall, therefore, do well to examine its nature 
 and probable origin before dealing with Hindustan as known 
 to the Greeks. 
 
 Not only has the personal existence of the Reformer been 
 doubted, but some scholars have gone so far as to question the 
 existence of Buddhism itself, as a distinct Indian heresy, or 
 counterblast to Brahmanism. It is urged by them that Buddh- 
 ism is merely the name for a development of the " Sankhya " 
 philosophy, as taught by a sage named Kapila ; a system too 
 abstract for the apprehension of the masses unless it could be
 
 28 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 rendered concrete by being gathered round the person of some 
 human being, however idealised. It is hopeless to seek for the 
 era of Kapila, but there seems reason to believe that he lived 
 at Hardwar where the Ganges breaks out through the sub- 
 Himalayan hills which was a place of sanctity before any of 
 the existing forms of religion had taken birth in India. Such 
 sages and such heresies have never been unknown in the 
 country : the Brahmo Somaj is an instance in our own times 
 as the foundation of Jainism was in the days with which we 
 are now dealing. The Jains who still exist in India assert 
 that their reform is older than that of the Buddha ; like him 
 they reject the fetters of caste, and preach social and spiritual 
 emancipation. It is to be noted that the earliest legends of 
 the reformer represent him as the son of the King of 
 Kapilavastu, which seems to favour the theory mentioned 
 above. 
 
 Subject to such cautions as this, the accepted view of the 
 matter may be abstracted as follows. The Reformer dying, 
 about the time of the birth of Socrates, his disciples attempted 
 to systematise his teaching in what is known as the First 
 General Council. About a century later a Second council is 
 reported, at which certain controversies were brought forward, 
 and an attempt was made for their reconciliation ; but the 
 proceedings only led to further dissidence. It was after this 
 that the form known as " Northern Buddhism " arose ; and, 
 ere long the incursion of Alexander the Great began to throw 
 Upper India open to foreign influence, while the Buddhist 
 missionaries became enabled to penetrate into Central Asia, 
 where the system still subsists, in a form considerably differing 
 from southern and eastern developments. Judging from exist- 
 ing records we are enabled to form a plausible idea of what 
 the nature of the original movement may have been. It 
 sprang out of Brahmanism much as Christianity sprang out of 
 Judaism, substituting a religion of emotion and sympathy for
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 29 
 
 one of ceremonial and dogma. It promulgated the admission 
 of universal sorrow and suffering, and the belief in transmigra- 
 tion as a punishment for the sins of the soul : two doctrines, how- 
 ever, that had long been taught by the Brahmans. But the system 
 rejected the whole Hindu pantheon ; and what was offered to 
 mankind as an asylum in its place, was a prospect of ultimate 
 extinction as a reward, to be earned by the accumulation of a 
 capital of good works. There was no place in such a system 
 either for a crowd of monstrous divinities, or for one supreme 
 God in human form. Meanwhile ignorance, pain, and other 
 aspects of evil were to be steadily encountered ; and a general 
 charity towards all sentient beings animals as well as 
 men became a prominent feature. Such appears, in a few 
 words, to have been the nucleus of ancient Buddhism; an 
 attempt which succeeded, to a far greater extent than might 
 have been expected, in the strange task of founding a system 
 of holy living upon a basis of agnostic doctrine. 
 
 We are not to suppose the spread of Buddhism to have 
 taken place suddenly, or even to have ever established a popular 
 creed. Side by side with the orthodox hierarchy, which was 
 its natural foe, was no doubt a mass of polytheistic or, rather, 
 polydsemonic superstition, having its roots in the fear and 
 fanaticism of myriads of abject savages, cowering in wild 
 mountain-tracts, and seeking in stones and trees some object 
 of propitiation. Such people would be indifferent to reform, 
 and neither anxious for social progress nor conscious of moral 
 evil ; to them the philosophy of the Buddhist would appeal as 
 vainly as would the theosophy of the Brahmans. All that the 
 reformers could do, without a system of universal instruction, 
 would be to kindle a lamp in the darkness, and wait for calls 
 for aid. 
 
 SECTION 2. The people being such as they were the majority 
 gentle and laborious, though engrossed in abject superstition, 
 the minority, a graded society of self-satisfied Pharisees the
 
 30 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 refined and altruistic tenets of the reformers were necessarily 
 confined to the schools and convents of Magadha, or slowly 
 propagated amongst a few congenial souls. About the end of 
 the 4th century, B.C., a new light came upon the dark 
 Indian world, not from the East, but from the West. Alex- 
 ander the Great, having conquered Persia, and marched 
 through Khorasan and Kabul, crossed the Indus at Attok 
 early in the year 327 B.C. He found the Punjab divided into 
 a number of Hindu states, jealous of each other to a degree 
 which kept them from uniting to oppose his progress. On 
 the banks of the Jehlam, however, he was encountered by a 
 considerable native army under a local Raja, whom the Greeks 
 knew by the name of " Porus." But the tactics of the Mace- 
 donian were too much for the multitudinous array of the un- 
 practised Asiatics. Leaving his camp in its original position, 
 Alexander moved a strong division, unperceived, a few 
 miles up the river to a ford. Here he crossed early in the 
 morning, and fell upon, the Indian host while they were en- 
 gaged in opposing the portion of the Macedonian force that 
 had been left in their front. Porus was entirely overthrown* 
 near the scene of the modern battle of Chilianwala, half way 
 between the bank of the Indus and the city of Lahore. The 
 whole of Upper India seemed to lie open to the victors, 
 and all Indian history might have been altered. But there 
 were opposing forces far more powerful than the unskilled army 
 of Porus. After another battle and a few onward marches, 
 Alexander found himself on the banks of the Sutlej, with a 
 diminished host, and under the fierce sun and fiery winds of 
 the hot season. Rumours reached him that the King of 
 Magadha was marching against him at the head of a mighty 
 assemblage of six hundred thousand infantry, with a propor- 
 tionate contingent of elephants and horse. To his military ambi- 
 tion and conscious skill, such news might be a fresh encourage- 
 ment ; but his men were unwilling. To the trials of heat were
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 31 
 
 now added the depressing influences of the monsoon. " We 
 have done enough," they said ; " take us no farther from our 
 homes ; ask of us no further sacrifices to barren glory." Alex- 
 ander was unabie to restore the courage of the men, or to 
 break their resolution. Much against his wishes he had to re- 
 trace his steps to the Indus, down which he marched with a 
 great flotilla of rafts and boats, and left India for ever, having 
 learned all that, was possible, in so short a visit, from friendly 
 natives of that vast, mysterious land. 
 
 Among the Indians who had visited the camp of the 
 invaders was an adventurer, destined to exert a powerful in- 
 fluence upon the fortunes of his countrymen. This was 
 Chandra Gupta, an exiled subject of the King of Magadha, 
 and believed to have been an illegitimate scion of one of the 
 Scythian races, whose " totem " was the serpent. The details 
 of this man's proceedings are wanting ; he appears to have 
 had friends at the Court of Palibothra, or Pataliputra, near the 
 site of the modern Patna, and to have succeeded by their 
 help in obtaining the throne of Magadha soon after 
 the departure of the Macedonians. Before the end of the 
 century he had extended his power to the Punjab, where he 
 found his possessions bounded by the Indus, on whose oppo- 
 site bank was the south-eastern extreme of the Kingdom of 
 Babylonia, ruled by Seleukos, the successor of Alexander. A 
 collision ensued, evidently advantageous to the Indian leader, 
 who made a treaty with the Greek, by virtue of which his 
 power was recognised up to the Indus, and the daughter of 
 Seleukos became his wife. A Macedonian envoy was deputed 
 to reside at Palibothra. 
 
 The name of this envoy was Megasthenes, and he wrote an 
 account, entitled, " Indike" of the court and kingdom of 
 Chandra, which is only known to us from fragments, and the 
 use made of it by Arrian, the friend of Epictetus, four cen- 
 turies later. He speaks of the city as twenty-four miles in
 
 32 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 circuit, surrounded by a deep moat, the walls having 570 
 towers and sixty-four gates, Buddhism must have been in an 
 infant condition, as the only allusion Megastbenes seems to 
 have made to it is in his enumeration of the various orders 
 of sophists, amongst whom the "Sramans" of that system, 
 perhaps, appear. Had the subject been sufficiently prominent 
 to attract his attention, the portions of his work in which it 
 would have been described, are thought to be among the frag- 
 ments that are still forthcoming. The inference is strong that 
 the Buddhist schism had not then assumed any very great 
 prominence or any position of active hostility towards the 
 Brahman orthodoxy of the period. Nor does any crying 
 necessity for reform appear to have then existed, for Megas- 
 thenes found Magadha society in a very creditable condition. 
 The envoy reports that the people were brave, honest, and 
 truthful, while slavery was unknown among them. But it was 
 evidently at the same time a society that was too complicated, 
 strange, and extensive to be completely understood or correctly 
 described by an outside observer, however intelligent, and 
 however desirous of giving a faithful report. That Megas- 
 thenes intended to be accurate is evident from the one in- 
 stance of his statement of the distance of Palibothra from the 
 Indus, which is correct within a few miles ; but he could net 
 possibly understand all the peculiarities of a state of life so un- 
 like anything previously known to himself. Reading his report 
 through the medium of our present more exact knowledge we 
 are enabled to form some estimate of what the facts may have 
 been. We may conjecture, for example, that the four castes, 
 or classes, of -the Manava code formed the basisof the social 
 hierarchy, though to Megasthenes it seemed as if the people 
 were divided into seven ; the higher and lower classes alike 
 beginning to recognise the need for a division of labour. 
 Thus, there were philosophers who were not statesmen, and 
 statesmen who were not philosophers, a distinction by no
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 33 
 
 means confined to ancient India. There were one hundred 
 and eighteen kingdoms ; that of Chandra was called the em- 
 pire of " the Prasii," and claimed a kind of federal superiority, 
 but each township reminded the Greek of the little republics 
 of his own land. The later conditions of political literature 
 were hardly anticipated, for " the philosopher who is found 
 mistaken in his predictions has to observe silence for the re- 
 mainder of his life." 
 
 For purposes of war considerable forces were always in a 
 state of mobilisation, inclusive of an establishment of ordnance, 
 which consisted of war-chariots and fighting elephants : but it 
 was characteristic of the mild and humane habits of the people 
 that the husbandman was not to be disturbed in his operations 
 by any military doings ; and, as in the English Wars of the 
 Roses, the pursuits of agriculture were allowed to continue 
 amid the marchings and engagements of contending armies. 
 The soldiers were of good courage and discipline ; and such 
 was the efficiency of the police, or the virtue of the population, 
 that in a camp of 400,000 persons which followed the progress 
 of the emperor like a moving city, the value of stolen 
 property only averaged something like ^3 daily. In matters 
 of justice the ruler sate with a sort of jury, but none of our 
 Greek authorities seem to have known of any written code of 
 law. The revenue was derived from the rent of land rather 
 than from taxation ; and the expression of Strabo " the whole 
 land is royal " must be taken as implying that the whole sur- 
 plus produce was to be used for the common benefit. There was 
 no private ownership ; but after the necessities of the husband- 
 man had been provided for, the net balance went to meet the 
 wants of the public service. It seems that this balance 
 was assumed to equal a fourth of the total yield, the remaining 
 three-quarters being left for the subsistence of the cultivator, 
 and for the replacement of stock, etc. In towns the artisans were 
 expected to contribute to the public service by way of labour 
 
 D
 
 34 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 estimated sometimes at one day in every month : every unit, 
 in town or country, was administered by the chief revenue 
 officer. The use of brick and stone in building is not 
 mentioned ; and from this and other considerations it is 
 believed that the efforts of architecture were confined to 
 structures of timber, which was then, probably, very abundant. 
 The fortifications of walled towns were made of earth. In 
 most other respects the manners and customs of the people 
 were those of the modern Hindu ; their habit of cooking and 
 eating, each caste apart from all others, is particularly noticed. 
 They used but little fermented liquor, and were temperate and 
 patient, ready for just warfare, but all lovers of peace. 
 
 Such is the golden age of Hinduism as seen by outsiders. 
 The Emperor Chandra is said to have abdicated and gone to 
 the Deccan, where he ended his days as a hermit. Of his son 
 and successor, it is only known that his name was Mitra Gupta,* 
 and that he renewed the alliance with his European kinsfolk. 
 The Empire continued to expand ; it embraced what have 
 been called "the three Kulingas" or coasts; that is (ist) the 
 northern portion of what is now known as the Coromandel 
 coast ; (2nd) the sea-board of Bengal with its " Hinterland" ; 
 and (3rd) the Burmese coast from Chittagong to Arakan. This 
 is accordingly taken as the era when Brahmanism first spread 
 to the Straits, where an ancient form of that system is still 
 existing, especially in the island of Bali, off the coast of Java. 
 Of this, indeed, tradition is our only evidence ; perhaps the 
 real emigration was later, but it is in the time of Asoka, the 
 son of Mitra, that the Empire received its chief aggrandise- 
 ment : and -the era of this monarch B.C. 264-223 is the 
 first firm ground in Indian history. 
 
 Of the period of Asoka's reign there can be no manner of 
 
 * But he is also named by some writers "Vindusara," which was 
 perhaps a title.
 
 PRM-MUSLJM TIMES. 35 
 
 doubt, any more than of the extent of his power. The sub- 
 joined summary of events in his career has been collected, 
 chiefly from the authority of contemporaneous inscriptions. 
 About 263 rj.c. he was Viceroy for his father, in Malwa, 
 having his seat of government at the famous old city of 
 Ujjain. Soon after he was engaged in a struggle for the 
 succession, by reason cf his father's death ; and he did not 
 finally obtain the throne until 260, after a series of successful 
 wars against his competing brothers. In 257 he publicly 
 embraced the faith of the Buddhists; and in the following 
 year pursued ihe policy of his family by concluding a treaty 
 with his cousin Antiochus II., grandson of Seleukos Nikator. 
 This Prince soon afterwards lost the kingdoms of Parthia and 
 Bactria, which were never reunited to the Macedonian 
 .possessions. Asoka, convert and mighty Emperor, trusted to 
 moral suasion for the spread of his new creed. Tradition 
 asserts that he erected no less than eighty-four thousand 
 doctrinal monuments ; but the actual inscriptions hitherto 
 discovered amount to no more than forty-two. Nevertheless, 
 being in various characters and dialects, and in places far 
 distant from each other, they afford considerable evidence of 
 a widely-extended influence, and render it more than probable 
 that there was, at that period, an Empire of India north of 
 the Narbada and the Mahanadi at least ; for these proclam- 
 ations are found cut on rocks and stones, or inscribed on 
 pillars erected for their reception, to the north of Peshawar, 
 and in Ganjam, in the hills of Dehra Dun, on the shores of 
 Kathiawar, and in the forests south of Nagpur. Their contents 
 are as honourable to the Imperial preacher as they are demon- 
 strative of his power and influence ; and they serve to show 
 that Asoka or Priyadasi as he calls himself (probably a 
 religious title) cared fcr all the various classes of his people. 
 He provided for the instruction of the aborigines and foreign 
 neighbours, while continuing ever mindful of the more material 
 
 D 2
 
 36 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 interests of all the inhabitants of the country. Thus, the in- 
 scriptions set forth that the Emperor sent missionaries to " the 
 utmost limits of barbarian lands to associate with all un- 
 believers for the spread of the faith." At the same time roads 
 were made in India, and medical attendance provided for the 
 sick, while care was taken to maintain the purity of belief and 
 practice among the faithful. The doctrine was fixed, and a 
 standard of orthodoxy formed at a council held in 244 B.C. 
 The Canon of Buddhist Scripture was settled; and the 
 Magadhi dialect, called Pali, became the language of tradition 
 and worship in many distant lands Ceylon, Burma, Siam. The 
 slaughter of animals whether for human food or sacrifice to 
 the gods was prohibited, though not apparently made penal; 
 the edicts notice also the establishment of a kind of censorship 
 of morals ; they proclaim equality of rank among all believers ; 
 they earnestly invite to the practice of benevolence and 
 virtue. 
 
 Many autocrats have traced their own moral portraits, some 
 intending to do so, others not. We know, from similar 
 memorials .left in Persia and Assyria, what was the notion of 
 themselves affected by despots in those countries ; conquest, 
 slaughter, captivity, and persecution continue down to recent 
 times the pride and the delight of despots. But Asoka is the only 
 oriental monarch who has sought to extend an empire of 
 suasion, and to subdue men's minds to useful and holy life. In 
 so doing, this mighty, if simple-hearted, emperor has shown 
 his own nature, and the ideal of his age ; nor can it be denied 
 that the result is as pleasing as unexpected. So long as the 
 system and influence of Asoka lasted there was peace, there 
 was some degree of happiness for a large portion of the 
 human race. 
 
 SECTION 3. What was the exact political character of 
 Asoka's power we cannot learn ; possibly, in so wide a region, 
 the various states and tribes continued to exercise a good deal
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 37 
 
 of autonomy. About 225 B.C. the good Emperor retired from 
 the world ; but his house continued supreme, in Magadha at 
 least, for seven generations. About the end of that time, or 
 say, a little before the Christian era, Magadha fell into the 
 hands of a dynasty known as " Andhras," who are mentioned 
 by Pliny, but appear to have retired south, and to have ruled 
 at Orangal, in Telingana, about the time of the preparation 
 of the Roman itinerary known by the name of Peutinger. 
 Meanwhile, the northern part of the Empire Hindustan and 
 the Punjab became subject to incursions from the North. It 
 has been already noticed that the Greek Provinces of Central 
 Asia broke away from the Empire of Antiochus before the end 
 of Asoka's reign. Great disturbances ensued, and "Scythian" 
 tribes were precipitated upon Upper India who used, to some 
 extent at least, the Greek character, insomuch that their coins 
 with such inscriptions have been found as far east as 
 Mathura (Muttra), on the Jumna. A so-called " Scythian " 
 king, named Kanishka, who was a Buddhist, established that 
 form of religion in this part of India, and held a general council 
 there about 40 A.D. Kashmir is believed to have been the 
 centre of this northern Empire, which extended as far north 
 as Yarkand, and as far south as Sindh. The council assembled 
 in Kashmir, and was attended by two of the members of the 
 great college of Jetavana in what is now the Gonda District of 
 Audh.* 
 
 Dim memories remain of a conflict between this dynasty 
 and the people of Central India. The Arthur of Ujjain was 
 Vikram Aditya, whose era still forms a date and base ot 
 calculation in Hindustan. But this era (Sanibat i. B.C. 57) 
 is a little too early for the supposed victory over the 
 
 * This was near the famous city of Sravasti, the capital of the "northern 
 Kosala," where the Buddha is said to have taught and where the founder 
 of Jainism certainly had a school.
 
 38 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 " Scythians," which seems more likely to have occurred at 
 what is called the Saka (q-d. Scythian) era of A.D. 78. General 
 Cunningham inclines to the opinion that the victor drove the 
 Scythians back upon the northern hills, and established a 
 Hindu, Anti-Buddhistic, Empire from Mahva to Peshawar, 
 and eastward to Bengal. We have, perhaps, here a trace of 
 some fierce religious struggle which led to the emigration of 
 some of the worsted leaders : at all events this is the era 
 assigned by Javanese tradition to the introduction of Indian 
 creeds into their island, from whence they were propagated 
 into Bali. Here, as already noted, ancient traces of Buddhism 
 and of Brahmanism are alike found, as they also are in 
 Sumatra. The alphabet of Java though it has lost most 
 signs of Indian forms has preserved the curious signs for the 
 nasal and final aspirate, and retains the classification of letters 
 peculiar to the Derandgari alphabet. The sacred language of 
 Bali also used to some extent in Java and Sumatra is called 
 Kawi (q-d. "Bardic"), and still contains 40 per cent, of 
 Sanskrit words. 
 
 Hence it may be concluded that, whether founded by Asoka 
 or propagated at the so-called era of Vikram Aditya, both Brah- 
 man and Buddhist settlements were made in the equatorial 
 islands, and that they have left remains and impressions of the 
 ancient thoughts and ways of the people of India before the 
 birth of modern Hinduism. Especially to be noted is the 
 curious fact that while Muslim conquest has eradicated Hindu- 
 ism from Sumatra and Java, it continues to exist in the 
 neighbouring island of Bali, where society is still divided 
 into four classes known by the same names that are applied 
 to them in the Afdnava " Code." The three higher classes 
 have kept a mark of their former connections by occasional 
 intermarriage : the Brahmans do not practise widow-burning 
 any more than they did in India, but among the rest the 
 terrible rite is usual. In Java the Muslims warred against
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 39 
 
 the Hindus of both persuasions with great and growing 
 success until 1478 A.D., when they completely and finally 
 prevailed. It is possible that the Hindus were then expelled, 
 or allowed to escape, into Bali ; but the system as it exists 
 there, even if only propagated indirectly and in comparatively 
 recent times, must be taken to express the ancient beliefs and 
 practices as the mammoth in Siberia represents the palaeozoic 
 fauna of the world. 
 
 According to an Audh legend the empire of Vikram lasted 
 eighty years and was then overthrown by a fanatic named 
 Samudra Gupta who removed the seat of Government to 
 Kanauj on the Jumna and founded a dynasty which is held by 
 those who follow local tradition to have ruled for three or four 
 hundred years. In the seventh century of the Christian era 
 Kanauj was still the seat of a great monarchy as will be more 
 particularly shown presently ; and during the interval between 
 Samudra and this later period occurred the final propagation 
 of Hinduism into Bengal, where all Brahmansto this day trace 
 their descent to one or other of the five apostles who visited 
 them from Kanauj. The age of th'e Gupta Kings who are 
 said to have been of the Vaisya, or third class of Hindus 
 has received some illustrations from their coins, and their true 
 era seems to have been from about 120 to 320 A.D., when 
 they were overthrown and succeeded by the Vallabhi dynasty. 
 But it has been doubted whether this latter dynasty had any 
 general power until more than a century and a half later ; the 
 seventh ruler being the first of any importance. The Vallabhi 
 era is therefore usually taken as commencing about 480 A.D. 
 They were Buddhist in faith, and soon retired to the west of 
 India where they were ultimately overthrown by the Arab 
 invaders of Sindh.* 
 
 * It must be noted that the exact date and duration of these dynasties are 
 most uncertain. " Mr. E. Thomas and General Cunningham are at issue
 
 40 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Meanwhile, the States of the Deccan were divided among 
 Dravidian and Hindu potentates. The three old Dravidian 
 powers have been called Pandiya, Chola, and Chera, or Kerala, 
 while wild aborigines wandered over waste areas in the centre. 
 The three coasts of the Bay of Bengal Arakan, Bengal, and 
 what is now Northern Madras have been already spoken of 
 as the Kulingas ; the name became afterwards specialised ; 
 and "the Kingdom of Kulinga" figures in Buddhist legends 
 as applied to the last alone. By degrees the Hindus began 
 to encroach more and more. The Andhras established them- 
 selves in Orissa : the Chalukyas had their capital at Kalyan, 
 near the site of the modern Bombay. 
 
 The original Dravida country was that where the Tamil 
 language still prevails : the southern capital was Madura, and 
 the kingdom of Pandiya whose centre this formed was known 
 to the Greeks by the name of Pandion.* It occupied the 
 south-eastern extremity of the peninsula. 
 
 The Karnata, or Canarese country, was the seat of the Chera 
 Kings whose dynasty was also called Kerala, their capital 
 being spoken of as Keralaputra in the edicts ofAsoka. Of the 
 third great southern division, the Chola kingdom, the capital 
 was mostly at, or near, Tanjore in later days, having formerly 
 been at Trichinopoli. This state was also mentioned by 
 Asoka; and all three were known to Ptolemy. The sovereigns 
 of Kulinga, called Gangas, are mentioned by the oldest 
 chroniclers, Hindu and Buddhist, and also by the Greeks : 
 hardy and adventurous, they traded by sea with distant lands, 
 and ruled at home over a civilised country. 
 
 Of the life of the people of Hindustan during the period 
 
 as to the commencement of the Gupta era .... the several dates 
 assigned to Toramana (the last important monarch of the series) vary from 
 89 B.C. to the 7th century A.D." So says Babu Rajendra Lala. 
 
 * This may be regarded as the " Bretagne Bretonnante " of India, where 
 the conquered race made a stand with its back to the sea.
 
 PRM-MUSLIM TIMES. 4* 
 
 just before, and a few hundred years after, the Christian era, 
 we have some evidence in the Hindu dramas for though the 
 dates of these are also uncertain, we know in a general way 
 when and in what order they were composed. Of the same 
 period we have likewise a glimpse in the meagre notice of India 
 preserved in the narrative of Fa Hian, a Buddhist traveller who 
 visited the cradle of his faith from China in the beginning of 
 the 5th century A.D. Of the Chinese pilgrim, and of his 
 follower of two centuries later, it has been said by a great 
 scholar that they form " almost our only stepping-stones 
 through a thousand years of fable." * The account of our 
 earlier pilgrim, indeed, is only useful in a minor and relative 
 degree. It does not much help us to answer the most interesting 
 of all questions of the period What was the normal relation of 
 Buddhism to the older creed ? But it helps us to see the 
 beginnings of the decay of the Reformation, and to obtain 
 some notion of the way in which the Brahmans recovered 
 their lost ascendency. Fa Hian travelled from North to 
 South, following the course of the Ganges to the sea, and 
 spent fourteen years in India, from A.D. 399. At that time 
 Buddhism was still very prevalent ; but, true to its humane 
 principles, it did not persecute ; and the temples and colleges 
 of the Brahmans existed side by side with the conventual es- 
 tablishments of the Reformers. Signs of decline were visible ; 
 at Sravasti, already mentioned as the great seat of Buddhist 
 learning, Fa Hian found the college buildings in decay, and 
 the town deserted by all but two hundred poor families. In 
 the dramatic literature of the period we hear of no religious 
 quarrels ; but we find a romantic treatment of mythologic 
 themes, and a domestic picture of a noble and humane social 
 system. 
 We may pass rapidly over the next two hundred years ; of 
 
 * Professor Cowell.
 
 42 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the events of which indeed but little is yet known, and that 
 little vague and doubtful. Hindustan has no annals for that 
 period ; may we hope that the people were not unhappy ! 
 Literature, at least, was prosperous. Kalidasa produced some 
 exquisite poetical dramas, one of which " Sakuntala, or the 
 Lost Ring " even in a most imperfect version, obtained the 
 admiration of no less a judge than Goethe. Among the 
 domestic plays "The Toy-Cart" is distinguished for its grace- 
 ful delineation of gay and gentle manners. " The Cloud Mes- 
 senger" and the Gita Govinda are fascinating idyls, full of 
 warm sentiment, and idealised pictures of nature, such as we 
 should seek in vain from modern Hindus. Grammars, lexi- 
 cons, works on the abstract sciences, on music, medicine, and 
 surgery, bear testimony to a time of taste and leisure. The 
 so-called " Code of Manu " is believed to have taken its 
 present form about A.D. 500. The great kingdom of Kanauj, 
 where the Aditya dynasty ruled, was apparently the centre of 
 this intellectual movement; but it is by no means clear how 
 far its power and influence extended. Delhi then called 
 Indraprastha was the seat of a Rajput monarchy, of which 
 there were others in Ajmere and Gujarat. The Chalukya 
 dynasty ruled in Maharashtra, where they introduced a beauti- 
 ful school of architecture, an art in which they had already 
 been anticipated by the Buddhists. Chalukya architecture 
 was perhaps a development from the Buddhist rock-cut 
 temples of that part, but its later products are found north of 
 the Narbada also. To the eastward there were other power- 
 ful states ; the Kingdom of Orissa was invaded by a tribe of 
 foreigners from the north, who were finally expelled by the 
 Kesari family, A.D. 473. Farther south, Telingana became 
 an independent kingdom under the Andhras, of whom some- 
 thing has been already said ; here too the northern foreigners 
 called " Yavana," effected a successful incursion, after their ex- 
 pulsion from Orissa. In the west was the Rajput (Jadu) State
 
 PRjE-MUSLIM TIMES. 43 
 
 of Deogiri, whose rock-cut temples indicate a long and peace- 
 ful rule. Another Rajput kingdom in the Deccan is supposed 
 to have had its capital at Paithan on the Upper Godavari, 
 formerly the seat of the power which founded the " Saka " era 
 (A.D. 77) still current in southern India. 
 
 When Hivven Tsiang, the second of our Buddhist pilgrims, 
 visited India (A.D. 629-645), there were no less than seventy 
 of these kingdoms, or states ; but, so far at least as Upper 
 India was concerned, there was some sort of loose federation 
 under the Empire of Kanauj, still held by a Prince of the old 
 dynasty, whose name was Siladitya, and whom the pilgrim visited. 
 Malwa was a seat of learned men, but there, as generally 
 throughout India, the Buddhist establishments were becoming 
 fewer than of old, and not only were the colleges and temples 
 of Brahmanism increasing in number, but sects of fanatics were 
 making their appearance always a sign of religious fermenta- 
 tion. In Kapilavastha, the above-mentioned cradle of the 
 Buddhist creed, the royal city was in ruins, and so were the 
 convents. Near Benares there were numerous heretical 
 votaries of Siva, mostly going about naked, or only covered 
 with a paste mide of the ashes of burnt cow-dung; in the city 
 of Benares itself the worship of the same deity was established, 
 the pilgrim saw a brazen statue of Siva nearly 100 feet in 
 height. The monarch of Kanauj, though he professed to be a 
 Buddhist, continued the tolerant practice of his predecessors ; 
 and the pilgrim was present when myriads of psople were en- 
 tertained by Siladitya without distinction of creed. The great 
 Buddhist college of Sarnath was still standing near Benares, 
 but it was burnt not very long after the departure of the 
 Chinese pilgrim. 
 
 Apart from such indications of violence, it would seem that 
 Buddhism expired by slow degrees between the 8th and gth 
 centuries of our era. It was, doubtless, by the aid of com- 
 bination with indigenous superstitions that Brahminism was
 
 44 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 enabled to supplant it in popular acceptation, though it is evi- 
 dent that Buddhism was not entirely extinguished. Its practice 
 may have been too purely philosophical for the common 
 people; but its principles had won too much favour to be 
 destroyed ; and a great deal of Buddhism was accordingly pre- 
 served, in the reorganised Hinduism which arose upon the 
 ground so long occupied by the controversies of the rival 
 faiths. 
 
 In spite of all recorded prohibitions against intermarriage, 
 it is probable that, at an early period of the conquest, the 
 Vaisyas had taken wives from among the Sudra women ; the 
 analogy of other conquests is too strong to admit of much 
 doubt upon the matter. Marriage with Canaanitish women 
 was practised by the followers of Moses and Joshua ; the 
 " Rape of the Sabines " is a familiar instance in Roman his- 
 tory ; the Norman conquerors of England took English wives, 
 as is shown in the story of Morville. And it cannot be sup- 
 posed that the Vedic Aryans brought across the bleak and 
 difficult passes of the Hindu Kush a large train of women and 
 children especially if driven away from their older seats by 
 war. Their ancient marriage codes, after their arrival in 
 Upper India, took cognisance of the offspring of unequal 
 alliances ; one ancient commentator on the Veda enumerates 
 159 castes, mostly distinguished by the relations between the 
 families of their parents. 
 
 Out of the amalgamation thus begun, a solidarity must have 
 arisen between the invaders and the friendly portions of the 
 conquered populations ; and it was for the spiritual govern- 
 ment of this mixed multitude and of their chiefs that the sages 
 of Buddhism competed with the priests of the Veddnta and the 
 Tantra. And there is a considerable literature to our hands 
 in which we can watch the controversy and gauge the rena- 
 scence of Brahmanism, which became ultimately successful in 
 the form of modern Hinduism. Of the religious books of the
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 45 
 
 Buddhists, nothing need here be said; whether in the canons 
 of Thibet and Nipal, or in those of Ceylon, which teach a 
 somewhat varying system, there is nothing that is now scrip- 
 tural in India. 
 
 The sacred literature of the modern Hindus is of compara- 
 tively modern date. Whatever respect be paid to the vague 
 and venerable memory of the Veda, great as is the popular 
 feeling for the tale of Rama, it is to the Purdnas that the ulti- 
 mate appeal lies in matters of faith and in matters of practice. 
 Symptoms of eclecticism had been already noticed in the 
 seventh century A.D., when Siladitya, Emperor of Kanauj, 
 held his great council circ. 634 A.D. at which Hiwen 
 Tsiang was present ; and the system went on for at least three 
 centuries. 
 
 It may further the understanding of a rather dark matter it 
 we agree to look upon the higher form of Hinduism as a 
 synthesis of two views of the universe which have always 
 presented themselves to reflective minds. Stated in terms of 
 modern science, Brahmanism had been based upon the con- 
 ception of nature as emanating from the compound action of 
 a dual force ; while Buddhism proceeded upon the relativity of 
 human knowledge, teaching the " Sankhya " doctrine of evolu- 
 tion and the dependence of the phenomenal universe on the 
 illusions of perception. The union of these two schemes is 
 one great characteristic of Hindu philosophy. But something 
 more was needed to popularise the system, and this was found 
 in a compromise with the demon-worship of the conquered 
 populations. The two-fold task was begun by Kumarila, a 
 teacher who arose in Bihar the very birth-place of Buddhism 
 about a century after the time of Hiwen Tsiang. He 
 earnestly proclaimed the necessity of a personal deity ; and 
 partly, at least, by force extirpated the agnostic creed in his 
 own part of the country. His doctrines were taken up by his 
 disciple, Shankar Acharya, a native of Assam, or according
 
 46 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 to some authorities of the Deccan, who lived for some time 
 at Benares ; and who, after founding the Smarta school in the 
 Deccan, is related to have proceeded on pilgrimage to Kidar- 
 nath on the Himalaya, where he died, towards the end of the 
 eighth century A.D. The Smarta Brahmans are worshippers 
 of Siva, and whatever the esoteric teaching of their founder 
 may have been, there is little doubt but that Kumarila con- 
 ciliated the popular craving for concrete religion by adopting 
 that worship. 
 
 This object of idolatry appears to have originated in a com- 
 bination of the storm-god of the Vedic Aryans with some 
 local demon : with his consort he forms the incarnation of the 
 two "forces" above mentioned, and the phallic symbol of 
 generation is consecrated to Siva, as are also the emblems of 
 death. In him have full play those wilder elements usually 
 hidden under the self-controlled surface of the Hindu cha- 
 racter : he is shown, in painting and in sculpture, with an 
 aspect of the sort most terrible to simple minds ; and some of 
 his votaries indulge in grotesque and disgusting practices. One 
 of the gospels of this faith inculcates human sacrifice with 
 detailed rites of the most unambiguous character. Some two 
 hundred years after the period of Shankar, a more humane 
 worship was set up that of Vishnu, also founded on an Aryan 
 conception originally representing the sun, and afterwards 
 applied to a series of human and other incarnations, all of a 
 beneficent character. The notion of a supreme creator being 
 added, the theory of a new Trinity became substituted for the 
 old Brahmanical theology ; this is the famous triune Godhead 
 of the Hindus, BRAHMA, the Creator; SIVA, the Destroyer; 
 VISHNU, the Preserver. But the first of these impersonations 
 never took the public imagination ; and, in practice, the 
 devotion of the Hindus is divided between Siva and Vishnu, 
 the worship of the former being general in the south, the 
 service of the latter more followed in the north of India :
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 47 
 
 Brahma seems to be too abstract a deity, and the only temple 
 to his honour in all India is said to be that of Pohkar in 
 Ajmere, by the side of a lake of great sanctity. 
 
 By thus adroitly adopting the superstitions of the multitude, 
 the Brahmans wove the web of Hinduism on a familiar 
 ground-work; and thus the mass of the people might think 
 themselves advanced, both socially and spiritually, by profess- 
 ing an enlightened creed ; while yet able to preserve the 
 compassion of kindly village fairies who had been dear to their 
 fathers, and to avert the wrath of malevolent demons that 
 their mothers had taught them to fear and to propitiate. 
 
 At the same time not only some of the metaphysics of 
 Buddhism, but its general spirit and, indeed, some of its 
 practical principles also, were adopted in the new religious 
 system. Among the results of the former was the doctrine of 
 transmigration, which plays a large part in the belief of high 
 and low among the modern Hindus ; a survival of the latter is 
 seen in an extreme scrupulosity about some forms of life, and a 
 widespread objection to animal food. The followers of Vishnu 
 whose special gospel, the Vishnu Purana, has been provision- 
 ally dated about 1045 A.D. at first denounced the Buddha 
 as a teacher of atheism ; but they afterwards found it advisable 
 to adopt him as one of the incarnations of their favourite 
 deity ; and it has been asserted that their rules of religious life 
 are little more than fragments of Buddhist precept, enforced 
 by Brahmanic sanctions and arguments. The rival sect of Siva 
 has borrowed elements from the hopes and fears of the lower 
 classes, largely tinctured as above said with local super- 
 stition ; and in such a compromise they too were following a 
 path originally indicated by the Buddhists. Portions even of 
 the archaic worship of trees and of serpents were adopted by 
 the Buddhists : at the present day they are tolerated, if not 
 taught, in Hinduism as now practised ; while the sects of 
 Vishnu use forms of fetish almost certainly traceable to a very
 
 48 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 old form of nature-worship. Besides all these concessions and 
 compromises, Hinduism has always shown a prudent consider- 
 ation for the reforming sects which have arisen out of its own 
 body. Many of these have struck hard at the system of caste, 
 and at polytheistic idol-worship, attempting to combine the 
 omnipotence of the Supreme Being with the absolute equality 
 of men. The heresy of Kabir, in the fourteenth century A.D., 
 even showed a leaning towards the new and hostile creed of 
 Islam; and it was imitated if not developed by the system 
 of the Sikhs, which is professed by a hardy population even 
 at the present day. Yet these heresies show themselves ready 
 to submit when Hinduism takes their doctrines to itself, and 
 adopts their prophets as apostles or even incarnations of its 
 own deities. As a return for that hospitality many disciples of 
 the reformers have shown readiness for reconciliation. The 
 Sikhs, indeed, long held out, refusing all compromise. But 
 history will show how much the Sikh movement was actuated 
 by political motives." Now that the Sikhs have become fore- 
 most in accepting the government of the British, and have 
 lost the fiery stimulus of persecution, their religious creed is 
 also losing its aggressive character. It is probable that Sikhism 
 will slowly, but surely, merge into a form of Hinduism ; as 
 has been the case with the creed of the Kabir Punthis, of 
 the Satnamis, and of many other sects. 
 
 One denomination, indeed, there was which, to this day, 
 
 neither yields nor disappears. The Jain or Sarawak denomi- 
 
 / nation a sect whose foundation is believed to be of an earlier 
 
 r date than Buddhism has survived its more ambitious sister, 
 
 and still numbers a petty, but not diminishing, fraction of the 
 
 Indian people. The Jains are like the English Quakers, a 
 
 small but prosperous community, of pure and simple tenets, 
 
 tolerant, but tenacious. 
 
 Such as is the condition of Hinduism after centuries of 
 Muslim persecution, it has yet to show its power of resisting
 
 PR&-MUSLIM TIMES. 49 
 
 the more subtle influences of modern science. For the present 
 we have only to remark that the laws, literature, and religious 
 practices, which are still prevalent in Hindustan, arose in the 
 period between the decline of Buddhism and the introduction 
 of Islam. 
 
 For the part of northern India, east of Benares what is now 
 known as " The Lower Provinces," a few more details have 
 been provisionally determined, and Buddhism seems to have 
 held out longer there than elsewhere. By careful collation of 
 his own discoveries with those of the earlier epigraphists, Babu 
 Rajendralal Mitra has arrived at the conclusion that there was 
 a Buddhist dynasty, styled the House of Pala, whose capital 
 was at Mangeer (Monghyr), about the middle of the ninth 
 century A.D. ; while a Brahmanic line bore rule in Bengal 
 proper, having its capital at Bikrampur, near Dhaka (Dacca). 
 
 Their surname was Sena, or Sen ; and the ruins of their 
 fortified palace are still shown with traces of a surrounding 
 city. These latter kings were probably Kshatriyas of the 
 lunar race, brave and intelligent men. They gradually sup- 
 planted the Buddhist line, and made their capital at Gaur, or 
 Lakhnauti, until conquered in their turn by the advancing 
 Muslims. The founder of the power of the Senas over Bengal 
 and eastern Bihar, was Ballala, about 1000 A.D. ; and it 
 is believed to have been in his time that the five Brahmans 
 came as missionaries from Kanauj, as above-mentioned. 
 
 [The books mentioned at the end of last chapter may be 
 consulted for this. Also "The Dynasty of the Guptas," by E. 
 Thomas, London, 1876 : " Sketch of the Dynasties of Southern 
 India," by Robert Sewell, Madras, 1883; and the "Ancient 
 Geography " and Archaeological Reports of General Cunning- 
 ham. For the islands of the Equator, see Crawford's 
 "Dictionary of the Indian Islands," London, 1856; also 
 Colonel H. Yule's " Sketch of Java," Calcutta, 1862.]
 
 5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 
 
 Section i : The houses of Ghaniz and of Gur. Section 2 : The Slave 
 Dynasty. Section 3 : First Muslim aggressions in the Deccan. 
 
 SECTION I. The domestic drama of the Hindus affords a pic- 
 ture of the life of the people during the centuries immediately 
 preceding the invasion of the Muhamadans. The tenets of 
 the Buddhists had produced a standard of character and con- 
 duct something similar to what is now existing in Burma and 
 Siam, and, in many ways, very different from what is observable 
 in modern India after ages of foreign domination. Brahmans 
 were ceasing to be a sacerdotal class ; although their religious 
 ascendency was reviving with the birth of the new Hinduism, 
 they were chiefly respected as an aristocracy of pure and 
 ancient descent. Secular life was gay and luxurious ; the 
 world of sense, however denounced by sages, attracted the 
 bulk of Indian mankind. But if the Hindus had not mastered 
 the difficult lesson how to submit the cravings of the body to 
 the aspirations of the soul, their sensuousness was not without 
 the charm proceeding from refinement. Like their Greek con- 
 temporaries, they united the life of the family with the existence 
 of female companions who were free but not degraded. Genial 
 and gentle of mood, both sexes were generous and without fear. 
 The fusion of races always under the restrictions of the caste 
 system had been almost, if not quite, completed. It was 
 thought by Megasthenes that slavery was unknown among
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 51 
 
 them ; in any case the servants were faithful and of indepen- 
 dent bearing. The married ladies went abroad unveiled, like 
 those of Theocritus ; they received visitors, mixed in general 
 society, but had to suffer serious competition from other women 
 with whom their husbands associated without loss of reputa- 
 tion. In the grove of Kama the Indian Eros the respectable 
 citizen met his equally respectable "professional beauty," who 
 even became the friend of his wife. We are shown, in short, a 
 world sufficiently advanced in civilisation to be amiably volup- 
 tuous, yet far from general corruption. Parasites and buffoons 
 were tolerated ; and the heroine of unlawful love, for all her 
 equivocal position, was yet sweet and womanly, redeemed by 
 affection, and glorified by devotion and fidelity. 
 
 How long such an Arcadian scheme of manners may have 
 endured we cannot positively say. Under a sky bright without 
 cloud during the long summer days, gorgeous in atmospheric 
 pomps during the green luxuriance of the monsoon, breathing 
 fresh and balmy airs upon the blossoming flower-trees of the 
 cooler season when the Bauhinia trails its purple glories over 
 the flaming branches of the Butea, and the antelope browses 
 under the scented shade of the Mango the Hindus led their 
 easy lives, relaxing slowly under the increasing influences of 
 luxury and peace. In their mud-walled cities, the palaces of 
 their chiefs and the temples of their gods bristled with 
 multitudinous pinnacles and statues and carved turrets ; and 
 the processions of Royal marriages glittered in the crowded 
 bazaars. 
 
 But a terrible time of change was being prepared. Far off, 
 beyond the glaciers of the Himalaya, the home of the negli- 
 gent gods, was a swarm of hardy, hungry nomads, constantly 
 engaged in tribal conflicts for their wild pastures, or slowly 
 gathering for defence in crowded towns. Devastation and in- 
 vasion kept the north and north-western lands in constant fer- 
 ment. Twenty years after the era of the Prophet's flight the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Persian State had been overthrown by his warlike lieutenants, 
 and a Muslim Empire was established under the Khalif of 
 Baghdad. The last vestige of this once mighty power disap- 
 peared before Tartar incursions ; and the Seljuk conquest 
 pushed out the old Muslims towards the east and south-east. 
 The last of the Hindu dramas, written perhaps in the latter part 
 of the icth century, A.D., plainly indicates the effect of these 
 movements on India. The old gay freedom was scared away, 
 perhaps never to return. The Grove of Love became a wilder- 
 ness, and the Hindu lady had to seclude herself from the pur- 
 suit of the invading foreigner. There is no female character 
 visible throughout this play, the principal persons are politicians 
 of a depraved school. Fraud and assassination are the crude 
 expedients for liquidating inconvenient obligations. There is 
 no mention, as in earlier works, of law or courts of justice. 
 Chiefs and mercenary soldiers of foreign origin are mentioned, 
 social and political anarchy are evidently at hand. 
 
 Such was the state of the country when first exposed to the 
 influence of the new power that had been established on the 
 north-western border. But the valiant Rajputs did not yield 
 without a protracted struggle. The lands between the Oxus 
 river and the Sulaiman mountains became subject to a Turk- 
 man* dynasty, called Samanides, after the founder, circ. 860 
 A.D. The fifth chief of this house entrusted the govern- 
 ment of the Helmand Valley to a favourite mameluke named 
 Alptigin, who made himself independent, and who was suc- 
 ceeded by his own slave in 976. The name of this man was 
 Nasir-ud-din Sabaktigin ; and the centre of his sway was at 
 Ghazni, between Kandahar and Kabul, reaching from the con- 
 fines of the left bank of the Oxus to the foot ef the Sulaiman 
 range. On the other side of these mountains was the territory 
 
 * This word ( = "Turk-like") is here used to denote the mixed race 
 negendered by the fusion of the local races (called Tajik) with their Tartar 
 conquerors.
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 53 
 
 of a Rajput chief, named Jai Pal, whose capital was at Lahore, 
 but who had some ill-defined claims to sovereignty over the vast 
 extent of country from Delhi to the Hindu Caucasus. Endea- 
 vouring to vindicate his northern frontier, Jai Pal marched an 
 army up the celebrated defile of the Khaibar Pass ; but he 
 found the army of Sabaktigin ready to close with him near 
 Kabul. The season was cold and stormy. Jai Pal's heart - 
 failed him ; a negotiation was opened, the result of which was 
 that he was allowed to depart in peace on paying a heavy _ 
 ransom. A Muslim envoy was appointed to accompany the 
 returning host of the Hindus ; but on its arrival at Lahore the 
 Raja, recovering his courage, threw the envoy into prison, and 
 
 refused to pay the stipulated ransom. This act of perfidy L 
 
 naturally brought down the Muslim chief, who collected his \ 
 followers and marched towards Peshawar. The Raja, on his 
 side, appealed to the patriotism and feudatory obedience of the 
 chiefs of Delhi, Ajmere, and Kanauj ; and a gallant host once 
 more crossed the Indus, hoping by a forward movement to 
 repel the threatened danger. The action ended in the defeat 
 of the Hindus; the Raja fled to Lahore, and committed suicide 
 by cremation, like a second Sardanapalus. The conquerors re- 
 turned, after plundering the Punjab, and leaving a garrison in 
 ^ia Peshawar ; and some of the mountain tribes were converted 
 to Islam. These events occurred in the very end of the loth 
 century A.D. 
 
 The son and successor of Sabaktigin was the famous Saltan 
 Mahmud, known in eastern history as Bhut Shikan, or " The v>. 
 Iconoclast." He found the Hindus, under their new Raja, Anang 
 Pal, "resolved to dispute the possession of the Peshawar Valley. _ 
 But he completed its conquest, and advanced his boundaries 
 to the right bank of the Indus. On the other side Anang Pal, 
 at the head of a strong Raj put confederacy, held his own during 
 his lifetime, and on his death \vas succeeded by another Jai . 
 Pal. In the outset of this reign, however, Mahmud marched
 
 54 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 suddenly down from the mountains north of Lahore, and occu- 
 pied the capital ; on which the Raja fled from the Punjab, and 
 took refuge at Ajmere after sustaining a severe defeat on the 
 field of Chach, near Rawal-Pindi. This was in 1008, and the 
 victory laid the whole of Upper India open to the invaders. 
 It was in such a state of affairs that the last Hindu dramatist 
 said of his country that 
 
 " This nurse of elemental life, 
 Now harassed by barbarians, shall resort 
 For safety to the bosom of her kings, 
 And so escape a new annihilation." 
 
 But the aspiration was vain. Indian annals for the next cen 
 tury were to be written in blood. During a reign of thirty years 
 Mahmud the Iconoclast invaded India no less than twelve 
 times, causing carnage wherever he was resisted, desecrating 
 the Hindu temples and destroying their idols. Mathura, in the 
 centre ; Kanauj, in the east ; Somnath, the gloomy shrine of 
 Siva, on the coast of Kathia war; in such distant and divergent 
 spots he smote the Rajput ; Mathura, or " Muttra," was sacked 
 in 1017, Kanauj in the following year. Somnath, which was 
 under the sovereignty of the Chalukya House of Kalian, was 
 captured after an assault of three days' duration. This was in 
 1025, when the great statue of Mahadeo is said to have been 
 destroyed, and the doors of his temple carried away to fill 
 the gateway where the conqueror was to be entombed. In 
 1030 A.D. that conqueror died, and the monument is still 
 to be seen at Ghazni, whence Lord Ellenborough caused the 
 doors to be removed in 1841* and brought to India. 
 
 Mahmud of Ghazni left a famous name. Full two centuries 
 after his demise the celebrated Shaikh Saadi of Shiraz related 
 
 * This affair was the occasion of Macaulay's famous speech in Parlia- 
 ment on March 9, 1843. It has been since shown that the doors in ques- 
 tion could not have been those of the Somnath temple. They are now at 
 Agra.
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 55 
 
 that the dead warrior had appeared to him in a vision, the 
 eyes staring : 
 
 "And still he gazes round, 
 Because his realm to other lords is bound." 
 
 But the manner of his house's fall was of the most custo- 
 mary kind. Great conquerors cannot always establish their 
 dynasty ; great leaders are apt to be succeeded by inadequate 
 sons. Mahmud was no exception to such rules, though a 
 favourable specimen of the successful soldier-king, an eastern 
 Oliver or Napoleon. The offspring of a Tartar father by a 
 Tajik mother, he combined the refined taste of the one race 
 with the aggressive and predatory instincts of the other. 
 Hence he was able to make extensive conquests and to rule 
 them well and wisely. He also knew how to avoid the 
 temptation of extending his conquests permanently beyond 
 his means of administering them. Therefore, in India, he con- 
 tented himself with the possessions of his father and while 
 amassing wealth by the plunder of the rest of the country, 
 made no attempt to retain possession of the government. He 
 is said to have accumulated more treasure than any of his 
 predecessors. 
 
 But his treasury, his magnificent palace, his mosque of 
 marble, were all inherited by unworthy heirs. His sons quar- 
 relled with one another. Their armies failed to oppose the 
 Seljuk advance ; the Hindus profited by the confusion to 
 resume their independence, and ventured even to lay siea;e to 
 Lahore, the Muslim capital, although here they were foiled. 
 Northward the Seljuk war went on with varying results, until, 
 in 1118 little more than three-fourths of a century from 
 Mahmud's decease a descendant of better quality became the 
 ruler of Ghazni under the title Sultan Bairam. He ruled ably 
 for many years, and gave his daughter in marriage to the Satrap 
 of Gur (the " Ghore " of English historians.)* This chief, who 
 
 *Gur is the country of the modern Hazaras, between Kandahar and 
 Herat.
 
 56 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 was called Kutb-ud-din, was of the famous Sur clan ; one of 
 three ambitious brothers. He ultimately quarrelled with his 
 royal father-in-law, and the Sultan tarnished the splendour of 
 his reign by the treacherous murder of the Satrap. On this 
 he was attacked by the brother of that chief, and driven out of 
 Ghazni. A war ensued, which ended by Ghazni being cap- 
 tured and recaptured till it was finally sacked in 1152. All the 
 city was given up to arson, and the tomb of Mahmud is said 
 to have been almost the only building of importance to escape 
 the flames. The dynasty of Sabaktigin lingered a few years 
 longer at Lahore, and the Hindus enjoyed some respite from 
 rapine and persecution until 1 186. Meanwhile, Ala-ud-din took 
 possession of the empire, and made his capital at Firoz Koh 
 in the hills of Gur. 
 
 At the time when the Ghazni dynasty took refuge in the 
 Punjab their immediate neighbour was a Rajput, of the Chau- 
 han tribe, named Rai Pithaura. He was descended, by the 
 mother's side, from that Anang Pal whose spirited resistance 
 to Muslim encroachment has been lately noticed. To the 
 eastward were the federations of Kanauj and Bengal, under 
 other Rajput chiefs; to the west the chief Rajput power was 
 Gujarat, in alliance with Kanauj, but Rai Pithaura, who had 
 originally been chief of Ajmere only, had dispossessed the 
 Kanauj Raja of the Delhi territory, and claimed the title of 
 Pirthi Raja, or Sovereign.^ He extended the fortifications of 
 old Delhi, where his fortress is still to be seen, a circuit of 4| 
 miles surrounding the old fort, which stands on higher ground 
 and forms an inner citadel. It also included 27 Hindu and 
 Buddhist' places of worship, hundreds of whose pillars still 
 remain, converted into supports and ornaments of a mosque 
 ^ erected by the conquerors. The pedigree and power of Rai 
 Pithaura were sung wherever men repeated the poems of his 
 minstrel, Chand Bardai. 
 
 On the other side of the Punjab a Muslim kingdom had
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 57 
 
 been set up in the hills of Gur, which extended over what is 
 now the Amirate of Afghanistan. This state had been estab- 
 lished by Ala-ud-din Jahansoz, the "burner of the world" (q.d. 
 burner of Ghazni). He died in 1156, being succeeded by his 
 two nephews. These chiefs presented the rare spectacle among 
 oriental rulers of brethren living together in unity; but their 
 joint reign of thirty years was constantly disturbed by war, at 
 first with the Seljuks, and when these were finally repulsed 
 with the exiled Ghaznevides in the Punjab, assisted by the wild 
 and warlike Ghakkars of those parts. At length, in 1186, the 
 Ghaznevides were quite overcome ; Lahore was occupied by 
 the younger of the two brothers, Muhamad-bin-Sam, and all 
 obstacles to the invasion of Hindustan were removed. 
 
 Shahdb-ud-din and Muiz-ud-din were titles of the first 
 Muslim conqueror of Hindustan, an able warrior, whose name 
 was Muhamad-bin-Sam. During the life of his brother, 
 Ghyas-ud-din, he acted as Viceroy of the eastern part of the 
 empire of Gur, having his capital at Ghazni. After the fall of 
 the Muslim power in the Punjab he extended his sway to that 
 country, and began to prepare for further conquest. But the 
 strength of the Rajputs, though divided by the jealousies 
 between their various states, indicated the need of careful 
 marshalling of the Muslim forces ; and it was not until 1190 
 that Shahab-ud-din felt strong enough to cross the Sutlej. At this 
 time the enmity between the Chauhan Raja and his unfriendly 
 neighbour, the Rathor ruler of Kanauj, by name Jai Chandra, 
 had broken out into a serious quarrel, the news of which may 
 have emboldened the invader. Unsupported as he was, Rai 
 Pithaura advanced to oppose the progress of the invader, 
 and completely defeated him in a great battle south of the 
 Sutlej, the famous scene of so many battles of Indian history. 
 Shahab-ud-din, wounded in the action, escaped with difficulty, 
 and fell back on his capital of Ghazni, leaving the Punjab, as it 
 would seem, to be occupied by the Hindus,
 
 58 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 The defender of Hindustan had prevailed, but his success 
 was of short duration. The next year (1192) Shahab-ud-din 
 passed at Ghazni, recruiting his forces, and proclaiming a holy 
 war in the hills and dales around him. In 1191 he once 
 more entered the Punjab at the head of a power which, how- 
 ever diverse in political obedience, was held together by the 
 fanaticism of a common creed. According to the testimony of 
 an eye-witness, the mounted men-at-arms alone numbered 
 120,000, clad in chain mail and riding good Turkman 
 horses ; of light horse there were full forty thousand. More - 
 over, the Muslims had learned a lesson from their former 
 defeat, and were prepared to meet the simple tactics of the 
 enemy, which consisted in opening their line before a charge, 
 while the flanks of the advancing host were enveloped on 
 either side by the wheeling round of the ranks. 
 
 The armies met on the Sirhind plain, Rai Pithaura having 
 allied and feudatory chiefs for support, but none from the 
 eastward. He tried once more his famous flank-movement, 
 but it availed him little. The Muslims affected to retreat 
 before they had been enclosed ; the Hindus breaking their 
 order rushed on to pursue ; but Muhamad had his cavalry in 
 . hand, and charged at their head under cover of a cloud of 
 arrows. The Rajput host was broken ; Pithaura, alighting 
 from his elephant, sought to escape on horseback, but was 
 overtaken and made prisoner. He was despatched to attend 
 the conqueror's triumphal entry into Ghazni, but died on the 
 way, perhaps by his own hand. His exploits and misfortunes 
 were sung by Chand, his favourite minstrel, who long survived 
 him. 
 
 The city of Delhi fell at once.* A year later the Rajas of 
 Kanauj and Benares paid the penalty of their folly in holding 
 back from the defence of their common country. The atten- 
 tion of Shahab-ud-din was, however, distracted by the politics of 
 * For the date (A.H. 587) v. Thomas, " Pathan Kings," p 22-3.
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 59 
 
 his own land, and the turbulence of the Punjab where the 
 Ghakkars continued to revolt and plunder. The gradual settle- 
 ment of Hindustan was left to a lieutenant of named Aibak,* 
 a Turkman slave, aided in the eastern districts by a Khilji 
 officer named Bakhtyar. The nominal head of the empire 
 died, and Muhamad-bin-Sam went to Gur leaving Ghazni in 
 charge of another Mameluke named Yalduz (mod. Turk. Yildiz, 
 "a star") while he engaged in wars, sometimes in Central 
 Asia, sometimes in the valley of the Indus. In 1206 A.D. 
 he was murdered in his tent by a band of Ghakkars, and 
 Aibak assumed the dignity of Sultan at Delhi under the title 
 of Kutb-ud-din. At the time of the accession of this fortunate 
 adventurer a complete Muslim sovereignty only existed in the 
 city and immediate neighbourhood of Delhi. At Ajmere a 
 tributary Raja was maintained for a time, after which the Mus- 
 lims attempted to substitute a garrison and governor of their 
 own, who were, however, cut to pieces by the Rajputs in the 
 fourth year of the reign. The grandson of Jai Chandra, the 
 Rathor of Kanauj, refused submission, and emigrated, with the 
 bulk of his people, to Marwar, where they founded the State of 
 Jodhpur, which still subsists. In the eastern districts, where 
 the Sena dynasty had become supreme from Benares to the sea, 
 the Khilji general, Bakhtyar, drove the Raja from Lakhnauti 
 or Gaur, as it was called later and forced him back on Bik- 
 rampur, where Billala Sena had his capital before the conquest 
 of the Pala dynasty. The name of this unfortunate descendant 
 is believed to have been Asoka, but the glorious patronymic 
 did little for him. For a short time he clung to the fortified 
 palace of his ancestors ; then the Muslims made a further ad- 
 vance. Alarmed and helpless, the Rajput threw himself upon 
 a burning pyre, with his family, and all perished in the flames. 
 The successful adventurer established himself as an indepen- 
 dent ruler at Sonargaon, not far from the modern Dacca ; but 
 * /Ji= "Moon" and Bak, Bek, or Beg = " Lord."
 
 60 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 being the Sultan's son-in-law, he probably, for the time, ap- 
 peared in the light of a Satrap to the Court of Delhi. 
 
 Kutb-ud-din Aibak established that Court in the fortified 
 palace of Rai Pithaura; but he overthrew the Hindu temples 
 there, and built with the materials the great mosque of 
 Kutb-ul Islam, which is still to be seen there, and still bears 
 witness to the grand designs of the Muslim ruler, as much as 
 to the skill of the Hindu artificers whose work he adopted.* 
 The style of the columns is what is technically known as 
 "Jain," but the arrangement is purely that of a Muslim 
 cloister. In front of the chancel was an arcade, of whose 
 arches only three are now standing. These, however, are not 
 truly arched, but produced by brackets of spandril form jutting 
 out from the pillars of the abutments, and meeting in the centre 
 without key-stones. This peculiarity shows the employment 
 of Hindu workmen, who had to comply with the desire of 
 their employers for the form of the arch, yet did not know the 
 principle of its construction. Within the arcade is a hall of 
 133 feet in length, covered by a roof supported by rows of pil- 
 lars. The carvings are rich and sharp after the havoc of seven 
 hundred years. Outside the south-east angle of the main 
 building, like the campanile of an Italian church, stands the 
 great minaret 258 feet high, sloping from the foot, where the 
 diameter is 47*3 feet across, to a thickness of barely 9 feet at 
 the summit. It is now in five storeys, the two lower divided 
 from the rest by balconies, supported on rich pendentives going 
 all round the circumference of the tower. Mosque and minar 
 alike bear great arabesque inscriptions in honour of Muhamad- 
 bin-Sam. The original tower was of two storeys only. 
 
 SECTION 2. The year of Aibak's accession marks the era 
 of a new dynasty. While he was conquering Bengal and 
 beautifying the capital he was only a military Viceroy. But in 
 
 *Qutb (pop. Kutb) means "Pole Star." The mosque is also called 
 Quwat-ul:
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 61 
 
 1206 his master died, and he .received from headquarters the 
 insignia of an independent Sultan. The dynasty of Mame- 
 lukes thus established receives in history the name of " Slave- 
 Kings." (See opening paragraph of CHAPTER iv.) 
 
 During the rest of his short career Aibak showed himself as 
 valiant and able a king as he had been a good and faithful ser- 
 vant. He engaged in war with Yalduz, in which neither side 
 obtained any permanent advantage ; and he died by an acci- 
 dent at the game now called "Polo," at Lahore, 1210 A.D. 
 In his time the Muslim power was confirmed, at the expense, 
 of course, of the Hindus. "The realm," says a chronicler, 
 " was filled with friends and cleared of foes ; his bounty was 
 continuous, and so was his slaughter." 
 
 A striking instance of the contrast between the manners of 
 the Hindus, and those of their northern conquerors, is afforded 
 by the account given in this Muhamadan chronicle * of the 
 taking of Bihar by Bakhtyar Khilji. A number of Hindu 
 books were found, we are told ; but it was impossible to get 
 them examined because " all the men had been killed." Such 
 a massacre indicates resistance, no doubt ; indeed, we know 
 that the people of the eastern provinces were not wholly sub- 
 dued for more than two generations. 
 
 At the death of Kutb-ud-din Aibak, the Empire was divided 
 into four loosely connected parts. The Khiljis held for Islam 
 in such parts of the eastern provinces as they had been able 
 to subjugate. They were a Turkman clan, of some distinc- 
 tion, who had come down from the Trans-Oxus towards the 
 end of the loth century, A.D. and settled in the eastern part 
 of Afghanistan, where they became the progenitors of the 
 modern Ghilzi, or (popularly) Gilzai, tribe. At the period 
 under notice, they still used the Turkish tongue, but were 
 
 * The Tabakat-i-Nasiri, composed by Minhaj-i-Suraj in the last years 
 of Nasir's reign ; during which he was Chief Kazi of the empire.
 
 62 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 somewhat ahead of their neighbours in civilisation. Their 
 leader bore, as we have seen, the Persian name of Bakhtyar. 
 The northern provinces were under the Mameluke Yalduz. 
 The valley of the Indus was held by another of Muhamad- 
 bin-Sam's promoted slaves, named Kabaeha. An attempt was 
 made in Hindustan to set up an incompetent son of the late 
 Sultan Aibak ; but a third Mameluke, called Shams-ud-din 
 Iltimsh,* who had married one of the late Sultan's daughters, 
 was invited to contest the succession. Having been sold by 
 his brothers while yet young, he had passed through the hands 
 of the Bokhara slave-dealers into the possession of Aibak ; his 
 qualities enabling him to attain early distinction, he was raised 
 to the command of the body-guard ; and, before the Sultan's 
 decease, became his son-in-law and master-of-the-horse. Being 
 in the prime of life, and supported by a party of influence, 
 Iltimsh soon put down the movement in favour of his youthful 
 brother-in-law, and assumed the Sultanate after a brief contest, 
 in 1 21 1. His first trouble was with Yalduz, who was defeated 
 and made prisoner in 1215. Two years later Kabacha came 
 up from Sindh, having enlisted some of the heathen Mughals 
 in his army : those formidable barbarians being at that time 
 in general movement under their famous leader Changez 
 Khan, or Timujin. They had already occupied Khorasan, 
 and were pouring into the Helmand valley when Iltimsh ruled 
 in Hindustan. At first Kabacha seemed willing to make com- 
 mon cause with his brother Mameluke ; and their joint forces 
 opposed the fugitive King of Bokhara who, under Mughal 
 pressure, was endeavouring to effect a settlement in the Pun- 
 jab. In 1225, Sultan Iltimsh undertook an expedition to the 
 eastward, where the Khiljis were attempting to set up an in- 
 
 * Thomas has some speculations on the meaning of this name (p. 213-14.) 
 but comes to no conclusion. Elphinstone spells it Altamsh ; in inscrip- 
 tions it is found as given in the text ; the Hindi die-sinkers got it on their 
 coins as " Lititminsh" ; neither meaning nor true sound is known.
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST, 63 
 
 dependent state in Bihar. The Sultan occupied Gaur, the 
 chief city, and reduced the Khiljis to a temporary obedience. 
 Proceeding from that centre he made further conquests over 
 the Hindus, both north and south. The Khiljis of Bengal 
 took the opportunity of his absence to raise another revolt ; 
 but they were put down by the Sultan's son, on which 
 occasion Bakhtyar, the Khilji leader, was killed in battle. 
 For the next three years the Sultan was constantly engaged. 
 He took from the Rajputs the strong fort of Ranthambor, the 
 key of the Mahva, and reduced that rich province, where he 
 demolished the great Hindu temples of Bhilsa and Ujain. 
 Gwalior was besieged and captured in the year 1232. All 
 Hindustan, roughly speaking, was now reduced to the Muslim 
 obedience ; though isolated states were still left in the enjoy- 
 ment of autonomy which indeed has been maintained in 
 several cases to this day. And even in those regions which 
 lost their native chiefs, the Hindus maintained their own 
 peculiar religions and legal systems ; indeed, Professor H. H. 
 Wilson believes that the evidence of coins goes to show that 
 the spread of Islam was slow and gradual : partly supported 
 in that opinion by the high numismatic authority of the late 
 Edward Thomas.* 
 
 The early Turkmans, though they showed no mercy to the 
 actively hostile, were conciliatory towards the princes and 
 peoples who did not attempt or show opposition ; as may be 
 inferred from the maintenance of Hindu symbols upon the 
 public moneys. It is to the early part of this period that the 
 final codification of Hindu law has been plausibly ascribed.! 
 
 * May this not, however, admit of the simple explanation of which the 
 sham arches of the Kutb Mosque are suggestive ? Namely, that the rude 
 Muslim conquerors had to entrust their art work to Hindus. 
 
 f Mitakshara: circ. 1076 A.D. Jimata Vahana's commentary, ending in 
 the Dhayabhaga schism, circ. 1325, v. inf.
 
 64 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 It is at least remarkable that law- reform should have been 
 found possible in such times. 
 
 With all his military occupations, the Sultan found time for 
 the works of peace. He made his capital where his predecessor 
 did, in the walled city of Rai Pithaura, and close by the great 
 mosque are a college and mausoleum, destined to preserve 
 the founder's name. He also made vast additions to the 
 enclosing cloisters, which were made to take in the Kutb 
 Minar ; and that column likewise received an addition in height. 
 Little, indeed, seems to have been wanting to the glory of 
 Iltimsh. Always victorious in war, he reduced the whole of 
 Hindustan, from the Himalaya to the Vindhya, and from the 
 Indus to the Brahmaputra. But his position was not based 
 on conquest alone, for it received the highest sanction and 
 legitimacy by means of a patent of investiture from the Khalif 
 of Bdghddd, fallen in power, but still the acknowledged High 
 Pontiff of Islam, and source of all true authority and honour 
 through all the Eastern world. A wise minister from the 
 Khalif s court resided at Delhi, and was heard with respect 
 and reverence : men of letters were not absent. 
 
 All this prosperity laboured under the peculiar transience of 
 the East. The mighty Sultan passed away in 1236 ; his eldest 
 son, the victor of the Bengal campaigns; was already dead, a 
 younger son, Rukn-ud-din, succeeded without a contest. He 
 proved unequal to his high fortunes, and gave himself into the 
 hands of his mother, a Turkman lady of strong prejudices 
 but narrow intellect. A palace revolution ensued ; the Sultan 
 and his mother were imprisoned ; and the State came under 
 the government of the Sultan's sister, Musamat Raziya. This 
 princess, who is observable as the first and last female ruler 
 who ever bore sway in the Muslim empire of Hindustan, was 
 of quick intelligence and true courage ; and maintained her- 
 self for some little time in the trying position to which she had 
 attained. But the times were too stormy for a woman, or
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 65 
 
 for any man but a very strong one. Assuming male attire, 
 " Sultan " Raziya went abroad unveiled, and discharged the 
 duties of a sovereign ; seated on the judgment seat in durbar, 
 and mounted on an elephant in battle.* Being overthrown 
 by a successful rebellion, she was deposed and imprisoned, 
 after a reign of three years ; but she captivated the captor, 
 who soon made her his wife. Meanwhile her younger brother, 
 Bahram, had assumed the Sultanate at Delhi, and Raziya 
 marching against him was defeated and put to flight along 
 with her husband ; they were caught in the act of escaping 
 and murdered by some villagers, near Kaithal, in the month of 
 October, 1240.! Next year Lahore was taken by the heathen 
 Mughals, with terrible slaughter. A series of trouble ensued ; 
 Bahrain, the new Sultan, soon learned of what cares he had 
 relieved his ill-starred sister ; the army which he raised 
 for service against the Mughals besieged him in his palace. 
 In May, 1242, the palace was stormed, and Bahram was slain. 
 His successor was Ala-ud-din, son of Sultan Rukn-ud-din, the 
 son of Iltimsh ; incompetent and apathetic as is but too common 
 with princes born in the purple. The land was once more parti- 
 tioned by Muslim satraps, and wasted by heathen incursions ; 
 these overran the Punjab under Mangu Khan, grandson of 
 the mighty marauder Changhez, and father to the famous 
 Khublai Khdn, the conqueror of China. The Sultan marched 
 against them and achieved a partial triumph ; but this success, 
 turning into evil courses the little intellect he had, led to the 
 formation of a plot which ended in his destruction. Ala-ud- 
 din was killed, in June, 1246, and the Sultanate devolved on 
 Nasir-ud-din, another grandson of Iltimsh, his father having 
 been the prince who subdued the Khiljis in Bengal dur- 
 
 * It is believed that it was with reference to these masculine habits that 
 she is spoken of as "Sultan " and " Padshah," like a male sovereign. 
 
 t Her body was interred on the bank of the Jumna a league north of 
 Delhi, and became a place of pilgrimage. 
 
 F
 
 66 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 ing the reign of that Sultan. The new sovereign was a man 
 of peaceful character and frugal habits, who would have 
 probably failed to meet the difficulties of his position had he 
 been left to his own resources. The Hindus were disaffected 
 and rebellious ; and the Mughals, who had by this time 
 become possessed of Ghazni, kept the north-western parts of 
 the empire in perpetual turmoil. But these perils were abated 
 by the ability and energy of a great public servant who was 
 rapidly rising into distinction, and for whom a still more 
 glorious career was in the future. This was Ulagh Khan, of 
 the ancient stock of the Turkish Khakans of Albari, who had 
 been sold by slave-dealers, with a number of other young 
 Turkmans, to Sultan Iltimsh who was, it will be remembered, 
 their countryman, and prepared to give them employment and 
 favour. This was in 1232, since when the Mamelukes had 
 formed themselves into an association called " Shamsis," from 
 the title of their royal master, Shams-ud-din. Under Sultana 
 Raziya .Ulagh had risen to be grand huntsman, and retained 
 the post during the subsequent troubles. Obtaining the fiefs 
 of Riwari and Hansi, he was made chamberlain by Ala-ud-din, 
 and the elevation of that futile Sultan must have been partly 
 due to his intervention. He conducted a campaign against 
 the Hindus, in the Duab, or Gangetic plain, east of the 
 capital, at the outset of the reign, where, according to the 
 chronicle, he " fought much against the infidels," that is to say 
 the people of the country. In 1245 ne l fi d the Sultan's army 
 against the Mughals in the Punjab ; and on his return took an 
 open and conspicuous part in the revolution which placed 
 Nasir-ud-din upon the Masnad of Delhi. 
 
 The rest of the Sultan's history is nothing more than the 
 record of the minister's exploits ; but it is to his credit that he 
 was content with a subordinate situation, and preserved con- 
 stant fidelity to his harmless sovereign. Whether it be called 
 duty or prudence this course was one of almost unbroken
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 67 
 
 prosperity. Necessarily, the minister made enemies ; and 
 once at least his star appeared to wane. In the year 1252 he 
 fell into disgrace ; but after a struggle he prevailed and was 
 restored to power ; and it is noted by a contemporaneous 
 writer that a drought of some duration ceasing on Ulagh Beg's 
 return to Delhi, " it was no wonder that the citizens looked 
 upon his return as a happy omen, and all were thankful to the 
 Almighty."* 
 
 The next attempt of the minister's opponents was masked by 
 a fresh rising of the Hindus, which they instigated in the Uuab ; 
 this was suppressed in 1255, and a similar attempt, having 
 its base at Mount Abu in Rajputana, met with a like fortune 
 in 1257. In the same year a dangerous conspiracy was dis- 
 covered and frustrated in the metropolis itself. In 1259 a 
 fresh incursion of the Mughals took place, by the route of 
 Multan which seems to have been one commonly adopted 
 by them and so formidable did it seem, that poets were com- 
 missioned to produce patriotic songs " in order to stir up the 
 feelings of the Muslims." Having once more expelled the 
 northern foe, the minister was again called upon to meet a fresh 
 combination between his Turkman rivals and the Hindus of 
 the Duab. The former were conciliated and invited to Court ; 
 and then the hand of the minister fell heavily upon the re- 
 calcitrant natives, whom the members of the opposition had 
 made their instrument. 
 
 While these things were doing in Hindustan, Central Asia 
 had been the scene of a new revolution. Hulaku Khan, the 
 chief of the Mughals of Transoxiana, and a grandson of the 
 mighty Changhez Khan, took Baghdad in 1258, and put to 
 death the last of the Abasside Khalifs. About this time the 
 
 * On a tower at Aligarh there used to be an inscription in which the 
 Sultan recited the glories of his minister, dated in 1255. This interesting 
 monument was unhappily destroyed in 1861 after standing six hundred 
 years. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 death of his brother Mangu, so long the leader of the southern 
 horde, and perhaps some sense of the military superiority of 
 the Indian minister, induced Hulaku to think of withdrawing 
 the Mughals from India and concentrating his power in Cen- 
 tral Asia. Accordingly, not long after the last defeat of his 
 deceased brother in the Punjab, he resolved to send a peace- 
 ful mission to the court of Delhi ; and the minister there pre- 
 pared to receive the Mughal envoys with all possible pomp 
 and circumstance. By this time the residence of the Sultan 
 had been removed from old Delhi to the suburb of Kilokhari, 
 on the bank of the river Jumna ; and it was there that the 
 reception took place. Twenty lines of armed soldiers, horse 
 and foot, guarded the approach to the palace, supported by 
 ranks of caparisoned elephants ; and it is characteristic of the 
 stern policy of the minister that he caused the envoys to find 
 the gate, which they reached through this warlike pageantry, 
 decorated with the embalmed bodies of Hindu captives 
 slaughtered, perhaps, for the grim and ghastly purpose. They 
 were conducted to the durbar-room, where they found the simple 
 old sovereign splendidly attended ; and having delivered their 
 message, they were solemnly conducted to their lodgings. On 
 their departure the ruthless minister led a fresh expedition 
 against the Hindus, whom he drove into the mountains, after 
 killing twelve thousand of them men, women, and children. 
 In all this policy the minister made use of the Sultan's 
 name, making him and his sons " a show," as was said of him 
 by a later historian. The explanation of his conduct is to be 
 found in- the incessant competition of the Shamsis "The 
 Forty," as they were called. As these, however, became less 
 formidable, from increasing years and repeated failure, the 
 great services and abilities of the minister grew more and 
 more conspicious , until the quiet old Nasir-ud-din passed 
 away, and Ulagh became Sultan, in 1266, just forty-four years 
 after he had entered Delhi as a slave.
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 69 
 
 His early career deserves notice, both as showing the 
 gradual alienation of the Hindus, and as throwing light upon 
 the curious state of society, in which it was possible to keep 
 up a certain degree of efficiency in the Muslim State. From 
 Sabaktigin downwards the slave markets of Central Asia had 
 continued to produce men of remarkable energy for the con- 
 quest of the rich lands of India. These, without actually 
 becoming an organised corps of Janisaries, for which their num- 
 bers were insufficient, formed a reserve of soldiers and states- 
 men, strong enough to lead the armies of the state and furnish 
 a sort of administration. It cannot be believed that the 
 people, even when abstaining from rebellion, were in a state of 
 happiness or wealth ; but there must have been a certain 
 amount of agriculture and finance to render possible the 
 court-pageants, the public works, and the pay of the troops. 
 And the system by which the more eminent of the Mameluke 
 officers were enabled to become ministers and sultans 
 favoured a survival of the fittest, by which the momentum of 
 the foreign empire was maintained. Nasir-ud-din is the only 
 instance of a hereditary Sultan who had a long reign ; but 
 under the rule of the Mamelukes, Hindustan was a powerful 
 state for a century and a quarter. 
 
 Ulagh Beg or Khan was about sixty years old when he 
 became Sultan, under the title of Ghayas-ud-din Balban, by 
 which he his best known in history. He had still many years 
 of active life before him ; and his reign as Sultan was marked 
 by the same characteristics as his ministerial career, accom- 
 panied with the additional splendour becoming to his new 
 situation. Zia-ud-din Barni, who wrote nearly a hundred 
 years later, is the chief authority for Balban's reign ; and the 
 fact of his not being quite contemporaneous frees him from 
 the suspicion of flattery. His record was a labour of love, 
 designed, avowedly, as a continuation of the Tabdkdt, to 
 which, hitherto, we have been mainly indebted. Barni asserts
 
 70 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 that he wrote the account of Balban's reign from information 
 delivered to him by his own grandfather and others who had 
 held high offices of state during the period. 
 
 No sooner had the sometime minister obtained plenaiy 
 powers, than insubordination at once disappeared. The army 
 was remodelled, commands being reserved for the ablest of 
 the officers. Rigorous justice was enforced, from whose 
 effects the offences of the Sultan's former comrades were not 
 exempted. Spies were employed, by whose means the Sultan 
 was to receive universal knowledge of all that went on. The 
 Sultan allowed no light talk in his presence : he gave up wine 
 to which he had been addicted, and was never seen to laugh. 
 He desisted from aggressive warfare, husbanding all his re- 
 sources for the defence of his territory against foreign foes, 
 and combating all persuasions to the contrary from advisers, 
 who urged that such an attitude was derogatory to the dignity 
 of a great empire. It is probable that the Hindus were 
 gainers by this new- policy. " I have to prepare/' said the 
 Sultan, "to receive the Mughals: were that anxiety removed, 
 I would soon reduce the Rais and the Ranas," Yet the 
 troops were not kept idle. The quondam grand huntsman 
 went into sport with his habitual solemnity. For forty miles 
 round Delhi the country was kept as a strict preserve of game 
 for the Sultan ; and during the cold season he would beat it all 
 day, accompanied by thousands of his soldiers. The Mughals 
 heard of these hunts. " Balban is an old campaigner," cried 
 their leader, "there is more in his hunting than a mere pastime 
 of peace." Indeed, more serious hunting was soon to come, 
 though the Mughals were not, at first, its objects. The 
 Mewatis on one hand, to the south-west of the capital, and 
 later the dakaits (gang robbers) of Patiali, to the north-east, 
 were the earliest human game of the Sultan : both were, not 
 undeservedly, visited with chastisement. The Mughals were 
 watched by the Sultan's eldest son, his headquarters being at 
 Multan,
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 71 
 
 The name of this prince was Muhamad, a brave soldier like 
 his father, and a man of decorous life, and a patron of arts and 
 letters. The poet Amir Khusru (known in Indian literature 
 as " Tota ") was his favourite companion ; and he is remark- 
 able for encouraging conviviality at his Court without permit- 
 ting excess. He governed the Punjab wisely and well, duly 
 submitting to his father, at Delhi, his yearly reports and 
 tribute. Second only, in point of danger, were the eastern 
 provinces of Bihar and Bengal, always ripe for rebellion by 
 reason of their distance from the central power. These were 
 ruled by another son, named Mahmud, or Baghra Khan ; and 
 it was here that the first serious trouble arose. Unwarned by 
 the Sultan's past severities, a general named Taghril Beg, 
 after gaining a temporary success against some rebels, began 
 to defy the authority of Baghra, and held quasi sovereign state 
 at Sonargaon. The old Sultan, after his son had failed, went 
 to Gaur and made a campaign in person. The rebel chief 
 was pursued into Tippera and killed, fighting or fleeing, in 
 1279. It is said that the Sultan intended to make his 
 triumphal entry into Delhi through an avenue of impaled 
 prisoners, but was persuaded to abandon the purpose by the 
 prayers of the heads of Islam. 
 
 But disaster was at hand. Some five years later the 
 Mughals entered the Punjab in great force ; and, though they 
 are said to have been repulsed, it is not the less certain that 
 the blameless Prince Muhamad was killed and his companion 
 the poet Khusru made prisoner ; to which latter circumstance is 
 due a curious description of the manners of the barbarians, of 
 which something will be found on a later page. The misfor- 
 tune was too much for the worn strength of the aged Sultan, 
 which rapidly declined, he being nearly, or quite, 80 years of 
 age. Calling a last council round his bedside he directed that 
 the son of the late prince should be made his heir, to the ex- 
 clusion of Baghra, the Viceroy of the East, in whom events
 
 72 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 had led him to expect weakness. The nobles promised com- 
 pliance ; but no sooner was the old man gone than they 
 cancelled his orders, sent the prince to his father's post at 
 Multan, and awarded the Sultanate to Baghra's son. The 
 young man's accession took place early in 1287 J an d he bore 
 the ancient Persian title of Kai Kubad ; but he was destined 
 to give another proof of the weakness of the hereditary 
 principle, even when education has not been neglected. 
 Trained by his stern and solemn grandfather, the young prince 
 had never kissed girl or goblet, as we are told by Barni ; but 
 the sudden emancipation was too much for his acquired virtue. 
 Abandoning himself to the most reckless indulgence, warring 
 against his father, and causing the death of his cousin at 
 Multan, he lost the confidence of those who had served his 
 house so long. The Khiljis, though put down in Bengal, 
 were still powerful at court : a revolution occurred, of which 
 the details are not recorded : the wretched young Sultan sank 
 into a premature decrepitude, brought on by his vices, and 
 was slaughtered in bed at Kilokhari about three years after his 
 accession. The leader of the Khiljis Jalal-ud-din found 
 himself opposed by the head of the Mughal mercenaries, who 
 wished to put forward a son of the deceased Kubad to carry 
 on the line of Balban : but the opposition was unsuccessful, 
 and the general, who was an old and seasoned warrior, became 
 Sultan, and the founder of a new dynasty. 
 
 This closed the line of the Mamelukes, during which the 
 Hindus had been, indeed, ill-treated ; but their ill-treatment 
 was less the result of religious persecution than of stern politi- 
 cal repression. Chafing under the yoke of foreign conquest, 
 they persisted in rebellion ; and the Mamelukes put them 
 down in the manner then universally adopted. With the 
 accession of the Khiljis a new system began, which destroyed 
 the country and slowly sapped the Muslim power. 
 
 SECTION 3. It is to be regretted that we have so little
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 73 
 
 material for a record of the history of the Deccan during the 
 time when the Mamelukes were warring in Hindustan. The 
 usual unhistorical habit of the Hindus continued in the parts 
 unvisited by the invaders ; and the evidence of coins and in- 
 scriptions reveals little more that what Milton called " battles 
 of kites and crows." The one point that seems clear and im- 
 portant is that an element of nationality was at work, and the 
 battles were sometimes inspired by a hostility entertained by 
 the Tamils and, perhaps, other races of the Dravidians, seeking 
 to resist the invasion of Rajputs. The annexed sketch may 
 help to explain what is meant. It will be seen that in the ex- 
 treme south the old Dravidian powers held their old places. 
 The Pandiyan kingdom was sometimes threatened sometimes, 
 indeed, invaded by the Tamil rulers of the adjacent island of 
 Ceylon. The relations between the two Tamil powers, on the 
 island and the mainland, were probably intimate : as Prakrama 
 I., King of the Island, is said to have resided at Ramiseram, 
 about 1160 A.D. The Cheras in the Canarese country did 
 little worthy of record. To the south east the Cholas were 
 more energetic. In the central part of the Deccan (Maisur 
 and the southern Mahratta country) was a dynasty of Jadu 
 Rajputs* whose capital, Dorasamudra, has left traces in a 
 Maisur village called, at the present day, Halebid. This tribe 
 was known as that of Hoysala Ballala; and the temple of 
 Siva, at Halebid, which is named after them, has been much 
 admired. It is of polished stone with elaborate sculpture. 
 The coast of " Kalinga," to the north-east, was partly under 
 the Ganpatis of Orangal, and had been portion of the 
 dominions cf the eastern Chalukyas. The chief tribe of the 
 Deccan Jadus held the country now known as Berar and the 
 northern Deccan ; the western Ghats and north Konkan being 
 
 * The Jadu, Yadava, or Yadubansi, was the tribe of the famous Sri 
 Krishna, and is mentioned in ancient poetry.
 
 74 HISTORY OF IND'lA. 
 
 held by the western Chalukyas whose Rajas had their court 
 at Kalian, near Bombay, from the eleventh century of our era.* 
 
 About the middle of the following century, the eastern 
 Chalukyas -who, like their western brethren, claimed descent 
 from a " lunar " Rajput stock in Audh became involved in 
 war with the Orangal Ganpatis, who had Dravidian affinities. 
 The Cholas a race of pure Tamil blood absorbing the 
 power of the Pollavas about the same time, became parties to 
 the contest.; in 119 the Ganpatis prevailed over the 
 Chalukyas ; but the northern Cholas remained masters of 
 Kalinga till about 1228, when they too had to retire before 
 the Ganpati advance. Nor did the western branch of the 
 Chalukyas fare better: in 1189 they were overrun by the 
 Ballalas, or Hoysalas, aided, perhaps, by their Jadu, or Yadavn, 
 brethren of the north. In the thirteenth century the greater part 
 of the Deccan was divided among the Yadavas and the Ganpatis 
 of Orangal, the Tamil lines still maintaining themselves in the 
 southern triangle, or from the coast of Coromandel to that of 
 Malabar, and from the Kavari river to Cape Comorin. 
 
 Such is a brief summary of Ueccan history up to the time 
 when the Muslim aggressions began in that region. The 
 Khilji Sultan at Delhi was, as has been said, a military veteran 
 named Jalal-ud-din ; and he placed complete confidence in a 
 nephew entitled Ala-ud-dm, on whom the chief command of 
 the army was ultimately conferred. The first trouble arose in 
 the eastern Duab, whence the chiefs of the defeated party led 
 a rebellious army under a nephew of the late Sultan Balban. 
 The attempt was defeated by the Sultan's second son, about 
 1290, and' Ala-ud-din was left in charge of Karra, as the 
 province was then called. The next campaign was in Malwa, 
 and was under the personal superintendence of the Sultan 
 himself; but the result was indecisive (1292). He next pro- 
 
 * It is here that the Mitakshara digest is believed to have appeared in 
 the reign of Vikrama VI. cue. 1075.
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 75 
 
 ceeded to the Punjab, where the Mughals were once more 
 becoming troublesome ; and it is probably to be taken as 
 marking the humane character that war was beginning to 
 assume, that the Sultan is recorded to have enrolled his 
 prisoners in his own army instead of putting them to death. 
 
 Meanwhile, Ala-du-din, from his satrapy of the eastern 
 Duab, was watching, with contempt, his uncle's unprecedented 
 mildness. Very different was his own idea of policy. Having 
 obtained charge of the unfinished campaign in Malwa, he left 
 his capital. "When he advanced from Karra," says the 
 chronicler, " the Hindus, in alarm, descended into the ground, 
 like ants. . . He cleared the road to Ujain of vile wretches, 
 and caused consternation at Bhilsa." He then advanced with 
 no more than 8,000 men, beyond the bounds of his prescribed 
 task. The temple of Somnath was plundered once more, and 
 a successful invasion of the Yadava territory, in the Deccan, 
 led to the submission of Ramachandra, their chief, who resided 
 in the strong fortress of Deogiri. Ala-ud-din returned from 
 his expedition laden with booty, exalted in reputation, and 
 almost beside himself with unscrupulous ambition. His ex- 
 pedition, so far as Ujain, had been strictly under orders ; but 
 in going on to Kathiawar and Deogiri he had acted on his 
 own responsibility. He now affected alarm lest he might have 
 incurred the displeasure of his uncle, the Sultan, and insisted 
 on the old man coming to Karra to meet him without a guard. 
 The Sultan's true friends objected, but the Sultan himself had 
 no room in his soldier's heart for any feeling but gratified pride 
 and affection. He complied with every demand of his nephew, 
 and crossed the Ganges to greet him in his camp. As he was in 
 the embrace of the traitor he was stabbed by the by-standers, 
 acting on previous instructions. This was in July, 1296, and 
 Ahi-ud-din immediately assumed the Sultanate. The family 
 of Baghra became independent in Bengal, but acknowledged 
 Delhi as the Empire.
 
 76 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 For several years this ill-gotten Empire continued to prosper. 
 In 1299 the Mughals advanced from Ghazni, apparently con- 
 templating the conquest of Hindustan. They accordingly 
 entered the Punjab once more, and advanced within a march 
 of Delhi. The Sultan met them like a man, and intrenched 
 himself at a place called Killi, some ten miles north of the 
 capital. After a hot day's fighting the invaders were defeated 
 and put to flight, but one of the Sultan's best generals was 
 sacrficed : this was in 1298. 
 
 Ala-ud-din now became almost mad with pride ; he fancied 
 himself " a second Alexander," and in his cups proposed to 
 establish a new religion. He undertook public works on an 
 extravagant scale ; increasing the court-yard of the Kutb 
 Mosque at old Delhi to over 400 feet square, adding a lovely 
 carved gateway as big as an ordinary mansion, and beginning 
 an impossible masonry tower that was to be double the Kutb 
 Minar in all dimensions. He so far propitiated the Muslims 
 as to desecrate Hindu temples, and cement the mortar of his 
 walls with Mughal blood. But to Islam itself he was disre- 
 spectful ; and if he despoiled the poor he impartially disturbed 
 the accumulations of the rich. In all these measures he 
 showed a strange mixture of sagacity ; the Hindus were to 
 have enough to live upon ; the land was to be surveyed so as 
 to ensure the Rayatas full half the gross produce. It is true that 
 the usual experience of the world has pointed to nine-tenths as 
 due allowance ; but, no doubt, half a loaf is better than no 
 bread ; and Sultan Ala-ud-din may have heard some such 
 saying. Naturally the system was far from popular. " Men 
 looked upon a revenue officer," says a Muslim historian of the 
 time, " as worse than a fever." Regarding his own caprices as 
 above all law, he rarely consulted the sages of Islam. But on 
 one occasion he asked a Kdzi's opinion, only to reject the 
 reply with scorn. There was to be no tribute, in the ordinary 
 sense of the word ; for that implied the notion of property out
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 77 
 
 of which tribute should be paid. " I am but a simple soldier," 
 said the Sultan, " and I know nothing of law : but this I do 
 know, that no unbeliever should have more than the food to 
 keep him alive. The revelation of the Prophet is one thing, 
 the policy of the State another." 
 
 In business, especially in military business, this extraordinary 
 man was uniformly successful. In 1300 he took the great 
 Rajput fort of Ranthambor, already mentioned as the key of 
 Malwa, the Raja and all the garrison being put to the sword. 
 In 1303 he took possession of the almost impregnable castle 
 of Chitore, in Mewar, and settled the country on his own 
 peculiar principles. In the course of the next two years he so 
 handled the Mughals, that for many years they ventured on 
 no further incursions into Hindustan. In 1309 a force from 
 Delhi invaded the southern regions of the country under a 
 converted Hindu, who had risen to high military rank, by the 
 title of Malik Kafur. The Yadava of Deogiri, now become a 
 tributary of Delhi, gave substantial aid, but the Raja of 
 Orangal Pratapa Rudra II made a gallant attempt to defend 
 his country and capital. The first campaign turned to the loss 
 of the allies ; but in the next the Raja was driven into Orangal, 
 where he did his best to sustain a siege. The account of the 
 place rests on the narrative of the poet Amir Khusru. The 
 outer wall was of earth, with a circuit of over seven miles : 
 within this was a citadel of stone. The garrison having ex- 
 hausted themselves by an unsuccessful night-sortie, the allies 
 stormed the earthern ramparts ; and on this the stone citadel 
 surrendered at discretion. The Muslim general was politic or 
 humane, and Pratapa Rudra was allowed to follow the example 
 of Deogiri, and become a tribituary of the Delhi State. In 
 1310-11 the Muslim power continued to extend over the 
 peninsula with the slow and steady devastation of a lava flood. 
 Dorasamudra, the Ballala capital, was taken and sacked : the 
 kingdoms of the Cholas and Pandiyas were subdued. Not
 
 78 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 only did the Sultan adopt the new policy of reinstating all 
 these Rajas, on condition of their paying tribute ; but he took 
 a wife from a Hindu family that of the Raja of Gujarat. In 
 1312, however, the Raja of Deogiri having failed to pay the 
 stipulated tribute, Kafur returned to the Deccan which he laid 
 waste with fire and sword: the Yadava Raja was put to death 
 as a traitor to the State, and Deogiri became the seat of a 
 Muslim Government. 
 
 For one brief moment all India was " brought under one 
 umbrella." But the Sultan was verging on old age, and he 
 had long been an immoderate wine-bibber. He now became 
 a victim to dropsy, and Kafur took advantage of his increasing 
 infirmities to seclude him from the world and his family, while 
 he himself carried on the administration in his master's name. 
 Sanguinary orders, signed by the Sultan, were the only indica- 
 tions that he lived. All the strong work of the reign fell to 
 pieces, imperial garrisons were driven out from what had been 
 deemed subject provinces. At length it was announced that 
 the Sultan was no more. Whether aided by treason or not, his 
 demise took place at the beginning of 1315, and produced a 
 momentary relief. His infant son was proclaimed, under the 
 title of Shahab-ud-din Umar, and Kafur appeared all powerful. 
 Suddenly, one more of those obscure palace-revolutions took 
 place, of whose mystery no man, then or since, could ever find 
 the key. Kafur attempting to cause the death of Mubarak, 
 his late master's third son, was himself slain, and the prince 
 assumed the Sultanate, with the title of Mubarak Shah, in 
 March, 13.16. 
 
 The young Sultan was a dissolute creature, who began where 
 his father had ended, giving the administration over to a low- 
 caste Hindu, and abandoning himself to a life of indulgence. 
 This minion, Malik Khusru, in all respects a counterpart of 
 the late Kafur, was a converted Hindu, of the low Parwari 
 caste, but with high ability, who had made a successful
 
 THE MUSLIM CONQUEST. 79 
 
 campaign on the south-west coast of the Deccan, and brought 
 back considerable booty. The closing scenes of Ala-ud-din's 
 reign were reproduced ; the favourite engrossed all power ; the 
 Sultan disappeared in April, 1321. The minister made himself 
 Sultan, with the title of " Khusru Shah." but he is hardly to 
 be counted among the Muslim Kings of Delhi. Indeed he 
 was not more than nominally a believer, and his assumption of 
 power was a hardly-disguised Hindu movement. In fact, since 
 Ala-ud-din orthodoxy had been rejected as a state religion.* 
 
 [For additional authorities on the subject dealt with in this 
 chapter, see "Sketch of the Dynasties of Southern India," 
 by R. Sewell, Madras, 1883; Briggs' " Ferishta," London, 
 1829 ; Dowson and Elliot's " Muhamadan Historians of 
 India," Vols. II. and III., London, 1867-77 5 an d E. Thomas's 
 " Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi," London, 1871.] 
 
 * On the coinage of Mubarak he is called " Supreme Pontiff'' and 
 "Khalifof God."
 
 So 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 
 
 Section I : The House of Tughlak and invasion of Tamerlane. 
 Section 2 : Line of Lodi and the New Mughals. Section 3 : The adven- 
 tures of Babar ; Social conditions of Hindustan ; progress of Islam in 
 the south. 
 
 SECTION i. The Gorians, the Slaves, and the next succeeding 
 dynasties, have received from historians the name of " The 
 Pathan Kings of Delhi;" and the name is so far useful as indicat- 
 ing a common origin : though, perhaps, Turkman would have 
 been a more exact epithet. But this foreign stock underwent con- 
 siderable decay with the fall of the Khilji line ; and for the 
 next two centuries we shall have to consider the Empire of 
 Hindustan as ruled by Sultans who, though still professing the 
 faith of the Arabian Prophet, were natives of India, and 
 whether consciously or not favourable, to some degree, to 
 that fusion with the people of the country, of which we have 
 already seen premonitory symptoms. 
 
 For five months after the murder of Mubdrak Shah the 
 capital was in the hands of the followers of Khusru, who took 
 to themselves the ladies of the royal household, and used 
 Korans as' seats, while they attended the worship of idols in 
 the desecrated mosques of Islam. The Governor of the 
 Punjab, Ghazi Malik, himself the son of a Hindu mother, 
 watched these proceedings with stern disapproval ; but did not 
 venture to interfere, for his eldest son, Ulagh Khan, or Juna, 
 was residing in Delhi, an unwilling guest and hostage. At
 
 END OF THE "PATHANS." 81 
 
 length Juna effected his escape, and hastened to his father's 
 camp. Ghazi immediately collected his veterans and marched 
 on Delhi, gained an easy victory over the rioters, and put the 
 usurping Khusru to death He then enquired for the heirs 
 of the House of Khilji ; but none had survived, and he was 
 acclaimed Sultan, by the title of Ghaias-ud-din Tughlak, 22nd 
 August, 1321 ; his family or clan name being Tughlak, and the 
 title, Ghaias-ud-din, being assumed in honour of Sultan 
 Balban who had borne that title, and in whose household he 
 had been. It is a strange instance of longevity in such 
 troublous times that his old master had been slave to Iltimsh, 
 whose master was the conqueror of Rai Pithaura one hundred 
 and thirty seven years before. Another vestige of the past 
 was the grandson of Baghra Khan and great-grandson of 
 Sultan Balban, who had succeeded his father in the govern- 
 ment of the Eastern Provinces, in which post he was confirmed 
 by the new Sultan.* 
 
 The Khilji line had only ruled for thirty years ; but that 
 brief period had been one of much change. The Muslim 
 rule had been consolidated in Hindustan, and partially ex- 
 tended in the Deccan. The irruptions of the Mughals had 
 apparently ceased ; those northern barbarians having embraced 
 the creed of Islam, and settled down in the kingdoms of 
 Central Asia, or taken service as mercenaries in the Indian 
 armies. Those Hindu chiefs who had succeeded in resistance 
 to the Delhi Sultans were recognised as belligerent if hostile 
 powers; the rest had entered the pale of the Empire and 
 become feudatory princes. The bulk of the people, however 
 oppressed, had become submissive subjects. A considerable 
 population of native Muslims had also arisen, who though im- 
 
 * Elphinstine erroneously states that this was Baghra himself; but 
 Thomas has shown that he died about the end of Jalal- ud-din's reign, and 
 was succeeded by his son Kai Kaiis. The grandson's name was Baghra 
 hence the mistake. " Pathan Kings" p. 248 
 
 G
 
 82 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 migrants from force of character usually filled the higher 
 stations of civil and military life. The Sultans and their 
 Muslim lieutenants were beginning to hold the position of 
 the barons and earls of England, in the almost parallel time 
 of the Plantagenets. Consequent on this partial fusion a 
 vernacular language was being created in Hindustan, to allow 
 of communication among the associated classes. This tongue, 
 appropriately known to us as "Hindustani," is the Urdu of the 
 native scholars, an application of the later Prakrit of the 
 Duab, using, by preference, the Persian form of the Arabic 
 character, and assimilating words from Hindi, Persian, Turkish, 
 and any other vocabularies that may cross its path. In this 
 power of growth lay its future fortunes ; it soon began to be 
 more than a mere lingua franca of oral communication, and 
 to develop the germs of a national literature. The name 
 " Urdu " is connected with the Turkish word from which we 
 get our English "horde;" and is sufficiently indicative of the 
 origin of the language, for it was in the Turkman Sultan's 
 camp that such a vernacular would first become requisite as a 
 means of dealing between the soldiery and those who furnished 
 their supplies. Thus, it affords an interesting example of the 
 rule that the necessities of human intercourse must be stronger 
 than any estrangement arising out of the pride of race, the 
 bigotry of creed, or even the resentful feelings of subjugated 
 nationality. 
 
 The old warrior, who had attained sovereign power in this 
 unusually blameless fashion, was a remarkable instance of 
 simple honesty who deserved his elevation. The offspring of 
 a Turkman slave by a Jat mother, he showed all the virtues 
 which often mark a fortunate crossing of races ; and he owed 
 every step in his progress to his own good conduct. On 
 becoming Sultan he maintained the same honourable standard, 
 and did not allow his good fortune to disturb his habitual self- 
 control. He did his best to reform the civil administration,
 
 END OF THE " PA THA NS." 83 
 
 impaired as it had been by years of anarchy : at the same time 
 guarding his northern frontier, and sending his not very wise 
 son Ulagh Khan or Juna to restore order in the south. The 
 Raja of Orangal held out, and the Prince could effect but little 
 against him. The Muslim forces invested the capital, but were 
 unable to breach the earthern ramparts ; and, being defeated 
 by a sally of the garrison, they beat a hasty retreat. In 1323, 
 however, the Muslims were better led, or met with better 
 fortune. Attacking Orangal with increased numbers they 
 captured the fortifications of the city, stormed the citadel, and 
 carried the Raja, Pratapa Rudra, in triumph to Delhi. His 
 son, Krishna, was allowed to succeed, but it was to a greatly 
 reduced principality. In the following year the Sultan person- 
 ally conducted an expedition to Sonargaon (in eastern Benga 1 ) 
 which resisted the authority of the line of old Baghra Klian. 
 He restored order there, and on his way back reduced and 
 captured a rebel Raja, in Tirhut. 
 
 But his heir-apparent, Juna, was wearying for the succession. 
 In his impatience he watched the slow, but sure, march of his 
 father towards the capital, and frequently consulted a hermit 
 of the sinister sect of the "Assassins." At each enquiry he 
 named a new stage at which the Sultan was reported to have 
 arrived ; but on each occasion " Delhi is still far " was the 
 only answer of the oracle. Regardless of the ties of duty and 
 gratitude, he interpreted the dark saying by the light of his 
 desire, and resolved to take destiny into his own keeping. At 
 the last halting place Juna erected a wooden pavilion for the 
 reception of his father and his brother, who had accompained 
 the Sultan on his campaign. There was a parade of elephants 
 when the Sultan had been conducted to his seat : Juna went 
 down to give an order; at the next instant one of the huge 
 beasts was driven against a projection beneath the gallery; the 
 whole building gave way with a crash ; the gallery fell to the 
 ground. Workmen were hurried in to search among the ruins, 
 
 G 2
 
 84 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 and the body of the valiant old Sultan was found under some 
 fallen beams, the arms extending as if he had sought to 
 protect his boy to the last. This crime was committed 
 in February, 1323. * 
 
 Juna succeeded to the Sultanate by the title of Muhamad 
 Tughlak ; and the manner in which he exercised his power 
 was as singular and as unscrupulous as the manner in which 
 he had. in anticipation of the course of nature, come to its 
 possession. He did not prove a tyrant of the common stamp, 
 being a man of most original character ; brave and accom- 
 plished, but wholly bereft of common sense or judgment. 
 Barni, who knew him intimately, concurs with the African 
 Moor, Ibn Batuta, who visited India during his reign, as to 
 his extraordinary mixture of literature without religion, and 
 culture without humanity. Neither of these writers had any 
 personal grievance against him ; in their capacity as men of 
 letters they experienced kind treatment at his hands. But 
 they adduce too much evidence in notorious features of his 
 conduct to leave any doubt as to the mischief that he caused 
 to the country whose government he had been so impatient 
 to seize. Having produced a famine in the country about 
 Delhi by ill-judged and meddlesome interference, he proposed 
 to remedy it by deporting the population to Deogiri, a 
 thousand miles off, where he contemplated the creation of a 
 new capital under the plausible name of Daulatabad (pros- 
 perous city), which the deserted ruins, as if in mockery, still 
 retain. Myriads died on the way for want of proper arrange- 
 ments. He then attempted to re-people the Delhi territory 
 from other regions ; but if there is one thing for which the 
 native of India is less fit than another it is migration. Nor 
 
 * This story is referred to by Elphinstone as doubtful. It rests, however 
 on the authority of Ibn Batuta, who had it from an eye-witness, and who 
 gives the name of the agent by whom the "Kiosk," as he calls it, was 
 contrived.
 
 END OF THE " PA THANS." 85 
 
 was his harshness strong or methodical, like that of Balban 
 or Ala-ud-din ; nor do we read of the religious persecutions 
 and enforced conversions, which afterwards brought ruin on 
 Aurangzeb. He endeavoured to circulate copper tokens in place 
 of the usual silver currency, but withdrew them at par when 
 he found that they were unpopular. He collected a mighty 
 host for the invasion of Persia, and then allowed it to dissolve 
 for want of orders, and for lack of pay. He sent an expedition 
 to cross the Himalaya into Chinese Tartary ; and when 
 it perished in the snows, punished the reserved troops who 
 had been left behind. But he endeavoured to explain his con- 
 duct to Barni, as if he would retain an advocate to plead for 
 him at the bar of posterity. The more he punished, he said, 
 the more he was disobeyed ; but he was resolved to carry out 
 his plans to the end. 
 
 No wonder if the Empire suffered diminution under such a 
 wilful guardian. In 1327 his Viceroy in the Deccan rebelled, 
 and an expedition was sent to chastise him. The rebel took 
 refuge with the Raja of Maisur, but the Raja gave him up for 
 fear of consequences ; and the unhappy rebel was flayed alive 
 by order of the Sultan. In 1338 the new capital was inaugur- 
 ated at Deogiri; in 1341 there was a rising in Malabar, which 
 the Sultan attempted to quell in person ; but he fell sick and 
 returned without doing anything. Three years later a con- 
 federation of Rajas was formed, and an enormous force 
 attacked the Muslims in the Orangal country and drove them 
 out. This reverse was naturally followed by a general revolt 
 in all the Muslim dependencies of the south. The Viceroy of 
 Daulatabad the new capital declared himself independent. 
 This officer was an Afghan, born however at Delhi, and in the 
 humblest circumstances, and originally named Jafar Khan. 
 Under the patronage of a Brahman astrologer he rose to for- 
 tune and power ; and in, 1347, headed a successful revolt 
 by which he was enabled to become independent. He left
 
 86 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Daulatabad and made his capital at Kulbarga, in what is now 
 one of the Nizam's districts, some hundred miles west of 
 Haidarabad. In memory of his Hindu patron the successful 
 adventurer called himself Hassan Gangu. 
 
 While these losses were going on in the Deccan, Ben- 
 gal and the Punjab alike broke away from the headstrong 
 Sultan's rule. The example being followed in Gujarat and 
 Sindh, the fantastic despot at last bestirred himself. Desiring 
 to chastise a Sindh Raja who had given harbour to one of the 
 Gujarat rebels, he marched to Tatta, near Karachi, a place 
 long famed for malaria arising from the marshes of the de- 
 bouching Indus. Here he was seized by the prevailing local 
 fever, and died on the 2oth March, 1351, the most eccentric 
 despot that ever escaped a violent end. It is related that on 
 his deathbed he gave utterance to an impromptu stanza re- 
 flecting upon the vanity of his past career. The singular 
 nature of the man followed him to the tomb. About four 
 miles east of Delhi is a vast and massive group of buildings 
 nearly four miles in circuit, faced by an artificial sheet of water, 
 and rising grandly above a scarped rock with sloping ramparts 
 of enormous hewn stones. In front of the principal gate of 
 this fortified palace which still preserves the name of the 
 dynasty is a mausoleum, whose leaning walls, and almost 
 Egyptian solidity of construction, form a striking model of a 
 warrior's tomb.* The building is connected with the palace 
 by a viaduct across the lake, and is more than 60 feet square, 
 with a height of over 38 feet. It contains three sepulchres, 
 namely that of the murdered Ghazi and his two sons. In the 
 tomb of Juna is supposed to lie buried a collection of vouchers 
 for the pardon of the dead Sultan provided by the pious care 
 
 * The palace and tomb at Tughlakabad are the work of the first of the 
 Tughlak Sultans 1321-3. Juna's own buildings are a small out-work 
 near the south-east corner, and the ruins of a city and palace north-east of 
 old Delhi, known s&Jahan Pami,
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 87 
 
 of his successor : " I took pains," he writes, " to discover the 
 surviving kindred of all my late Lord's victims ; and having 
 provided for them, caused them to execute deeds, duly wit- 
 nessed, declaratory of their having received satisfaction ; and 
 these have been buried in a chest at the head of the late 
 Sultan's grave, in hopes that God, of his infinite mercy, will 
 take compassion on my departed friend." 
 
 The grateful follower who thus sought to give his pre- 
 decessor letters for the throne of grace was a cousin whom 
 the late Sultan, in default of direct issue, had educated in de- 
 clared view to the succession. This fact, taken with the con- 
 current testimony of Ibn Batuta to Juna's accomplishments 
 and generosity, and that of Barni to the modest humility of 
 his manners, completes the incredible portrait of the late 
 Sultan, and perhaps helps us to understand both the peace- 
 fulness of his end, and of the next monarch's almost un- 
 challenged accession. On a rumour of the death of Firuz, 
 who was with the army at Tatta, a putative son of the late 
 Sultan was set up at Delhi ; but Firuz hastening up from 
 Sindh assumed the throne without serious difficulty. He 
 took the title of Firuz-bin-Rajab, and his reign dates from 
 that of the death of his predecessor, 23rd March, 1351. 
 In his time the Muslim power decayed in Hindustan, with- 
 out there arising anything to take its place. The hastily 
 accumulated Empire of Ala-ud-din had not had time to 
 consolidate. The earnest, but ill-regulated administration 
 which ensued, had entirely failed in maintaining authority 
 in the more distant parts. Of twenty-three provinces of 
 which the empire consisted at the opening of the second 
 Tughlak's reign, less than half were loyal at the end. And 
 Firuz was not the man to recover the allegiance of lost pro- 
 vinces, or punish rebellious leaders. Being of orthodox con- 
 victions he has endeared himself to the Muslim historians ; 
 and his piety towards his predecessor is undoubted ; not con-
 
 88 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 tent with providing for the spiritual welfare of his deceased 
 patron, he chose out the names of the best of the early Muslim 
 rulers and caused them to be recited, before his own, in 
 the weekly litanies. He next turned his attention to public 
 works, not merely works of a decorative nature, but also use- 
 ful as utility was then understood. The city that he founded 
 was upwards of six miles in length by two in average breadth, 
 extending from the shore of the Jumna at Indrapat to the 
 subsequent site of " Hindu Rao's house," on the north of the 
 modern city. It comprised a palace, a chapel royal, and 
 eight public mosques, each capable, on an average, of accomo- 
 dating 10,000 worshippers; only males being provided for, 
 this would indicate a considerable population. He also 
 founded a city at Hissar, in Hariana ; and in order to provide 
 the citizens with good water, generously dug a canal, drawn 
 from the Upper Jumna, and running to the west of that river, 
 also utilising the waters of some minor streams. He built a 
 mosque at Depalpur, on the way to Multan ; he established a 
 military outpost in the south of Gujarat at Surat, on the shore 
 of the Gulf of Cambay ; and he began to found a city at Jaun- 
 pur on the western portion of the Bihar. These points 
 Surat and Jaunpur are to be noted as the probable extremes 
 of the Empire of Firuz.* He failed in the Eastern Provinces, 
 and he made no attempt to restore the power of the Delhi State 
 in the Deccan or in Sindh. But within the limits of Hindustan 
 proper the land had rest so far, at least, as was consistent 
 with a somewhat bigoted policy towards the Hindus. A 
 system of bestowing Jdigirs (fiefs) was introduced to pay the 
 officers of the army and maintain their troops, for whom Ala- 
 un-din, Khilji, had provided money payments. A rent-charge 
 was imposed on land traversed by royal canals, in order to pro- 
 vide an interest of 10 per cent, on the cost of their con- 
 
 * Vide map at page 73.
 
 END OF THE "PATHANS." 89 
 
 struction. The Sultan's personal income was separated from 
 the public revenues and formed a distinct civil list ; the 
 budget of the former being fixed at a little over sixty millions 
 of rupis, after certain irritating taxes had been remitted. But, 
 in spite of these liberal ideals, and of the fact that his mother 
 was the daughter of a Hindu Rana, Firuz levied the poll-tax 
 upon unbelievers with stern severity, and even destroyed their 
 temples. For the latter practice he had no excuse, nor did he 
 deem excuse requisite ; we know that he acted thus from his own 
 memoirs, where he calmly mentions it as part of his discharge 
 of duty. But toleration was not dreamt of, in the fourteenth 
 century, either in Asia or in Europe ; and we must not con- 
 demn a ruler generally wise and conscientious because he was 
 not superior to all contemporary rulers. The memoirs, by his 
 own hand, are otherwise indicative of high aims and earnest 
 labour ; they tell of canals, dams, bridges, tanks, as much as of 
 mosques and palaces : and his restoration of the Kutb Minar 
 and other edifices of his predecessors is proof of an unusual 
 spirit of consideration and of continuity unhappily most rare 
 among oriental potentates. The modest opening of the little 
 chronicle is characteristic : " I am the unfortunate and pitiable 
 Firuz-bin-Rajab, the slave of the Emperor Muhamad Shah 
 Tughlak." Amongst the gifts of God he reckons "a desire to 
 erect public buildings ... so that devout and holy 
 persons might worship the Almighty, and remember the 
 founder in their prayers." Among these works he enumerates 
 many mosques, shrines, and oratories ; but he likewise 
 makes mention of an infirmary, with a staff of endowed 
 physicians, and regular provision of food and medicine. 
 " Here all are treated, without distinction of status or con- 
 dition ; and, if it be God's will, are cured." 
 
 As has been already hinted, the placid rule of this beneficent 
 Sultan was conducive' to the prosperity of Hindustan rather 
 than to the extension of the Empire. Bengal asserted inde-
 
 90 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 pendence by sending an ambassador to Delhi, and by issuing 
 a distinct coinage in the names of local rulers. Orissa, Telin- 
 gana (Orangal), and the members of the southern Hindu 
 confederation, interposed between Hindustan and the new 
 Muslim power of Hassan Gangu. That successful adventurer 
 died in peace, after an uneventful reign, in 1358 ; and his son, 
 Muhamad Shah I., reigned in his stead. To the south-west, 
 the Canarese line of Narsingh founded the state whose capital 
 was at Bijainagar, the first recorded monarch being Bakka, or 
 Bakka Raya, 1350-79. The rest of the history of the South 
 during this period will be briefly summarised hereafter. 
 
 Thus, in blended cloud and sunshine, with dominions 
 diminished abroad, but mostly prospering at home, the years 
 of the peaceful Firuz passed by. In 1373 he lost his son, 
 Fatteh Muhamad, who had for many years acted as his 
 associate in the Empire, and whose own son was afterwards 
 to become Sultan. Another son, Zafar, was then made co- 
 Regent ; but he, too, predeceased his father. In his old age 
 Sultan Firuz became the centre of palace intrigue ; a third 
 son Muhamad Shah attempting to seize the sceptre, was 
 routed and driven into exile ; but the monarch abdicated in 
 1388, and before the end of the year died at a very advanced 
 age, after a reign of thirty-seven calendar years. 
 
 The next Sultan, Ghaias-ud-din Tughlak the Second, was 
 the son of the deceased prince, Fatteh Khan, and assumed the 
 government on the defeat of his uncle and the abdication of 
 his aged grandfather. He neglected every duty; and was sup- 
 planted, before the end of the year, by Abu Bakr, son of his 
 other uncle Zafa. The Sultan fled, but was overtaken and 
 put to death, 3151 December, 1388. 
 
 Abu Bakr was for a time supported by the courtiers and 
 chiefs at Delhi ; but his uncle Muhamad Shah, emerging from 
 his exile, attacked the feeble monarch with such pertinacity 
 that, although three times beaten, he was enabled to form a
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS" 91 
 
 party at court, by whom he was invited to Delhi and raised to 
 the Sultanate in 1389. Next year he took captive his nephew 
 and predecessor, who died, a prisoner, at Mirath (Meerut). 
 Muhamad Shah's reign was consistent with his energetic open- 
 ing ; he put down risings in the Duab, and might have made 
 substantial conquests, but his career was cut short by fever, 
 1 7th November, 1392. A momentary Sultanate of forty-five 
 days followed ; and then the throne devolved upon the 
 younger son of Muhamad Shah, during whose reign the 
 Tughlak sun was to set in clouds of blood. A son of Fatteh 
 Khan set up a claim to the Sultanate ; and, for a period of 
 three years, reigned in the city of Firuz, while Mahmud Shah 
 the legitimate sovereign, was shut up in Juna's walled town of 
 Jahan Pana. This anomalous state of things was put an end 
 to by a chief named Ikbal Khan, who ruled at Delhi in the 
 name of the prophet Sultan. The Vazir of the empire, called 
 Khwaja Jahan, went eastward and founded Jaunpur : at the 
 end of the fourteenth century nothing was left to Mahmud Shah 
 and his mayor-of-the-palace but five districts round the capital. 
 
 SECTION 2. It was at this time that the Mughals revisited 
 Hindustan; not, as of old, a tumultuous horde of heathen 
 marauders, but an orderly army of orthodox Muslims, led by 
 one of the great warriors of the world. Mention has been 
 already made of the poet Khusru's captivity among the tribes 
 of Mangu during the reign of Balban. From the lively de- 
 scription which he has recorded we gather a picture of rude 
 barbarians almost savages such as may have followed 
 Attila ; Chanhgez and his sons were probably not much more 
 civilised than their followers. 
 
 But the Amir Taimur known to our fathers as " Tamer- 
 lane " was a different sort of " Mughal." Although affecting 
 to trace his descent from a granddaughter of Chanhgez, he 
 was by the father's side a Turkman of the famous house of 
 Birlas, who had been educated at Samarcand, the ancient
 
 92 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 capital of Sogdiana. Here he established the centre of his 
 government, and here his sepulchre is to be seen at this day. 
 He was a good scholar ; and his autobiography, written in 
 choice Turkish, has been praised as interesting literature by 
 competent critics. At the age of sixty-three, after a career ot 
 unbroken conquest in Central Asia and Asia Minor, he turned 
 his attention to the anarchic regions of Hindustan. Early in 
 1398 he invaded the Punjab by the usual route of Multan, 
 routed the forces of the Sultan after an action in which he 
 deigns to praise their behaviour, and entered the fortifications 
 of Delhi, which were surrendered on his promise of protection, 
 1 7th December, 1398. The events of Nadir Shah's in- 
 vasion three hundred and fifty years later, were anticipated. 
 Quarrels arising between the troops and citizens, a scene of 
 plunder and massacre ensued: but the confusion seems to 
 have been confined to old Delhi and Jahan Pana. Taimur 
 himself proceeded thence to Firuzabad, where he found the 
 Muslim population collected in and about the great mosque of 
 Sultan Firuz (still standing) ; and these, on the intercession of 
 their religious leaders, he consented to spare. He then de- 
 parted to the eastward with his army. Sultan Mahmud and 
 Ikbal Khan fled after they had lost the battle, so that they 
 were not sharers or witnesses of these calamities. Taimur, 
 having scoured the country from Kanauj to Jammu (north of 
 Lahore) returned by the old route of Multan ; and Mahmud 
 or rather his minister resumed the old government in the 
 desolate capital. Ikbal now openly assumed all authority ; 
 in 1400 he led an army into the Punjab in an endeavour to 
 recover tribute, but was defeated and killed by Khizr Khan, 
 the local governor. Mahmud was away at Kanauj at the time ; 
 but he presently returned to Delhi, where he lived ingloriously 
 till 1412. The line of Tughlak then became extinct. A 
 military oligarchy was at the head of affairs, under a Pathan 
 leader called Daulat Khan, Lodi, who professed to carry on
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 93 
 
 the dwindled state under the authority of the absent Taimur. 
 But Khizr Khan marched down from the Punjab, and assaulted 
 Daulat in Jahan Pana : the walls were scaled, or yielded ; and 
 Khizr became Sultan, 23rd March, 1414. 
 
 The dynasty of the Sayyids as the House of Khizr Khan 
 was termed held out feebly against the rising tide of dis- 
 affection and anarchy for about thirty years, during which their 
 direct authority extended but a few miles beyond the walls of 
 the capital, and the only advantage to the country was that the 
 Hindus escaped persecution. The empire was at an end, 
 Jaunpur in the east became a kingdom of some importance, 
 as did Malwa in the south : the successor of Khizr Khan 
 Mubarak attempted some assertion of authority in the north- 
 west ; and though beaten out of the Multan country by the 
 son of the deceased Taimur, appears to have met with some 
 success in what was then known as Katahr the modern 
 " Rohilkhand." He was assassinated by a party of Hindus 
 in 1421. A grandson of the late Khizr Khan succeeded, by 
 the title of Muhamad Farid Shah, and dallied with the reduced 
 duties of administration for about ten years. He was threat- 
 ened by the Sultans of Jaunpur and Malwa, but saved by the 
 interposition of the quasi-independent Viceroy of Lahore. Bin 
 Farid died in 1443, and was succeeded by his son Ala-ud-din, 
 who took the title of Alam Shah, under which he speedily 
 became a bye-word in Hindustan.* 
 
 The Viceroy of Lahore, above-mentioned, was a Pathan 
 or native Muslim of the House of Lodi, by name Bahlol. 
 Following the example formerly set by Khizr Khan, he began 
 to threaten Delhi, on which the inefficient Sayyad, who held 
 that dwindled principality determined to retire to Katahr, 
 where he ended his days in obscurity in the provincial town of 
 
 * The distich has been preserved ; Badshahi Shah Alam Az Delhi ta 
 Palain (Palam being a village near the city.)
 
 94 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Badaon. Bahlol was raised to the Sultanate by a confederation 
 of Afghan chiefs, 3rd February, 1451. 
 
 The reign of Bahlol Lodi was protracted to the unusual 
 duration of thirty-seven years. He did not attempt any general 
 restoration of the Empire's further limits, but he repressed the 
 revolts of the local governors, and so prevented an increase of 
 disintegration. As he was already in semi-independent possession 
 of Multan, Lahore, and the Cis-Sutlej as far as Panipat, he 
 was able, by his mere accession, to restore the whole of those 
 provinces to the Empire. In the east he engaged in war with 
 the usurping Sultan of Jaunpur, Husain Shah, who appears to 
 have given the first provocation by attacking Delhi. Bahlol, 
 after having maintained an equal strife for a quarter of a 
 century with this opponent, at last defeated him, in 1474, when 
 the " Eastern Sultan " was driven to take refuge in Bengal. 
 This 'kingdom for it may be justly so regarded now was 
 ruled by a Sultan whose name was Ala-ud-din, and his title 
 AH Shah ; and with him Bahlol wisely forbore to meddle. He 
 also left the Sultan of the Deccan and the Hindu Raja of 
 Bijainagar to consolidate their power, but made some minor 
 extensions of territory in consequence of which his empire 
 may be taken, in the language of Elphinstone, as stretching 
 from Delhi to the Himalaya range, with outsets in the direction 
 of Bundelkhand. He was a man of simple habits and soldierly 
 character ; and he employed both Hindus and Mughals in his 
 service. He died 5th December, 1488, and was handsomely 
 buried at Delhi, where his monument is still to be seen. 
 
 His son, Nizam, succeeded, under the title of Sikandar 
 Shah, the sub-kingdom of Jaunpur having been assigned to 
 his brother, Barbek. The new Lodi Sultan required an ac- 
 knowledgement of sovereignty which Barbek refused to give, 
 and an army was sent to enforce the claim. Barbek had to 
 accept a subordinate position, and the frontier of the empire 
 was extended to Benares and even to the further limits of
 
 END OF THE ' ; PATH A MS." 95 
 
 Bundelkhand. In 1503 the Sultan transferred his residence to 
 a suburb of Agra, which still bears his name. He discredited 
 himself by a wanton destruction of Hindu temples ; but the 
 fusion of races was not to ' be prevented. Sonic, even of his 
 o\vn religion, remonstrated with the Sultan ; the eclectic system 
 of the Kabir Panthis became fashionable, even popular.* The 
 reign is further remarkable as the period when the Hindus 
 first began, generally, to study the Persian language. Sultan 
 Sikandar died in 1517, according to Elphinstone, supported 
 by Thomas, who takes the date from Firishta without ad- 
 ducing the evidence of any coin. Beale (" Oriental Bio- 
 graphical Dictionary") contends that this is an error, and that 
 the true date is nearly seven years earlier viz., xyth February, 
 1510. 
 
 The last King, or Sultan, of Lodi line was Ibrahim, son of 
 Sikandar; Mr. Thomas gives the epigraphy of some of his 
 coins, but they are undated. His reign was marked by an 
 extraordinary variation in the relation of coin to commodities ; 
 so that, in the language of a contemporary, " gold and silver 
 were only procurable with the greatest difficulty ; and a monthly 
 expenditure of a looRs.fwas considered a sign of wealth." 
 The value of silver and gold, indeed, had begun to rise ever 
 since the beginning of the Lodi dynasty, if not earlier : 
 perhaps resulting from the plunder of Taimur, and the con- 
 comitant disappearance of specie in troubled times, when men 
 are liable to be killed without an opportunity of revealing to 
 their heirs the secret of their buried hoards. The Sultan made 
 matters worse by accumulating the precious metals, and so in- 
 creasing the demand for them. The corresponding cheapness 
 
 * It is on this compromise that the original founder of the Sikhs pro- 
 ceeded ; so that early Sikhism has been viewed as a branch of Mohamad . 
 anism (v. Ilughes's " Diet of Islam ": in voc.) 
 
 t Tankas in the text : the word Rupi was not introduced till some 
 years later.
 
 96 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 of living was much noticed ; but was not altogether advanta- 
 geous as the agriculturist got less for his produce, while his 
 fiscal assessments remained the same. The earlier events of 
 Ibrahim's reign partly resembled those of his father's time ; 
 there was the same sort of quarrel with a brother about Jaunpur, 
 the same expedition in the trans-Jumna countries, only farther 
 afield. The Sultan, though brave, was unpopular ; and an 
 enterprising enemy was eagerly watching his opportunity from 
 the north-western mountains. 
 
 The new Mughals have been already noticed in the process 
 of transition under Taimur. According to Khusru in the 
 thirteenth century the Mughals had been under-sized, yellow, 
 flat-faced, and filthy, speaking a monosyllabic jargon, and 
 ignorant of the arts of life. " Turks of Kai," the poet calls 
 them, punning on the likeness between the name of one of 
 their tribes and the nausea inspired by their persons. What 
 intermarriage and civilisation had made of them two hundred 
 years later, we know from the testimony of a visitor to the 
 chief of Mughalistan quoted by Erskine : 
 
 " I had heard," said the holy man for such he was, " that 
 Yunis Khan was a Mughal, so concluded that he was beardless, 
 with the habits of the desert. But I found a handsome man, 
 with a fine, bushy beard ; of elegant address, agreeable, and 
 refined in words and ways, such as are hardly met except in 
 most polished society." 
 
 This Yunis Khan was the grandfather of Zahir-ud-din Babar, 
 and a descendant of Chaghtai, son of Changhez Khan ; his 
 daughter being married to the great-grandson of Shah Rukh 
 Mirza, son and successor of the Amir Taimur. Born in 
 Farghana now Kokand on i5th Feb., 1488 (the year of 
 Taimur's invasion of India), he lived a life of adventure in 
 Turkestan till about 1504, when he became possessed of the 
 country now known as Afghanistan. In 1522 he had firmly 
 consolidated his power from the passes of the Hindu Kush to
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 97 
 
 the plain and city of Kandahar ; two years later he invaded 
 the Punjab. 
 
 Having now brought the future antagonists face to face it 
 will be well to take a rapid survey of the condition of the 
 prize for which they were to contend. 
 
 The nominal power of Hindustan was exercised within ever- 
 fluctuating limits ; the Sultan being ill-tempered, yet little able 
 to cope with the turbulent ambition of the Afghan nobles. 
 Bihar and Jaunpur were in a state of imperfect obedience, 
 Bengal of which the capital was sometimes near Dacca, but 
 more usually at Guar was a totally distinct Muslim kingdom, 
 under the Sultan already mentioned by the name of Ala-ud- 
 din; but he was succeeded, in 1521, by Nasrat Shah. Gujarat 
 extending from the Vindhyas to Somnath and Surat was 
 held by petty Rajput chiefs in subordination to a Muslim Sultan 
 named Muzafar Shah, who was contending for the country 
 about Mandu (the province of Malwa) with the Rana of 
 Mewar, of which the fortified capital was Chittore. There were 
 a few petty principalities arising in Hindustan, and the Rajputs 
 maintained a wild autonomy south of Ajmere. In the Deccan 
 the last of the Bahmanis (the dynasty of Hassan Gangu) were 
 struggling against the new Muslim states which had broken off 
 from the allegiance of their Empire, and set up, respectively, 
 at Ahmadnagar (1490), Elichpur (1484), Bidar (1498), and 
 Bijapur (1489). A fifth state arose on the complete overthrow 
 of Mahmud II., the last ruler of the Bahmanis, about 1518 : 
 the capital was at Golkonda.* Further south the great Hindu 
 kingdom of Bijainagar was still in full strength, with minor 
 principalities always under Hindu Rajas in Calicut, Tanjore, 
 and Travancore. 
 
 Such was the chaotic condition of the vast country over 
 
 * These Deccan States will be more fully noticed in the next section : 
 what is now said is necessary for the understanding of the annexed map. 
 (See also Synoptical Table, infra, p. 115). 
 
 H
 
 98 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 which Ibrahim Lodi affected a sort of general overlordship at 
 Agra and Delhi. But his authority was contested, even in the 
 neighbourhood of the last-named capital; and in 1524 the 
 Governor of Lahore a kinsman of the Emperor, named 
 Uaulat Khan went into revolt and invited the aid of Babar, 
 which was most readily afforded. Babar had long had his 
 eye on the Punjab, which he claimed as part of the succession 
 of the Amir Taimur ; but on arriving in the country of the 
 Five Rivers he found that Daulat Khan was unable perhaps 
 also unwilling to hand it over. A confederation of Sultan 
 Ibrahim's officers gave him battle near Lahore, and it was not 
 until he had defeated them in the field that he was able to 
 occupy the city. Daulat held back, and the invaders were left to 
 attack Deopalpore single-handed. Here, too, they were success- 
 ful, and here Daulat made a show of adhesion which, however, 
 was of little service. Daulat ultimately turned openly against 
 the Mughals, and Babar returned to his mountain-home, 
 leaving Deopalpore in charge of an uncle of the Sultan who 
 had espoused his cause. Daulat now struck in on his own 
 account ; and in Babar's absence made himself master of all 
 the Punjab. Babar was unable to oppose him for the moment, 
 being occupied in driving out an Uzbeg raid from the northern 
 part of his dominions. That task accomplished, he returned 
 to Lahore, subjugated Daulat, and marched on Delhi by way 
 of Panipat. 
 
 A lamented historian thus describes the scene : " An ex- 
 tensive level tract, broken only by insignificant risings of ground; 
 here and there the shallow soil, moistened by some scanty 
 stream, yields a niggard growth of coarse grass, and stunted 
 bushes. But, for the most part, one sees only the yellow-grey 
 of the barren land. Everywhere a silent void, as if the plain 
 were intended by Nature to be the battlefield of nations."* 
 
 Hither, on Thursday the 2oth April, 1526, Sultan Ibrahim 
 
 * Court v. Noer (Prince Frederic of Schleswig-Holstein.)
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS" 99 
 
 gathered the hosts of Hindustan to meet the invaders. The 
 nobles of India were arrayed in gilded armour, with hundreds 
 of elephants bravely barded and accoutred, their tents and 
 canopies making a field of cloth-of-gold. The day was spent 
 in pageant and revelry. Very different was the cheer of the 
 war-spent wanderers, who had fought their way so far from 
 their native hills into the hot wind and the parched desert. 
 Many of them, by their leader's frank admission, were in a 
 state of actual trepidation approaching panic. While admitting 
 that such feelings were unbecoming, Babar sympathetically 
 adds that, in the circumstances, he could not greatly blame his 
 followers, opposed to an outnumbering host in a strange land. 
 But the difference in the quality of the respective leaders re- 
 dressed the balance. "The Emperor," so Babar testifies, "was 
 inexperienced and illiberal ; negligent in strategy and disorderly 
 in movement ; halting without plan and fighting without fore- 
 thought." Babar, for his part, learned wisdom from difficulty, 
 and left nothing to chance. His right was sheltered by the 
 the walls of Panipat : his front was protected by artillery, the 
 guns roped together with raw hide, and covered by wagons and 
 fascines. Behind these were ranged the musketeers with rested 
 matchlocks, the long Afghan jazail which proved formidable to 
 European troops within living memory. On the left Babar 
 made an earthwork guarded by abattis. In such preparations 
 he passed the long hours. At dawn of the following day the 
 impatient Ibrahim brought his motley hosts to the assault of 
 the invaders, with a result that appears to us now as a foregone 
 conclusion. On one side were the courage of despair, and some- 
 thing of the resources of scientific warfare ; on the other side, 
 men-at-arms of the medieval type, with crowded ranks of spear- 
 men and archers thronging on in foolhardy disorder. The 
 Mughal cavalry formed three divisions, two to charge the 
 advancing enemy, and one to guard the camp. They also had 
 their archers, who crept round the enemy's right, and galled their 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 rear with clouds of long arrows, while the front attack was 
 pelted from swivels in the Mughal batteries and culverins on 
 their left centre. The nearer the Indians came to the Mughal 
 camp the less heart they had to storm. Goaded, pressed rank 
 on rank, unwilling to advance, unable to retreat, they suffered 
 from their very multitude, and fell into chaos. In vain the 
 Sultan and his chosen companion attempted to restore the 
 battle. A courtier urged him to escape while it was yet time ; 
 but the Mughal horse were upon them, the archers were at 
 their rear, and Ibrahim refused to make the attempt. He 
 plunged into the melee with his faithful followers. When all 
 was over five thousand corpses were found heaped about their 
 dead Sultan. The Indians lost fifteen thousand in killed alone 
 according to Babar's computation amongst them the Hindu 
 Raja of Gwalior who had joined the Muslim Sultan in defence 
 of their common country. Many more were cut up, or made 
 prisoners in the pursuit ; advance parties went forward and 
 occupied Delhi and Agra. The native Muslim had been 
 fairly overmatched, but not by a savage enemy. We hear of 
 no further slaughter ; the land simply changed masters after 
 one supreme effort. 
 
 SECTION 3. Sultan Babar has left one of the most charm- 
 ing autobiographies ever written, a work which has been trans- 
 lated out of the original Turkish into various languages. A 
 Persian rendering appeared during the time of Akbar, made 
 by a Mughal noble, whom we shall presently have to notice as 
 distinguished in public life.* The "Memoirs of Babar" 
 have also been translated into French by the well-known 
 Turkish scholar, Pavet de Courteille ; and an English transla- 
 tion of the Persian version was published by the late W. Ers- 
 kine in 1826. As the " Confessions " of a medieval adven- 
 
 * A beautiful MS. of this work, with many coloured pictures, is in the 
 Agra College Library. It was formerly the property of the Emperor Shah 
 Jahan, and bears his autograph on the fly-leaf.
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 101 
 
 turer the book can never fail to please, the speech being 
 candid and the observation direct and lively. The views are 
 those of a Broad Church Muslim, fond of fighting, wine, and 
 pleasure, and ready to negotiate with Hindu leaders and to 
 mike use of their services. The early adventures related 
 do not belong to our present subject; but from the begin- 
 ning of the year 1526, the book is chiefly concerned with India. 
 
 On the third Friday from the date of his victory Babar en- 
 tered Agra, whither he had been preceded by the Crown 
 Prince Humaiun Mirza. The family of the late Raja of Gwalior 
 had come to the prince with gifts of price amongst them the 
 famous diamond, afterwards known as the Koh-i-tmr, a jewel 
 which, after bringing disaster upon many of its owners, is now 
 in the possession of the Crown of England. Babar treated the 
 Gwalior family with kindness, also making provision for the 
 household of the late Sultan Ibrahim. But neither he nor his 
 men were greatly pleased with their hard-won conquest. " Hin- 
 dustan," writes the out-spoken soldier, "is a country that has but 
 little to recommend it." And elsewhere he tells us that, during 
 the frightful heat of an Agra summer, the Mughals had neither 
 food for themselves nor forage for their horses ; the fields being 
 untilled at that parched season, and the people either fled or 
 in rebellion. The foreign troops, accustomed to a hill climate, 
 were decimated by privation and sunstroke. Many of the 
 officers began to murmur and to talk of leading their followers 
 back to Kabul ; but only one of them actually left, and he was 
 put in command of the escort which took the booty thither. 
 
 Meanwhile the Gahlot Rana of Mewar whose grandfather 
 had conquered Malwa and Gujarat in 1440 began to add to all 
 Babar's other anxieties. This was the chief of Chittore, Sanga 
 Rana, lovingly described by Colonel Tod* as decorated with no 
 
 *" Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan," second edition, 2 vols. 410, 
 Madras, 1872. A lxx>k of endless charm from its genuine enthusiasm, 
 but to lie scrutinised in use, and carefully compared with cooler writings.
 
 102 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 less than eighty marks of honour, in the shape of scars of 
 wounds received from lance or sword. 
 
 This redoutable warrior advanced on Agra in the cool season 
 of 1526-7. In their mountain fastness his ancestors had more 
 than maintained their fame and independence. But their 
 traditions had taught them to consider the tribes of the north 
 as their hereditary foemen and destined supplanters in Hin- 
 dustan.* So long as the Indian Pathans bore sway at Agra 
 and Delhi, while Babar was still only menacing them from 
 Kabul, the Rana was fain to affect friendliness to Babar as the 
 enemy of his own rivals. But although he took no part in the 
 defence of Hindustan by the Indian Muslims, he was in no 
 mood to let other Muslims profit by their overthrow. The 
 winter wore away in minor operations ; Humaiun made a cam- 
 paign in Bihar and occupied Jaunpur ; Babar was put in pos- 
 session of the Fort of Gwalior. On the other side, Sanga 
 took a fort near Delhi from one of Babar's native allies, and 
 collected the forces of- the Rajputana states, while he was 
 joined by some of the Lodi nobles. 
 
 Even in such circumstances each side attempted to amuse 
 the other with negotiations, probably only intended to gain 
 time for the maturing of preparations. It was the middle of 
 February, 1527, before the two armies began to approach 
 Biana, fifty miles south-west of Agra, where there was at 
 that time a strong fort which had been surrendered to 
 Babar, and which he now sought to save from assault by 
 the Rajputs ; whether or no Babar hoped to the last that 
 the former amicable relations with Sanga might be renewed 
 does not appear. If such was his expectation it would, 
 in all probability, have been rudely frustrated. But the 
 
 * The Rana's name is sometimes translated as "Sanka." The inscrip- 
 tion from his coinage, given by Thomas, is in the Nagri character, and 
 equivalent to " Sangram." Sanga is given by Elphinstone, and is enough 
 for our purpose.
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 103 
 
 solution was precipitated by an accident. One morning a 
 young and zealous officer, in temporary command of the ad- 
 vanced guard, fell in with an outpost of the enemy, who 
 charged him with 15,000 horsemen. Confusion ensued: a 
 Yak-tail standard and several Mughal prisoners fell into the 
 hands of the .Rajputs.* Babar, on hearing the news, hurried 
 reinforcements to the front. The retreat of the unprosperous 
 Mughal reconnaissance was covered, the Sultan himself bring- 
 ing up some guns for the purpose. 
 
 There was evidently an end to negotiation. As at Panipar, 
 Babar intrenched his camp, and made a breastwork of his 
 wagons. Despondency and desertion broke out, and the 
 Sultan publicly foreswore the use of wine, to which he was ad- 
 dicted, and swore his officers upon the Koran to conquer or to 
 die. Nearly four weeks of inaction ensued, during which the 
 two armies stood watching each other. It was on a Tuesday, 
 1 2th March, 1527, that Babar, observing a movement which 
 looked like retreat amongst the Rajputs and probably pressed 
 for provisions took courage to sally from his intrenchment. 
 The great encounter took place at Kanhwa, a march nearer 
 to Biana, on the Saturday following. When he had arrived 
 within four miles of the enemy's camp Babar pushed for- 
 ward with the flower of his heavy cavalry, followed by his guns. 
 The danger dissolved on being faced ; the Hindus had nothing 
 to oppose to the fire of those new and deadly engines, and they 
 were soon enveloped on flank and rear by well-handled squad- 
 rons. Towards evening they broke, Sanga, of the eighty 
 wounds, sharing, if he did not lead, the flight. Owing, perhaps, 
 to the lateness of the hour, there was little or no pursuit. A 
 pyramid of the skulls of the slain enemies was, in Turkman 
 fashion, erected on the field. The country since called Alwar 
 
 * The Yak-tail standard, or Titgh, corresponded amongst Asiatic Turks 
 to the "horse-tails" of which we read in the wars of the Osmanlis in 
 Europe.
 
 104 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 was added to the Empire, and Babar advanced on Rajputana by 
 way of Chandairi, south of Gwalior. This was a very populous 
 place, with a fort of natural and artificial strength, which had 
 once belonged to the Delhi state, and had then devolved on 
 the Muslims of Malwa. But it had fallen into the hands of 
 Sanga, who had entrusted it to an officer named Medini 
 Rai, with a garrison of 4,000 " Pagans."* Babar approached 
 Chandairi through a wild and difficult country, felling the 
 woods and making roads for his guns and wagons. It was 
 the end of the year before he reached the place. After a week 
 of open trenches the assault was delivered, the town stormed, 
 and the garrison driven into the citadel. Here the defence 
 was obstinate but a Beg (General) of Babar's army found a 
 bastion joining a part of the town wall, and effected an entry 
 by scaling it. Another party got in by the covered way lead- 
 ing down from one of the gates to a watercourse at the foot 
 of the hill. The garrison set fire to the place where their 
 women and children were collected ; and rushing out, with 
 nothing but their swords, perished to a man, excepting a few 
 who fell on one another's swords in Medini's quarters. 
 
 On the morning of the day which ended in this terrible 
 scene bad news had arrived from the Eastward where a Mughal 
 force had been expelled from Lucknow, and made to fall back 
 on Kanauj. Babar, who had kept back the tidings during the 
 the fight, now communicated it to a council of his Begs.t 
 While they were in debate another courier arrived with the 
 compensatory news that the warlike Sanga was no more. 
 On this it was resolved to break up from Chandairi and march 
 eastward to 'support the force in that quarter, an adequate 
 
 * With Babar "Pagan" means Hindu, while the Indian Muslims are 
 " Afghans," and his own men " Turks." 
 
 t " Beg " was the title of the leaders, minor officers being called " Mir." 
 Babar's own title so long as he was a mere adventurer was the old 
 Turkish word " Khakan."
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 105 
 
 garrison being left in the fort under the Malvva Muslim from 
 whom it had been taken by Sanga. 
 
 Chandairi fell on a Thursday, 2oth Jan., 1528. On the 
 following Sunday the army marched, crossed the Jumna at 
 Kinar, and proceeded at all speed to Kanauj. Just below 
 that town they found that the Ganges, on whose bank the place 
 stood, was lined by a large force of Indians under " Afghan " 
 leaders. By a mixture of boldness and strategy they threw a 
 bridge of boats across, by which Babar passed his army over, 
 without a battle, while his son Humaiun occupied Bihar. 
 Babar then returned to Agra and Gwalior, at which latter place 
 he reaped some of the fruits of his late exertions in the sub- 
 mission of the late Rana Sanga's successor, who delivered 
 the keys of the famous fort of Rinthambor. 
 
 In the beginning of 1529 bad news once more arrived from 
 the Crown Prince Humaiun always more distinguished by 
 courage than by conduct. The Lodi chief, who had formerly 
 acted with Sanga, had driven Humaiun out of Bihar, and was 
 investing him at the foot of Chunar. The indefatigable Babar 
 hastened to his son's help, raising the siege of Chunar by the mere 
 alarm of his approach, and pushing on to Ghazipur by forced 
 marches. The Muslims of Bihar were twice routed, and the 
 province was put in charge of Muhamad Zaman Mirza, a 
 Turkish officer of Babar's family, while a treaty of alliam e 
 was concluded with Nasrat Shah, Sultan of Bengal, who ap- 
 pears to have joined the Lodi movement at first, but to have 
 yielded to Babar's military superiority. 
 
 The gallant adventurer, then, had at last attained his 
 most ambitious aims. From the Jaxartes to the Ganges, in 
 Kabul, Delhi, Agra, and Jaunpur, he was no longer a mere 
 leader of marauding hordes, but a veritable Badshah, or Em- 
 peror. Early in September, 1529, he returned to Agra once 
 more ; and one cannot but hope that he enjoyed the short in- 
 terval of rest that he there found. But his health had been
 
 106 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 tried by a life of labour and hazard, begun when his years were 
 but fourteen. During great part of the time he had drunk 
 hard ; the fierce transitions of the Indian climate tried 
 his health. "There are neither decent houses," he com- 
 plained, " nor is there good fruit, ice, or even cold water." On 
 the approach of the winter of 1530, in the 5oth year of his 
 age, his constitution gave way. He sent for his eldest son. 
 "Do not kill your brothers" were his last words, "but watch 
 them with care." He died on the 26th December, and his 
 body was transported to Kabul for interment. Over a foun- 
 tain hard by he had formerly inscribed a quatrain, which may 
 thus be expressed in English : 
 
 " Bright spring blooms here from clay to day, 
 Young girls stand by to pour out the wine ; 
 Enjoy them, Babar, while you may, 
 Life, once enjoyed, no more is thine." 
 
 In Babar's unfavourable estimate of India we see some 
 materials for a judgment of the low ebb of civilisation which 
 had followed from centuries of Afghan bigotry and bloodshed. 
 The inhabitants, he observes, were not well-favoured, they had 
 no idea of the pleasures of society, no genius or power of 
 generalisation, neither amiability, sympathetic feeling, nor that 
 urbanity of manner which sometimes stands in place of such 
 good qualities or conceals their absence. He also notices a 
 universal lack of mechanical invention and of grandeur of 
 architectural conception ; and he instances shrewdly enough, 
 so far as his observation extended, not only the want of 
 institutions like colleges and public baths, but of such small 
 aids to study and civilisation as are afforded by lamps and 
 candles. 
 
 Yet, in this intellectual torpor the forces of human nature 
 were still working, silently and in secret, for the harvest of the 
 future ; while there were many parts of India to which, even 
 then, the criticism was unjust. The career of the Mewar
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." 107 
 
 Galliots exhibits the hardy patriotism of the Rajputs, holding 
 their own, and more, against their Muslim neighbours of 
 Gujarat on the one side, and Malvva on the other; and only 
 yielding to the better organisation and more tenacious warfare 
 of the northern invaders. In the Deccan the Bahmani Empire, 
 founded on the ruins of the Tughlak conquest, had broken up, 
 but only to form new Muslim kingdoms, which long continued 
 to keep up a high standard in arts and letters. The Hindu 
 kingdom of Bijainagar, in the extreme South, has left but little 
 record of that sort ; yet the remains of temples and palaces at 
 Hampi the modern name of the capital suffice to show 
 that there was little exaggeration in the account of the 
 medieval traveller, Cesar Frederic, who said he had "seen 
 many kings' courts, but never anything to compare with Bijai- 
 nagar." Among the ruined masses of masonry are still distin- 
 guishable the remains of aqueducts and baths to counter- 
 act the pessimist complaints of Babar; whilst arches, not 
 generally used by the Hindus, and a wealth of sculpture, attest 
 the skill of the people in the construction and decoration of 
 their edifices. 
 
 Most of all ought to be noticed the advance that was going 
 on in the dominion of mind. Under the Muslim government 
 of Bengal, about the middle of the i4th century A.D. a man 
 of genius had undertaken to adopt the old code of the Vedan- 
 tist Manavas to the needs of modern society by a free applica- 
 tion of the doctrine expressed in Europe by the maxim, Fac- 
 f it 1/1 valet quod fieri non debuit. The result was the Ddyabhdga, 
 an amended book of civil law, which has ever since prevailed 
 in the province of Bengal Proper, and has practically given 
 sanction to dispositions of property unknown in other regions. 
 "Other teachers," observes a modern authority, "cite prece- 
 dents, but Jimata Vahana appeals to reason. The Bengal 
 Code is more human than ordinary Hindu law if less divine; and 
 has caused a social progress unknown under the old system."
 
 io8 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Nor was it only in Bengal, and in the direction of law, that 
 progress was preparing in this apparently dark age. If ever 
 there was a country which showed instances of the "Necessity 
 of Atheism" * it was medieval India, enslaved by the conflicts 
 of a monstrous pantheon. A chain of Hindu sages, Kabir 
 (fl. 1,400), Chaitanya (a century later), and Vallabha-Swami 
 (who followed a few years after) were all men who without 
 openly discarding concrete representations of Deity held up 
 to popular aspiration a higher and brighter standard. Vishnu, 
 the beneficent, and not the skull-decked Siva, was the object 
 of their adoration. No race or caste was beyond the pale of 
 brotherhood and the hopes of salvation. Chaitanya has him- 
 self become an idol for many of his simple admirers; but 
 there is no doubt but that all these teachers had glimpses 
 of something behind idolatry, the synthesis of force and 
 energy which maintains the pillars of the universe, and, in the 
 moral order, makes for righteousness. 
 
 In the more commonplace and material aspect of affairs the 
 Deccan Muslims were not unprosperous during the time when 
 their brethren in the North were undergoing so much disaster. 
 The Hindu-loving Hassan Gangu passed away loth February, 
 1358, after as eventful reign of eleven years ; but his son, 
 Muhamad Shah, commenced as a regular Muslim conqueror, 
 making war on his Telingana neighbours in Golkonda and 
 Orangal, and even dictating terms of peace to the great 
 southern power of Bijainagar. His death is dated 2ist March, 
 1375. His successor, Majahid Shah, renewed the attack on 
 Bijainagar in spite of the treaty. He was, however, repulsed, 
 and murdered during his retreat by his father's brother, Daud 
 Khan, i4th April, 1378. The murderer was put to death, and 
 succeeded by his younger brother, Mahmud, who died 2oth 
 April, 1397, after a peaceful reign. After a brief moment of 
 
 * The title of Shelley's crude pamphlet.
 
 END OF THE " PAT HANS." 109 
 
 confusion Firuz, son of the murderous Daud, obtained the 
 masnad of Kulbarga, which he occupied for twenty-five years. 
 A year after his accession he was attacked by Deva Raja, the 
 Bijainagar chief; but the attack recoiled on the Raja, who was 
 beaten back on his own capital with the loss of his son. Firuz 
 in 1401 dictated peace under the walls of Deva's capital, and 
 one of the terms was that he should marry the Raja's daughter. 
 In spite of this connection, however, the war smouldered, and 
 soon broke out again. In 1417 Firuz was defeated, and died 
 1 5th September, 1 42 2, without having effected anything decisive 
 in Bijainagar or settled the succession to his own territories. 
 His brother, Ahmad Shah, assumed the kingdom, making a 
 fresh attack on Bijainagar, and finally overthrowing the Hindu 
 kingdom of Telingana. He founded the city of Bidar, where 
 he died loth February, 1435. His son, Ala-ud-din, succeeded, 
 and by-and-by removed the capital to Bidar. The chronic war 
 with Bijainajar was arrested by a treaty which remained in 
 force some years. But the Muslims were evidently bent on 
 the overthrow of all Hindu independence in the south. Ala- 
 ud-din died during the year 1457, and was succeeded 
 by his son Hurnaiun, who reigned ingloriously for four years. 
 He was murdered in 1461, and the kingdom remained under 
 a Regency during the minority of his heir, Nizam Shah. 
 Attacked on all sides, the Regency, under the Queen-mother 
 and her minister, Muhamad Gawan, defended the country as 
 well as circumstances permitted for nearly two years, when the 
 boy Sultan died suddenly, and his brother, Muhamad Shah 
 II., was placed on the masnad in his eleventh year. Gawan 
 now adopted an agressive policy. In 1469 he took the north- 
 ern sea-coast from Bijainagar ; and, two years later, marched 
 an army into Orissa on pretence of aiding the Raja of that 
 country against his subjects. He conquered the Kulinga 
 country from Masulipatam to Kanchi (Conjeveram), so that 
 the kingdom now reached its widest limit, and stretched from
 
 i io HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 sea to sea. Unhappily for its future welfare, the Sultan's mind 
 became poisoned in regard to his great minister, whom the very 
 magnitude of his services rendered an object of suspicion. In 
 1481 Gawan was put to death, and the ruin of the Government 
 soon followed. Muhamad Shah died 24th March, 1482, being 
 succeeded by his son, Mahmud II. In his reign the dis- 
 integration began. Almost from the first the territory had been 
 divided for administrative purposes into four sections ; and the 
 subsequent acquisitions of successive Sultans had not tended 
 to unity. At the end of the fifteenth century there were no 
 less than six sections Kulbarga having been made into two 
 provinces, as had also Daulatabad, Telingana, and Berar ; and 
 the kingdom which had escaped so much foreign menace 
 soon broke up naturally into the smaller Muslim states 
 which shared with the Hindu kingdom the whole south of 
 India. 
 
 In 1487 Nar Singh, Raja of Bijainagar had already become 
 master of the Pandiyan principality, and extended his boun- 
 daries to Ramisaram and the Bay of Bengal, becoming para- 
 mount throughout the Southern Triangle. In 1497 a foreign 
 slave, named Kasim Barid, became all powerful at Court, and 
 founded the new dynasty of Bidar. Two years later another 
 foreigner, who had been adopted as a son by the deceased 
 minister, Gawan, set up at Bijapur with the title of Yusaf Adil 
 Shah. A converted Hindu assumed independence at Elichpur 
 as Aimad Shah Bahmani ; and the son of Sultan Mahmud's 
 minister, Nizam-ul-mulh, went to the northward, occupying 
 Daulatabad . in 1499, and founding a new Muslim kingdom at 
 Ahmadnagar. Lastly, in 1512, the governor of Telingana 
 became the founder of a dynasty at Golkonda, under the title 
 of (Kutb) Qutb Shah. He took possession of Orangal. 
 holding all the Kulinga country between the Godavari and 
 Krishna rivers, north of the Godavari. Some of the country be- 
 longed to Kutab as lord of Orangal, and some to Orissa, where
 
 END OF THE " PATHANS." in 
 
 the Rajput dynasty maintained an existence of long conflict 
 with the Bengal Muslims for another half century. 
 
 Of the condition of the people of the southern lands during 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there is even less known 
 than in regard to Hindustan. The worship of Siva, or Maha- 
 deva, was the prevailing southern form of Hinduism ; and the 
 earlier type of civil law, known as the Mitdkshara^ was cur- 
 rent among the Hindu population. Signs of fusion between 
 them and their Muslim neighbours were notable, especially in 
 the case of the older, or native Muslims. The immigrants by 
 whom some of the new states were founded, professed the 
 Persian, or Shia denomination of Islam, and were at first un- 
 favourable to the employment and society of the Hindus. _T_he 
 Deccani dialect of the Hindustani language, however, became 
 a medium of intercourse ; and latterly we hear of the employ- 
 ment of Mahratta mercenaries ; the first mention of that race, 
 destined afterwards to have so large a sphere in Indian history. 
 On the whole it may be concluded that the Hindus enjoyed 
 a good deal of autonomy in every part of the peninsula ; in 
 the north, owing to the indolence of the Turkish character, 
 and the almost equal contempt of the native Muslims ; in the 
 south, to the power of the Hindu states, the constant inter- 
 marriage of the races, and the habit of employing Hindu 
 ministers, which more and more prevailed. The revenues 
 generally were derived from a tithe of agricultural produce, a 
 special tax on Hindus, which doubled their assessment, and a 
 number of transit dues and local cesses. 
 
 [To the former authorities may be added the fourth volume 
 of Dowson's " Elliot " and Erskine's " Life of Babar," London, 
 1826 ; and " History of India " (same author), London, 1854.] 
 
 NOTE. In the Fourth Chapter of Book II. of his " History 
 of India,"* Captain Trotter has already given an account of the 
 
 * History of India. (S. P. C. K.) Second edition. London. 1889.
 
 JI2 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 principal powers that were contemporary with the first Muslim 
 Empire of Hindustan. Some additions and corrections have 
 been gathered from works above referred to : and the general 
 result is exhibited in the accompanying table. With a brief 
 explanation it will be found both intelligible and useful. 
 
 In the early part of the period Bengal (proper) was divided 
 into three parts, like Caesar's Gaul ; each portion, being named, 
 however, not from its tribes but from its chief cities. The 
 division of Lakhnauti was named from the capital afterwards 
 called Gaur which was taken by the Khilji chief, Muhamad 
 Bakhtyar, in 1204. The Delta was known as the Province of 
 Satgaon, that being the town (near the modern Hugli) which 
 was the seat of government while Eastern Bengal took its 
 name from Sonargaon, near the present town of Dacca. All 
 these were at first held by Bakhtyar Khilji, together with the 
 province of Bihar; but he was soon deprived of the last 
 named and rendered a feudatory as to his possession of the 
 rest. After this, sometimes in conjunction with Bihar, and 
 sometimes separate, when Bihar was more directly subordinate, 
 Bengal continued for about half a century to afford a rich 
 prize for various Turkman adventurers. In 1270, however, 
 the strong hand of Sultan Balban fell upon the eastern pro- 
 vince ; Sonargaon was taken ; and the Sultan, Maghis-ud-din 
 Tughral, was driven out, followed up, attacked, defeated, and 
 drowned in endeavouring to escape. Balban's second son 
 became Viceroy of Bengal, with the title of the late Sultan 
 his father's patron. He is best known as Baghra Khan,* 
 and he ruled the eastern province while his weak and unfortu- 
 nate son Kai Kubad was pursuing his downward course in 
 Hindustan. His other sons were both kings of Bengal in 
 succession; and the youngest, Shams-ud-din, was in turn 
 
 * Called also Bakarra and Karra. Ibn Batuta calls him by his more 
 formal title Nasir-ud-din (v. sup.).
 
 END OF THE "PATHANS." 113 
 
 succeeded hy two of his own sons. After the death of the 
 last of these Bengal was annexed to the Empire by the first 
 Tughlak and his son Muhamad Tughlak (Juna), about 1324 
 to 1332. Sonargaon had by this time broken off under a 
 Hindu Raja : and the whole province revolted from the 
 Empire in consequence of a successful rising of one Fakhr-ud- 
 din, who possessed himself of Sonargaon. Ali Shah, who was 
 Viceroy at Lakhnauti, first attacked Fakhr with success and 
 then rendered himself independent. Firuz Shah Tughlak 
 acknowledged the sovereignty of one of this line called Ikhtyar, 
 in 1251, and Bengal remained obscure, and separated from 
 the rest of India, until the time of Babar. 
 
 The Hoysala Ballalas, of whom something has already been 
 said, ruled the central Deccan until the revolt of Hassan 
 Gangu at the end of Juna's reign (1347). They were Yadavas 
 by origin ; and maintained an obscure independence for some 
 time later, their looks turned southward by the pressure of 
 Muslim power. 
 
 The gradual growth of the Hindu kingdom of Vijainagar 
 also forwarded the decline of the Yadava Ballalas, once lords 
 of the Deccan. Their two powerful neighbours, though they 
 confined the Yadavas to Maisur and the south, were by no 
 means disposed to an amicable partition of the Deccan. In 
 1365-6 there was a terrible war between them which ended to 
 the advantage of Muhamad, the Bahmani. His successor 
 again attacked Bijainagar. In 1398 the Hindu Raja-retaliated ; 
 and, with varying results, the war went on till 1417. It was 
 renewed about 1422, when an expedition was also sent to 
 Telingana which ultimately destroyed Orangal. It was in this 
 reign, or the next, that the capital of the Bahmani kingdom 
 was removed to Bidar, about 1435; and during the reign of 
 Muhamad Shah II., about thirty years later, that the Bahmani 
 kingdom received its greatest increase by the valour and 
 ability of the great minister, Mahmud Gawan ; and his treacher- 
 
 i
 
 ii4 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 ous slaughter, in 1481, proved the beginning of its ruin. The 
 rest of its history is a series of murders, rebellions, and dis- 
 asters, until in 1527 the family became extinct, and the king- 
 dom of the Muslims in the Deccan broke up into a pentarchy. 
 The independence of Jaunpur and that of Gujarat, as 
 Muslim kingdoms are both alike ascribable to the decay of 
 the Tughlak line of Hindustan. 
 
 I. Jaunpur never appears as a place of importance until 
 the end of the fourteenth century, when an ambitious eunuch, 
 formerly Vazir at Delhi, was sent there as governor. Taking 
 advantage of the troubles caused by the weakness of the 
 central Government he set up as " Sultan-us-Shark " (or King 
 of the East) in 1393, with the personal title of Khwajah-i-Jahan. 
 His adopted son Mubarak Shah surnamed Karnful laid the 
 foundation of a dynasty which proved a thorn in the side of the 
 debilitated Empire for nearly a hundred years. The last of them 
 was Husain Shah who was reduced by Bahlol Lodis in 1478 ; the 
 great mosque of Jaunpore still standing was built by this prince. 
 
 II. Gujarat was a principality made up of minor sub-divisions. 
 The central part was under the Hindu Rajas of Anhalvara 
 until they were overthrown by Ala-ud-din in 1297.* In 1376, 
 Farhat-al-mulk was sent there as Governor ; and Zafar Khan, 
 being sent to take his place fourteen years later, took the 
 opportunity of assuming independence about the time of 
 Taimur's raid into Hindustan; his title was Muzafar Shah, 
 which became the hereditary title of his dynasty until the 
 kingdom was annexed by Akbar as shown in the next chapter. 
 The city of Surat and the peninsula of Kathiawar generally 
 belonged to these princes and were destined to bring them 
 into contact with the Portuguese. 
 
 The Muslim state of Malwa does not seem to have established 
 a coinage of its own the symbol of independence among 
 
 * This was the occasion of the romance of " Khizr and Dewal," cele- 
 brated by Amir Khusru (" Tola").
 
 END OF THE "PATHANS." 115 
 
 Orientals before the time of Hasam-ud-din Hushang, who 
 founded the city of Mandu, on the right bank of the Narbada : 
 he surrounded the place with fortifications and enriched it 
 with a splendid mosque ; and his marble tomb is still one of 
 the sights of Mandu. His successor was his son Muhamad Shah, 
 in whose time the boundaries of the State extended from Rajpu- 
 tana on the north, to the Satpura range beyond the Narbada, 
 and from Gujarat on the west to the borders of Bundelkhand. 
 
 The Hindu state of Mewar, or Chittore now known as 
 Udaipore was ruled by the Gahlot tribe of Rajputs, and was 
 in many respects entitled to be considered the premier princi- 
 pality of the northern Hindus. By reason alike of situation, 
 and of its belonging to a specially proud and warlike tribe, it 
 was constantly embroiled with its neighbours, Gujarat, Malwa, 
 and the Delhi Empire, against all of whom it warred with 
 credit, and sometimes with success. In 1275 Chittore was 
 taken by Ala-ud-din Khilji, but recovered in the next gener- 
 ation. In 1419 the Rana called Kambhaka on his coins 
 began a career of great success. In 1440 he defeated the 
 combined armies of the Muslim princes of Malwa and Gujarat, 
 and to commemorate his triumph erected the famous pillar still 
 extant at Chittor. The third in descent from him was the 
 famous Sangram Sinh, known in history as the Rana Sanga, 
 who succeeded in 1509, and was still leading the Gahlot 
 armies in the time of Babar, 
 
 Of the Hindu kingdom of Bijainagar we need only here 
 notice that it long continued an obscure but independent 
 existence, favoured by the disputes of its Muslim neighbours. 
 The Raja, at the time of Babar's invasion of Hindustan, was 
 a powerful ruler Krishna Deva Raya whose daughter mar- 
 ried the minister, Rama Raya; and he, after a disputed suc- 
 cession, set aside the dynasty of Nara Sinha ; he lost his 
 throne after many years (v. inf. p. 129). 
 
 [The tables referred to in this note will be found on the 
 other side.] i 2
 
 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
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 END OF THE "PATHANS." 
 
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 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
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 120 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 
 
 Section I : Rise of the Mughal Empire. Section 2 : Equilibrium of the 
 Mughal Empire. Section 3 : Early European settlers and travellers 
 in India. 
 
 SECTION i. The weak points of Mughal administration were 
 noted by a very able contemporary. This was a Pathan, or 
 native Muslim, named Farid, Khan, descended from the noble 
 Afghan tribe of " Sur." He had entered the suite of Babar, 
 and was in his camp before Chandairi, but soon Jeft the 
 service dissatisfied with the levity of the adventurers, and im- 
 pressed with their incompetence for the due administration 
 of a vast and varied Empire : 
 
 " If fortune favour me," he said, " I can drive these Mughals 
 back out of Hindustan ; they are not our superiors in war, but 
 we have let slip the power that we had by reason of our 
 dissensions. Since I have been among the Mughals I have 
 observed their conduct and found them lacking in order and 
 discipline ; while those who profess to lead them, in the pride 
 of birth and rank, neglect the duty of supervision, and leave 
 everything to officials in whom they blindly trust. These 
 subordinates act corruptly in every case . . . they are led 
 by lust of gain, and make no distinction between soldier and 
 civilian, foe or friend." 
 
 For the present, indeed, Humaiun succeeded in peace ; but 
 the peace was of short duration. During the first few years of 
 his reign he was engaged in campaigns against the minor 
 Sultan of Malwa and Gujarat, which he conducted without
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE: I. 121 
 
 vigour and terminated without advantage. The "Afghans "- 
 Pathans, or native Muslims, continued to quarrel among them- 
 selves in the eastern provinces ; the ostensible head of their 
 ill-cemented confederacy was Mahmud Lodi, brother of the 
 late Sultan Ibrahim : this chief had risen to power on the 
 overthrow of Jalal-ud-din, Lohani, to whom Farid had attached 
 himself on leaving the camp of Babar ; and about 1535 
 Mahmud possessed himself of Jaunpur. The contentions of 
 the Indian Muslims were for the time abated, and Farid who 
 had hitherto been only a petty district-officerbegan to prepare 
 himself for the task of organising a permanent anti-Mughal 
 movement, and, about this time, assumed the title of Sher 
 Khan. 
 
 Humaiun was quick to perceive the dangerous abilities of 
 the new Pathan leader, but slow to act upon his discovery. 
 Amusing the Emperor with insincere negotiation, Sher Khan 
 took possession of the fort of Chunar, near Benares ; and 
 Humaiun, confiding in his professions, turned once more to 
 his western wars. Sher Khan's next step was to persuade 
 Mahmud to retire to Gaur, and leave him a free hand in Bihar. 
 In 1537 Humaiun, returning from fresh failure in Gujarat, 
 determined to seek compensation in the eastern provinces. 
 More than six months were wasted before Chunar, which was 
 not won till 8th January, 1538. Meanwhile Sher Khan had 
 gone to Gaur and driven out his nominal master, Mahmud 
 Lodi, who repaired to the camp of Humaiun. Sher Khan now 
 stood forth openly as the leader of the Pathan reaction ; though 
 the odds appeared heavy. On one hand was Humaiun, born to 
 succession, chivalrous and accomplished, with the Lodi leader 
 on his side. On the other a solitary native adventurer far from 
 having any hereditary right, and with no advantages but what 
 he could derive from his own intellect and character. Yet the 
 event proved that these were enough to turn the scale. The 
 brother of Humaiun was in revolt at Kabul, and recruits could
 
 122 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 not join the army from that land of soldiers ; the Turks and 
 Mughals who had followed Babar had become demoralised by 
 twelve years of wealth and ease ; the Emperor himself, with 
 many good qualities, was a frivolous, dissipated opium-eater. 
 On the other hand Sher Khan was full of audacity, energy, and 
 vigilance, aware of the danger of dissension amongst his 
 followers, and able to make of them a united body. 
 
 The result was soon apparent. In 1538 Sher Khan inflicted 
 several minor checks on the Emperor, whose attention was at 
 the same time distracted by news of a revolt at Agra ; and 
 who retired with such precipitation as to leave the ladies of his 
 household in his enemy's hands. Sher Khan treated his 
 captives nobly, and sent them to Agra unharmed. But he at 
 the same time showed his sense of his ascendant star by 
 assuming the further title of "Sher Shah, Snltan-i-'Adil."* 
 
 In April, 1540, the Emperor took the field once more, and 
 marching down the Duab arrived at Kanauj in the early part 
 of May. Sher Shah, .having advanced from the eastward, had 
 taken post on the opposite bank of the Ganges ; and, on 
 hearing of the arrival of the Mughals, send a herald over to 
 their camp, not to offer peace, but to propose terms of combat. 
 If his Majesty preferred the Pathans should cross : if not they 
 were ready to await his Majesty's pleasure. Humaiun scorn- 
 fully replied that if " Sher Khan " would only make room he 
 would come over and meet him : the consequence of which 
 doubtless foreseen by the Pathan leader was this, that the 
 Mughals would be left to fight after the confusion of the 
 passage, with their backs to the river. He accordingly, with 
 every appearance of good faith and courtesy, retired for five 
 miles while the Mughals crossed and there he awaited their 
 onslaught in a strongly intrenched position. But the Mughals 
 had little stomach for the fray : " let us go," the men were 
 heard to cry ; " let us go and rest in our own homes." The 
 * Meaning: "The just Lord."
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 123 
 
 attack was, therefore, delayed. Meantime the heat grew to a 
 dreadful height for the luxurious foreigners ; and the early rain 
 fell with violence, flooding the camp, and swelling the volume 
 of the Ganges already filled by the melting of the Himalaya 
 snows. Daily surprises and skirmishes wore them out, while 
 flushing the spirits of their antagonists. At last, on the 
 morning of the i/th May, as if weary of the situation, both 
 armies at the same time left their lines, under their respective 
 chiefs. But Humaiun found no better spirit among his officers 
 than among the men. Twenty-seven tughs* were lowered and 
 concealed by those whose pride it should have been to display 
 those ensigns. " From this," naively observes one of these 
 officers, whose narrative is here followed, " from this conduct 
 of our officers may be imagined the conduct of the men." In 
 spite of their artillery, in spite of threefold numbers, the 
 Mughals could not be got to fight. " Before the enemy had 
 let fly an arrow," pursues Haidar Mirza, " we were, virtually 
 defeated : not a gun was fired, not a man was wounded, friend 
 or foe." The panic-stricken men-at-arms clattered into the 
 mud in all the vain panoply of armour-clad men and horses ; 
 the only deaths were of fugitives smothered or drowned. 
 Never was a great host so discomfited. The Emperor was 
 carried away in the flight, led to the river by an unknown 
 cavalier in black, who unceremoniously seized his bridle. On 
 the bank he found an elephant on which he was carried over. 
 Hurrying to Agra he made but a short stay there : his mind, it 
 was noticed, wandered ; he spoke of supernatural terrors that 
 had aided the Pathans. One of his brothers hurried on to 
 Kabul, and so barred the direct way of escape ; the luckless 
 Humaiun was fain to depart into Multan and Sindh. 
 
 For nearly fifteen years he disappears from Indian history, 
 during the early part of which period Sher Shah exercised a 
 
 * Vide, note in last chapter.
 
 124 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 beneficent dominion in Hindustan. He assumed the Empire 
 at Delhi, 25111 January, 1542, being about sixty years of age ; 
 and the rest of his brief career was devoted to the establish- 
 ment of the unity which he had long ago perceived to be the 
 great need of his country. Though a devout Muslim he never 
 oppressed his Hindu subjects. His progresses were the cause 
 of good to the people instead of being as is too often the 
 case in India the occasions of devastation. He laboured 
 ceaselessly for the protection of the public : " it behoves great 
 men," he said, " to be always working." He divided the land 
 into 116,000 fiscal unions, in each of which he placed five 
 officials, one of whom was an Hindu accountant, and one a 
 judicial officer, whose duty was to mediate between the servants 
 of the crown and the members of the community. A new 
 digest of civil and penal law was substituted for the narrow code 
 of Islam. The lands were assessed, for one year at a time, 
 the assessment being based on a measurement of the cultivation 
 and an appraisement of the various crops. No official was 
 allowed to remain in the same place for more than two years. 
 All districts but those on the frontiers were deprived of arms. 
 A royal highway, planted on either side with trees and patrolled 
 by police, ran from the shores of the Bay of Bengal to the 
 banks of the river Jehlam. Three other great roads traversed 
 the Empire ; one from Agra to Burhanpore on the border of 
 the Deccan, a second crossed Rajputana, and a third led from 
 Lahore to Multan : daily posts carried letters along these roads 
 from place to place. The rural population was still sparse, 
 and the tillage depended on a scanty supply of labour ; for 
 which reason the Government was the more urgently required 
 to care for the comfort and content of the peasantry. Even 
 in a hostile country the people should not be molested : " if 
 we drive away the agriculturist," said the Shah, "all our con- 
 quests can be of but little profit." 
 
 It is a welcome task to take note of such things as a break
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 125 
 
 in the long annals of rapine and slaughter, and we can do so 
 without hesitation ; for the acts of Sher Shah are attested by 
 his enemies, writing when he was dead, and when his dynasty 
 had passed away for ever. But in the midst of his strenuous 
 beneficence he encountered the caprice of fate which takes 
 away a man, apparently necessary, before his work is done. 
 Sher Shah was besieging the fort of Kalinjar, in Bundelkhand, 
 when he was struck by the fragment of an exploding tumbril, 
 on 22nd May, 1545. Taken to his tent, he lay dying for two 
 days, retaining his consciousness, and speaking of duty to the 
 last. His body was carried to his native place, and buried in 
 a fine mausoleum, which is still to be seen in the centre of the 
 town of Sasseram, by the side of the " Grand Trunk Road," 
 which the modern rulers of India have laid down on the line 
 of his own highway. 
 
 It is the misfortune of absolute monarchy that the best 
 rulers can never ensure a worthy successor. Sher Shah's 
 sovereignty was assumed by his son Salim, or Islam, Shah, a 
 young man apparently not ill-prepared for the post, but labour- 
 ing under the usual trials of a prince born for power which he 
 has done nothing to acquire. The old contentiousness of the 
 Pathan nobility sprang up when the strong restraining hand 
 was no longer there. The whole period of Salim's reign was 
 consumed in intrigues and fruitless quarrels : and on his death 
 in November, 1554, his son was murdered and a scene of con- 
 fusion ensued. The native Muslims fell into such a state of 
 quarrelsome imbecility that the chief command fell into the 
 hands of a Hindu chandler named Hemu. 
 
 In the meanwhile Humaiun had first wandered distractedly 
 in Sindh, where he became the father of a more able and 
 fortunate son. In 1543 he made his way by Herat to Persia, 
 where he was hospitably received, but made to profess adhesion 
 to the Shia denomination ; and with the aid of Persian troops 
 he obtained possession of Kandahar and, ultimately of Kabul,
 
 126 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 which had been held against him, by his rebellious brother 
 Kamran. For the next four years Humaiun held a troubled 
 and precarious possession of Afghanistan; but in 1553 Kam- 
 ran was finally defeated and rendered incapable of further 
 mischief by being deprived of sight ; Humaiun being, perhaps, 
 deterred from taking his brother's life by the memory of the 
 last words of their father. And now, at last, the time seemed 
 approaching when he could follow that father's footsteps, and 
 become, once more, Emperor in Hindustan. 
 
 In January, 1555, accordingly, Humaiun resolved to benefit 
 by the confusion and anarchy prevailing among the Indian 
 Muslims; and he entered the Punjab with 15,000 mounted 
 followers, led by an able officer, and accompanied by his young 
 son. The Pathan nobles were in the very crisis of a family 
 dispute, and so failed to unite for resistance ; yet the force 
 still at their disposal was not to be despised. The first encounter 
 occurred at the passage of the Sutlej, where Humaiun's general 
 beat back the Pathans and occupied the country immediately 
 to the north-west of Delhi. Another Pathan army advancing 
 to cover the capital, was opposed to the invaders' reserve, 
 marching in parallel columns : and a second action ensued, 
 also to the advantage of the Mughals ; in this Humaiun com- 
 manded in person, and his youthful son took part ; soon the 
 former advanced on Delhi and entered the city on 23rd July, 
 1555. The Sur family had now but one resource left: to 
 forget their feuds and push all their forces up from the east- 
 ward under the able guidance of their Hindu general the 
 chandler Hemu. 
 
 Amid the uncertainties of the yet unfinished war, the long 
 vexed and imperfectly restored Emperor was suddenly taken 
 off by an accidental fall down a staircase. He died on 26th 
 January, 1556, and the young Akbar was immediately 
 acclaimed Emperor by the armies, which had now effected a 
 junction. His guardian and principal minister was the General
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 127 
 
 already mentioned, a valiant and experienced Turkman, 
 named Bairam Khan, a native of Badahshan, who had 
 followed the fortunes of the late Emperor for nearly twenty 
 years. Akbar was proclaimed at Kalanur, near Amritsir, on 
 1 5th February, and Bairam was declared his Prime Minister, 
 alike for civil and military service. 
 
 The Hindu General, who had been conducting a successful 
 campaign in the eastern region, now advanced on Delhi, 
 whence he expelled the Mughals, and where he is said to have 
 declared himself king, with the title of Raja Vikram Aditya. 
 He then marched against the Mughals whom he found en- 
 camped upon the storied plains of Panipat.* 
 
 The Mughal chiefs had been divided in counsel, and it had 
 even been seriously proposed by some to carry the young 
 Prince back to Kabul, and endeavour to postpone further 
 operations till they could gather fresh forces for a renewed 
 attempt. Bairam, however, overruled the proposal ; and on 
 5th November, the decisive struggle took place. The artillery 
 of the natives had been surprised and carried off the day 
 llefofe ; and the bold Bairam had given a significant lesson of 
 courage and conduct to his subordinates, by putting to death 
 the General by whose misfortune or error Delhi had been lost, 
 while three other officers were put under arrest. Thus stimu- 
 lated, the Mughals showed no more weakness ; Hemu was 
 vanquished after a stubborn conflict and brought wounded 
 into Akbar's tent, where Bairam struck off his head : next day 
 the victorious Mughals marched on Delhi. On arrival at the 
 city of Sher Shah f the young monarch received a warm 
 welcome from the Muslim inhabitants. 
 
 * See description in last chapter. 
 
 t Also the scene of Humaiun's, death. He was interred close by, and his 
 noble mausoleum is famous in modern history as the last refuge of his ill- 
 starred descendants in 1857.
 
 128 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 The titular head of the Sur family shortly after dying, 
 Akbar found himself, nominally, at least, lord paramount of 
 northern India from the Himalaya to the Narbada river, and 
 from sea to sea. But there was much to be done before the 
 gallant boy could call himself really master of that wide and 
 fertile land. 
 
 What may have been the condition of the people at the time 
 of his accession, can only be inferred from the nature of his 
 subsequent reforms. The elaborate administrative machinery 
 of Sher Shah must have incurred rust and decay; and the 
 inhabitants would surfer all the more because of the few years 
 of good government and the return of war. Again had come 
 rapacity and negligence, and the devastations of lawless 
 soldiers ; the drums and tramplings of armed hosts, and the 
 smoke of arson from wrecked and plundered homes. Happily 
 for the people of Hindustan, longer times of peace were now at 
 hand. 
 
 From the date of the accession of the hoyAkhar ^1560, 
 the empire was in an undeveloped condiHon Bairam fell 
 from power and went into rebellion; but at the end of 1560 
 he was pardoned, and induced to set out for the pilgrimage to 
 Mecca ; on the way, however, he was assassinated by a private 
 enemy, 3ist January, 1561. During this time the Pathans 
 were everywhere being slowly beaten down in Bihar, the Pun- 
 jab, and elsewhere. 
 
 In 1561 an expedition was sent into Malvva, where a 
 Pathan named Baz Bahadur had affected independence, 
 making his capital at Sarangpur, about half-way between Mau 
 and Guria. The Mughal leader was named Adham Khan, 
 supposed to be a natural son of the late emperor, and half- 
 brother of Akbar the present monarch. The campaign met 
 with success, which was however tarnished by the bastard's 
 cruelty to some of his prisoners. The young Emperor did not 
 take proper notice, because, as his friend and biographer after-
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 129 
 
 wards observed, " The veil had not yet been taken from his 
 eyes." Even so, Akbar issued orders that such inhumanity 
 should not take place again ; and ere long he killed with his 
 own hand, the ruffianly half-brother who had stained his con- 
 quest, and who afterwards proceeded to murder another 
 minister in the hall of the palace. This event is dated, by 
 Beale, loth May, 1562. 
 
 In the same year Akbar gave a further proof of his having 
 begun to think for himself by marrying the daughter of Raja 
 Bihari Mai, the Rajput ruler of Amber (now Jaipur), whose 
 son and brother were at the same time engaged in the Imperial 
 service. Two taxes which pressed heavily on the Hindus were 
 now remitted ; namely, one on persons going on pilgrimage to 
 Hindu shrines ; and one ihejazia, capitation or poll-tax, levied 
 under Sunni law on unbelieving subjects. 
 
 After the death of the bastard, Adham Khan, other 
 measures against the immigrant aristocracy were pursued. 
 Their contumacy was a serious obstacle to the unity which 
 Akbar was already seeking ; and it was the work of seven 
 years to overcome the insolence of race and teach the immi- 
 grants what was due to their fellow-subjects. In the south 
 the Muslims were still gaining ground; in 1565 the Hindu 
 kingdom of Bijainagar or Kanara fell before a temporary 
 combination of all the Muhamadan States of the Deccan. In 
 order to strengthen his capital, Akbar about this time began 
 the Fort of Agra, which is still in fine preservation. In the 
 following year he had to suppress a rebellion at Jaunpore of 
 which the leader was one of his best foreign officers, an 
 Uzbeg who had been honoured with the title of " Khan 
 Zaman." Akbar's experience of the insolence of his foreign 
 followers was now becoming so serious as to lead him to look 
 around for native statesman and officers. Bhagwcin Das and 
 Man Singh, of Jaipur, have been already mentioned : a greater 
 still was to be found in the famous Todar Mai, a man who 
 
 K
 
 130 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 had been trained by Sher Shah and who was now to serve Akbar 
 in some of the most important measures of his reign. 
 
 The adhesion of the Hindus, however, was not yet com- 
 plete. The Gahlot Rajputs of Me*war who had been so for- 
 midable under Rana Sanga, still defied the Mughals ; and the 
 seige of Chittore cost Akbar much loss of ease and of men, until 
 it was finally stormed in February, 1568, much as Chandairi 
 had been, forty years before, by his grandsire. It was during 
 this siege that a man of letters entered Akbar's service, who was 
 destined to influence the Emperor, both directly, and through 
 his brother. This was Shaikh Faizi, a learned and amiable 
 man of Arab blood ; and he in his turn was to become the 
 means of Akbar's making the acquaintance of his younger 
 broth er,^Ab ul Fazl, destined to be a prominent minister, and 
 also the historiographer of the reign. In this year was com- 
 menced the country-palace of Fattehpur Sikri, about twenty- 
 one miles south-west of Agra; where, on the 3131 August, 
 1569, the Princess of Amber brought, to complete her 
 husband's felicity, the son (Salim) who was afterwards to 
 succeed to the Empire. The year 1570 was passed in royal 
 progresses, as also was the next, so that for at least twenty- 
 four months the land had rest. In 1572 a fresh campaign 
 was found necessary to restore order in the province of 
 Gujarat, troubled by a new rebellion ; the troops were com- 
 manded by Raja Bhagwan Das, and his nephew Man Singh. 
 Next occurred an unsuccessful attempt on the famous fort of 
 Kot Kdngra in the Punjab, where a peace was patched up : 
 and another campaign in Gujarat, where the Emperor com- 
 manded in" person and was much distinguished. Todar Mai 
 was now put in charge of the province of Gujarat. Then 
 came a fresh outbreak of the adherents of the fallen dynasty 
 in the eastern provinces ; it was not put down till 1575. 
 
 But, while suppressing, with humane firmness, all attempts at 
 rebellion from the followers of the late Sher Shah, Akbar was
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; L 131 
 
 always ready to learn in the school of that great man. The 
 policy of Sher Shah it will be remembered was to fuse his 
 subjects into one nation, and to establish a fiscal system which 
 should relieve the taxpayer without being injurious to the 
 agriculturist by whom the revenue was to be paid. Availing 
 himself of the knowledge and experience of Todar Mai, 
 Akbar adopted this system. The land-revenue was settled on 
 a basis equitable tQ_the cultivator, and almost all taxation 
 was forborne. This ideal deserves to be carefully observed 
 for it has never since been entirely lost sight of, and has been 
 the source of national prosperity in later days.* 
 
 Nor was Akbar's attention entirely absorbed by matters of 
 civil administration and war. There was but little, in Hin- 
 dustan of those days, corresponding with the intellectual 
 emancipation then beginning to break forth in Europe. Never- 
 theless, so far as one man could affect national movements, 
 society in Hindustan was moving. Visitors to Fattehpur are 
 still shown a strange structure, now called Diwan Khds, with 
 four galleries, and a pillar in the middle on whose capital is a 
 central seat approached by raised pathways, one from each 
 gallery. Here, every Thursday night, the four galleries were 
 filled with members of various sects, while the Emperor 
 occupied the central seat, as moderator of their controversies. 
 " Innovators and schismatics," says an orthodox contemporary, 
 " artfully started doubts and sophistries ; and his Majesty, who 
 only sought the truth, was thus entangled in scepticism by low 
 associates."! 
 
 We have seen how some of the earlier Sultans had married 
 Hindoo princesses ; Akbar was the first who treated these 
 princesses with anything like due consideration. In his house- 
 hold the Hindoo ladies preserved their religious observances 
 and used their influence to incline the Emperor to toleration. 
 
 * v. inf. ch. XII. 
 
 t Badaoni. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 At a later time Akbar openly lamented that he had not gone 
 further : and he came to hate the bigoted side of his own 
 native creed with an ardour that was not quite consistent with 
 impartiality. But he was earnestly bent on making India, so 
 far as he ruled it, into a united nation ; and we hear from his 
 friend and biographer, not only of debates by night at the 
 Fattehpur Academy, but also of silent meditations in the lonely 
 hour of dawn, when Akbarwould go forth and muse " upon the 
 problems of life and upon his own peculiar task." 
 
 It is in the same stately pleasure-house of Fattehpur that we find 
 Akbar, on his return from Bengal in 1575, receiving the first visit 
 of Faizi's brother, Abul Fazl, destined to influence the rest 
 of his reign and to record something of its inner life for the 
 instruction of posterity. The aspirant for royal favour was 
 then only just eighteen ; less of a scholar than Faizi, but far 
 more fitted for the activities of life. Fortwenty-sevenyearshe con- 
 tinued to be the friend and faithful servant of the Emperor : " a 
 man," said a native contemporary, " of lofty spirit, who desired 
 to live at peace with all men." Above all, he deserves notice 
 as having professed the principles of toleration in government 
 before any other public man, either in the East or West. 
 
 Events were occurring about this time in Central Asia by which 
 Akbar's mind may have been already biassed towards a disregard 
 of official orthodoxy : in 1575 the Osmanli Turks of the west 
 had obtained great successes in Persia, where the Shiah 
 sovereign who had tampered with Humaiun's faith was 
 murdered and succeeded by a Sunni. One of this new ruler's 
 measures was to persecute and disperse the heretical teachers 
 who were popular throughout that country. From the days of 
 the Arab conquest, when the old fire-worship was forbidden 
 and persecuted, a tendency towards heterodoxy had always 
 prevailed in Persia. The Guebres themselves clung to the 
 naptha springs on the southern shores of the Caspian. The 
 friars and religious mendicants, who pervaded every stratum of
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 133 
 
 the community, indulged in the freest speculation : and the 
 sectaries of All, the Shiahs, maintained an element of dissidence 
 from the opinions and laws of Islam : being " distinguished by 
 forbearance towards the professors of other creeds."* More- 
 over, the poets (among whom Omar Khayam is the best- 
 known to western readers) maintained a note of free thought ; 
 and the fact that, without aid from the printing press, such 
 writings should have braved the havoc of centuries is an indi- 
 cation of popular favour. All these influences were now poured 
 into Hindustan, a new invasion carried out with the weapons 
 of the mind. The Academy founded by the Emperor was in 
 full work by this time ; in it the reform found a favourable 
 ground : and the result was a movement which shattered the 
 Muslim Church in India and prepared for a long and hopeful 
 future, never, alas ! to be attained. 
 
 In the year 1577 the Muslim symbol (Kalima) disappeared 
 from use in the national coinage and liturgyt the name of the 
 Prophet was also discouraged for male infants.]: In the meantime 
 war still went on in the remote regions. Mewar (Udaipur) went 
 into open revolt, and several minor chiefs of the Rajputs co- 
 operated. Akbar gave proof of his confidence in his unifying 
 system by sending Rajput Generals to put down their own co- 
 religionists ; but a curious anecdote of the campaign, recorded 
 by an admiring Muslim, shows how great was still the strength 
 of bigotry among the Muhamadans. He was present in a 
 battle near Goganda, during the Udaipur campaign ; and 
 relates that he asked the opinion of a Muslim brother officer as 
 to the means of avoiding injury to a Hindu contingent that was 
 
 * Muir, " Annals of the early Kaliphate," p. 452. See also " The Spirit 
 of Islam," by S. Amir AH ; London, 1891. 
 
 ^La Allah il Allah, wa Mnhainad rasal Allah, the famous profession of 
 orthodox Muslims (" There is no god but God ; and Muhamad is God's 
 Prophet.") 
 
 | The Emperor's full name was Muhamad Jalal-ud-din Akbar. After 
 the year 1,000 A.H. the word " Muhamad " disappears from the coinage.
 
 134 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 protecting their front. "Bah!" said the other; "Let fly in 
 the name of God ; He knows His own." 
 
 In 1578 the Emperor visited Delhi, where his father's body 
 had been interred as mentioned in the last chapter. From 
 thence he continued his progress to Malwa ; and he took the 
 opportunity of pacifying Mewar and Gujarat without further 
 military operations. In 1579 a question was agitated similar 
 to one which had been lately debated in England : namely, 
 that of the relation of the head of the state to spiritual 
 affairs. As king of men Akbar desired to be leader of their 
 opinions ; not exactly as khalif, or pontiff, but as founder of a 
 mixed system in which was to be inculcated whatever good he 
 could collect from all known creeds, from the Vedas and the 
 Koran, from Fire-worship, Pantheism, and Latin Christianity. 
 The consequence was that a convocation assembled in 1580, 
 which decreed the claims of the Emperor to pronounce a final 
 award in doctrinal controversy, subject to a saving-clause that 
 there was to be no opposition to the Koran. The insertion of 
 such a clause it was probably impossible to avoid ; but it is 
 doubtful if Akbar would ever have been bound by it. The 
 system that he sought to recommend was one of eclectic 
 Theism, equally opposed to the confident convictions of all 
 his subjects. He only gained about a dozen adherents in his 
 own court and family ; so that, as a means of union, the 
 system was a failure from the outset. Such things could not 
 be carried out by any one man, however good and wise and 
 powerful. 
 
 What the Emperor could do single-handed was to provide 
 for the welfare of the current generation. He could not 
 propagate his Theism without using foul means and causing 
 hypocrisy , and from this he refrained. But in administrative 
 measures he could at least follow the path of Sher Shah and 
 restore the good old times of that wise and great ruler. A 
 census and Domesday Book were set on foot : Todar Mai
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE j I. 135 
 
 was directed to proceed with his fiscal reforms. An attempt was 
 made to call in worn coins, and to fix the value of those in I 
 circulation. The burning of Hindu widows was forbidden. 
 Such measures could not but benefit his subjects, however 
 powerless for permanent reform. It is only by embodying in 
 the form of statute the needs and aspiration of the community 
 that a government can enter into permanent organic union 
 with the governed ; and no such embodiment could take place 
 in Hindustan at that time. The idea of law, as then conceived 
 by the people of India, was inconsistent with legislation by 
 any man or governing body. It is true that Sher Shah is 
 credited with some amount of crude legislation ; but, for want 
 of institutions and ideas it could take no root. Hindu and 
 Muslim alike, the people believed that each class had been 
 born under a special provision of positive injunctions, revealed 
 by the Deity much like what are now called " laws of Nature," ~ 
 in so far that they could not be altered by any authority of man. 
 In such conditions there could be no human legislation, nor 
 any State-enactments by which social evolution could be 
 registered or advanced. The wisest and most benevolent 
 reformer, in possession of the most unquestioned sovereignty, 
 could only issue salutary ordinances, valid for the duration of 
 his reign. And this Akbar did, to a remarkable degree. 
 
 For the next two years the Empire was at peace, and 
 Akbar appeared to have reached the summit of human pros- 
 perity. All rival rulers had been conquered or conciliated, 
 from one extremity of the possessions of his House to the ] 
 other ; except where, beyond the Indus, an ambitious 
 brother, named Hakim, contested the authority of Akbar. 
 The civil administration was controlled by Todar Mai ; one 
 of the late Bairam's pupils was at the head of the w_ar 
 department. The heads of the Muslim Church were under a 
 cToud, and the reckless endowments of the past were resumed 
 from mortmain. Mosques stood empty, or were used as stabling
 
 136 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 for the horses of the imperial cavalry. Jesuit missionaries 
 appeared at court in answer to special invitation, and a small 
 place of Christian worship was opened at Agra. 
 
 In 1581 there was a disturbance in Bengal, which was sup- 
 pressed by Todar Mai, sent there on special duty. Next year 
 the Emperor proceeded in person to the Afghan country, and 
 drove his rebellious brother out of Kabul : he was pardoned 
 on submission, and replaced in the government. 
 
 In 1583 the eastern provinces were again disturbed, but the 
 disturbance was abated in the following year, the Emperor, 
 having settled Kabul affairs, returned to Hindustan ; it is prob- 
 able that these Bengal troubles had been fomented by Hakim, 
 the rebellious brother. In 1584 there was a stubborn rebellion 
 raised by a native Muslim in Orissa, which is remarkable for 
 having afforded an opportunity for the rise of a young Mughal 
 officer, already mentioned as the translator of Babar's Memoirs, 
 and destined to distinction in the later military transactions of 
 the reign. His title at this period was Khan-Mirza, and he 
 was son to the late able and unfortunate minister, Bairam. 
 After his father's tragic end the Emperor had taken measures 
 for his education, and his first appearance as a general was in 
 the third Bengal war. After serving with credit here he was 
 sent to suppress a fresh insurrection in Gujarat; and the 
 campaign was brought to a successful end in four months. 
 
 About this time (1585-6) came the news of the death of 
 Hakim Mirza, the Emperor's troublesome brother. Khan 
 Mirza returned to Gujarat, and Akbar went on to Lahore, 
 deputing his Rajput kinsmen (Bhagwan Das and Man Singh) 
 to take up the government of Kabul. Another Hindu, Raja 
 Bir Bal, was sent in joint command with a Mughal named 
 Zain Khan, to take possession of the hills of Bajaur, and 
 repel the Uzbegs who were raiding in Badakshan. This led 
 to the first great disaster of the reign ; the army was cut off by 
 the Yusafzais in their bleak passes. Bir Bal was slain, with
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE ; I. 137 
 
 eight thousand officers and men ; Zain Khan fled on foot 
 to the Emperor, who refused to see him. This was in 
 February, 1586. A fresh force was sent into the mountains, 
 under Todar Mai, supported by a flanking column, under Man 
 Singh, in the Khaibar ; order was to some extent restored. 
 It is to be noted that the country of these wild Muslim tribes, 
 who are still troublesome, was thus partially pacified and 
 held by two Hindu officers. 
 
 In 1587 Kashmir was occupied not without hard fighting 
 and further operations, leading to the temporary disgrace of 
 Man Singh, took place in the hills between Attock and Kabul. 
 
 Early in 1589, Akbar visited Kabul, but before the end of 
 the year had the misfortune to lose Todar Mai and Bhagwan 
 Das, both of whom died at the same time. The latter was no 
 more than a brave Rajput prince; but Todar Mai has left a 
 great name in India, not merely as a soldier, but as a states- 
 man. " He left behind him no equal," says Abul Fazl, 
 " whether for rectitude or administrative skill." 
 
 So far Akbar had formed and consolidated a great Empire, 
 stretching from the Oxus to the bay of Bengal. It was natural 
 that he should next turn his attention to the country south of 
 the Narbada. An Imperialist army overran Berar and cap- 
 tured the capital Elichpur. Here they were joined by Burhan- 
 ul-mulk, brother of the sovereign of the Nizam-Shahi king- 
 dom of Ahmadnagar, then the central state of the Muslim 
 Deccan. The poet Faizi was deputed to negotiate with the 
 emigrant prince, and to take advantage of his discontent. 
 
 This deputation took place in 1591, and at the same time, 
 Sultan -Murad, one of Akbar's sons, took possession of 
 Gwalior and Ujain, where the Hindus had been giving trouble. 
 In Gujarat, Khan Mirza reaped fresh laurels in a campaign 
 against Jani Beg, a local rebel, whom he blockaded at Tatta 
 in Sindh. A new Pathan rising took place in Orissa, and led 
 to oppression of the Hindu population, for whose relief an
 
 138 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 expedition was sent thither under Man Singh, now restored to 
 favour. News of a complete victory reached the Emperor at 
 Lahore about the end of 1592. Khan Mirza, now promoted 
 to the rank of Khan Khanan, had in the meantime starved 
 Jani Beg into submission in Sindh ; the rebel was sent to 
 court, where he obtained pardon and employment. The year 
 was observed as being, by Muslim chronology, the thousandth 
 from the Hegira.* The Empire was at peace; we have next 
 to trace, on the reduced scale allowed by our limits, the effect of 
 Akbar's military successes and civil administration. 
 
 [Authorities for this section : " Ain Akban," by Abul Fazl, 
 Gladwin's translation, 3 vols., Calcutta, 1783; Dowson's "Elliot," 
 Vol. V.; "Kaisar Akbar," Von Noer, Leipsic, 1880. Also 
 " Coins of Hindustan in the British Museum," by S. Lane- 
 Poole, London, 1892.] 
 
 SECTION 2. Apart from the maintenance of order by 
 strong but humane_mililary_iiperations, the glory of Akbar's 
 reign is the fusion of classes and general care for the welfare of 
 the people. The system began in 15^4^5 was at first resisted 
 not only by open rebellion, but by the inert but obstinate 
 bigotry and race-pride of the Muslims, whose theory was that the 
 Hindus, who formed the bulk of the population, were fortunate 
 if their lives were spared, and were bound to pay a special poll- 
 tax which about doubled their fiscal contributions. This, as we 
 have seen, was abolished by Abkar, and the employment of 
 such a man as Todar Mai was a guarantee of fair treatment. 
 It led, indeed, to a good deal more. Disregarding the pre- 
 judices of race and rivalry, Abul Fazl bears the warmest 
 testimony to the virtues and abilities of his Hindu colleague. 
 Appointed Vazir, Todar Mai preferred a humbler title, with all 
 ^necessary authority. He was acquainted with all the details of 
 /administration, and his clear mind solved all difficulties. 
 " Keeping his mind free from personal ambition, he devoted 
 
 * The Muslim year consists of lunar months, and is shorter than ours by 
 nearly eleven days,
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; 1. 139 
 
 himself to the service of the state, and so earned an ever- 
 lasting fame." The following reforms were among those due 
 to Todar Mai : 
 
 There was to be an accurate record of each landholder's 
 rights and liabilities. Easy means of complaint against undue 
 exactions were provided, with due provision for the punish- 
 ment of offenders. The number of petty officials was reduced 
 by one half. Advances of money and seed were available : 
 arrears were remitted when remission was required. Collectors 
 were called upon for yearly reports ; and monthly returns were 
 to be submitted to the exchequer ; special narratives being re- 
 quired in case of special calamities, hail, flood, or drought. 
 The collections were made four times in the year ; and care 
 had to be taken that there should be no balances outstanding 
 at the end of that period. It is hardly too much to say that 
 this scheme contained the germs of the successful revenue- 
 systems of modern India. 
 
 At the same time attention was paid to the question of 
 currency-reform. Local coinages were abolished, and imperial 
 mints established at great centres, previous coins being called 
 in. All establishments were paid in cash, the wasteful method 
 of jaigirs and territorial assignments being discontinued. 
 Lastly, poor-houses were opened for the relief of indigent 
 wayfarers, and the Emperor used to visit them in person. 
 Thus, to the north of the Narbada at least, the work of inte- 
 gration and good government was begun, the exertions of the 
 administrator completing the work of the soldier, both inspired 
 by the magnetism of an earnest and benevolent master. The 
 next great task of Akbar was the destruction of the over- 
 weening power of the Muslim Church, but this, when effected, 
 proved a doubtful advantage : after the great Emperor was 
 gone his successors ruled unchecked by any organised body, 
 and mure and more scope was found for the abuses of 
 despotism, only corrigible by the brutal remedies of regicide 
 and rebellion.
 
 i 4 o HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 For the present all went well. Faizi was sent to the army to 
 negotiate with the malcontent Prince of Ahmadnagar, and to 
 watch his relations with Ali Khan of Khandes, on the East of 
 Gujarat, where the Satpura range runs between the Narbada 
 and the Tapti. On receiving the report of this mission Akbar 
 moved from the Punjab, and began to prepare on a large scale 
 for the conquest of the Deccan. Three armies were set on 
 foot; the main force under the Khan Khanan as Khan 
 Mirza was now called to be supported on either side by 
 columns from Malwa and Bengal. 
 
 Such was the current of events that an extension of the 
 empire into the southern regions was perhaps hardly to be 
 avoided. The land there was wasted by war and misgovern- 
 ment; conspiracy and assassination were the ordinary 
 political expedients : the internal strife of Sunni and Shia 
 almost prevented useful combinations. Once, in 1565, a 
 momentary union of the Muslim powers overthrew Ram 
 Raja, the Hindu prince of Kanara. Defeated at the decisive 
 battle of Talikota, he was taken and put to death. His 
 brother was expelled from Bijainagar, and driven into the 
 Karnatic, where he founded- minor principalities. To Akbar 
 it may have seemed a part of his mission to bring order into 
 the Deccan ; nevertheless it might have been better for his 
 House could he have resisted the temptation. 
 
 From the first the work was hard. Under the nominal 
 command of one of the princes the main army advanced from 
 Berar. Raja Ali submitted and was restored to the govern- 
 ment of Khandes as an imperial feudatory ; and the combined 
 armies advanced to the seige of Ahmadnagar. Burhan, the 
 fugitive of 1591, had, in the four intervening years, obtained 
 the kingdom, and been carried off by natural death (1594) : 
 and now his infant nephew a son of the late Sultan Ibrahim 
 was nominal ruler under the regency of a brave old kins- 
 woman named Chand Bibi, also of kin to the king of Bijapur, 
 Ibrahim Adil II. Aided by him she opposed a vigorous
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE I. 141 
 
 resistance, personally taking part in the defence of the ram- 
 parts. Peace had to be made for fear of an attack on the 
 Mughal rear by the confederates in the field ; and towards 
 the end of winter in 1596 the Imperialists retired from the 
 first siege of Ahmadnagar. Some compensation for this 
 disappointment was afforded by the cession of Kandahar, 
 always a subject of contention between the Mughals of India 
 and the Persian Shah. But other troubles were at hand. The 
 gentle and learned Faizi died at Lahore in October, 1595. 
 Next year Akbar had his first serious illness : in the following 
 year Murad sustained a severe defeat from -the confederate 
 armies of the Deccan, and was deprived of his command, Abul 
 Fazl being sent to relieve him. 
 
 It was in this year that the " Ain Akbari" was published, a sort 
 of instalment of Abul Fazl's " Imperial Gazetteer," afterwards 
 completed in 1602. Having finished the first part of his work 
 which treats of the institutions and finance of the empire 
 Abul Fazl departed for the South, followed more slowly by 
 Akbar himself. On ist May, 1599, Sultan Murad died; and 
 Sah'm, the crown prince, was sent against Mewar; the actual 
 command being in the hands of ManSingh, who was his 
 mother's brother. Salim soon quarrelled with his uncle 
 and retired to Allahabad, where he began to show signs of the 
 fractious disposition by which he continued thenceforth to 
 vex his father's government. Sultan Danyal, another of the 
 Emperor's sons, was put in honorary charge of Khandes, 
 while Abul Fazl went on to complete the war in the territory 
 of the Nizam Shahi dynasty. By the end of the year the brave 
 Sultana, Clmnd Bibi, was murdered by her own officers, 
 and the young king a prisoner in the hands of the Mughals. 
 Ahmadnagar was taken by storm ; but the country was not 
 thoroughly conquered for nearly forty years longer. Abul 
 Fazl was sent for to court, but was murdered on the road, by 
 instigation of the Crown Prince, i3th August, 1602. 
 
 The blow made Akbar reel. His sons in revolt or dying
 
 142 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 of intemperance, his best servants removed, and his southern 
 conquests unfinished, his fine temper began to fail, he became 
 hasty and impatient. In 1602 a temporary reconciliation with 
 Salim took place, and the Bijapur Sultan in the Deccan gave 
 his adhesion to the empire. These transient gleams of re- 
 turning fortune did not long sustain the Emperor's failing 
 strength. In 1604 Sultan Danyal died like his brother 
 Murad before him from the effects of drink. Akbar's health 
 broke, and intrigues for the succession began between the 
 supporters of the fractious Salim, encouraged by the Emperor, 
 and the favourers of Salim's son, Sultan Khusru. The plans 
 of the former prevailed ; Khusru prepared for flight ; and 
 Akbar from his death-bed formally named Salim as his suc- 
 cessor. He died on the night of 4-5th October, 1605, 
 leaving an empire consolidated and peaceful north of the 
 Narbada, though of doubtful stability beyond that river. 
 
 Enough has been said to give a general idea of this great 
 ruler and his methods. The people had entered on a forenoon 
 of cloudless weather, the dawn of which had been witnessed 
 fifty years before, in the brief reign of Sher Shah. Akbar 
 sympathised with the Hindus, of whom Abul Fazl-^no doubt 
 reflecting his master's view often speaks kindly, and with 
 esteem. The cultivators and farmers were not only protected 
 but helped. Their assessments were to be undisturbed for nine- 
 teen years about the average of modern English and Scottish 
 leases but no marauding chiefs or usurping barons inter- 
 cepted the payments charged upon the land in lieu of tax- 
 ation.* After the twenty-fourth year of Akbar's reign the 
 
 * The Indian land-revenue is sometimes called " Land-tax " ; it is, in 
 fact, the very reverse. Rent must go to some one ; and in so far as it goes 
 to the state, so far the public is relieved from fiscal contribution. In fact, 
 the salt-tax is the only item of taxation, proper, of which payment is obli- 
 gatory on every inhabitant of British India. Its annual incidence is about 
 one-fourth of a rupee.
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 143 
 
 aggregate collections of the past ten years, divided by ten, 
 were taken as an average on which to base future demands. 
 The total revenue, according to the Ain, was ten krors of rupees 
 yearly, towards the end of the reign, but before the last annex- 
 ations. Under the rule of Salim, who assumed the title of 
 Jahdngir before his accession, the Empire continued to feel the 
 momentum of Akbar's rule, and fairly preserved its equipoise. 
 Khusru fled to Lahore at first, and attempted a rebellion, 
 which was soon suppressed, and the Prince put under restraint. 
 A fine mausoleum of hewn stone was raised over Akbar's 
 grave at Sikandra, mentioned above as the suburb of Agra, 
 where Sikandar Lodi built a palace. The great system rolled 
 on : there were twelve provinces, with an average annual revenue 
 of twelve krors of rupees, over each of which was a Satrap, 
 called originally "Ni/am,"or "Ndzim," assisted by a financial 
 officer, whose title was Diwan. Each province, again, was 
 subdivided into counties and fiscal unions, in the administra- 
 tion of which a like quality generally prevailed. Law suits of 
 Muslims were disposed of by learned men, acting under the 
 supervision of a Chief Justice: but Hindus had their causes 
 heard and determined by a Brahman, who doubtless applied 
 the Hindu law. Over all was the Emperor, who professed to 
 hear appeals, though they were, no doubt, sifted before they came 
 to his Majesty's court, and his judicial work may probably be 
 taken to have been at least as symbolical as the washing of 
 prepared paupers by the Pope at Easter ; for it must not be 
 supposed that an average Oriental ruler would submit to 
 the irksome duty of sitting daily in open court. Indeed, 
 in the case of Jahangir, it was much if the most ordinary 
 duties of sovereignty could command regular attention. 
 The celebrated diplomatic agent of James I. of England 
 Sir Thomas Roe who was at the court from 1614 to 
 1618 has left a record which shows how little justice 
 was really done, and how much crime was committed, under
 
 144 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the specious pretences of this reign. Neverthless, that 
 Emperor ill as he had often behaved in the lifetime of his 
 great predecessor was not without amiable qualities, and was 
 especially attached to his able consort, the celebrated Empress, 
 Nur Jahan. Little occurred to deserve the attention of 
 historians : a chronic war, long continued in the Deccan, but 
 ended for the time, in 1617, by the submission of the young 
 Nizam Shall and his minister, Malik Ambar ; Bijapur being 
 detached from the southern confederacy. Khusru continued 
 under arrest, the place of heir-apparent being taken by his 
 next brother, Sultan Khurram, who had charge of his person. 
 Khurram was reserved and prudent ; he was decorated for 
 service in the field with the title of "Shall Jahan," and 
 opinion already designated him as the probable successor to 
 the Empire, when, in 1621, Khusru suddenly died. A 
 quarrel soon after broke out between Shah Jahan and the 
 Empress, who desired to secure the succession for a younger 
 prince, Shahryar, who was her son-in-law. This prince was 
 presently sent to endeavour to recover the town and province of 
 Kandahar, which had been seized by the Persians : other 
 measures of distrust towards Shah Jahan were adopted ; and 
 in 1623 he went into declared opposition. The Emperor 
 marched against him in person, on which Shah Jahan, shrink- 
 ing from actual conflict with his sire and sovereign, retired 
 into Telingana and thence into Bengal, where he found safety 
 for a time. Being threatened with a fresh pursuit the per- 
 secuted prince returned into the Deccan and sought the 
 protection of Malik Ambar. But he was in great jeopardy in 
 1625, whe'n an event occurred which for the moment 
 effectually diverted the attention of all his enemies. 
 
 Zamanat Beg, better known by his title of Mahabat Khan 
 (one of the Emperor's best generals, and governor of Kabul), 
 had conducted some of the recent operations, and had now re- 
 turned to the Punjab with the Emperor, and the head-quarters
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 145 
 
 of the army. At the height of apparent favour he incurred the 
 displeasure of the Empress ; and, in order to protect himself 
 against anticipated arrest, he suddenly put the Emperor and 
 Empress themselves under restraint. He surrounded them with 
 a Rajput escort, and was marching with them towards Kabul, 
 when they were liberated by help of the gentlemen- cadets of 
 the bodyguard, in a stratagem planned by the Empress, and 
 carried out at a review. Mahabat Khan fled to the Deccan, 
 where he joined Shah Jahan ; and the Emperor died in camp, 
 28th Oct. 1627. The Empress tried a stroke in favour of Shahr- 
 yar, her son-in-law, but Shah Jahan, hearing the news by ex 
 press, hurried up with Mahabat Khan, reaching Lahore about 
 the end of the year to find that his brother had been already 
 put to death, and to receive the crown from the hands of Asaf- 
 ud-daulah, the Empress's brother, and his late father's chief 
 minister-of-state. His accession took place at Agra, and is 
 dated 4th Feb., 1628. 
 
 Under Shah Jahan the equilibrium of the Empire continued ; 
 the Mughal school of architecture attained its highest develop- 
 ment, the court glittered with jewelled splendour and sumptu- 
 ous festivity,* and yet the Emperor accumulated a large re- 
 serve of treasure. At the outset of the reign the rebellion of a 
 Pathan officer named Khan Jahan Lodi, led to some alarm 
 and trouble, especially as there seemed some fear that his 
 course would be actively espoused by the Sultan of Ahmad- 
 nagar. The Lodi was pursued, and died fighting in Bundelk- 
 hand, 28th Jan., 1631. The Emperor resolved to make an ex- 
 ample of Ahmadnagar ; and the Sultan of Bijapur who had 
 long been in alliance with his neighbour was included in 
 the sentence. The Emperor moved down to Burhanpur, and 
 a decisive campaign seemed at hand, when all public cares for 
 a moment ceased at the sudden decease of the Emperor's 
 
 * It seems from the narrative of the Spanish friar Manrique that ladies 
 joined in these pleasures unveiled. 
 
 L
 
 I 4 6 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 loved wife, the mother of all his children. Then the Emperor 
 determined to take the dear remains to Agra, where they were 
 interred in a favourite garden on the Jumna side, while a mau- 
 soleum was being erected, which, after the lapse of centuries, 
 still attracts the admiration of the world.* In 1635 the Dec- 
 can campaign was renewed, though without definite results, 
 but Ahmadnagar was finally taken and annexed in 1637, 
 Kandahar was surrendered to the Mughals the same year ; it 
 was soon to prove a most fatal gift. In 1639 the Ravi Canal 
 was begun, to take water to Lahore; this has been already 
 mentioned (CHAPTER i.) as one of the works which have 
 been restored and extended by the British Government. 
 
 On the loth Nov., 1643, tne premier, Asaf Khan, died at 
 Lahore in his seventy-second year; he was immensely rich, and 
 the palace which he built, and in which he breathed his last, 
 cost two millions of rupees. In the same year Sultan Aurangzeb, 
 the Emperor's youngest son, asked permission to retire from 
 the world ; but his father dissuaded him. Whether the desire for 
 retirement was insincere, or was the product of a passing cloud, 
 it would have been better both for the Emperor and his realm 
 if the Prince could have been taken at his word. But he was 
 at the same time transferred from the Government of the Dec- 
 can to that of Gujarat. An invasion of Balkh was attempted, 
 and led to three campaigns against the Uzbegs, who had in- 
 truded on that region ; on the third occasion, 1646, Aurangzeb 
 commanded, but was driven across the Hindu-Kush, and lost 
 almost the whole of his army in 1647. Next year Kandahar 
 was re-occupied by Persia, and was never again subdued to 
 the Indian Empire until late in the igth century, though thrice 
 besieged by the armies of Shah Jahan. The year 1648 saw 
 the completion of new Delhi, or Shajahanabad, which had 
 
 * The lady's titles were Arzumand Banu Begam, Miuntaz-i-Mahal ; 
 and from the latter words her tomb is vulgarly known as the " Taj 
 Mahal."
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 147 
 
 been ten years building. The Emperor caused his palace then 
 to be supplied with water from an artificial channel, now com- 
 pleted by the British under the name of " Eastern Jumna 
 Canal." In 1654 the revenue system of Akbar was extended 
 into the newly-acquired provinces, south of the Narbada; and 
 Aurangzeb was sent with an army to extend and consolidate 
 the power of the empire in that quarter. The last vestige of 
 the Nizam Shahi dynasty had disappeared in 1637. Then the 
 kingdom had been formed into the Subah, or province, of Auran- 
 gabad. Nevertheless the kingdoms of Golkonda and of Bijapur 
 still maintained a desperate defence; the former under the Kutb 
 Shahi King, Abdulla, admirably served by an able adventurer, 
 M.ir Jumla ; and the latter defended by the genms_of an. Hindu 
 officer, Shahji Bhonsla, to be hereafter known as the projeni^ 
 tor ofjgjvaji, the still more celebrated Mahratta leader of the 
 next reign, and founder of the Mahratta state. The Sultan of 
 Golkonda having quarrelled with Mir Jumla, was haughtily 
 directed by the Emperor to restore that minister, who had re- 
 paired to the imperial camp, and on his very natural refusal 
 was attacked by an army under Aurangzeb in 1654. Golkonda 
 was taken and occupied before help could arrive from Bijapur ; 
 for the present the Sultan was allowed to become tributary; 
 and Aurangzeb next turned his armies against the kingdoms 
 of Bidar and Bijapur in 1656. But before their conquest 
 could be completed, events occurred in Hindustan which not 
 only threw the Empire into confusion for the moment, but pre- 
 pared for its ultimate destruction. 
 
 [To authorities cited in the former section add: the "Itiner- 
 ario" of Fra Sebastian Manrique, Rome 1653; v - extract given 
 in "The Turks in India," London, 1879. 
 
 NOTE. The following figures regarding the land revenue of 
 the Empire during the period under review, have been taken 
 from the best contemporary authorities. 
 
 AKBAR : about ten krors (one hundred millions of rupees). 
 
 L 2
 
 148 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 JAHANGIR : about twelve krors^ rising to seventeen at the 
 end of the reign (Coryat and the Bddshdhndnui). 
 
 SHAH JAHAN : from seventeen krors to about twenty-two in 
 1647. (Badshdhndma^) 
 
 Some modern writers have adopted higher estimates, im- 
 probable in themselves, and supported chiefly by conjecture.] 
 
 SECTION 3. While the Empire was in this condition, an 
 element was arising which was to change the fortunes of the 
 whole Peninsula. 
 
 Five years after that (1492), in which Columbus set sail for 
 the west to look for India and to discover America, the Portu- 
 guese admiral, Vasco de Garna, went forth in the opposite 
 direction. Doubling the southern point of Africa, the intrepid 
 navigator made his way to the Malabar coast. From 1498 to 
 1513 Gama and his followers were engaged in hostilities with 
 the local chief, entitled Samuri, or "Zamorin;" their great 
 leader, Albuquerque having been repulsed in 1510 with great 
 loss after a momentary "success, in which the Portuguese had 
 done a considerable amount of mischief. In spite of that re- 
 pulse they returned three years later, when the Zamorin thought 
 it be?t to make peace ; and the Europeans were allowed to 
 found a factory. For many years afterwards Calicut afforded 
 a foothold to the Portuguese, from which they proceeded to 
 make further settlements ; also to establish a monopoly of the 
 trade in Indian spices and piece goods, and to ruin the over- 
 land commerce hitherto carried on by the Venetians. But 
 Calicut was in itself too far to the South to form a complete 
 outlet for the produce of the Deccan, being 566 miles below 
 Bombay ; and Albuquerque, in the very crisis of the war, at- 
 tacked a more important and in every way suitable place about 
 halfway up the coast. This was Goa, in the kingdom of 
 Bijapur, which he captured lyth Feb., 1510. Recaptured in 
 August of the same year by the Adil Shahi Sultan, it was once 
 more taken by Albuquerque, 25111 Nov., and has ever since
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 149 
 
 continued subject to the kingdom of Portugal except during 
 
 the short period when that country itself was subject to Spain. A 
 
 splendid city arose, adorned with enormous masses of masonry 
 
 in the shape of churches and convents. Goa became the 
 
 metropolitan see of the Catholic Church in India, and the 
 
 base of proselytising operations which extended to Agra and 
 
 to Pekin. In the territory around about sixty miles long 
 
 by forty miles extreme breadth the people were found to be 
 
 distributed amongst a number of self-governing communities, 
 
 whose privileges were respected by the conquerors. The hills 
 
 abounded in forest trees ; the plains produced cocoanuts and 
 
 rice ; the harbour was wide and well-sheltered ; and for about 
 
 a hundred years the settlement enjoyed great prosperity and 
 
 splendour. In 1537 it became the base of further extension ; 
 
 in that year was founded the port of Hugli ; near the old city 
 
 of Satgaon, which had once been one of the chief towns of 
 
 Bengal, but was now ruined by the change in the course of 
 
 the river. Here also the European settlement prospered for a 
 
 long time, though the place never attained the magnitude of 
 
 Goa. When Shah Jahan. flying before the persecutions of his 
 
 step-mother, took refuge in the Gangetic province ([624), he 
 
 solicited assistance from the governor of Hugli ; but he was 
 
 refused with contumely, and never forgot the insult. After his 
 
 accession he is said to have received further provocation,* but 
 
 the facts are somewhat obscure. All that is certain is that in 
 
 1631 Hugli was besieged for fourteen weeks by a great 
 
 imperial army. The year was dry, and there was not enough 
 
 water in the river to allow the Portuguese to employ their ships 
 
 in the defence of the town. A great portion of the curtain was 
 
 mined and exploded, and the Mughals stormed the breach 
 
 and captured the place which the Portuguese never regained. 
 
 At the same time a second European State was acquiring 
 
 * v. " Turks in India," p. 121 (some chapters of an anecdotal character, 
 ]>y the writer of the present history). London, 1879.
 
 150 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 power in the East, and displacing the Portuguese in every part 
 of India. This was the Dutch Republic, which, from the time of 
 the temporary union of the Peninsula under Philip II., never 
 ceased to make war on Portuguese commerce. Linschoten 
 whose voyages and maps were published towards the end of 
 the 1 6th century was for thirteen years in the service of the 
 Archbishop of Goa, and availed himself of the local knowledge 
 so procured to stimulate the ambition of his countrymen. On 
 the last day of that century a third power appeared chiefly 
 desirous of trade in the form of the English "East Indian Com- 
 pany," destined to found a new Indian Empire. The first 
 capital of the company was only ^"72,000, but the undertaking 
 alarmed the Hollanders who copied it two years later, with a 
 stock eight times as large as that of the English. By the year 
 1605 the Dutch Company had sent out three trade fleets, and 
 had established factories on the coast of Malabar, and founded 
 the city of Batavia in the Island of Java. On the mainland of 
 India the Dutch had several factories during the i;th century, 
 of which the most important were Cannanore, south of Goa ; 
 and Chinsura, near Hugli. They contested the commercial 
 power of Portugal with success, and waged a long and 
 obstinate strife with the English down to the time when their 
 Stadtholder became King of our islands (1689). Then their 
 Indian affairs became stationary, till the taking of Chinsura by 
 Clive, after the decisive battle of Biderra. There are now not 
 a hundred Hollanders in all India. 
 
 The Dutch contribution to Indian history is their having 
 weakened the Portuguese when the latter were already sinking 
 under the effects of their own corruption. The place of the 
 vanquished was not, however, to be taken by their conquerors. 
 When the grasping policy of the Republic had expelled the 
 agents of the London Company from the Spice-islands, the 
 latter at once fell back upon the mainland : an event of which 
 the promise and significance could not then have been per-
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 15 f 
 
 ceived. The first English factory at Surat, near the mouth of 
 the Tapti, was ceded by the Mughal governor of Gujarat in 
 1612 ; and soon afterwards a charter was obtained from the 
 Emperor Jahangir. In 1618 a further grant of privileges was 
 made by the same monarch to Sir Thomas Roe, whose em- 
 bassy was mentioned in the last section ; and a populous and 
 wealthy city arose, with a good anchorage known as "Swally 
 Roads." Caravans from the great cities of the interior were 
 constantly coming to Surat, which was also a place of embarka- 
 tion for Muslim pilgrims proceeding to Mecca : sea-borne 
 trade was carried on with Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Ceylon, 
 Sumatra, and Europe ; indigo and textile fabrics, in silk and 
 cotton, formed the chief articles of export. The Portuguese 
 opposed the settlement in its infant days; and in 1615 the 
 East India Company's squadron was attacked in Swally Roads 
 by a strong Portuguese fleet, but the assailants were beaten off: 
 an affair which redounded to the credit of the British, while it 
 lowered the prestige of the Portuguese. The English soon got 
 a factory at Ajmere, under imperial patronage, and must even 
 have had agents at Agra, to judge by the evidence of grave- 
 stones in the Protestant cemetery there. In 1622 the English 
 got possession of a Portuguese factory on the Persian Gulf, 
 and opened an agency at Masulipatam, on the coast of the 
 Eastern Deccan. In 1639 they founded Fort S. George at 
 Madras, on a piece of land acquired from a Paligar, or native 
 chief, descended from the unfortunate Ram Raja of Bijainagar. 
 A patent was obtained from Shah Jahan, authorising the British 
 to trade with Pipli, a place in Orissa, of which the very ruins 
 have perished. Five years later the English obtained further 
 favour for their Bengal settlement from the same Emperor, 
 through the skill and public spirit of one of .their medical 
 officers named Boughton. One result was the foundation of 
 an English factory on the deserted site of the Portuguese set- 
 tlement of Hugli. about Bengal. In 1661 King Charles II. of
 
 152 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 England marrying the Infanta of Portugal, obtained the island 
 of Bombay from the government of Lisbon as a portion of her 
 dowry; the population was estimated at 10,000 souls, and the 
 yearly revenue at a sum equivalent to ,6,500. The indolent 
 monarch took no interest in a possession so far off, and so little 
 lucrative, and in 1668 he transferred it to the Company for a 
 trifling quit-rent. Unwholesome and ill-defended as it was, 
 there must have been even then conveniences attaching to 
 Bombay, perhaps by reason of the harbour ; for the chief fac- 
 tory on that side of India was transferred there from Surat in 
 the course of the next few years. But these events belong to a 
 somewhat later period than that which we are now contem- 
 plating. 
 
 During the reign of Shah Jahan India began to attract the 
 notice of the French government, and several distinguished 
 travellers from France and Italy visited the country. One of 
 the earliest was Fran9ois Bernier, who went to India as agent 
 to the famous minister Colbert in 1654. Colbert, a disciple of 
 the astute Cardinal Mazarin, gave great attention to the 
 maritime interests of his country ; and, in corresponding with 
 his powerful employer, Bernier gathered the materials for his 
 famous history of the Revolutions of the Mughal Empire, pub- 
 lished at Paris in 1670-1, to which we owe much private mat- 
 ter in regard to the events to be related in the following 
 chapter. Another lively French traveller, though inferior in 
 literary charm to Bernier, was the Baron Ta vernier d'Aubonne, 
 ^an engraver and a connoisseur of jewels, who travelled in India 
 between the years 165^ and 1669; also, an Italian physician 
 named Manucci, who "was in the household of Shah Jahan, left 
 some interesting papers, which were somewhat boldly " edited " 
 by Father Catrou, a French Jesuit. The report of the Spanish 
 missionary, Manrique, has been already cited. 
 
 From these authors we derive a knowledge of the relations 
 of Shah Jahan towards Europeans in India, which we could not
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 153 
 
 have obtained from the proud and exclusive Muslim chroni- 
 clers. The wise liberality of Akbar had led to the foreign 
 visitors receiving respectful mention from his friend and 
 biographer, Abul Fazl ; and in the narrative of Roe we 
 find that Europeans were civilly treated by the indolent 
 and self-indulgent Jahangir. Under Shah Jahan a change 
 took place. The Emperor did not exactly persecute Chris- 
 tians as such, but, for reasons already noted, he was per- 
 sonally hostile to the Portuguese. When Hugli fell in 1631 
 the Mughal general, Kasim Khan, not only levelled the fortifi- 
 cations, but destroyed the churches, and sent the priests and 
 women of the Portuguese as prisoners to Agra, where the Court 
 then was. They underwent great hardships on the march, 
 and when they reached Agra the women were made slaves, 
 and the men were put into close confinement. But this was 
 intended as a special punishment for being subjects of Por- 
 tugal ; for an Italian architect, Geronimo Veronneo, who was 
 then in the Emperor's service, preserved the lives of some of 
 the priests, though two of them, at least, sank under their 
 sufferings ; and some years later Manrique was enabled to cause 
 the liberation of the survivors by favour of Asaf Khan. Nor 
 did the work of persecution stop here. While employing 
 Verroneo and Manucci the former of whom designed the 
 famous " Taj," the mausoleum of the Empress Shah Jahan des- 
 troyed the steeple of a fine church which the Christians had 
 been allowed to build in the previous reign, and silenced the 
 bell which used to be audible all over the town. In a word 
 the Portuguese underwent what Bernier was assured was "a 
 misery and desolation not to be paralleled ; a kind of Baby- 
 lonian captivity." But he adds that they had, by their piratical 
 proceedings in the bay of Bengal, brought discredit upon the 
 Christian name. " They are thus," adds the honest French- 
 man, " become a prey to their enemies, and fallen so low in the 
 Indies, that I doubt if they will ever recover there; whereas
 
 154 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 formerly, before they had been corrupted by vice, they made 
 all others tremble in those parts." It is also to be noticed that, 
 although the Portuguese were more fortunate in maintaining 
 their possessions in the neighbourhood of Goa, their conduct 
 there was not altogether such as to raise the character of Christ- 
 ianity in India. A great part in the early colonisation of both 
 Spain and Portugal was allotted to the propagation of the 
 Cross, and the name of S. Francis Xavier will be held in un- 
 perishing honour. But unhappily, the zeal of the Portuguese 
 missionaries was not always guided by discretion, and their 
 dependence on the secular arm involved them in the popular 
 hostility aroused by insolent and cruel proceedings towards the 
 natives on the part of the civil and military officers. Moreover, 
 not long after the death of Xavier, the Government of Lisbon 
 established a branch of the Inquisition at Goa, which was 
 worked by the Dominicans with characteristic and terrible 
 rigour. To all this must be added an almost incredible amount 
 of social corruption, among both sexes, supported by enormous 
 and extravagant luxury during the prosperity of the settlement, 
 Hence we must conclude that Europeans, in the time of Shah 
 Jahan, presented themselves to the people of India in very 
 varied aspects. Learned and skilful artists and savants were 
 duly honoured and employed. Veronneo, the Italian architect, 
 has been already named, and such was the confidence reposed 
 in him that the Emperor gave him a credit of no less than three 
 krors of rupees considerably over a tenth of the yearly revenues 
 of the Empire for one building alone. A Frenchman, named 
 Austin de Bordeaux, was employed to inlay the walls of tombs 
 SfltF'paTaces with precious stones, and in spite of the Muslim 
 prejudice against the representation of living forms was per- 
 mitted to affix his own portrait, as Orpheus taming the beasts, 
 in the very throne-room of Delhi.* The missionaries who died 
 
 * This work was only removed when Delhi was taken in 1857 ; and it 
 is still to be seen in the Indian museum at South Kensington.*"
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. 155 
 
 at Agra were buried in handsome tombs, the inscriptions being 
 still extant in a special cemetery, which has continued in the 
 possession of their co-religionists to the present day. On the 
 other hand, for the turbulent, the combative, the aggressive, 
 there was no favour in a well-ordered Empire ; though quiet 
 traders as the English then were pursued their operations 
 unmolested, and were even treated with favour. When Man- 
 rique visited the Premier, Asaf Khan, about the liberation of 
 the Portuguese priests imprisoned at Agra, he was received 
 with generous courtesy ; his requests were granted, and he was 
 admitted to court celebrations, and even invited to a dinner- 
 party, where he met the Emperor, and many members of the 
 Imperial family, female as well as male. 
 
 Of the general character of Shah JahajVf nrtministratinn thp 
 Europeans of those days give a favourable view. Thus Taver- 
 nier declares that the Emperor " reigned not so much as a 
 king over his subjects, but rather as a father over his family." , 
 And elsewhere he speaks of him as a great ruler, "during 
 whose reign there was such a strictness in the civil government 
 and particularly for the security of the highways that there t 
 was never any occasion to put a man to death as a robber." 
 
 If we contrast this with the account given by Roe of the 
 preceding reign, or with the state of European countries at the 
 same, or even at a later, period, we must admit that the picture 
 of the condition of Hindustan is very much to the credit of 
 the Emperor Shah Jahan. 
 
 At the moment to which we were brought by the narrative 
 in the last section, the stability of his realm appeared still un- 
 broken, and the sky of his prosperity without a cloud. Manucci, 
 the Italian physician who was then about the court at Agra 
 tells us that the Emperor was then about sixty years of age, 
 fond of social pleasure, but of refined tastes and dignified 
 demeanour. The imperial family were in seeming harmony 
 and subordination, consisting of four sons and two daughters,
 
 156 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 all the offspring of the deceased Empress. The eldest, Dara, 
 was a man of the school of his ancestor Akbar, accomplished 
 J and liberal, a friend to the Hindus and a liberal patron of 
 ( Europeans, men of both classes being in his service ; many 
 Rajputs heiagJnjTissiiite_besides a number of Christian engi- 
 / nejenand artillery officers, and three priests, viz., a Neapolitan 
 named Malpica, a Portuguese named Juxarte, and Henri Buze, 
 j a Flemish father, who is mentioned by Bernier as having a 
 "7 strong influence over the Prince's mind : of the other Princes, 
 two were Shuja and Murad, soldiers of a ruder stamp, devoted 
 to the pleasures of their age and station. But we have already 
 had some glimpse of Aurangzeb, the youngest ; not a uniformly 
 successful leader, but brave and calculating; who professed 
 devotion to the strictest form of Sunni orthodoxy, whne_his_regl 
 devotion was to his own worldly interests. Of the two Prin- 
 cesses the elder was Jahanara the Badshah-Begam, or Prin- 
 cess-Royal very beautiful and accomplished, and warmly 
 attached to her brother Dara; the younger, Raushanara, was 
 the vigilant guardian of the interests of Aurangzeb, then 
 absent with the army of the Deccan. On the gth April, 1656^ 
 the Emperor had the misfortune to lose by death his prime 
 minister, Allami^Sad T.TLlnh,-the most upright man in the 
 Empire ; and from this time affairs began to go wrong. 
 Exactly a twelvemonth later died AIJ^ Majdan Khan, an able 
 Persian noble, who had long served the Emperor in peace and 
 war, and whose loss was much lamented by him. In August 
 of the same year 1657 the Emperor became dangerously 
 ill, and Sultan Dara assumed authority as Regent. Unfortu- 
 nately the manners of this Prince were not on a level with his 
 accomplishments ; and he gave offence, not only by the latitude 
 of his opinions, but also by arrogant ways, which offended the 
 more worldly chiefs and courtiers. Anticipations of the 
 Emperor's death did not conciliate regard or obedience to his 
 representative and probable successor. Aurangzeb was treated
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; /. 157 
 
 with suspicion, attempts being made to weaken his position 
 and influence in the Deccan, but he kept his temper, and 
 marched slowly towards Agra in an undeclared attitude, 
 leaving his brothers Shuja and Murad to bear the brunt of 
 open opposition. Raja Jai Singh, of Amber, was sent by Dara 
 to suppress the rising of Sultan Shuja, whom he completely 
 defeated and put to flight. Shuja took refuge in the eastern 
 provinces, of which he was Viceroy. Another Hindu General, 
 Raja Jaswant Singh, was deputed to oppose Sultan Murad; 
 but Aurang/eb now declared himself as a foe to the govern- 
 ment of his elder brother ; espousing the cause of Murad, in 
 conjunction with whom he inflicted a defeat upon the Raja at 
 Ujain ; helped, as was believed, by the treachery of a Muslim 
 noble who held a high post in the imperialist army. Jaswant 
 Singh retired upon the fastnesses of Marwar, and the brothers 
 continued their advance upon Agra. Dara drew out his forces 
 at Samoghar, a march south of the place, and was defeated, 
 after an obstinate struggle, in May, 1658; he then fled to the 
 Punjab ; and Aurangzeb took possession of his father's palace 
 and person. From that moment the reign of Shah Jahan was 
 virtually at an end. After some hypocritical professions 
 Aurangzeb deposed his father and made him and the Crown 
 Princess close prisoners. The ex-Emperor lived for nearly 
 eight years longer, tended to the last by his elder daughter ; 
 and died in December, 1666^ in the apartments still shown as 
 his in the fortified palace at Agra. He was buried by the side 
 of his wife in " the Taj." His age was 74. 
 
 Aurangzeb soon undeceived the careless soldier, Sultan 
 Murad, in whose interests he had pretended to act. Surprised 
 in a moment of conviviality, Murad was conveyed under close 
 arrest to Gwalior, where he was afterwards put to death for 
 attempting to escape. Aurangzeb was crowned at Delhi, zoth 
 August, 1659, by the title of Alamgir (" World-seizer "), and in 
 the following month the ill-starred Dara was brought captive to
 
 158 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the same place. He was decapitated in prison, Father Buze 
 attending his last moments. 
 
 This was the apparent climacteric of the dynasty. The 
 territory directly ruled by the imperial government was 
 bounded on the north by the Uzbeg dominions in Transoxi- 
 ana still represented by the Khanates of Khiva and Bok- 
 hara -on the South by the present confines of the Madras and 
 Bombay Presidencies, with indirect power up to the Krishna 
 and Tungabhadra rivers, and stretching from Puri in Orissa to 
 Somnath in Gujarat. From the testimony of native writers, 
 confirmed by Bernier, it may be safely concluded that the 
 yearly revenue at the accession of Alamgir was about twenty- 
 four krors, of which about two-thirds were paid by the land ; 
 and the crown had a fluctuating income of its own besides, 
 namely, what came from benevolences, escheats, and fines. 
 The good financial measures of Shah Jahan have been already 
 glanced at. His life was sumptuous ; he constructed a throne 
 at Delhi which Tavernier an expert in jewellery appraised 
 to be worth over 160,000,000 of French livres* in which the 
 Baron counted 108 rubies and 160 emeralds ; embroidery of 
 pearls and small diamonds hung from the edges of the canopy, 
 a diamond of more than eighty carats hung from the top. The 
 tomb of his wife was estimated by the Emperor's own order 
 to cost not less than three krors of rupees, say, about two and a 
 quarter millions of modern Rs.x. He built marble mos- 
 ques, and halls inlaid with precious stones, at Agra and Delhi^ 
 diiy; two new canals, besides repairing the canal of Firu/. Shah 
 Tughlak ; and after all this expenditure left a reserve of coin 
 and bullion which, without precious stones, was valued by the 
 cautious Bernier at 24,000,000 of modern money. Nor had 
 this surplus been obtained at the cost of undue exaction from the 
 
 * The livre tottrnois of those days was worth alx)ut. fifteen pence, and 
 three livres /oiernois=t\vo rupees. This was the famous " Peacock-throne,'' 
 despoiled by Nadir Shah about 100 years later.
 
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE; I. _ 159 
 
 people. We have seen what Tavernier thoughtf of Shah Jahan's 
 paternal rule. Betftier, who knew European countries, and who 
 had travelled in Persia, testifies to the superior size of the Indian 
 cities, the general cultivation of the land, and the efficiency / 
 of the police in the reign of $ha"h Jahan ; nor was any sign of 
 decay apparent when the new reign began. Apart from the 
 criminal methods that the new ruler had adopted in obtaining 
 the Peacock-throne and all that it commanded, the omens 
 were not unfavourable. The Emperor Alamgir was an excep- 
 tional man, with very little of the Mughal either in character 
 or in blood. For the first years of his reign he mainly left 
 public affairs to the tracks in which they had long been wont 
 to run. According to the testimony of Manucci, the adminis- N 
 tration of justice was much cared for; and, although the bulk of I 
 a community may be fortunate enough to keep out of the law 
 courts, yet there is no Eastern country in which the substitution 
 of the King's jurisdiction for civil disorder is not a potent test 
 of good government, 
 
 " Nothing," says the Italian doctor, " can possibly be more 
 uniform than the judicial administration in the States of ' the 
 Mogul.' The Viceroys, presidents of districts, chiefs of towns, 
 all perform, in their respective spheres, the same part as that 
 of their chief at Delhi, subject always to the imperial control." \ 
 Powers of life and death were vested, he adds, in the heads of 
 the local governors ; nevertheless there were, in each province, i 
 newswriters appointed for the purpose of transmitting reports / 
 to headquarters. " Such," concludes Manucci, "are the insti- 
 tutions of this great empire ; a state of things in which 
 barbarism is so tempered by equity as to render the govern- 
 ment of the Mughal empire little behind that of any other 
 nation." Bernier, who was a great traveller, and who willingly 
 exposed and criticised evils which he saw on his wanderings, 
 yet finishes his work with, these words : 
 
 " Those who will a little weigh my whole story will not take
 
 160 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 | 
 
 Aurangzeb for a barbarian, but for a rare genius, a great states- 
 man and a great King." 
 
 Such was the appearance of things in the first years of the 
 reign of Aurangzeb, or as he should henceforth be known to 
 us the Emperor Alamgir I. Nevertheless, whatever was to 
 be the future destiny of India, it must have been apparent, to 
 those who could see below the surface, that a new departure 
 was at hand. The House of Taimur, or of Chaghtai as it was 
 sometimes called (after one of the sons of Changhez Khan), 
 usually produced easy-going warriors of liberal minds and 
 jovial habits, fierce enough in actual war but kindly in cooler 
 blood, and much addicted to conviviality. Alamgir had none 
 of this, but, it might seem, more of the Hindu character, averse 
 to bloodshed but ruthless in the pursuit of an absorbing pur- 
 pose ; jealous, suspicious, and of an indefatigable turn for 
 details. The means by which he gained his power were some- 
 what nefarious, yet hardly old-fashioned in the Western world 
 of his day. As soon as he thought his power consolidated 
 he manifested a devotion to duty, as he conceived it, which 
 only needed the aureole of success to make it glorious. In 
 the next chapter we shall see some of the circumstances which 
 made success impossible. 
 
 [See list of authorities for last two sections. An account of 
 Famine Relief in .1662 will be found in the Report of the 
 British Commissioners, Allahabad, 1868. For information as 
 to the first appearance of the European element, see Bird- 
 wood's Report on Old Records, 1891].
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 Section i : Decline of the Empire. Section 2 : The rise of the Mahratta 
 Confederacy, and of the English Company in India. Section 3 : The 
 development of those powers. 
 
 SECTION I. The abundant materials provided for the history 
 of the reign of Shah-Jahan fail soon after the accession of his 
 son. Bernier, Tavernier, and Manucci, all left India about the 
 same time, and no European observer of the same skill and 
 industry arose to take their place. The records of contemporary 
 Muslim observers were suppressed by the policy of the new 
 Emperor who disliked and forbade this recourse to the bar 
 of public opinion : Khafi Khan, one of the best of Indian 
 historians had to take his notes in secret,* and reserve the 
 publication of his record till a more liberal era. It is, at the 
 same time, clear that this historian, a most able and conscien- 
 tious writer, was far from judging the Emperor as he has been 
 since judged by European writers. 
 
 Khafi Khan attributes much of Alamgir's ill-success to the 
 gentleness of his disposition and his religious convictions. He 
 notices, especially, that, in the 2nd year of his reign, the 
 Emperor remitted many items of separate revenue the octroi 
 in towns among them. But, by reason of the impunity attend- 
 ing on disobedience, the orders were generally disregarded by 
 local authorities ; who pretended, indeed, to obey, but kept up 
 the forbidden imposts for their own benefit. Thus, as he 
 
 * Khafi Khan is n. pen-name equivalent to " Mr. Secret " ; and was 
 probably assumed purposely with that significance. 
 
 M
 
 162 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 assures us, " the order abolishing most of these imposts had 
 no effect." The transit-duties, in particular, became so heavy 
 that the price of goods often doubled between departure from 
 the port or factory where they were issued and arrival at the 
 market to which they had been consigned. 
 
 Apart from this writer's personal testimony it is difficult to 
 get a clear notion of the period under notice. Whether from 
 an affectation of humility or for some other reason which has 
 not been explained, Alamgir had the strongest objection to the 
 history of his reign being written ; insomuch that Khan Khan 
 has to confess that, after the tenth year, materials were collected 
 only with the utmost difficulty. Moreover, the provinces north 
 of the Narbada which formed the Empire of Hindustan 
 Proper had been so completely pacified and settled by his 
 predecessors that there was but little occasion for historical 
 record : until towards the end of the period the people of 
 Hindustan were in the happy condition of those whose annals 
 are a blank. And indeed, the events in the south, where the 
 most eventful part of Alamgir's reign was passed, present little 
 of agreeable interest. The story is one of monotonous and 
 vain struggle against a destiny prepared at once by the 
 Emperor's qualities and by his defects. The ambition which 
 led him to usurp the throne, and the attachment to Islam which 
 urged him to exertion, were causes which gave him a certain 
 glory, as the head of the Muslim empire, while yet they com- 
 bined to make him the beginner of its ruin. 
 
 Necessarily, therefore, the period is dull and depressing ; one 
 barren of great ideas, great transactions, and great men. This 
 much is clear, in the dearth of ordered information. The 
 Emperor began well enough. He had a large civil and military 
 machinery and an ample revenue : good subordinates bred by 
 years of administrative experience on sound principles : with 
 a contented and submissive people. Competition rapidly dis- 
 appeared : Dara was executed, as a heretic ; Shtija, chased out
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 163 
 
 of Bengal, perished obscurely in Arakan where he had taken 
 refuge; the two sons of Dara died like their uncle Murad 
 in arrest at Gwalior. The year t66i opened on a sovereignty 
 which none appeared to dispute. The Emperor sought a 
 means of strengthening his position by pardoning Raja Jaswant 
 Singh, of Marwar (now Jodhpur), who had valiantly espoused 
 the cause of the late Sultan Dara so long as that cause survived. 
 He also instituted energetic measures of famine relief to meet 
 the effects of a great drought which was afflicting Hindustan. 
 He gave further indications of preserving the wise and humane 
 policy of his house by marrying his eldest son, Sultan Muazzam 
 to the daughter of a Hindu Raja. 
 
 There was, however, one source of trouble from the Hindus 
 just coming into notice; one, apparently of no great importance, 
 yet which it would be well to strangle in birth. This was from 
 an obscure tribe in the eastern Deccan, where the Yadavas 
 had once held sway, from Deogiri, over the land commanded 
 by the western Ghats. The chief place was now Ahmad- 
 nagar, which had been incorporated in the empire; and some of 
 the adventurous spirits of Maharashtra had for some time sought 
 a career further south, under the Adil-Shahi princes of Bijapur 
 Yusuf Shah, who founded that dynasty, is said to have em- 
 ployed a chief of this race before the end of the i5th century ; 
 and in another forty years their employment had become 
 so general at Bijapur that their language had to be adopted 
 as the official medium of public accounts at head quarters. 
 
 In the reign of Jahangir one of their chiefs, whose 
 name indicated a claim to Yadava ancestry, had given his 
 daughter to the head of an immigrant family, Shahji Bhonsla, 
 who had risen to notice under Malik Ambar the Abyssinian 
 champion of the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar in its 
 last struggles. In 1636 the Bijapur ruler made peace with the 
 Shah Jahan, and about the same time was joined by Shahji 
 Bhonsla, who had become rich and powerful as a leader of 
 
 M 2
 
 164 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 partizan horse. His Yadava wife had borne him a son. whom 
 he named Sivaji, brought up to arms and adminstration, and, 
 on his attaining maturity, got appointed to the charge of Poona 
 district. He soon began to withhold tribute, and seize and 
 strengthen commanding elevations on the mountains. The con- 
 nivance of the father Shahji seems more than doubtful, since it 
 was often to himself that was due the money embezzled by his 
 son : but this was not observed by the authorities at Bijapur 
 who accordingly put Shahji under arrest, and announced their 
 intention of holding him as a hostage for his son's behaviour. 
 The latter kept quiet until, by intercession from Shah Jahan, 
 his father's release was obtained : then Sivaji resumed his self- 
 aggrandising operations, and stood forth as the declared enemy 
 of the Bijapur government. At the beginning of Alamgir's 
 reign he obtained terms from that State which left him in 
 control of the Poona district, and an army of nearly 60,000 
 followers. He next began to forage and plunder in the im- 
 perial dominions near Aurangabad. 
 
 While far from forseeing all that Sivaji would grow to, the 
 Emperor had seen enough of the freebooter when command- 
 ing in the Deccan for his father Shah-Jehan to feel that he 
 would be a danger to public order. He therefore sent his 
 mother's brother, Nawab Shayista Khan, with what appeared 
 an adequate force, for Sivaji's immediate suppression. The 
 Nawab was brother to the late Minister Asaf Khan, and 
 to the wife of Shah Jahan whose tomb is at " The Taj " ; a 
 typical Persian, grave and politic : he led a well-appointed 
 Mughal army out of Aurangabad, at first with good omens. 
 But confidence begets carelessness ; and the stately nobleman 
 soon met with a reverse which not only entailed defeat but 
 covered him with ridicule ; on which he was recalled from the 
 Deccan and relegated by his nephew to the Government of 
 Bengal, where, he fought the Portuguese pirates and conquered 
 Chittagong and part of Burma. The vacant command was
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 165 
 
 divided between the Hindu Rajas, Jai Sinh (of Amber) and 
 Jaswant (of Marwar). They were so far successful that they 
 persuaded Sivaji to surrender and appear at court. He 
 arrived at a moment when the glory and urbanity of Shah- 
 Jahan's ceremonial were already waning. An edict for 
 remitting the minor assessed taxes and customs levied in the 
 last reign had been issued, and the Emperor affected the most 
 rigid economy : in his own person and household he gave 
 example of an almost ascetic frugality, professing to find his 
 own subsistence by the sale of embroidered skull-caps. 
 
 In such an atmosphere the quondam outlaw found nothing 
 that could please. To a man, in the prime of life, accustomed 
 to command every one around him, living in the sea-breeze and 
 the free air of the wooded mountains, there was no compensa- 
 tion in a life of ceremony at Delhi, from which splendour and 
 pleasure had been alike banished, and where he was treated 
 with no consideration. Sivaji left the city in disguise, and 
 never again trusted himself among the weariful solemnities of 
 Mughal civilisation. These events occurred 1664-5. 
 
 The next year witnessed another important change. Raja 
 Jai Sinh dying at his post, Sultan Muazzam was appointed, 
 with Jaswant Sinh as his military tutor and virtual commander 
 of the army, Viceroy of the Deccan. About this time Sivaji 
 heard of the death of his father, whereupon he assumed the 
 title of " Raja," and began to coin money in his own name. 
 He also attempted the formation of a navy, which became 
 ultimately a school of pirates. 
 
 In the last month of the year 1666 the ex-Emperor Shah Jahan 
 died, as already mentioned, and Alamgir seemed to have 
 reached his highest point of success. But from that very period 
 his bad fortunes dated. A weak-minded system of concession 
 to Sivaji in the Deccan led to the imposition of a species of 
 blackmail on Bijapur and Golkonda, by which the freebooter 
 laid the foundation of the Mahratta tribute or blackmail,
 
 1 66 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 which afterwards became so widely spread under the name of 
 " Chaut." The Emperor's next mistake was to close the 
 balcony in which his predecessors had been wont to show 
 themselves to all classes : henceforth, the only knowledge the 
 bulk of his subjects could have of his existence was derived 
 from increasing taxation, or other edict, for which they might 
 hold him responsible. One of the injudicious ordinances of 
 this period was one imposing a five per cent, rating on the 
 commercial transactions of Hindus, while those of the 
 Emperor's co-religionists were only to pay half that rating. 
 Such distinctions are keenly felt in India. 
 
 A general alienation between the government and the 
 Hindus marks the year 1679, further provoked by illiberal 
 fanaticism. Upon vain pretence the Emperor ordered the 
 demolition of their temples at Multan, at Muttra, and at the 
 specially sacred centre of Hinduism, Benares. It is at least a 
 coincidence that the three holiest rivers of the popular faith 
 were thus polluted at once; the Indus, celebrated in the Veda; 
 the Jumna, hallowed by the Krishna legend ; and the thrice 
 '.. holy Ganges itself. The great temple of Keshav Rai at 
 Muttra was demolished, and a mosque erected on the site in 
 the early part of 1669.* The champions of the Hindus were 
 not slow to take up the challenge. In the neighbourhood of 
 Narnaol, in the cis-Sutlej, four thousand families had formed 
 an agricultural community under the name of Satndmis} 
 "Truth-famed" from a desire to be distinguished for veracity. 
 They bound themselves to abstain from unlawful means of 
 gain ; to cause no gratuitous injury ; and not to submit to 
 wrong. The scheme was meritorious, but its execution was to 
 _ lead the Satnamis to their ruin. In retaliation for some acts 
 
 * Maasir-i-Alamgiri. 
 
 t Elphinstone gives the name as '" Satnarami,'' which is quite meaning- 
 less. He gives the date of rising as 1676, but it began, probably some 
 years earlier-
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 167 
 
 of oppression by the local authorities, they occupied the town 
 of Narnaol, and, after expelling the royal officers, set up a 
 government of their own. They even dared to encounter 
 some of the forces of the state, routing the troops, and driving 
 them nearly to Delhi. The infection spread among the Hindu 
 yeomanry of the country, and the Emperor thought it right to 
 take the field in person. The rebels defended themselves with 
 much spirit, and were not finally put down for some time. 
 
 For the next few years no important events occurred in 
 Upper India. In the Deccan, Sivaji consolidated his power, 
 never ceasing the plunder of his neighbours, but constantly 
 improving the administration of his own country. He organised 
 his army, employing professional officers and disciplined 
 soldiers, paid in cash. In civil affairs he introduced reforms 
 tending to order and good government, so that the agricul- 
 turists could pursue their useful labours in security and confi- 
 dence. He ravaged Khandes and plundered Surat, where the 
 British retired to their factory, shut the gates, and ransomed 
 their own interests. Owing to the great and growing tendency 
 of the Emperor to suspect the motives of his subordinates, the 
 army was insufficiently manned, and the command divided. 
 In 1672 Sivaji for the first time closed with the Mughals in 
 battle, cutting up a strong detachment, and forcing the 
 imperialists to fall back on their head-quarters at Aurangabad 
 and assume a defensive attitude which was maintained for 
 some years. Meanwhile, the condition of Hindustan did not 
 improve. Raja Jaswant Sinh died at his post in the Kabul 
 country in 1678, and his family came down into Hindustan on 
 the way to their home at Jodhpur. The religious narrowness 
 of Alamgir prompted him to the step, alike forbidden by 
 prudence and honour, of seeking to intercept the convoy in 
 order that he might seize the young Rajas, and make Muslims 
 of them. The Emperor's men came up to the caravan near 
 Agra, and endeavoured to carry out their orders. The
 
 168 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Rajputs opposed them, and a few faithful retainers hurried off 
 the lads, while the remainder of the escort covered the retreat. 
 They fought until all were slain, but, by their act of devotion, 
 they had given time for the fugitives to gain in safety the road 
 to Jodhpur. 
 
 Alamgir was now passing the final stage of middle life, and 
 had reached a period when men seldom amend either in dispo- 
 sition of mind or in chances of good fortune. He had ranged 
 against his Empire two most dangerous foes ; in the Deccan a 
 united people, with an able and ambitious leader ; in Hindustan 
 the first stirrings of a Hindu revival, provoked by his own 
 oppressive conduct. Even a Babar or an Akbar might have 
 found it hard to stand alone against so many and such dis- 
 tracting perils, but none of the jovial Mughals of those days 
 would have got into such a position. To strike a hard blow 
 at Sivaji, and then make him their confidential servant, would 
 have been their policy in the Deccan ; to have shown impartial 
 and sympathetic countenance to all well-intentioned Rajputs 
 would have marked their management of Hindustan. But 
 Alamgir had never been the man for conciliation, being unable 
 to exercise any of his good qualities at the right time ; suspici- 
 ous when he should have trusted ; parsimonous where expend- 
 iture was required : severe when he would have done better to 
 show lenience ; and lenient when it was necessary to be severe. 
 
 About__i68o a further error was committed, partly due to 
 bigotry, but perhaps precipitated by want of money : namely, 
 the imposition of thefazia, or capitation-tax, on non-Muslims, 
 from which the Hindus had been exempt since the first part of 
 Akbar's reign. Disturbance became serious and wide ; the 
 Emperor's path was beset by protesting Brahmans ; shops 
 were closed in the very capital, so that the indispensable busi- 
 ness of life was almost suspended. The obstinate fanatic 
 caused the streets to be cleared by his war elephants ; many 
 lives were lost on the occasion, At the same time a pursur
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 169 
 
 vant was sent to Jodhpur to bring away the idols from temples 
 doomed to destruction. At Udaipur, in carrying out the like 
 order, twenty of the ministers of the gods were killed. Alto- 
 gether, nearly 300 Hindu shrines were thus destroyed in 
 Rajputana aloner About this time, moved by the sorrows of 
 his race, and yet regretting the danger that he saw coming on 
 the country, a Rajput chief about this time addressed the 
 Empire a spirited protest, of which a draft is said by Col. Tod 
 to have been seen by him at Udaipur : it is translated in a 
 work already cited.* The writer Rana Raj Sinh begins by 
 citing the Emperor's three immediate predecessors as having 
 built up the Empire by wise liberality by "clemency and 
 righteousness," as the writer puts it. He then draws a bitter 
 contrast with present doings, and pointedly asks the Emperor 
 whether he thinks that he will please the Creator by harassing 
 and destroying his creatures : "Do you then suppose that an 
 artist can be pleased by the spoiling of his works ? " 
 
 Nor was the Emperor able to preserve obedience in his own 
 family. Sultan Akbar, his fourth son, who had been employed 
 in the work of mischief, was so offended with his occupation, 
 and so moved by pity for the Rajputs that he went into open 
 rebellion. 
 
 About the middle of the year Alamgir had some compen- 
 sation in the news of the death of Sivaji, which took place at his 
 fortress of Raigarh 5-i6th June. He left a successor, his son, 
 Sambhaji, but he inherited the power only, not the talents of 
 his father. Akbar was expelled from Rajputana and joined 
 Sambha ; on the other hand, Sultan Muazzam, the heir- 
 apparent, effected a temporary reconciliation between his 
 father's government and the Rana of Udaipur, who agreed to 
 forget the persecution of his religion. But the Emperor could 
 not even then trust Muazzam. whose loyal conduct seems 
 never to have wavered. He sent Azam, his third son. to 
 * Tod's Rajasthan,
 
 170 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 conduct the operations against Akbar, and summoned 
 Muazzam to his presence to answer a charge of showing too 
 much kindness to his erring brother. 
 
 In 1682 Akbar was led to fear that the Rajputs would want 
 either inclination or power to support him, and he escaped to 
 the coasc with a handful of faithful .companions ; from 
 thence he got away by sea, landed in the Persian Gulf, and 
 ended his days as a refugee in Khorasan. In the following 
 year the Emperor came to the conclusion that he could trust 
 no one ; accordingly, collecting all his resources, he departed 
 south at the head of a mighty army, hoping to hold down the 
 Mahrattas with one hand while he overthrew with the other 
 the remaining Muslim states. He fell upon the latter, send- 
 ing Muazzam to attack Golkonda, and employing Azam to 
 watch Bijapur. True to his humane habits, Muazzam, after 
 taking the capital, admitted the king to terms, again losing 
 his father's favour by so doing. But Alamgir temporised, 
 observing the terms as long as it suited his purpose. After a 
 protracted siege Bijapur fell, in 1686 ; the Emperor deposed 
 the king and then proceeded in person against Golkonda. 
 He took the city, and subverted the government for good and 
 all about a year later. Thus the Muslim states were brought 
 to a final end; and then the calamities of the Mughal Empire 
 began in earnest. 
 
 Muazzam was kept in arrest for some time, and Azam be- 
 came his father's chief adviser. The land was scourged 
 with war, famine, and pestilence. Sambha was taken and put 
 to death ; the Deccan fell into complete anarchy. The 
 conquest of Bfjapur and of Golkonda proved worse than 
 barren ; for it only resulted in bringing the strained bark into 
 direct contact with the rising tide of Hindu rebellion. 
 Sambha's death was no relief: he left a disputed succession, 
 but all parties among the Mahrattas were equally resolute in 
 opposing the Emperor. His father's fortress of Raigarh con-
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 171 
 
 tinued to be the centre of disaffection. But his infant son, Sahu, 
 was taken and kept a prisoner as long as the Emperor lived. 
 
 Another Hindu tribe was now becoming dangerous. 
 Encouraged by the absence of the Emperor, with all his best 
 officers and men, the Jdts broke out in the province of Agra, 
 and plundered a royal convoy from Kabul, the officer in 
 command being killed in vain defence. In reprisal the 
 Emperor issued an edict forbidding the Hindus to use 
 palanquins. Government seemed returning to the crude 
 methods of Ala-ud-din Khilji. As a more efficient step, 
 Sultan Muazzam was enlarged and sent against the Jats, with 
 a strong force, and with a title of Shah Alam, by which he 
 was henceforth known. This was towards the end of 1691. 
 
 About this time the Mahrattas began to appear in force in 
 the valley of the Bhima, towards Bijapur. The Emperor, on 
 this, moved his camp to Bairampuri, about midway between 
 Kulbarga and Satara. In that, neighbourhood he suffered a 
 serious defeat, and was heard to express something like 
 despair. In the Carnatic, his youngest son, Sultan Kambaksh 
 quarrelled with his military coadjutor, Zulfikar Khan, a con- 
 nection of Nawab Shatista Khan, who held the office of Amir- 
 ul-Umra. In the midst of their contentions they were sur- 
 prised by a Mahratta army which they beat off with some 
 difficulty, the Prince repairing to his father's camp. Troubles 
 also arose with the Portuguese at Goa, and with the English at 
 Bombay ; but Khafi Khan went on a mission to both places 
 and by his diplomatic address settled the dispute. About the 
 same time a little war arose between Shayista and the English 
 in Bengal, which ended in Shayista being dismissed from 
 his post, and the English settlement being transferred from 
 Hugli to Calcutta (1694-9). 
 
 The Mahrattas of the west soon after this forced one 
 imperialist army to surrender, and defeated a second in battle, 
 capturing the elephants and baggage The jealousy of Azarn
 
 172 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 against the returning favour of his elder brother rose to such a 
 height that the former was deprived of his command and sent 
 as governor to Kabul. Nor was Nature more kind to the 
 Emperor, whose camp was destroyed in 1695 by a sudden 
 flood of the Bhima, which swept away the tents, the horses, 
 and the cattle, with 12,000 human beings. Then another 
 imperial general was worsted and made prisoner, and the un- 
 happy monarch could only complain that " it was useless to 
 go on fighting when one was sure to lose." 
 
 By this time, however, Santa, the Mahratta leader, was 
 dead, and the brave old despot was collecting all his resources 
 for a supreme effort. In 1698 Alamgir advanced on Satara 
 in person, and in the siege that followed he took an active 
 part, " exposing himself as if in search of death " ; the brother 
 of the deceased Sambha was killed ; the curtain of the town 
 was breached by a mine ; and at length the governor sur- 
 rendered and entered the imperial service. The fall of Parli 
 followed : but Tara Bai, widow of the deceased Raja, took 
 up the Mahratta government and carried on the defence of 
 her country with the energy often displayed by Indian ladies. 
 The next few years passed in the usual beating of the air. 
 Forts fell to costly attacks, but new forts arose ; armies were 
 dispersed, to be reassembled elsewhere ; the whole Deccan 
 was laid waste by orders of the Bai. The health of the 
 obstinate old man began to fail. In 1704 he had a succession 
 of fainting-fits, but he shook them off and went on with his 
 vain endeavours. In the end of 1705 he sought a little 
 repose at Ahmadnagar ; but Azam, who had recovered favour 
 and employment, renewed his cabals. He had almost cleared 
 the path to the succession : Akbar died in exile ; Shall Alam 
 was away at Kabul, where he had taken the government in 
 lieu of Azam ; Kdmbaksh was at court ; but the Emperor 
 sent him away to Btjapur to be safe from Azam's machin- 
 ations ; the latter was ordered off to Malwa ; already threatened 
 bv the Mahrattas,
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 173 
 
 The end came suddenly. Alamgir died on the morning of 
 2ist February, 1707, telling his beads and praying to the last. 
 His death took place at Ahmadnagar, but he was buried at 
 Aurangabad, where his tomb still stands : he had reached the 
 great age of ninety lunar years. 
 
 During the latter part of his reign the Empire consisted / 
 nominally at least of no less than twenty great provinces. _ 
 And the land revenue was estimated at thirty krors* exclusive of 
 Bother items. Elphinstone is of opinion that the new taxes pro- 
 duced a heavy loss to the state : the imposts may have been col- 
 lected at what cost in popular welfare and content can only 
 be conjectured ; but only a part of the money found its way to 
 the Treasury. This was a sad descent from the palmy con- 
 dition of 1670 and the Emperor's own doing ; nevertheless, 
 he should not be hastily condemned. From his own point of 
 view he was consistent, vigilant, and determined. But his 
 point of view was erroneous ; and it is impossible not to be 
 struck with the parallel that he presents to his European con- 
 temporary, Louis XIV. of France. The two monarchs were 
 alike in judging matters of state from a basis of religious 
 authority ; so that the extension of a supposed holy empire 
 was preferred to the less ostentatious duty of providing for the 
 welfare of secular society. The imposition of the Hindu 
 capitation-tax was an act closely resembling the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes; it was so far worse that it oppressed 
 the vast majority of the population, and caused a universal 
 contempt of law. Political nihilism may be said to have 
 then become the feeling of three-fourths of the Indian com- 
 munity. 
 
 Of the condition of the people we are left to judge from 
 conjecture. The sturdy races of the Punjab and Hindustan \ 
 maintained their self-governed townships the " little re- j 
 publics " of Megasthenes troubled doubtless by wild beasts 
 
 * Ramusio " Viaggo etc,' Venice, 1837. Harris "Collection of 
 Voyages," London, 1744.
 
 174 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 and human marauders. But the yeomen were stout of heart 
 and provided with sharp swords and spears, well able to take 
 their own parts, and to do a certain amount of cattle-stealing 
 and plunder on their own accounts. 
 
 The tribunals, on the maintenance of which the Mughal 
 government always bestowed much care, must have had no 
 lack of occupation. Purely municipal law had not much 
 scope ; and it was an inherent vice of the system that it was 
 unable to maintain that wholesome relation with the people 
 that is produced by wise legislation. 
 
 Provided, by the contempt of their foreign rulers, with their 
 own code, and able to enforce awards by an unusually strong 
 force of public opinion, and by the terrors of excommunica- 
 tion, the Hindus were a law to themselves. But the correc- 
 tional courts would always be active ; a proverb of their own 
 time was to the effect that " swift injustice was better than tardy 
 ) justice." Even so late as the British settlement in Bengal the 
 penal code of Islam was in full force. This system had the 
 incurable weakness of claiming to arise out of divine revela- 
 tion : as if a London magistrate were to administer Leviticus 
 sentencing a man to be stoned for selling apples on a Satur- 
 day. The juristic confusion went farther. Murder, for 
 example, was classed among torts the next-of-kin to the 
 deceased was master of the cause, allowed to compound with 
 the offender for a money-payment. But statutory penalties 
 attached to many things such as the use of liquor which, to 
 modern Europeans, hardly appear at all criminal ; many such 
 were punishable by death. And not only was it more heinous 
 to drink a glass of wine than to commit homicide, but the 
 degree of culpability in the latter was made to depend less 
 on the motive than on the instrument by which death was 
 caused : thus, the man who shot another by the accidental 
 discharge of a gun incurred a severer treatment than one who 
 wilfully stabbed him with a bodkin.
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 175 
 
 Even the revenue administration was pervaded with this 
 pedantry. In the translation of " The Institutes of Aurangzeb " 
 (Alamgir), by N. B. E. Baillie will be found an abstract of the 
 system which, in his religious fervour, the Emperor substituted 
 for the humane and judicious scheme of Akbar. The capita- 
 tion-tax alone made a difference to a Hindu of about cent- 
 per cent ; and thus the tax was resented by the population as a 
 duplication of their burdens no less than as a standing badge 
 of conquest. The new system was enforced in a rescript of 
 1688, addressed to the provincial accountants, in which the 
 recalcitrant are threatened with "temporal and eternal 
 punishment." 
 
 Let a ruler, clothed with the visible attributes of power, say 
 blankly to his subjects "Do this, for it is my will," in the 
 East, at least, there will be an immediate disposition to obey. 
 But when a ruler, in evident difficulties with foreign foes and 
 domestic disaffection, declares as Alamgir did that his 
 officers are to be guided " by the enlightened law " of a 
 Prophet whose mission is not acknowledged, and that disobe- 
 dience will meet with punishment in a Hereafter in which no 
 one believes, the step from the sublime to the ridiculous has 
 been almost cleared. 
 
 Accordingly, it is the testimony of a friendly contemporary, 
 Khafi Khan to wit, that Alamgir's government was a univer- 
 sal failure. His respect for the law of Islam may have caused 
 unpopular ordinances, it certainly weakened his hands, " so 
 that every plan and project that he formed came to little good ; 
 and every enterprise that he undertook was long in execution 
 and failed in the end." 
 
 [The authorities for this section have been cited in the text] 
 
 SECTION 2. The Mahrattas had suffered less than the Mug- 
 hals by this long and desolating war. Sahu, the son of their 
 deceased Raja, was now twenty-one years old, having spent all 
 but the first six years of his life as a state-prisoner at Auranga-
 
 1/6 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 bad, but Tara Bai had ruled well and wisely in his absence. 
 Having dismissed him to Poona, and made temporary arrange- 
 ments with the Regency at Raigarh, Azatn advanced towards 
 Hindustan at the head of the grand army of the Deccan ; but 
 Zulfikar who was the actual general-in-chief disapproved of 
 this clutch at the crown, being well aware that it was intended 
 by the late Emperor that it should devolve on Shah Alam. 
 The latter came down from Kabul with the armies of the 
 north, and took possession of Delhi and Agra, where he found 
 the remains of the once vast accumulations of his grandfather, 
 Shah Jahan. In June, 1707, the armies met a few miles south 
 of Agra ; Zulfikar led for the Pretender, the army of the north 
 was commanded by Munaim Khan. The former was beaten ; 
 perhaps his heart was not in the cause. Azam and his son 
 fell in the fight, and Zulfikar retired on Gwalior. Next day the 
 
 \ victor assumed the Empire, under the title of_ Bahadur Shah. 
 
 ' Zulfikar was pardoned, and made paymaster-general, a post 
 which implied the supreme headship of the military depart- 
 ment. Munaim was created Khan Khanan, and put in charge 
 of the ministry of the interior. Lastly, the Mahratta Raja, 
 Sahu, who had been already set at liberty, was allowed to 
 assume the government at Poona, where he made preparations 
 for opposition to Tara Bai. Sahu's long residence at the 
 Mughal headquarters had, however, tamed him. His first 
 public act was to pay a visit of honour to the tomb of Alamgir, 
 and the rest of his active life was marked by a policy of 
 acquiescence and civilisation. Zulfikar was titular Viceroy of 
 I the Muslim Deccan ; his lieutenant, a Pathan officer named 
 Daud Khan, made peace with Sahu's government on the basis 
 of a payment of twenty-five per cent, of the revenues. An at- 
 tempt made by Sultan Kambaksh to disturb the settlement of 
 the Deccan ended in the defeat and death of that prince, and 
 the Emperor's government was left free to deal with the Rajputs 
 and other Hindu malcontents. The Emperor showed a spirit
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 177 
 
 of conciliation ; his mother was a Hindu*, and his own disposi- 
 tion was mild and humane. But thejaziya was not taken off, 
 and so the Hindus were at best but half-conciliated. The son 
 and successor of Raja Jaswant Sinh held aloof at Jodhpur. 
 Jai Sinh II. expelled the imperial officers from his state of 
 Jaipur as the Rajaship of Amber was now called, after his 
 new city of that name and new forms of alienation were 
 showing themselves nearer the capital, suggested by Rajput 
 disaffection. The Jats, a tribe whose misbehaviour in the past 
 reign has been already noticed, set up a chief of their own, and 
 began an independent existence at Bhurtpore ; and their kin- i 
 dred in Sirhind were beginning the course of ambition and 
 fanaticism which were hereafter to distinguish the Sikh con- 
 federation in the Punjab. An eclectic theism, founded in \ 
 Bengal by Kabir in the early part of the fifteenth century, had 
 been taken up in the Punjab by a teacher named Nanak. _ 
 " Sikhs," i.e., disciples, were to be regarded as equals without 
 respect of caste ; the Veda and the Koran were to be looked 
 on as of equally divine authority, and a social reform was 
 aimed at. Whether or no the Satnamis of 1670 were of this 
 fraternity cannot be determined, that short-lived movement 
 having been quenched in the blood of its supporters: but in 
 1 709 it was repeated by the Sikhs, and in the same neighbour- 
 hood. Conciliating the Rajputs by timely concession, the ' 
 Emperor sent an army against the Sikhs*_iinder Muniam Khan, 
 who returned successful, but only to diemX^ii.t The 
 Emperor moved up to Lahore, where he died in the following 1 
 year (Feb. 28th, 1712), after a short but not unsuccessful reign, 
 His eldest son tried to assume the succession ; but in the 
 general confusion he was unable to secure the person of Zulfi- 
 kar, the paymaster, whom he desired to master as a hostage 
 
 * Said by Blochmann to have been daughter to the Raja of Kashmir. "\ 
 t For an original account of the rise of Sikhism see an article by Mr. F. 
 I'incott, in Ilughes's " Dictionary of Islam, " London, 1885. 
 
 N
 
 178 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 for the loyalty of the army. The paymaster, decamping from 
 Delhi, brought matters to a crisis. In a battle fought in the 
 Punjab about the end of May, the elder sons of the late Em- 
 peror were defeated and killed. Zulfikar then began the plan, 
 hereafter to prove so pernicious, of setting up a puppet Em- 
 peror, in whose name he might exercise the real authority ; 
 the title adopted by this prince was Jahandar Shah.* 
 
 The short reign of this and the succeeding Emperor, Farukh 
 Siyar, are notable for accelerated demoralisation and decay ; 
 the princes themselves were nullities, who were treated as tools 
 by the able but unscrupulous adventurers who used them and 
 then flung them away. Zulfikar Khan- was slain in the palace 
 revolution, which proved fatal to his puppet Jahandar. In 
 the reign of Farukh Siyar the last of Alamgir's school of offi- 
 cers appeared in MirKamr-ud-din, son of the Turkman minister, 
 Firuz Jang, destined to distinction under the titles of Chin 
 Kilich Khan, as a soldier; Asaf Jah, as a statesman ; finally, 
 as founder of a dynasty, Nizam-ul-raulk.f Another outbreak 
 of the Sikhs happened it 1716; it was suppressed with a 
 severity proportioned to the difficulty attending its suppression. 
 This was under Farukh Siyar, whose government was carried 
 on by two noblemen of the Sayyid tribe : Shias in creed, and 
 much opposed by Asaf Jah, and others of the Turkman fac- 
 tion. Much suffering was endured by the people, heavily 
 taxed by their own rulers, yet not protected against the Mali- 
 rat tas, who often took whatever the imperial officials had left. 
 Nor was there any consolation in any of the uses to which the 
 
 * Jahan is Persian for "world," and Alatn Arabic for the same : from 
 the death of Abkar all but two or three of his successors used one or other, 
 in spite of the omen of the Sa>yid dynasty in 1450 (v. CHAPTER, v.). 
 
 f Under this latter title his dynasty still bears rule in the Deccan, under 
 the new en.pire of Hindustan. The territory of the Nizam is nearly as 
 large as the kingdom of Spain.
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 179 
 
 money was applied. " Muslims and Hindus," says a chroni- 
 cler of the time, " united in prayers for the downfall of the 
 government '' ; an unprecedented sort of fusion ! In 1717 all 
 the western provinces were under Hindu rule, except Malwa 
 and the small parts of the coast occupied by the English and 
 Portuguese. The people were helpless, and dependent for 
 the simplest elements of life on the caprices of any chief or 
 adventurer who was strong enough to hold power. The Em- 
 peror Farukh was put to death at Delhi i6th May, 1719. After 
 two other attempts to make puppet kings, which were frustrated 
 by their premature deaths, the Sayyids at last hoped to find a 
 more competent creature in Sultan Raashan Akhtar, grandson 
 to Bahadur Shah, who ascended the peacock throne towards 
 the end of 1716, the last of the house of Taimur by whom 
 that perilous seat was ever to be occupied. He took the title 
 of Muhamad Shah, and the early part of his reign was a kind 
 of pause in the downward course of the Empire. " During 
 his reign," says a Muslim writer of only a few years later, "the 
 people enjoyed much tranquility ; the Government being still 
 respected, the honour of the state maintained, and the majesty 
 of the throne preserved." The Mahrattas were pacified by an 
 acknowledgment of their claim to blackmail, and were, further, 
 vested with the independent sovereignty of the whole country 
 from Poona to Kolhapur. The power of the Sayyids was 
 broken for ever, one being assassinated by an agent of the 
 Turkman party ; the other, confronted in battle and defeated, 
 was imprisoned for life. The head of the immigrant nobility 
 the Turkman Asaf Jah, or Chin Killich Khan went to the 
 Deccan and founded the Haidarabad State, which was to form 
 a permanent barrier against Mahratta extension to the south- 
 ward; he is henceforth known by the title anglicised as " The 
 Nizam of the Deccan." He did not claim independence all at 
 once ; but having conquered the Deccan from various mem- 
 bers of the opposite party, identified himself with those who 
 
 N 2
 
 180 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 were supporting the Emperor, and was made Grand Vazir at 
 Delhi, the Deccan province being administered by his son. 
 Hence arose a division, which lasted for many years, between 
 the court-party and the country-party ; the parties (as they 
 were commonly called) of "Turan " and " Iran." The former 
 were mostly Sunnis, of Turkman origin, the latter either Per- 
 sian Shias, or of the old Pathan stock.* 
 
 In 1 7 24, however, the old minister departed from court, finding 
 there an incurable levity and want of earnestness. His nephew, 
 Kamr-ud-din Khan, succeeded him as Vazir, but the real power 
 was exercised by Abdul Samad, the paymaster-general. Miser- 
 able was the condition of this new principality, wasted by war 
 and neglected by those who ought to have been its protectors. 
 But the presence of an able ruler soon effected a change. 
 Khafi, whose narrative ceases at this point, tells us, almost with 
 his last words, that the cries of the desolate and oppressed had 
 been heard in heaven ; and, under the shadow of the Nizam, 
 the Deccan was recovering her old prosperity. 
 
 The events of the next seven years are of no historical im- 
 portance. The Emperor abandoned himself to a life of plea- 
 sure, though loving more the pleasures of the field than usual 
 with self-indulgent princes. Still, all duties were ignored, dis- 
 orders multiplied, officials of all sorts " stretching out the hand 
 of rapacity and extortion upon the weaker tributaries and the 
 wretched subjects." In the Deccan affairs were soon in a 
 better state. Travel and traffic became safe, and the people 
 were spared the burden of a double set of tax-gatherers. The 
 Nizam himself could not relieve them from the chaut, or black- 
 mail to the Mahrattas. But he could, and did, arrange that it 
 should be paid to his officials in a lump with the revenue, he 
 then accounting with the Mahratta government. 
 
 * The Sunnis claim to be the orthodox in Islam, clinging to the authority 
 of tradition. The Shias regard the khalifate as hereditary in the line of Ali.
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 181 
 
 The example of the Nizam, so far as it involved emancipation 
 from central control now began to be largely followed. Chu- 
 raman, chief of the Jats, held sway at Bhurtpore. Jai Sinn 
 II. was pursuing art and science* at Jaipur; Saadal Khan, a 
 Persian Shia, who was the head of the Iran party, had been 
 relegated to a honourable banishment from court as Viceroy 
 of Audh, and was founding a principality and dynasty at Luck- 
 now. Malwa was given to a Hindu officer named Girdhar Rai, 
 who hoped for support from his Rajput neighbours of Mewar 
 and Marwar. Afghan adventurers were assuming power in what 
 is now called, from one of their tribes, by the familiar name of 
 Rohilkhand. A Brahman convert, calling himself Murshid 
 Kuli Khan, had founded a short-lived dynasty at Maksudabad, 
 afterwards named, after him, Murshidabad, and from this new 
 capital ruled over Bengal, Orissa, aniSTBihar, an occasional gift 
 being sent to Delhi as a symbol of feudal submission. 
 
 In 1732 the Mahrattas invaded Hindustan, and got as far as 
 Agra. Having dislodged the Viceroy of Malwa, they par- 
 titioned that province between two of their chiefs, while the 
 Peshwa president of the council received a patent as Viceroy 
 from the imperial chancery at Delhi. This post of Peshwa was 
 held by a Brahman named Baji Rao, who had practically set 
 aside all superior authority, as well that of the Emperor, as that 
 of his own native chief, the head of the house Sivaji. The two 
 great Viceroys, heads of the two great parties, the Shia Saadat 
 and the Sunni Nizam, however, combined their forces for the 
 defence of Islam, on which the Mahrattas retired beyond the 
 Chambal, retaining all their conquests south of that river, in- 
 cluding Gwalior, Ujain, and Mandu. The final treaty was 
 signed nth Feb., 17 38, when a still greater peril was overhanging 
 the moribund empire. 
 
 This was the invasion of Hindustan by Nadir Shah, the 
 
 * He was an accomplished and ardent astronomer.
 
 1 82 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Turkman who had usurped the throne of Persia. After an 
 ineffectual, perhaps insincere, attempt to drive them off, the 
 government admitted the Persians into the capital, igth March. 
 The Nizam, hastily recalled from the south, had been made 
 dictator, under the title of " Vice-gerent " ; but he was 
 unable to offer any valid opposition. The old troublous 
 time of the Mughals of Taimur seemed to have returned. On 
 a sudden quarrel, between some of his soldiers and the towns- 
 people, the Persian leader loosed the dogs of war upon the 
 defenceless citizens, 120,000 of whom are said to have per- 
 ished in the massacre. Then began an orderly and business- 
 like levy of composition. The peacock throne was stripped of 
 its jewels: and, including the money indemnity, it was estimated 
 that when Nadir and his followers returned to Persia they took 
 with them plunder to the value of ^"142,000,000. They marched 
 out of Delhi i4th May in good order and discipline, but leaving 
 behind them elements of physical and moral ruin, which had 
 hardly ceased to operate a century later in Hindustan. 
 
 It will have been observed that amongst all the disturbance 
 and disasters of the last two generations the Mahratta power 
 had never ceased to prosper. The strange nationality which 
 had grown out of the ruins of Bijapur had a sap of youth rising 
 from a tap-root deep in the traditions of the past. Like the 
 old Hindu society, it was divided into four classes. The 
 Brahmans contributed astuteness and business habits, while the 
 military class, affecting Rajput descent, formed a militia always 
 embodied ; the agriculturists were called Kunbis, and formed a 
 backbone of welfare as well as a reserve for defence. Lastly 
 came a general multitude of artizans and labourers known as 
 Shankarjdti, representing the fruit of mixed marriages. The 
 king was thus regarded in the old light of a military leader, 
 requiring Brahman guidance in affairs of state. The indolent 
 Sahu had been, for some years, content to carry this doctrine 
 so far that the civil administration passed out of his hands into
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 183 
 
 that of his cabinet or executive council, whose president was 
 called Peshwa. Baji Rao, who succeeded to this post in 1720, 
 by his foresight and ability absorbed all power in his own 
 hands. While retaining the twofold organisation of the cavalry 
 derived from the quasi-feudal arrangements of the defunct 
 state of Bijapur, he reduced that force to something like the 
 due place that it ought to hold, and established a quota of in- 
 fantry which, with a proper complement of artillery, gave 
 strength and regularity to the army. But his civil skill was 
 perhaps inferior to his talent for military administration, or else 
 the territory now subject to the Mahrattas was too extensive to 
 be kept together under their system. Thus began a sub-division 
 of the country into confederated states ; but under the general 
 presidency of the Peshwa at Poona. In 1732 the Gaikwar 
 family became masters of Baroda, and by degrees of most of 
 the remainder of Gujarat. About the same time the house of 
 Holkar made its fief hereditary in southern Malwa, while that 
 of Sindhia did the like in northern Malwa and the Gwalior 
 country, almost up to the Chambal river. In Berar and part 
 of the " Central Province " of our day, a similar state was 
 founded by Raghuji Bhonsla, who carried his predatory expe- 
 ditions into Orissa and Bengal. 
 
 In those provinces a quarrel had taken place among the 
 Mughals, which, in 1740, led to the subversion of the family of 
 Murshid Kuli and the substitution of an able Turkman called 
 Ala-Vardi. In 1742-51 the Berar Mahrattas repeatedly raided 
 Bengal and reduced this Nawab to agree to pay chaut, but the 
 English factory at Calcutta escaped their ravages. It was 
 under the panic so caused that the works of Fort William 
 were protected with the " Mahratta ditch," never completed. 
 
 Meanwhile the encroachments of the Mahrattas to the south 
 were impeded by the continued exertions of the Nizam. After 
 the departure of the Persians indeed he remained some time at 
 Delhi, in the exercise of dictatorial power ; but towards the
 
 184 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 end of 1741 he once more turned his face southward, leaving 
 the control of the Government to his eldest son, Ghazi-ud-din, 
 while he himself resumed the charge of the Deccan. About 
 this time Baji Rao died, leaving the post of Peshwa to his son, 
 Balaji. 
 
 In 1743 died Raja Jai Sinh II., the founder of Jaipur. He 
 was succeeded peacefully by his son, Ishri Sinh. Saadat, the 
 Persian died while his countrymen were at Delhi. He also, 
 was succeeded by his son, Mansur Ali, who is known by the 
 title of "Safdar Jang."* The Deccan was not only becoming 
 an independent principality in the south, but was budding into 
 minor dependencies, of which the most important was that of 
 the Carnatic, held by a vassal called " The Nawab of Arcot : " 
 in 1744-9 the post was held by Anwar-ud-din. In the North 
 there was yet another Muslim state arising, in the Trans- 
 Gangetic province of Katahr. Here a Pathan adventurer 
 chief of the Rohilla Afghans, had adopted a Jat lad, whom he 
 made a Muslim under the name of Ali Muhamad. On the 
 death of his adoptive father the young convert was received by 
 the Rohilla clan as their leader, but in 1745 he was attacked 
 and made prisoner by Safdar Jang, the Viceroy of Audh. 
 Being soon after released he established himself as an inde- 
 pendent prince at Anwala (Aoula), sixteen miles south-west of 
 Bareilly. 
 
 While India was thus decomposing, the neighbouring coun- 
 tries were undergoing revolutions of which her inhabitants were 
 doomed to feel the evil effects. In May, 1747, Nadir perished 
 by the hands of his followers; and his Empire broke up, the 
 southern portion the old Gur and Ghzni falling into the 
 power of an Afghan chief who had seized Kandahar. This 
 chief was originally known as Ahmad Abdali, but he now 
 
 * The words mean "piercer of battle lines," and recall the supposed 
 igin of the old French house of Talleyrand ("Taillez les rangs, '')
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 185 
 
 assumed the title of Ahmad Shah, Daurani.* In 1748, having 
 made himself master of Kabul, he invaded the Punjab by way 
 of Peshawar, and marched on Delhi. For once, however, the 
 defence was too strong for the attack. The Mughal army 
 moved out under Sultan Ahmad, the Emperor's son, the 
 actual generals being Safdar Jang, and the Turkman pay- 
 master-general ; the rival parties having coalesced under the 
 common sense of a common danger. On the nth March an 
 action took place in which the army of Hindustan, under the 
 nominal command of the crown prince, was so far successful, 
 that the invaders were glad to retire with the booty they had 
 collected, and Delhi was saved from another sack. But the 
 paymaster-general had been killed by a round shot ; and when 
 the news arrived at the capital the Emperor Muhamad Shah 
 fell from the judgment seat in a fit. He died on, or about, 
 1 6th April, 1748. 
 
 The old Nizam did not long survive him, dying at Burhan- 
 pur at a very advanced age, 19 June of the same year.f He 
 was at first succeeded by his second son ; but the wars of the 
 succession in the Deccan must be related in a later page. 
 We must here turn to consider another part of the old Yadava 
 kingdom of the Deccan, which was soon to assume great im- 
 portance, and to preserve it nearly till the end of the century. 
 We have seen how the kingdom of the Hoysala Ballalas was 
 disturbed and destroyed, and how the succeeding kingdom of 
 Bijainagar was in turn subverted in 1565. The next Hindu 
 principality was founded more to the South, and farther from 
 the new Muslim's states, by one of the Paligars, who established 
 
 * Dauran = "cycle" or "age," and the title was assumed by the 
 Abdalis out of tribal pride. They are the leading tribe of the Afghans, now 
 divided into several branches. 
 
 t According to Elphinstone, he died at Arcot, aged 77. There is 
 reason for believing him to have been nearer 100 ; he had been in the army 
 during Alamgir's Deccan wars.
 
 186 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 himself at Seringapatam in 1610. His descendant, Chikka 
 Deva (1672-1704) changed the religion of the state which 
 had been a form of phallic worship and embraced the faith 
 and ritual of Vishnu. He fought the Mahrattas with success, 
 and reformed the system of land-holding. At his death the state 
 extended from Bangalore on the north, to Coimbatore on the 
 south, and yielded a revenue nearly equivalent to a million of 
 modern money. The direct line failed under his weak grand- 
 son Dodda Krishna, and on his death a collateral named 
 Chama was made Raja, with whom ended the old line of 
 Udaiyars. A period of anarchy ensued, another distant kins- 
 man became Raja, in whose time came into notice the famous 
 adventurer Haidar Ali, destined to make the state so pro- 
 minent in later history. This famous soldier of fortune was 
 originally an officer of police, who was born at Budikot, in the 
 Mysore territory, in 1722. The son of a humble employe 
 Haidar "Naik," as he was originally called, on the decline 
 of the Udaiyar dynasty had risen by his abilities to the highest 
 offices of the State. Some account of his further progress will 
 be found later on. It will be sufficient to note here that it was 
 at the period of which we are now treating that he first signalised 
 himself by courage and intelligence, and obtained his first 
 promotion. 
 
 But a new foreign element was now forcing itself into Indian 
 politics, which it was destined to revolutionise. It has been 
 mentioned already that the English factory on the eastern 
 (Coromandel) coast had been transferred to Madras in 1639 ; 
 about the same time that the company had obtained the set- 
 tlement at Hugli, afterwards taken down the river to Calcutta, 
 where it became known as Fort William, about 1690. These 
 establishments were an object of jealousy to the East Indian 
 Company of France, amalgamated out of rival undertakings in 
 1719. Their chief station was at Pondicherry, a place destined 
 to a short but eventful distinction. Situated about So miles
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 187 
 
 south of Madras, it resembled that place in having no harbour 
 but only an open roadstead ; nevertheless, the climate was 
 healthy, and though only founded in 1674, it soon became a 
 strongly-fortified town with 40,000 inhabitants. In 1740 M. 
 Dumas was Governor- General, and in the course of a success- 
 ful resistance to an attack by the Mahrattas, hit upon the ex- 
 pedient, pregnant with future consequences, of equipping and 
 disciplining native troops after the European method. These 
 men were originally known as gardes, or " Gardis ; " to the pre- 
 sent day the Hindustani term is Telinga, a name clearly indi- 
 cating the origin of the system. In English books of former 
 days such soldiers are always called "Sepoys," a corruption of 
 the Persian word Sipdhi, from j-/)>^="army."* These prepara- 
 tions soon came into use on a wider scale. About two years 
 later came the fall of Sir R. Walpole, and the end of his policy 
 of peace in England ; George II. went to war in defence of the 
 Pragmatic Sanction ; and the French of Pondicherry presently 
 found the opportunity to strike at their rivals on the coast. 
 Their station was to windward of Madras during the south- 
 west monsoon, and lay convenient for ships from the islands 
 of Bourbon and Mauritius ; in 1744 the first-named settlement 
 was under the successor of Dumas, the latter were ruled by 
 an able officer of the French Royal Navy, Bertrand de la 
 Bourdonnais. 
 
 The successor of Dumas, at Pondicherry, was a man still 
 more able and ambitious, Joseph Dupleix. The governor of 
 the English settlement was Mr. Morse, a mercantile man, per- 
 haps ambitious, certainly not able. To an application from 
 Dupleix, that the hostilities of their respective nations should 
 not be allowed to extend to India, Morse turned a deaf ear. 
 
 * Compare the French "Spahi." The word "Sepoy" is so familiar 
 to English readers as to make it seem preferable in these pages also : sub- 
 ject to the explanation in the text.
 
 1 88 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Dupleix, probably neither surprised nor disappointed, hurried on 
 the repair of his fortifications, and invoked the protection of 
 the Nawab Anwar-ud-din, both settlements being in the lieuten- 
 antcy of that officer. 
 
 The Nawab was pleased to favour the application, and inti- 
 mated to Morse that he must abstain from hostile movements. 
 But in June, 1746, a French fleet under la Bourdonnais, ap- 
 peared off the coast, beat off the British squadron, and anchored 
 in the roads of Pondicherry : orders from the Nawabs were 
 nearly at an end for Europeans. 
 
 Could Dupleix have kept on good terms with the Admiral, 
 and could the frivolous government of Louis XV. have seen 
 its way to supporting its Indian agents, the whole subsequent 
 history of India might have been altered. At first all seemed 
 to promise well for the French ; La Bourdonnais laid siege to 
 Fort S. George, at Madras, on the i4th Sept., 1746, and 
 Morse surrendered a week later. After some dispute the place 
 was made over to d'Espremesnil a member of Dupleix's council, 
 and the Admiral went home and disappeared from the Indian 
 scene. The Nawab now affected indignation, and attacked 
 d'Espremesnil in force, but was repulsed at the famous action 
 of S. Thome, which first showed Europeans what they could 
 do against Asiatics.* An attack of the French on Negapa- 
 tam was defeated, but a counter-attack on Pondicherry, in 
 1748, was gallantry repulsed, though the British fleet was com- 
 manded by Boscawen, and the land force by Stringer Lawrence. 
 Early in the following year news arrived in India that a general 
 peace had been concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, i7th Oct., 
 1748. Up to this time the balance of success and prestige 
 was evidently in favour of the French. Madras had to be re- 
 stored under the treaty ; but Dupleix stood prepared for event- 
 ualities, and might confidently reckon on the support of the 
 Mughal powers in the Deccan and Carnatic. 
 
 * See Bernier's anticipations of 100 years earlier, in chap. xii.
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 189 
 
 For the above section may be consulted the books already 
 cited, also : " History of the Mahrattas," Jas. Grant Duff, 
 1826; "Memoir of Central India," Sir J. Malcolm, 1820; 
 the "Siyar-ul-mutakharin" (Eng. Trans.), Calcutta, 17 : 
 and Col. Malleson's works : e.g., " Decisive Battles of India," 
 London, 1883; "History of the French in India," 1863, 
 etc. 
 
 SECTION 3. The narrative has now been brought up to the 
 moment after the deaths of Muhamad Shah and his great minis- 
 ter, the Nizam of Haidarabad. In the remaining pages of the 
 present volume we shall find the interest almost wholly diverted 
 from Hindustan, and centred in the Deccan and Bengal. The 
 dismantled throne of Delhi was filled by Ahmad Shah, while 
 the succession to the old Nizam was fiercely disputed in the 
 southern region. The eldest son of the deceased ruler had 
 been for some time Vazir of the Empire at Delhi ; the second 
 Nasir Jang was at Haidarabad, where he at once assumed 
 the government, and obtained the support of the army ; but a 
 grandson, who was called Muzafar Jang, alleged himself to be 
 entitled to the succession under his grandfather's will. Nasir 
 was murdered in 1750, and Muzafar became Nizam of the 
 Deccan, with support from the French, whose military force in 
 the Deccan presently came under the command of a famous 
 officer, the Marquis de Bussy. In the Carnatic a similar 
 movement took place, Dupleix having put forward a candi- 
 date for the succession to Anwar-ud-din, who had died in 
 
 1749- 
 
 The governor of Pondicherry was thus assuming the 
 position of arbiter almost lord-paramount over southern 
 India. The British at Madras were naturally unprepared to 
 concede the assumption : unwilling to allow the influence of 
 their neighbours to become supreme, they adopted the cause of 
 rival candidates, both at Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, 
 and at the court of the Deccan. The name of the French
 
 igo HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 candidate for the Carnatic was Chanda Sahib, while the 
 English supported the claims of Muhamad Ali. At first, how- 
 ever, the latter were quite overmatched. In the beginning of 
 1751, both the French candidates were in possession; Chanda 
 in the Carnatic, Muzafar in the suzerain province. But, in the 
 very hour of success, Muzafar was killed in a scuffle with 
 some rebels, and Bussy had to bring forward a younger 
 son of the old Nizam ; his name was Salabat Jang. This 
 prince punished the chiefs of the rebels, and assumed the 
 post of Nizam in the middle of the year, after making over 
 large accessions of territory to the French. 
 
 At this moment July, 1751 the power of the governor 
 of Pondicherry, or his influence, appeared secure through 
 all the southern region. His nominee was ruler of the 
 Deccan, the Nawab of the Carnatic was his creature. The 
 English candidate was surrounded at Trichinopoli, with no 
 native ally but the petty Hindu state of Tanjore; and the 
 government of Madras cowered supine in Fort S. David. 
 The knowledge that the nations which they represented were 
 at peace, their own purely commercial views, and their ap- 
 parent lack of any commanding man of experience and capa- 
 city, were combined to cause their inactivity. Their whole 
 forces, with the exception of about 300 British troops, were 
 hemmed in with Muhamad Ali, by a vastly superior French 
 force. The Peshwa, invading the Deccan in the middle 
 of the year, was defeated by Bussy, and driven back on 
 Poona. 
 
 It was at this juncture that the balance was suddenly turned 
 by the appearance on the scene of an untried and untrained 
 man, who turned out to have in his head and hand the whole 
 destinies of India. This was Robert Clive, a member of the 
 British Company's Civil Service, and at that moment com- 
 missary of the army. Repairing to the governor at Fort S. 
 David, where the Presidency then was, he obtained permission
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 191 
 
 to affect a diversion by marching against Arcot. Arriving 
 before the walls on 3oth Aug., he had only two hundred white 
 troops, with eight officers four of whom were civilians like 
 himself and three hundred native troops, with eight field 
 guns ; but the enemy decamped, and the British took posses- 
 sion of the town and fort. Following this success Clive 
 defeated the French in two battles, and then proceeded, 
 under Major Lawrence, to the relief of Muhamad Ali and the 
 Raja of Tanjore in Trichinopoli. After some more fighting, the 
 tables were turned on the French army, which was surrounded 
 and forced to surrender, I3th June, 1752. Chanda Sahib fell 
 into the hands of the Tanjore general, by whom he was put 
 to death ; and the British client, Muhamad Ali, became Nawab 
 of the Carnatic. The actual "coast," from Madras to Tanjore, 
 with the exception of Pondicherry itself, now began to come 
 under British influence : but the French were all-powerful at 
 Haidarabad and Aurangabad, and had actual possession of the 
 territory and town of Masulipatam, the sea-port, together with 
 the country up to Cattack. Desultory fighting went on for some 
 time, during which the fact that there was a treaty of peace 
 between France and England barely availed to keep the Indian 
 representatives of those nations from attacking each other's 
 Presidency towns. But the French Company was growing weary 
 of a contest which did no good to their dividends; and the 
 royal government was unwilling to bear the constant strain of 
 supplying troops and munitions of war. Thus the very 
 grandeur of his views contained the germ of failure for 
 Dupleix. The British were more sober, with shorter views, 
 and so more secure of support from home. There was great 
 alnlity in Dupleix, and he was often well-served Bussy, in 
 particular, was devoted to him but Clive and Saunders were 
 moderate men, content to do their day's work and leave future 
 work to the future. Dupleix was superseded in 1754 by a new 
 president sent out from home : this officer stopped hostilities
 
 192 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 by giving up all French acquisitions, leaving the French Com- 
 pany nothing but the treaty. ports on the coast.* 
 
 Bussy, however, remained with the Nizam. His presence, 
 awing the Mahrattas, kept the Deccan fairly peaceful. For a 
 moment that tranquility was threatened, if not disturbed, by 
 the appearance of a most formidable competitor for the suc- 
 cession, in the person of Ghazi-ud-din, the eldest son of the 
 old Nizam. Advancing from Delhi; with Mahratta support, 
 he actually got as far as Aurangabad, and a general war 
 appeared at hand, in which Salabat and his French friends 
 might have found it hard work to contend against the united 
 resources of Mughals and Mahrattas. The knot was cut by 
 fate; for Ghazi died a natural death at Aurangabad in October, 
 1752. During these events the Bhonsla of Berar had made 
 himself master of Orissa, while the houses of Holkar and 
 Sindhia had completed their partition of Malwa. The army 
 of the Gaekwar, aided by the Peshwa, had completely sub- 
 verted .the Mughal government in Gujarat ; and the imperial 
 government at the same time lost Rohilkhand to the Rohillas, 
 and the Punjab to the Afghans, while the Bangash of Farukh- 
 abad ruled nearly up to Agra. Thus the "Empire of the 
 World" was left with no territory but the Khdlsa, or i n nediate 
 dependency, of the capital, as will be more f:Ky shown 
 presently. 
 
 Meanwhile the mercantile community of Calcutta was carry- 
 ing on an unostentatious commercial career. The "Ghat" of 
 " Kali " had given the name to a village on the riverside as far 
 back a the. early Muslim epoch, at least; the name occurring 
 in Akbar's Domesday Book. When Job Charnock first came 
 there from Hugli, the ground was covered with swampy forest, 
 
 * The dissatisfaction of the French authorities was accounted for by 
 Dupleix having deceived them as to the state of his finances. The British 
 government also remonstrated against being made to fight in times of 
 peace.
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 193 
 
 infested by wild beasts, and reeking with malaria.* The 
 first town of Calcutta clustered round the original Fort William, 
 the site of which was abandoned after the events of 1757 to 
 be related presently. The place had the advantage of a good 
 anchorage for ships, which in those days were of comparatively 
 small burden and light draft ; and the old fort, completed at 
 the time of the Bhonsla scare, was guarded on the eastern side 
 by the river, as it would have been elsewhere had the " Ditch " 
 been completed. In this insanitary situation, partly below the 
 level of the sea, and surrounded more and more by filthy 
 native villages, the Calcutta "factors" and "writers" pur- 
 sued a hazardous, but often lucrative, calling. They were, for 
 the most part, agents of the " United Company of Merchants 
 trading to the East Indies/' incorporated as their motto ran 
 " auspicio Regis et senatus Anglice" the act having been 
 passed before the Scottish Union. The Company's business 
 consisting in sending to India consignments of hardware and 
 woollen goods, with bullion and other metals ; through their 
 agents there the return cargoes were made up of a number of 
 eastern products : tea from China ; spices from the Straits ; 
 the silks of Bhagalpur ; the muslins of Eastern Bengal ; and 
 other "country produce." Could this state of things be made 
 enduring by clear and lasting agreement with the native rulers, 
 Calcutta might have been to India what Hong-Kong is to 
 China, a prosperous treaty-port. Fortunately for the future 
 fortunes of India, the primal hypothesis could not be realised : 
 Calcutta could not be, permanently, a treaty-port, because 
 there was no native government capable of permanently 
 observing a treaty. 
 
 The three villages of Sutanati, Kalighat, and Gobindpur, 
 which form the site of the present Calcutta, had been conveyed 
 to the Company by valid patents of Alamgir. These rights 
 
 * As late as Warren Hastings' days tigers were shot near the site of the 
 present cathedral. " Imperial Gazette of India," III. 247.
 
 194 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 were confirmed, with a trading charter in addition, by the 
 Sayyid Ministry of 1717. But the Nawab of that day 
 Murshid Kuli contrived, in the decrepitude of the central 
 government, to embarrass and annoy the Factory. It was not 
 until 1 742 that the Factors obtained permission from his suc- 
 cessor, Ala Wirdi, to enclose their little territory, a semi-circle 
 of seven miles from Chitpur on the north, to the southern 
 boundary of the maiddn toward Alipur. In 1752 the popula- 
 tion was estimated at over 400,000 souls, and though such an 
 estimate has been deemed excessive, it is certain that the 
 prospect of gain and of protection must have tended to 
 attract many of the inhabitants of the surrounding country, 
 threatened by marauders, and fleeced by the officials of the 
 Nawab. 
 
 At length the crisis came. Ala Wirdi died in 1756, and his 
 grandson, who succeeded, was a weak and inexperienced young 
 man of somewhat violent temper, who assumed the title of 
 Siraj-ud-daula. He picked a quarrel with the factors under 
 pretence of their fortifying Calcutta against an attack which 
 they professed to apprehend from the French of Chandernagore. 
 His real motive was, perhaps, a dread of the consequences to 
 his province of a repetition there of such events as had recently 
 happened in the Carnatic : perhaps also he had exaggerated 
 hopes of plunder from a prosperous Factory. On hearing of 
 his hostile intentions, the Factors sent to their French and 
 Dutch neighbours of Chinsura and Chandernagore to invite 
 assistance, and prayed for succour from Fort S. George, whither 
 the Madras Presidency had now returned. But it was in 
 vain. Before any help could have arrived, on the i6th June, 
 1756, the Nawab attacked the walls, defended only by 250 
 white soldiers, about as many armed citizens, and about 1,500 
 native matchlockmen. Drake, the President, with others of 
 his council, took refuge on board the ships in the river, and 
 dropped down the stream, leaving the defence to a brave
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 195 
 
 civilian, named Holwell. The place was taken on the 2oth, and 
 the remaining Europeans, 146 in number, were driven at the 
 bayonet's point into a cell in the Fort, where they had to pass 
 the June night, without water, in a space of zoft. square, with 
 two small windows. The Acting-Governor, Mr. Holwell 
 survived with some score of others, who were sent in captivity 
 to Murshidabad; and Calcutta was given up to plunder. 
 
 When the sad news of this disaster reached Madras, the 
 people of that Factory were in trouble of their own, in which 
 they had been hoping for help from Bengal. The truce be- 
 tween them and the successors of Dupleix at Pondicherry was 
 at first observed, but the British authorities, espousing the 
 quarrel of the Nawab, made war upon Mysore; and a force 
 from Bombay, under Clive, who had lately returned from 
 Europe, took part with the army of the Peshwa in a successful 
 attack upon the pirates of the Malabar coast. Clive then 
 proceeded to Madras, where difficulties with Bussy and his 
 Nizam were fast arising. In the beginning of 1755 the latter 
 had gone to war with Mysore, whose Raja was friendly to the 
 French, and hostile as we have just seen to the British of 
 Madras. Bussy unwillingly obeyed the command of the' Nizam 
 to join in the campaign ; and the Mahrattas making claims on 
 Mysore at the same time ; in the end the Dalwai (or minister) 
 of that State accepted Bussy's friendly mediation, and bought 
 off the Nizam's attack. The Peshwa, being satisfied with some 
 plunder and a share of the indemnity, was persuaded to with- 
 draw his troops. These proceedings, however, and some 
 other conduct of not quite acceptable kind in regard to the 
 Nawab of Savanore, gave umbrage to the Nizam, and encouraged 
 the enemies of Bussy in the Durbar. The Peshwa was glad 
 to join in the intrigue, perhaps hoping that if driven out of the 
 Nizam's service the French officer and his followers might be 
 willing to enter the Mahratta service. The end was that Bussy 
 was ordered to leave the Deccan : he immediately obeyed ; 
 
 O 2
 
 196 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 but his march down the valley of the Krishna was much 
 harassed by Mahratta horse ; and he finally resolved on the 
 bold step of turning back, establishing himself at Haidarabad, 
 and awaiting the turn of events there. Being reinforced by 
 Law, with a considerable column, and aided by two Mahratta 
 chiefs whom he had succeeded in winning to his side, Bussy 
 ultimately extricated himself from all difficulties. The Nawab 
 sought a reconciliation with him on the i5th August, 1756 : 
 his power seemed greater than ever ; the British feared a 
 revival of Dupleix. 
 
 It was at this moment that they heard of the crisis in Bengal 
 (5th August). They were in the very act of sending an 
 expedition to the Deccan to counteract Bussy, having an under- 
 standing with one of his principal opponents the Nawab 
 Jafir AH; but their whole army was no more than 12,000 
 strong, of whom 2,000 only were British soldiers. War with 
 France was known to be impending, and the French of Pondi- 
 cherry were in daily expectation of reinforcements. Finally, 
 it was determined, in council at Fort S. George, that everything 
 must give way to the paramount duty of retrieving the disgrace 
 and disaster of the British name and nation ; a force of 900 
 Europeans and 1,500 Sepoys was got ready to go to Bengal 
 in the ships of Admiral Watson's squadron ; the command of 
 the land forces was given to Clive, now a colonel in the army. 
 The fleet sailed on the roth October; and, after considerable 
 difficulty, made its way up to Falta, about half-way from the 
 mouth of the river, where they found the refugees from Calcutta, 
 or those who had survived the exposure, encamped under 
 Drake and Major Kilpatrick, in the ruins of an old Dutch 
 factory. Amongst the number was a civil officer named 
 Warren Hastings. 
 
 After the sack of Calcutta, the Nawab had returned to 
 Murshidabad, leaving his army in the field, under command 
 of a kinsman, called Mir Jafir; a Hindu named Manak Chand
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE 197 
 
 being governor of Calcutta, which he had done something to 
 strengthen for purposes of defence. After receiving com- 
 munications from the Council, to which he paid no heed, the 
 Nawab was informed that war was declared against him, a decla- 
 ration which he treated with contempt. The British expedition 
 marched up the river-bank, attended by their ships; and 
 Manak Chand fell back on Hugli, so that Calcutta was 
 re-occupied on yth January, 1758. Drake was reinstated as 
 President, the command of the land forces being retained by 
 Clive, while Admiral Watson claimed a sort of political control 
 over the general operations. 
 
 At this moment arrived news of the declaration of war be- 
 tween France and Great Britain ; and the expedition was at 
 once exposed to serious risk. Bussy's advanced post, in 
 Ganjam, was only 200 miles distant ; Chandernagore was 
 garrisoned by 600 Europeans with a strong artillery ; if the 
 Nawab could secure French support the task of chastising him 
 might well exceed the means at the disposal of the British ; 
 their position in the Carnatic even might be exposed to 
 destruction. 
 
 In this conjuncture Clive displayed a prudence which had 
 not been shown, or indeed required, in the earlier stages of his 
 marvellous career. It was no longer a mere question of 
 audacity and tactics, but one demanding high qualities of 
 diplomacy and statesmanship. The task immediately before 
 him was to frustrate the prospect of a junction between Bussy 
 and the Nawab. The latter was still full of contempt for his 
 enemies ; but the mercantile men of Murshidabad were more 
 far-seeing ; amongst them being the Seths, the leading firm of 
 bankers there ; and a trader of wealth and enterprise named 
 Amin Chand, deeply interested in the commerce of which 
 Calcutta had, before the late troubles, held the key. These 
 men accompanied the army which the Nawab now led against 
 Clive, and became the medium of his attempts at an accom-
 
 198 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 modation. The Nawab reached the outskirts of the city in the 
 beginning of February, and took up his quarters at a garden- 
 house, belonging to Amin Chand, within the Mahratta ditch, 
 his army being encamped in the neighbourhood. Alarmed by a 
 night attack, the Nawab was persuaded to sign a treaty in 
 which he guaranteed to the Company the privileges that had 
 been granted them under a patent of 1717, and promised com- 
 pensation for the plunder of Calcutta. 
 
 Having thus obtained at least a temporary suspension of 
 hostilities with the Nawab, Clive next proceeded to besiege 
 Chandernagore, being assured that success there afforded the 
 best hope of staving off Bussy's threatened invasion of Bengal. 
 The consent and concurrence of Admiral Watson having been 
 obtained, Chandernagore was attacked, both by land and river, 
 and, after a gallant defence, captured on 23rd March. In 
 these operations Clive had received help from an agent ot 
 Amin Chand's, named Nanda Kumar afterwards notorious in 
 Anglo-Indian annals. 
 
 The fall of Chandernagore appeared likely to lead to all the 
 advantages that Clive had hoped. But it was impossible for 
 the Nawab to act with common judgment or to be faithful to 
 his engagements. He took into his service a party of French- 
 men, who had escaped from Chandernagore under Law, and 
 he continued his invitations to Bussy. He also set on foot an 
 intrenched camp at Plassy, to cover his capital against an 
 advance from the southward. All these things were imme- 
 diately made known to Clive, through his correspondents at 
 Murshidabad ; but Bussy also heard of the fall of the French 
 settlement in Bengal, and obtained sufficient information of 
 the Nawab's character to make him unwilling to listen to his 
 overtures. 
 
 The admiral now attempted a last appeal to the fears of the 
 Nawdb, and, on this failing, it was agreed between him and 
 Clive that advantage should be taken of the general and grow-
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 199 
 
 ing unpopularity of the Nawab to attempt a revolution at the 
 capital. Mir Jdfir, husband of the NawaVs aunt and the 
 commander of a division in the army, had offered to aid in the 
 deposition of Siraj-ud-daula ; and negotiations were opened 
 with him through Mr. Watts, the British officer resident at the 
 court of Murshidabad. In the midst of this tangle of treason 
 and counter-treason, Amin Chand suddenly proved mutinous, 
 threatening to reveal the whole plot to the Nawdb unless the 
 agreement with Mir Jafir contained a clause guaranteeing him 
 a sum equivalent to about a million sterling. The news set 
 the council in a ferment ; the lives of Watts and his associ- 
 ates, perhaps the whole success of the scheme, depended on 
 Amin Chand's silence ; it was determined to secure this by 
 deceit. Two treaties were to be prepared, one on red paper, 
 to be shown to Amin Chand as containing the clause for which 
 he stipulated, the other, on white paper, to be the valid engage- 
 ment. The Admiral refused to sign the false treaty, and his 
 signature was recorded by another hand.* Both treaties 
 having been signed, in his turn, by Jafir, Amin Chand came 
 down to Calcutta, and the plot went its course. 
 
 While these momentous but questionable operations were 
 proceeding in Bengal, events had been proceeding in other 
 parts of India which proved to have a bearing on the future. 
 The hopes of the Nawdb had been sustained not only by his 
 correspondence with Bussy, but by news from the north-west. 
 
 After the departure of Ghazi-ud-din from Delhi in the end 
 of 1750, the titular vazirate was in the hands of Safdar Jang, of 
 Lucknow, but the actual office of minister had been under- 
 taken by Ghazi's nephew, Mir Shahab-ud-din, a youth of but 
 sixteen years old, but full of all manner of craft and criminal 
 
 * Not "forged," as Macaulay puts it in his " EdinburghKeview" article on 
 Clive. Watson, though unwilling to put his hand to the false treaty, told the 
 others that "they might do as they pleased," which Clive considered 
 sufficient authority. V. Elphinstone, " Rise of British Power," chap. viii.
 
 200 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 audacity. One of his first steps was to procure the assassina- 
 tion of the favourite of the Emperor ; this was in 1752, and a 
 violent tumult immediately followed, raised by partizans of 
 the country party, or Iranians, whose head was Safdar Jang. 
 About the end of 1753 the Turanian party triumphed ; Safdar 
 Jang was driven from court after long and violent contentions, 
 and the young Turkman seemed master of the situation. But 
 the Jats, supported by the Mahrattas, under Holkar, continued 
 to trouble his repose ; and, discovering that they were secretly 
 supported by the Emperor, the audacious youth seized and 
 deposed the futile monarch, and set on the throne a son of 
 JahandarShah killed in 1713. He then attempted to carry 
 on the government of the small remains of the Empire in his 
 puppet's name. The new Emperor took the ambitious title of 
 Alamgir II. 
 
 The dominions of Babar and Akbar and the first Alamgir 
 were now reduced to a few districts in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of the capital. Rajputana and Gwalior, Malwa and 
 Gujarat, had all ceased to pay tribute ; the Jats were indepen- 
 dent, under Suraj Mall ; the Farukhabad Afghans held the 
 Central Duab, their kinsfolk across the Ganges lorded it in 
 Rohilkhand. Audh and Allahabad had been formed into a 
 principality under Safdar Jang; the condition of the eastern 
 provinces we have seen. Elsewhere the Mahrattas were 
 supreme, save where they were kept at bay by the English or 
 the Nizam, or where, in the extreme south, Tanjore, Travan- 
 core, and Mysore maintained a precarious independence under 
 native Rajas.. In the Punjab the Afghans were paramount, 
 though a Turkman nobleman, named Mir Manu, professed to 
 hold the country as Viceroy of the Emperor. On his death 
 the new Vazir, who had taken the title of his lately-deceased 
 uncle, Ghazi-ud-din, attempted to assert his supremacy. In the 
 beginning of 1757, however, Ahmad Abdali came down, drove 
 the Vazir out, and proceeded to plunder Delhi and the sur-
 
 DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 201 
 
 rounding country. The Afghan leader took his departure in 
 November, going into cantonments at Anupshahr, on the 
 upper Ganges, leaving a valiant Pathan, named Najib Khan, in 
 charge of affairs at Delhi. 
 
 Some notion of what was going on in these regions may 
 have stimulated the ill-starred Siraj-ud-daula in his tergiversa- 
 tions with Clive. On the side of the Mahrattas, also, he may 
 have entertained hopes. That enterprising community had 
 now been, for some seventeen years, under the presiding rule 
 of Balaji, the heads of the clans of Sindia and Holkar being 
 their most prominent military leaders. From their partitioned 
 fiefs in Malwa these chiefs led their horsemen wherever booty 
 was to be obtained or territory annexed. They took service at 
 Delhi under Ghazi ; and only awaited the departure of the 
 Abdali to make a swoop on the Punjab. One of the means 
 adopted by Clive to frighten the Nawab of Bengal was to in- 
 form him that the Peshwa was coming. 
 
 At last, the links of the steel net for the Nawab of Bengal 
 being all forged, the show of friendship was discarded. With 
 a small but well-disciplined force Clive marched on the in- 
 trenched camp at Plassy. 
 
 [To authorities already cited the student may add Elphin- 
 stone's "Rise of British power in the East," London, 1887. 
 Mr. Cotton, Elphinstone's last biographer, agrees with the 
 author's own modest estimate, that he " had no talent for narra- 
 tion." Nevertheless, the book is based on much research 
 among original papers and contemporary writings, and is attrac- 
 tive by reason of its ripe wisdom and elevated tone. All the 
 works of Orme are important,, but scarce and bulky. Some 
 idea of their value may be formed from Mr. Talboys Wheeler's 
 little work, " Orme's Hindustan," Madras, 1862. Information 
 on the siege of Calcutta by Siraj-ud-daula will be found accu- 
 rately and agreeably conveyed in "Echoes from Old Calcutta," 
 H. E. Busteed, Calcutta, 1882.]
 
 202 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL AND RISE OF BRITISH POWER. 
 
 Section i: The English settlement in Bengal, and the Hindu revival. 
 Section 2 : The restoration of the Empire and decline of the 
 Mahratta Confederacy. Section 3 : State of Hindustan to the first 
 ministry of Sindia, 1784. 
 
 SECTION I. It was the 131)1 June when Mr. Watts, with three 
 subordinates, reached the camp of Clive at Katwa, having 
 ridden the seventy miles from Murshidabad without halting. A 
 declaration of war was at once sent to the Nawab, and the latter 
 replied by a letter of defiance and by marching his army to Plassy. 
 It consisted of i5,ococavalry, 35, coo infantry and over forty heavy 
 guns. To oppose him Clive could only muster 800 Europeans 
 with 2,100 sepoys, and eight field-pieces. If the Nawab's 
 forces were faithful and fairly led the enterprise looked ill 
 indeed ; and Clive was informed that Jafir had been reconciled 
 to the Nawab, and that the plot was at an end. If he made 
 one more march, and crossed the river, he would find himself 
 in the presence of an overwhelming enemy. The situation 
 was one to try the strongest nerves, dive's first thought un- 
 like him as it sounds was to write to Calcutta for instructions. 
 He then called a council-of-war, and did not conceal his 
 opinion that 'the wisest plan would be to encamp where they 
 were and invite the help of native allies ; the opinion of the 
 officers was divided. But after the council broke up, Clive 
 passed an hour in solitude, at the end of which he returned 
 to the lines, and ordered an immediate advance. 
 
 About midnight of the 22-2$rd the little army arrived within
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 203 
 
 earshot of the enemy, and took post in a walled mango- 
 orchard, about a mile beyond the village of Plassy, the 
 Nawab's army occupying the intrenchment formerly mentioned 
 as having been constructed in the neighbourhood three 
 months before. At eight in the morning the British advanced 
 in line, with the river on their left. They saw on their right 
 three divisions of the enemy, so disposed that unless they pre- 
 vailed they would be surrounded with their backs to the river. 
 In the centre of Clive's line were the Europeans, and some 
 field-pieces were advanced on his left front. On the enemy's 
 extreme right was a redoubt, guarded by a party of French, 
 next came two divisions and a half, led by officers who, it was 
 thought, might be faithful to the Nawab ; on the left came the 
 division of Mir Jafir, on whose fidelity no absolute dependence 
 could be placed by either side. If he helped Clive to conquer 
 he would be Nawab of Bengal in the room of his master ; if 
 he thought that, even for such a stake, the game was too 
 
 ' hazardous, he might take the British in the rear and complete 
 their ruin. The best hope was that he would abide the event. 
 Accordingly, after a sharp duel of artillery, in which the British 
 were necessarily overmatched, Clive withdrew his men into the 
 shelter of the walled orchard, from whose shelter he once more 
 opened fire from his field-pieces. His idea probably, at that 
 moment, was to^wait \n the grove till dark, and then make a 
 night attack on me intrenchment. In the course of the fore- 
 noon, however, heavy rain fell : the British gunners kept off 
 the effects by aid- of tarpaulin, but the enemy's tumbrils were 
 soon soaking. The Nawab's best general then advanced to 
 storm the position, but the British replied with a fire of grape, 
 which laid him low with many of his men. 
 
 On hearing the news the Nawab mounted a swift dromedary 
 and fled in the direction of his capital, leaving the army to 
 the charge of Mir Jafir and his colleagues, one at least of 
 
 \ovhom was favourable to that officer's projects. They at once
 
 20 4 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 began a retrograde movement, with the exception of the body 
 immediately under the command of Mir Jafir, which showed 
 a disposition to approach the British camp ; his columns were, 
 however, kept from advancing by the fire of a gun posted for the 
 purpose. On the British left a hot fight now began : stimu- 
 lated by the example of the handful of French, and ignorant 
 of the ulterior designs of their chiefs, the native troops opened 
 a steady fire upon the advancing line. While opposing them 
 with his best tactics, Clive looked round and saw that Jafir's 
 division was inactive. It struck him at once that this was a 
 sign of good-will, and that his camp and rear were safe. He 
 at once pushed forward with all his force, dislodged the French, 
 and stormed the intrenchment. The enemy fled in all 
 directions; and though no pursuit was for the moment 
 possible, a victory had been gained, which not only gave the 
 control of immediate conditions, but is usually thought to 
 have founded the British Indian Empire. The cost to the 
 victors was twenty-three killed and forty-nine wounded. 
 
 Next morning Mir Jafir presented himself, in some alarm, to 
 tender his explanations. Clive dispelled all uneasiness by 
 saluting him Nawab, and the united leaders and their men 
 marched on the capital. The wretched Siraj, attempting to 
 escape, was brought before Jafir, by whom (or by his son) the 
 fugitive was put to death. 
 
 The council now shared with Clive the wages of the help 
 given to the new Nawab : and Clive assumed the head of the 
 presidency, in which position he was, after some delay, con- 
 firmed by orders from home Ere long a new danger arose 
 from the South, whence Clive had derived means for settling 
 Bengal, and to which he was at first unable to return much 
 assistance. 
 
 It has been seen that Bussy, though on the whole powerful 
 at Haidarabad, had been deterred from giving help to Siraj-ud- 
 daula in his struggle with Clive, although the declaration of
 
 BATTLE-FIELDS OF THE CARNATIC, 175883. 
 
 Parmabakain 
 v f MADRAS 
 
 H.g. B. Del. 
 
 50 Miles = ijfw.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 205 
 
 war between France and England, and dive's attack on 
 Chandernagore would have justified any degree of hostility. 
 Early in 1758 Count Lally had come out from France with 
 strong reinforcements, and had begun to threaten Madras, 
 calling in Bussy's force from the Deccan, and tearing the 
 diplomatic web which had taken so much time and trouble to 
 weave.* Before leaving the Deccan, Bussy took care to place 
 a sufficient force at Masulipatam to guard the " northern 
 Sirkars/' as the lately-acquired French province was called that 
 lay between the Krishna and the Mahanadi rivers. Impressed 
 with the necessity of help to his old presidency, Clive on his 
 own responsibility sent all the troops that he could possibly 
 spare to distract the attention of the French, weaken their in- 
 fluence in the Deccan, and if possible take possession of 
 the " northern Sirkars." Such assistance was inadequate, 
 indeed, to the apprehensions of the Madras Government ; but 
 it was more than dive's colleagues in Bengal had been willing 
 to grant. Owing to the great superiority of the British officer 
 in command Colonel Forde of the 39th Foot it proved 
 enough for all its objects. 
 
 Lally was an Irish refugee, a man of peculiar character a 
 loyal, valiant, and experienced soldier, utterly deficient in tact 
 and temper. His lieutenant in the "northern Sirkars " was a 
 most incompetent officer, whom Forde defeated in the field, and 
 drove within the walls of Masulipatam, the southern point of the 
 province. Deprived, by this disaster, of the supplies expected 
 from the north, the French general insisted upon unstinted aid 
 from the civilians of Pondicherry ; and when it was not forth- 
 coming treated them with the utmost harshness and insolence, 
 and delayed his threatened attack upon Madras while he went 
 south to extort money from the Raja of Tanjore. In 
 
 * " Le Roi et la Compagnie m'ont envoye dans 1'Inde pour en chasser 
 les Anglais . . toute autre interet m'est etranger. " Lally to Bussy, 13111 
 June, 1758 (quoted by Colebrooke). ' ; Rise of British Power," chap. xi.
 
 206 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 November, 1758, he was at last enabled to march against 
 Madras, at the head of two thousand seven hundred 
 French foot, and five thousand Sepoys, besides cavalry 
 and guns. Clive felt natural anxiety when the news 
 reached Calcutta. Lally, as he observed in a letter to 
 Pitt, then head of the Government at home, must be expecting 
 large reinforcements from Europe and the Mauritius, or he 
 would hardly undertake the siege of so strong a place. But 
 Clive was not doubtful of the result, if the squadron Irom 
 Bombay could but arrive in time. The French sat down on 
 the north side of Fort S. George, izth December, 1758. After 
 a cannonade of nearly eight weeks, the north-east bastion was 
 breached, but the besiegers did not deem themselves strong 
 enough to storm. And a week later (i6th February, 1759) the 
 British transports arrived from Bombay and landed six hundred 
 fresh troops. When the next day broke the French were beheld 
 in full retreat, leaving thirty-three pieces of artillery behind them. 
 The operations of Forde, to the northward, were at the same 
 time slowly prevailing over the dangers which surrounded him, 
 and the dilatory conduct of his only native ally. In the 
 beginning of March his position was somewhat improved by 
 news of the retreat of Lally from Madras ; but was still any- 
 thing but encouraging, since the garrison of Masulipatam was 
 stronger than the assailants, whilst a French army and the 
 hosts of the Nizam were reported to be advancing to the relief. 
 On 7th April, however, the skill and courage of Forde were 
 crowned with due success ; Masulipatam was stormed without 
 excessive loss. A few days later he was received with honour 
 in the camp of the Nizam, who had been watching events in 
 the neighbourhood. The " northern Sirkars " came under 
 British influence, the Carnatic was saved. In October fresh 
 reinforcements arrived at Madras commanded by the famous 
 Colonel Coote of the 84th, who had been home after serving 
 under Clive in the campaign of Plassy.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 207 
 
 Half way between Madras and Pondicherry the French had 
 a fortified camp on the hills of Vandivasu the " Wandewash " 
 of Orme. This was captured by Coote in the end of Novem- 
 ber, and in January Lally brought up all his available forces 
 for the purpose of recovering the place. Thus the fate of the 
 English in the Carnatic seemed once more at stake, the chief 
 players on either side, strangely enough, being Irishmen. On 
 the 22nd Jan., Coote made a general advance for the relief 
 of the hill, where the French had already effected a breach in 
 the fortifications. Lally on his side marched to the encounter, 
 having a following of 3,500 men, more than half of whom were 
 Frenchmen ; Coote's force was about equal in infantry, with a 
 superiority in field guns. The French had the aid unprece- 
 dented up to that time in India of European cavalry. But 
 their charge failed ; the infantry of a Lorraine " were beaten 
 back ; the camp was stormed during the confusion caused by a 
 chance explosion, and Bussy was taken prisoner. The rout 
 became general, and the whole army must have been destroyed 
 but for the heroic efforts of the French hussars ; the French 
 lost 600 Europeans, including prisoners, and 24 field-pieces, 
 besides tents, stores, and baggage. The total loss on the 
 British side was 190 killed and wounded. Not only was 
 Wandewash saved, but Coote was able to capture all the 
 outlying fortresses of the French, and to threaten Pondi- 
 cherry. 
 
 While these events were proceeding in the southern re- 
 gions, the Mahratta confederacy had been pursuing a career 
 of success against its neighbours in the western Deccan, and 
 had begun to avail themselves of the retirement of the Abdali 
 to menace his possessions in Upper India. Incited by the 
 audacious young Ghazi, who had usurped supreme power at 
 Delhi, two sons of Ranuji Sindia. the jagirddr of Upper Malwa, 
 marched on Sukartal, the stronghold of the Pathan chief 
 Najib. Failing here, they sent a large force across the Ganges,
 
 2o8 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 which drove out Najib's countrymen from whom he expected 
 help. The Nawab of Audh, moving against them, Najib was 
 delivered, and Ghazi-ud-din began to fear that, with the sup- 
 port of Sultan Ali Gauhar the crown prince, he might be 
 deposed from power. 
 
 The present Nawab of Audh and Shuja-ud-daula was the 
 son and successor of Safdar Jang, who had passed away in 
 1754. He w s as young and active, and claiming to be heredi- 
 tary prime minister of the Empire, was also head of the 
 country party, to which Najib and the Pathans professed 
 adherence. Apprehensive of the result of the junction be- 
 tween these chiefs, the young Turkman called the crown 
 prince, Sultan Ali Gauhar, into Delhi, and put him into a 
 kind of open arrest, from which, however, he contrived to 
 escape at the very end of the year. The Sultan reached 
 Lucknow after visiting Najib on the road 19 Jan, 1759. 
 
 Meanwhile the Abdali was by no means idle. Justly regarding 
 the young Ghazi as a foe alike to good order and the interests of 
 Islam, he encouraged Najib to opposition by promises of sup- 
 port. Shuja-ud-daula hastened to engage the Mahrattas in 
 Rohil-khand from the side of Audh ; they were defeated in a 
 decisive action, and Gobind Panth, their leader, was forced to 
 seek safety in flight, while many of his men were drowned in 
 crossing the Ganges. One of Sindia's sons, Dattaji, was also 
 defeated and killed in an unsuccessful raid upon the Punjab. 
 At the same time the Peshwa was engaged nearer home in a 
 sharp contest with the Nizam, by this time deprived of French 
 aid. Led by his cousin, Sheodasheo Rao Bhao, the army of 
 the Peshwa ravaged the northern Deccan and took possession 
 of the city of Ahmadnagar, only retiring when the Nizam had 
 consented to ransom his dominions by painful sacrifices. In 
 the midst of all these distractions, the Abdali came once more 
 down upon Lahore; from thence he marched across the Lower 
 Punjab and Sirhind, crossed into Najib's territory, in what is
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 209 
 
 now the Saharanpur district, and resumed his old post at Anup- 
 shahr in the end of the rains. 
 
 The reckless stripling who held sway at Delhi had no 
 means of meeting the storm, but he seemed to have thought 
 that he could conjure it to pass away. Hastily calling on Suraj 
 Mall, chief of the Bhurtpore Jats, and invoking the assistance 
 of the Peshwa, he proceeded to murder the harmless Emperor, 
 whom he had, himself, taken from obscurity to set upon the 
 throne. But this crime which was committed on the 3th 
 Nov., 1759 so far from producing terror, only united against 
 the Turkman a coalition of opponents, before which he 
 fled, and disappeared for ever from the scene of Indian 
 politics. 
 
 About December ist, the Abclali arrived at Delhi. The 
 throne was without an occupant ; from the borders of Haidara- 
 bad to the frontier of the dominions of Shuja-ud-daula, there 
 was no government but that of various lords of misrule over 
 whom the Peshwa was lord paramount. In one respect, however, 
 the Mahrattas were no longer barbarous ; their military organi- 
 sation had taken a practical ply. No longer consisting entirely 
 of foraging spearmen and light guerilla riders, the Peshwa's 
 army now included a regular force of well-equipped cavalry, 
 drawing pay from the State ; with a strong force of infantry 
 and an efficient artillery, all partly imbued with French disci- 
 pline. It was with such a force, flushed with recent success 
 against the Deccan Mughals, that the Bhao moved upon Delhi. 
 He set out from Poona with twentv thousand chosen horse ; 
 at starting he was joined by a division of infantry with field- 
 pieces, commanded by Ibrahim Gardi, a soldier of the school 
 of Bussy, who had left the sinking cause of the French. In 
 Malwa he took up the contingents of Holkar and Sindia; and 
 on coming farther, gathered the detachment of the Gobind 
 Panth and the Jat army under Suraj Mall. Hopes were even 
 entertained of the adhesion of the Nawab Shuja-ud-daula to 
 
 p
 
 210 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 what certainly was a Hindu combination, but might be repre- 
 sented as a united national movement against the foreign 
 invader. 
 
 While these momentous omens were arising in Hindustan, the 
 Nawab Vazir was on the point of engaging in a remote and ap- 
 parently unconnected adventure. He received the fugitive 
 heir to the Empire with respect, and gave him letters to a 
 kinsman of his own, Muhammad Kuli Khan, then in charge of 
 the province of Allahabad, who willingly promised his support, 
 as did also Kamgar Khan, the faujdar, or military governor 
 of the adjoining division of Bihar. With this following the 
 prince crossed the frontier into Bengal, at the close of 1759, 
 and presently heard of the murder of his father, whereby he 
 became entitled to call himself Emperor. He assumed the 
 title an ill-omened title, as we have seen of Shah Alam II. 
 He confirmed Shuja as Vazir, and appointed Najib Amir-ul- 
 Arnra, with the titular command in chief of the armies of 
 Hindustan. For his own part, he resolved to proceed against 
 Mir Jafir, whose deputy at Patna was a Hindu official, Raja 
 Ram Narain, understood to be on bad terms with Nawab. This 
 officer, however, refused to acknowledge the imperial authority, 
 and drew out his force under the walls of Patna ; but he was 
 defeated with considerable loss, including that of a detach- 
 ment of sepoys under British officers, who were cut up in 
 covering his retreat. Upon this the army of Bengal advanced 
 and gave him battle on i5th Feb., 1 760. Defeated in this action, 
 the Emperor endeavoured to cut in between the Bengalis and 
 their base, and endeavoured to possess himself of Murshida- 
 bad, but he was again defeated by a body of British troops on 
 the 7th April. He then hastily retraced his steps, and being 
 joined by M. Law and a party of Frenchmen, he resolved to 
 lay siege to Patna. His operations, however, were interrupted 
 by the sudden appearance of Captain Knox with a body of 
 infantry partly British soldiers. Muhamad Kuli had by this
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 211 
 
 time returned to Allahabad, where he was killed by his cousin 
 Shuja in a struggle for the fief there ; Kamgar, who succeeded 
 to the command of the imperialists, was taken by surprise, 
 owing, as was supposed, to the great heat of the season, and 
 the army was routed and driven upon Gaya. Being here 
 joined by another local officer, Khadim Hussain, the Emperor 
 made another dash at Patna, but was again defeated, and re- 
 tired from a struggle for which his resources were insufficient. 
 In the pursuit which was begun, the son of the Nawab of 
 Bengal the same who had caused the death of Siraj-ud-daula 
 after Plassy was killed by lightning, and the Anglo-Bengali 
 army retired to their cantonment at Patna. The Emperor 
 once more encamped at Gaya. 
 
 By this time Clive had left the country, and his successor 
 was unable to control his own Council. The moving spirits 
 of that body were disappointed in Mir Jafir, who was ageing 
 fast, and beginning to display a growing indolence and an un- 
 willingness to yield to their demands for money. They 
 accordingly put pressure upon him to abdicate in favour of a 
 kinsman named Mir Kasim, whom they wished him to acknow- 
 ledge as heir apparent and regent of Bengal. The old man 
 retired in dudgeon to Calcutta, hoping to make interest there 
 for himself : and Kasim became the native ruler. On the 
 27th September, articles were signed by virtue of which the 
 Company was to support him against all enemies the 
 Emperor included receiving, in compensation, and for the 
 support of their troops, the districts of Bardwan, Midnapur, 
 and Chittagong, together with great pecuniary gifts to the civil 
 and military chiefs. 
 
 The new Nawdb was a man of original character, of elegant 
 manners, and singular capacity for business. His weak point 
 was a lack of physical nerve, and even of audacity in 
 military enterprise. But he soon showed that he had no in- 
 tention of being a puppet. He disbanded the ill-disciplined 
 
 p 2
 
 212 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 troops of his predecessor, levying a body of 10,000 good 
 soldiers with able officers to instruct them. Having made 
 these preparations he joined the British at Patna, to defend 
 his new possessions against the Emperor and M. Law, who were 
 still at Gaya. 
 
 All this time the Nawab Vazir, Shuja-ud daula, had been 
 deterred from supporting the movements of his sovereign by 
 momentous events in Hindustan, on which the Hindu con- 
 federation continued to advance. Justly considering that he 
 would be constrained to combine all the available resources of 
 Islam if he was to oppose the enemy with success, the Abdali 
 left a garrison in Delhi and fell back upon Anupshahr, where 
 he could collect the bands of Rohillas and open negociations 
 with Shuja. It was rumoured that the Bhao intended to pro- 
 claim the Peshwa Emperor, but to leave the vazirate to its 
 present possessor ; and the prudent Najib while acknow- 
 ledging the difficulty of detaching the head of the country 
 party strongly urged upon the Abdali chief the importance 
 of doing all that was possible to defeat such a combination. 
 He obtained the Shah's permission to go to Audh and see 
 the Nawab- Vazir, and his journey ended in success. Shuja 
 was persuaded to join the cause of Islam ; he placed his 
 family in careful custody and repaired with Najib to 
 Anupshahr, where he received a hearty welcome. 
 
 The Bhao, meanwhile, advanced on Delhi, and captured 
 the fortifications without much difficulty in the last days of 
 1759. He also opened negociations with the Nawab- Vazir, 
 proposing terms which the latter forthwith loyally reported to 
 the Najib and the Abdali Shah. The only practical result was 
 that the Jat leader, Suraj Mall, lost all confidence in the 
 enterprise, and withdrew his contingent. In these negocia- 
 tions the summer of 1760 wore away, but as soon as the 
 monsoon was over the Bhao left Delhi with the purpose of 
 overrunning the Punjab. On the aoth October he cut up an
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 213 
 
 outpost of the Afghans, and the Shah crossed the Jumna in 
 pursuit. On the 26th there was a collision at Sonpat ; and for 
 the next two months the army was cantoned in the town of 
 Panipat, the Afghans watching from the southward, where the 
 great battlefield of Hindustan extends its desolate surface.* 
 Constant fighting went on, generally to the disadvantage of the 
 Mahrattas, who were at last blockaded in their lines and 
 threatened with starvation. They therefore, on the morning 
 of the i3th January, ij^6i, moved to the attack, their right 
 covered by the cavalry, under Sindia and Holkar, their left 
 protected by Ibrahim's Gardis, trained Sepoys, with field-guns. 
 The Afghan leader marched out of his camp when he heard 
 of the approach of the Mahrattas. On his left was Najib, with 
 a quantity of matchlock men ; in the left centre, in full armour, 
 rode the Nawab of Audh and the Afghan Vazir, with their 
 heavy horse ; in the right centre was massed a quota of 
 Rohilla infantry; and two brigades of Persian cavalry were 
 opposed to Ibrahim. Shah Pasand, the Afghan leader's 
 chief of the staff, covered Najib's advance with a body of 
 cuirassiers, and a further reserve was stationed a mile behind 
 the Persians, on the right rear, under the immediate eye of 
 the Shah. The battle began much to the advantage of the 
 Mahrattas. Ibrahim led on his Gardis without firing a shot, 
 and drove away the Persian horse ; then, bringing his left 
 shoulder forward, smote the flank of the Rohillas. The Afghan 
 minister and Shuja, his brother Vazir, were sorely pressed by 
 the Bhao and his immediate following ; but the horsemen of 
 Malwa were held in check by Najib, who threw up earthworks 
 in front of his line, and kept them off with rockets and the fire of 
 his long jazails.\ Soon after midday, however, when the 
 want of food was beginning to tell on the Mahrattas, the Shah 
 sent forward his fresh squadrons from the rear, and hurled 
 
 * V. chap. iv. 
 
 t The Afghan match-lock, carrying a ball 600 yards or more.
 
 2i 4 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 them on the Mahratta centre. Hastily committing the care 
 of his family to Holkar, the Bhao plunged into the thickest of 
 the fray ; Holkar and Sindia withdrew, leaving the right ex- 
 posed ; the Peshwa's son was killed on his elephant ; the Bhao 
 disappeared. The rout soon became general ; the head of 
 the Sindia clan was taken fleeing, and Ibrahim fighting. The 
 Afghans entered the town of Panipat and made a universal 
 slaughter. It was reckoned that 200,000 Mahrattas perished in 
 the campaign. Soon after, the Abdali Shah returned to his own 
 country, and Shuja went back to Audh charged with the pro- 
 tection of the House of Taimur. The Emperor's eldest son was 
 made Regent at Delhi, with Najib for his captain general. 
 
 At first sight it seems as if the labours and losses of this 
 campaign were not attended with very important results, but 
 on a little reflection it will appear in fact more decisive. By 
 the depression of the Mahratta confederacy it probably 
 warded off an attack upon Bengal in which Shuja would have 
 taken part, and the still struggling power of the British Com- 
 pany might have been overwhelmed. To the Peshwa, 
 Balaji, the blow was final ; he heard of it as he was crossing 
 the Narbada on his way to take succour to his kinsman ; and, 
 turning his elephant's head, he hastened back to Poona, where 
 he presently after died. 
 
 Almost on the day of the overthrow of the Mahrattas at 
 Panipat the long duel between French and English came to 
 an end. On the 1 5th January Pondicherry surrendered to 
 Colonel Coote, and the fortifications were at once demolished 
 under orders of the British government of Madras. 
 
 The sense of security produced by these events encouraged 
 the filibustering government of Bengal in further adventures. 
 Having extracted as much money as they could out of Mir 
 Kasim, the members of the Council proceeded to quarrel with 
 him on grounds more or less personal. Major Carnac began, 
 indeed, a show of fighting for him against the fugitive Emperor,
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 215 
 
 whom he attacked at Suan, near the town of Bihar, when the 
 Emperor was defeated and M. Law taken prisoner. Next 
 morning, however, the Emperor and Carnac met, and the 
 latter alarmed the Nawab by exaggerated marks of deference 
 to the exiled sovereign, who offered to make the Company 
 Diwan of the province. This post, which involved the whole 
 fiscal and civil administration, was a temptation to which 
 Vansittart, the governor, was not prepared to yield, and 
 Carnac was ere long superseded by Coote, who had returned 
 from the capture of Pondicherry. But he, too, carried on a 
 system of annoyance and alarm to Mir Kasim, in which he was 
 imitated by Mr. Ellis, chief of the factory of Patna. The 
 great bone of contention was the privilege, claimed by every- 
 one in the Company's service, of passing goods free of duty, 
 transit dues being a considerable source of the Nawab's inland 
 revenue. But the favour of the Emperor was also a subject 
 of competition among all parties, since, even in his present 
 desperate circumstances, he was the only centre of legitimate 
 authority in Northern India. For the present he took refuge 
 with Shuja, the Nawab of Audh, who was his titular Vazir. 
 The landless sovereign lived for the next two years under 
 Shuja's protection ; but all parties kept a respectful eye upon 
 him. 
 
 It was not very long before the Calcutta government came 
 to an open dispute with Mir Kasim over the question of the 
 transit duties. Vansittart, who was a moderate man, and had 
 been brought up from Madras by Clive expressly to counteract 
 the corruption of the Bengal Council, was ably seconded by 
 Warren Hastings, whom we noticed in a 756 among the re- 
 fugees at Fulta. Though not unambitious, Hastings was not cor- 
 rupt, and was too honourable to join in the machinations of 
 his colleagues; for which reason Vansittart deputed him to 
 visit the Nawab and endeavour to effect an amicable arrange- 
 ment about the transit dues. As this proved an affair of
 
 216 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 difficulty in the state of the Nawab's temper, Vansittart presently 
 followed in person, and concluded a reasonable agreement, 
 allowing the benefit of the Company's pass to bona-fide imports 
 and exports, but prohibiting evasions of duty by private per- 
 sons. On 28th Jan., 1763, Vansittart returned to Calcutta ; and 
 all appeared to be settled, when the impatience of the Nawab 
 on one side, and of Ellis on the other, frustrated all attempts 
 of the kind. The Council decided that the governor had 
 exceeded his authority, negatived the agreement, and authorised 
 the use of force by Ellis in certain circumstances. The latter 
 lost no time in precipitating a collision, and the Nawab in 
 return sent a body of cavalry to punish the Sepoys employed 
 by Ellis ; at the same time issuing an order remitting all transit 
 dues, and thus putting the traffic of the British and all 
 British officials were then concerned in trade upon an equal 
 footing with the dealings of every native merchant. 
 
 This order was received as a declaration of war by Ellis and 
 his employers, whom Vansittart and Hastings, being in a 
 minority, were unable to counteract. Kasim, on his side, also 
 prepared for the worst. Ellis provoked the collision which 
 precipitated hostilities ; and then attempted to escape ; but was 
 put under arrest by the infuriated Nawab. Mr. Amyatt and 
 some other Englishmen were murdered. The news reached 
 Calcutta on 4th July, and it was immediately resolved to rein- 
 state Mir Jafir, and to proceed to extremities against Kasim. 
 The latter had by this time a body of disciplined infantry 
 amounting to 15,000, with a small force of vagrant Europeans 
 under the command of a French deserter named Walter Rein- 
 hardt, but known locally as " Samru Sahib," or in later days 
 General Sombre. The British force sent from Calcutta, 
 under Major Adams at that moment the senior officer in 
 Bengal was even smaller than that which fought at Plassy ; 
 but it was under a commander hardly inferior in professional 
 ability to Clive himself; and the campaign which followed was
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 217 
 
 almost as brilliant as any known in history. The first en- 
 counter was at Katwa, a few miles south of the village of 
 Plassy, and memorable as the scene of. the council of war held 
 before the great battle. After a sharp contest, in which the 
 Nawab's cavalry lost its general, the enemy retreated ; and next 
 day Adams conducted Jafir back to his old palace in Mur- 
 shidabad (the 23rd July). A week later they were again met by 
 Kasim's army at the village of Ghena, not far from the old 
 Mughal capital of Gaur. A severe action ensued, in which at 
 first the enemy had a distinct advantage, but after four hours 
 of hard fighting the enemy fled once more, leaving their guns 
 and commissariat. Continuing their march on Patna, the 
 victors found their way barred at the pass of Udwa Nala, 
 near Rajmahal, where the hills almost touched the Ganges. 
 Here Kasim intrenched his army for a final stand, having col- 
 lected so many men that they were rumoured to number no 
 less than 60,000. His English prisoners were detained as 
 hostages ; the unfortunate Ram Narain and other Hindus of 
 consequence were murdered by being drowned in the river. 
 Adams was again successful, and captured the works on igth 
 August, after an obstinate struggle. The Nawab hurried to 
 Patna with his prisoners, sending word to Adams that if he 
 advanced they should all be put to death. The same mes- 
 sengers brought a letter from the brave Englishmen desiring 
 that no consideration for their safety might retard the advance. 
 Adams moved on, and Kasim carried out his infamous threat, 
 employing Samru and his Sepoys to massacre Ellis and all his 
 company about one hundred and fifty-five persons in all. 
 He then fled into the Audh territory. In that October Patna 
 was taken by storm, but the gallant commander of the vic- 
 torious army did not long survive his success. Major Adams 
 died on the i6th January, 1764, as he was about to set sail for 
 home, worn out by his glorious exertions. 
 
 Mir Kasim at first was kindly received by the Nawab of
 
 218 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Audh, who was at that time in the neighbourhood of Allaha- 
 bad, accompanied by the Emperor Shah Alam. Kasim was 
 still reputed rich, and was followed by many good troops, in- 
 cluding the brigade under Samru. By the request of his host 
 he employed his force in quelling some disturbances in 
 Bundelkhand, while Shuja and the Emperor proceeded to 
 Benares. 
 
 The condition of affairs in Hindustan was hardly such as to 
 inspire Shah Alam with any immediate hope of a restoration. 
 The battle of Panipat had indeed broken the Mahrattas for 
 the present, and prevented the Hindu revival being matured 
 under a general alliance of indigenous races. Nevertheless, 
 there were no less than four Hindu powers whose coalition 
 might at any time take place, and form an obstacle to the re- 
 covery of the Empire. These were : first, the Mahrattas, 
 beaten but not destroyed; next, the proud but indolent 
 Rajputs ; third, the Jats of Bhurtpore ; and, lastly, the Sikhs 
 of the Punjab, slowly learning the secret of combination, and 
 beginning to oppose the Afghans with boldness and some 
 success : one of their chiefs, Ala Sinh, having actually wrested 
 Sirhind from the Abdali in 1762. 
 
 Leaving the other tribes for the present, we turn to the in- 
 fluence of the Jats in the immediate vicinity of Delhi. Najib, 
 whom the Abdali had left in charge in 1761, executed his 
 hard task with his accustomed prudence. The Mahratta ad- 
 ministration was usually beyond their own confines a mere 
 matter of collecting money; and their collectors were for the 
 moment expelled, in consequence of the defeat of their grand 
 army, in January, 1761. But the power of the Jats who had 
 escaped that disaster became very irksome, until the trouble 
 seemed to culminate when they obtained possession of the 
 fortified Palace of the Emperors at Agra, whence they domi- 
 nated the town and surrounding country. About the same 
 time their chieftain, Suraj Mall, made himself master of several
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 219 
 
 strong places to the south-west of Delhi, so that the capital 
 was becoming hemmed in, and in a manner commanded, on 
 every side save that which was open to the Sikhs. In the 
 winter of 1763-4 the Jat chief attacked some small states on 
 the Jumna, just bordering upon the Imperial demesne, and 
 carried his audacity so far as to go hunting in the Park of 
 Shadara, close to the city. Here he was encountered, with a 
 small attendance, by some Mughal horsemen, by whom he 
 was killed ; but his son immediately assumed the chiefship at 
 Agra, and took up a position of alliance with Holkar, and of 
 hostility to all the friends of order. 
 
 [n the meantime, great events were pending in Bengal. 
 Shuja and the Emperor, being joined by Mir Kasim, crossed 
 the Bihar frontier and threatened Patna, where Carnac was in 
 a state of great uneasiness owing to the mutinous spirit of his 
 men. Major Munro about this time taking charge from 
 Carnac, restored discipline by measures of well-timed severity ; 
 and then awaited the cessation of the rains, when he marched 
 against the allied Nawabs. On the i5th September, 1764, he 
 broke up from Patna, and on the 2nd October he arrived at 
 Baksar on the borders of Bihar and the Nawab's territory, or, 
 rather, that of the Raja of Benares, who was the Nawab's 
 tributary. By this time Kasim had left the camp, but his dis- 
 ciplined battalions and batteries had been engaged by Shuja, 
 whose whole force now amounted to fifty thousand men, with 
 field-pieces and guns of position. He was particularly strong 
 in cavalry, including five thousand Afghan men-at-arms who 
 had shared in the victory of Panipat. Shuja had studied the 
 ground, which he had first occupied six months before, and 
 where he was now so strongly posted that, if he had only 
 waited to be attacked, he might have beaten off the compara- 
 tively small force of his assailants. The British troops were 
 less than eleven thousand ; they had some six thousand Sepoys 
 and nine hundred native horsemen ; but the Nawab issued too
 
 220 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 confidently from his position, ami was beaten after a three 
 hours' fight, in which two thousand of his men were killed or 
 wounded. The rout soon became complete and hopeless ; 
 two thousand more were drowned in attempting to escape, but 
 the want of cavalry rendered pursuit impossible. Shuja fled 
 to Allahabad, and, finding that the British continued to 
 advance, retired to Bareilly, finally joining Malhar Rao Holkar, 
 who had returned to the Duab. Carnac rejoined the army 
 with the rank of brigadier-general, Munro having left for 
 England. The Mahrattas were driven across the Jumna, and 
 Samru departed to seek his fortune elsewhere. The Emperor 
 came over to the British camp, renewing his offer of the 
 Diwdni, which was accepted this time. In February, 1765, 
 Mir Jafir died, and his son was made Nawab ; but the treaty 
 with the Emperor which soon followed enabled the Calcutta 
 Council to reduce his power to a nullity. The terms of the 
 treaty which was concluded i2th August, 1765 confirmed 
 Shuja as Nawab of Audh, but gave the Emperor the province 
 of Allahabad with a charge upon the Bengal revenues amount- 
 ing to two-and-a-half millions of rupees per annum, in consider- 
 ation whereof the Company was granted the Diwani of the 
 eastern provinces, together with the districts of Benares and 
 Ghazipur as an imperial fief. These arrangements were made by 
 Clive, who had returned to Bengal as governor in May, 1765. 
 It has been usual to regard Clive's victory at Plassy as the 
 decisive battle of British India. But it is evident that it was 
 not comparable to the battle of Baksar. Plassy indeed may 
 be almost said to have had no direct or immediate result be- 
 yond a palace revolution. It was Baksar which, coming after 
 the dazzling successes of Adams, conferred upon the Company 
 and its officers a legitimate status as servants and feudatories of 
 the Mughal Empire and virtual masters of Bihar, Bengal, and 
 Orissa by Imperial grant : though Orissa as we shall see 
 really remained subject to the Mahrattas for many years.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 221 
 
 It only remains to be added, in this connection, that Muha- 
 mad Raza Khan, a nobleman of Patna, was made Deputy 
 Administrator under the Company. The new Nawab objected, 
 and endeavoured to procure the appointment for Nand Kumar ; 
 but the Nawab had become so mere a cypher that his wishes 
 were overruled at once. All non-official Europeans were at 
 the same time ordered to wind up their affairs and leave the 
 country; while, to guard against future danger of corruption, 
 engagements were taken from officials not to receive money 
 from the natives. 
 
 For the next few years the Eastern Provinces had peace, if 
 not prosperity. Clive's intentions were noble, but it may be 
 doubted whether anything, in either his character or previous 
 experience, qualified him to lay the foundations of a new ad- 
 ministrative edifice. The conditions were as unprecedented 
 as the materials were hard to find. And Clive retired from 
 India altogether in 1767, leaving the difficult task to even less 
 qualified hands. " His strong will and dauntless courage," as 
 has been observed elsewhere,* "had quelled a mutiny among 
 his English officers and overborne all resistance within his own 
 council. In spite of cabals around him, and a grudging sup- 
 port in England, he had swept away some crying abuses in the 
 Company's service, had retrenched some wasteful outlay, and 
 done much to atone for the corruption, violence, and blundering 
 of the past years." But after Clive's departure the Company's 
 affairs in Bengal fell back to something like their old disorder. 
 What is called '* Dual Government " went on in its most per- 
 nicious form, the administration being carried on by Asiatics, 
 whom their existing conditions obliged to be selfish, while the 
 responsibility was borne by Europeans who knew nothing of 
 the details, and were still hankering after personal emolument. 
 That, of course, was natural enough, seeing the example of 
 their predecessors, and the anxiety they all felt to get back to 
 
 * " History of India," L. J. Trotter. S. I>. C. K., London, 1889.
 
 222 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 their native country with the means of enjoyment. Nor was it 
 until some time later that the notion now so obvious oc- 
 curred to any one in power that all reasonable expectations of 
 this sort could be best met by an enhanced scale of pay. Thus, 
 and thus only, could the attractions of Indian service be main- 
 tained, while its temptations for men of ordinary virtue were 
 abolished. 
 
 In theory the Eastern Provinces consisted of three divisions, 
 all of which were conveyed by the firmdn of 1765. But 
 Orissa was mainly in the hands of the collectors of Mahratta 
 blackmail. The famine of 1770 fell on this province with great 
 severity, as did a local dearth seven years later. The division of 
 Orissa did not really come under British management till 1803. 
 Of the remaining divisions Bengal was nominally ruled by the 
 Nawab, who was a cypher, as above mentioned. But the 
 powers of the Company were delegated to native deputies, 
 with whom was associated a Board of British Commissioners at 
 head-quarters ; while a number of young men of the same nation 
 were scattered over the country under the title of " supervisors," 
 the duty of these persons being to check the oppressions of 
 native officials, while they guarded the interests of the Com- 
 pany. In other words, they were to see that proper collections 
 were made,and that the monies were paid into the Treasury with- 
 out embezzlement. But the plan proved more than dubious. 
 The supervisors, as Warren Hastings said, were the " boys of the 
 service and very heavy rulers of the people." The Council 
 in. Calcutta, the Board at Mushidabad, were alike unfit to keep 
 them to their due position, the members having returned to 
 many of the money-getting practices which Clive had endea- 
 voured to eradicate. The control of the revenue administration 
 was ere long removed to Calcutta, and conducted through 
 British collectors ; but the criminal jurisdiction was left in the 
 hands of native judges, who administered Muhamadan law. 
 
 In 1770 a terrible famine fell upon Bengal, and the wrath of
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 223 
 
 Nature was added to the oppressions of man. One-third of the 
 population of Bengal is said to have perished, and much cul- 
 turable land went out of tillage. Necessarily the revenue fell off, 
 and the Company had to pay dear for having substituted the 
 throne for the counting-house stool. In 1772 they had to apply 
 to the King's Government for a loan to save them from insol- 
 vency. And the conditions on which it was granted included 
 a covenant to pay ^"400,000 a year to the Exchequer. A Select 
 Committee was appointed to inquire into Indian matters and 
 report to Parliament. 
 
 In this way the ship of State was launched in India, and 
 went staggering through the storms of her first voyages. In 
 judging the conduct of the British officials of the period we 
 must bear in mind two points : political morality was not very 
 squeamish even in English public life, and in much higher 
 social and political spheres than theirs. From the days of 
 Walpole to the last quarter of the century "every man had his 
 price." And it was hardly to be supposed that young clerks 
 would expatriate themselves to a life of danger and privation if 
 they had not a good hope of early and handsome fortune. 
 That is the first excuse for these men. The other is noted by 
 Elphinstone. The gifts that they received were, generally 
 speaking, rather of the nature of thankofferings for services 
 already rendered than of inducements to wrong-doing. Such 
 gifts were in the custom of the country. 
 
 In the meantime the Emperor continued to live as a pensioner 
 at Allahabad, eagerly looking out for an opportunity of return to 
 the palace of his ancestors. That opportunity at last arrived 
 as, it is said, everything does to him who can only wait. His 
 last adviser was a Persian nobleman, Mirza Najaf Khan, who 
 had been a client of that Muhamad Kuli who was slain at 
 Allahabad in 1760. On that occasion he had been led to seek 
 the protection of Clive, by whom he was recommended to the 
 Emperor after the battle of Baksar and the consequent arrange-
 
 224 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 ments. The Mirza was now nominated to the charge of the 
 district of Kora, the modern " Fatehpur," and here he found 
 plenty of employment in the protection of the road and the 
 general restoration of order. Other of the Imperial ministers 
 are mentioned in the well-known Siyar-ul-mutdkharin, but none 
 are of historical importance. 
 
 Among the Mahrattas, also, the years that immediately fol- 
 lowed the grant of the Diivani in 1765 were uneventful. 
 Malhar Rao Holkar did not long survive his defeat by Carnac. 
 He died in 1765 without issue surviving ; and the affairs of his 
 state in South Malwa were ably carried on by his son's widow, 
 the good and popular Ahalia Bai, who founded Indore, the pre- 
 sent capital of the Holkars ; the military department was entrus- 
 ted to a faithful servant known as Tukaji Holkar. The Peshwa 
 Balaji, whose death after Panipat has been already mentioned, 
 was succeeded by his son, Madhava Rao, the actual power at 
 Poona being in the hands of the young man's uncle, Rughnath 
 Rao, known to the English as " Ragoba." In 1 769 the army of 
 the confederacy had taken the field under Visaji Krishn, the 
 quarter-master-general; and being joined by the Malwa contin- 
 gent commenced a systematic plunder in the Jat country, and a 
 desultory warfare ensued fora year or more. It will be remem- 
 bered that Suraj Mall was now dead, and Najib was reasserting 
 the position of the Delhi Government. At length the Mahrattas, 
 becoming successful over the Jats, the latter were at once de- 
 serted by Samru and generally isolated. The Abdali Shah 
 having retired from the Cis Satlaj, the Mahrattas profited by 
 his absence to cross the Chambal, occupy the Bhurtpore 
 country, and open negotiations with Najib. Their object was 
 that they might levy black mail up to the borders of the Delhi 
 territory without giving offence to the Muslim authorities, who 
 might at any time bring back their Afghan sympathisers. 
 
 It was therefore to Visaji and his powerful coadjutors from 
 Malwa that Shah Alam now turned for aid in recovering Delhi.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 225 
 
 Najib's good qualities were admitted on all hands, but his 
 Pathans were rough and covetous, so that the people under- 
 went much oppression and extortion at their hands. Their 
 treatment, writes the author of the Siyar, could not be 
 described without violating decency ; nor would the descrip- 
 tion answer any purpose. "The sufferers have suffered, and 
 what is past is past." Natural nostalgia was thus enhanced in 
 the Shah's mind by a sense of duty towards his people. And 
 if Najib's presence at Delhi had acted as a hindrance it was re- 
 moved very opportunely, for he died in October, 1770, leaving 
 his estates about Saharanpur to his son, Zabita Khan, who also 
 endeavoured to maintain himself in the government at Delhi. 
 But Zabita was both feeble and false, and he neither carried 
 on honest, straightforward dealings with the Mahrattas nor 
 sought alliances elsewhere. He was accordingly attacked and 
 chased from Delhi by the southern invaders, who, at the same 
 time, drove the Rohillas out of the Upper Duab, and opened 
 negotiations with the Shah at Allahabad. 
 
 [See Elphinstone's " Rise of British Power " (with Supple- 
 ment) and Malleson's " Decisive Battles of India," also 
 " Rulers of India " series, " W. Hastings," " Sindia," &c.] 
 
 SECTION 2. The grant of the Diwani that followed the 
 battle of Baksar had been the means of settling the affairs of 
 Bengal and Bihar; and the offensive and defensive alliance 
 with the Nawab Vazir Shuja-ud-daula completed the security 
 of those provinces. The chief interest of Anglo-Indian his- 
 tory was thus transferred to the south of the peninsula, where 
 likewise the alliance of the Nizam afforded some security, and 
 where the French ceased to cause any very serious anxiety. 
 Nevertheless, there were two native states from whose hostility 
 long troubles were engendered. These were the Mahrattas, 
 still dreaming of conquest in Hindustan, and the Muslim power 
 of Mysore, under the usurper Haidar Ali, the ablest and most 
 
 Q
 
 226 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 persevering Asiatic enemy ever encountered by the British in 
 India. 
 
 The first step taken by the Mahrattas, it is now easy to per- 
 ceive, was one which, however alarming, was an indication that 
 the central power of their confederacy was giving way. The 
 arrangements for the restoration of the Emperor, Shah Alam, 
 were conducted, not by the Peshwa's Government at Poona, so 
 much as by two quasi-dependent chiefs. Of one of these, 
 Tukaji Holkar, something has already been said. He repre- 
 sented the Regency of southern Malwa, presided over by 
 Ahalya Bai. His colleague, who was jdgirddr, or Lord- 
 Lieutenant, of the northern part of Malwa, and was extending 
 his possessions towards the Chambal, was an illegitimate son of 
 Ranoji Sindia, who had been killed at Panipat. Escaping 
 from that disaster with a wound that made him lame for life, 
 Mahadaji Sindia had assumed the leadership of the clan. He 
 was a sworn foe of the Pathans, whom he regarded as the 
 authors of the temporary ruin of his nation and family, 
 while Tukaji Holkar was distinctly favourable to the party 
 of the late Najib. When the negotiation began Tukaji 
 was the prime mover. There is no record of the methods 
 by which the concurrence of Sindia was obtained, but 
 the transaction received the sanction of the Poona durbar, 
 to which both these chiefs professed subjection ; the Shah 
 covenanting to pay ten lakhs (one million) of rupees, and to give 
 up to the Mahrattas the districts which had been assigned for 
 his support by the British in 1765. To these arrangements 
 Sindia was a consenting party. 
 
 The British Council in Calcutta, on the other hand, were not 
 made aware of the terms ; nevertheless they attempted to dis- 
 suade the Shah from leaving their protection. The Nawab of 
 Audh, who, as hereditary Vazir of the empire, had every claim 
 to be consulted, added arguments of his own. But the advice 
 was disregarded, and the Shah advanced up the Duab in 1771,
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 227 
 
 accompanied to the frontier of the province of Allahabad by a 
 British detachment. His personal following was under the 
 command of Mirza Najaf, and included a mounted bodyguard 
 of Ahdis, or gentlemen cadets, and a small force of infantry 
 called "The Red battalion," commanded by a Frenchman 
 named Medoc, who had formerly been in Samru's Brigade. 
 Sindia, who was resolved to make his profit out of the affair, 
 met them about the end of the rains at Farukhabad, and accom- 
 panied the rest of the march. On the 25th December, 1771, 
 the Emperor re-entered the city of Shahjahan, and took posses- 
 sion of the famous " Red Castle," or fortified Palace. Zabita 
 fell back on the head of the Duab, where he had several strong 
 places in what are now the districts of Muzafarnagar and Saha- 
 ranpur, besides a stronghold across the Ganges, not far from 
 Bijnor. This fort was called Pathargarh, the town founded 
 about it by Najib being named after its founder, Najibabad. 
 Sindia soon persuaded the Shah to aid his schemes of ven- 
 geance by marching against the Pathan chief; and Shuja, 
 the Nawab Vazir, promised co-operation in Rohilkhand, a 
 province on which he was, perhaps, already casting a greedy 
 glance. 
 
 The passage of the Ganges was easily effected, the river in 
 those parts being fordable at that season of the year. The aid 
 of the Rohillas was withheld from their brother Pathan from 
 fear of the Nawab Shuja ; so that Zabita was obliged to fly in 
 such haste that he left all his treasure in Pathargarh along with 
 his family, who fell into the hands of the Emperor. But not 
 for long ; the Mahrattas appropriated the whole of the spoil, 
 making friends with Zabita soon after, on the basis of Beati 
 possidentes, but handing his women and children over to him 
 for a further ransom. 
 
 These measures proving distasteful to Mirza Najaf, he quar- 
 relled with his Hindu allies, who forthwith seized the palace and 
 person of the sovereign. The Rohillas, for their part, affected 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 to seek the protection of their powerful neighbour, the Nawab 
 of Audh, and concluded a treaty with him nth July, 1772. In 
 this they bound themselves to pay him forty lakhs of rupees on 
 condition of his expelling the Mahrattas.* Zabita Khan was 
 made a party to this arrangement. Sindia, remaining neutral, 
 retired towards Jaipur, where he awaited events, supporting his 
 army meanwhile by contributions levied from the Rajputs. 
 Holkar, not being animated by the same vindictive feelings, 
 took the part of Zabita, of whose share in the Rohilla treaty he 
 was probably ignorant, and whose aid he reckoned upon during 
 his approaching absence in his own country. But the Mirza 
 made a firm resistance, obtaining the support of the Nawab of 
 Audh, and promising to renew the attack on Rohilkhand. 
 Holkar was impatient to get back to Poona, whence news 
 of the Peshwa's death had been received ; and the upshot 
 was that the Mirza remained in office, and a Mahratta force 
 occupied the central Duab, and made a raid upon the 
 Rohillas. 
 
 The new Peshwa was desirous of shaking off the control of his 
 uncle, the Regent, and with this view had ordered the recall of 
 Sindiaand Holkar, on whose support he had reckoned. But before 
 they could obey the summons the unfortunate young man had 
 followed his brother in a premature death ; and Raguba made 
 himself Peshwa, and commenced hostilities against the Muslim 
 states to the southward, Haidarabad and Mysore. But he was 
 promptly recalled to Poona by the intelligence that his deceased 
 nephew's widow had borne a posthumous son, whose right to 
 the succession was acknowledged by the durbar. He attempted 
 force, but met with a defeat under the walls of Poona, and hur- 
 ried northward in the hope of conciliating the returning armies. 
 Raguba reached Ahalya Bai's new capital of Indore at the 
 moment when Sindia and Holkar arrived there from Hindustan. 
 
 *"The Vuzeer shall establish the Rohillas, obliging the Mahrattas to 
 retire, the Rohilla Sirdars to pay the Vuzeer 40 lakhs of rupis," etc. Text 
 of Treaty, in Hamilton's " Rohillas."
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 229 
 
 Both promised their support, and they then turned into 
 Gujarat to seek the co-operation of the Gaikwar. Their next 
 step was to solicit help from the British Presidency of Bombay, 
 where a desire for territorial expansion was known, or sus- 
 pected to exist. Twenty-eight miles north of Bombay was 
 the old Portuguese harbour of Bassain, now in the do- 
 minions of the Peshwa ; while, nearer still, the extensive 
 island of Salsette commanded the port of Bombay itself. The 
 Bombay Council agreed, on condition of receiving possession 
 of these two places, that they would furnish a force of 1,500 
 men to the armies under Raguba. On hearing of these nego- 
 tiations the Portuguese sent a claim to Bassain and Salsette, 
 upon which Mr. Hornby, the head of the Presidency, on his 
 own responsibility, took summary possession of both. This 
 took place in 1774, and was immediately followed by a breach 
 between Raguba and the chiefs, on whose alliance he had 
 reckoned. It is probable that Holkar's mistress, the Bai, was 
 opposed to such dismemberment of Mahratta power. Sindia 
 and Holkar turned upon Raguba, who fled to British protec- 
 tion in December of that year ; and the Bombay contingent at 
 once set out with Raguba to attack Poona. 
 
 While the Mahrattas were thus engaged in their own coun- 
 try, Mirza Najaf took advantage of their absence to do what 
 might be possible to bring good government back to Hindu- 
 stan; and for nearly nine years that long-disturbed country 
 enjoyed some measure of repose. The Mahrattas, however, 
 had not entirely withdrawn their garrisons, and they main- 
 tained friendly relations with the disaffected Pathans, with 
 Hafiz Rahmat, Protector of Rohilkand, and with the disap- 
 pointed Zabita, their connection, always intriguing for the 
 recovery of the position once held by his deceased father. 
 On the other hand, the Nawab of Audh supported the Mirza 
 who was a Shia like himself and kept his eye on the province 
 that lay between his own territories and the Upper Duab.
 
 230 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 It has long been usual to think of the Rohillas as lawful rulers 
 of this province, and to regard them as favourable examples of 
 Asiatic rulers, under whom the agriculture and commerce of 
 the country were fairly prosperous. Judging, however, from con- 
 temporary records, nothing can be more erroneous than these 
 opinions. The Rohillas were foreign adventurers, at feud 
 among themselves, grasping and perfidious, agreed in nothing 
 but in misgoverning their usurped possessions and plundering 
 the people.* The Protector showed no anxiety about the 
 Mahratta garrisons, but the Nawab carried out his under- 
 taking; by the end of October, 1773, he had driven them not 
 only out of Rohilkand, but across the Duab and over the 
 Jumna. He then claimed the money which had been the 
 stipulated price of that service. 
 
 With regard to the suggestion that Shuja may have been for 
 some time desirous of rounding off his territory at the expense 
 of the Rohillas, we can only be guided by conjecture ; there 
 being no direct evidence. But the time and place were both 
 favourable to selfishness; and it may well have seemed a 
 small thing to the Nawab Vazir that he, who had, at least, a 
 legitimate position in the Empire, should add to the province 
 in his charge another which was essential to its defence. For 
 three generations, now, his house had been supporters of the 
 tottering throne ; the Rohillas were intruders of thirty years' 
 standing. They could not defend the country from Hindu 
 marauders, with whom indeed they were, it was strongly sus- 
 pected, in collusion. So he called upon them to pay the 
 money they had covenanted for under the late treaty ; and, on 
 this being refused, took serious measures to foreclose. It was a 
 matter of comparative ease to obtain a patent from the chan- 
 cery of Delhi for the transfer of the province ; the Rohillas 
 had been recently in rebellion, and the imperial government 
 
 * " A band of mercenary soldiers occupied Rohilcund " (Macaulay's 
 " Clive "). See also Strachey's " Hastings and the Rohilla War."
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 231 
 
 was in the hands of Shuja's friend and deputy, Mirza Najaf. 
 But material difficulties might well be expected, and it was 
 against these that the Nawab next proceeded to provide. 
 It will be right to remember that a treaty, offensive and defen- 
 sive, existed between the Nawab and the members of the 
 Bengal Council, who in fact owed a good deal of the pros- 
 perity of their government to that agreement. The Nawab 
 now called upon the Governor-General to fulfil their obliga- 
 tions under the treaty of 1765, which bound them to supply 
 troops, to be paid by the Nawab whenever he should require 
 them. 
 
 By this time a great political change had taken place in 
 Bengal. As the civil officers became more experienced and 
 competent, the evils of Clive's dual government became more 
 apparent. It had never been anything but a temporary make- 
 shift ; the Court of Directors, indeed, had fully approved its 
 adoption in 1765, but times had since changed. The revenues 
 of the company were falling off, and the debt was increasing ; 
 while public opinion in England was taking umbrage at the 
 wealth of the " nabobs," those returned Anglo-Indians who 
 came among them, like unbidden upstarts, to raise the price 
 of " fresh eggs and rotten boroughs." The Company recorded 
 a resolution to "stand forth as Diwan," sending out orders 
 to Bengal accordingly ; and the carrying out of the measure 
 lay in able and willing hands. Warren Hastings whom we 
 last saw aiding Vansittart to protect Mir Kasim against his 
 own temper, and that of their colleagues in council had since 
 those days been for some time in England, and had then come 
 out to a post at Madras. In 1772 he received orders to pro- 
 ceed to Calcutta and take charge of the Presidency. He 
 found a heavy burden awaiting him : not only was he to take 
 over the direct collection of the revenues, but he was to hold 
 an inquiry if necessary a trial into the conduct of those 
 native officials under whom the revenues had been collected
 
 232 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 hitherto, that is Raza Khan and his associate deputy in Bihar. 
 He was to introduce purity, pay debts, abolish deficit, and 
 generally bring in the golden age. And for all these reforms 
 he could only employ the existing machinery a council whose 
 members were the chief fosterers and beneficiaries of the old 
 system, and in which he had only a casting vote in case of 
 equal divisions. 
 
 To an fficial so pressed every expedient that an honest 
 man could adopt must evidently have been welcome, and that 
 was the situation of Hastings. Accordingly, the tribute paid 
 to the Shah was sequestered on the ground of his having him- 
 self broken the treaty by going to Delhi, contrary to the 
 opinion and express desire of the Calcutta Council ; and the 
 districts which he had, also in violation of the spirit of the 
 treaty, at the same time assigned to the common enemy, were 
 now made over to the Nawab. And when the latter pro- 
 ceeded to call upon the Bengal Government to equip and send 
 to his aid troops to be maintained by him and employed 
 against the Rohjllas, the Council supported Hastings in a com- 
 pliance which, because it was convenient, was not thereby 
 rendered less obligatory. At the same time, the Home 
 Government, acting on the report of a parliamentary com- 
 mittee, got an act passed known as " The Regulating Act " 
 whereby the salaries of the officials were raised, the control 
 of all political affairs was put under the Bengal Government, 
 and the head of that Presidency was raised to the office of 
 " Governor-General." Hastings rose at once to the responsi- 
 bilities of his new dignity. His tone is already worthy of a 
 great ruler, influenced, not coerced, by enlightened public 
 opinion. He supplied not without misgiving, yet with evi- 
 dent conviction that it was the right course the aid de- 
 manded by the Nawab. The brigade set out, and a last 
 summons to pay having been disregarded the Rohillas were 
 attacked in the spring of 1774. On 23rd of April they were
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 233 
 
 defeated at the battle of Katra, near Bareilly ; the Protector 
 being cut in two by a round-shot.* 
 
 Mirza Najaf and the imperial troops were prevented from 
 taking part in this campaign by troubles in Bhurtpore, whose 
 new Raja advanced upon the capital and took Sikandrabad, 
 and while the Mirza was engaged in chastising his insolence, 
 Zabita broke out again in the northern Duab. About this 
 time (January, 1775) Shuja died, and his son, Asaf-ud-daula, 
 on assuming the succession, testified respect for the Court of 
 Delhi by the transmission of a prayer for investiture, accom- 
 panied by the usual gifts. Luckily for the Shah, the mission 
 was in charge of a good officer, named Latafat Khan, having 
 command of a force of 5,000 regular sepoys and a detail of 
 artillery. Zabita Khan, who had been negotiating with the 
 Cis Sutlaj Sikhs, was awed by the arrival of this reinforce- 
 ment, and withdrew from the districts near the capital. In the 
 meantime the Mirza had gained such successes over the Jats 
 that they retired to their own country, deserted by Samru, who 
 came over to him and entered the imperial service. His 
 original patron, Mir Kasim, was at this time living in utter 
 destitution near Delhi, haunted continually by fears of being 
 delivered to the British Government. He died in 1777, and 
 his last shawl was sold to pay the funeral expenses of one who 
 had once ruled a realm and commanded armies. 
 
 Zabita was pursued as soon as the Mir/a got back from his 
 Jat campaign ; he was overtaken on his way to the Punjab, 
 but pardoned and allowed to go back to his estates in the 
 Upper Duab. 
 
 * For the merits of this question the reader is referred to Mill, edited by 
 II. H. Wilson, and the work of Sir J. Strachey (" Hastings and the Rohilla 
 War," Oxford, 1892). When the Rohilla war was brought up as one of 
 the charges against Hastings, Pitt, and the majority of the house, voted 
 against the proposal, and the charge was accordingly withdrawn. See also 
 Hamilton, " Rohillas," etc., London, 1787.'
 
 234 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 In the meantime Raza Khan and his colleague, Raja 
 Shatab Rai, had been acquitted, and Nand Kumar, who had 
 hoped to ruin them, had brought ruin on himself while 
 engaged in forging charges of corruption against Mr. Hastings. 
 Nand Kumar was hanged, on a conviction of forgery, 5th 
 August, 1775, and with him disappeared the last vestige of 
 native statesmanship in Bengal.* Opposed by Philip Francis, 
 who hungered for the reversion of his great office, the Governor- 
 General defended his position with dignity, and applied all 
 the powers of his able and experienced mind to the problems 
 before him. One of these was the rectifying of British 
 relations with the Mahrattas, and the vindication of the 
 Supreme Government as a paramount authority over the minor 
 Presidencies. The Bombay Factory continued to negotiate 
 and fight without sanction from Calcutta, in defiance of the 
 Regulation Act; and in 1775 made a fresh treaty with Raguba, 
 who confirmed the recent annexation of Bassain and Salsette. 
 Colonel Keating led their sepoys to the valley of the Tapli, 
 and fought the troops of the Poona Regency at Aras on the 
 Bay of Cambay, i8th May, 1775; and on the loth of the 
 following month he drove them across the Narbada at Bhaopir 
 near Baroch. Francis, having then a majority in Council, 
 sent down an officer to treat with the Regency ; and after some 
 discussion terms were arrived at which were embodied in the 
 treaty of Purandhar, which was signed on the ist Match, 1776. 
 It annulled the engagement between Hornby and Raguba; 
 the former's pretensions to treat being disavowed, and the 
 latter required to disband his troops and retire on a pension. 
 Salsette and Bassain were left to future arrangement. Hornby's 
 Council protested against this treaty ; and on the 2oth August 
 orders came out from London which, in the opinion of the 
 Bombay authorities, virtually set aside its provisions. By 
 
 * Raza Khan was employed again, but merely as a subordinate 
 administrator.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 235 
 
 November Raguba was in the field again, countenanced by 
 Hastings, and supported actively by the Council of Bombay. 
 But the expedition proved a total failure, owing to the 
 imbecility of General Carnac, whose record in Bengal had not 
 prevented his re-employment in the Bombay Presidency. On 
 the i4th January, 1779, tne force was enveloped by the enemy 
 at Wadgaon, on the mountain road leading to Poona ; and 
 Carnac feebly threw his guns into a pond, and surrendered to 
 Sindia, who was rapidly rising to the head of Mahratta affairs. 
 
 Meanwhile a detachment of the Bengal army sent by 
 Hastings, who had recovered his ascendency in the Calcutta 
 Council, was crossing India to the rescue of Bombay. Colonel 
 Goddard crossed the Narbada 2nd December, and arrived at 
 Surat 6th February, avoiding an encounter with a body of 
 20,000 cavalry sent from Poona to intercept him. On loth 
 April, he opened negotiations with the durbar, on the basis of 
 the abrogated treaty of Purandhar. But he dealt separately 
 with Sindia, whose mediation at Wadgaon had been noticed 
 and appreciated, and whom Hastings had already marked as a 
 possible ally in the future. Goddard was careful to avoid any 
 implication with the domestic disputes of the Mahrattas in any 
 other direction ; and no further attempt was made to force 
 Raguba upon an unwilling community. Nevertheless Goddard 
 positively refused to surrender the fugitive to the mercy of the 
 durbar ; and the durbar accordingly refused to make peace. 
 Goddard reluctantly resumed hostilities. Ahmadabad, the 
 capital of Gujarat, was stormed by his orders on 151!! February, 
 1780, and Holkar and Sindia immediately advanced towards 
 the British head-quarters at Baroda ; and matters looked 
 serious for Hastings, who had already on his hands the French, 
 the Dutch, and the implacable old tyrant- warrior of Mysore, 
 Haidar Ali. 
 
 Still, no overt act of hostility was committed by the Mah- 
 rattas ; Holkar was under the influence of his colleague's
 
 236 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 stronger and more reflective mind; and that colleague was 
 evidently beginning to reconsider the situation. Sindia dis- 
 missed the hostages whom the Bombay officers had delivered 
 to him for the fulfilment of the convention of Wadgaon, and 
 endeavoured to sound Goddard as to the terms that he might 
 expect if he were to treat separately. As he was found out to 
 be at the same time treating with the enemies of the British, no 
 definite answer was made, and the war continued. Towards 
 the end of 1779 it was believed that a general confederacy was 
 begun, having for its object the expulsion of the British from 
 India, the first, but not the last, demonstration of the want of 
 union and collective patriotism among the native chiefs of that 
 day. It was therefore resolved by Hastings to distract the 
 attention of Sindia by an attack on those northern possessions 
 to which the astute Mahratta trusted for the maintenance 
 of his connection with Hindustan ; and this was done by a 
 march through neutral territory, and an attack on Gwalior. 
 Gwalior, it may be remembered, was a district of the Agra pro- 
 vince in which the Mughals had a rock-fort which was used as 
 a sort of state-prison for political captives of high rank ; and so 
 perpendicular is the scarped sandstone, and so strong are the 
 walls, that the veteran Coote declared in council that it would 
 be madness to attempt its capture. But Major Popham, the 
 officer selected by Hastings for the command of this column, 
 was of another opinion; and, being ably seconded'by Captain 
 Bruce, surprised the Fort of Gwalior in a night-attack, without 
 a single life being lost. The date of this memorable per- 
 formance is 3rd August, 1780 ; and it had an immediate effect 
 on the current of the war. 
 
 Sindia was becoming uneasy. On the one hand he was not 
 quite prepared to shake off either alliance with Tukaji and the 
 Holkars or his feudatory relations with the Poona Regency ; 
 on the other, he was beginning to see that he had in Hastings no 
 common antagonist, but one whose continued hostility might
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL ETC. 237 
 
 be a peril to his plans. Nor was he given time for hesitation. 
 It is true that Popham shortly after made over his charge to a 
 senior (Colonel Carnac), who was far from being his equal in 
 skill and daring; but Bruce remained, and by his advice a night- 
 attack was once more hazarded. Sindia had joined his army and 
 was, in fact, commanding in person, and recovering control of 
 the country about Gwalior, when Bruce suddenly beat up his 
 quarters, 24th March, 1781. The surprise was complete, and 
 Sindia fled, losing all his tents, baggage, and elephants, but 
 gaining a lesson which proved to him well worth the price. 
 He at once took up the negotiations for peace with which his 
 friends at Poona had been only dallying; and on the i3th 
 October of the same year had the satisfaction of learning, 
 through Colonel Muir, who had succeeded Carnac, that the 
 Governor-General was prepared to treat on an honourable basis. 
 Hastings restored to Sindia all that had been taken from him 
 in the course of the war, on the sole condition of his obtaining 
 a treaty of peace from the durbar. The immediate result was 
 the Treaty of Salbai, by virtue of which Upper India became 
 divided into what in modern language would be called " two 
 spheres of influence;" and Sindia was substituted for the 
 Peshwa as the virtual head and representative of the Mahratta 
 nation, as of the Empire of Hindustan. The Prime Minister 
 of the Regency, Nana Farnavis, seems to have perceived 
 this effect of the affair, and long withheld his signature. But 
 Sindia, whose plans were being favoured by fortune, had great 
 objects in view to whose attainment peace with Hastings was 
 essential. He signed as plenipotentiary, tyth May, 1782, and 
 hastened to Hindustan, where momentous events were coming 
 to pass. 
 
 [Authorities as for last section. See especially, Strachey : 
 " Hastings and the Rohilla War " : Oxford, 1892.] 
 
 SECTION 3. The narrative returns to the Court of Delhi, 
 where Mirza Najaf had just resumed his post, after defeating
 
 238 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the Jats in the south, and driving Zabita back to his estates 
 in the north. Ere long the Mirza, finding the Shah inclined 
 to withdraw his confidence, transferred his residence to the 
 other great fortified palace of the Mughals at Agra, where he 
 passed the next few years of his remaining life ; the governor of 
 the place being a Persian immigrant like himself Muhamad 
 Beg of Ramadan a resolute soldier who had his own short 
 part to play in local history ere long. In Audh Asaf-ud-daula, 
 the son of the late Nawab Vazir Shuja, was living a life of idle- 
 ness, diversified by cruelty.* Shah Alam at Delhi was sinking 
 into inglorious repose, and allowing the local administration to 
 fall into the uncontrolled and incapable hands of a Kashmirian 
 favourite. In 1778, the governor of the Cis Sutlej States the 
 old province of Sirhind called out the troops there to quell a 
 rising of the Sikhs, while the Emperor took the field in person 
 in Jaipur ; and the country south-west of the capital was in 
 charge of a converted Hindu, who had become a client of the 
 Mirza, under the title of Najaf Kuli Khan. The Sikh rising 
 proved very formidable ; the Mughal Governor was killed in 
 action, and the force, under the Kashmirian minister, which 
 went out to chastise the rebels, was beaten back and only 
 enabled to regain the shelter of the capital by the good conduct 
 of its artillery, manned by Europeans. In the beginning of 
 1779, the Sikhs crossed the Jumna and ravaged the Upper 
 Duab, even going so far as to destroy the timber of which the 
 country was at that time full. The Kashmiri could think of 
 nothing but an appeal for help to Mahadaji Sindia, whose 
 hands, indeed, were not then free, but who must have been 
 strengthened' by the application in the designs which he was 
 already revolving in his mind. But the affair soon became 
 
 t A portrait group by Zoffany, who was then travelling in India, repre- 
 sents the Nawab fighting a main of cocks with Colonel Mordaunt, the 
 British Resident, in presence of the Hon. Mr. Wheler, of the Calcutta 
 Council. The picture is in private hands.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 239 
 
 urgent ; already from the watchtowers of Delhi could be 
 descried the crowds of fugitive villagers and the smoke of their 
 burning homesteads. Suddenly the news spread that the 
 Mirza was approaching from the direction of Agra. The futile 
 Kashmiri went out to meet the deliverer ; but was contemptu- 
 ously put under arrest, while a column was sent to check the 
 Sikhs, under Mirza Shafi, the nephew of Mirza Najaf. Coming 
 up with the enemy under the Fort of Mirath the " Meerut " 
 of to-day Shafi defeated them with heavy loss, and drove 
 them back into their own country. Thus closed the year 
 1779. 
 
 Profiting by past experience, Mirza Najaf once more took up 
 his abode at Delhi with the post of Amir-ul-Amra, leaving 
 Muhamad Beg in charge of Agra. Samru had died there in 
 May, 1778, more fortunate in his end than his old employer, 
 Mir Kasim. He left a compact landed estate, given him for 
 the support of his brigade, and the charge of both troops and 
 land devolved upon his " Begam," a Muslim lady who had 
 lived with him for some years past, having been originally pur- 
 chased as a slave. Samru had a lawful wife, by whom he had 
 a son, who survived him ; but the wife being insane, and the 
 son a minor, the Mirza gave his approval to the succession of 
 the former slave-girl. In 1781 she embraced Christianity, and 
 for the next half-century continued to reside at Sardhana in 
 quasi-princely state, surrounded by her disciplined troops 
 under European, or half-caste officers. 
 
 About the contemporaneous cabals and quarrels of the 
 British officials in Calcutta, we need not greatly concern our- 
 selves, save in so far as they affected the course of public 
 events. It must, however, be here noted that the first results 
 of the interference of Parliament had been anything but useful 
 to Bengal, unless it may have been in the direction of judicial 
 administration. But the Royal Court, however it may have 
 had a beneficial influence in the interior of the country, was
 
 2 4 o HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 anything but an unmixed boon to the Government and people 
 of Calcutta. Apart from the scandal inseparable from the 
 trial and execution of Nand Kumar, the fact that the charter 
 constituting the Court had been vaguely and unskilfully drawn 
 both tended to damage the Court's prestige and to confuse its 
 jurisdiction. So long as Francis had a majority, the council 
 was ever ready to trouble the waters by fomenting quarrels of 
 this kind and, indeed, of every other. " We three are king," 
 said Francis of himself and the colleagues who acted with him; 
 and they exercised their kingly functions in the most disastrous 
 manner, as is familiar to readers of Macaulay's celebrated 
 essay. Even on the question of land revenue, all important 
 as it was, now that the Company had begun to " stand forth as 
 Divvan," the Council dared to oppose the wisdom of such an 
 expert as the Governor-General. The majority was in favour 
 of an immediate "permanent settlement." The Governor- 
 General urged the need of time, and a patient examination of 
 the assets. Baffled for the moment here, Hastings then' turned 
 to a system of subsidiary alliances, by which he hoped to se- 
 cure British influence as paramount without territorial annexa- 
 tions. And here, too, he was opposed, for a long time with 
 success, the more so because Francis, not content with using 
 his power in Council, was for ever urging his views on the 
 Court of Directors and on the Ministry at home. In 1777 
 two of the majority were removed by death, and though Mr. 
 Wheler, who was sent out to the Council, became an adherent 
 of Francis, yet so long as Barwell supported him, Hastings, by 
 virtue of his casting vote, had the ascendant in a council of 
 four. In the 'following year he began to put in operation his 
 subsidiary scheme, and secured some influence at the Court of 
 the Mahratta Raja of Berar, or Nagpore. In July, 1778, 
 came news of war with France, and Hastings had to prepare 
 for the defence of Bengal and Madras alike. The Raja of 
 Benares was called upon to provide for the pay of troops for
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 241 
 
 the frontier, and in January, 1779, as already stated above, 
 Goddard was appointed to command the force despatched for 
 the rescue of Bombay. In 1780 the French in the South were 
 joined by the implacable Haidar Ali, as will be more fully 
 shown in the next chapter ; and, as if to crown the edifice of 
 evil, Barwell was determined to leave the country. To mini- 
 mise this difficulty, the Governor-General attempted to engage 
 Francis to waive differences in face of the enemy. With the 
 concurrence of Coote now member of his Council Hastings 
 resolved to renew his demand upon the Benares Raja, on 
 whom, in the course of 1788, he made a call for a contingent 
 of 2,000 horse. The Raja refused, on the plea of poverty ; 
 and Hastings reduced the demand to one for half the number. 
 Nothing but attempts to corrupt him following, Hastings set 
 out for Calcutta in July, 1781, in the hope of vindicating the 
 power of the Company and reducing that of the Raja. HS 
 was opposed, surrounded, and forced to take shelter at Chu- 
 nar, but the brave Popham sprang to his aid, and the Raja 
 was driven into Bundelkhand, his dominions being made 
 over to a nephew on terms advantageous to the Company. 
 Hastings then turned to Asaf-ud-daula for help, but the Nawab 
 answered that he had no money to give or lend. Property 
 indeed there was, to the value of about twenty millions of 
 rupees, which had been his father's, and ought to have been his, 
 but the majority of the Council, against the wish of Hastings, 
 had assigned it to the dowagers the " Begams," as they were 
 called in 1776. This, he urged, was a method of oppression 
 under which he ought not to suffer ; could the Governor- 
 General grant him redress, he might be able to help the Com- 
 pany as a loyal ally. It was a strong temptation, and to make 
 it stronger Hastings had information that these dowagers had 
 used some of their ill-got means in helping the late revolt in 
 the Benares district. On the other hand, their possession, 
 however unlawful and however ill-employed, was held under a 
 British guarantee. R
 
 242 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 It was a part of this extraordinary man's character to allow 
 no personal consideration to stand between him and what he 
 conceived his duty. As before, in the case of the Rohillas, he 
 probably saw that he was exposing his reputation, and giving 
 justification to some of the detractions of his opponents. But 
 the scales, as he held them, turned the balance on that side, 
 and Hastings not only sanctioned, but actively supported the 
 Nawab's proposal. The property was taken from the dowagers 
 with a roughness proportioned to their resistance. But that 
 was all the mischief; the ladies received handsome pensions, 
 and bore no malice when the affair was over.* 
 
 In the meanwhile Hastings had, literally speaking, to fight 
 for the mastery in his council. For a moment it appeared as 
 if all would act smoothly on the lines of the agreement under 
 which Barwell had been allowed to depart. But ere long 
 Francis repudiated his pledges, and it was only when he was in 
 temporary ill-health that Hastings had a free hand as during 
 the Gwalior campaign. At length he determined to resume 
 his whole power, or make an end of the struggle. He pro- 
 voked Francis to a duel, and for once that illogical argument 
 answered a reasonable purpose. Francis was not killed, but 
 was so severely wounded as to be constrained to go home to 
 England for the safety of his life. Hastings seemed at last to 
 triumph. 
 
 The rest of his work consists mainly of an effective attempt 
 to reconcile the country courts with the king's tribunal in 
 Calcutta. The jurisdiction of the latter over the former, in- 
 deed, he could not grant ; but he turned the obstacle by re- 
 modelling the Company's chief courts, and placing the Chief 
 
 * See documents quoted in Trotter ; " Warren Hastings," Oxford, 1890. 
 Hastings anticipated the celebrated aspiration of Danton in 1794: "Let 
 my good name be tarnished so that my country prospers." The good old 
 ladies sent Hastings a letter of condolence in his subsequent trouble at 
 home.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 243 
 
 Justice at the head of it. The Chief Justice was Sir Elijah 
 Impey, an excellent jurist and linguist, who generously agreed 
 to do the work without salary until his appointment should be 
 confirmed by the Court of Directors. All the reward that 
 these excellent public servants received consisted of calumny 
 and persecution, but Hastings was one of those few men who 
 build for a long permanence, and his scheme, though laid by 
 for nearly a century, has now been at work for an entire gene- 
 ration, and with the happiest results. He also founded the 
 " Asiatic Society " of Bengal, and a College, still in full opera- 
 tion, for the education of Muslim young men. He reformed 
 the salt revenue so as to produce a higher revenue from lower 
 rates, and carried out his long-cherished design of collecting 
 material for an improved settlement of the land revenue 
 system. 
 
 In 1782 there was a change of Government in England, 
 Lord North being superseded by the Marquis of Rockingham. 
 The Marquis's right-hand man was Edmund Burke, and 
 Burke derived his inspiration on Indian subjects from Francis. 
 Impey's recall was at once voted in Parliament, and Hastings 
 nearly shared the same fate. Like Clive before him, Hastings 
 adopted a high tone, and refused to remain at his post if 
 condemned by the Court of Directors. The challenge was not 
 taken up, and Hastings remained in office for two years more. 
 They were years of care and trouble, though of less danger and 
 toil than some that had preceded. At home the coalition be- 
 tween Fox and North brought Burke into power, and led to the 
 passing of a new Act for the government of British India. 
 Not, indeed, by the coalition ministry, whose bill for the pur- 
 pose, after passing the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords 
 on the king's personal intervention. But the younger Pitt 
 who succeeded found India the question of the day, and 
 passed an Act of his own on the subject in 1784 ; the chief 
 feature was the reduction of the effective Directors of the 
 
 R 2
 
 244 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Company from twenty-one to a " secret committee " of three, 
 who were put under a Parliamentary control. The power of 
 the " Court of Proprietors " was also abolished. 
 
 The change of affairs might have seemed not unfavourable 
 to the Governor-General. The king was his friend, and it 
 seemed that the ministers were prepared to yield him full sup- 
 port, all-powerful as they now were, in Indian affairs. 
 
 While the British Government of India was thus feeling its 
 way, the once mighty empire that it was replacing was in its 
 last decline. So long as Mirza Najaf was in office, all went 
 smoothly, if not prosperously, and the Court enjoyed a sort of 
 sunset glow.* Besides his post at Delhi which may have 
 been more honourable than lucrative the Mirza held an exten- 
 sive fief of his own, the Gangetic valley from Agra to Aligarh, 
 part of the old Jat country, and a part of Machari, the modern 
 Ahvar. He died, without issue, 26 April, 1782, leaving a high 
 reputation among public men of that evil time, and a gap in 
 Delhi politics that could not be filled. The succession to his 
 office and estates was contested between his nephew already 
 mentioned as commanding against the Sikhs and a hench- 
 man called Afrasyab Khan. The Emperor was too feeble of 
 purpose to make any definite decision of the dispute. Great 
 excitement arose, not only in Hindustan, but in the neighbour- 
 ing countries. On one side was Sindia, who had recovered 
 Gvvalior, and made peace on his own account ; on the other, 
 Hastings and his council anxious to prop the tottering Empire 
 till there was something to take its place. First one of the 
 competitors was assassinated, then another ; Sindia drew near. 
 At the same time the country fell under the desolation of a 
 complete failure of the periodical rains for a period of two 
 years.! But the Governor-General was still too hampered to 
 
 * Aftab (" Sun ") was Shah Alam's poetic name. 
 
 t The famine that ensued was long known in tradition as Chiilisa (" The 
 Forty "), from having commenced in 1840 Sambat.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 245 
 
 interpose into the affairs of Hindustan, and, moreover, he was 
 now winding up affairs in Audh previous to retiring from 
 India. 
 
 The character of Mahadaji Sindia had impressed itself on 
 Hastings, and he evidently thought that the best service he 
 could render to the helpless Emperor was to facilitate his ob- 
 taining such an able minister. Hastings afterwards stated 
 publicly that there was a time when he " would have afforded 
 effectual assistance to Shah Alam if power had been granted ; " 
 it is probable that he alluded to this very time, and the 
 obstacle was opposition in the council. But he came to see 
 that his opponents, on this occasion at least, were in the right. 
 The Company might have justly complained if their resources 
 slender and precarious as they then were had been applied 
 to an object in which they were but indirectly interested. But, 
 as he himself observed, he would indeed have been a madman 
 if he had taken any steps to prevent Sindia from becoming 
 minister of Delhi. 
 
 Afrasyab's murder occurred in October, 1784, and Sindia, 
 who was in the same camp beneath the walls of Agra, held an 
 informal durbar, at which he received promises of support from 
 all the chiefs present, Mughal and Mahratta. He then 
 repaired to the capital, leaving Muhamad Beg in charge of 
 Agra. On presenting himself to the Emperor, Sindia received 
 two patents, one nominating the Peshwa whom, though a 
 comparatively remote and powerless puppet, Sindia always 
 affected to serve to the high dignity of Vice-regent of the 
 Empire. The other, and all-essential document, was a com- 
 mission to himself as deputy in the Peshwa's absence, with a 
 grant of the provinces of Delhi and Agra subject to a 
 monthly payment for the expenses of the Shah and his house- 
 hold. 
 
 In the middle of February, 1784, Hastings set out for Audh, 
 having in his suite a retired Captain de Boigne, whom he sent
 
 246 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 on thence with introductions to Delhi. Arrived at Benares, he 
 found that part of the country much protected from the effects 
 of the late famine elsewhere distressingly visible the ex- 
 emption being ascribed to the skill and benevolence of Raza 
 Khan, the same who had been Deputy in Bengal nearly twenty 
 years before. At Lucknow, where he arrived in April, he re- 
 stored the balance of the State's finances, and provided for 
 the comfort of the dowagers by procuring them part of their 
 former estates. He was joined by the Shah's eldest son 
 formerly Regent in the after years of Panipat who had left 
 Delhi in dudgeon at Sindia's advancement. He strongly 
 advised the prince to make the best of the situation. And the 
 Prince returned with M. de Boigne who carried a strong letter 
 of recommendation from the Governor-General to Sindia. On 
 the 4th Nov., Hastings arrived in Calcutta, where he found 
 news of the passing of Pitt's Indian Act, which determined his 
 already more than half-formed plan of resignation. The 
 Government of India was henceforth to be, virtually, under con- 
 trol of a Parliamentary Board, and, as above said, the change 
 might not have injured Hastings. But Mr. Pitt's speech in 
 support of the Bill had contained thinly-veiled censure of the 
 Governor-General, who conceived his retirement to be " both 
 expected and desired." He willingly made over his charge to 
 the senior Members of Council, and bade a final adieu to India 
 ist Feb., 1785. 
 
 This is npt the place for a review of either his character or 
 his administration. This much only need be said here.* He 
 had found the British Empire in the East a thing of shreds 
 and patches'; he left it a harmonious whole, strong and pros- 
 perous itself, and influencing the native powers for good. And 
 that influence he had gained without so far as his im- 
 mediate sphere went annexing a single square mile of 
 territory. 
 
 * Vide next chapter for some further observations on the subject.
 
 THE HINDU REVIVAL, ETC. 247 
 
 The Presidency of Fort S. George had been less moderate. 
 We will now turn to that part of India therefore, resuming the 
 thread of our story as it was left in 1761, when Coote 
 returned to Bengal after the capture of Pondicherry. 
 
 [Orme's book ends with the fall of Pondicherry, but the 
 narrative Will be found, to some extent at least, continued in 
 Wilks' "Mysore," of which a reprint, in two 8vo vols., was pub- 
 lished at Madras in 1867.]
 
 248 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH IN INDIA. 
 
 Section i : Haidar Ali and the first Mysore war Section 2 : Second 
 Mysore war and final destruction of French power in Southern 
 India Section 3 : First administration of Mahadaji Sindia. 
 
 SECTION i. There were many great administrators'and leaders 
 of men in the eighteenth century, and India was by no means 
 without her share. Prominent among these was the adventurer 
 already mentioned as distinguishing himself as a soldier in the 
 Mysore service under the title of " Haidar Naik," about the 
 middle of the century. The power of the old Hindu State had 
 fallen into the hands of a minister called " the Dalwai," who was 
 leading the Mysore troops in the cause of Muhamad Ali, the 
 Nawab favoured by the British when Trichinopoly was success- 
 fully defended against the French in 1752. It is indeed not 
 improbable that Haidar was already imposing his strong will 
 upon the politics of the State. Thus, when the Dalwai 
 claimed Trichinopoly on behalf of the Mysore Government, 
 and, on failing to obtain it, transferred his alliance to Dupleix, 
 Haidar either learned or taught a lesson of hostility to Eng- 
 land. In 1754 he was put in charge of the Fort of Dindigal 
 and the surrounding district, then an important military posi- 
 tion ; four years after he got similar possession of Bangalore, 
 the centre of the Mysore territory. These advantages, joined 
 to the growing weakness of the Raja's Government, enabled 
 him to throw off the last vestige of subordination ; the Dalwai 
 died, and Haidar, obtaining the suffrages of the soldiers, drove 
 out the Mahrattas and began the substitution of a Muslim
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 249 
 
 principality for the old Hindu Raj in 1760. He conciliated 
 the French, who gave him possession of Chilambram, another 
 commanding post on the road between Cudalore and 
 Madras; and in 1763 captured Bednur, or Nagar, the chief 
 place of a Hindu Raja, commanding the Malabar coast. 
 Here he found an immense treasure, and proceeded to con- 
 quer the Zamorin of Calicut, and take Mangalore, where he 
 established a naval arsenal. In 1766 he formally deposed the 
 Raja of Mysore, and completed the conquest of Malabar. 
 
 This position brought him in contact with the British, who, 
 after the fall of Dupleix and Lally, had become influential in 
 the Carnatic, under the colour of serving the Nawab of that 
 province. Muhamad AH had, at the same time, become inde- 
 pendent of his former overlord, the Nizam, a position after- 
 wards confirmed \sy firman from the Emperor. The Nawab, 
 however, proved of little more avail as a valid ruler than did 
 his contemporaries, Jafir and Kasim, in Bengal ; and the 
 President and Factors of Madras were compelled to take 
 active steps for the protection of their trade. In addition to 
 this the Nawab had contracted the pernicious habit of borrow- 
 ing money from them, and to pay his debts was obliged to ask 
 them to rob his neighbours. The Raja of Tanjore was coerced 
 into paying twenty-two lakhs of rupees, and made responsible 
 for a yearly tribute. 
 
 Meanwhile, Bussy having departed, his Nizam, Salabat, 
 had been set aside and murdered by his brother, who now held 
 the government of the Deccan by the title of Nizam Ali, and 
 attempted to reassert authority over the Carnatic, which he 
 invaded early in 1763. In their own interest, no less than in 
 that of their ostensible superior, the Nawab, the Madras 
 Factors were bound to prevent this ; and they accordingly sent 
 troops against the Nizam, who promptly evacuated the province. 
 
 By way of punishing this aggression and at the same time 
 liquidating the expenses of the war, Clive after the battle of
 
 250 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Baksar, obtained from the Emperor, Shah Alam, a grant of the 
 northern Sirkars, which had been cleared of the French by 
 Forde, as already stated. The Nizam, however, mustered up 
 courage to contest the transfer, and the Madras Government 
 agreed to a compromise i2th November, 1766 whereby itwas 
 settled that they were to hold the Sirkars as tributary to the 
 Nizam. At the same time they, covenanted to supply him 
 with troops in a war which he was about to wage against 
 Haidar, in conjunction with the Poona durbar. 
 
 It was the besetting weakness of the Madras authorities 
 of that time to emulate the bold acquisitiveness of which they 
 had the example in the conduct of their brethren of Bengal. 
 But they seem to have forgotten the immeasurable difference 
 of the two Presidencies in point of ability. In Bengal Clive, 
 Coote, Forde, Adams, and Knox were some of the best 
 soldiers of the British army who would have won distinction 
 in any warfare and their valour, joined to favouring conditions, 
 had enabled them to make the Company masters of a wide 
 but compact province which was self-supporting and well in 
 hand. None of these things were forthcoming in Madras. 
 Their best officers were but second or third-rate men ; the 
 country was broken and unconquered ; their enemies obstinate 
 and in one instance, at least of consummate ability. Haidar 
 was not, indeed, unconquerable ; he had heard the cries of 
 "Har, Har, Mahdeo!" break in upon his camp when Raguba's 
 Mahratta horsemen surprised his orgies; and had galloped across 
 the wild and wasted country as a despairing fugitive. But he 
 had always recovered himself; his vast treasures and his pro- 
 found dissimulation had turned to friends his most dangerous 
 enemies. He now used all his resources and united all the 
 other powers of the south against the Madras Factors, whose 
 own dishonesty did not prevent them being duped. In 1767 a 
 British force was sent to oppose Haidar in the high country 
 between Mysore and Arcot, and was beaten back by him after
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 251 
 
 an encounter in the Chengam pass between the Kalrayan and 
 Jawadi hills. Falling back on Trinomalai, they again engaged 
 him 26th September led by Colonel Joseph Smith, by far 
 their best officer. The fortified hill at that place forms a 
 strong position at the mouth of a pass, and it was bravely held 
 by Smith until the arrival of reinforcements from Madras, 
 when Smith in his turn became the assailant and inflicted con- 
 siderable loss on Haidar. But the latter remained in the high 
 country and sent plundering parties, who burned the suburb of 
 Madras in which the British officials had their villas. All this 
 time Haidar had to bear the brunt of the campaign alone ; 
 the Nizam waiting in an undecided manner until Haidar failing 
 in an attempt to take Ambur another rock-fort in the 
 neighbourhood retired on yth December and withdrew into 
 his own country. 
 
 If the Nizam felt any doubts as to the side which prudence 
 counselled him to take, they were completely dispelled about 
 the end of the year by the appearance of a British force sent 
 from Bengal, under Colonel Peach, which entered the north- 
 ern Sirkars and advanced to Orangal, the old Telinga capital of 
 other days. A treaty was made, 23rd February, 1768, by 
 which the tributary claims of the Nizam, and his right to 
 British aid against Haidar, were formally confirmed ; and the 
 aid of a specified body of British sepoys, with field-guns and 
 European officers, was promised whenever they should be re- 
 quired.* Not only was the Nizam thus propitiated and 
 detached from the dreaded combination, but an insurrection 
 kindled among the former subjects of Bednore and Calicut 
 was fanned by Bombay and supported by the aid of 1,500 
 soldiers from that garrison, who seized Haidar's new port at 
 Mangalore. This, for the time, removed the pressure upon 
 
 * It was the same error as that of three years before in Bengal, which 
 indeed led to the Rohilla war in later years ; a civilised government ought 
 never to promise unconditional support to barbarians.
 
 252 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Madras and the Nizam's dominions. Marching across with 
 great rapidity, Haidar sat down before Mangalore in May, 
 1768. The town being open to the sea, and the British com- 
 mander one to whom discretion was the better part of valour, 
 more than a thousand British troops took to their boats, 
 leaving 240 of their sick and wounded comrades to the mercy 
 of the Mysore adventurer. 
 
 The hatred formerly felt for the white intruders by Haidar 
 might now have become mixed with contempt had he not 
 found that Colonel Smith had profited by his absence to 
 occupy the country between Madras and the elevated plateau 
 known as the Balaghat. On the 4th August, when he got 
 back from Malabar, he found the British army within twenty 
 miles of Bangalore. Avoiding Smith, for whom he entertained 
 a certain respect, he marched to attack the other British force, 
 which lay at Budikot, Haidar's birthplace, at the foot of the 
 Nandidriig hill, about thirty miles north-east of Bangalore. 
 But Smith, hearing of his movement, hastened to follow, and a 
 junction was effected between the two British columns before 
 any harm was done. 
 
 Haidar was now becoming anxious. So long as Smith was 
 in command he had an opponent whom he could neither 
 conquer nor deceive. He therefore offered terms which the 
 British authorities at Madras might with honour have ac- 
 cepted. But they were as presuming now as they proved 
 timorous in darker days ; they wanted money, and the negoti- 
 ations broke down on the question of tribute to their 
 ostensible master, the Nawab Mahamad Ali, which Haidar 
 utterly refused to pay. 
 
 The war was consequently resumed, and the first encounter, 
 under the walls of Malwagal if not actually a defeat for 
 Colonel Wood, the British commander cost him eight 
 officers and 229 men, in killed alone ; while Haidar remained 
 master of the fort. On the i4th November, Colonel Smith
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 253 
 
 was recalled, for the time, to Madras ; and Haidar twice more 
 made an example of Wood, who was accordingly deprived of 
 the command before the end of the year. 
 
 Haidar now resolved on carrying the war into the enemy's 
 country. Detaching a strong force to the southward he swept 
 all opposition before him in that direction, hemming in all 
 the British troops of those parts at Trichinopoly. His flank 
 thus safe-guarded, he eluded the main army, took Kariir and 
 Erode, and marched down the right bank of the Kavari river. 
 It was now January, 1769: the Madras Council, in alarm, 
 sent to ask for fresh negotiations, while Smith was replaced in 
 the chief command of the army in the field. Deceiving him 
 by a fresh manoeuvre, Haidar, with a strong flying column, 
 advanced upon Madras, reached " the Mount " in March, and 
 called upon the Council to halt Smith's army and send their 
 President to his quarters to treat. 
 
 The substance of the terms which he now proceeded to 
 dictate was this : 
 
 All conquests made on either side during the war were to 
 be restored to the status quo ante ; each contracting party was 
 to assist the other if attacked ; all prisoners should be 
 restored ; the district and forts of Kanir should remain a part 
 of Mysore as they do indeed to this day ; and the terms 
 should be made obligatory on the Presidency of Bombay. 
 The Madras Government was powerless ; the terms indeed 
 were better than they might have been ; and the treaty was 
 ratified on the 4th April, 1769. The first Mysore war was at 
 an end : it had yielded no apparent results, yet sowed the 
 seed of much future strife, and of events of long-enduring 
 importance. 
 
 A few more words will be necessary to trace the relations 
 between the various powers of Southern India and to show 
 the genesis of the next struggle in which the Madras 
 authorities became engaged with Mysore. No sooner had
 
 254 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 they concluded their agreement with Haidar than they had 
 the explanation of the favourable terms that they had obtained 
 from their enemy. Haidar was being called away to deal with 
 antagonists of another cast altogether. Offended at the non- 
 payment of blackmail, the Peshwa, Madhu Rhadu, invaded the 
 Mysore country with a well-appointed army in 1771, and quickly 
 reduced a number of strong places in the eastern part of 
 Haidar's dominions. In May the young prince's health 
 became so seriously affected by the unwonted exposure that 
 he was obliged to retire to Poona, making over the command 
 to a professional leader, named Trimbak Mama, in whose 
 hands the campaign did not languish. Haidar attempted to 
 concentrate at Seringapatam, where he had a strongly fortified 
 place-of-arms, but the Mahrattas inflicted a surprise which 
 might have been ruinous to him had they not stayed their 
 hands for the plunder of the camp. Once more the wily old 
 chief escaped, and now he bethought himself of the late treaty 
 with the British, which entitled him to "help when attacked." 
 It might have been a question for casuists whether or no he 
 had provoked the attack ; but there was the text of the freshly- 
 signed treaty. Under the influence, however, of Muhamad 
 Ali who was always Haidar's ill-wisher, and whose orders 
 the Madras people professed to obey no response was made 
 to Haidar's call, a fresh offence which he did not fail to note 
 for future vengeance. 
 
 Left to himself the astute adventurer lost no time in con- 
 ciliating the government of Poona. by a full concession of all 
 demands, including the surrender of strong places on the 
 frontier of the Carnatic, which brought the Mahratta garrisons 
 in close contact with the forces of the British and of their 
 Nawab. So ended the year 1771. In the following year the 
 indefatigable old ruffian sought compensation at the expense of 
 the gallant highlanders of Coorg, a small but interesting country 
 between the upper Kavari and the Malabar coast. There were
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 255 
 
 but 100,000 of them, all told, when Haidar made his unpro- 
 voked attack, and carried off the Raja and his family, killing 
 many of the male population in cold blood. He then set 
 to work, slowly but systematically, to recover the places taken 
 from him by the Mahrattas, or forfeited by him at the peace. 
 
 In 1773 the restless Raguba, a brave soldier, who only 
 lacked the luck that waits on prudence, after the attack on the 
 Nizam, which has been already mentioned, proceeded to check 
 the proceedings of the audacious chief of Mysore. Haidar, 
 however, hastened to make terms, paying, or promising a war 
 indemnity, and agreeing to recognise Raguba as Peshwa. The 
 subsequent doings with the Bombay Government and all that 
 followed have been related in another place. 
 
 All this time a series of questionable transactions had been 
 going on in the Carnatic. Urged by their evil genius, 
 Muhamad Ali, the Nawab, the Madras people fell upon Tan- 
 jore, whose Raja was twice plundered, in the interests of the 
 confederates, and at last September 1773 deposed; his 
 country being made over to the Nawab, but subject to all sorts 
 of public and private claims. It was, however, restored not 
 long after, under orders from home. 
 
 A member of the Civil Service, named Paul Benfield, one 
 who kept the highest state and scale of living on a salary of 
 300 Rs. a month, preferred enormous claims on the late 
 government of Tanjore. The Council, finding that he had no 
 vouchers, and suspecting collusion with the Nawab, disallowed 
 the claim. But Benfield persuaded the members all of 
 whom were the Nawab's creditors to reconsider his case, 
 with the result that a majority decided in favour of the 
 claim. The Governor, Lord Pigot, opposed these pro- 
 ceedings, and attempted to play the part of Hastings ; but the 
 majority was too resolute, and Pigot too wanting in force and 
 influence. Pigot was surprised during an evening drive, and 
 taken into the Fort, where he died in captivity in April 1777. 
 
 I BUR 
 
 :n to 
 
 BUREAU OF: .RELATIONS
 
 256 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 The Court of Directors appointed Sir Thomas Rumbold, an 
 experienced Bengal officer, to succeed Pigot ; and he seems to 
 have done his best to check the tide of extortion and mis- 
 government, though to his own eventual discomfiture. The 
 next thing the majority did was to quarrel with the Nizam. 
 
 By the treaty with the Nizam, which followed Colonel 
 Peach's operations in 1767-8, it had been agreed that the 
 Gantur Sirkar, on the right bank of the Krishna river, should re- 
 main in the hands of the Nizam's brother, Basalat Jang, whose 
 apanage it was, but should be made over to the Madras-Arcot 
 confederacy on the prince's death. He had proceeded to 
 strengthen himself in his little principality, and even to raise 
 an efficient body of troops under French officers. These pro- 
 ceedings were viewed with alarm by the Nawab and his 
 British friends ; the alarm was communicated to Calcutta, and 
 in July 1775, Warren Hastings sent orders for the expulsion of 
 the French troops, if necessary, by the employment of force. 
 Basalat was afraid of the ruler of Mysore, and did not care to 
 offend the British; but the Nizam procrastinated, and no 
 decisive action was taken on either side. 
 
 But events were in progress at the other extremity of the 
 globe which were soon to precipitate affairs in Southern India. 
 In Feb. 1778, the French Government openly espoused the 
 cause of the revolted British Colonists in North America, and 
 war was declared which could not fail to spread to the east. 
 In October of the same year, Pondicherry was forced to capi- 
 tulate, after a respectable show of defence, and the Madras 
 Government always professedly that of the Nawab of Arcot 
 sent a force across the country to occupy Mahe, the last re- 
 maining French station in Southern India. Haidar forbade 
 the undertaking ; nevertheless, Mahe was captured in spite of 
 Haidar's flag, that floated over the walls, side by side with the 
 Bourbon lilies. The rage of the old Mysore chief knew no 
 bounds, and he resolved to have revenge for this and all
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 257 
 
 other injuries real or imaginary at whatever risk or con- 
 sequences. 
 
 His threats produced but little effect on the equal mind of 
 Warren Hastings, who saw nothing in his enmity with which 
 the ordinary resources of diplomacy, backed by a fair show of 
 force on the part of the Nawab and Madras ought not to deal. 
 But the Nawab and Madras had but little ability to use either 
 force or diplomacy ; Basalat, it is true, was disposed to make 
 common cause with them, discharging his French soldiers, and 
 allowing the Madras Government to hold Gantur on condition 
 of a yearly rental. But the Nizam was offended at the cession 
 of the district which he professed to regard as part of his 
 dominions ; he forthwith took the discharged French into his 
 own service ; demanded tribute, with arrears, for the Sirkars 
 and organised a combination with Haidar and the Poona 
 Regency under Nana Farnavis. The latter agreed to discon- 
 tinue the demand of blackmail from Mysore, and to confirm 
 the possession of whatever territory Raguba had promised 
 Haidar. To counteract these negotiations, Mr. Holland was 
 sent to Haidarabad, on behalf of the Madras authorities, but 
 he failed to mitigate the displeasure of the Nizam, and had to 
 end by informing his Highness that the tribute for the Sirkars 
 would not be paid. 
 
 Matters were now looking serious for Madras. The 
 shadow of the Wadgaon convention still hung over Bombay. 
 In Upper India Goddard's column had disappeared, plunged 
 in the heart of an unknown and partially hostile continent. An 
 attempt was made to avert the wrath of Haidar by sending the 
 most respectable explanation possible. The envoy was Mr. 
 Gray, a member of the Company's Civil Service : but the pre- 
 sents sent with him were both unsuitable and insufficient, and 
 the old chief's already disturbed temper was still more irritated. 
 He returned the presents and refused to receive the money, 
 dismissing Gray from Seringapatam with taunts and a full
 
 258 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 enumeration of all the offences that he had received from the 
 British at Madras since 1769. A similar attempt to mollify 
 the indignant old chief through the agency of the venerable 
 German missionary, Swartz, had met with no better success, a 
 short time before. 
 
 As soon as Haidar's preparations were complete, that is 
 towards the middle of June, 1780, he took the field and set out 
 on his march towards the Carnatic. According to the usual com- 
 putation, Haidar was now nearly 78 years of age, with a life of 
 hard work behind him, pursued in an extreme climate, and 
 only diversified by bouts of equally hard wine-bibbing. He 
 was, however, still full of energy and craft, and was attended 
 by his son, Tipu Sultan, a fierce and wilful man in the prime 
 of life, vowed like a modern Hannibal to unquenchable 
 hostility against the foes of his family. The army had been 
 computed at 90,000, horse and foot well-drilled and well- 
 disciplined, and supported by a powerful artillery manned by 
 Europeans. Of all the wars ever waged against the British in 
 India, this is said to have had the most public sympathy ; 
 prayers were offered up in all the Mosques for its success, and 
 what was of at least equal value the Commissariat was 
 cared for by an able and influential Brahman. The force 
 which the Madras people could oppose consisted of, British 
 Infantry, two battalions ; sepoys, four ; making with gunners 
 about 5,200 men, concentrated at and about the Mount. 
 But at Gantur, 225 miles to the north, was another body of 
 2,800 strong, under Colonel Baillie, who was ordered to march 
 on Conjeveram, where he would be joined by the main army 
 under the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 Unfortunately, neither the Commander-in-Chief nor his 
 junior officer can have been quite an accomplished strategist or 
 tactician. Colonel Baillie was a brave soldier, not without ex- 
 perience, but wanting in the initiative even when not fettered 
 by injudicious orders ; and the chief, Sir Hector Munro,
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 259 
 
 though he had won credit at Baksar fifteen years before, had 
 yet to show whether the intervening period had added to his 
 professional knowledge or only diminished his dash, and added 
 to his dread of responsibility. Minor garrisons were called in, 
 and all was made ready for the coming storm. On the i;th 
 July, the enemy was already threading the Chengam and other 
 passes leading from the plateau of Mysore into the lowlands of 
 the Carnatic. 
 
 One source of anxiety the people of Madras were spared ; in 
 spite of all Haidar's efforts, the combination had broken down. 
 Nana Farnavis never a fighting man was too busy defend- 
 ing Poona against Goddard to have Mahratta troops to spare 
 for the help of Mysore. The Nizam had been completely 
 alienated by soothing messages from the Governor-General, 
 at the same time that he learned that Haidar had sent a 
 message to Delhi to solicit a grant of the Subadari of the 
 Deccan, which had been for half a century in the family of 
 Asaf Jah. 
 
 [Same authorities. See also spirited account by Malleson, 
 "Decisive Battles of India," and Appendix to Marshman, Vol. 
 II., where some of Jas. Mill's misstatements are exposed. See 
 also Sir T. Rumbold's " Vindication," London, 1868.] 
 
 SECTION 2. It was not until the 25th August that Sir 
 Hector Munro set out for Conjeveram. The place was less 
 than fifty miles from Madras, and had been appointed the 
 junction for the two main bodies of the British army ; but the 
 delay in starting from Madras had enabled the enemy to 
 occupy it, and to send on part of his army to attack Baillie 
 coming from Gantur, and prevent the junction. Haidar then 
 turned southwards, threatened Wandiwash, and invested Ar- 
 cot. On the 29th he heard that Baillie, still on his way to 
 Conjeveram, had encamped on the left bank of a little river, 
 called in English books Cortelliar, a few miles north-west of 
 of the place. Reference to the diagram will show that Baillie 
 
 s 2
 
 26o HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 was a little nearer to Conjeveram than Haidar was, but that 
 the river formed an obstacle to his march. Disregarding this, 
 Sir Hector directed him to join at Conjeveram, when he had 
 already arrived within two short marches of Madras, and to 
 march by a circuitous route. Haidar saw his opportunity, and 
 resolved to cut in between the two British columns and dis- 
 pose of them in detail. It will probably always be a question 
 why the British commander could not have anticipated this 
 strategy by meeting before Haidar could advance to bar the 
 road between them. On the 3rd Sept., in any case, Haidar was 
 masking each from the other, and by the evening of the 5th, 
 the manoeuvre was complete ; but Baillie had at last found 
 means of crossing the Cortelliar, abandoning his position to 
 the north of the river near Parmabakam,* and writing to 
 Munro to join him, advanced slowly. 
 
 Munro got Baillie's letter only on the 8th, and at once re- 
 inforced him by a small party, which Colonel Fletcher, with 
 much skill, brought to his assistance through all besetments of 
 the enemy. Baillie now staggered on for two days more, and 
 on the morning of the gth found himself within fourteen miles of 
 the head-quarters of the army, at the head of 3,720 men, whom 
 he rested during the day with the intention of completing the 
 junction by a night march. Munro who was detained by 
 want of carriage, which ought to have been supplied by the 
 Nawab, but was not awaited Baillie in a position which he, 
 apparently, thought needful to the protection of Madras, and 
 where he had intrenched himself with guns of position. To 
 add to his difficulties the rains became very heavy, the roads 
 were flooded, and the streams and artificial watercourses 
 suddenly began to be charged with a strong current. The 
 force under Baillie, however, marched at nightfall, and looked 
 forward to reaching Conjeveram by morning. Desirous of 
 
 * Perambakam of the " Imperial Gazetteer," where the latitude stated 
 seems to be a degree too far to the E.
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 261 
 
 appearing in good order, Baillie halted half-way by night to give 
 the men rest and have their accoutrements cleaned ; from 
 which may be further inferred the character of the man, if his 
 previous dawdling was not sufficient. 
 
 But Haidar was not disposed to give them much rest, and 
 he had the advice and aid of French officers. When the halt 
 was over, Baillie's troops resumed their march through a road 
 bordered by trees leading to a village on the open. Before 
 the British column could reach the shelter of the village, it 
 was opened upon by a fire from guns of much heavier calibre 
 than their own six-and-three-pounder field-pieces. Then the 
 cavalry fell on them, and soon no resource was left but to form 
 square, and press on, hoping to be joined by Munro. But no 
 help came; Tipu's horse numbered 25,000 : there were thirty 
 battalions of disciplined troops, independent of the French 
 auxiliaries. At last only 300 British (whites) were left ; then 
 some of the ammunition exploded ; the sepoys lost their 
 heads, and Haidar's cavalry in the confusion entered the 
 square. Baillie on this held out a flag of truce, and ordered 
 his men to ground arms. The Europeans obeyed, but the 
 panic-stricken sepoys kept up a straggling fire. The next 
 moment every man that remained would have been massacred 
 by the infuriated enemy, if the Frenchmen had not sternly 
 interposed.* Out of eighty-six British officers all but sixteen 
 were either killed or wounded ; more than half the European 
 soldiers had fallen. For the survivors remained a long and 
 distressful captivity, but not disgrace. 
 
 That portion was reserved for the once gallant Munro. He 
 had wandered about all that dreadful day, within earshot of 
 the firing ; his appearance would not only have saved Baillie, 
 but forced the enemy in all probability to retreat. But 
 he only strayed distractedly between Parmabakam and Con- 
 
 * Wilks especially names M. Pimorin, of the French army. Lally's 
 nephew was in command.
 
 262 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 jeveram. In the evening he learned the terrible tidings from 
 a straggling fugitive, and returned to his camp. Such was the 
 first battle at the place called by the British " Pollilore." No 
 equal disaster befel them again for sixty years. Like his con- 
 temporary to whom he had once given a lesson of courage 
 and conduct like General Carnac at Wadgaon a year before, 
 Munro threw his guns into a pond, and then fell back upon 
 Madras, pursued by the enemy. 
 
 An undue prominence may seem to have been given to this 
 discreditable campaign of three weeks. But it had importance 
 of two kinds. At first it gave up the whole of the Carnatic to 
 the ravages of Haidar and his men. Villages were burned, and 
 food and forage consumed ; the men and women were com- 
 manded to migrate to Mysore ; and those who delayed were 
 massacred on their own thresholds. Its later consequences 
 were less unhappy. Warren Hastings, on hearing of the 
 disaster, prepared at once for its reparation. Sir T. Rumbold 
 had gone home, in peril of his life from sickness ; his suc- 
 cessor, Whitehill, was suspended by order of the Governor- 
 General, though " the creature," as Hastings said, " made 
 some show of resistance." The remittances sent out for the 
 annual " investments " on behalf of the Company were stopped, 
 the money being devoted to the equipment of the expedition, 
 which in three weeks from receipt of the news was ready to 
 sail, under the veteran, Sir Eyre Coote, one of the heroes 
 of Plassy, and the conqueror of the ill-starred Lally. 
 
 Coote reached Madras 5th Nov., 1780, and applied himself 
 to restoring the morale of the coast army, and providing for 
 the wants of the Commissariat. He found that, in the inter- 
 val, Pondicherry had been reoccupied by the French, and 
 Arcot just taken by Haidar. Places so near as Vellore and 
 Chingalpat were under siege, and Wandiwash where the brave 
 Lieutenant Flint, with Ensign Moore for his sole white comrade, 
 still held out was being sorely pressed. On lyth Jan., 1781,
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 263 
 
 Coote was at last able to take measures for the relief of some 
 of these places. The siege of Wandiwash was raised on 28th 
 Jan., and Coote took up a position at Cudalore, where he 
 found that a French fleet had just arrived for the protection of 
 Pondicherry. 
 
 Coote passed a month of great anxiety, " between the devil 
 and the deep sea," for Haidar's enormous disproportion of num- 
 bers enabled him to prevent the British foragers from obtain- 
 ing provisions from the country, while the French fleet hin- 
 dered supplies from reaching the camp by sea. But on i5th 
 Feb. the fleet departed, and Coote seized the opportunity and 
 was victualled from Madras. The antagonists now for months 
 watched each other warily, two experienced veterans, neither 
 of them timid, yet each unwilling to lay himself open in 
 striking the first stroke. Coote at length made a dash at 
 Chelambram, but was foiled, and fell back on Porto Novo, an 
 old Portuguese settlement south of Pondicherry, where he 
 could reckon on being supported by the British squadron, 
 under Admiral Hughes. With only 8,000 men of all arms he 
 waited until Haidar whose army was about tenfold that 
 strength got round his position, and drew up between the 
 British and their depot at Cudalore. 
 
 Finding himself thus hemmed in, Coote determined to hazard 
 a decisive blow, and on the morning of jth July, 1 781, moved on 
 Haidar's works, turned the main position, and forced Haidar 
 to fly, after losing one of his best lieutenants, and a number of 
 killed and wounded, that was estimated at 10,000. The siege 
 of Wandiwash which had been renewed was at once raised, 
 and the Southern Presidency was saved from certain ruin. 
 Haidar continued in the Carnatic for some time longer, and a 
 great French sea officer the Bailli de Suffrein gained the 
 command of the coast for a time. But Haidar never regained 
 the position he had held after the destruction of Baillie and 
 the retreat of Munro.
 
 264 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 He fought a second battle on the fatal field of Pollilore in 
 August, the results of which were not decisive, but on 2yth Sept. 
 he was utterly routed at Sholinga, in North Arcot, where he 
 lost 5,000 men. The reign of the avaricious and mutinous 
 Madras Council was put an end to by the appointment of a 
 respectable military diplomatist, Lord Macartney, who at least 
 evinced good intentions. War broke out with the Dutch, and 
 Negapatam, their factory on the Coromandel coast, was taken. 
 The drivelling and treacherous Nawab was put on an allow- 
 ance ; the surplus revenues of the Carnatic being taken over 
 for five years a prelude, as it proved, to the mediatisation of 
 the prince, and the annexation of the province.* 
 
 Further successes followed, both on the Coromandel coast 
 and on other sides ; they were chequered by occasional mis- 
 fortunes, as when a column of native troops, under Colonel 
 Braithwaite, was surprised by Tipu Sultan, and underwent the 
 same fate as had befallen Baillie at Pollilore. But the acute 
 mind of the old chief of Mysore refused to take comfort from 
 such transient gleams. The grand combination was melting 
 away. The Nizam held aloof ; Sindia was beaten down ; at 
 Poona the Nana had begun to waver ; the Raja of Berar had 
 made peace with Hastings. The country was wasted and 
 famine-stricken, and Haidar, baffled and depressed, died 7th 
 Dec., eighty years of age, as he was unsuccessfully besieging 
 the fortress of Vellore.t 
 
 As soon as the news of his father's death reached Tipu he 
 retired from Malabar, where he was engaged with a British 
 force from Bombay, under Colonel Humberstone. j Coote had 
 
 * The head of the family still bears the title of Prince of Arcot, and is 
 the premier noble of the Madras Presidency. 
 
 f The country people crowded into Madras, where for some time they 
 perished at the rate of 1,500 a week. 
 
 % Haidar's remains were taken to his captial, Seringapatam, and in- 
 terred in a handsome mausoleum which is still kept by the care of the 
 British Government, which has done honour to itself by showing honour to 
 its once cruel, but energetic enemy.
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 265 
 
 returned to Madras to die, worn-out, like his antagonist, with 
 years of labour. On loth April, 1783, the famous French officer, 
 the Marquis de Bussy, landed at Cudalore, where he was pre- 
 sently besieged by the incompetent Stuart. But the Nana had by 
 this time signed the treaty of Salbai, concluded on behalf of 
 the Durbar by Sindia ; and presently arrived the news of the 
 peace concluded between France and Britain. It was then 
 that Stuart, who had once arrested Pigot, found himself in the 
 same predicament, being sent home under arrest by Lord 
 Macartney. On the side of Malabar, however, the war went 
 on for some time ; and at Bednore and Mangalore British 
 garrisons were, after a brave defence, forced to capitulate to 
 Tipu. At last, nth March, 1784, aided by the Nizam and the 
 Nana, the Madras Government obtained terms which, attended 
 thougli they were, by humiliating incidents, produced a cessa- 
 tion of the war. 
 
 Each party was heartily sick of fighting. The Governor of 
 Madras was anxious to obtain peace and recuperation for the 
 wasted provinces under his control. On the other hand a 
 considerable British force, headed by Colonel Fullarton, an able 
 and enterprising officer, was within a few marches of Tipu's 
 capital. In concluding the treaty Macartney acted without 
 the approval of the Governor-General ;but there were 1,000 
 British captives to be thought of; and there were all the con- 
 quered places in the Carnatic, whose restoration formed one of 
 the conditions of peace. Macartney was inexperienced and 
 obstinate, but the Treaty of Mangalore was so far justified 
 that peace was restored for a few years. 
 
 The death of Haidar was, as we have seen, immediately 
 followed by the ratification of the Treaty of Salbai. By the 
 end of the following June the news arrived of the peace 
 between France and Great Britain and Bussy retired to 
 Pondicherry, where he presently died without having struck 
 the blow by which he had seemed about to annihilate the 
 imbecile Stuart.
 
 266 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 The period is therefore to be noted as that in which the first 
 scheme of British Indian enterprise came to completion. 
 Commerce had hitherto been the object, as it had been in the 
 1 6th century for the Portuguese. When Warren Hastings 
 assumed the government of Bengal in 1772, the task before 
 him seemed to be the establishment of a sound mercantile 
 position for the Company whose servant he was. Such small 
 political efforts as had been hitherto made were probably 
 intended in all sincerity for the protection of commerce. It 
 had seemed possible to establish relations with India such as 
 have since been formed with the Chinese Empire ; treaty-ports 
 in favouring situations, with Bengal as a larger Hong-Kong. 
 But it was now becoming evident that for such a scheme the 
 first requisite was wanting : to have treaty-ports there must be 
 a native Government with which valid treaties can be made and 
 enforced. The servants of the Company tried to do this for half 
 a century, from the date of the mission to Delhi in 1715 to 
 that of the grant of the Diwani in 1765. Madras and Bombay 
 made similar attempts, the one with Poona, the other with 
 Arcot and Haidarabad. But all terminated in the British 
 factories being drawn into the quarrels of their neighbours, and 
 thence by almost imperceptible degrees, into territorial exten- 
 sion. This process had not escaped the notice of competent 
 observers. Adam Smith saw, writing as far back as 1775, 
 shortly after the passing of the Regulating Act, that Empire was 
 coming ; adding the shrewd comment : " To found a great 
 empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of commerce 
 may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shop- 
 keepers " ; thus anticipating the sarcasm of Napoleon. 
 
 When the words were written Warren Hastings had become 
 Governor-General ; and a change was at hand which the great 
 publicist understood. That change was partially due to the 
 rivalry of France, partly to the inherent vices of all the various 
 native administrations. Bengal could no longer support dive's
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 267 
 
 system, the last native statesmen disappeared.* Arcot was 
 insolvent and unfaithful ; the Mahratta Confederacy was dis- 
 solving ; the Nizam was not much more to be trusted than 
 the Nawab of Arcot, once his feudatory. The power of 
 Mysore was still in hostile, if less formidable, hands. Sindia 
 alone stood erect at Delhi ; strong in his own transcendent 
 skill and prudence, and in the prestige which still clung to the 
 Imperial sovereignty of which he was .the minister. Having 
 overcome all obstacles the two ablest statesmen in the country 
 agreed to partition it into what would now be termed "two 
 spheres of influence." 
 
 James Mill professes to suspect something mysterious in the 
 understanding between Hastings and Sindia ; but the mystery 
 is easy of solution.f The Empire had fallen into the hands of 
 a competent administrator, the British having taken such 
 portions of it as seemed sufficient for the purposes of commerce. 
 So far there was a dominion such as Adam Smith con- 
 templated. But it was to the interest of the British that the 
 rest of the country should be ruled or influenced by the power 
 most conducive to peace and order: that power was Sindia, 
 who was recognised accordingly. Thus Hastings, one of the 
 few British Indian rulers who never made an annexation, was 
 yet the founder of the British power in the East. 
 
 The verdict of history on this subject was anticipated by a 
 great advocate. In his famous defence of the printer, Stock- 
 dale, Erskine made the indirect apology of Warren Hastings. 
 If the dominion of Britain in Bengal and the Carnatic was 
 founded on violence it was, as he showed, madness to charge 
 Hastings with crime merely because he had used the most 
 
 * Nand Kumar -,vas hanged : Shatab Rai retired into private life ; 
 Muhamad Raza Khan dwindled into Divisional Commissioner under the 
 British Government of Bengal. 
 
 f Wilson's edition; vol. v., p. 15 and f. f. [Same authorities: also 
 \Vilks, " History of Mysoor," 2 Vols. Madras 1869.]
 
 268 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 efficient means for its support, " If it be true," he urged, 
 " that Mr. Hastings was directed to make the safety and 
 prosperity of Bengal the first object of his attention and that 
 under his administration it has been safe and prosperous 
 . . . then a question may be unaccountably mixed with 
 your consideration . . . which the Commons, as prose- 
 cutors of Mr. Hastings, should in common prudence have 
 avoided." 
 
 SECTION 3. After the departure of Warren Hastings the 
 Governor-General, for the time, was a Company's servant, Mr., 
 afterwards Sir John, Macpherson, whose chief act of importance 
 was the occupation of Cawnpore and Anupshahr with British 
 detachments. He also restored the Carnatic revenues to the 
 Nawab, who had made a temporary assignment of them in 
 1/81, and repudiated with much spirit an attempt made from 
 Delhi to recover the tribute of Bengal. An able and experienced 
 man of affairs, Macpherson effected financial reforms of some 
 moment ; and, when, at the end of a year and a half, Lord 
 Cornwallis was appointed to the permanent post, the acting 
 Governor-General retired with a fair record, a full purse, and the 
 honour of a baronetcy. The new ruler had not done very well in 
 the war recently terminated in North America ; but he was of 
 unblemished character, and not an ardent politician ; so that his 
 nomination met with public approval. He landed in Calcutta, 
 September, 1786, and found that, with the exception of the 
 South, where Tipu was engaged in hostilities with the Nizam 
 and the Peshwa, all was tranquil. Some war-clouds appeared 
 upon the northern horizon, and, although the Nawab of Audh 
 received some financial relief by a new treaty, yet the troops 
 were not recalled from the North- West, where the attitude of 
 Mahadaji Sindia was still viewed with distrust. The little 
 province of Gantur, which, on the death of his brother, had 
 been appropriated by the Nizam, was now resumed by the 
 British Government ; and a brigade was promised to aid the
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 269 
 
 Nizam in opposing any power not in alliance with the British, 
 Tipu's name not been included in the list. The policy of 
 Hastings was being justified ; Tipu had been recognised as a 
 certain enemy, the chief of the Mahrattas as a desirable ally. 
 
 Meanwhile the position of Sindia at the Imperial Court was 
 anything but secure or easy. By long-standing opposition the 
 Nana had taught him not to lean too much on Poona; and the 
 friendship of Tukaji was only that of an old comrade, not 
 quite his own master, though he might begin to have views of 
 his own. The Rajputs, proud and having old grudges against the 
 House of Alamgir, were not the more conciliated because the 
 head of that House was now ruled by a low-born Hindu : the 
 Muliamadan courtiers who represented the once powerful 
 Lords of Iran and of Turan, profited by familiar intercourse 
 with the Emperor to foster in his mind a drowsy dream of 
 Muslim revival ; and the successors of Warren Hastings did 
 not seem very friendly in their distant strength. To the de- 
 mand which like the Nizam in regard to the Sirkars Sindia 
 made for the payment of the tribute of Bengal, he had met 
 with a stern rebuff. The Government of Mr. Macpherson 
 caused their agent to inform him that his persistence in such 
 claims " would be considered in the light of direct hostility," 
 and Scindia judged it prudent to reply by " an official and 
 solemn disavowal," both from himself and on behalf of the 
 Emperor.* 
 
 But Sindia was indebted to Warren Hastings for what event- 
 ually proved more valuable to him than much tribute would 
 have been. It has been related above that, before leaving the 
 upper provinces, Hastings had sent M. de Boigne to him 
 with a favourable introduction ; and Sindia, in engaging the 
 
 * " Calcutta Gazette," I2th May, 1785. It will be borne in mind that the 
 tribute of Bengal had been stopped by Warren Hastings, at the same time 
 that the Allahabad province had been sequestered, in consequence of the 
 Shah going to Delhi contrary to the wish of the Calcutta Government.
 
 270 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 hearer to raise and discipline a small corps of Sepoys, was, 
 however unconsciously, laying the foundation-stone of his own 
 future fortunes. De Boigne was a native of Savoy, who had 
 by this time almost attained middle life, after having vainly 
 sought advancement in many paths. Beginning life as an 
 Ensign in the Irish Brigade of Louis XV., he had served for 
 some years without encouragement. He then entered the ser- 
 vice of Catherine of Russia, and was taken prisoner by the 
 Turks in the Levant in 1770. He was sold as a slave, and is 
 said to have been for some time employed to carry water for 
 his Osmanli purchaser. Escaping from this trial, he made his 
 way, overland, to India, bringing a letter from Lord Percy, on 
 the strength of which he was granted a commission in the 6th 
 Regiment of Madras Native Infantry. After a time he left 
 that service and endeavoured to support himself as a fencing- 
 master at Madras, finally going to Calcutta with a letter from 
 Macartney to Warren Hastings. After some further adventures 
 he now found himself the commandant of a little force resemb- 
 ling that once led by the deceased Samru. 
 
 Another accession to Sindia's staff was made about this time 
 by the submission of Muhamad Beg, the Governor of Agra, 
 27th March, 1785. He was a Persian officer of courage and 
 energy, and his adhesion involved the acquisition of the 
 fortress of Akbar, a strong and central place-of-arms. Sindta's 
 position, therefore, was improving ; Tukaji Holkar was en- 
 gaged in a war which the Poona Durbar had begun against 
 Mysore, and the somewhat abrupt termination of that affair 
 when Tipu. made terms for himself in April, 1787 did not 
 inspire Holkar with any desire of troubling his old comrade in 
 Hindustan. Ere long, too, he found other occupation in 
 Bundelkhand, whither he was sent by his mistress, Ahalya 
 Bai, to carry out the policy of the Peshwa's Government in 
 that region. The result was the establishment of one Ali 
 Bahadar an illegitimate son of the late Peshwa Baji Rao I.
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 271 
 
 as Nawab of Banda, a position which his family continued to 
 fill until 1857. 
 
 For these and the like services Tukaji received his reward 
 in money assignments, which afterwards proved to harbour 
 the germ of misunderstanding and even war, as will be shown 
 in the proper place. For the present there was peace between 
 the two chiefs who shared the province of Malwa. Neverthe- 
 less, Sindia felt the importance of keeping up the communica- 
 tion between his possessions there and his other outposts; and 
 with that object sent Muhamed Beg to effect a settlement of 
 an intervening district where the proud and ancient Rajput 
 clan of Kechi Chauhans held possession of the Fort of Raghu- 
 garh. 
 
 It was about this time that Sindia made an attempt to 
 strengthen and perpetuate his position at Delhi by strongly 
 urging the return of the heir-apparent to the Empire Mirza 
 Jawan Bakht whom we last saw at Lucknow, sueing for the 
 support of Warren Hastings, and advised by that statesman 
 to throw himself on the friendship of Sindia. The Prince, 
 however, after consulting with Major Palmer, the agent of the 
 Governor-General, felt by no means assured that he would be 
 protected by the Calcutta Government if he went to Delhi. 
 Perhaps he was also jealous of Sindia's power, having himself 
 acted as Regent at Delhi in the years that immediately followed 
 the defeat of the Mahrattas in 1761. Whatever may have been 
 the reason, he turned a deaf ear to the invitation. 
 
 Nor did the Calcutta Government indeed, show any alacrity 
 to intervene in Delhi politics. By Pitt's Act, provision had 
 been made for preventing a repetition of the scandalous scenes 
 that had so often paralysed the hands of Warren Hastings 
 the Governor-General was henceforth to be, virtually, supreme 
 in his council. Cormvallis was thus a sort of Dictator in 
 British India, under the supervision of the Prime Minister, 
 and of his close friend, Mr. Dundas, who was the first Presi-
 
 272 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 dent of the Board of Control. The views of these ministers 
 were strongly enunciated in favour of peace and non-interven- 
 tion ; and Cormvallis himself, mindful of his unlucky warfare 
 in America, had a wholesome dread of collision with the 
 native States.* The Anglo-Indians vainly urged on their new 
 Governor-General that " the interests of the Company were 
 bound up in those of the Heir-apparent." The views of the 
 Government were matured ere long : " Many have urged the 
 necessity of upholding the Mogul . . . but this should 
 seem bad policy, as we should thus causelessly become ob- 
 noxious, and involve ourselves in the interest of a declining 
 State."! The development of events was, ere very long, to 
 show that British power had now gone too far to make such 
 abstention safe, even if it were possible. But, for the present, 
 Sindia had nothing to fear from British intervention. 
 
 The Prince, then, remained at Lucknow, protected, but not 
 otherwise supported, by the Calcutta Government ; and Sindia 
 had to look about him for other means of establishing his 
 power. One method that suggested itself to his mind was the 
 destruction of the power of the great territorial magnates who 
 were constantly robbing the people and rebelling against the 
 State, from whose revenue they also alienated sums which, 
 when added up, came to a considerable diminution. The 
 tenures were something like the old feudal tenures of Europe ; 
 but Sindia thought like Akbar before him that it would be 
 better to exact the dues in money and pay his troops himself. 
 Most of these " Barons " were Mussulmans ; but a formidable 
 opposition was raised by one who was a Hindu, and a capable 
 military leader, Himmat Bahadur Gosain, who revolted in 
 Bundelkhand. 
 
 Still more serious was the feeling of the slow but valorous 
 
 * See " Cornwallis," by W. S. Seton-Kerr, in the " Rulers of India " 
 series, pages 16-17- 
 t " Calcutta Gazette,' 8th March, 1787.
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 273 
 
 tribes of Rujputan. Raghugarh was taken, and the capture 
 not only laid open the way into their country but offended 
 their pride by the overthrow of one of their oldest and noblest 
 clans. Punctuality was not the strong point of the Rajput 
 character, but by the spring of 1787 they had at last formed 
 their alliances and plans. The Kachwahas of Jaipore, the 
 ancient Amber ; the Gahlots of Jodhpore, once known to us 
 as Marwar ; and the Sisodias of Udaipore, famous under the 
 older name of Mewar : collected their forces and made 
 common cause to resist the payment of tribute by any of them, 
 and chastise the man by whom it was demanded. Their troops 
 numbered 100,000 horse and foot the cavalry especially 
 gallant soldiers and they had 400 guns, of various kinds. 
 Trusting to the growing disaffection of the landlords, with 
 whose ringleader, Muhamad Beg, they had probably by this 
 time opened communications adverse to the interests of his 
 employer, they marched as far as Lalsaut, a small place forty- 
 three miles east of Jaipore, where they encamped and awaited 
 the troops of Sindia and the Empire. The latter were led by 
 Muhamad Beg ; but the fact that he was one of the threatened 
 barons, taken with subsequent events, appears to justify the 
 belief that he was deceiving his employers. Among the other 
 commanders were some whose loyalty was more secure. Such 
 as De Boigne and Rana Khan, the latter a devoted follower of 
 Sindia ever since he saved the chief's life in the escape from 
 Panipat. Muhamad Beg was accompanied by a nephew like 
 himself a Persian from Hamadan, and a gallant leader of 
 heavy cavalry. The encounter occurred at Lalsaut, in the 
 height of the hot season, about the end of May, 1787, and 
 turned out ill for Sindia. After three days' fighting, in which 
 Muhamad Beg was killed by a round shot, as he was idly look- 
 ing on from an elephant's back in the rear of the line, Sindia 
 vas repulsed; on the evening of the third day, 14,000 of his 
 infantry marched out of the lines and joined the Jaipur Raja, 
 
 T
 
 274 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 and Ismail deserted with T,OOO horse, four battalions of foot, 
 and six guns. The Muhamadan account of the affair is some- 
 what confused, but that was the upshot, though some of the 
 best authorities* say that Muhamad Beg had gone over before 
 he was killed; in any case, the subsequent conduct of his 
 nephew shows that there was treachery among the Muhama- 
 dans of Sindia's so-called Imperial forces, of which the Raj- 
 put leaders were not unaware. 
 
 Sindia was also much distressed by scarcity of provisions; 
 and his camp was subjected to nightly attacks of marauders ; 
 in fact, he was in the midst of a hostile country ; so that, after 
 a drawn battle of three days' duration, and being exposed to 
 great losses from desertion, he judged it wisest to fall back 
 upon the friendly territory of the Raja of Alwar, and await 
 assistance from the Jats of Bhurtpore, who were also his allies. 
 The Sikhs were likewise giving trouble to the North of Delhi, 
 and he had been under the necessity of detaching a strong 
 body of his troops to check their advance, under the command 
 of one of his best Mahratta officers, Ambaji Inglia. 
 
 General de Boigne used afterwards to declare that this dark 
 hour was that of Sindia's moral greatness. Sending off his 
 heavy baggage to Gwalior, and conciliating the chief of Bhurt- 
 pore by making over to him the fortress of Dig, he lost no time 
 in writing to Poona for reinforcements. He then sent his 
 heavy guns into the Fort of Agra, which he put under the charge 
 of Lakwa Dada, one of his most trusty lieutenants. Sindia's 
 letter to the Nana at Poona will be found in Grant Duff (III. 
 24) it is a manly composition, but it produced only a niggard 
 reinforcement at the time. Meanwhile, Ambaji, hastening to 
 his master's support, fell in with a Rajput force which put him 
 to flight with severe loss ; and Sindia took refuge in the Fort 
 
 * Grant Duff, vol. Hi., Franklin's "Shah Alam," " Calcutta Gazette " 
 for June, 1787. The account in the text is taken from a Persian MS. of 
 the time.
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 275 
 
 of Gwalior, while Ismail Beg laid siege to Agra. To make 
 matters worse, Ghularn Kadar, the son of Zabita Khan, a 
 young man of ability and courage, but passionate to the verge 
 of insanity, issued from his strongholds in the Upper Duab to 
 join the Beg in striking a blow for the cause of Isldm. 
 
 While the fortunes of Sindia where at this low ebb, the heir-ap- 
 parent joined himself to the Gosain leader, Himmat Bahadur, 
 and marched with him towards the capital ; while the Emperor 
 his father, who never knew his own best interests opened 
 friendly communications with the Rajputs, and received Ghu- 
 lam Kadir, as Amir-ul-amra, in durbar, at Delhi. Before 
 the end of the year, however, the small reinforcement sent by 
 the Nana reached Sindia, who then broke up from Gwalior and 
 advanced to attempt the relief of Agra. He was met by Ismail 
 and Gholam Kadir near the village of Chaksana, twenty-three 
 miles west of Agra, where his Mahratta horse were put to flight 
 by the Muslim men-at-arms ; and nothing but the steadiness of 
 De Boigne and his European officers, prevented grave disaster. 
 Sindia and Rana Khan then retreated to Bhurtpore where 
 they took shelter in the fort of that place until a diversion, 
 raised through the Sikhs, called off Ghulam to protect his 
 northern possessions. 
 
 It was about this time, that the heir-apparent, who had 
 reached Delhi, addressed a direct appeal to King George 
 III. This curious state-paper reveals some of the hopes and 
 fears that were agitating the interior circle of the court; it 
 describes Sindia as vainly directed to "conciliate the attach- 
 ment of the old nobility, and extend protection to the distressed 
 peasantry," it classes him among the foes of the Imperial House 
 and its allies, "the Princes and Rajas," and conjures His 
 Majesty to " restore the royal authority, punish the rebellious, 
 and render his name illustrious by giving repose to the people 
 of God." 
 
 It may be readily conceived, that if Cornwallis would do 
 
 T 2
 
 276 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 nothing there was nothing to be expected from the Government 
 in London. But there might be help nearer at hand. The 
 prince, therefore, endeavoured to return to Lucknow, and 
 plead his father's cause with the Nawab the hereditary Vazir 
 of the empire while the Emperor continued his intrigues with 
 Begam Samru, and the Rajput chiefs. In the last days of the 
 year a mission arrived from Jodhpore whose aged Raja, Bijai 
 Sinh, had for years been a bitter enemy to Sindia. The 
 envoys presented the Empire with a golden key, the emblem 
 of the possession of Ajmere, whither they, in the name of their 
 master, invited his majesty to repair ; it was added that 
 Partab Sinh, the ruler of Jaipore, was a party to the invitation. 
 The Shah accordingly set forth, in the beginning of 1788, 
 attended by Begam Samru, with some of her disciplined 
 battalions under command of George Thomas, an Irish adven- 
 turer who had recently entered her service. 
 
 Whilst his feeble parent was thus engaged, the Mirza met 
 with his share of adventure on his eastward journey. Attempt- 
 ing to get possession of the Fort of Agra, he narrowly escaped 
 being made a prisoner ; and when he found no help from 
 the Nawab of Audh, he sought protection from the British at 
 Benares, where he soon after ended his blameless but unlucky 
 life. 
 
 The Shah, for his part, got as far as Gokalgarh, a fortress in 
 the Riwari country held by a contumacious " Baron " named 
 Najaf Kuli Khan, which he thought proper to besiege. After 
 an action with the garrison, which had sallied out to attack his 
 camp, and- in the melee being only saved by the energy of 
 Himmat Bahadur, and the coolness of Thomas and the Begam, 
 he forced the rebel to yield the place. But the affair gave 
 such a shock to his nerves that he renounced the expedition 
 and returned to Delhi, which he re-entered on 16, April, 1788. 
 
 He had only re-entered, in truth, the toils of the hunters. 
 Begam Samru returned to Sirdhana : Sindia fell back upon
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 277 
 
 Ahvar, and got beaten twice more ; while Ambaji sustained 
 another defeat from the Rajputs. But Rana Khan, who had 
 been sent to Poona, now returned with fresh reinforcements ; 
 and in a fiercely contested battle, at the old imperial country- 
 seat of Fatehpur-Sikri, at last drove off Ismail Beg, and raised 
 the siege of Agra. At the same time, Sindia had the mis- 
 fortune to lose the aid of De Boigne, who disapproved of the con- 
 duct of affairs and left him to go into private business at Agra. 
 Ismail Beg was, about the time, rejoined by Ghulam Kadir, 
 who had settled with the Sikhs ; and, finding that Sindia did not 
 molest them, the pair set out to try their fortunes at Agra. 
 
 And now began the last act of the imperial tragedy. The 
 confederates entered the palace on 1 5th July, and were received 
 as friends. Ismail Beg then formed his camp on the out- 
 skirts of the city and proceeded to levy contributions. 
 His accomplice began a systematic plunder of the palace, 
 ill-treating the women and children, setting up a puppet 
 Emperor, and at length inflicting every outrage on the 
 Emperor's family. The Emperor showed great firmness, but 
 in vain. On loth August, Ghulam blinded the unhappy old 
 man and flung him into confinement. Sindia had up to this, 
 held aloof; but was now urged to interposition, and for the 
 next two months his troops collected on the western and 
 southern sides of Delhi. On the nth October Ghulam, finding 
 that Ismail Beg had abandoned him, and that he was in 
 danger of being invested by the forces of Rana Khan, escaped 
 by the only opening left, and endeavoured to seek his own 
 country and raise the Sikhs. Pursued by Rana Khan, who 
 had been reinforced by the troups of Malwa under Tukaji 
 Holkar the crazy ruffian shut himself up in the Fort of 
 Meerut, where he attempted in vain to stand a siege. On 2ist 
 December he stole out by night, intending to make for the Cis- 
 Sutlej States of the Sikhs ; but he was captured and dragged 
 about in triumph, until his custodians, wearied and exasperated
 
 278 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 by his abusive language, cut out his tongue, and, after other 
 cruel mutilations, hanged him on a road-side tree. Thus, even 
 in the depth of the great anarchy that had fallen upon Hindu- 
 stan, outraged humanity exercised its rude justice. 
 
 By the unwritten traditions of the East no blind man could 
 be a Sultan ; but Sindia, who had more love of fact than of 
 form, intended for the future to do the whole business of the 
 state; and so felt that he might spare the Shah the 
 pain of open deposition. He therefore enthroned him 
 anew, and presented anew the homage of himself and of the 
 absent Peshwa. Nay, such was still the prestige of the im- 
 perial shadow that we are expressly told, by an observant 
 contemporary, that Shah Alam continued to be regarded as 
 occupant of the throne of the House of Taimur, and that Sindia 
 shared in the general reverence.* 
 
 But the position of Sindia was now enormously improved. 
 Not only was the blind old Emperor's power of secret under- 
 mining destroyed, but "he had discovered who were his true 
 friends. In a poem composed by the Shah at the time 
 under his literary name of Aftab he calls Sindia " him who is 
 even as a son unto me; " so that one great centre of intrigue 
 and source of danger was converted to harmlessness, if not 
 use. Then, although no great dependence was to be placed 
 on Ismail Beg, his interests were, for the moment at least, on 
 Sindia's side ; and the gift of Najaf Kuli's fief that contuma- 
 cious baron being now no more not only conciliated the 
 Mughal cavalier of fortune, but furnished him with occupation 
 in defending his estate against the Jats and the robber tribes 
 of the west. The temporary withdrawal of De Boigne, too, came 
 to an end, that officer being invited to return to the service on 
 his own terms, and remodel the army as he pleased, in pre- 
 paration for future eventualities. 
 
 * " Memoire du General Comte de Boigne." Chamberi, 1829. De Boigne 
 was still alive when this book was published ; it was written by his son.
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 279 
 
 While the heart of the Mughal Empire was thus beating its 
 last, the distant dependencies of the south were going through 
 a singular evolution. It was becoming more and more clear 
 that the Muslim power in Mysore was to be reckoned with, 
 and that it was not to be bound by the mere comity of nations. 
 Yet the proceedings of Cornwallis in regard to Tipu were so 
 high-handed, and his means of supporting them were of such 
 doubtful efficiency, that nothing but the gravest necessity could 
 suffice for their justification. Reference has been already 
 made to the letter sent by the Governor-General to the Nizam, 
 in July, 1789, in which the help of the British was promised 
 against enemies, amongst whom Tipu seemed to be, by impli- 
 cation, included. Presently came news that Tipu was pro- 
 mising help to the French at Pondicherry, whilst he was at the 
 same time threatening the old Hindu principality of Travan- 
 core, whose Raja was an ally of the British. 
 
 The Presidency of Madras was then temporarily under the 
 charge of Mr. Holland mentioned above as an unsuccessful 
 envoy to the Nizam. This official, when the Governor-General 
 sent him orders to promise a conditional support to Travan- 
 core, withheld the information, and attempted to drive a 
 special bargain for himself with Tipu. Emboldened by these 
 feeble and discreditable proceedings, Tipu attacked Travan- 
 core on 28th Dec., 1789. Holland soon after quitted his ap- 
 pointment, and left for Europe, being succeeded, after a brief 
 interval, by the Commander- in-Chief, General afterwards Sir 
 William Medows. 
 
 Cornwallis now saw the necessity of action. Encouraged by 
 a letter from Dundas, he sought the alliance of the Poona 
 Durbar; and a tripartite treaty was concluded between the 
 Government of India, the Mahrattas, and the Nizam (1790), 
 providing for joint action against Tipu, and an equal partition 
 of his territories. In February, 1790, Medows took the field ; 
 the army was no longer an affair of a few white troops with a
 
 280 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 handful of sepoys ; the force under Medows comprised 
 15,000 of all arms, "the finest English army," wrote Corn- 
 wallis, " that had ever been assembled in India." On 25th May 
 the whole expedition assembled on the plain of Trichinopoly 
 the principal aide of the General being his military secretary, 
 Colonel George Harris, of the 5th Fusiliers, hereafter to win for 
 himself the highest distinction against the same enemy. In 
 the meantime the ally to whose succour they were marching 
 was showing himself worthy of their best exertions. The Raja 
 of Travancore had only a territory of 7,000 square miles at the 
 most, with a population of less than two millions ; but he and 
 his people possessed the courage of mountaineers. The Raja 
 had also engaged some European officers to drill his men, and 
 by their advice had drawn up strong lines of fortification on 
 the north-eastern frontier of his naturally inaccessible country. 
 Two of the forts on the coast had also been bought from the 
 Dutch to add to the strength of the little principality from that 
 side ; and thus, whenTipu demanded their surrender, the Raja 
 defied and beat off, with loss, the famous soldiers of Mysore. 
 That was in 1789. Next year he was again attacked, when the 
 tardy arrival of the British at Coimbatore drew off the attention 
 of the invader. This was on the 23rd July, 1790, and the army 
 obtained some successes between that date and the 2ist Sept. 
 But a detachment of cavalry was surprised by Tipu, and driven 
 back with the loss of some of its guns, and Tipu also took 
 some of Medows' magazines. Meanwhile the Governor- 
 General had sent down a flanking force along the Northern 
 Sirkars, which effected a junction with Medows, and raised his 
 force by over 9,000 troops. The gallant Hartley, who had 
 saved the honour of the Bombay army eleven years before, 
 also co-operated on the Malabar coast, arid in December cap- 
 tured one of Tipu's best officers, with over 2,000 of his men. 
 Nevertheless, the Governor-General was far from feeling satis- 
 fied with the conduct of the war, which was bringing but a
 
 FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. 281 
 
 small harvest of results in proportion to the expense.* Before, 
 indeed, he could have heard of the success of Hartley the chief 
 exploit of the campaign he had set sail for Madras, where he 
 arrived before the year was ended, and at once took up the 
 conduct of affairs. Once more the Mysore troops laid waste 
 the Carnatic, and Tipu re-opened his futile negotiations with 
 the Council of Pondicherry. On nth Feb. Corn wallis assembled 
 his army at Vellore, and, after misleading Tipu by a series of 
 able manoeuvres, made his way into the Mysore plateau with- 
 out encountering the enemy, taking Bangalore on his way, 
 which surrendered on 2ist March. So far all had prospered, 
 and it might have been expected that the allies would now 
 gather heart to fulfil their engagements, and take an active part 
 in the proceedings. This, however, they failed to do ; and 
 after vainly menacing Seringapatam, Cornwallis was obliged 
 to begin his retreat on 26 May, after destroying his siege-train, 
 for the draught of which he had no cattle left. Some forts 
 were taken by the British ; on the other hand, Coimbatore was 
 battered to the ground by Tipu, the remains of the garrison 
 being taken away captive. So far Cornwallis had done no 
 better than Medows, if as well. In the following year, how- 
 ever, the allied forces made a show of exertion ; the Mahrattas, 
 in particular, took some places, and plundered parts of the 
 Mysore country, but the objects of the British Government 
 seemed no nearer of attainment. Nevertheless, the prestige 
 of that Government was to some extent maintained, and even 
 increased, by the pertinacity with which the army occupied the 
 country on the north-east of Mysore, and reduced the frontier 
 castles. 
 
 At length, in Jan., 1792, Cornwallis felt at liberty to make a 
 great forward movement. The army had been reinforced, and 
 was now in great strength, and the commissariat had been 
 thoroughly organised. The camp of Tipu was assaulted, the 
 
 * Authorities chiefly quoted in text.
 
 282 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Governor-General being wounded, while Tipu was forced to 
 fly, and evacuate all his posts north of the Kavari river. On 
 the 5th Feb. Cormvallis stood before the walls of the outworks 
 on that side, with 20,000 good troops and a powerful siege- 
 train. The works being taken in a night attack, though not 
 without heavy loss, the Sultan judged it prudent to ask for 
 terms. An agreement was made, by which some territory was 
 ceded, and money penalty paid, and the Sultan's two eldest sons 
 were delivered up to the British Governor-General, as hostages 
 for the fulfilment of the conditions. Travancore was saved ; the 
 adjoining highland principality of Coorg was restored to its 
 hereditary chieftain ; and each of the treacherous and useless 
 allies was rewarded with a slice of the forfeited territory, enough 
 being retained by the British to round off the territories of 
 Madras, and for the first time give interior possessions to 
 the little Presidency of Bombay. 
 
 [See authorities already cited. Also Malleson's "Seringapa- 
 tam, past and present/' Madras, 1876 : Michaud ; " Progres et 
 Chute de FEmpire de Mysore"; 2 vols., Paris, 1801-9 : and 
 Marshman ; " History of India," 3 vols., London, 1867, a most 
 useful summary.]
 
 283 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 
 
 Section i : Cornwallis as a Reformer Section 2: Sindia's Second Ad- 
 ministration Section 3 : Wars in the Deccan and Destruction of 
 Tipu. 
 
 SECTION i. Thus far Cornwallis had been carrying the work of 
 Warren Hastings to a necessary, if not always intentional conclu- 
 sion. The treaty of Salbai, followed by the treaty of Mangalore, 
 was in appearance, a peaceful settlement ; yet the result had 
 been an increase of British influence, which soon led to further 
 expansion. All the military policy of the period was thus 
 shaped. In civil affairs also the mark of the last Governor but 
 one was plainly impressed ; and although, in this department, 
 some deviation was made, the change was not always of unques- 
 tioned benefit. The institutions of Cornwallis were, it cannot 
 be doubted, due to a genuine benevolence. But their wisdom 
 was not equally certain, for they were sudden and rapid rather 
 than due to natural evolution. What Pitt and Dundas ordered, 
 in pursuance of the recommendations of the Governor-General, 
 was, it must be admitted, wanting in full knowledge, and tainted 
 by the preconceived opinion from which no British statesman 
 of that day could be wholly free that the measure of reform 
 was the interest of the master: country. Hence things from 
 which Hastings would have shrunk the permanent settlement 
 of the land, the exclusion of natives from all posts of honour 
 and authority, the renewal of the Company's commercial privi- 
 leges and illusive responsibility ; while the King's Cabinet and 
 the British Parliament assumed the actual management of those
 
 284 HISTORY OF INDlA. 
 
 political and military proceedings which grew out of the neces- 
 sities of the trade. 
 
 How completely the preference of British interests, real or sup- 
 posed, must have affected these arrangements may be seen very 
 clearly by anyone who examines the state-papers of the time. 
 Thus, to take one example, Cornwallis closes his famous minute 
 on the Land Revenue of Bengal by the remark that the real value 
 of the Bengal Presidency consists in the degree to which it is 
 able to " furnish a large annual investment " for Europe and 
 and China. We shall observe this which may be called the 
 commercial fallacy pervading all the reforms of the day.* 
 
 First, then, let us briefly consider the legislation on land 
 tenures, ending in what has been since known as " The Per- 
 manent Settlement." It has often been said that Cornwallis 
 was a blind Englishman, who could find nothing to surpass the 
 usages of his native land, and who sought to advance Bengal 
 by giving the people what he conceived to be the benefit of 
 the quasi-feudal system of landlord and tenant. But in point 
 of fact that was by no means the sole peculiarity of the Bengal 
 "Settlement," nor was it invented by Cornwallis ; the Revenue 
 Board of ten years before having already recognised the agents 
 in possession as holding a vested interest in the estates, and 
 having laid down the lines of the new system by a series of 
 tentative agreements. In 1786 the Court of Directors had sent 
 out instructions that the revenue should be henceforth fixed 
 for ten years ; and added, that if it was found to work well, 
 then the assessment should be confirmed in perpetuity. Before 
 carrying out these orders Cornwallis judged a further enquiry 
 requisite. The result was perplexing ; for while, on the one 
 hand, the subject appeared wrapped in impenetrable darkness, 
 on the other the experts, headed by Mr. Shore, an old- 
 standing member of the Board, maintained that the "Ryots," 
 as the tenants were called, had clear and distinct rights which 
 
 * " Letter to Dundas," quoted by S. Karr ; " Cornwallis," p. 76,
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 285 
 
 were deserving of patient consideration. The rights of the 
 " Zemindar," or collecting agent, might have arisen by pre- 
 scription and in the decay of the Mughal Empire; but those 
 of the ryot were of a different kind, amounting to a sort of 
 ownership which was both more ancient and more absolute. 
 When the field of enquiry was afterwards enlarged, and when 
 competent observers went into the matter, in the Upper Prov- 
 inces, it turned out that Shore was perfectly right ; in fact, a 
 proprietorship of this kind was, in the ancient usage of the 
 country, held by associations (often of one blood) who recog- 
 nised that they were liable to pay the surplus produce to the 
 representatives of the community, agents, farmers, or grantees, 
 while they took care that the definition of " surplus " should 
 be as favourable as possible to themselves. Thus, so long as 
 they paid something in that way, they held themselves entitled 
 to do what they liked with the land, and to defend their 
 possession against all interference from without. If the State 
 were strong, its collectors, or its assignees took the entire net 
 produce, like Ala-ud-din Khilji,* leaving the agriculturists no 
 more than what would enable them to live and to carry on the 
 cultivation. If, on the contrary, the State was feeble, the 
 associated villagers would, either by their own united strength, 
 or under the protection o( some "Baron," withhold all but the 
 very smallest payment of quit-rent. And all these middlemen, 
 agents, assignees, or usurping Barons, in all times and con- 
 ditions, kept such portion of the collections in their own hands 
 as circumstances might permit. In Bengal alone this system 
 had undergone a further change, and hence had arisen a 
 special state of things, which, if it increased the difficulty of 
 laying down just principles, made it easier to conclude an ill- 
 considered adjustment. In Bengal, the village associations 
 had broken down from the feeble character of the people and 
 the ease with which they could be oppressed and superseded 
 * v. supra Chap. iii.
 
 286 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 by reason of their distance from the centre of government. 
 And not only so, but the long continuance of war, pestilence, 
 and famine, had diminished the numbers of the labourers so 
 much, that, as in Europe after the "Black Death," the 
 employers of labour had in their turn become the weaker 
 party in the new contractual system which was arising under 
 the British. The middlemen could and did crush the village 
 fraternities; but they could get no money out of the land 
 without cultivators. In European countries the dearth of men 
 during the latter half of the fourteenth century led to a rise of 
 wages ; in Bengal, where wage-labour was not the rule, the like 
 course led to indulgent treatment and coaxing of the agriculturist. 
 
 Thus, when once it had been reported to the King's minis- 
 ters in London that immediate measures must be taken to 
 create a valuable property in the land, it occurred to everyone 
 that this interest ought to be permanently vested in the 
 Zemindars who alone possessed the means for locating tenants 
 and developing the resources of the country, while from them 
 alone the surplus produce might most certainly and conveni- 
 ently continue to reach the Treasury. They had the ear of the 
 local authorities, too; and when the reports of these latter 
 came before Pitt and Dundas, the minds of those 
 statesmen were already predisposed in favour of so tangible 
 and easily intelligible a tenure. 
 
 Nevertheless, as is now everywhere seen, these Zemindars 
 were not in any sense proprietors, and such rights as might 
 have come to them by prescription or mistake, would certainty 
 prove adverse to the occupants as soon as ever these latter 
 should become sufficiently numerous to be led to compete with 
 one another for land. There were, (indeed there still are) in 
 Bengal, occupants whose generic title, Khudkdsht* preserved 
 the memory of times, when the peasant proprietors from whom 
 
 * The won! is a Persian compound meaning " one's own cultivation," 
 or " the cultivation of one's own land." (v. " Plaits' Hind. Diet.," p. 495.)
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 287 
 
 they derived their origin were " cultivators of their own land." 
 For a picturesque description of the position of these men, the 
 reader may be referred to Mr. Seton Karr's hook already 
 quoted.* Such men are still to be found ; but it did not occur 
 to Pitt or Dundas, any more than to Shore or Cornwallis, that 
 the solution of the vexed questions of Indian landowning might 
 be looked for in that direction ; it was not suspected that, in 
 point of fact, these men were the " allodial " proprietors of 
 Bengal. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Cornwallis intended to sacrifice 
 the interests of the ryots, however imperfectly he may have 
 understood them, to the creation of a class of landlords on 
 the English footing. His intention, clearly enough expressed in 
 previous correspondence as in subsequent legislation, was that 
 the ryots should be protected. But they were to be protected 
 as tenants having rights of litigation, with courts of law 
 provided to see that the terms of their leases were duly observed 
 and to guard them against illegal exactions. It was an attempt 
 to enforce contract rather than one to maintain status. 
 
 Thus prepared and safeguarded the measure was enjoined 
 on Cornwallis, with his complete concurrence, and announced 
 to the public of Bengal in the official organf in a sort of essay 
 or leading article, in which the merits of the question were 
 discussed. And a fiscal system " which varies with each varia- 
 tion of the real rent of the land and . . . with the im- 
 provement or decline of its cultivation " was condemned on the 
 ground of the superior encouragement to improvement given 
 or promised by " a permanent settlement." A perpetual assess- 
 ment was accordingly offered to all existing possessors, on the 
 basis of the last decennial valuation ; and they were enjoined 
 to avoid oppression of the ryots, whom, for the moment, it 
 was also their own interest to conciliate. It was left for later 
 
 * " Cornwallis " (Rulers of India). Oxford, 1890. 
 f "Calcutta Gazette," 9th May, 1793.
 
 288 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 times to show how much more instructive is practical ex- 
 perience than theory that is not exhaustive. It was not per- 
 ceived in 1793, that the improvements of which Bengal 
 husbandry was in need were such as should be either effected 
 by the officers of the State or by the cultivating occupants freed 
 from dread of unauthorised enhancements and illegal 
 cesses. In parts of India since settled, where the State, in the 
 interest of the general tax-paying community, keeps an eye on 
 the unearned increment, the officials have an interest in the 
 promotion of drainage, canals, roads, and all kinds of aids to 
 agriculture that demand skill and capital. And the cultivating 
 occupants, on the other hand, make their modest improve- 
 ments manuring, petty-irrigation, and so forth, so long as 
 they know that the result will not be an enhancement of their 
 rent. But the middlemen did not see the reason why they 
 should trouble themselves with such things. Drought very 
 seldom falls on Bengal ; and consequently a kind of slovenly 
 fertility usually prevails, and the spontaneous liberality of 
 nature yields enough for the primary wants of a dense popula- 
 tion. But the estates are deeply charged with mortgages and 
 with layers of subinfeudation : the people are in a backward 
 condition ; and on the rare occasions when famine does visit 
 them there is no social machinery for its resistance, and the 
 people die like autumn-leaves. In a journal of travels by a 
 native of Bengal, published in the second half of the iQth 
 century, nothing is more often noticed by the writer than the 
 contrast between the prosperity of Hindustan and the backward 
 state of the Lower Provinces.* He also notices the unfitness 
 of direct taxation as a fiscal instrument in India. Following a 
 misleading analogy Englishmen sometimes speak of the Indian 
 
 *" Trips and Tours." Reprinted from the " Weekly Englishman." Cal- 
 cutta, 1866. The writer expresses his particular surprise at I, the women 
 being clothed; 2, the land being all cultivated; 3, the existence of 
 numerous towns. Simple signs of welfare !
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 289 
 
 Land Revenue as " the land tax/' But it is in reality no tax, 
 rather the reverse of a tax. " So far as this source goes," said 
 James Mill, before a parliamentary committee, "the people 
 remain unfaxed. The wants of Government are supplied with- 
 out any drain upon the produce of any man's labour or of any 
 man's capital." The merits and demerits of the Permanent 
 Settlement have been tersely summoned up by an eloquent 
 writer, who is at the same time one of the most experienced and 
 distinguished of the older school of Bengal Civil Servants : 
 
 " Cornwallis had only the experience and the legacies of 
 failure to guide him. Pressed for ways and means, and 
 anxious for reform in more departments than one, he committed 
 himself to a policy which in regard to the three interested 
 parties, the Zemindar, the Ryot, and the Ruling Power 
 assured the welfare of the first, somewhat postponed the 
 claims of the second, and sacrificed the increment of the third."* 
 It must be added that the third, according to modern ideals, 
 only represents the people ; and that, on this view, to bind his 
 successors for all time to abstain from giving any relief to the 
 tax-payer by participating in the progress of cultivation, or 
 apportioning the demand on land to changes in the value, of 
 money, was hardly the work of a consummate statesman. 
 
 In any case more precautions ought to have been taken 
 to protect " the claims of the Ryot." To leave the poorer 
 party in a contract to sue against the extortions of the richer 
 was little short of a mockery, unless the law was most clearly 
 laid down, and unless the means of enforcing its provisions 
 were extremely cheap and efficient. Neither of these condi- 
 tions was fulfilled. The status, the liabilities, the rights, of 
 the various classes of tenants were not defined : and it required 
 stringent legislation, at different times during the succeeding 
 century, before the omission could be rectified. The Zemin- 
 dars found themselves in the position of the French Seigneurs 
 
 * Seton-Karr ; nt-sup, 
 
 U
 
 2QO HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 before the Revolution. It was not only in the direction of 
 greedy enhancement and capricious eviction that the rural pop- 
 ulation suffered. The Zemindars practised all sorts of exac- 
 tion ; taking fees from buyers and sellers, in transit and at 
 fairs ; and claiming dues on transactions such as marriages in 
 their families, in which the tenants could have no concern. 
 Moreover, they were often absentees, not unfrequently, in the 
 course of time, mercantile men in Calcutta, who never went 
 near their estates, and who drew their revenue through agents or 
 what was perhaps worse through mortgagees, farmers, or 
 sub-farmers. 
 
 The Courts, through whose mediation alone the tenantry 
 could hope to get remedy for these burdens, obtained much 
 attention. Cornwallis reformed the Civil Service of Bengal, 
 raising the salaries of Collectors and Judges, whom he placed 
 under the control of higher Courts, both Divisional and, finally, 
 at the Presidency. Hitherto a good deal of the judicial ad- 
 ministration had been in the hands of native officials. This 
 had not worked well ; and the reform, naturally, swung round 
 to the opposite extreme. The control and the responsibility 
 rested with Englishmen, imperfectly acquainted with the con- 
 ditions of the people : while the real work, carried on in actual 
 contact with the people, was left to be done by a multitude of 
 Asiatics, in the receipt of the most miserable salaries. 
 
 The last important measure for which this administration 
 could be held answerable was the complete transfer of all 
 political power to the Board of Control, while the semblance 
 of Government and the commerce of the East were left as 
 before in the hands of the Company. In consultation with the 
 Governor-General, Dundas proposed this policy, which was 
 originally defined by the "Declaratory Act" of 1788, con- 
 firmed by the Charter of 1793. The views of Cornwallis were 
 honourable ; he looked on the consultative voice left to the 
 Court of Directors as likely to be useful in shaping the choice
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 291 
 
 of high officials and the policy that they were to pursue ; he 
 believed that the patronage which the Court still retained, the 
 nomination of the " writers " and " cadets " sent out to recruit 
 the civil and military services, would be safer in their hands 
 than in those of politicians ; and he honestly thought that to 
 open the commerce would be to flood India with lawless 
 adventurers. But the progress of events has shown that these 
 dangers were exaggerated, and capable of prevention by mea- 
 sures more worthy of a civilised community. On the other 
 hand, it was not then perceived that the ostensible authority 
 left to the Court was a screen to avert responsibility from the 
 government of the Board of Control with whom in practice 
 Parliament seldom interfered, while the commercial usefulness 
 of the Company had almost come to an end. 
 
 In February of the year from which the " Regulations " of 
 Lord Cornwallis date, the revolutionary Convention of France 
 declared war against Great Britain. On receipt of the news 
 the Governor-General directed the preparation of a force for 
 the capture of Pondicherry ; and, at the end of August, set sail 
 for Madras, intending to take the command of the expedition. 
 But his voyage was delayed so long that when he arrived at 
 Madras he found that Pondicherry had been besieged by Colonel 
 Braithwaite, and had capitulated about i5th September. The 
 other French settlements were evacuated at the same time ; 
 and on the roth October, 1793, Cornwallis sailed from Madras, 
 arriving in England after an unusually quick passage of 115 
 days. He was made a marquess for his services ; and his 
 tenure of office is to be noted as a period of great change, and 
 a preparation for still greater. 
 
 The rest of India enjoyed the benefit of the arrangement, 
 or understanding, between Sindia and Hastings ; except that 
 Tipu's dominions were reduced, but not his fanaticism or his 
 longing for revenge. The knowledge of this had made Cornwallis 
 anxious. Without any disturbance of the general tranquility 
 
 u 2
 
 2 9 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 he devoted some part of his short stay at Madras, before lay- 
 ing down his office, to the securing of an understanding with 
 the other parties to the treaty concluded, in 1790, with the 
 Nizam and the Court of Poona. Sindia had somewhat offici- 
 ously sought to interpose, but Cornwallis preferred to adhere 
 to the old lines of diplomacy, and treat with the Durbar 
 direct. In 1793 he clenched the matter by the offer of a sup- 
 plemental treaty, in which he would have bound his allies to 
 act together, with candour and moderation, in future cases of 
 dispute. The proposal suited the Nizam, against whom the 
 Mahrattas had some pressing claims ; but the Nana, though 
 desirous of a friendly understanding, was unable to see his 
 way to a written guarantee ; and it may be that the influence 
 of Sindia, who was then at Poona, was exerted in the same 
 direction. A marked feature of the time is presented by the 
 rivalry between these two ambitious men, as will be more fully 
 explained in the next section. 
 
 [In addition to works already cited especial reference is 
 advised to Harington: "Analysis of Bengal Laws and Regu- 
 lations," 3 vols., folio, Calcutta, 1805-17. An able sketch of 
 Cornwallis's revenue policy will be found in Trotter's "History 
 of India," published for the S.P.C.K. (2nd ed., 1890).] 
 
 SECTION 2. It has been already mentioned that Sindia was 
 a military jagirdar or " baron " of the Mahratta Empire. 
 The Nana was the Brahman Minister of the Peshwa, who had 
 become hereditary President of the Mahratta Confederacy, 
 whereas Sindia was only one of several provincial feudatories, 
 who, in the manner common to Eastern Empires, had made 
 themselves independent in fact, while still professing to recog- 
 nise a sort of legitimacy in the titular overlords. The des- 
 cendant of Sivaji still held his faded sovereignty at Satara ; 
 and at each vacancy at Poona the new Peshwa sought investiture 
 at his hands : but the Satara Raja was, otherwise, a mere lay- 
 figure in politics, and his usurping deputy at Poona was little
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 293 
 
 better; his authority being in its turn usurped by others, pro- 
 fessing to be only subordinate ministers. At the time that we 
 have now reached, the Peshwa was Mddhu Rao Nara'yan, born 
 1774, when Raguba was aiming at the office : and as the 
 power of the latter declined, the minister by whom the child's 
 cause was espoused became ever more and more powerful. 
 This was the official known in books as "Na"na Farnavis," his 
 real name was Janardhan Balaji, and he had been on the 
 Campaign that ended so disastrously in 1761. But he belonged 
 to the Brahman tribe, and was a "man-of-the-pen," with neither 
 taste nor training for war. Scandal credited him with the 
 paternity of the boy so opportunely brought forward in oppo- 
 sition to the claims of Raguba ; and on the ultimate ruin of 
 the latter the Nana became practically administrator at Poona, 
 and claimant of all the indeterminate authority of the infant 
 Peshwa. The Confederacy was at that time still coherent, in 
 theory at least, and consisted of four great states besides the 
 original Mahratta country or territory of Baglana directly 
 subject to the Poona Government. These four States were as 
 follows : 
 i . GUJAR.YT, or the State of the Gaikwar ; lands scattered over 
 
 the western region, from the frontiers of Malwa to the 
 
 Arabian Sea, inclusive of the great Peninsula of Kathi- 
 
 awar, at the extremity of the Gulf of Cutch. The chief 
 
 town was Ahmadabad. 
 2 SOUTHERN M.YLWA, the Holkar State, ruled by Ahalya 
 
 Bai, widow of the founder's son ; her capital was Indore, 
 
 which she built about 1770. 
 3. NORTHERN M#LWA, including Gwalior. This was the 
 
 local nucleus of Sindia's power ; the capitals being 
 
 Ujain and Gwalior. 
 4. BER.^R, or the State of the Bhonsla ; comprising the 
 
 modern " Central Provinces," with Orissa. The capital 
 
 was at Nagpore.
 
 294 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 It will thus be seen that, had the rulers been united, there 
 was a Mahratta Empire extending from sea to sea, and from 
 the banks of the Tungabhadra to those of the Jumna. Kolha- 
 pore, on the Malabar coast, and Tanjore on the extreme south 
 of the Coromandel, were also smaller Mahratta States, each 
 under a chief of the family of Sivaji. But the condition of 
 unity was lacking. 
 
 It was, however, one of the constantly pursued aims of 
 Mahadaji Sindia to recognise the Durbar, or Cabinet of 
 Regency, of the Minor Peshwa, and to act as umpire in Poona 
 politics, whilst, as Mayor of the Palace at Delhi, he ruled in 
 Hindustan. This plan, which furnishes a clue to a great part 
 of the events between 1775 and 1794, brought Sindia and the 
 Nana into contact, sometimes into opposition. The jovial 
 nature and frank manners of Sindia contrasted with the ascetic 
 stiffness of his rival ; but in point of astuteness there was not 
 much difference ; and neither was much disposed for an open 
 rupture. Thus, when Sindia was in his deepest trouble, in 
 1787, we have seen that the Nana and Holkar came to his 
 support, and that he was, with their aid, able to resume his 
 place at the headquarters of the Empire. The late revolution 
 at Delhi, although not undertaken on his behalf, had improved 
 his prospects immensely. In Muhamad Beg and Ghulam Kadir 
 had perished the two leaders of Muslim opposition whom he had 
 most reason to fear; Ismail, who remained, was inferior in 
 ability, and was for the present well-disposed. De Boigne 
 had accepted the task of remodelling the army, and had made 
 a good beginning by the quiet sagacity with which he checked 
 a show of disaffection. The force originally raised which 
 had been steady and useful in the late Rajput campaign, 
 though too small to turn the scales of battle was without a 
 brigadier, and had not been paid for eight months, a state of 
 affairs which made them mutinous. Sindia did not like to 
 reason with armed disputants, and was for charging the sepoys
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 295 
 
 with an overwhelming body of horsemen, but De Boigne per- 
 suaded the chief to adopt more humane measures ; and on 
 obtaining leave to take his own course, adopted such a mixture 
 of justice, tact, and firmness that he kept the bulk of the men 
 while getting rid of ringleaders and dangerous characters. 
 Recruits were then sought among the same manly races as 
 contributed to form the British army of Bengal; and in a few 
 months some sixteen battalions were ready for service, with a 
 quantity of field guns, Mughal horse, and irregular spearsmen. 
 Many of the native princes were raising troops of the kind 
 about the same time. We have already seen European officers 
 serving under the Nizam's brother and under the Raja of Tra- 
 vancore; the Nizam, as we shall presently see, had a large 
 force under a good French general. But Sindia's "new 
 model," led by De Boigne under the white cross of Savoy, 
 was distinguished over all, perfect in discipline and never 
 beaten. 
 
 Its value was soon put to proof. The proud but unpunctual 
 Rajputs had hung back while Sindia's affairs were at their ebb, 
 but now, when the tide had turned, they resolved on trying 
 their luck once more. Ismail Beg was easily persuaded to 
 give up his fief in Riwari, where he found life too quiet for his 
 taste ; and he had the less objection to cross swords again with 
 the Mahrattas that a general expectation prevailed that the 
 Afghans would soon come down from their mountains and 
 make common cause with their Muslim brethren in the 
 Deccan. 
 
 To confront this combination Sindia made all speed with his 
 preparations. Besides the " new model " brigade, which was 
 prepared the quicker because the non-commissioned officers 
 were all old soldiers out of the legion lately disbanded for 
 mutiny, Sindia had some troops of the ordinary character, 
 whom he put under the charge of two good and true Mahratta 
 officers : Gopal Rao, and Lakwa Dada, distinguished for his
 
 296 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 defence of Agra in the late troubles. Ismail, on the other hand, 
 was well supported ; his infantry was not equal to De Boigne's, 
 but his heavy cavalry, composed of Persians and Afghans, dis- 
 banded after earlier wars, but still ready for any service that 
 promised pay and plunder, was a formidable force, just suited to 
 the character of the Beg. In March De Boigne left the can- 
 tonments near Mathra (Muttra), and set out to attack the Beg 
 before he could effect a junction with the Rajputs. A cloud 
 of Mahratta horsemen screened his movements and watched 
 those of the enemy, who was found on loth May, encamped 
 at Patan, in a rocky tract between Gwalior and Ajmere. De 
 Boigne, having a strong brigade of infantry and fifty guns, in- 
 trenched himself and blockaded the place for some weeks. At 
 last, i Qth June, Ismail Beg resolved on a sortie, the Kachwaha 
 Rajputs from Jaipore having managed to reach the scene, and 
 appearing ready to fall on De Boigne's flank and rear, so as to 
 expose him to two fires, Unfortunately for the Beg, Sindia's 
 money and diplomacy had been at work, and the Rajputs re- 
 mained inactive. In vain the mailed squadrons with clash of 
 arms and rattle of kettle-drums thundered down the hill upon 
 the raw levies ; the squares kept their cool blood, the enemy's 
 saddles were fast emptied, the cavaliers fell back, and, as even- 
 ing fell, De Boigne deployed his men, advanced in line, drove 
 back the last fragments of resistance, and took the works by 
 storm. Ismail's loss in the day's fighting included xooguns, 50 
 elephants, and all his luggage. On the morrow his infantry came 
 over to the conquerors, while he himself, with the wreck of his 
 cavalry, galloped hard until he reached the city of Jaipore. 
 Holkar had arrived, and might have taken up the pursuit, but 
 was perhaps more usefully employed in keeping back the Raj- 
 puts. The " Calcutta Gazette" (22nd July) gives De Boigne's 
 modest account of the action ; his officers and men, he says, 
 behaved well, and his brigade lost 120 killed and 472 wounded. 
 It was a spirited little affair, which showed that the new force
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 297 
 
 was already tempered for its work ; and it augured ill for the 
 medieval system of warfare now about to try conclusions with 
 scientific battle. 
 
 In August, De Boigne received instructions to call Bijai Sinh 
 to account for having abetted the revolt of the Beg. This, it 
 should be observed, was a more serious task than hoodwinking 
 the Kachwahas of Jaipore, not nearly so warlike a race, and 
 much more exposed in their fertile country, open at all seasons 
 to attacks from Delhi. But Bijai and his Rahtors lived in a 
 remote and barren district far to the west; Marwar, or the 
 " Land of Death," having, as outwork and chief seat of state 
 and pleasure, the fair lake and plateau of Ajmere on the 
 eastern side of the Aravali hills. Hither came De Boigne on 
 2ist August to punish Bijai for a long course of insult and in- 
 jury from the day when he, at that very city, murdered Jai Apa 
 Sindhia about the middle of the century. De Boigne easily 
 occupied the city of Ajmere, but was delayed by the great 
 natural strength of the fort of Taragarh which towers above, on 
 a mountain nearly three thousand feet high. While contem- 
 plating the chances of storming this eagle's nest, De Boigne re- 
 ceived news that the old Raja had set out from Jodhpore and 
 was advancing to the relief. He accordingly left 2,700 men 
 to guard the siege-works, and marched down the Jodhpore 
 road, coming upon the Rahtor camp about half-way, at a 
 place called Merta, standing on high ground, with the 
 town-wall covering its rear. The spot was of evil omen 
 for Bijai, for it was here that, after murdering Jai Apa at 
 Aimere he had been caught and crushed by the united forces 
 of the Mahrattas in 1754. It was the afternoon of the Qth 
 September, and De Boigne, overruling the impatience of the 
 Mahratta officers, gave his men some hours of rest. The night 
 was passed by the Rahtors in revel ; and while sleeping off its 
 effects their camp was surprised at dawn by Colonel de Rohan 
 with three of De Boigne's best battalions. The Rahtor cavalry
 
 298 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 quickly armed and mounted. The attack was beaten off, and 
 a headlong charge dispersed the horsemen of the Mahratias. 
 But the Rahtors were powerless against the disciplined squares 
 of De Boigne's infantry and their field-pieces loaded with grape.* 
 Four thousand saddles, it is said, were emptied as they rode 
 back. The squares then deployed, as at Patan, and advanced 
 in line; and the whole camp, artillery and munitions, were in 
 their possession soon after 10 a.m. The retreat of the Raja 
 and his men was covered by the remains of the cavalry. But 
 Taragarh, the citadel of Ajmere, presently capitulated, and 
 Bijai soon made peace with De Boigne, who entered Jodhpore on 
 i8th November, 1790. The Rana of Udaipore next submitted, 
 and, so far as native resistance went, Sindia was absolute in 
 Hindustan.- He now authorised De Boigne to augment the 
 force by raising two more brigades ; bringing the disciplined 
 corps to a total strength of 18,000 ; and he assigned for guar- 
 antee of pay a territory extending from Muttra to Delhi, and 
 northward to Bulandshahr, with a yearly revenue of two and a 
 quarter million rupees. 
 
 In 1791 Sindia preferred his help as above said, to Corn- 
 wallis, to be employed against Tipu ; and was equally surprised 
 and disappointed to find that his offer was courteously declined, 
 while at the same time his rival, the Nana, was allowed to con- 
 tribute a contingent of the Poona army. This was a service of 
 no great advantage in the field, but most useful in the tem- 
 porary retreat of the British, and amply recompensed in the 
 following year. About this time came a renewed rumour of 
 Afghan invasion. It had long been known that Tipu who 
 had already' sent an embassy to the Court of Louis XVI., was 
 chafing under the partition of his territory. And it now came 
 out that he was in correspondence with Zaman Shah, grandson 
 
 * The invention of this formation of infantry against horse has been attri- 
 buted to General cle Boigne.
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 299 
 
 of the famous Abmad Abdali, the victor of Panipat.* The 
 prospect of a new combination of the Muslims alarmed Sindia, 
 who contemplated a counter-stroke by attacking the Xawab of 
 Audh to prevent all chance of his imitating the policy of his 
 late father in 1 761. But the movement was repressed by Corn- 
 wallis with stern menace. Confident of his ability to keep the 
 feeble and frivolous Asaf-ud-daula in check, the Governor- 
 General caused Sindia to be notified that the Nawab was tiie 
 ally of the British, and that they would resent any injury done 
 to him or to the people of his province. 
 
 Thus circumscribed, and almost isolated, Sindia determined 
 to leave his possessions in Hindustan to the care of De Boigne 
 and his Mahratta colleagues, while he proceeded to Poona to 
 counteract the designs of the Nana and make himself master 
 of the politics of the confederacy. 
 
 By this time (1792) the cohesion of the Mahratta States was 
 worn almost to a thread ; and it may well have seemed to 
 Sindia that events were approaching which would call for all 
 his resources. Gujarat, indeed, was quiet ; and the authority 
 of the Peshwa and his durbar was acknowledged by the Gaik- 
 war. But the other states were far from being equally submis- 
 sive. In what are now the Central provinces and Orissa, the 
 Bhonsla Raja of Nagpore had established a power which was 
 all but independent of Poona. Under the title of Raja of 
 Berar Raghuji II. had extended the power of the state at the 
 expense of the Nizam, and had maintained the independent 
 alliance with the British which had been begun during his 
 minority by his uncle, the Regent. As to the state of Indore, 
 its loyalty, both towards the Poona Durbar and towards Sindia, 
 had been maintained as long as Ahalya Bai retained power ; 
 
 * Two draft letters, from Tipu to the Shah, were found at Seringapatam 
 some years later, which appear to be of this date. They contained a com- 
 plete project for an invasion of Hindustan, in which the Mysore army wa.s 
 to co-operate.
 
 300 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 but she was now old and worn out with religious austerities, 
 while Tukaji Holkar, long her faithful servant, was beginning to 
 show a spirit of dissatisfaction, and a tendency to redress what 
 he deemed his grievances by acting on his account. As a 
 counterpoise to Sindia, of whom he was becoming very jealous, 
 he now raised a force in imitation of that formed by De Boigne, 
 and placed in command a Breton officer of long-standing 
 Indian experience, the Chevalier du Drenec, formerly a subal- 
 tern of M. Law. If the help of the Nana had been sometimes 
 grudgingly bestowed, such backwardness might easily be turned 
 into hostility should Holkar succeed in obtaining, power at 
 Poona. As will presently appear, these perils were by no 
 means imaginary, and came to a serious height when the reins 
 of Sindia's chariot dropped into less skilful hands. 
 
 Sindia therefore proceeded to Poona, announcing that he 
 was sent by the Emperor, Shah Alam, with gifts and honours 
 for the young Peshwa, Madhu Rao II. He reached Poona 
 on the nth June, 1792, and pitched his camp in the grounds 
 of the British Residency: on the aoth-22nd, the ceremony took 
 place, the powerful visitor presenting himself in humble guise 
 and affecting the character of a menial servant. 
 
 Meanwhile, Holkar profited by Sindia's absence to strike at 
 his power in Hindustan. Opening a correspondence with 
 Ismail Beg, whom he urged to attack Delhi, he forced a rup- 
 ture with Gopal Rao, by demanding an immediate adjustment 
 of the accounts of prize taken in former joint expeditions. De 
 Boigne sent his best subordinate, Colonel Perron, into Riwari, 
 where the Beg was preparing for revolt in communication with 
 the widow of his predecessor, Najaf Kuli ; this was a sister of 
 the infamous Ghulam Kadir, who lived at Kanaund, on the 
 border of the great desert that extends from the confines of 
 Hariana, to the valley of the Indus; and she readily accepted the 
 concurrence of the Beg. The sandy soil formed a natural pro- 
 tection against attack, being both deficient in water and
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 301 
 
 difficult to pass for guns and wheel carriage. The spirited 
 Pathan lady defied Perron's- summons, and Ismail attacked 
 him with the old vigour. But the lady was killed by a shell, 
 and the garrison forced the Beg to surrender, when he was 
 taken to Agra and kept a prisoner in the fort there till his 
 death.* 
 
 De Boigne had reserved for himself a more formidable 
 antagonist. He brought Holkar to bay, as the latter was 
 advancing to relieve Kanaund, and crossing a spur of the 
 Aravalli range. Holkar had a good force of Mahratta cavalry, 
 and his new legion consisting of four battalions, whom he 
 posted on the crest of the pass with thirty-eight guns in battery. 
 The post was naturally difficult of approach, and Holkar pro- 
 tected it with his horsemen. But nothing could resist an 
 infantry like De Boigne's ; the column, 9,000 strong, with 
 field guns, pressed on with sturdy valour ; trees on each side 
 impeded Holkar's charges; the pass was stormed and defended 
 with equal determination, till Colonel du Drenec, left almost 
 the sole survivor of his legion, surrendered with all his guns. 
 Holkar fell back on Malwa, where he consoled himself by 
 sacking Sindia's capital of Ujain. The date of this action 
 which De Boigne considered the most severe he ever fought 
 was 3oth September, 1792, two months after the Poona 
 reception. 
 
 Sindia remained at Poona, whence he made a tentative move 
 to see if he could recover the tribute of Bengal from the 
 British, whom he believed to be just then in a mood of penitent 
 moderation. But he showed no ill-temper when he found that 
 he had miscalculated, and that his demand was met with the 
 same stern repudiation by Cornwallis, as had already been 
 
 * The Beg was not closely confined, but lived in a comfortable house 
 inside the Delhi gate, on high, well-ventilated ground, whence there are 
 fine views of the river, the Taj, and the surrounding country. It is known 
 as the house of Dan Sah Jat.
 
 302 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 given to a similar claim by Macpherson seven years earlier. 
 Whatever may be thought of the abstract justice or legality of 
 this attitude in 1785, Sindia might have felt sure that it would 
 not now be abandoned. He had no desire to add to his cares 
 by a rupture with the British, having had more than a taste of 
 their fighting qualities, and been specially warned against such 
 a quarrel by De Boigne. He accordingly hastened to disclaim 
 the Delhi newswnter who had been used as the touchstone of 
 his essay, assuring the Government of Bengal that he quite 
 acknowledged British supremacy in that part of the Empire, 
 and confined his ambition to the task of maintaining the 
 imperial authority "in those territories which still remained 
 under its direct administration." 
 
 Sindia's manly attentions and genial ways made a favourable 
 impression on the mind of the young Peshwa Madhu Rao, 
 just entering on his igth year, and brooding somewhat sadly 
 under the ascetic manners and austere control of his guardian, 
 the Nana. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the visitor 
 obtained any practical ascendency in the councils of the dur- 
 bar, which was, at that very time, chafing at the very secondary 
 part that Mahratta power had been made to play during the 
 Mysore war, and, therefore, declined to join the triple alliance 
 proposed to them by Cornwallis. Nevertheless, as months 
 went on in which constant intercourse with the one was 
 followed by the gradual estrangement of the other, the Nana 
 began to despond. He, whether sincerely or not, tendered his 
 resignation to the Peshwa, and announced an intention of 
 retiring to end his days as a religious recluse at Benares. 
 
 When Sindia heard of this, his first impulse was to suspect 
 mischief. He did not believe in the Nana's professed inten- 
 tions ; rather reading in them a design dangerous to himself. 
 He therefore at once sent orders to De Boigne to despatch to 
 him at Poona a body of 10,000 of the disciplined troops under 
 Perron ; men whose backs no enemy had ever seen, and whose
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 303 
 
 native barbarism had in the words of a contemporary observer 
 been "submitted to the discipline and to the civilisation 
 of European armies."* A serious crisis appeared to be 
 imminent. The hostile intrigues of the Nana " The Indian 
 Machiavel" were supported by the open enmity of Holkar, 
 and by the scarcely less manifest ill-feeling of the Conservative 
 party at Poona, who viewed Sindia's prosperity with jealous 
 eyes, and disapproved of his readiness to adopt foreign agents 
 and foreign methods. 
 
 The clouds were dispelled for the moment by the sudden 
 and mysterious death of Mahadaji Sindia, which happened on 
 1 2th February, 1794. In Mahratta records the cause assigned 
 was fever ; but the event was too opportune not to be imputed 
 to treachery; and the story believed in Hindustan was that 
 the chief had been waylaid by assassins who were driven off, 
 but not until they had inflicted hurts from the effect of which 
 Sindia died the next day.f He left behind him an unfinished 
 work and a great reputation. When he first appeared on the 
 scene in Hindustan, the country was a welter of anarchy, 
 while the Deccan was full of contending interests and elements 
 of purposeless strife. At his death a beginning of order had 
 been made. The best army in the country had been cured of 
 its bad habits, and made into a serviceable engine. At Aligarh, 
 and further north, at Sirdhana, beginnings of civil order had 
 been made by General de Boigne and Begam Samru : the 
 British influence was stealing upward from Benares. In the 
 south the Mahratta confederacy was at peace within itself, and 
 its good understanding with the British had brought about a 
 temporary balance of power with Mysore and the Nizam. 
 And much of this though it may now seem little better than 
 
 * " The Bengal Journal," 18 September, 1790. 
 
 t So related in the "Tarikh-i-Muzafari" : a Persian MS. History of good 
 repute, mentioned favourably in Dowson's " Elliot," vol. viii. , to which we 
 owe much of our knowledge of the affairs of Hindustan at that period.
 
 3 o4 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 a compromise with disorder was a distinct inroad into the 
 general anarchy that followed the invasion of Nadir Shah, and 
 was in great part due to the bold sagacity and moderation of 
 Sindia. He thus merits the description given to him by a 
 high modern authority as " a statesman and soldier of almost 
 unsurpassed ability."* Before his death he declared his desire 
 that his power should be assumed by his grand-nephew, Daulat 
 P.ao ; and it is a proof that his will was respected when we find 
 this lad of fifteen, without any lawful adoption, obeyed as heir 
 to such great power and dignity. 
 
 A signal confirmation of this estimate of the deceased chief 
 is to be seen in the confusion that followed his disappearance. 
 For a while the strong experienced hand of De Boigne kept 
 matters straight in Upper India. Rumours of a threatened 
 Afghan invasion continued indeed to prevail. Taimur Shah 
 the son of the famous Abdali died in June, 1793, leaving the 
 government of Kandahar and Kabul to his son Zaman Shah : 
 but domestic troubles and perhaps some fear of the growing 
 power of the Sikhs kept him quiet for the time.t A sketch 
 of the earlier relations between the Sikhs and Afghans will be 
 found in the monograph, by Sir Lepel Griffin, in the " Rulers 
 of India" series, beginning at p. 734 There it is stated that 
 Ahmad Shah attempted to conciliate the warlike horsemen of 
 the Punjab, though without much success ; and it seems now 
 on looking back from the vantage ground of later experience- 
 that their hatred of Islam and their power of military combina- 
 tion must have proved a bulwark against any repetition of 
 northern incursion. But these things were not then so clear. 
 And, indeed, the ease with which a brilliant European 
 
 * "Imperial Gazetteer," v. 230. 
 
 t This was noted in the " Calcutta Gazette" of 28 May, 1795, For the 
 next few years eyes of fear or hope continued to be turned in this direction 
 from every part of India. 
 
 I " Ranjit Singh," by Sir Lepel Griffin, K. C.S.I., Oxford, 1892.
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 305 
 
 adventurer of that period kept the Sikhs in check even carry- 
 ing the war into their own country may well have given rise 
 to a low opinion of their power in war. 
 
 This remarkable man was named George Thomas ; but the 
 part which he performed was too obscure and too much of the 
 nature of episode to justify a detailed account of his doings 
 here. Still, his career should be noted as an instance of what 
 unaided energy was able to conceive and partly carry out in 
 the India of those days. We had a glimpse of him in the 
 Emperor's futile expedition of the spring of 1788, when he 
 saved the camp in the sortie of Najaf Kuli's garrison at Gokal- 
 garh. Since that date he had left the service of Begam 
 Samru, and entered on the business of a soldier-of-fortune on 
 his own account, offering the services of himself, and a small 
 body of men whom he had disciplined, to any local chief who 
 might be disposed to employ them, for pay and plunder. 
 Thomas was then at Anupshahr, the quarters of the British 
 brigade of observation, on the upper Ganges. The position 
 was central to the political geography of those days ; with 
 Rohilkhand to the east, the central Duab to the south, and to 
 the west, Delhi. On the north-west and north, lay the tracts 
 called li The fifty-two Parganas " which had been inherited 
 by the late Ghulam Kadir (as grandson of Najib and son of 
 Zabita) but which, since the revolution of 1788, had been in 
 Mahratta hands. This fertile and temperate region, compris- 
 ing the modern district of Saharanpore, at the foot of the 
 great mountain chain, with the Ganges on one hand and the 
 Jumna on the other, had long been a temptation to the Sikhs 
 on the right bank of the last named river ; and Sindia had put 
 it in charge of an energetic officer, Apa Khandi Rao, by whom 
 Thomas was engaged, in the latter part of 1792 ; and commis- 
 sioned to raise a small force in addition to his usual following. 
 The first employment of the corps was the establishment of 
 the Apa's power in Mewat, a stony plateau lying between
 
 306 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Delhi and Alwar, occupied by lawless tribes. The news of 
 Sindia's death arrived before the expedition had got to work. 
 Before the end of the year 1794, however, Thomas had made 
 sufficient progress to be able to canton his little legion in 
 Tijara, the chief town of the district, about fifty-five miles 
 south-west of Delhi. While here he received an offer of em- 
 ployment in Sindia's army, which he declined, and soon after 
 had the opportunity of saving his former employer, Begam 
 Samru, who was undergoing captivity and danger from her own 
 men at Sardhana. Dashing across country he reached Sar- 
 dhana a distance of 100 miles and appeared before the 
 mutineers accompanied by his mounted bodyguard ; when by 
 audacity, eloquence, and the expenditure of a large sum of 
 money which was never repaid he obtained the release and 
 restoration of the Begam. Before the end of 1795 Thomas 
 was employed against the Cis-Sutlej Sikhs, who had invaded 
 Saharanpore, whence he expelled them, at the same time ex- 
 pressing the opinion that, for want of unity, they would never 
 become formidable. The forecast was natural. Thomas 
 could not know that forty miles beyond Lahore a boy had 
 lately come forward as head of the Shukarcharia clan, who was 
 destined to weld those wild warriors into one of the most for- 
 midable military powers of the East.* 
 
 SECTION 3. While these seeds of the future were germina- 
 ting in Upper India, British influence was extending in the 
 southern regions. The Mahratta Empire had so very nearly 
 supplanted that of the Mughals, as a general centre and unifier 
 of the Peninsula, that it might have seemed doubtful, in the 
 failure of Islam, whether Sindia had he but been ten years 
 younger might not have carried out the Hindu revival to a 
 complete conquest. With one foot resting on the base of the 
 
 * Ranjit Sinh, born and bred at Gujramvala, raid in 1795 about fifteen 
 years old, had become chief by the death of his father. " Imperial 
 Gazetteer," and Griffin, as above.
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 307 
 
 Himalaya, and the other on the shore of Palk's passage, the 
 arch of Mahratta power already spanned the Peninsula. But 
 the sudden death of Mahadaji Sindia loosened the keystone, 
 and the decay of the abutments soon followed. The Irish 
 adventurer and the Sikh marauder fought in Saharanpore ; at 
 the other extremity the principality founded in Tanjore by the 
 brother of the great Sivaji, was becoming a British depen- 
 dency. A similar lot had fallen to the bold and patriotic chief 
 of Travancore; while no maritime outlet now remained to 
 Tipu Sultan except Mangalore, taken by that chieftain in 1783, 
 and left somewhat imprudently in his possession by subsequent 
 treaties. 
 
 Half-way between Tanjore and Travancore lay all that was 
 left of Tipu's territories, and he, at least, was by no means 
 prepared to be mediatised. Nor, indeed, was Tipu what in 
 the East would be deemed a bad ruler. Inferior in strategic 
 and political ability he was as most men must have been 
 when compared with his father ; and he had grievous faults of 
 character and temper, being passionate, revengeful, and fanati- 
 cal. But he was brave, sober, industrious, and if one only 
 conceded the principle that the ideal of sovereignty was a 
 theocracy with an earthly Sultan for Viceregent Tipu was no 
 mean example of that kind of tyrant. On the principle of 
 Louis XIV. he styled himself " Khudadad Sarkar " (the God- 
 sent State.) To hate those whom he considered the enemies 
 of Heaven was with him a duty none the less incumbent be- 
 cause it happened to be pleasant. The British were the worst, 
 being enemies of himself besides being unbelievers. The 
 Mahratta Durbar was in much the same predicament ; and the 
 Nizam Muslim though he was had joined the infidels in 
 attacking the Sultan of Mysore, and partitioning his dominions. 
 
 It was upon the last that the flood of his evil temper 
 seemed about to break loose. Profiting by the death of 
 Mahadaji he procured the assent of the Poona Durbar, by 
 
 X 2
 
 308 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 whom an attack on the part of the Nizam had just come into 
 expectation. But Mr. Shore, of Bengal who had been 
 created a baronet, and had succeeded Cornwallis as Governor- 
 General was adverse ; and the triple alliance was dissolved 
 for want of one strong mind to keep it in force. Tipu, more- 
 over, could not, at the last moment, bring himself to join the 
 Mahrattas in making war on a Muslim ; and the Nizam was left 
 to contend with the unbelievers on terms that would have 
 been far from unequal but for his own effete imbecility. It 
 must be said, in his excuse, that he was far advanced in years, 
 being a son of the old minister of Alamgir, the famous Asaf 
 Ja"h. But he had in his service an excellent French officer, 
 who, if supported, or even left alone, might have sufficed for 
 his defence. 
 
 Michel Raymond had come from France as a merchant, and 
 on the capture of Pondicherry in 1778, took service in the 
 French corps employed by Haidar. On the arrival of Bussy, 
 in 1783, Raymond became aide-de-camp to that General, and 
 on his death, two years later, entered the service of the 
 Nizam's brother, Basalat Jang, afterwards passing into that of 
 the Nizam himself. He now adopted a plan very similar to 
 that of De Boigne, in the North ; forming battalions of native 
 infantry under European officers. By the time of which we 
 are now treating there were no less than twenty of these corps, 
 and the officers, to the number of 124, were of European 
 blood. On the loth March, 1795, the army of the Nizam, in 
 which this division was included, marching from Bidar, came 
 in contact with the troops of the Peshwa, near the foot of the 
 Purandhar' pass, within two marches of Poona. Could they 
 but prevail the capital of the Peshwa was at their mercy. The 
 trained infantry of the Mahrattas was about equal in number 
 to the division of Raymond on the opposite side, including 
 ten of De Boigne's veterans, under Perron ; there was an 
 immense force of Mahratta cavalry ; the troops of Gujarat and
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 309 
 
 Berar were there, and the horsemen of Sindia and Holkar : and 
 the Mahrattas also appear to have had a preponderance in heavy 
 guns, which were placed in position on the slope of the hills. 
 The battle took place on the i2th March, and began by a 
 decided advantage gained by the Muslim cavalry, which broke 
 and rolled up the Mahratta right. On their left the battalions 
 of Raymond advanced steadily, in spite of a disconcerting 
 shower of rockets and the fire of the guns on the hill-side. The 
 Muslim horsemen, however, fled before the tempest, on which 
 the Nizam recalled the infantry under Raymond and fled with 
 his cavalry. Raymond retreated in good order, but the day 
 was lost. The aged Prince, whose nerve was gone, and who 
 after the fashion of most Asiatics trusted nothing but his 
 cavalry, sought refuge in the Fort of Kardla, from which the 
 battle takes its name in history. Next day he was cannonaded, 
 and soon forced to capitulate ; and it might have seemed as if 
 the Mahratta confederacy was going to recover its empire in 
 India. 
 
 As events turned out, however, this was not only the last 
 triumph of their arms, but the last occasion on which the 
 great standard of their empire ever floated over a united 
 Mahratta army. Annoyed at what he conceived his desertion 
 by the British, the Nizam at first turned his eyes towards an 
 alliance with the French Republic, then at war with England ; 
 dismissing, in the month of June, the British battalions which 
 had been sent to his aid by the Governor-General, Sir J. Shore. 
 But they were soon after recalled, and though the arrangement 
 by which the district of Cuddapa was assigned for the support 
 of Raymond's force was not cancelled, Shore allowed the 
 battalions to remain. 
 
 These precautions proved superfluous. At the very moment 
 of success, when all the Mahratta States appeared ready to 
 combine for the mastery of Southern India, the ambitious de- 
 signs of the Nana were shattered in one night. His ward,
 
 310 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the Peshwa Madhu Rao II., weary of the part that he was 
 made to play, dashed himself from the roof of his palace, 
 and died two days later, 24th October, 1795. His death was 
 followed by a period of inextricable confusion, in which, after 
 a year of intrigue and tergiversation on the part of the Nana, 
 of the new Sindia, Daulat Rao, and of most of the other 
 Mahratta grandees, a treaty of peace was concluded with the 
 Nizam, 8th October, 1796 ; and with the help of the Haidar- 
 abad army the son of the once turbulent Raguba was made 
 Peshwa, by the title of Baji Rao. A strange turn of the wheel 
 of fortune, by which the dotard who, to save himself from 
 utter ruin, had to make a humiliating surrender in the middle 
 of one year, became disposer of the throne of his enemies 
 before the end of the next. Baji Rao was installed as Peshwa 
 on 4th December, the last as it proved who ever held the 
 proud Presidentship of the United States of Maharashtra. 
 
 If the Nana expected advantage from his share in this tran- 
 saction a bitter disappointment was at hand for that most 
 selfish of politicians. The new Peshwa was a man as his 
 after conduct was to demonstrate who knew not one honour- 
 able feeling. His first step, on obtaining power, was to 
 instigate Sindia to seize and imprison the Nana ; the next, to 
 set on his brother, Amrit Rao, to assassinate Sindia, after 
 causing the latter to sack the capital, which went through the 
 horrors of war at the hands of its own rulers. Sindia owed 
 his life to the irresolution of his enemy the Peshwa. 
 
 While the western capital was the scene of these events, the 
 British Governor-General was having his share of trouble in 
 Calcutta, and it was such as to excuse his unwillingness to 
 undertake military adventures. This arose out of discontents 
 among the European officers of the Company's army, whose 
 privileges had been curtailed at the very time when in order 
 to compensate for loss of private trade the pay of the civil 
 officials had been largely increased. The military officers
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 311 
 
 were the inheritors of bad traditions; so far back as 1766, 
 when Clive had been forced to use very stern measures to sup- 
 press a combination among their predecessors, having a 
 similar origin. But there was no Clive in Bengal in the year 
 1796, and the mutinous attitude which had been threatening 
 for two years now assumed the character of formal demands, 
 with which Shore and his advisers judged it prudent to com- 
 ply. Dundas, in his indignation, would have sent Cornwallis 
 back to Bengal to deal with the matter as a soldier should ; 
 but the Court of Directors supporting Shore, a compromise 
 followed, by which the officers obtained all their demands, and 
 more. 
 
 In the course of 1796 further trouble arose from the growing 
 weakness of the administration in Audh. Sir J. Shore pro- 
 ceeding to Lucknow, attempted to rouse the attention of the 
 Nawab Asaf-ud-daula, but found it impossible to make any im- 
 pression on his mind or create an idea of duty. On the 2ist 
 September, 1797, the Nawab died, and was succeeded by 
 Vazir Ali, of whom the "Calcutta Gazette" was happy to report 
 that he was " a youth of about eighteen, of a very promising 
 disposition." A salute was fired from the ramparts of Fort 
 William in honour of Vazir Ali's accession ; but the smoke 
 from the guns had scarcely blended with the surrounding air 
 before rumours arrived which ill agreed with this official op- 
 timism. We must bear in mind that existing arrangements 
 were at this time liable to constant peril from combinations 
 of Muslim powers inviting the aid of the Afghans to the over- 
 throw of the Mahrattas ; and that not only did the British 
 desire to support the existing state of things ; but since Salbai 
 the Mahrattas had, on the whole, been their best friends. 
 Regarding the British as a Hindu power, by reason of this 
 alliance, Vazir Ali was likely, it appeared, to join such a com- 
 bination of Islam. Shore who had left Lucknow, was also in- 
 formed that Vazir Ali's parentage was more than doubtful.
 
 312 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 He therefore returned, held an inquiry, and pronounced against 
 Ali Vazir's claim to the succession, which he conferred upon a 
 brother of the late Nawab, named Saadat Ali. Vazir was sent 
 into British territory ; where he, unfortunately, gave way to his 
 temper, and murdered Mr. Cherry, the Resident at Benares. 
 
 Saadat Ali obtained peaceable possession of Lucknow 2ist 
 January, 1798: his fort of Allahabad was made over to the 
 British, and he became responsible for the permanent main- 
 tenance of a body of their troops numbering 10,000. The 
 number of the Nawab's troops was strictly limited, and he was 
 not to negotiate with any foreign state. This was called a sub- 
 sidiary alliance, but it came very little short of a total abolition 
 of the independence of Audh. 
 
 Meanwhile the Sultan of Mysore struggled in the gathering 
 toils. In the beginning of the year 1797 there were about 
 sixty Frenchmen, ill-educated rogues for the most part, har- 
 boured in Seringapatam, who formed a Jacobin club, after the 
 original had long since been overthrown in Paris. They held 
 meetings, called Tipu " Citizen Sultan," and planted a tree of 
 liberty in front of his palace while his guns thundered a salute. 
 We are not, however, left to imagine that the Sultan and his 
 ministers were dupes. On the contrary, the records found in 
 Seringapatam a year and a half later, are enough to show 
 that the subject was suspiciously viewed and anxiously dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 "Your Highness is not ignorant," wrote Mir Yusaf, of the 
 Revenue Department, "that it is the custom of the French to 
 promise much, but to perform little." On which the Sultan 
 remarks, " If the theatre of war were in France would not the 
 Khudaddd Sarkdr do all in his power to assist ? and surely the 
 Frenchmen cannot do less. No doubt a close connection will 
 cost us something ; but, on the other hand, an alliance with 
 adventurers, who wander about with their houses on their 
 backs, is a delicate affair." In this dilemma the " God-sent
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 313 
 
 State "--as Tipu called himself would do best to send to 
 Mauritius Ripaud, a French Corsair who had taken the lead 
 amongst the Seringapatam Jacobins, with two envoys bearing 
 letters to the Governor. Accordingly the Muslim envoys set 
 out from Mangalore on board of Citizen Ripaud's brig, and 
 reached Mauritius after a voyage in which, as they recorded, 
 they underwent much suffering from sickness and from the dis- 
 courteous treatment of the captain. Nor did they do much when 
 they arrived. General Malartic, indeed, who then governed 
 the island, received them kindly ; but he was without authority 
 to pledge the alliance of the Republic. All lhat he felt 
 empowered to do was to call for volunteers ; and about fifty 
 officers, artificers, and soldiers embarked with the envoys on 
 their return voyage, the whole commanded by Colonel Chappuis 
 with a naval colleague named Dubuc. By the same oppor- 
 tunity Citizen Ripaud, transmitting his report to the Sultan, 
 took occasion to warn his highness against General Raymond of 
 the Nizam's service, whom he denounced as neither an admirer 
 of the Jacobins nor a well-wisher to the Sultan. The little 
 expedition reached Mangalore in May 1798. Dubuc was sent 
 as an envoy to the Directory at Paris ; and Colonel Chappuis 
 and his followers proceeded to Seringapatam. 
 
 By that time Raymond was no longer a factor in Deccan 
 politics ; he died 25th March, the very day on which Sir John 
 Shore left India ; the temporary government falling, by routine 
 into the hands of Sir Alured Clarke, Commander-in chief of 
 the army. But in less than two months a ruler landed in 
 Calcutta who was to alter all existing designs and to give a new 
 ply to the whole course of British Indian politics. This was 
 a brilliant Irish nobleman, the Earl of Mornington, a friend of 
 Pitt and Dundas ; full of zeal against France, and with an 
 insatiable capacity for labour. 
 
 The state of India was now becoming such as to tax all the 
 resources of the British Government, which had attained a
 
 314 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 position where it was almost equally hazardous to stand still, 
 to retreat, or to advance. The Afghans had marched from 
 Peshawar, with the avowed intention of invading Hindustan.* 
 The Mahratta Confederacy was torn with dissensions, the 
 treacherous Peshwa now intriguing with Sindia, now restoring 
 to power the aged and discredited Nana. General de Boigne, 
 the steady friend of order, had retired, leaving his post and 
 influence to be wielded by Perron, a good soldier but a feeble 
 politician. The young French hero who had just driven the 
 Austrians out of Italy was occupying Egypt and opening com- 
 municiations with the Sultan of Mysore. With the British 
 fleet hardly yet purged of mutiny, and Ireland on the verge 
 of rebellion, the Ministry at home could do no more 
 than trust India to the wisdom and energy of the Governor- 
 General. 
 
 The problem before Mornington was most grave. The 
 policy of his immediate predecessors, Warren Hastings and 
 Cornwallis, had been to meet the difficulties of their position by 
 temporary expedients for balancing the country powers against 
 each other, and to conjure the spectre of Islamite com- 
 bination without allowing Audh and the Nizam to be swallowed 
 up in a universal Hindu revival. To Lord Mornington the 
 continuance of such a policy appeared impossible in the pre- 
 sent condition of affairs. 
 
 One danger indeed passed away. Instigated by a mission 
 from Shore, the Persian army had invaded the western parts of 
 Afghanistan, while the Sikhs met the army of Zaman Shah 
 with unexpected firmness. After a furious battle near Amritsir 
 the Shah retired on Lahore, which he made over to Ranjit Sinh, 
 to be held as a fief of the Afghan Empire ; and he retired to his 
 own country in the beginning of 1799; destined as it after- 
 
 * From Tipu's papers we learn that he believed that the Shah had 
 reached Delhi.
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 315 
 
 wards proved to return no more till after many years he came 
 as a fugitive dependent on the unkind hospitality of his former 
 feudatory. 
 
 But the danger from the hostility of the French remained in 
 full force. Perron commanded some 40,000 good troops in 
 Hindustan ; the successor of Raymond had an almost equal 
 army in Haidarabad, of which about 14,000 were good infantry 
 under European officers ; the mission of Tipu to the Mauritius 
 became known by the publication of Malartic's call for volun- 
 teers. The first step of the new Governor-General was to 
 propose a fresh treaty for the acceptance of the Nizam, 
 embodying a clause for the disbandment of the force under 
 French officers and their replacement by a body of British 
 sepoys ; the Nizam received the proposal with much hesitation; 
 but acting on the advice of an able Minister he ultimately 
 signed the treaty. A simultaneous step was to propose a 
 subsidiary alliance to the Peshwa, by whom it was for the pre- 
 sent declined, but with an oral assurance of support, which 
 was not fulfilled. It now remained to carry out the dis- 
 banding of the Nizam's French army, which was effected with 
 the good luck that awaits the audacity of competent men. 
 The men were disbanded, by the British contingent, without 
 effusion of blood in September 1798; the French officers 
 being sent to Europe. This valuable service was greatly due 
 to the firmness and tact of Captain John Malcolm, afterwards 
 distinguished in many fields of duty. 
 
 About this time died Tukaji Holkar, who had, by the death 
 of his Mistress, become head of the State of Indore, but had 
 ceased, for some time past, to take any very active part in 
 external politics. His place was assumed by an illegitimate 
 son, Jaswant Rao, afterwards a sore trouble to the British, but 
 at first chiefly notable for his opposition to Daulat Rao Sindia, 
 and its important consequences. It must be confessed that 
 this young chief Sindia had chiefly himself to blame for the
 
 316 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 troubles that he was enduring, He posed as the swordsman 
 of the Peshwa who did not want him rather than as vice- 
 gerent of the Empire where he might have been very useful ; 
 at the same time his behaviour at Poona was habitually 
 insolent and sometimes violently hostile ; he plundered the 
 bazaars, confined or killed public men, and persecuted the ladies 
 of his predecessor's household. When Tukaji died Daulat Rao 
 stirred up feud and murder in the Holkar clan ; and he 
 gradually became associated with low ruffians, of all creeds and 
 classes, in a way to signalise himself as a public and universal 
 nuisance. 
 
 But the Governor-General did not at first view^nndia as a 
 pressing danger. It was the Malartic proclamation which 
 stirred him to action ; and the first enemy, (o be attacked if 
 possible neutralized and isolated, was the Sultan of Mysore. 
 He it was in whose interest General Malartic had made the 
 proclamation ; and he it was who, if the Directory should 
 embrace his cause, would be the most earnest ally of any force 
 which General Bonaparte might send to India from Egypt. 
 
 When Lord Mornington took up the office of Governor- 
 General the government of Madras was temporarily in the 
 hands of the Commander-in-Chief General Harris the same 
 whom we formerly saw as staff-officer to General Medows. 
 His Chief Secretary was Mr. Webbe, an able and honourable 
 member of the Civil Services. To these officers Mornington 
 addressed himself in the middle of 1798, forwarding a copy of 
 the proclamation, and directing them to prepare for eventualities, 
 should Tipu not make haste to disavow the proceedings of the 
 Mauritius government. They replied in amanner which showed 
 the difficulties of the situation, especially the deficiency of 
 carriage and of cash. But Tipu made no such disavowal as 
 the Governor-General required, and he accordingly directed 
 Harris to make ready an army for the attack of Seringapatam. 
 In vain Webbe pointed out the difficulties and dangers of "a
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 317 
 
 premature attack " ; while Harris declared that no army even 
 for defence could be ready before "the monsoon in October. 
 At the same time, however, he loyally set to work to accelerate 
 the execution of Mornington's orders. 
 
 The obstacles were all that had been stated. Even in 
 Calcutta when Shore had left a deficit money could not be 
 procured at a lower rate of interest than twelve per cent. ; at 
 Madras the twelve per cent paper was at a discount. In point 
 of carriage there was nothing but the small, half-wild cattle ot 
 the country, procured by force from the agriculturists. The 
 Sultan, on the other hand, had his money ready, his treasury 
 full, a standing army, and a train of excellent oxen and willing 
 drivers : it was not impossible that he might take the initiative 
 and burst on the Carnatic as his father had done in 1780. 
 On the whole, however, up to the middle of July at least, the 
 Governor-General did not despair of " renewing the efficacy of 
 our alliances and obtaining satisfaction from Tipu without 
 a war"* ; in the very hope of doing which, nevertheless, lay 
 the need for strenuous preparation. In connection with these 
 designs Mornington urgently pushed the negotiations at Haida- 
 rabad and Poona ; and, if no very active aid was received from 
 those Courts, their neutrality at least averted complications. On 
 the 2ist August the permanent governorship of Madras was 
 taken over by Lord Clive, son of the victor of Plassy ; and 
 the Commander-in-Chief, set free for professional duties, did 
 his best to remedy the serious evils which had been allowed 
 to grow up in the military administration of Madras. The 
 Governor-General bore testimony, both privately and in official 
 records, to Harris's energy and zeal, noting that the latter by 
 no means a wealthy man had undertaken "to be responsible 
 in his private funds for the sum required to put the troops in 
 
 * See letter to Harris, of 1 5th July, in Lushington's " Life of Lord 
 Harris." p. 135
 
 3i8 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 motion." This most generous and patriotic offer completely 
 silenced all opposition.* 
 
 The troops immediately in question were those required to 
 disarm and break up the French sepoys at Haidarabad, which 
 was justly thought an important step in the attack on Tipu. 
 From that quarter the danger daily diminished; while the 
 spirit of the British at Madras as surely rose, and the 
 opposition to the vigorous policy of the Governor-General 
 gradually ceased. Tipu neither attacked the Carnatic nor 
 showed any desire to submit did not even answer the com- 
 munications of the British Government, which accordingly 
 assembled the Madras army at Vellore, a column of Bombay 
 troops being at the same time ordered to co-cperate from the 
 western coast. The Governor-General at the same time came 
 down from Calcutta and took up his post at Madras to watch 
 and control operations. General Harris reached Vellore on 
 27111 January, 1799, and at once assumed command of the 
 army, the largest and best equipped that had ever acted under 
 the orders of the Madras Government. It consisted of 21,649 
 men, about one-fourth of whom were Europeans, 160 field- 
 pieces, and forty siege-guns. Among the leaders of infantry 
 were General David Baird, and Colonel Arthur Wellesley 
 brother to the Governor-General, and destined to be conqueror 
 of an abler if not more rancorous enemy than Tipu ; the 
 cavalry was under General Floyd, two of his subordinate officers 
 being Colonel afterwards Sir John Sherbrooke, and Stapleton 
 Cotton afterwards Lord Combermere. The Bombay column, 
 under General Stuart, marched at the same time from Malabar. 
 
 After fighting their way up, against attempts on the part of 
 the enemy to repeat the tactics which had once been so 
 successful against Sir Hector Munro, the main bodies of the 
 Madras and Bombay armies appeared before the Sultan's 
 
 * Lushington, ut. sup., p. 163, correcting one of James Mill's hasty and 
 numerous inaccuracies.

 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 319 
 
 capital in the beginning of April. There was but little time 
 to spare, for the south-western monsoon was at hand; the 
 delay of a day might entail disaster. On the night of 6th April, 
 Baird was sent on a reconnaissance which was to a great extent 
 unsuccessful. Next night the 33rd Foot endeavoured to sur- 
 prise the fortified grove of Sultanpeta south-west of the 
 City under the command of Colonel Wellesley. The future 
 Duke of Wellington was completely unsuccessful, and came 
 back to the General's tent before daybreak, professing ignorance 
 of the situation of his men. But the attack being renewed on 
 the 6th by daylight, and supported by a strong body of cavalry, 
 was at length perfectly successful. The grove and village were 
 occupied : Colonel Shawe was posted a little further to the north, 
 and the parallel completed against the western angle of the fort, 
 which was at the same time raked by the guns of the Bombay 
 column on the other side of the Cavari. Up to this time the 
 confidence of the Sultan had been sustained by his French 
 assistants and the predictions of his astrologers; he now showed 
 a disposition to treat, but his negotations being marked by 
 duplicity and procrastination, the siege operations were not 
 suspended : so that by the 3oth the batteries were all at work ; 
 and the wall showed a practicable breach on the 3rd May. 
 Next day a column of 4,500 men advanced to the assault 
 under Baird, supported by a reserve under Wellesley. They 
 set forth at one p.m., Harris observing to Malcolm that they 
 must succeed or perish. "Success," said the General, "is 
 necessary to our existence." The forlorn hope consisted 
 entirely of Europeans, supported by two subaltern's parties ; 
 the one under Lieutenant Lawrence of the 77th Foot, father of 
 men destined to become famous in history ; the other under 
 Lieutenant Keene, of the Qth Madras Regiment, whose son is 
 the writer of the present narrative.* 
 
 * Keene was Harris's nephew, afterwards the Rev. Professor Keene, 
 a distinguished Arabic and Persian Scholar (v. " Dicty. of National 
 Biography," Vol. XXX.)
 
 320 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 The French officers conveyed the information of the assault 
 to the Sultan, who was taking his mid-day meal in the north 
 bastion. Hastily ordering up his troops he took a rifle and 
 sallied forth to meet the assailants. But it was too late : the 
 British forces were already in possession of the place. The 
 Sultan presently fell, fighting to the last, at the very gate of 
 his palace. There his body was afterwards found, under a heap 
 of corpses, and was honoured by the victors with a solemn 
 funeral attended by his sons. His remains were laid by the 
 side of his father, in the Lai Bagh, at the eastern end of the 
 island ; and his epitaph, still preserved, tells that he died " a 
 martyr to Islam." The French officers were well treated and 
 sent to Europe ; and the sons of the Sultan were assigned 
 pensions one of them living to become an honoured member 
 of Calcutta society down to the middle of the igth century. 
 
 The victory was only just gained in time. That night the 
 rain fell in torrents, the Cavari rose, and the trenches were 
 filled with water. " Had we not got into the town when we 
 did," wrote one of the officers, "we must have raised the siege, 
 spiked the guns, left all our tents and baggage, and fled with- 
 out food, through a country that had been ravaged." 
 
 The Hindu Raja was fetched from captivity and placed 
 upon the masnad, the limits of his territory being curtailed 
 so as to round off the possessions of the Nizam and the 
 Carnatic. The latter was still under the titular rule of the 
 Nawab ; but the result of the war was, in effect, to complete 
 the constitution of the Madras section of the British Empire 
 as it exists at the present day, and to give the British posses- 
 sion of every port on the Indian coasts. It was, indeed, still 
 more ; for it fixed the attention of the Eastern world. The 
 Nizam, whose cavalry was present (and ready to have joined 
 the enemy in case of failure) became the ally of England as 
 his successors have ever since been. The Mahratta leaders were 
 intimidated if not wholly reduced to good conduct ; and the
 
 THE END OF THE ANARCHY. 321 
 
 designs of the French on India sustained a check from which 
 they never really recovered. The fall of Tipu Sultan did for 
 the south of India more than the victory of Baksar had done for 
 Bengal ; and may indeed be justly regarded as the foundation 
 of the great pacification of India which has followed the 
 assertion of British supremacy. The Governor-General wrote 
 to Pitt that he expected either to be hanged or rewarded, 
 undertaking to be satisfied in either case ; for to him, he said, 
 an English gallows seemed better than an Indian throne. He 
 received, in fact, the thanks of Parliament and an Irish 
 Marquessate. General Harris whose deeds were effaced by 
 those of the Governor- General obtained- no acknowledge- 
 ment of his service until 1813, when he was created a Peer by 
 the Prince Regent. 
 
 [In addition to authorities previously cited, see " Wellesley 
 Despatches " and " Life of Lord Harris," by the Right Hon. 
 S. R. Lushingtori, (second edition), London, 1845. Also 
 Article on the siege of Seringapatam in " Calcutta Review " 
 for April 1892.]
 
 322 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 
 
 Section I : Condition of Hindustan in 1799-1802 Section 2 : Condition 
 of Mahratta Empire at the same date Section 3 : The conquests of 
 Lord Wellesley. 
 
 SECTION I. The Marquess of Wellesley, as he now became, 
 had like all human beings the defects of his qualities. His 
 great mind was of the stuff of which conquerors are made, and 
 his ambition was not unmixed with egotism. His Irish title 
 he called " a gilded potato " : we have had a glimpse of his 
 neglect of subordinates however indispensable they may have 
 been to success in his neglect of Harris ; his great, unselfish, 
 brother he was heard to designate "that hero of my own 
 making." But in a career such as he was now engaged in 
 some self-confidence was excusable nay, essential to success. 
 For good or for evil, the government of Great Britain was now 
 compromised. Most of the native powers had been disabled; 
 and it was but a question of time and of fortune, whether 
 India was to fall back into anarchy or to become a complete 
 dependency of the British Empire. Time and fortune were 
 on the side of Britain ; though there was much yet to be done 
 before that question could be finally decided. The power of 
 Daulat Rao Sindia was still erect in Hindustan, where Lakwa 
 Dada once the brave defender of Agra was now ruling as 
 his lieutenant. Perron held quasi-sovereignty at Aligarh 
 with his disciplined brigades. The rest of the army was under 
 the command of Raja Ambaji, a trusted veteran. Sindia him-
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 323 
 
 self remained at Poona, attempting, in his crooked way, to 
 exercise predominating influence over the equally treacherous 
 Peshwa ; the Nana was sinking under the weight of years and 
 anxieties ; Jaswant Rao Holkar was restoring his resources 
 and preparing to counteract the aims of Sindia. 
 
 In such circumstances the French general seemed to have 
 an almost clear field in Hindustan. As a subordinate he had 
 been well esteemed ; but he was without mental training, and 
 unfit for supreme power. For the moment, indeed, he had no 
 difficulties to contend with but what might be of his own 
 creation. Thomas, like himself, had been a "blue-jacket;" 
 but there is no reason to suppose that the British ex-seaman 
 would have interfered with Perron, if Perron did not interfere 
 with him. For the time Thomas confined his operations to 
 the westward, where the brother of the late Ghulam Kadir 
 whose title was " Muin-ud-din," but who was more commonly 
 known as Bhanbu Khan had been living for the past seven 
 or eight years in exile, and hoping to recover the family possess- 
 ions by help of the Sikhs. His grandfather, Najib-ud-daula, 
 had held, it may be remembered, the country on both sides of 
 the Upper Ganges, Najibabad, Sukertal, Muzafarnagar and 
 Saharanpur, the "Fifty- two Parganas," and the last incursion of 
 the Afghans had also been attributed to his instigation ; for he, 
 too, was of Afghan, or Pathan blood, and anxious for a repetition 
 of the campaign of 1761. Perron, as the servant of a Mahratta 
 State, was, of course, opposed to all such movements ; the 
 fifty-two Parganas were as we noticed in the last chapter 
 held by a Mahratta chief, named Apa Khandi ; and Thomas, 
 in defending them for the Apa, was fighting for Sindia and his 
 French general. He had, as already related, little difficulty 
 in disposing of Bhanbu Khan and the Sikhs; but the real 
 danger began for him when that affair was over. By way of 
 protecting himself he retired, after the Apa's death in 1796, to 
 Jajhar, on the borders of Jaipore; and ultimately made for 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 himself a little principality in Hariana, between that territory 
 and the possessions of the Cis-Sutlej Sikhs. He then trans- 
 ferred his head-quarters to Hansi where he established a mint 
 and foundry, and began to collect a force for the conquest of 
 the Punjab. He went on to take forcible possession of all the 
 strong places in the neighbourhood ; and by the beginning of 
 1799 had established his authority over the greater part of 
 Hariana. 
 
 On the other side of the Jumna Perron was falling into bad 
 odour with his Mahratta colleagues, whose natural jealousy he 
 aggravated by unconciliatory demeanour. In August, 1798 
 he found one of these officers at Delhi exciting the blind old 
 Shah Alam to a hostile attitude ; and Perron thought himself 
 obliged to take the extreme step of sending a strong force 
 thither under a French colonel, named Pedron, who seems to 
 have been a good and able man. Pedron contrived to spare the 
 aged Emperor the humiliation of a bombardment, and to ob- 
 tain access to the palace by moral suasion, backed with bribery ; 
 Colonel Drugeon with a trustworthy garrison was then left in 
 charge of the place. Scarcely had this been accomplished 
 when another Mahratta chief revolted at Agra, requiring the 
 presence of the general in person. He took a siege-train with 
 him, but did not become master of the fort until April, 1799. 
 In the meantime serious trouble arose, both in the Gwalior 
 territory and in Rajputan ; in which latter country Lakwa 
 Dada had to deal with a fresh combination of the Rajas of 
 Jaipur and Jodhpur. Ambaji went to the rescue with field- 
 artillery and a brigade of regulars under Du Drenec, who had 
 left Holkar and taken the command under Daulat Rao Sindia. 
 It was the old story of tribute claimed by Sindia's officers on 
 behalf of the Emperor, refused by the Rajputs on the ground 
 of their independence of the Mahrattas. The armies met at 
 Sanganir a few miles from the city of Jaipore and were 
 fairly matched in point of numbers, the Rajputs having more
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 325 
 
 cavalry, but no regular infantry. A choice body of 10,000 
 heavy horse charged the brigade of Du Drenec in the most 
 reckless style. Heedless of the fire of grape-shot and musketry 
 which laid low 1,500 of their foremost rank, they rode through 
 the brigade and trampled it into the sand. Du Drenec him- 
 self was almost the sole survivor.* But the time had gone by 
 for the triumphs of horse over foot : there were still enough 
 good musketeers left in the Mahratta ranks for discipline to 
 assert its power ; in all the rest of the field the Rajputs were 
 repulsed, and this one action decided the campaign in favour 
 of Sindia's army. 
 
 But a new trouble ensued ; the victorious Dada espousing 
 the cause of the ladies of his late master's family, whom 
 Daulat Rao was persecuting, raised the standard of revolt in 
 Central India. He occupied the country south-east of Gwalior, 
 where his late comrade, the Raja Ambaji, was sent to suppress 
 him and a petty local chief, who had joined him, from Datia 
 in Bundelkhand. Ere long, Perron, hearing complaints of 
 harshness towards European officers on the part of Ambaji, 
 resolved to go in person: he arrived in December 1799, an( ^ 
 assumed command of the army. On the 5th January, 1800, 
 an action was fought at Bijaigarh, and the enemy were driven 
 into their intrenchments. Having a considerable force of 
 cavalry, with sixteen guns and a corps of regulars under Colonel 
 Tone, a brave and able Irish officer, the Dada made a 
 respectable resistance.! But the works were stormed on 
 5th May ; the Datia Raja was killed ; Tone was allowed to 
 depart and take service with Holkar ; and the Dada retired to 
 a place of pilgrimage in the Udaipore State, where he died. 
 
 * For a graphic account of this romantic feat of arms see Eraser's 
 " Memoirs of Jas. Skinner," given from Skinner's personal observation (vol. 
 i., p. H7-) 
 
 f Colonel Tone was brother to the celebrated Wolfe Tone ; he met with 
 a soldier's death in 1801.
 
 326 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 While Perron was thus engaged, George Thomas had made 
 use of his leisure to build up his power at Hansi. Having 
 some of the love of order which a man would be likely to 
 pick up as a warrant-officer on board a man-of-war, he con- 
 trived to collect a population in a country long desolated by 
 Afghans, Sikhs, and Mahrattas, but by no means deficient in 
 natural fertility. Here he restored the fortifications, coined 
 money, cast guns, and established a factory of ammunition and 
 small arms; prudently resolving to prepare for attack and 
 defence, but purposing to confine his operations so far as he 
 might to the western side of the river Jumna. 
 
 The revenues of his estates sufficed for his workshops and 
 military forces ; which comprised three battalions of infantry, 
 fourteen guns, and a khds risdla, or bodyguard, of Roll ilia 
 horse. With these followers he made some inroads on the 
 Jaipore country, in which he displayed his usual vigour and 
 intelligence ; and after some more such forays, he at length 
 set forth on his long meditated campaign against the Sikhs. 
 This was at the opening of the year 1800 ; Thomas was 
 engaged seven months in the expedition. He returned with 
 a considerable booty and the position as he said of 
 " Dictator in all the countries south of the Sutlej." 
 
 Thomas was now at his highest ; with a little more aid from 
 fortune he might have turned the scales and even altered the 
 whole subsequent course of Indian history. Perron was losing 
 ground everywhere, and Sindia was hard pressed by the 
 superior energy and warlike ability of Jaswant Rao Holkar, 
 and by the faithlessness of Baji Rao. It seemed to Thomas 
 that the new vigor which Lord Wellesley was infusing into 
 Deccan politics might be displayed, to the advantage of the 
 British nation, in Hindustan. He therefore opened a com- 
 munication with the Calcutta Government through a friend, 
 Captain E. W. White, to whom he entrusted the offer of any 
 services that might be desired by the Governor-General. If 
 directed to advance he would occupy the Punjab, placing
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 327 
 
 himself under the orders of the British Commander-in-Chief. 
 In this plan, he added, he had nothing in view but the 
 welfare of his king and his country. " I shall be sorry," he 
 wrote, " to have my conquests fall to the Mahrattas ; I wish 
 to give them to my king." Wellesley was to invade and con- 
 quer in those regions ere long; but the time was not quite 
 come ; for the next twelve months his attention would be 
 absorbed by southern affairs. But that an adoption of the 
 proposals would have averted some loss and suffering, and 
 that, with the help of Thomas, the conquests of 1803 might 
 have been anticipated with the sparing of valuable lives 
 may be taken for a certainity. An intelligent Englishman, 
 then serving under Perron, who afterwards had personal 
 experience of what Thomas could do as a soldier, recorded 
 the opinion that it would have been feasible at that moment 
 to persuade Sindia to discharge Perron, and put the British 
 seaman in his place. This, he says, would have rallied all his 
 brother officers of British blood to the cause of Sindia as an 
 ally of their country, and French influence would have been 
 destroyed in Hindustan. Other conditions were tending in 
 the same direction : Bonaparte having by this time left Egypt 
 in the pursuit of his ambitious projects in Europe. The inva- 
 sion of India overland, which that wonderful man had con- 
 certed with the Czar Paul had collapsed ; and all things were 
 favourable to an anti-Gallican move in Upper India, such 
 as the Governor-General had long meditated, and such as in 
 effect he carried out two years later. It seems therefore 
 impossible to deny the adventurous seaman credit for an 
 unusual amount of political foresight ; but his diplomacy was 
 wanting in luck and luck is generally another name for 
 prudence. Thomas next turned to Holkar, who had overrun 
 Malwa and was now being threatened by a force under a 
 Dutch officer in Sindia's service, named John Messing. After 
 some indecisive skirmishing Hessing retired under the walls of 
 Ujain Sindia's chief place in north Malwa; and here he was
 
 328 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 caught in the open by Holkar. Breaking the Dutchman's line 
 by a skilful employment of superior artillery, Holkar pierced 
 through the gaps with all his horsemen. A frightful carnage 
 ensued : of the European officers in Sindia's service seven 
 were cut down in the defence of their guns, and three more 
 were taken prisoners. Hessing owed his escape to the speed 
 of his charger. This battle was fought in June 1801, and 
 Thomas endeavoured to avail himself of Holkar's success to 
 keep Perron in check, while he renewed his attack upon the 
 Punjab. 
 
 But Perron's resources were too great. He sent a fresh 
 force into Malwa, under Colonel Sutherland, who brought 
 Holkar to bay at Indore. In the action that ensued the army 
 of Holkar was beaten, and the chief had to suffer the loss of 
 his capital and ninety-eight guns. At the same time Perron 
 took advantage of the absence of Thomas to enter his territory, 
 and the adventurer was compelled to return when he had 
 nearly reached Lahore, and undertake the defence of Hariana. 
 It is not certain that, even then, the French General was 
 absolutely bent on the ruin of Thomas, though it must be 
 admitted that he had plenty of provocation. But it is a fact 
 that he invited his. audacious rival to a personal interview, 
 where the offer of a post in Sindia's service was renewed : 
 Thomas was, however, called upon to assume a position of 
 distinct subordination, to surrender his estates, and march with 
 four battalions to reinforce the expedition against Holkar. This 
 Thomas declined ; he objected to serve under a French- 
 man ; he suspected Sindia ; he was unwilling to serve against 
 Hoikar with whom he was still in friendly correspondence. 
 It is hard to say whether his refusal was in accord with the 
 dictates of prudence, which was not the adventurer's strongest 
 point ; but it is impossible to avoid sympathy with his motives. 
 The decision was, in point of fact, his ruin : he retired to 
 Hansi, where he was presently called on to oppose a strong
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 329 
 
 detachment of Perron's army under Major Bourquin. The 
 result of the campaign was inevitable : corruption alienated his 
 best Asiatic subordinate ; the Cis Sutlej Sikhs gladly sought 
 their revenge by joining the combination against their old 
 enemy ; the Begam Samru ungratefully sent a corps to join in 
 crushing her old servant and deliverer. After a spirited 
 defence in which he displayed all his wonted audacity Thomas 
 was compelled to surrender on ist January, 1802. He was 
 permitted to depart to his old asylum, the British cantonment, 
 at Anupshahr, whence he proceeded towards Calcutta by river, 
 in company with Major Francklin, his future biographer. But 
 his strength was broken, and he died on the way, leaving a 
 name which deserves to live in history. 
 
 His fall may be taken as marking the end of the great 
 anarchy of Hindustan, a state of things which alone admitted 
 of such a singular career. A few notices of the miserable 
 condition of the country at that time will be found in the con- 
 cluding pages of this volume ; and some further remarks by 
 native eye-witnesses may be seen in the eighth volume of 
 Dowson's " Elliot." In such an epoch the people disappears, 
 and all that catches the eye is the conduct of bold ambitious 
 spirits to whose prominence the times were naturally favour- 
 able ; while their biographies afford our only knowledge of 
 events. Mirza Najaf Khan, Mahadaji Sindia, Haidar Ali, 
 stand out like castellated crags above the wasted plains. And 
 the Tipperary boatswain perhaps descended from one of 
 Cromwell's Ironsides rose, as these did, but with less advan- 
 tage at starting.* 
 
 * Some curious facts about Thomas have been collected by the present 
 writer, in an article in the "Calcutta Review." 
 
 He completely preserved his British feelings, though he had almost lost 
 the use of the English language : he was at one time adopted into a Hindu 
 family. His coinage bore the superscription of the Mughal Empire as 
 did, for a long time after, the coinage of the Company but he stamped it 
 with a T.
 
 330 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Perron, for the moment, was now supreme. His income 
 has been reckoned at sixty thousand rupees a month, and his 
 army consisted of three brigades, each composed of ten batta- 
 lions amongst whom were many of De Boigne's veterans ; two 
 hundred heavy cavalry, and fifty guns manned by European 
 bombadiers and native gunners, were attached to each brigade, 
 the cavalry being probably only needed to protect the artillery, 
 as the Mahratta leaders had a vast body of horse independent 
 of the regulars. The brigadiers and the commandants of bat- 
 talions and companies, were either Europeans or country-born 
 men of European origin. But Perron was by no means 
 equal to his great position. We have had glimpses of his 
 relations towards some of his native colleagues. With the 
 Europeans he was not much more popular; although the 
 officers of British blood were by no means the least forward 
 in action, he showed a marked preference for his own country- 
 men. We shall find presently that such preference however, 
 natural was of no service to him. Many of the sons of 
 British fathers proved faithful to the last ; some of his French 
 proteges, in the words of one of his officers, " repaid his unjust 
 favour with ingratitude." The same authority (L. F. Smith), 
 asserts that " while only four non-British officers were killed in 
 twenty years of war, fifteen British officers fell in the same 
 space of time." By the end of the year 1800, however, Perron's 
 position seemed to defy all hostility. He had brought 
 all Hindustan under subjection, and every native ruler from 
 the Narbada to the Sutlej, regarded him as paramount after the 
 overthrow of. Holkar and George Thomas. His self-control 
 gave way under so much prosperity. Instead of bemc^asx* 
 De Boigne called him a good, plain, honest soldier, he/began 
 to affect quasi-royal state, to listen to parasites, and to neglect 
 straightforward merit.* 
 
 * Abridged from the narrative of James Skinner, who was then in the 
 sen-ice. [I. 188].
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 331 
 
 On roth November, 1799, General Bonaparte, having 
 returned from Egypt, assumed the newly-constituted office of 
 First Consul of the French Republic. Inflated by success, 
 the Franco-Mahratta Dictator sent M. Descartes as an envoy 
 to seek his alliance ; but it is not apparent that any immediate 
 result followed. France was somewhat exhausted by a seven 
 years' war ; and the great genius of the man who had now 
 possessed himself of the control of the nation felt the 
 necessity of gaining a breathing time for the restoration of civil 
 order and institutions. It was then that he wrote his celebrated 
 letter to the King of Great Britain ; and though the reply that 
 he received from Lord Grenville must have appeared to him 
 cold and even arrogant, he did not allow his temper to get the 
 better of his prudence. After the resignation of Pitt, in 1801, 
 the negociations for peace were renewed ; the Czar Paul was 
 murdered ; and the French were expelled from Egypt. The 
 time was becoming unfavourable for any concerted attempt 
 on British power in India. It is true that Pitt was no longer 
 ostensible director of British politics ; but other considerations 
 prevailed. The preliminaries of peace were adjusted in 
 London : six months later the formal treaty was signed at 
 Amiens, 2yth March, 1802. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Lord Wellesley's neglect of 
 George Thomas in 1800, and the need that he felt for a clear 
 and strongly defined action in southern politics, altogether 
 distracted the attention of that great statesman from other 
 parts of India. His master mind embraced all parts of the 
 vast and distracted peninsula. Mahratta influence in Tanjore 
 was entirely destroyed at this time, the Raja being, by a high- 
 handed but almost inevitable stroke, sequestrated from a post 
 which he had long abused ; and an amiable young member of 
 the family was recognised as titular prince, on a handsome 
 allowance. The case of the Carnatic remained to be dealt 
 with. It will be remembered that the Madras Government
 
 332 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 with the exception of the land about Fort St. George, and a 
 few scattered jagirs did not profess to have the rule of the 
 country, but only to act as the subjects and servants of the 
 Nawab, the same Muhamad Ali that their predecessors had 
 enthroned at Arcot in the days of the French War. He died 
 in 1795, a ^ ter a troubled reign of nearly fifty years; and was 
 succeeded by his son, a weak and indolent man, surrounded 
 by parasities and eaten up by creditors. The army that 
 Harris had led to the conquest of Tipu was, in name, the 
 Nawab's army ; but its expenses had to be paid by the British ; 
 and when the war was over a correspondence was found among 
 Tipu's papers which showed that the Nawab had been encourag- 
 ing the resistance of that public enemy. Other letters, too, came 
 out, from which it appeared that the Nawab was at the same 
 time sending despatches to the British Government in London, 
 unknown to the local authorities, and in a spirit of hostility to 
 them. All these were indeed matters not at first understood ; yet 
 there was quite enough to lead the Governor-General to call on 
 the Nawab to conclude an arrangement, already proposed to 
 him by the Government of Madras, whereby some mortgaged 
 districts, on which he persisted in making unlawful charges, 
 should be assigned to the Company in liquidation of his debts 
 and subsidy. A treaty already existed dating from Corn- 
 wallis's time by virtue of which the Carnatic could be taken 
 over, in certain circumstances, and on certain terms. Forti- 
 fied by instructions from the Court of Directors, Wellesley 
 now sternly reminded the Nawab, of his obligations, but 
 expressed his reluctance to proceed to extremes. Then came 
 the discovery of the Nawab's correspondence with Tipu, as 
 already stated. The cup was now full; the Nawab avoided 
 deposition by a timely demise ; but his successor was only 
 recognised on condition of a new treaty, by which the whole 
 of the civil and military power of the state was assumed by the 
 British. (1801). 
 So much for the South. In Hindustan the most pressing
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 333 
 
 duties then seemed the maintenance of Audh, as a bulwark to 
 Bengal, and the protection of Upper India, generally against a 
 fresh incursion of the Afghan. The relations of Persia, too, 
 had acquired new importance from the proximity of the Russian 
 advance, and the known connection between the Czar and the 
 First Consul. In 1800 an embassy laden with splendid gifts 
 and friendly overtures, was sent to the Court of Teheran, under 
 John Malcolm, the officer whom we have already met with at 
 Haidarabad, and at the siege of Seringapatam. The objects 
 of the mission were to all appearance, fully attained ; and no 
 more was heard of invasion from Russian or Afghan. In 
 Audh a new treaty was obtained, in November, 1801, from 
 Saadat Ali, Shore's Nawab : under this agreement British 
 administration was introduced into the lower Duab and 
 Rohilkhand : the British, on their part, guaranteeing the 
 remaining dominions of the Nawab- Vazir. 
 
 Wellesley had thus created the Madras Presidency, and the 
 eastern half of the " North-West," so called by reason of the 
 situation of the " Ceded Provinces," to the rest of the territory 
 subject to the Government of Bengal. It may here be noted 
 that although these districts have since grown into a distinct 
 Government the civil servants there are still supposed to 
 belong to the " Bengal Civil Service," and the Commander-in- 
 Chief of Bengal still commands the army far beyond their 
 limits : so that the Punjab itself is garrisoned, in part at least, 
 by the " Bengal Army." 
 
 In regard to the young officers of the former service 
 Wellesley attempted a grand reform. A college was founded 
 in Calcutta, for the instruction of the young men intended for 
 administrative control, opened, and for some time visited by 
 his Excellency in person, and distinguished by the number of 
 good, and often famous, public men whom it trained.* But the 
 * Among the names on the Calendar of the time are those of Elphinstone, 
 Metcalfe, Jenkins, Hamilton, Bayley, and others who rose, at last, to 
 real distinction. [" Primitive Orientales." Calcutta 1803-4.]
 
 334 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Court of Directors jealous of its few remaining powers 
 nipped the project in the bud, and established a college of their 
 own, at Haileybury, near Hertford. Irritated at this and other 
 instances of interference the imperious Marquess tendered his 
 resignation in 1802. By the friendly meditation of the King's 
 Ministers the Directors were induced to make a sort of apology 
 to the masterful Satrap, who then consented to remain in office 
 till the end of 1803. 
 
 [Most of the books cited recently are still recommended, 
 including Malleson's <; Last French Struggles," and Fraser's 
 " Memoirs of Skinner." Louis Ferdinand Smith's " Rise, 
 Progress, and Termination of the Regular Corps," is the work 
 of a clever comrade. Calcutta, N.D..* See also Francklin's 
 "Military Memoir of George Thomas," 410. Calcutta, 1803.] 
 
 SECTION 2. With the possible exception of himself no one 
 could have foreseen what Lord Wellesley was preparing when 
 he agreed to remain in India another twelvemonth. Incon- 
 sistent as it seems with the irritability shown by the Governor- 
 General's resignation there was, perhaps, a sense in his mind 
 that if he remained in office he could bring his policy to 
 grander issue than any other ruler. Having tamed, by war or 
 negotiation, all the surrounding or intervening powers, he was 
 now face to face with the dissolving confederacy of the Mah- 
 rattas ; an adroit use of whose dissensions might realise the 
 visions of ascendency, if not of Empire.! 
 
 In order to understand the methods by which the Governor- 
 General proceeded in his attempt to substitute British for 
 Mahratta arbitrament and to shift the centre of Indian gravity 
 from Poona to Calcutta, it will be needful to look a little more 
 closely at the relations of the Mahratta chiefs to one another. 
 We have already seen something of these ; the tendency of the 
 
 * Smith's book was reprinted in London, 1805, and there is a copy at 
 the India Office, 
 j- v. extract from the " Annual Register/' in the next section.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 335 
 
 Berar State to claim independence ; the inherent, though often 
 concealed, opposition of the two clans who divided the posses- 
 sion of Malwa. The Berar State was often ready for its own 
 purposes to ally itself with the Calcutta Government. Dur- 
 ing the life of Mahadaji a similar disposition had been shown 
 in Malwa, where the elder Sindia accepted the support of the 
 British while the Holkars were kept from troubling by the 
 wisdom of Ahalya Bai and her faithful henchman. But by the 
 time of which we are now treating both Tukaji and his vener- 
 able mistress were dead ; and the family of Holkar was torn by 
 violent competition and animosity. It was admitted, indeed, 
 that Tukaji had become head of the clan, and that his power 
 was something heritable in his family. But who was the 
 rightful heir, or by what considerations ought the succession to 
 be regulated? these were points whose adjustment might well 
 prove difficult among those crudely selfish people. Tukaji 
 Holkar had left two sons, born in wedlock, whose names were 
 Kashi Rao, and Malhar Rao, neither being of much capacity. 
 But their bastard half-brother, Jaswant Rao, though wild and 
 lawless, had acquired in his neglected youth a hardness of 
 temper which inspired him with very high hopes. The legiti- 
 mate brothers soon quarrelled ; and on the death of Nana 
 Farnavis in 1800 Sindia came forward, as chief adviser of the 
 Mahratta Empire, with an armed arbitration. The force 
 under Malhar Rao was attacked and defeated by Sindia. 
 Malhar lost his life, and Jaswant who had supported him 
 fled from the field ; but, after various adventures, appeared in 
 the Narbada valley as the champion of Khandi Rao Malhar's 
 son. Du Drenec had no belief in the adventure and left the 
 Holkar service for that of Sindia ; but Jaswant Rao engaged 
 other European officers, and rallied to his side a number of 
 the speculative soldiers of the time, notably Amir Khan, the 
 famous leader of Pathan marauders. He had now begun to 
 form the definite design of becoming master of the State of
 
 336 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Indore, or South Malwa, with an outlook towards the direc- 
 tion of affairs at Poona. It was in pursuance of this scheme 
 that he entered on the course of hostility which began by the 
 successful engagement with Hessing at Ujain, in June, 1801, 
 described in the last section. The military resources of 
 Daulat Rao Sindia were too vast to be seriously shaken by one 
 defeat ; arid on i4th October being reinforced from several 
 quarters, including 14 battalions of De Boigne's veterans under 
 Colonel Sutherland, Sindia inflicted on the Holkars a severe 
 defeat when they had advanced within a mile of Poona. 
 
 Wellesley judged the moment favourable for a renewal of his 
 proposals for a defensive alliance. It was true that the 
 Holkars were, for the moment, driven off; but Sindia re- 
 mained, with his villainous henchman and father-in-law, Sherji 
 Rao ; and the Peshwa's power was so reduced and circum- 
 scribed that in his despair he was almost ready to surrender at 
 discretion. On the 2oth November of the same year, he notified 
 to Colonel Barry Close, the Governor-General's able and resolute 
 agent, his readiness to accept a part of the conditions on 
 which British support had been tendered what were 
 Wellesley's wishes he was but too well aware. Not only did 
 the Governor-General desire to be constituted protector of the 
 Mahratta Empire and arbiter of its affairs, but he wished for 
 one of those " subsidiary alliances " whereby a British army 
 was to be quartered on the Poona State with certain specified 
 districts assigned for its support, and an engagement to 
 employ no other Europeans. Whether we are to call it 
 patriotism, pride, or ambition, there was a feeling amongst the 
 Mahrattas of great aversion towards the idea of their states 
 becoming dependencies of the foreigners, as had been the fate 
 of the Nizam and the Nawab Vazir. So the Peshwa proposed 
 a compromise : Europeans not belonging to a nation at war 
 with England might be retained so he pleaded and if the 
 Governor-General lent him a few battalions of sepoys his High-
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 337 
 
 ness the Peshwa would see to their pay, but would not part 
 with any portion of Mahratta territory. Of these modified offers 
 the Governor-General did not think immediate notice neces- 
 sary, preferring to await the development of events which he 
 hoped might be such as to induce a more submissive frame of 
 mind in Baji Rao. Six or seven months, however, went by 
 during which the Peshwa made no sign ; and in the mean- 
 while considerations connected with the general politics of the 
 British Empire had arisen to dispose the Governor-General 
 to make fresh overtures. 
 
 The peace of Amiens had been characterised by Sheridan 
 as an arrangement of which everyone was glad but no one 
 proud. It soon appeared that it was also one to which it 
 would not be easy to bind the haughty aristocracy which had 
 then the conduct of British affairs. The Tories had never 
 concealed their hostility to the First Consul as enemy of 
 legitimacy and swordsman of the Republic ; the Whigs gener- 
 ally objected to him on the opposite ground that he was a 
 Csesar who was bent on stifling the infant liberties of his 
 country.* It soon appeared too likely that the treaty would, 
 in effect, be little more than a temporary armistice. The 
 British Ministry scenting a design to renew the French occu- 
 pation of Egypt refused to loose their hold of Malta, which 
 they had engaged to restore to the Knights of S. John ; and 
 when Admiral Linois arrived at Pondicherry to receive the 
 stipulated restoration of the French possessions in India he 
 was put off with excuses and had to depart without effecting 
 the purpose of his mission. The British Cabinet continued its 
 armaments in Europe ; and Wellesley in spite of the dis- 
 obedience of Admiral Rainier commanding the Indian 
 squadron went on with all possible preparations against the 
 
 * Sir Francis Burdett refused to be presented to Napoleon ; Mr. Fox 
 attended a levJe at the Tuileries, but hardly answered a word to Napoleon's 
 courteous and flattering address. 
 
 Z
 
 338 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 renewal of hostilities. While yet uncertain whether or no his re- 
 signation had been accepted at home, he wrote to General Lake, 
 the Commander-in-Chief, to the effect that the forces must be 
 reduced in obedience to orders from London ; but that, even 
 so, preparation should be made for not very remote exertion : "it 
 is indispensable to our safety in India," he said, " that we should 
 be prepared to meet any future crisis of war with unembarrassed 
 resources." * In a similar spirit he rebuked the Admiral for 
 failing to act against the island of Mauritius, so useful to the 
 French as a place of arms in Eastern seas. His assertion of 
 general authority was supported by the king's government in 
 the following year ; but in the meanwhile the chance had gone 
 by ; and the corsairs of Mauritius continued to prey on the 
 Company's Commerce for nearly a decade longer. 
 
 In connection with these high-handed displays of patriotic 
 energy Wellesley proceeded to press his offers on the reluctant 
 Baji Rao ; offers which he professed to regard as no less ad- 
 vantageous to one side than to the other. These proposals, 
 modified as far as the Governor-General thought feasible, were 
 presented to the Peshwa in July, 1802. His Highness took no 
 direct notice of the overture ; but one of his ministers paid a 
 visit to Colonel Close, in the course of which the ultimatum was 
 reached that, before any other negotiation could be entertained, 
 it would be absolutely essential for his Highness to pledge 
 himself to the acceptance of the same subsidiary terms as those 
 which governed the " defensive alliance with the State of 
 Haidarabad."t Unable to bring themselves to do this, the 
 Peshwa and Ministers turned to Sindia, in hopes of being by 
 him defended against Jaswant Rao. 
 
 At the begining of September, when the rainy season was 
 showing signs of cessation, the army of Sindia under the 
 general command of Sheodasheo Rao took post at Paithan, 
 
 * Second despatch of 8th Feb., 1802, W.D. II., 625. 
 
 t Intercepted despatch of I2th April, 1804, paras. 18 20.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 339 
 
 in the Godavari valley, while columns under Holkar's orders 
 were converging to attack Poona. The Holkar party con- 
 tinued to be represented, however, at the Peshwa's Court, 
 and to urge upon his Highness the conclusion of an arrange- 
 ment opposed to the views and interests of Sindia whom 
 Jaswant Rao considered himself quite able to resist. He 
 asked that his elder half-brother, Kashi, should be removed 
 from the charge of Indore for which he was obviously unfit, 
 while he Jaswant should administer the State on behalf 
 of his nephew, Khandi, who was kept in confinement by 
 Sindia. As the Peshwa knew that this meant a rupture with 
 the latter, of whose power and violence he had but too much 
 experience, he hesitated in his replies, and Jaswant advanced 
 on the capital. Sindia's general on this broke up his camp, 
 and crossed the river Godavari ; while Baji Rao and many of 
 the richer citizens prepared to removed their families and 
 property from Poona. It was felt on all sides that the brave 
 and skilful leader of cavalry was not to be disregarded. 
 
 The opportunity so long awaited by Wellesley seemed, even 
 now, to linger strangely. On 2oth September the Peshwa 
 made one further attempt at evasion and sent to the Resident 
 a fresh proposal. The "auxiliary force" should remain in 
 British territory, ready at all times for any service that the 
 Peshwa might require ; the British Government should abjure 
 in perpetuity all interference in Mahratta politics or between 
 his Highness and the Nizam ; his Highness might employ 
 such Europeans of whatever nationality as might not be 
 personally hostile or obnoxious to the Company; conditions 
 which not only modified but defeated every principle that the 
 Government of Calcutta had in view in offering its alliance. 
 The overtures were accordingly rejected, and the armies con- 
 tinued, like two black storm-clouds, to approach each other. 
 An encounter on the 8th October showed the coming tempest; 
 Sindia's army lost a quantity of guns and and baggage ; and 
 
 Z 2
 
 340 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Baji Rao sent his women with all his jewels to a strong hill- 
 fort. After the affair of the 8th, Sindia's general continued his 
 advance, and came in contact with the van of Holkar's army 
 on the 25th October, 1802, about ten miles from the city. 
 The brigade of De Boigne's old force were under Colonel 
 Davves, an officer of British extraction, and the Peshwa's body- 
 guard furnished a small but choice body of heavy cavalry. 
 On the other side Holkar had three brigades of infantry, each 
 under a good British officer; Jaswant himself, clad in 
 complete steel, led the cavalry. At first the loyal valour of 
 the bodyguard swept everything before them, till Jaswant 
 Rao came up with the reserve cavalry and retrieved the 
 honour of his horsemen. The British officers on both sides 
 fought with the tenacity of their race ; hand-to-hand and foot- 
 to-foot, with push of bayonet their faithful followers contended, 
 until Holkar and his men-at-arms, returning from the pursuit 
 of the bodyguard, cut down the artillery men at their guns, 
 killed most of Sindia's Europeans and broke in pieces the ill- 
 supported and out-numbered foot. Colonel Dawes was killed 
 on one side, Major Harding commanding one of Holkar's 
 brigades fell on the other; Jaswant Rao, in spite of his 
 armour was wounded in two places. This was the first time 
 that any of De Boigne's men ever succumbed ; but there were 
 only four battalions of them against fourteen ; they could not 
 conquer, but they died. 
 
 Meanwhile the consternation in Poona was extreme. The 
 inhabitants who could escape made haste to do so, on the 
 road to their places of refuge they were robbed with insult by 
 bands of highwaymen. The fields were abandoned by the 
 husbandmen, the half-ripened crops being cut and carried.* 
 
 * From Colonel Close's report, cited in the intercepted despatch obtained 
 from France and published by Stockdale, 1805. (791 paragraphs, 
 reporting the political transactions of the year 1803, dated I2th April, 
 1804.)
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 341 
 
 The submission of the mean and unscrupulous ruler of 
 Poona was now complete, all pride and patriotism having 
 vanished from that abject breast. The British Resident on 
 receiving his prayer for protection sent to Bombay, Haidara- 
 bad, and Madras for troops. These orders were, without 
 delay, comfirmed by the Government at Calcutta, while 
 Jaswant Rdo, on his part, pushed on his revolutionary 
 projects. 
 
 For the present the object of all these anxieties was only 
 anxious to put as great a distance as he could between him- 
 self and his capital which he abandoned in hot haste, retiring 
 at one gate as the victor entered by the other. Colonel Close, 
 after warning Holkar and his friends that nothing could be 
 settled but by the sanction of the Governor-General, withdrew 
 from Poona at the end of November, reaching Bombay on 
 the 3rd of the following month. The Peshwa sent word, from 
 the sea-coast, that he sought an asylum at the hands of the 
 Government of Bombay ; and, so soon as the approval of the 
 Governor-General could be obtained, a ship was sent for the 
 accomodation of his Highness, who landed at Basain a few 
 clays later. 
 
 It should here be mentioned that, even before the battle, 
 the Peshwa had given Close a letter signed with his own 
 private seal, in which he undertook to take into his pay the 
 desired number of British sepoys ; to assign to them a canton- 
 ment in his own territory with land to the value of 26 lakhs 
 of rupees per annum ; and to conclude a defensive alliance 
 with the Company on the basis of that which had been made 
 with the Nizam. In accordance with this seemingly absolute 
 surrender the Governor-General wrote to Close, i6th Novem- 
 ber, 1802, expressing his satisfaction at his Highness' deter- 
 mination, and promising to exert all the resources of the 
 British power in India for the re-establishment of the Peshwa's 
 authority. The Resident was further charged to take the first
 
 342 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 favourable opportunity of reducing the agreement to the 
 form of a treaty in which all the principles so long vainly 
 urged upon his Highness should be formally and definitely 
 included. 
 
 And now that opportunity had indeed arrived, in its most 
 golden aspect : while British troops, from two separate quarters 
 were converging to neutralise the possibility of valid inter- 
 ference, either from Holkar or from Sindia, the Peshwa was 
 a voluntary refugee in a British station, his nerves still 
 trembling with the din of a lost battle, not knowing what was 
 to become of him, unless he could purchase the protection 
 of this formidable power that had been so long pursuing him 
 with its unwelcome friendship. 
 
 The despatch of i6th November reached Close on 6th 
 December ; and he lost no time in seeking a conference with 
 the Minister in attendance on the Peshwa. The meeting 
 took place on the 8th December ; when the Resident con- 
 veyed to the Minister an assurance that no more delay or 
 equivocation would be tolerated ; and that any failure on the 
 part of his Highness to conclude a treaty on the terms already 
 determined would be met by ulterior measures, amongst which 
 would be a demand for payment of all the expenses incurred 
 on the Peshwa's behalf. 
 
 On the 1 6th the fugitive President of the Mahratta Con- 
 federacy arrived at Basain, where he was waited on by Colonel 
 Close with a draft-treaty. Baji Rao tried to produce a dis- 
 cussion, but Close was not to be put off. And so at last on 
 the 3ist, the Peshwa admitted him to another audience, at 
 which he gave up all further opposition ; and the treaty was, 
 then and there, " concluded and exchanged."* 
 
 This therefore the last day of the year 1802 is to be 
 regarded as the third great date in the history of the British in 
 India. The battle of Baksar had given them Bengal, and the 
 
 * Intercepted despatch, par 75.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 343 
 
 subordination of Audh ; the fall of Tipu gave them the 
 Presidency of Madras and the submission of the Nizam ; by 
 the treaty of Basain they obtained the Presidency of Bombay, 
 and decided the question whether or no the predatory and 
 quarrelsome Mahratta Confederacy was to be supreme in the 
 great peninsula. It did even more, more perhaps than could 
 at the moment come into contemplation ; for it opened the 
 path to the wide and fertile regions of Hindustan, and to the 
 prevalence of peace and order in a long distracted land. In 
 the language of General Arthur Wellesley the future Duke 
 of Wellington "the treaty of Basain and the measures 
 adopted in consequence afforded the best prospect of pre- 
 serving the peace of India j and to have adopted any other 
 measures would have rendered war with the whole Mahratta 
 nation more than probable." It is true that war did ensue : 
 but it was not with the whole Confederacy; hence it was 
 shorter, easier, and less devastating than it would otherwise 
 have been ; and when it was over there was no hostile power 
 left within the whole borders of India. 
 
 It was not to be expected that such a decisive step towards 
 sovereignty should fail to alarm and annoy those with whose pro- 
 jects it interfered. The first to feel this was Daulat Rao Sindia, 
 who is said to have complained that the treaty had " taken the 
 turban off his head." The subsequent conduct of this chief 
 certainly warrants the inference that he must have been deeply 
 committed to projects and hopes which the treaty of Basain 
 thwarted. Yet there was no ground of complaint that he 
 could venture to allege. The interference of the British for 
 the Peshwa's restoration had been solicited by Sindia himself ; 
 and the records are there to show that the treaty was not con- 
 ceived or carried out in any spirit of hostility to that chief.* 
 He was not only party, personally, to the initiatory negotiations 
 
 * v. " Selections from Wellington Despatches," S. Owen, Oxford, 
 1880.
 
 344 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 but his Vakil* was aware of the whole transaction. The 
 principles which Wellesley laid down were too reasonable to 
 be openly denounced by any one making the least pretence of 
 being friendly, and the fact that the columns from Madras and 
 Haidarabad continued to converge towards the country of the 
 Peshwa was a special reason why objections should be circum- 
 spect. Holkar, indeed, began to open negotiations with the 
 Court of Haidarabad, but these the Nizam loyally reported. 
 Sindia, with better prospect of immediate success, sent an 
 envoy to Nagpore, where the Raja of Berar was already en- 
 gaged in warlike preparations, and openly expressed his dis- 
 satisfaction with the submission of the Peshwa. 
 
 The troops from Madras and Haidarabad were now united, 
 and on the 26th March encamped at Purinda (famous for the 
 abortive treaty of 1776) where they were presently joined by a 
 third column, brought up from Mysore by General Wellesley, 
 who assumed full military and political charge of the opera- 
 tions. Jaswant Rao, on hearing of the arrival of the British 
 in his neighbourhood, retired from Poona, leaving the charge 
 of affairs there in the hands of Amrit Rao, the Peshwa's 
 brother,, with whom he was, for the time, in combination. A 
 general expectation prevailed that this governor intended 
 to sack the city and set fire to it before evacuating, but 
 General Wellesley made such speed that any design of the sort 
 was frustrated. Hurrying up the troops of the Peshwa from 
 the westward, Wellesley set off from camp on the night of the 
 igth April with the British troopers of his army, and made his 
 way, over sixty miles of rugged country, by the line of the " little 
 Bhor Ghat " a most difficult pass in those days arriving in 
 Poona the next day. He and his dragoons were received as 
 deliverers by the citizens, who at once evinced their confidence 
 by returning to the city and resuming their usual avocations. 
 
 * Agent : It is the custom of feudatory chiefs and princes to be repre- 
 sented at Court by permanent ministers, or agents, who are called Vakils.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 345 
 
 Sindia was at Ujain when he heard the news of the defeat 
 of his general at Poona; but on the i3th December, 1802, the 
 Governor-General received a letter from him, giving the infor- 
 mation that he should set out for Poona, where he hoped that 
 the British Government, in accordance with the treaty of 
 Salbai, would concur with him in supporting the authority of 
 the Peshwa. On the gth of January, 1803, the same chief was 
 officially informed of the conclusion of the treaty of Basain, and 
 expressed his satisfaction, though in a somewhat guarded 
 manner, and his intention to await the arrival of Colonel 
 Collins, then on his way to join the camp, before deciding on 
 the steps which he should take for the objects common to the 
 two states. This last missive appeared to the Governor- 
 General suggestive of a desire to take the place lately sought 
 by Holkar, and so to oust the British Government from that 
 influence in Poona politics which it had been endeavouring to 
 obtain ever since 1799. 
 
 On ist March, 1803, Collins waited on Sindia at Burhanpur, 
 and informed him that the Government of Calcutta was pre- 
 pared to conclude with him an alliance similar to that just con- 
 cluded with the Peshwa ; and, as nothing decisive occurred 
 for the next ten days, the matter was again brought to Sindia's 
 notice ; the British Agent adding that the Governor-General was 
 sincerely desirous of reconciling him with Holkar, and of paci- 
 fying the whole of the Deccan. The resentment of Sindia now 
 came to light. At an interview on the i6th March his Agent 
 informed Collins that Sindia was astonished that he had not 
 been informed in time of the intention to conclude a separate 
 treaty with the Peshwa, and that he must consult with that 
 ruler before giving a decisive answer. The Governor-General's 
 remarks on this were high and haughty, but Collins, in a per- 
 sonal interview with the chief 24th March conveyed the 
 purport without offence ; indeed, while never wavering from a 
 position of due firmness, he acted throughout with the greatest
 
 346 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 tact and courtesy ; and Sindia, on this occasion made an oral 
 admission that he had no grievance against the British Govern- 
 ment. But his subordinates were less reticent, and one of 
 them, in a conversation of i8th April, showed his master's 
 state of mind by bluntly asking Collins if the British really de- 
 sired to take the turban from Sindia's head ? 
 
 From these negotiations it may be inferred that Sindia was 
 becoming by this time determined to pick a quarrel. There 
 was nothing in the treaty of Salbai to which he frequently re- 
 ferred that could give him a claim to impose a veto on any 
 further agreements between his suzerain and the British Gov- 
 ernment. The negotiations between them had been going on 
 openly for above two years, during which he had made no ob- 
 jection. After the battle of Poona he had expressed his satis- 
 faction at the action of the Governor-General. After the 
 conclusion of the treaty he had at first expressed acquiescence. 
 But, it appears that between the months of January and March 
 he and Perron had made up their differences. At the same 
 time he could not fail to perceive that the British columns 
 continued to advance ; and he found that he was expected to 
 make a treaty similar to that accepted by the Peshwa, one 
 article of which would have deprived him of all the European 
 officers of his army. Turbulent, self-willed, and utterly unscru- 
 pulous, it could hardly be expected that he should not endeavour 
 to hold aloof from an alliance preferred on these terms. Yet 
 Wellesley could hardly believe that, even with the aid of the 
 Raja of Berar, with whom he was reported to have opened a 
 correspondence, Sindia would dare to incur the risk of a con- 
 flict with the power that had overthrown the Sultan of Mysore. 
 Nevertheless, the Governor-General thought that the time had 
 come when a categorical explanation of Sindia's intentions 
 ought to be demanded ; at the same time it was to be suggested 
 to that chief that a substantial proof of his pacific designs 
 would be afforded by his withdrawing his troops to Hindustan.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 347 
 
 Lastly, on 3rd June, Wellesley sent instructions to Collins 
 which may be regarded as containing an ultimatum. For they 
 conveyed an intimation which may be summed up in the 
 following three clauses : 
 
 1. If Sindia marched with his army to Poona it would be 
 taken for a declaration of war ; 
 
 2. If Sindia attacked the Nizdm he would be repelled by 
 every means in the power of the British Government ; 
 
 3. But the Governor-General was prepared, either to make 
 Sindia a party to the treaty of Basain, or to conclude with him 
 a separate alliance. 
 
 At the same time the Governor-General sent a letter to 
 Sindia, direct, in which, recapitulating what he had said 
 through Collins, he entered into friendly arguments, explaining 
 the grounds of his present action and his firm determination to 
 carry out the treaty with all due consideration for the interests 
 of Sindia, and of all the other vassal states of the Mahratta 
 empire, of which the Peshwa was the head. A similar letter 
 was transmitted to the Raja of Berar, warning him against any 
 combination hostile to the British or their allies ; to which was 
 added this representation : Either the State of Berar was a 
 vassal State of the Mahratta Empire, in which case the Raja 
 had no right to question the power of his superior to make 
 any alliance that might seem proper ; or the State of Berar 
 was independent, and in that case had nothing to do with the 
 affair. The letter ended by the offer of a similar alliance with 
 Berar, with the proviso that the refusal of that offer would in 
 no way affect the friendly feelings entertained by the British 
 Government towards the Berar State, but that any attempt to 
 interfere with the treaty of Basain. would lead to war. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to say that the British Govern- 
 ment was actuated by none but the avowed motives in these 
 proceedings. As has been already noted, the position was 
 full of grave anxiety. The tranistory nature of the peace of
 
 348 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Amiens was evidently forseen ; the refusal to surrender the 
 French possessions in India is sufficient proof of that. Perron 
 was known to be full of hostility, and the strength of his posi- 
 tion was also known, and even exaggerated : at one moment 
 Wellesley regarded the General as a French potentate virtually 
 independent of Sindia in Hindustan: on the other hand the 
 rejection of Thomas's overtures, coupled with the absence of 
 all mention of a conquest of Hindustan in the Governor- 
 General's public correspondence so far ought to be accepted 
 as considerable evidence that the attitude adopted towards 
 Sindia was only due to the ostensible facts. Sindia and his 
 immediate predecessor had made agreements with the British 
 by which the vassal States of the Mahratta Confederacy were 
 clearly estopped from objecting to similar steps being taken by 
 their acknowledged overlord ; for whatever they could do 
 a fortiori could be done by him. It was clearly dangerous, 
 if not impossible, to allow a feudatory to dictate to his lord in 
 such a case. A masterly summary of the whole political com- 
 plications, by which Lord Wellesley was at this time beset will 
 be found in his brother's " Memorandum," given as an introduc- 
 tion to the " Selections " of Mr. Sidney Owen. 
 
 The relation of General Perron towards the final determina- 
 tion adopted by Sindia in this momentous crisis must always 
 be somewhat obscure. In March, in consequence of a letter 
 received from Perron, the Governor-General regarded him as 
 prepared to leave the service of Sindia; and Skinner informed 
 his biographer that there had been a quarrel between Perron 
 and his employer at Ujain, which had led to the resignation of 
 that officer in the beginning of the year.* But either the 
 resignation was not accepted or was soon afterwards withdrawn ; 
 for Skinner who was then serving in the army adds that 
 Perron, about this time, drew up a plan for a combined attack 
 
 *" Intercepted Despatch," par. 488. See also "Wellesley Despatches," 
 III. 63.
 
 WARS OF WELLES LEY. 349 
 
 on the British power. From the same source we gather that 
 the resources at the disposal of the allies were formidable. 
 Sindia and the Berar Raja between them could count on the 
 services of a hundred thousand irregular troops, of whom 
 half consisted of good cavalry. There were not less 
 than forty thousand regulars infantry and gunners 
 staunch and steady men under European officers. Sindia 
 alone had more than three hundred pieces of good artillery. 
 Of three hundred Christian officers all but about forty were 
 French. 
 
 On the 6th July, 1803, Wellesley received from England an 
 intimation that war with France would soon be renewed ; and 
 two days later, in writing privately to General Lake, at Cawn- 
 pore, he revealed the larger scheme that this intelligence 
 opened to his mind. He admitted that he had come to the 
 consideration that "the reduction of Sindia's power on the 
 north-west frontier of Hindustan was an important object 
 in proportion to the probability of a war with France ;" a view 
 which he reinforced, in an official form, ten days later. Before 
 the end of that month the die was cast : the Governor-General 
 writing to Collins, stated that the reasons given by the Confe- 
 derates Sindia and Berar for the non-withdrawal of their 
 troops were so clearly illusory, that he must order him to leave 
 Sindia's camp at once. On the isth July, further justification 
 of hostilities was received from a fresh quarter. The Collector 
 of Moradabad, nearly a month before, had sent off a letter 
 enclosing a communication that he had received from a man 
 alread) mentioned in this narrative Bhanbu Khan, brother 
 of the late Ghulam Kadir, who had managed to get back to 
 his ancient family seat at Najibabad in Rohilkhand annexed 
 was a circular, received from Perron in Sindia's name, in which 
 the chiefs of Hindustan were invited to rise against " that 
 unprincipled race, the English," and to give their cordial 
 co-operation to General Perron. A month earlier similar
 
 350 HISTORY OF INDIA, 
 
 missives had been received from the Collector of Allahabad, 
 addressed to chiefs in Bundelkhand. 
 
 A memorandum found at Pondicherry about this time gives 
 some support to the apparent paradox that a campaign in the 
 neighbourhood of Delhi, was an essential part of the defence 
 of Dover : and it is quite possible that the French Government 
 would have created a diversion of British resources by co-ope- 
 rating with Perron, but for the breaking out of the terrible 
 negro revolt at S. Domingo which called forth all the available 
 means of the First Consul for maritime enterprise. So 
 strangely, even at that period, could the affairs of one part 
 of our planet affect the fortunes of another. This paper is 
 signed by a Lieutenant Lefebre, but appears to have been 
 based on information supplied by Perron for submission to the 
 First Consul. The purport of it is that the aged and blind 
 Emperor, Shah Alam then a prisoner in the custody of one of 
 Perron's colonels should be recognised and supported as a 
 protege of the French Republic. " The English Company," 
 it was added, "by its ignominious treatment of the Great 
 Moghul, has forfeited its rights as Diwan of the Empire." 
 This flimsy attempt to veil an unprovoked aggression under the 
 worn-out mantle of the extinct Empire of the House of Babar, 
 was thus no more, in reality, than a feeble endeavour to repeat 
 the defeated policy of five years ago at Seringapatam. But it 
 seems to have contributed to the feeling of the British autho- 
 rities against the French officers in Sindia's service, and the 
 determination to extirpate them from Indian limits at what- 
 ever cost. 
 
 Sindia and the Raja of Berar met at Malharpur, a village on 
 the Nizam's border, 4th June ; and, as was but natural in the 
 circumstances, pursued a long course of shuffling, in the 
 apparent hope of persuading the British authorities to with- 
 draw their troops. But Arthur Wellesley who had received 
 full political powers from his brother refused to listen to
 
 WARS OF WELLES LEY. 351 
 
 anything, or move a man, until the confederates had set the 
 example ; and at last, after a display of the utmost patience 
 and perserverance, Colonel Collins was obliged to carry out 
 his conditional instructions by leaving Sindia's camp. This 
 step which took place on 3rd August was the virtual com- 
 mencement of the war : and the Governor-General must be 
 acquitted of precipitation and cannot be charged with undue 
 fettering of his agents. For five months there had been little 
 room for doubt as to Daulat Rao's hostile feelings : yet up to 
 the date of his meeting with the Bhonsla as the Berar Raja 
 was called both the Marquess and his brother professed to 
 hope for a peaceful settlement. And it is quite possible that 
 such an end might have been compassed : for Daulat Rao had 
 quite enough intelligence to know the strength of the British, 
 and had twice appeared on the verge of acquiescence. But 
 the Bhonsla was a barbarian who had seen nothing of the 
 British, either as politicians or as soldiers. And, after all the 
 arguments that could be urged upon him, the case was one of 
 those in which there is something to be said on either side. 
 The Bhonsla therefore knowing nothing of the law of nations, 
 or the feudal system replied that, by the unwritten customs 
 of the Mahrattas, one chief even were he the highest could 
 not compromise the Confederation without the consent of the 
 whole of the States of which that Confederation was com- 
 posed ; and in so saying he may well have spoken in good 
 faith. 
 
 Sindia, however, had few other friends. He had all the 
 faults that are to be usually found in young men brought up 
 with great expectations. His precedessor had been turbulent 
 and vindictive in his earlier days ; but always self-restrained 
 and prudent, with affable ways and a faithful nature by which 
 he made friends and kept them. But Daulat Rao was cruel 
 by caprice and full of insincerity. He was suspicious, moreover 
 of those by whom he was served ; and his servants were, for
 
 352 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 the most part ready to desert and betray him if their own 
 interests seemed to require such courses. 
 
 It was the office of statesmanship to profit by this unpopu- 
 larity ; accordingly, so soon as Sindia whether persuaded by 
 the Bhonsla of Berar, or by the gasconading General Perron 
 showed that he had chosen the alternative of war, the Gov- 
 ernor-General sought every opportunity of undermining the 
 enemy in every quarter. Bhanbu Khan, of Najibabad, was 
 thanked for his communication and promised a reward. Nego- 
 tiations were opened with Himmat Bahadur leader of Gosains, 
 or fighting friars who commanded for Sindia in Bundelkhand, 
 and had written to the Collector of Allahabad. The blood- 
 thirsty and grasping Sherji Sindia's father-in-law attempted 
 to make terms for himself. The correspondence with Perron 
 was renewed, and messages were sent to the poor old Emperor, 
 neither of which had an apparent good result, though both 
 brought benefit a little later. Lastly, a proclamation was 
 addressed to all British subjects serving Sindia either as 
 officers or soldiers in which they were clearly notified of two 
 things : those who left Sindia before the fighting began should 
 have employment or pensions, or be provided for in other 
 ways ; and those who remained should be regarded as guilty of 
 high treason. Perron, it should be noted to his credit, 
 declared that it was his intention to remain with his employer 
 until he should be formally dismissed and relieved by a suc- 
 cessor ; which probably means that he did not much like the 
 responsibility of his position, and was hoping to hand it over 
 to Ambaji, who was spoken of as coming to take charge in 
 Hindustan. The Emperor also made a show of refusal, direct- 
 ing Lake to fall back, and threatening to take the field in per- 
 son if he did not obey. But, at the same time, an Agent of 
 the Emperor's came to the camp privately, and explained that 
 the manifesto had been dictated by the French officers at 
 Delhi. As for the officers and men, the proclamation acted
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 353 
 
 variously in various cases. The sepoys, who had been taken 
 into the service from the Company's, when the armies of the 
 latter had been reduced in number, had often left their families 
 in Bihar or in Audh ; and regarding these as a sort of hostages 
 now hurried home in hundreds. Of the British-born officers, 
 some had been deserted by their fathers and brought up by 
 their native mothers and their mothers' kinsfolk. Such men 
 had no regard for England or unwillingness to fight against her ; 
 as we may judge by the case of Skinner, who though after- 
 wards Colonel and Companion of the Bath was at this time 
 little more than a Hindu spearman : he had lived, he used to 
 relate, as a Rajput, and had as profound an ignorance and 
 dislike of his father's country as any Hindu of them all ; he 
 sincerely desired, he said, to strike a blow for Sindia and to 
 prove his loyalty to the salt that he had eaten for eight years. 
 The educated English, Scots, or Irish had, no doubt, more in- 
 telligence and greater patriotism ; and nothing was easier for 
 the Frenchmen than to persuade the General to class them all 
 in a lump as unworthy of trust. Of these latter the French 
 - we have seen that L. F. Smith taxes them with ingratitude ; 
 and it seems certain that Louis Bourquin, commandant of the 
 ist brigade, did about this time get up a conspiracy against the 
 General at Delhi ; and in the. course of his proceedings robbed 
 Perron's banker of a large sum of money, reduced the men of 
 the 2nd brigade, and blockaded the Emperor and Colonel 
 Drugeon in the palace. At the same time he wrote to the 
 native officers of the cavalry which were with Perron at Aligarh, 
 and offered them rewards if they would arrest or assassinate 
 the General. On all sides there was enough to tax a stronger 
 mind than that of the ex-ship carpenter. 
 
 In the Deccan, meanwhile, some obstacles had retarded the 
 due activity of the troops. The old Nizam had been sinking 
 and his ministers had made his condition an excuse for inert- 
 ness. But he died on the 8th August, and was succeeded as 
 
 A A
 
 354 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 "Subahdar of the Deccan " by his eldest son, Sikandar Jab. 
 This nobleman made great show of submission, but it soon trans- 
 pired that his officials who were presumed to knowtheir master's 
 wishes were withholding supplies and refusing to open the 
 gates of their fenced cities for the accommodation of British 
 troops wishing to halt on the line of march. All the diplomatic 
 pressure that could be applied by the Wellesleys through their 
 Agent at Haidarabad, was exerted before these difficulties could 
 be removed. General Wellesley then immediately crossed the 
 Nizam's border and laid siege to the famous fortress of Ahmad- 
 nagar, which capitulated at once i2th August. 
 
 Sindia was in great strength in the neighbourhood ; besides 
 the numerous cavalry of the Bhonsla, and his own, he had four 
 brigades of regulars, horse, foot, and artillery, with the best 
 part of Begam Samru's contingent ; all under Christian 
 officers. If, in Hindustan, the regular army had been some- 
 what unduly depleted, yet Perron had three brigades and 8,000 
 good cavalry, while Du Drenec was marching to his assistance 
 from Ujain. The force with which Lake was marching against 
 him from Cawnpore was not much more than 10,000 strong of 
 all arms, of which only one battalion of foot and three cavalry 
 regiments were Europeans. About 3,500 men were at the 
 same time assembled at Allahabad for operations in Bundel- 
 khand ; 5,216 were got ready to invade the Bhonsla's province 
 of Orissa by way of Jagannath and Katak : and General Wel- 
 lesley was to open the campaign in the Deccan with nearly 
 17,000 men, to meet the main strength of the confederate 
 chiefs. A force nearly equal to that of Lake, in the north, 
 was kept in reserve in the Carnatic ; altogether the British forces 
 amounted to 55,000 men, but scattered over a vast surface. 
 Lake left Cawnpore, with the bulk of his small force, 7th 
 August, and the Governor-General's final orders reached him 
 on the 1 6th. If the country were with Perron, and if his 
 white officers were staunch, he had, in troops and places of
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 355 
 
 strength, the means of offering a substantial resistance. Major 
 Smith is of opinion that he desired to do his duty, and Skinner 
 seems to have thought the same as Smith. It was hoped that 
 the Rohillas would rise to neutralise the brigade of observation 
 at Anupshahr, and that Ambaji would get in Lake's rear from 
 Bundelkhand ; Holkar was to overrun Bihar and Bengal ; the 
 Bhonsla co-operating from Nagpore. The firmness of the army 
 under Sindia in the Deccan might be depended on, for Sindia 
 had provoked the quarrel, and might be said to be almost fight- 
 ing for his life. 
 
 Such, then, was the ostensible outlook and position of the 
 combatants at the beginning of August, 1803. But the Euro- 
 pean leader on one side was weakened, almost bewildered, 
 with a sense of isolation and betrayal ; on the other was the 
 Marquess of Wellesley, faithfully served and obeyed by his 
 brother Arthur, and by General Gerard Lake, officers implicitly 
 trusted by their followers, and never accustomed to regard 
 with excess of anxiety either the numbers or the skill of their 
 opponents ; wont to strike hard and to tell the truth to friend 
 and foe. 
 
 Perron's hopes, as we have seen, depended upon the promp- 
 titude and solidarity with which his forces might be expected 
 to act. Each of the three brigades ostensibly serving under 
 his orders comprised ten regiments, or battalions, of foot, in 
 which the commands were largely held by officers of European 
 blood and training ; each had forty field-pieces, with a contin- 
 gent of Mughal horse, such as won the battle at Panipat, and 
 averted the worse consequences of defeat at Baksar. There 
 was also a considerable amount of light troops, horse and foot. 
 The fort of Aligarh, near Koel where Perron resided was 
 held, with a good garrison, by Colonel Pedron, a member of 
 the General's family and a resolute, well-conducted soldier. 
 The 2nd and 3rd brigades were at Delhi, behind strong walls, 
 and with a fortified palace for citadel. But, unfortunately for 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Perron, the officer in command there was his declared enemy, 
 the incapable but unscrupulous Bourquin. To make his posi- 
 tion still worse he had now to face the open defection of his 
 British officers. 
 
 He did all that was possible for a man of narrow intelligence, 
 in a trying situation. Sending orders to his banker at Delhi 
 to open an unlimited credit for the defence of the place, he 
 despatched a body of cavalry under Captain Fleury, one of his 
 best French officers, to get in rear of Lake's march and harass 
 it to the best of his ability. He then drew out the remainder of 
 his force consisting chiefly of cavalry in front of Aligarh, 
 and it was then that he became aware of the disaffection 
 among his subordinates. 
 
 For this, indeed, he could not have been altogether unpre- 
 pared. Two years earlier a scene had taken place at Hansi, 
 which might have opened his eyes to the feelings of those 
 gentlemen. After Thomas had surrendered to Bourquin, the 
 fallen adventurer was dining at their mess, when the Colonel 
 proposed " Success to the undertakings of General Perron : " 
 Thomas passionately refused the toast, and the British officers 
 turned down their empty glasses. And now, on the eve of 
 action, two of them, Captains Stewart and Carnegie, came to 
 Perron (having by that time probably heard of the Governor- 
 General's proclamation of the 2oth), and told him that they 
 could not serve against their fellow-countrymen. Perron 
 affected to be taken by surprise, but he indignantly gave 
 orders for their immediate dismissal, including that of seven 
 other officers of British blood who were then in his camp. 
 
 This affair occurred on the 28th August. Next day, General 
 Lake appearing with his dragoons, who were accompanied 
 according to the custom then existing in the Anglo-Indian 
 Army by six-pounder pieces, called " Galloper Guns " ; a sort 
 of precursor of modern horse artillery. The Mughal horse 
 were soon thrown into confusion; and Skinner, who was on the
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 357 
 
 ground and at that time far from sympathising with the 
 British seized the occasion to try to get himself exempted 
 from the order of dismissal. Seeing the General pass with 
 some horsemen he ran up, seized the bridle, and renewed the 
 offer of his services. " Ah ! no," cried Perron, " it is all over : 
 these fellows have behaved badly : go over to the British." 
 And he rode off, calling as he went ; " good-bye, M. Skinner : 
 no trust, no trust." 
 
 In this distracted manner disappears from the war the 
 cause of so much anxiety. Perron quitted his camp, retiring 
 in good order to Hathras, a strong place between Aligarh 
 and Agra ; leaving instructions with Pedron to defend the 
 fort at Aligarh to the last extremity. But he received at 
 Hatras confirmation of the appointment of Ambaji to take over 
 the command in Hindustan ; and he felt that he could now 
 retire with honour from the service of an ungrateful master. 
 Accordingly, on the 6th of September, General Lake received 
 an express from him demanding lea veto repair to Lucknow, across 
 the Company's territory, escorted by his khds risdla, or mounted 
 bodyguard. The permission willingly accorded, Perron went 
 to Lucknow, where he was received with all the respect due to 
 his rank; and, in company with Fleury and an aide-de-camp, 
 proceeded, with the sanction of the British Government, to 
 Chandernagore. Ultimately he returned to France, where he 
 took his place in society, and made good marriages for his two 
 daughters.* 
 
 Before Lake was aware of the submission of Perron, he was 
 joined by his infantry, and found before him the task of 
 reducing the fort of Aligarh. But the details of the cam- 
 paign, together with that of General Wellesley in the South, 
 must be the subject of another section. 
 
 [The books recommended for study in connection with this 
 
 * One to a Rochefoucauld, the other to a Montesquieu (Bingham's 
 " Letters of Napoleon," II. 130).
 
 358 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 section will be found cited, in the text and margin, or at the 
 end of the preceding.] 
 
 SECTION 3. Our story must still concern itself chiefly with 
 diplomatic and military struggles : for we have come to a new 
 departure, and have to see how the Marquess Wellesley forced 
 the dominions of Akbar into the reluctant hands of " the 
 cheesemongers of Leadenhall Street," as he described his 
 honourable masters. Some perception of the direction that 
 his policy might be expected to take was already revealing 
 itself to keen observers. Thus, in the " Annual Register " for 
 1803, a bold writer observed that the real object of the Mar- 
 quess was, evidently "to fix on an extensive and solid basis 
 the paramount power and authority of the British Government 
 in the East." This was indeed plain speaking : for the writer 
 could not have been aware of any war then pending in India, 
 unless it was that between Sindia and Jaswant Rao, in which 
 the British did not seem then to have any particular concern. 
 But, shortly after the Marquess had consented to postpone his 
 resignation, a shuffle of the cards took place, which altered 
 the future aspect of the game. Sindia egged on, as appeared 
 later, by Holkar, and perhaps also by Perron entered into 
 close alliance with the Raja of Nagpore or Berar, whose ter- 
 ritories extended from the border of Bagtana to the Bay of 
 Bengal, and who, on the strength of his Bhonsla pedigree, had 
 a vague claim to be the head of the Mahrattas. 
 
 In vain did the Marquess point out to these chiefs that they had 
 nothing to complain of, both having signified their approval pf 
 the Treaty of Basain : in vain did he offer to both a similar 
 defensive, or " subsidiary " alliance. With the sagacity of an 
 experienced pilot he foresaw that their silence and their com- 
 bination alike portended mischief. He accordingly took his 
 measures, in the spring of the year, and made all possible pre- 
 paration for the coming tempest. 
 
 On the 22nd July, Mr. Mercer was sent to Bundelkhand
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 359 
 
 to treat with Himat Bahadur, who shared the administration of 
 that province with the Muslim descendant of the late Peshwa, 
 Baji Rao I. ; already mentioned in this narrative. Himat 
 offered his alliance for the promise of a fief in the Duab ; and 
 as he was a good soldier with a body of stout Gosains the 
 famous fighting friars at his back, it was held prudent to 
 accept his terms. At the same time the Rana of Gohad was 
 invited to use his influence with the Jats to hem in Sindia's 
 forces on the right bank of the Jumna : the Rajas of Jaipore 
 and Jodhpore being likewise moved to the same purpose. 
 Similar invitations were addressed to the Begam Samru, who 
 held lands, on military tenure, both at Sardhana in the Upper 
 Duab, and on the opposite side of the Jumna above Delhi. 
 This remarkable woman was of Arab ancestry, and had been 
 bought as a slave by the late Walter Reinhardt Sombre or 
 " Samru." She embraced the Romish form of Christianity, 
 and she had succeeded to Samru's command and possessions 
 at his death (1782). Accordingly, she is usually regarded as 
 his widow though she could never have been lawfully wedded, 
 seeing that Samru had a wife who, though out of her mind, 
 survived him many years. But the Begam was a person of 
 sense and spirit ; and the people on her estates were peaceful 
 if not exactly prosperous. For all these objects political 
 powers, accompanied by general directions, were given to the 
 Commander-in-Chief, who was also furnished with instructions 
 for the protection and conciliation of the inhabitants of the 
 invaded districts all of which were duly and successfully 
 carried into effect. The people in those districts were in 
 general oppressed by the local chiefs who had acquired a 
 spurious authority either by purchasing farms of the land- 
 revenue, or by acquiring grants of a superior tenure in return for 
 which they were expected to maintain troops. These lees of 
 the quasi-feudal system of the old Empire long continued to 
 poison the social system ; and some details as to the resulting
 
 360 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 condition of the country will be found in our i2th chapter 
 (Section 3). Perron had been of course supreme ; but beyond 
 collecting the revenue he took little share in the administra- 
 tion; and the revenue seems to have been collected at the 
 point of the bayonet, if we may judge from the fact that a 
 whole brigade of regular infantry was kept, for fiscal uses, at 
 Sikandrabad, near Bulandshahr. In addition to the negotiations 
 above mentioned, overtures were held out to the Raja of 
 Patiala, and to the Sikh chiefs of Sirhind. 
 
 Not only were these negotiations generally successful, but 
 other states Udaipore and Kota sent in their envoys with 
 offers of alliance. The relations with Ambaji. indeed, con- 
 tinued unsatisfactory ; and the town and fort of Gwahor 
 which he had promised to cede were only obtained by a 
 mixture of force and conciliation employed towards the Gov- 
 ernor. The Begam Samru, however, came over, not only 
 politically but personally, having herself carried to the tent of 
 General Lake in a palanquin. At the same time she recalled 
 her battalions that were serving under Sindia in the South. 
 The Sikhs proved entirely friendly ; and the young Raja of 
 Lahore Ranjit Sinh sent an envoy to offer the Cis-Sutlej 
 districts to the British, and to propose a defensive alliance. 
 Both these results came in sight later on. 
 
 Meanwhile, the army marched slowly up through a country 
 far from hostile, their camp being thronged as Thorn informs 
 us by every description of male and female visitor. > 
 
 Sindia now began to show an unmistakable distrust of 
 Perron ; and Raja Ambaji, who had moved from Bundelkhand 
 to Gwahor, wavering, had Sindia but known it, was appointed 
 "Subahdar of Hindustan." Ordered to take charge from 
 Perron at the first prospect of war, he marched slowly through 
 the country between Bundelkhand and Agra, so that Perron 
 did not hear of his supersession until the first week in Sept- 
 ember.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 361 
 
 By that time General Lake's patience was exhausted. Becom- 
 ing convinced that the enemy was only amusing him with nego- 
 tiations the better to carry on warlike preparations, and finding 
 that Fleury was operating not without success in his rear, 
 Lake resolved upon assaulting the Fort of Aligarh before the 
 final measures for its defence could be completed. The place 
 was strong by virtue of situation, surrounded by marshes and 
 a wide and deep moat (), with a narrow causeway (c), leading to 
 the ist gate. At the end of the causeway was a bridge covered 
 by a strong traverse with three guns (B), turning sharp to the 
 left was the main gate (A), opening on a road round the base 
 of a strong barbican (D), surrounded with its own ditch and 
 manned by sharp-shooters ; a door (E) at the end of this road 
 opened on another bridge over the great moat, at the end of 
 which was yet another door (F). 
 Again moving sharp to the left> 
 the road led under the rampart 
 of the Inner Fort (A) to an in- 
 terior gate (G), which opened into 
 the heart of the works (a). 
 
 Such was the place that Lake 
 with a full knowledge that the 
 commandant had received orders 
 to hold it to the last, and sus- 
 pecting that the approaches were 
 being mined had resolved to 
 capture. The storming-party 
 consisted of four companies of 
 the 7 6th foot, six battalions of sepoys, and a detail of artillery 
 with two twelve-pound guns. The party was to be guided by 
 one of the discharged European officers, named Lucan, who 
 was well-acquainted with the peculiar character of the 
 approaches. Setting out two hours after midnight under 
 command of Colonel Monson, they took the traversed
 
 362 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 bridge, and blew open the main gate with the fire of a twelve 
 pounder ; five officers being killed and Colonel Monson, the 
 leader, wounded during the operation. The stormers then 
 advanced to the second and third gates, v/hich were easily 
 forced ; but when they reached the last gate it was found too 
 strong to be opened by any amount of firing. As the troops 
 were all this time exposed to the marksmen in the barbican, 
 great loss continued to be endured until Major McLeod of 
 the 76th, succeeding in opening a small door in the side of the 
 gate, admitted his men. The resistance soon ceased ; and 
 the want of the usual sally-port told against the garrison, of 
 which a considerable portion fell in trying to escape. Colonel 
 Pedron was made prisoner, with about 2,000 of his men. 
 This brilliant feat of arms cost the British 260 killed and 
 wounded, the gallant y6th alone losing seventy-three officers 
 and men. 
 
 The rest of Lake's campaign was fought in the same fearless 
 old fashion ; there was a resistance of mercenaries, true to 
 their salt, but deprived very much by their o\vn suspicions 
 of the light and leading of their European instructors ; 
 against them was hurled a body of troops, smaller and no 
 braver than themselves, but to which a few hundreds of 
 British soldiers gave the requisite determination, the whole 
 being led by the daring British gentlemen of that time. But, 
 before giving consideration to a few essential details of the 
 events in Hindustan, let us turn to other quarters. 
 
 In addition to the blows aimed at the confederates in 
 Central India, it was deemed of the first necessity to take 
 aimed possession of Bundelkhand, which had been ceded by 
 the treaty of Basain. And this country if not held by the 
 British or their allies would leave a door open from northern 
 Berar into the lower Duab. Himat Bahadur, as has been shown, 
 was willing to submit, for a consideration ; and he did, in fact, 
 join the British column, which left Allahabad for that service.
 
 WARS OF \VELLESLEY. 363 
 
 under Colonel Powell. This officer was soon after joined by 
 Colonel Shepherd, of the Mahratta service, followed" by a 
 brigade 10,000 strong and a small complement of Mughal 
 horse and native artillery. But the proceedings were opposed 
 by the Nawab of Banda, Shamsher Bahadur, the Muslim off- 
 shoot of Baji Rao I. already mentioned. An obstinate battle 
 was fought though without much loss on either side -and the 
 usual attempt at negotiation ensued ; but the peaceable 
 tendencies of the Nawab were greatly forwarded by the 
 capitulation of Kalpi, after a short cannonade 4th December, 
 1803. On the 1 8th January, 1804, the Nawab finally came 
 into the British camp ; and his possessions as then guaran- 
 teed remained in his family till 1858. Another place, to be 
 painfully notorious during the troubles of the Mutiny, was now 
 reduced to submission ; the local ruler of Jhansi acknow- 
 ledging British sovereignty. 
 
 On the same day as that on which Lake encountered 
 Perron under the walls of Aligarh August 29th Arthur 
 Wellesley arrived at Aurangabad, having with him one regi- 
 ment of dragoons and three of native cavalry, 1,731 sabres in 
 all ; two battalions of British foot and six of sepoys, a total 
 of 7,000 bayonets ; two "companies," batteries, of European 
 artillery, and some native sappers and gun lascars ; together 
 with a brigade of Mysore horse, making about 12,500 men in 
 all, besides a small contingent of light cavalry contributed by 
 the Peshwa. A few days before, the confederate chiefs had 
 slipped past the other British force Colonel Stevenson's 
 and crossed the Ajanta Pass into the Berar territory : they 
 were apparently in difficulties about supplies. The object of 
 the British was above all to bring them to action ; but it was 
 also deemed necessary to keep them either from advancing on 
 Poona, or from ravaging the country of the Nizam. As they 
 were now being driven to subsist in a country friendly to them, 
 they also began to desire an engagement; and Sindia, probably
 
 364 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 pushed on by his European officers, judged the moment propi- 
 tious for attacking General Wellesley before he was able to 
 effect a junction with Colonel Stevenson's column. On the 23rd 
 September the General heard that Sindia's camp was only 
 six miles away, and he accordingly determined to take the 
 initiative and fall upon the enemy without waiting for the 
 attack, or for the arrival of his colleague. Leaving his camp 
 under a strong guard he at once advanced ; and on ascending 
 a hill beheld the camp of the enemy on the plain beneath, 
 near the junction of two small streams, of which the southern- 
 called the Kaitna -ran between them and himself, while their 
 rear rested on the bank of the northern affluent the Jua 
 and was sheltered by the fortified village of Asai. It was now 
 an hour past mid-day, and the army had marched twenty miles. 
 But Wellesley moved his battalions to the right, covered by all 
 his cavalry. His effective force consisted of about 5,000 men 
 of all arms, the enemy's infantry alone being about double that 
 strength, with the brigades of Pohlmann and Dupont, 8,400 
 good infantry, and 2,000 men of the Samru contingent, who, 
 however, remained in camp to guard the baggage ; the guns were 
 nearly sixty, and the cavalry was very numerous.* Having 
 found a ford where the guns could pass, the General crossed 
 the Kaitna and wheeled to his right. The enemy were driven 
 back till they reformed parallel with the Jua ; and the 74th Foot, 
 getting between their left and the village, were nearly annihilated 
 by artillery and charges of horse before the cavalry could come 
 up and save the residue. The enemy's horse with this excep- 
 tion kept at a distance ; and the infantry was at last put to 
 flight and driven over the northern stream. But the British had 
 suffered severely. One-third of the little army was either killed 
 
 * The Begam Samru's infantry was under the command of Colonel 
 Saleur, a respectable French officer ; the reason of their being left in the 
 rear was, probably, that the Begam was known to be in negotiation with 
 Lake in the North.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 365 
 
 or wounded ; the 74th alone lost eleven officers killed and six 
 wounded, with 400 non-commissioned officers and privates. 
 The General's orderly-trooper was killed at his side, and his 
 own horse was shot under him ; so that seeing what great 
 events were to turn upon his after-life his escape may be 
 called " providential " ; the rather that, of the ten officers of 
 his personal staff, only two escaped. The enemy left 1,200 
 bodies on the field; and lost besides their guns, camp, stores, 
 and ammunition, and seven standards. 
 
 Next evening the General was joined by Colonel Stevenson ; 
 and he remained in the neighbourhood of the pass to guard 
 the Nizam's country, while the other column moved into 
 Berar.* 
 
 On both the western and eastern coasts of their country the 
 confederates were equally overcome. On the 2pth August 
 Colonel Woodington gallantly stormed Baroch, at the mouth 
 of the Narbada river, and proceeded to occupy Champanir, a 
 district belonging to Sindia, on the frontier of Gujarat. In the 
 following month an expedition under Colonel Harcourt, military 
 secretary to the Governor-General, occupied Cuttack (Katak), 
 the central district of the province of Orissa, and advanced to 
 support the armies of the centre. 
 
 While the confederates were reeling under these blows and 
 making abortive and insincere attempts to negotiate with 
 General Wellesley, the war proceeded, both in the northern 
 Deccan and in Hindustan. After securing the fort of Aligarh, 
 Lake marched towards Delhi; and on the morning of i ith Sept- 
 ember received news that Bourquin had left the town in great 
 
 * A spirited account of the battle, with an excellent sketch-plan, will 
 be found in Colebrooke's " Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone," vol i., p 63. 
 The future Governor of Bombay and historian was then a young Civil 
 officer, attached to General Wellesley's staff. He was by his side during 
 the battle, and the General complimented him by saying "he ought to 
 have been a soldier.'
 
 366 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 strength and was marching down towards him. Bourquin, it 
 may be remembered, was the officer who, having with some 
 difficulty overcome the brave but unlucky George Thomas, had 
 engaged in conspiracy against Perron, his own superior. He 
 was now to meet still more formidable antagonists. On 
 arriving at his next halt six miles from Delhi Lake found 
 Bourquin at the head of sixteen battalions of regular infantry, 
 with 6,000 cavalry and a strong artillery, in all 19,000 good 
 troops. They opened a searching fire upon the British cavalry, 
 which had to stand exposed for a whole hour awaiting the 
 arrival of the infantry. At length Lake after his own charger 
 had been killed executed a retrograde movement, which the 
 enemy mistook for a retreat, and hurried out of their batteries 
 with vociferous cries of triumph. By this time the British 
 infantry had joined their mounted comrades, and the whole 
 line presently advanced, led by the Commander-in-Chief in 
 person. Charging the enemy with fixed bayonets, the infantry 
 line drove them from the guns. The line then broke quickly 
 into columns of companies, through which the British horse- 
 men poured with their galloper guns, scattering the enemy in 
 all directions They are said to have lost 3,000 men, and the 
 victors obtained possession of sixty-eight guns, with a quantity 
 of ammunition and some treasure. By special invitation of 
 the Emperor Lake entered Delhi on the i4th, when Bourquin 
 and four of his European officers surrendered as prisoners of 
 war. On the following day Lake proceeded to the palace, 
 conducted by Mirza Akbar, the son of the fallen Emperor, 
 and found the representative of all that splendid line, blind and 
 necessitous, awaiting him in faded pomp. But the gladness of 
 the long lines of crowded spectators through which the 
 elephants pursued their slow and stately progress, testified to the 
 emotions aroused at the deliverance of the citizens from 
 Mahratta domineering and the insolence of low-bred Euro- 
 peans.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 367 
 
 These events as the Governor-General affirmed secured 
 to the British the possession of the Duab, and paralysed the 
 French influence ; while the people of the country, noting the 
 valour, humanity, and justice of the officers and men, unhesi- 
 tatingly accepted the change of masters. The Emperor's 
 name would still, the Marquess hoped and believed, possess its 
 old prestige ; and his first care would be to provide a suitable 
 establishment for the aged sovereign, so happily restored to 
 his ancestral position. No treaty was to be made, but "a 
 connection would be established, on permanent principles, 
 between the Royal House of Timur and the British power in 
 India."* The Commander-in-Chiefwas created Khan Dauran, 
 which as he was informed was the second title in the Em- 
 pire, the first being reserved for Sindia. The Emperor ulti- 
 mately received a monthly allowance of 90,000 Rs. besides the 
 revenues of the city and the district of Delhi, the same being 
 administered by a British Resident. 
 
 Some more work, however, remained for the army in Hin- 
 dustan ; whilst in the Deccan, also, the confederates sought for 
 a little longer to stave off the inevitable. Let us turn first to 
 the latter struggle, as it came to an earlier and more important 
 end. 
 
 When Colonel Stevenson left Arthur Wellesley near Ajunta, 
 he proceeded eastward in pursuit of the confederates ; but 
 Sindia had lost all desire for fighting, and the war was main- 
 tained by the Bhonsla alone. On the i6th October, Burhanpur 
 an old Mughal capital, with walls capitulated, as did, five 
 days later, the almost impregnable hill-fort of Asir, close by. 
 On 28th November being joined by the General Stevenson 
 had the satisfaction of bringing his men into contact with the 
 
 * v. " Notes relative to the late transactions in the Mahratta Em- 
 pire," by the Governor-General, Fort William, Dec., 15, 1803. See also 
 " The Governor-General in Council to the Secret Committee," June 2, 
 1805. [" Wellesley Despatches,'' iv., p. 553.]
 
 368 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 enemy, consisting chiefly of the army of Berar, under com- 
 mand of Venkaji Bhonsla, the Raja's brother, who, in ignorance 
 of Wellesley's arrival, desired to prevent Stevenson from be- . 
 sieging Gawilgarh. His cavalry charged with great bravery, 
 particularly a body of fair-complexioned Muslims from the 
 north ; some of the sepoy battalions were driven back, but the 
 cavalry restored the fight ; near 400 of the Persian horse were 
 found dead where they had charged ; as night fell the broken 
 forces fled, being pursued with loss by the British cavalry by 
 the light of the moon. This action takes its name from the 
 village of Argaon, between Akola and Elichpore, and was 
 followed by a half-hearted submission on the part of Daulat 
 Rao Sindia, who was by this time beginning to foresee the total 
 breakdown of his defence in Hindustan. On the i5th Decem- 
 ber Stevenson took Gawilgarh ; and the Bhonsla made haste 
 to follow the example of his confederate and sue for peace, 
 but with more earnestness. 
 
 In the instructions received from his brother, at the beginning 
 of the troubles, General Wellesley had been ordered to push 
 on war with all possible vigour, if war should appear needful ; 
 but he was also empowered to open negotiations for peace 
 whenever the confederates, or either of them, should withdraw 
 from active resistance, or give other convincing proof of a 
 sincere desire of accommodation with the British Government 
 and its allies. Accordingly, ever since the end of November, 
 the General had been in oral communication with an envoy 
 rom the Bhonsla, in which he met all subterfuges, evasions, 
 and pretensions, with skill and firmness, yet without deviating 
 from the courtesy due to a defeated enemy. On the i6th 
 the day after the fall of Gawilgarh the envoy made his final 
 appearance, empowered by his employer to concede all the 
 General's terms, and the treaty was signed on both sides next 
 day at Dewalgaon, in the Ajunta hills. By this instrument the 
 Raja was to give up the vague claims that he professed to
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 369 
 
 derive from his Bhonsla pedigree, by virtue of which he pre- 
 tended to a hereditary superiority to all Mahrattas ; he was to 
 recognise the Company's possessions in Orissa, and those of 
 the Nizam in North Berar ; he was to abstain from demanding 
 chaut the Mahratta blackmail from all and sundry; in 
 return for all which concessions the British would leave him in 
 possession of Nagpore, and restore whatever forts and depen- 
 dent districts had been taken from him during the war. During 
 all the preliminary negotiations the General was assisted in 
 interpretation and copying by Mountstuart Elphinstone and 
 John Malcolm. The three young officers acquitted themselves 
 well, and acted with the entire approval of the Governor- 
 General throughout, particularly in " separating the interests of 
 Sindia, Berar, and Holkar."* 
 
 Nevertheless, with Holkar there was, for the present, no war, 
 and consequently no necessity for negotiation. With Sindia it 
 was different, that chief had been more or less delusively treat- 
 ing ever since xoth November, and trying in his indirect way to 
 discover the intentions of the British General without compro- 
 mising himself. When, however, the General refused to treat with 
 any one who did not produce credentials, proper powers were 
 exhibited by Sindia's agents on 2ist November. But nothing 
 conclusive was done so long as Sindia arrogated to himself the 
 power of negotiating for the Bhonsla. On the 8th December 
 Sindia's envoys had a long discussion with the General in his 
 tent, which was terminated by a plain intimation that Sindia 
 could not be allowed to treat for the Bhonsla unless, indeed, 
 duly empowered by that chief to do so. After the Bhonsla had 
 made his separate treaty, however, that pretence could no 
 longer be maintained; accordingly, on the 23rd December 
 just a week after the conclusion of the treaty of Dewalgaon 
 
 * v. Despatch of nth December, 1803, par. 7. At the close of the 
 war Elphinstone was sent to Nagpore and Malcolm to Sindia, as Agents to 
 the Governor-General. 
 
 B B
 
 370 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Sindia's chief minister, the famous Wital Panth, came to the 
 General's camp, and the negotiations took an earnest and prac- 
 tical turn. The proceedings are worth attentive study. The 
 " Talleyrand of India " as Wital was called by the British 
 officers showed the most consummate diplomatic skill, while 
 the future national hero of Britain displayed all the upright 
 tenacity which was to distinguish the whole of his illustrious 
 career. Article by article the preliminaries of the treaty were 
 discussed, and all reasonable pleas of the envoy fully con- 
 sidered, and if possible conceded ; due exception being made 
 of any agreements which might be entered into by the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief or the Governor-General. On the 3oth 
 December the treaty was concluded at the camp of Anjan- 
 gaon, near Elichpore. 
 
 That treaty having been abrogated by the misconduct of 
 Sindia not long after, it is not necessary to enter into its 
 details. Every disposition was shown to preserve and protect 
 the rights of Sindia as a feudatory and landholder ; but he was 
 required to resign all pretensions to power in Hindustan, and 
 to promise never again to employ in his -service subjects of 
 any European State at war with Great Britain. This last 
 clause he adopted with alacrity, volunteering the statement that 
 he " had not the smallest desire ever to see the face of a 
 Frenchman again " ; and this part of his engagements he, for 
 the rest of his otherwise faithless career, faithfully fulfilled. 
 
 The events which precipitated this sudden surrender on the 
 part of Sindia now require brief notice. It will perhaps be 
 remembered that besides the fortified palace of Shahjahan at 
 Delhi there 'had been an older castle, built by the great Akbar, 
 at Agra, about 140 miles lower down the river Jumna. After 
 ceasing to be a royal residence it had undergone a number of 
 vicissitudes: held by the Jats, then by Mirza Najaf, defended by 
 Lakwa Dada, and at last held for Sindia as vice-gerent of the 
 empire. It was now garrisoned by some new levies and by 3
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 371 
 
 battalions of the 5th brigade, commanded by Colonel Suther- 
 land ; the governor of the fort being Colonel Hessing, whom 
 we saw defeated and driven to headlong flight by Jaswant Rao 
 Holkar, at Ujain. 
 
 Having made over charge of the city and palace of Delhi to 
 Lieut. Colonel D. Ochterlony, General Lake marched for Agra 
 on the 24th September. A detachment of four cavalry regi- 
 ments, and three and a half battalions of sepoys had been 
 posted at Muttra, on the right bank of the river, under com- 
 mand of Colonel Vandeleur of the 8th dragoons. Here came 
 the Chevalier Du Drenec, accompanied by Major Smith and 
 another officer, to surrender to Vandeleur. On 2nd October 
 the detachment joined the main body and followed the Com- 
 mander-in-chief to besiege the town and fort of Agra, where they 
 arrived on the afternoon of the 4th. A summons to surrender 
 met with no reply ; and it became known that the luckless 
 sepoys of the enemy, not knowing who was to be trusted, had 
 imprisoned Hessing and Sutherland and were preparing a 
 brave but unskilful defence. A force of seven battalions, with 
 twenty-six guns, was collected outside the fort ; being either men 
 of the brigade lately brought up from the Deccan by Du Drenec, 
 or the men of the 2nd and 3rd escaped from Delhi : or perhaps 
 both. The walled town was taken, after a severe action, on the 
 i oth ; and a week later the garrison liberated their European offi- 
 cers and, by their mediation, obtained a capitulation. Stores, 
 guns, and twenty-four lakhs of treasure rewarded the captors. 
 
 But even now all was not over. Raja Ambaji, whose name 
 has so often occurred in these pages had, as we have seen, 
 been negotiating with Lord Wellesley on his own account : so 
 much so that in the month of October it was believed that he 
 proposed " to shake off his fidelity to Sindia and put himself 
 under the protection of the British government upon certain 
 conditions.* But the conditions were not fulfilled ; and Ambaji 
 * " Intercepted despatches," par. 526. 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 slowly continued his way to take the command vacated by Perron. 
 By the end of the month he had reached a place called Nas- 
 wari the Laswaree of the despatches about midway between 
 Alwar and Agra. His force consisted of seventeen battalions 
 of regulars, seventy-one guns of good pattern and finish, and 
 nearly 5,000 cavalry. The infantry was made up of the batt- 
 alions of du Drenec and the remains of the Delhi garrison.* 
 Hearing of the approach of his force, Lake marched against 
 it ; and pushing on at the head of the cavalry, as his custom 
 was, came in sight of the enemy encampedon a plain, at the 
 foot of the Mewat hills and protected on the northern side by a 
 stream, about sunrise of the ist November. Two thoughts 
 instantly presented themselves to his mind; the enemy's guns 
 must be taken, and his retreat to the hills must be cut off. The 
 troops with Lake amounted to less than three thousand horse- 
 men, of whom seven hundred or eight hundred were Euro- 
 peans ; the force of the enemy we have seen. But the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief was of the good old school of dive and Coote, 
 who thought that nothing was so promising against Asiatics as 
 a straightforward thrust. The stream was the chord of an arc 
 formed by the hills to the north ; and Lake lost no time in 
 dashing through it at the head of his cavalry, and flinging him- 
 self upon the hostile line extending from Naswari, on the bank, 
 to Mahlpore about the centre of the plain. Three times did 
 Lake and his burly dragoons ride through the high grass, 
 charge through the enemy's guns and break the line of infantry. 
 Colonel Vandeleur, of the 8th, was killed ; the horses and men 
 were wearied, the guns could not be brought away. The 
 enemy's right now fell back so as to form in front of Mahlpore, 
 with their line nearly striking the stream at a right angle. A 
 cessation of action then ensued, during which the British in- 
 fantry came up and were halted for breakfast. During this 
 interval the ever-unstable Ambaji endeavoured to make terms, 
 * General Lake to Governor-General. -\. 2nd November.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 373 
 
 but nothing came of it ; and the action was resumed about 
 noon. Never had the forces of a native State fought so well, 
 never did British troops behave with a more steady valour. 
 The horse of the Commander-in-chief was shot under him, his 
 son was severely wounded while furnishing his father with a 
 fresh charger; another officer commanding a dragoon regiment 
 was killed ; General Ware's head was taken off by a round- 
 shot. Amid the carnage and tumult Lake preserved his 
 coolness, and watched all parts of the field. His left horse 
 and foot marching up the river, turned upon the enemy's 
 right ; two cavalry brigades cut in between their left and the 
 hills ; Ambaji dismounting from his elephant fled from the field 
 on a swift horse. Still the men fought on, and it was not until 
 the last gun had been captured, and seven thousand bodies 
 stretched upon the ground that their cavalry after sustaining 
 repeated charges from their dragoons drew off, leaving about 
 two thousand infantry prisoners in the hands of the con- 
 querors. The British loss included thirteen officers and one 
 hundred and sixty soldiers and non-commissioned killed ; the 
 wounded exceeded six hundred and fifty. 
 
 An eminent modern historian* considers this brilliant action 
 to have been the turning point of the war. It is, nevertheless, 
 to be borne in mind that Argaon was not fought for nearly 
 four weeks after Laswaree, while another month elapsed before 
 the preliminaries of peace were fixed. However influential 
 therefore the battle may have been in aiding the dispositions of 
 Sindia, the battle of Laswaree can hardly be considered de- 
 cisive ; especially when we observe that the so-called " treaty" 
 of Anjangaon was in effect only a temporary truce, and was 
 not perhaps intended by Sindia to be anything else. 
 
 While the wounds of his State were still raw, indeed, and 
 before its ruin had been repaired, Sindia was fairly quiet ; and 
 even brought to light some communications from Jaswant Rao, 
 * Colonel G. B. Malleson, " Decisive Battles," ed. 1883, pp. 292-3.
 
 374 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 in which that unscrupulous adventurer attempted to make him 
 a catspaw in a new campaign. 
 
 The additional twelvemonth for which Lord Wellesley had 
 consented to serve "had now gone by, and a glorious period it 
 had been. But he still continued in office ; and the rest of his 
 incumbency was destined to be chequered by a certain amount 
 of varied fortune, disasters occurring which were caused by the 
 restless spirit of Jaswant Rao Holkar, and against which prob- 
 ably no precautions on the part of the British government 
 could have altogether availed. The Mahratta chief was a man 
 of variable mood indeed he eventually died insane but he 
 was an excellent partizan leader, and was animated by a hatred of 
 the foreign pioneers of order equal to that formerly displayed 
 by Haidar Ali of Mysore. But, inasmuch as these episodes 
 were but of short duration and had but little effect on the for- 
 tunes of the country, we must be content with giving them a 
 somewhat cursory notice. 
 
 It was towards the end of the year, and after the conclusion 
 of the treaty of Anjangaon, that Jaswant Rao moved up from 
 Malwa, and approached the territories of the Rajputs. He 
 had lately murdered three of his European officers, and was 
 discovered to be sending letters to various chiefs in Hindustan, 
 instigating them to rise against the British Government. There 
 was no lack of friendly representation on the part of Lake, but 
 there was an obstacle to anything like a good understanding 
 in that Lord Wellesley found it his duty to lay down a principle 
 in the conduct of negotiations that Jaswant could not admit. 
 He was told that he could not be treated as the head of the 
 Indore State without detriment to the rights of his legitimate 
 brother. Kashi Rao : and if this decision did not exactly imply 
 that the British Government would take part with Kashi, yet it 
 involved a determination not to recognise any claim to chaut 
 or tribute from allied States on the part of Jaswant ; and that 
 determination had to be made known. This was done on the
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 375 
 
 2 gth January, 1804, when Jasvvant was called on to take away 
 his troops and cease from demanding tribute in Hindustan. A 
 year of trouble followed the refusal of this demand. Jaswant 
 professed to think that the success of the British in the late 
 war had been only due to their artillery ; and that, when it 
 came to a question of personal prowess, the Mahratta lance 
 and the Mughal sword would certainly prevail. In March he 
 sent in extravagant proposals, which he strove to enforce by 
 equally extravagant threats. His movements as leader of a 
 large cavalry force were also stimulated by the state of his own 
 country and the neighbouring districts to the south, where a 
 three-years drought had deepened into famine. In April, 
 under these various motives, Jaswant took possession of Ajmere 
 and threatened the lands of the Jaipore Raja. Lake, under 
 sanction of the Governor-General, gladly took up the challenge 
 of the freebooter and gave him the opportunity to make good 
 his vaunts. Poetry and romance have thrown a certain aureole 
 about the " Pindari " ; but in reality Jaswant and his ally, Amir 
 Khan, were but ordinary marauders without even the vulgar 
 virtues of their calling, as was soon demonstrated by Lake. If 
 they brought up guns their guns, were taken ; if they attacked 
 a distinct officer, he defended himself successfully with a hand- 
 ful of jail guards and messengers.* The armour-plated horse- 
 men were overthrown or put to flight ; the light cavalry could 
 not always outmarch the British dragoons ; the chiefs only 
 saved themselves by the most headlong galloping. Holkar was 
 overtaken at Farukhabad, his camp completely surprised, and 
 himself glad to escape without striking a blow ; Amir Khan, 
 on another occasion, left behind him his palanquin and a com- 
 plete suit of armour. The result was that the marauders were 
 kept in such perpetual motion and such constant alarm that 
 they never had time to plunder, barely to collect supplies for 
 themselves and forage for their horses. 
 
 * Moradabad, Fatehgarh, Mainpuri were so defended.
 
 376 HISTORY OF I1VDSA. 
 
 In Central India alone they seemed for a moment to have 
 some chance. Colonel the Hon. W. Monson was detached for 
 the protection of Rajputan, in an unpropitious season, and 
 with an insufficient force. Entangled in a wild and wasted 
 region, deserted by most of his allies, and all his native horse, 
 he struggled on for three months, and at last brought the 
 miserable remnant of his column to Lake, at Agra, 3ist Sept- 
 ember. 
 
 About six weeks later Holkar was emboldened by this suc- 
 cess to besiege Delhi. Colonel Ochterlony at once sent to 
 Colonel Burn, commanding at Saharanpore, who hastened to 
 his assistance with a battalion of sepoys and some irregular 
 infantry. For ten days the British officers, devotedly served 
 by their native infantry and their few gunners, defended the 
 wide range of rotten ramparts against an army of twenty- 
 thousand men, till relieved on the i5th October by the timely 
 arrival of the Commander-in-Chief. On being chased out of 
 the Duab, Jaswant sought refuge in the Jat principality of 
 Bhurtpore, where his army was defeated, with the loss of 
 seventy-eight guns, on the i3th November, at Dig; on which 
 occasion Monson, who took command on General Fraser 
 being disabled by a wound,* had the satisfaction of recovering 
 some of the guns and wagons which he had lost in the 
 summer. 
 
 Lake (created a viscount lor his services), lost no time in 
 coming up with reinforcements. On arrival he took command 
 of the forces, and assaulted the fort of Dig, which though 
 belonging to the Raja of Bhurtpore, a professed ally had fired 
 on the British troops during the battle. The place was taken by 
 storm ; this success emboldened Lake to besiege Bhurtpore 
 itself; and he dispersed the followers of Holkar and Amir 
 Khan, who endeavoured to drive him off, but the siege itself 
 
 * Of this he subsequently died, and was buried at Muttra, where his 
 monument was to be seen a few years ago.
 
 WARS 'OF WELLESLEY. 377 
 
 never prospered. The fortifications were strong, the ditch was 
 wide and deep. Four resolute assaults were driven back, the 
 stormers hopeless and reeling with slaughter. Lake found 
 that the place was not to be rushed like Aligarh and Dig, 
 but his spirit did not fail ; and, sending for his battering train, 
 he was preparing for a formal siege, when the Raja, weary and 
 anxious, hastily, sent in proposals of peace. The proceed- 
 ings of Jaswant Rao still called for attention, and the Home 
 Government was known to be desirous of a pause in the 
 forward movement. The Raja was accordingly admitted to 
 terms, and the army broke up from Bhurtpore on 2ist April 
 1805. 
 
 The failure of this siege, coming after Monson's retreat, 
 showed that British generals were not infallible ; and the dis- 
 covery encouraged Sindia to raise his head. Generals Lake 
 and Wellesley, as it turned out, had offered him different 
 terms about Gwalior ; and, when the chief claimed the 
 benefit of the more favourable, the Governor-General- -in 
 spite of energetic protests from his brother and Malcolm, the 
 Resident treated Sindia with oppressive severity, and de- 
 prived him of both Gwalior and Gohad.* Sirji Rao, Sindia's 
 evil genius (of whom mention has been made more than once 
 above) urged his master and son-in-law to resistance ; by his 
 advice the camp of the Resident was plundered, and an 
 advance made on the Chambal with a large force under the 
 command of the veteran Ambaji; while the British Resident 
 was placed in a kind of honourable arrest. Lake, however, 
 strongly remonstrated ; Holkar and other possible allies held 
 aloof ; and, finally, Sindia made his submission. Amid these 
 cares and anxieties, and with his unfinished policy hanging so 
 to speak in fragments, Lord Wellesley was suddenly relieved 
 of his duties by the appearance of Lord Cornwallis, who had 
 
 * The latter is now the small Jat principality known as the Ranaship 
 of Dholpore.
 
 378 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 undertaken the office of Governor-General a second time, at 
 the earnest desire of the Court of Directors, and who landed in 
 Calcutta on the 2Qth July.* 
 
 It is, of course, quite easy to blame the whole "forward 
 policy," and to criticise every measure by whose aid it was 
 carried out. Equally simple, on the other side, is the roseate 
 picture of national strength and glory that English historians 
 have often been content to draw. Both extremes will be 
 avoided if we will only let Lord Wellesley speak for himself, 
 and see what it was that he undertook to do, and what after 
 it was done he believed himself to have accomplished. The 
 nature of the task which the Marquess conceived to be before 
 him towards the end of 1802 is well put by the memorandum 
 already cited that opens the volume of Mr. Owen's "Selec- 
 tions from the Wellington Despatches." His conception of what, 
 afterwards, had been done appears in his Appendix A ("Notes," 
 Part III.), and his despatch in council, dated June 2nd, 1805. 
 It will be fair to infer from these documents that the conquest 
 of India was not the object of Wellesley's wars. He speaks of 
 " Our alacrity to resist aggression and to punish all the Princi- 
 pals and Accomplices of unjust attacks ... on a Government 
 uniting moderation with energy . . . and equally deter- 
 mined to respect the just rights of other States, and to main- 
 tain its own." There is more to the same purport, making it 
 evident that, while seeking out influence by way of treaties, 
 often imposed at the bayonet's point, the Government of Cal- 
 cutta did not conceive itself to be conquering the people of 
 India, who, indeed, did not, as a rule, make any resistance. 
 Therefore, their laws, creeds, and customs were to remain in 
 force ; and no new taxation appears to have been contem- 
 plated. "The throne of Delhi " was to be protected ; but the 
 British were placed under no obligation to consider the 
 
 * The dissatisfaction of the Comgany was shared by Castlereagh and 
 Pitt.
 
 WARS OF WELLESLEY. 379 
 
 political rights or claims of the Emperor, or any " question 
 connected with the future exercise of the imperial prerogative 
 and authority." 
 
 [Consult " Notes Relative to the Late Transactions," Dec. 
 15, 1803 ; also Parts II. III. of the same, Fort William, 1804. 
 Thorn's "War in India," London, 1818, is a straightforward 
 narrative, with good plans of battles, in most of which the author 
 took part as a cavalry officer. It only remains to be added 
 that the important political narrative cited as the " Intercepted 
 Despatch," is a paper of unequalled value. Captured by the 
 French at sea, it was published, in a French translation, in the 
 Moniteur of June 5, 1805. A re-translation into English 
 appeared in London (Stockdale, 1805).]
 
 3 8o 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 
 
 Section I : Non-intervention, in two shapes Section 2 : Internal 
 administration under Lord Minto Section 3 : Revenue, Justice, 
 Public Debt. 
 
 SECTION i. In later days it has become so customary to 
 regard India as a mere dependency of the British Empire that 
 it may seem strange to think that, at the opening of the 
 nineteenth century the country was still a fortuitous aggregate 
 of disconnected Asiatic powers which most Englishmen who 
 thought of the matter at all were inclined to respect and main- 
 tain. Not only was conquest deprecated by Pitt, Dundas, 
 Castlereagh, and Canning ; but even Wellesley's able brother, 
 who did so much for his ambitious schemes, shrank from the 
 the idea of rapid advance : while Munro perhaps the ablest 
 of Anglo-Indian statesmen recorded a strong protest against 
 the " subsidiary system." One of his expressed objections 
 was " its inevitable tendency to bring every native State 
 . . . . under the exclusive dominion of the British 
 Government." It was by this school considered questionable 
 whether such a change was to be desired, either in the 
 interests of the natives or of the people of Great Britain. 
 " One effect of such a conquest," so Munro urged with 
 prophetic judgment, " would be that the Indian arrny . . . 
 would gradually lose its military habits and discipline . 
 to feel its own strength and. . . to turn it against its Euro-
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 381 
 
 pean masters."* Another objection to Wellesley's system, 
 abundantly illustrated by later events, was its tendency to 
 support and protect evil and negligent native rulers who 
 would otherwise have been kept within some bounds by dread 
 of popular indignation. A prince of that sort was able to com- 
 bine the practice of all but the very extreme of Asiatic 
 oppression and misrule with the immunity of a European 
 guarantee. This was painfully exemplified in the ultimate 
 course of affairs in Audh ; where the complaints of the people 
 were as much neglected as the remonstrances of the pro- 
 tecting British, until annexation appeared the only remedy. 
 But annexation was an almost equal evil ; because as 
 Elphinstone and Munro were never weary of pointing out 
 wherever direct British administration was introduced, the 
 higher posts were always given to Europeans, and the freedom 
 from domestic oppression was "purchased by the sacrifice of 
 independence, of national character, and of whatever renders 
 a people respectable." (Munro). In this choice of evils it was 
 natural that Cornwallis, and those at whose earnest request 
 he resumed the office of Governor-General, should have 
 endeavoured to check the rapid progress of the Wellesley 
 system. Within little more than five years the capital of the 
 Muslim dynasty of Mysore had been stormed and the Sultan 
 killed : the whole of the Carnatic and the southern region 
 generally were in the hands of the British or their feudatories. 
 The Nizam's army had been dissolved and himself reduced to 
 the portion of a more or less obedient vassal. The Peshwa 
 had been subdued if not tamed : the Bombay Presidency had 
 been founded : the British were directly administering 
 Hindustan by European Commissioners and District- 
 Officers. But nothing had been done to give the people an 
 
 * Elphinstone, at the time of the mutiny, drew the attention of a 
 correspondent to this minute as something marvellous (v. Arbuthnot's " Sir 
 T. Munro," 115-31. Madras, 1886,)
 
 382 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 amount of welfare at all proportioned to the extension of the 
 power of their new masters. The inhabitants of the newly- 
 acquired territories found that they had changed the creed 
 and colour of their administrators but not the comfort of their 
 lives ; while those of the older provinces did not perceive any 
 corresponding advantages from the extension of the sphere 
 of rule. Nothing was done for education or for the em- 
 ployment of natives : taxation was as heavy as before and 
 much more rigorously enforced. The increase of the military 
 establishments produced a strain on the finances which time, 
 indeed, might ultimately relieve but which was, for the 
 present, all but intolerable. 
 
 Meanwhile Holkar was unconquered, and Sindia only half 
 conciliated. The first question was how to set up a mode of 
 living, with regard to those chiefs, which should allow the 
 British territories a moment of repose. Now, this was a severe 
 test of the scheme of moderation which, in modern language, 
 would be perhaps te-rmed " masterly inactivity." For Holkar 
 and Sindia by no means represented indolent old fashioned 
 States, only anxious to be left in unaspiring apathy : on 
 the contrary they were the chiefs of a bustling and predatory 
 community who could not be brought within a scheme of peace 
 without the most severe repression. It was therefore most 
 unfortunate that the well-intentioned counsels of Cormvallis 
 and his employers should have been exposed to such an 
 ordeal on their earliest application. Methods that might have 
 succeeded with Audh, or with Udaipore, were sure to prove 
 worse than useless with predetermined freebooters. Corn- 
 wallis did not spare himself; old and infirm as he was, he set 
 out for the Upper Provinces, announcing to the Home-Govern- 
 ment his intention to terminate the present troubles by firm but 
 conciliatory negotiation. And 'to this end he sent orders to 
 Lord Lake to desist not only from aggressive acts but even 
 from all military operations. The detailed plan of the Governor-
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE, 383 
 
 General, so far as can be ascertained from the scanty materials 
 on record in this part of his papers, was to discontinue the 
 extension of the subsidiary system and to return to what 
 Warren Hastings had intended when framing the treaty of 
 Salbai in 1782 : he was ready to make alliances with Holkar 
 and Sindia on a footing of equality ; to confirm the territories 
 they still held and even to cede them some more ; and to 
 refrain from defensive treaties with powers inside of their 
 spheres of influence. He expressed his desire to inspire 
 native rulers with confidence, so that (each in his appointed 
 circle), all might pursue the welfare of their subjects, leaving 
 the British Government to do the same. 
 
 This benevolent policy would have taxed the mind of the 
 experienced veteran by whom it was conceived. In conception 
 it \vas attractive : nevertheless, at least as applied to Jaswant 
 Holkar and Daulat Sindia, it seemed to have the one incurable 
 fault of being impossible. How far such a man as Cornwallis 
 a seasoned soldier and statesman, accustomed to affairs on the 
 grand scale and strong in the sympathy and support of the 
 heads of the Government in London, might have rectified this 
 we cannot say. He might (as Lord Moira did afterwards) 
 have, by-and-by, seen the error of applying a system of order 
 to these lords of misrule ; and, in so doing, might have per- 
 suaded his employers at home to give him a free hand for 
 their repression. But unhappily, Cornwallis did not live to 
 learn : for he sank under the cares and fatigues of his position, 
 dying at Ghazipore, on his way up country ; 5th October, 1805. 
 His successor was a distinguished civil officer whom the Court 
 of Directors had long desired to advance, Sir George Barlow. 
 Under Wellesley he had been known as an assiduous advocate 
 and instrument of the forward policy ; being an official of the 
 kind called "/ealous" and "loyal"; one to whom zeal meant 
 unquestioning obedience of orders, and whose loyalty was of the 
 strictly personal sort. Under a convert of this class the new
 
 384 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 system was in no danger of neglect. Dangerous concessions mis- 
 led foes and friends alike: to the one they .involved dereliction, 
 to the other they assumed the character of timidity and 
 licence for plunder and outrage. The veteran Commander- 
 in-Chief denounced the course in vain, and at last indignantly 
 threw up his policital powers. Two years followed, years 
 of inactivity that was anything but masterly. Lake's indig- 
 nation is not wonderful when it is borne in mind that the 
 policy indicated to him included " the divesting ourselves of 
 all rights to the exercise of interference with the doings of 
 every State beyond the Jumna." The veteran knew, and 
 repeatedly pointed out, that the Jumna was no military 
 frontier: being in its northern course, a fordable stream--the 
 reader will remember that Ahmad Shah, the Abdali, crossed 
 it with horse, foot, and artillery in October, 1 760 ; and he 
 also knew at what cost the treaties had been won which gave 
 the rights that it was now proposed to surrender. Whatever 
 might be the faults of the subsidiary system, it was neither 
 prudent nor honourable to leave the Rajputs to be plundered 
 by such men as Jaswant and Amir Khan ; and engagements to 
 abstain from all action in the regions held by such leaders was 
 only to invite their ravages and those of all the disbanded 
 soldiers and mounted gang-robbers that they might see fit to 
 harbour. 
 
 Something, however, the Commander-in-Chief effected ; 
 Sindia, having shaken off his infamous father-in-law, Sherji 
 Rao, was persuaded to release the British Resident, Mr. 
 Jenkins, and to enter into a preliminary negotiation. The pay 
 of the army was in arrears, the finances of Calcutta having 
 been left in such a state by Wellesley that the most pressing 
 needs of the Government were only met by extraordinary 
 expedients. Nevertheless, backed by the energy and skill of 
 Malcolm, Lake was able to take the field and pursue Holkar, 
 who had marched into the Punjab. In the last month of the
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 385 
 
 year a treaty supplementing that of Anjangaon was concluded 
 with Sindia's agent, who had accompanied the army. This 
 engagement was signed at Amritsir, on the 5th December, and 
 provided that the Chambal river should, generally, form the 
 boundary between the Company's territory and those of Sindia ; 
 the Rajput States being left under the protection of that Chief. 
 Sindia engaged to dismiss Sherji Rao for ever from his councils, 
 and was, as a matter of friendly consideration, allowed to hold 
 the town and territory of Gwalior. Sindia was also to keep 
 Gohad as far as the Chambal, on the northern bank of which 
 the small principality of DhoJpore was made over to the Jat 
 chieftain from whom Gohad was taken. At the same time 
 Ran jit Sinh, the Raja of Lahore, was induced to promise to 
 give no support to Jaswant Rao Holkar, whose camp was not 
 far off ; and the freebooter, thus isolated, was obliged to accept 
 the terms offered him by Lake and Malcolm. Jaswant Holkar, 
 as is most likely, had no intention of being bound by these 
 terms ; in any case they showed him how far he would be able 
 to do mischief with impunity. 
 
 Lake's idea seems to have been to allot to the State, at that 
 moment represented by Jaswant, a sphere resembling that 
 already assigned to Sindia : the latter had to respect Hindustan 
 north of the lower Chambal, say from Kota to Dholpore ; the 
 northern boundary of the former was to be the chain called 
 " Bundi Hills," traversing the Duab between the Banas and 
 Upper Chambal. This ill-chosen frontier, however, might not 
 have left Jaswant free to work his will on the Rajput land 
 from Udaipore to Jaipore; and the Rajput Princes of that 
 land were allies to whose protection the British Government 
 stood pledged. Such as it was, that covenant was concluded 
 also at Amritsir on 5th January, 1806 ; but before long Sir G. 
 Barlow's Government had added a supplemental article. By 
 this the clause restricting Holkar's influence to the south of 
 the Bundi Hills was abrogated, and the States of the Rajputs, 
 
 c c
 
 386 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 allies of the British Company as they were, became exposed to 
 the rapacity of Jaswant and Amir Khan. It was on this 
 occasion that Lord Lake forswore politics and resolved to 
 confine himself, henceforth, to the work of a soldier. 
 
 Lake returned to the Duab by a route somewhat divergent 
 from that which he had taken in advancing to Amritsir, and 
 went into cantonments before the end of February at Delhi. 
 Here a variety of military spectacles and festive entertainments 
 took place, in which part was taken by the Begam Samru. 
 This famous woman continued, for more than a quarter of a 
 century, to reside at her little town of Sardhana ; which was 
 half-way between the Mughal capital and the military station of 
 Meerut. Here she built a Catholic Church and a handsome 
 mansion for her own dwelling ; and here she exercised a hos- 
 pitality which will be found duly acknowledged by Bishop 
 Heber and other contemporary travellers. At Delhi the blind 
 old Shah was sinking under the burden of years and sufferings, 
 now somewhat alleviated by the benevolence of the Calcutta 
 Government ; the administration being under the local resident, 
 / Mr. Seton. The fallen monarch, nevertheless, was far from 
 I satisfied; the great indolence and weakness of his character had 
 increased with age; and it was found necessary to restrict his 
 direct authority to the precincts of the palace, leaving the 
 revenues of the Delhi territory to be collected by the British 
 administrators, who paid a monthly stipend for the maintenance 
 of the Shah and his household. The Shah died in December, 
 1806; his successor who bore the once-glorious name of Ak- 
 bar was described by Ochterlony as " imbecility personified 
 weak, proud, and in the highest degree rapacious and avaricious." 
 His weakness and avarice ultimately combined to keep the 
 question of sovereignty dormant for half a century, and then 
 it came up as most neglected obligations do for settlement 
 with compound interest.* Akbar Shah's pretensions, and the 
 
 * For a statement of the difficulties attending the position of the ex- 
 Emperor and his relations to the British, see Kaye's " Metcalfe," pp. 149, f.f.
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 387 
 
 way in which they were dealt with, will be mentioned pre- 
 sently. 
 
 Meanwhile Jaswant Rao was slowly returning, by a parallel 
 route, to Malwa, subsisting his bands and those of his associate, 
 Amir Khan, by the plunder of the Rajputs. The States of 
 these unfortunate, but imprudent chiefs, were in a condition 
 which prevented them from uniting for general defence against 
 the Mahrattas in the manner of twenty years before. In 
 1787 as we have seen they had organised a war against 
 Mahadaji Sindia in which, though ultimately defeated by 
 De Boigne, they had been able to command some degree of 
 respect. In the present instance, though the power of Sindia 
 was too much broken to be very formidable, they had still 
 enemies against whom their most united efforts could not have 
 been more than sufficient. Unfortunately they were not only 
 disunited but opposed in deadly strife. The Chiefs of Bundi 
 and Kota were attacked and plundered in detail ; the Rana of 
 Mewar held apart in the fancied security of the Udaipore fast- 
 nesses. The Rajas of Marwar, of Jodhpore, and of Jaipore, 
 who were at open war, bid against each other for the help cf the 
 marauders: all hope of British mediation or protection being 
 frustrated by the inexorable obstinancy with which Barlow 
 adhered to his non-intervention policy. The consequence was 
 that Holkar and Amir Khan feigned a quarrel, and the one 
 harried Marwar, while the other while affecting to take no 
 part in the quarrel left Jaipore to its fate. Amir Khan then 
 changed sides and murdered Siwai Singh, the Jodhpore Raja's 
 hostile kinsman ; while Sindia, recovering his spirits, took a 
 hand in the game, and extorted an exhorbitant ransom from 
 Jaipore. Then the remote and haughty Maharana of Mewar 
 (Chitore or Udaipore) was attacked and plundered. Still 
 Barlow looked on and made no sign. 
 
 In some other parts of India, however, the policy was not 
 pursued with complete consistency. Thus, alike in the 
 Nizam's dominions and in Audh, the subsidiary system was 
 
 C C 2
 
 388 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 carried out, to an almost minutely vexatious extent. In 
 Nagpore even, where no subsidiary alliance had ever been 
 accepted, the Bhonsla Raja received unexpected support. In 
 Gujarat the authority of the Gaikwar was strengthened, as 
 against the recalcitrant feudatories of Kathiwar and Katch ; 
 while the civil administration of the principality itself was ably 
 reformed by Major Walker, the benevolent and judicious 
 British Resident. 
 
 All the more discreditable, in the eyes of all India, appeared 
 the desertion of the ancient Houses of Rajputan who were, 
 unquestionaly, allies of the Company, and one, at least, of 
 whom had lately done good service. Jaswant Rao naturally 
 attributed Barlow's reserve to fear of himself; and his in- 
 solence swelled to frenzy. Raised to the head of the Indore 
 State by the opportune deaths of his brother and nephew, the 
 lawful heirs, he set no bounds to his audacity but such as 
 arose from his growing habits [of self-indulgence. The deaths 
 of the heirs were attributed to his machinations, though no 
 proof was ever forthcoming ; and he now gave himself sovereign 
 airs, and drank to excess daily. He also made extravagant 
 demands upon the Company, which even Barlow's Government 
 could not entertain. 
 
 While northern India was in this alarming state, an event 
 was occurring in the Carnatic which, though of less actual im- 
 portance, caused a far greater anxiety among the British officials. 
 It has been already mentioned that the sons of Tipu, on the 
 death of the Sultan and the subversion of his power, had been 
 sent to reside on pensions at Vellorc. This was an ancient but 
 strong fortress, which had held out for two years against all the 
 resources of Haidar Ali 1780-82 and was considered as safe 
 a place of confinement as any in India. But the sepoys of the 
 Madras army who formed the bulk of the garrison were, by the 
 time of which we are treating, demoralised by a long peace, and 
 irritated by some new regulations as to uniform; and in this
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 389 
 
 state of feeling appeared open to temptation on the susceptible 
 point of religion. Persuaded by the Mysore princes that the 
 changes in their costume were a preparation for their conversion 
 to Christianity, the native soldiers in Vellore were easily and 
 entirely seduced from their allegiance. Before daylight on the 
 loth July, 1806, they took their arms and ainunition ; and 
 surrounding the barracks of the British troops, poured volley 
 after volley, through the windows, on the unarmed sleepers. 
 The princes then supplied them with a banquet, and the tiger- 
 standard of Tipuwas hoisted on the flag-staff. But Colonel Rollo 
 Gillespie on hearing of the affair, hastened up from Arcot at 
 the head of some cavalry, blew open the gates with his galloper- 
 guns, slew nearly 500 of the mutineers, and took the princes 
 prisoners. They were deported to Calcutta ; and on the news 
 reaching London, the Commander of the Madras army and the 
 Governor, Lord William Bentinck, were at once recalled. At 
 the same time Barlow's nomination to Bengal was cancelled ; 
 and, after some controversy, Lord Minto, the President of the 
 Board of Control, was sent out as Governor-General. 
 
 Minto landed in Calcutta on July 2oth, 1807, and at once 
 took over charge from Barlow, who became senior member of 
 Council, but was ere long consoled by the Governorship of 
 Madras.* 
 
 It is due to Barlow, whose bad qualities, or bad fortune, 
 pursued him to his new scene of action, to note that Minto's 
 opinion of his predecessor though recorded in the confidence 
 of a private letter was not wholly unfavourable. While 
 noticing the coldness of his manner and his consequent want 
 of popularity, the Governor-General bears testimony to his 
 
 * In these days of youthful Governors dwelling in comfortable quarters 
 on the mountain tops there seems something monstrous in the notion of 
 men of nearly sixty beginning their Indian career in such a place as Calcutta. 
 Minto's early letters show that he was almost appalled at the heat. The 
 Council sate from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. twice a week.
 
 390 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 devotion to his public duties, his sincere and honourable 
 character. 
 
 Minto commenced his career with a strong feeling of the old 
 danger from France and what may be called the keynote of his 
 policy. From his correspondence we get the notion of a 
 manly benevolent character, which makes us all the more 
 inclined to regret that he had not more leisure to attend to the 
 internal affairs of India, and the welfare of the people. His 
 first task, however, was of a local nature, and one which 
 seemed likely to re-open the question, of non-intervention, that 
 " metaphysical term " which, in the cynical language of Talley- 
 rand " seems to mean much the same as intervention." A 
 portion of the Bundela country had come into the Company's 
 possession in 1803, by means already mentioned; but the 
 country was covered with forts, some of great strength, and 
 held by chiefs of lawless habits, and given to causeless quarrel- 
 ling, so that an amount of tumult and insecurity arose, which 
 seemed imperatively to demand repression. On the views of 
 the Government becoming known most of these chiefs submit- 
 ted to the arbitrament of British officers, and a species of order 
 was restored. Two possessors of hill-fastnesses, however, still 
 held out; a brigand-chief named Lakshman Dawa, in Ajaigarh, 
 and Daryao Sinh, who held Kalinjar. There was also a military 
 adventurer, named Gopal Sinh, who had usurped the small 
 territory left, after many vicisitudes, to the family of the former 
 Raja, Chattar Sal. The country, generally, is wild, and is 
 traversed by no less than three chains of hills, in one of which 
 are situated the two strong places above named, on almost 
 inaccessible scarps. In the days of which we are speaking the 
 total number of these hill-forts was reckoned at one hundred 
 and fifty. The hills of Bundelkhand are low and stony, 
 covered with shrub-jungle, and the heaven is hot above, and 
 the black soil below yawns with mephitic fissures. But Minto 
 rightly thought that impregnable forts, and intolerable climate
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 391 
 
 were things thnt a rising power like the British in India could 
 not afford to recognise. Lakshman held Ajaigarh on terms 
 which he declined to fulfil, and when called on to surrender 
 flatly refused.* Colonel Martindell proceeded against this 
 rebel early in 1809, taking on the way an outpost which cost 
 him a loss of 143 killed and wounded. The fort is 1,744 feet 
 above sea level, and the granite rock on which it stands is 
 scarped all round to a height of fifty feet, encircled by a stone 
 rampart. After some time had been wasted in vain parley, 
 fire was opened and the rampart breached in two places ; on 
 which the Commandant surrendered, (i3th February) and 
 Lakshman, who escaped for the moment, was taken eventually 
 and placed under surveillance near Calcutta, in the enjoyment 
 of a small pension. The fort was made over to a descendant 
 of the former lords. Lakshman's family were treated kindly, 
 but were all destroyed by a male member in whose charge they 
 had been placed, who ended by destroying himself. Proceed- 
 ings were next commenced against Gopal, who went into the 
 forest and assumed openly the character of a bandit. Aided 
 by the remarkably malarious climate he long eluded pursuit, 
 and even plundered the peaceful citizens of Tirohan, within 
 sight of a British cantonment, which he burned to the ground, 
 while the troops were looking for him elsewhere. At last, 
 after several fights from which when worsted he always man- 
 aged to escape, he was hunted down in the Sagar country, and 
 gave himself up on the promise of pardon. Emulating the wise 
 and humane policy of the great Akbar, Minto took the bold 
 rebel into favour and bestowed upon him estates which are still, 
 it is believed, in the possession of his family. To complete 
 
 * See his candid enumeration of his offences in Wilson I., App. iv. 
 " I have behaved," he concludes " in an unparalleled, ungrateful, and re- 
 bellious manner. . . . The grossest ingratitude and faithlessness apper r 
 against me. . . . All the inhabitants, great and small, are wishing eveiy 
 moment to be my last."
 
 392 HISTORY OP INDIA. 
 
 this part of the story, of Bundelkhand it need only be added 
 that the famous fortress of Kalinjar, the scene of Sher Shah's 
 death, in 1554, was invested by the force under Martindell in 
 the beginning of the year 1812 ; it is on an isolated rock 900 
 feet high, and was at that time provided with strong loop-holed 
 walls and seven gates, one opening on another. Invested on 
 the i Qth January, it resisted an attempt at escalade on February 
 ist, when the Commandant, seeing that the resolution of the 
 British troops would ultimately prevail, surrendered on terms. 
 The fortifications of Kalinjar have been long since dismantled. 
 No further trouble was experienced in the pacification of the 
 country, but an expedition was sent against the neighbouring 
 chief of Rewa, who had actively aided the rebellion, and a 
 treaty was imposed upon him in October 1812. 
 
 Affairs in other quarters still farther across the Jumna 
 took Minto far beyond the bounds of Barlow. That upholder 
 of non-intervention had inherited, from the Wellesley days, the 
 nominal command of a tract near Delhi but on the other 
 side of the river of which we had a glimpse when noticing 
 the career of George Thomas. When that gallant adventurer 
 succumbed to the enmity of General Perron, the province of 
 Hariana became the spoil of a series of marauders, the last of 
 whom was ruined by Holkar, in 1806, on his return from the 
 Punjab. The Resident at Delhi consequently took the man- 
 agement of the little province into his own hands ; and for the 
 next fifty years it continued to form a part of what was known 
 as " the Delhi territory." At first there was some trouble with 
 the Bhattis, a turbulent tribe of Rajput blood, but Muslims by 
 creed, who, under a chief called Khan Bahadur, attempted to 
 oppose the peaceable settlement. He was accordingly called 
 upon to obey the Regulations as introduced by the Assistant 
 Resident Hon. E. Gardner and, on persisting in rebellion 
 and plunder, was attacked and expelled from the district. 
 But a large body of the clansmen threw themselves into the
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 393 
 
 town of Bhiwani where they stood a short siege, conducted 
 by a brigade of foot and artillery under Colonel Ball. The 
 place was breached and stormed, the rebels losing 1,000 men, 
 while the Company's troops lost 132 killed and wounded. The 
 assessment of the revenue and the cessation .of marauding 
 expeditions followed ; and the country speedily attained an 
 average level of agricultural prosperity. 
 
 But this apparently domestic difficulty immediately led to a 
 fresh task. By undertaking the settlement of Hariana, British 
 administration was brought into actual contact with the Cis- 
 Sutlej Sikhs, who occupied a debateable land between the 
 Company's territory and the country directly subject to Ranjit 
 Sinh, the Raja of Lahore, whom we lately saw receiving a 
 visit from Lord Lake. Soon after the departure of Lake and 
 his army, Ranjit had interposed in the quarrels of the local 
 chiefs of this region, which interposition led the latter to 
 invoke the protection of the British : hearing of their applica- 
 tion Ranjit on his part also wrote a letter to the Governor- 
 General, in which he proposed that his authority should be 
 recognised up to the Jumna. Minto on this sent Mr. Charles 
 (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe, at the head of a friendly mission 
 to the camp of the Punjab ruler ; who received the mission 
 amicably ; though he by no means desisted from his aggres- 
 sions, but seized Ambala and began to levy tribute from the 
 petty Rajas of the neighbourhood. 
 
 It is difficult at this distance of time to say what were the 
 determining motives that caused Minto so much alarm at 
 these proceedings. On first hearing of them he recorded an 
 opinion that Ranjit might possibly be threatened with a 
 declaration of war. (Oct. 1808). The fact was that the 
 Government still had the fear of a possible French invasion ; 
 while strong rumour pointed to an alliance between the Punjab 
 ruler and the still partially unconquered ruler of Bhurtpore. 
 If Lake had had his own way in 1806 Ludhiana would have
 
 394 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 been then made the frontier station of the British army ; and 
 although on this, as on many another point, Lake's views had 
 been abandoned by Barlow, and the veteran Commander had 
 now left the country, the opinion stood on record, and doubt- 
 less received due weight. So Minto resolved that the mainten- 
 ance of the Sikh chiefs of the Cis-Sutlej was a matter to be 
 dealt with "upon grounds of immediate policy rather than 
 upon any abstract principles ; " and once more an instance 
 was afforded of Talleyrand's remark. The object in view 
 could not be obtained by a merely passive attitude. "A con- 
 sequence of our refusing our assent to Runjeet's proposal," 
 Minto had to admit, " must be the necessity of our affording 
 open and immediate protection to the Sikhs, and employing a 
 military force for that purpose." This was non-intervention, 
 perhaps, but it looked very much "the same as intervention." 
 In any case communications to that effect were at once 
 forwarded, both to Ranjit and to the Envoy who though 
 young in years displayed through all that troublous time the 
 qualities which marked the great men of Wellesley's school : 
 coolness, good-humour, and inflexible resolution. At first the 
 Punjabi Potentate was, not unnaturally, much excited ; but 
 the Governor-General was firm, and his firmness was ably 
 seconded by his youthful agent. He humoured the Raja, 
 caroused with him, but never let go of his object. Towards 
 the end of the year, having followed Ranjit to the sacred city 
 of Amritsir, Metcalfe addressed him a straightforward letter 
 in which he plainly, though politely, stated the ultimatum of 
 his Government : Ranjit must restore all the places, that he had 
 taken, and withdraw his army to the right bank of the Sutlej, 
 if he desired to preserve the friendship of the British. Delay 
 of course ensued ; Ranjit left Amritsir for Lahore, whither he 
 was promptly followed by the pertinacious Envoy; his ministers 
 endeavoured to amuse Metcalfe by dwelling upon the peculiar 
 character of their master ; but in vain : Metcalfe would not
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 395 
 
 allow the plea, and insisted on an immediate answer, which, 
 nevertheless, was still delayed. Weary of subterfuge the Envoy 
 at last ordered the advance of a British force from Delhi. 
 Another meeting then occurred on December 2 2nd ; and still 
 nothing definite could be got from Ranjit. Yet the end was 
 none the less approaching : little by little, the Raja began to 
 give way : alarmed by the news that Colonel Ochterlony, the 
 brave defender of Delhi, was really advancing on the Sutlej he 
 recalled his garrison from Ambala on January 6th, and pro- 
 ceeded to Amritsir accompanied by the Envoy, to whom he 
 made plenty of oral promises, but gave no treaty. A last 
 attempt to shake Metcalfe's firmness was tried by means of an 
 apparently accidental collision between a body of armed 
 fanatics and the men of the Envoy's escort. Led by their 
 European commanding officer the sepoys repelled the attack, 
 routing a vastly superior body of men by force of skill and 
 discipline : and the lesson was not without effect on the 
 observant mind of the soldier-chief. Meanwhile Ochterlony 
 reached Ludhiana ; another force left Delhi in support : and 
 finally the desired treaty was concluded on April 25th, 1809. 
 Whatever may be thought of the consistency or morality of 
 Mmto's policy, it is impossible to avoid seeing the great 
 advantages that flowed from the tenacity with which it was 
 carried out; when once formed, one of the shortest in expression, 
 the treaty was one of the longest in duration. For the next 
 thirty years it was faithfully observed on both sides. The 
 chiefs of the Cis-Sutlej were upheld in the exercise of all just 
 rights, no tribute being imposed upon them. Some acts of 
 Sovereignty have, from time to time been found necessary on 
 the part of the British Government ; and friction has occasion- 
 ally resulted. But the general condition of the country has 
 been one of little-interrupted peace ; and the paramount power 
 has, in time of trouble had few more faithful allies than some 
 of the Cis-Sutlej States.
 
 396 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 While these transactions were cementing the Punjab to the 
 British Indian system, an abortive attempt to carry out the 
 same policy towards the rulers of Afghanistan and Persia was 
 being conducted, under Lord Minto's directions, by two more 
 of the rising political officers of the day Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone and John Malcolm. These missions, however, were 
 (from various incidents) so ineffectual that a full account of 
 them would be out of place in a short work like the present. 
 Elphinstone's mission got no farther than Peshawar, where the 
 negotiation with which he was charged broke down. It must 
 always be taken as part of the French scare ; but even so, one 
 can hardly understand why Minto and his councillors should 
 expect the Afghans to protect British interests for no corres- 
 ponding advantage to themselves. The Amir or Shah as he 
 was called was courteous, and the envoy obtained a good 
 deal of information about what was then an unknown land : 
 but the danger of domestic strife was imminent; and the 
 Shah wanted assistance which the Envoy was not authorised 
 to give. So Elphinstone came back; and Shah Shuja 
 was not long afterwards driven out of this stony kingdom 
 by his brother, and never again wore its crown of thorns till 
 a brief and tragic hour thirty years later. 
 
 The exact extent of the peril cannot now be known under 
 fear of which Minto took these steps. We can only suppose 
 that something was known in London with regard to far- 
 reaching aims of Napoleon, while not much was known to 
 any European statesmen of the obstacles that would beset an 
 invader having first to conquer Russia as a preliminary to the 
 invasion of India. All that need here be noted is that, in 
 May, 1807, on the very eve of the battle of Friedland, General 
 Gardane had been despatched to Teheran with instructions 
 from the French Emperor to enquire what assistance Persia 
 would give to a French army moving on India. "But the 
 General's mission does not end there," pursued the instructions
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 397 
 
 of Napoleon : " he is also to communicate with the Mahrattas 
 and learn exactly what support the expedition would receive in 
 India." We cannot be surprised to find British statesmen 
 taking violent alarm in such circumstances as these, nor at 
 Minto being for a renewal of Malcolm's influence over the 
 Shah of Persia which had been so happily exerted in 1800. 
 But this time Malcolm was less fortunate : when he landed in 
 Persia he found Gardane in high favour and a message await- 
 ing himself, in which the Shah refused to receive him and 
 forbade his advancing to Teheran. Malcolm retired, breathing 
 defiance ; and almost persuaded Minto to order a hostile 
 landing on the shores of the Gulf. Then came the news of the 
 famous meeting of the Emperors on the Niemen-raft : and the 
 menace seemed to be multiplied. The project of a friendly 
 mission renewed in Calcutta began to be conceived, in 
 London also; and presently an amused world saw Malcolm 
 at Teheran, courting Fateh Ali Shah on one side, while the 
 Envoy from St. James's was wooing him from the other. The 
 only effect of this comedy on the fortunes of India was that 
 her finances were made answerable for all its cost: the ex- 
 penses of the royal embassy being charged to the Indian 
 Government no less than those of the mission sent by that 
 Government itself. But the Peninsular war began to absorb 
 the military resources of France ; while the Russians retired 
 from the Georgian frontier; and the Shah consented to a 
 treaty with the Court of St. James's with which Minto was 
 obliged to be content. 
 
 The only farther exemplification of " non-intervention " that 
 marked this period arose out of Amir Khan's attempts upon 
 Nagpore, already mentioned : the Pathan freebooter being 
 sternly warned off, retired from the land of the Bhonsla. 
 
 In 181 1 Charles Metcalfe, as a well-earned reward for his able 
 conduct at the Court of Ranjit Sinh, found himself officiating 
 as Resident at Delhi with the " Great Moghul," Mr. Seton
 
 398 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 having obtained other employment. The palace was still full 
 of crime and intrigue; and the Shah most tenacious of the 
 fragments of authority yet remaining in his hands, and very 
 desirous of an increase of the eleemosynary stipend from the 
 Government, which he called " his tribute." He endeavoured 
 to obtain the mediation of the Nawab of Audh ; and was 
 entangled, by a wily Hindu, in a sham mission to Calcutta. 
 All ended well at last : the Shah's eyes were opened and 
 his lips closed by Metcalfe's firmness. 
 
 The only other internal trouble of the time arose from the 
 turbulence of the Diwan of Travancore, which was not abated 
 without some military operations. The State, was sequestered 
 for a time, but the Raja's authority was ultimately restored. 
 
 [Authorities for matter dealt with in this Section are Ross's 
 " Cornwallis Correspondence"; "Lord Minto in India," by 
 Lady Minto; Kaye's "Metcalfe"; and Basawan Lai's "Memoir 
 of Amir Khan," translated by H. T. Prinsep; also Wilson, 
 Vol. I. (being Vol. VI. of the "History" by Mill and 
 Wilson.] 
 
 SECTION 2. While these events had been proceeding in 
 the north, the Madras Presidency was exposed to a tempest 
 of which Minto said that it was as great a danger as "the 
 British Empire, in all its parts, was ever exposed to." We 
 have already seen how near the sepoys had been brought to a 
 general mutiny in 1806 ; the quarrels of the Governor with the 
 Commander-in-Chief now led to the revolt of a thousand 
 European officers and to positive acts of civil war, enough 
 had it continued to set all India in a blaze. The quarrel 
 between Barlow and General Hay Macdowall arose out of the 
 irritation of the General at what he construed as official 
 neglect. After the recall of Sir John Cradock, on account of 
 the outbreak at Vellore, the Court of Directors had issued 
 orders that the Commanders-in-Chief at the minor Presidences 
 should not have seats in the Executive Council. With that
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 399 
 
 order so far as Madras was concerned Barlow was, of 
 course, obliged to comply : but it still rested with his discretion 
 to show the new Commander the courtesy of consultation, at 
 least on military questions. This course, unhappily, was not 
 adopted ; the soldier's pride burst into flame : he resigned his 
 post and embarked in a ship bound for Europe, having first 
 recorded an intemperate order. On January 313:, 1809, 
 Barlow retaliated by suspending the Adjutant-General and his 
 deputy by "whom the order was issued on the ground that 
 the General had been guilty of sedition, and that they were 
 his abettors. All this which would in itself have been little 
 more than a deplorable incident was aggravated by the fact 
 that the officers of the Native Army had grievances which they 
 had long and vainly urged upon the local Government, and by 
 the personal unpopularity of Barlow, who had scarcely emerged 
 from a dispute with his civil subordinates in which an odour of 
 scandal had been stirred. 
 
 The actual struggle was precipitated by a fresh order from the 
 Government of Madras, in which four officers of rank were 
 suspended, four removed from their commands, and four 
 more superseded. This severity was not justified by any public 
 trial or inquiry, but was founded upon information derived 
 in a somewhat underhand way from clerks, and insufficient 
 (if it had been proved) to establish any serious violation of 
 discipline. As soon as the order was known the whole army 
 was in confusion. From Jalna, beyond the Godavari, from 
 Haidarabad, the capital of the Nizam's dominions, came per- 
 emptory demands for the restoration of the officers, several of 
 whom had distinguished and recent service to cite ; a joint 
 movement on Madras was threatened if the demand should 
 not be granted. At Masulipatam the Company's European 
 regiment whose men had a grievance of their own put their 
 Colonel under arrest, espoused the cause of the mutinous 
 officers, and opened a correspondence with their brethren at
 
 400 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Haidarabad. The officers in garrison at Seringapatam, 
 defying the orders of the Resident at the adjoining capital of 
 Mysore, drove out the handful of King's troops, shut the gates, 
 and invited succour from the neighbouring stations. A body 
 of sepoys, under misleading statements from their officers, 
 attempted to join them, but were dispersed with carnage by a 
 loyal force of cavalry under Colonel Gibbs : civil war had begun, 
 and threatened to become universal throughout the province. 
 
 Amid these portents the civil rulers exhibited an hon- 
 ourable firmness. Barlow insisted upon a "test" being 
 submitted to all the officers of the army in which they should, 
 by their signatures, declare their readiness to obey his orders ; 
 and Lord Minto, however he might privately deplore any 
 mistakes that the Madras Government might have made, felt 
 bound to issue an order indicative of entire support. He did 
 more ; his order was issued at the end of May : and when it 
 seemed likely to have no good effect he set sail for Madras 
 and took up the case in person. The knowledge of his firm 
 but just character, and the sense of the awful nature ot the 
 alternative, combined to change the resolve of the officers : 
 though, unwilling to humble themselves to Barlow, they joined 
 in a letter of penitence and submission to the Governor- 
 General. On September 25th, a general order announced to 
 the army Lord Minto's reprobation of the officers' conduct, 
 and his determination to vindicate the claims of discipline, 
 but with all due consideration for legality and justice. In 
 place of the secret and arbitrary proceedings of the Madras 
 Government, courts-martial sat on a few of the ringleaders, 
 four of whom were cashiered and others permitted to retire. 
 Finally, Barlow was recalled by the Court of Directors, and 
 the exclusion of the Commander-in-Chief from the Council was 
 repealed. All the removed officers were ultimately pardoned 
 by the Court of Directors and restored to the service of the 
 Company.
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 401 
 
 India was now settling down. Jaswant Rao had drunk 
 himself into hopeless insanity, in which state the once for- 
 midable freebooter died, a chained maniac ; the affairs of his 
 principality were assumed by his widow, Tulsi Bai, who 
 administered them, mainly, by the agency of his old client 
 Amir Khan : and the unprincipled but not imprudent Pathan 
 had been by that time taught by experience that a firmer 
 hand was at the helm in Calcutta and that he must abstain 
 from depredation. But elsewhere the habits engendered by 
 half a century of anarchy could not be suddenly eradicated ; 
 and the growing prosperity of Bengal attracted the attention 
 of robbers as formidable as the Pindaris themselves. Organ- 
 ised gangs of banditti levied contributions up to thirty miles 
 from Barrackpore; and it was not until special orders had 
 been framed, special magistrates appointed, and some of the 
 most prominent gang-leaders hanged, that an impression 
 could be made upon the proceedings, so discreditable to a 
 civilised government, of the Bengal dacoits. 
 
 On a larger scale, and in a more distant sphere, the property 
 of Indian subjects was still more in need of protection. The 
 want of harmony between Mornington and the Admiral com- 
 manding the eastern squadron in 1799 had interfered to 
 prevent the capture of the " French Islands " at that time, 
 and the expedition had been ultimately diverted to Egypt. Since 
 then the islands had continued to harbour corsairs, like 
 Surcouf and Lememe, who had plundered Indian commerce 
 to the extent as was calculated of about two millions 
 sterling.* The island of Bourbon now Reunion lying 
 between Mauritius and Madagascar, and measuring 38 miles 
 by 28 miles, was captured by Colonel Keating in a few hours, 
 early in 1810; but an attack on the larger island was defeated 
 with the loss of five British frigates taken by the brave 
 
 Six Indiamen were captured in 1809. 
 
 D D
 
 402 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Duperre. This, however, was almost the last disaster to 
 British enterprise of which the Mauritius was to be the scene. 
 It happened on August 23rd ; but the possession of Bourbon 
 now afforded a station for the British ships ; and a blockade, 
 only partially successful, was applied to Mauritius, the capture 
 of that island being a part of Minto's scheme. The skill and 
 energy of the French captains enabled them ere long to break 
 the blockade; on the i2th September they fought another 
 action in which they forced a British frigate to strike, and 
 actually captured the vessel carrying the Commander of the 
 British expedition, General Abercombie; this vessel however, 
 was retaken the same day. Early in the following month a 
 fleet of warships and transports assembled at Rodriguez; 
 and on the zg\h November a force of nearly 12,000 men was 
 landed on the shores of the Mauritius. The Governor, 
 General Decaen, though much outnumbered, offered a res- 
 pectable defence for the night ; next day an advance on Port 
 Louis was made, in which the invaders suffered as much from 
 the heat as from the enemy. On the 3ist there was a further 
 advance and a brief action in which two British officers were 
 killed, but the enemy's guns were taken. On the ist 
 December, Port Louis being surrounded, and threatened 
 by an irresisitible superiority of force, General Decaen de- 
 manded and obtained an honourable capitulation : and 
 the island has ever since remained a British possession, 
 though in the enjoyment of French law. The sister island 
 was restored to France in 1815. 
 
 Although these measures were eventually justified by orders 
 from home,- they had been undertaken by Minto in antici- 
 pation and upon his own responsibilty ; being as he thought 
 warranted by the disgrace and damage suffered from the 
 French possession of the islands, and by the flourishing state 
 of Indian finances. In reporting the result to London he 
 dwelt with pardonable complacency, on the " perfect tran-
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 403 
 
 quility which was maintained (in India) during the absence of 
 so large a body of troops." This afforded as he said proof 
 of a favourable state of political security. It also encour- 
 aged the Governor-General to carry out an enterprise 
 he had for some time contemplated, whereby the in- 
 fluence of the French and their corsairs in eastern seas was 
 completely and finally annulled. The conquest of Java had 
 little, if any effect, upon the evolution of India ; but it was the 
 greatest and most glorious effort ever made by the Govern-, 
 ment of the country, beyond its own limits ; and, as such, is 
 deserving of record in Indian history. 
 
 It is well known that the possessions of Holland had come 
 under the dominion of France, at the time we are now contem- 
 plating, and Napoleon seems to have governed them through 
 Dutch officers. But Marshal D'Aendels, the officer in charge 
 of Java and its dependencies, was unpopular with his own 
 countrymen, no less than with the natives; being a man of 
 strong passions and overbearing character. While Minto was 
 at Madras a small expedition (sent from that Presidency in 
 October, 1800), had landed at Amboyna, and forced a capitu- 
 lation on the Governor, who retired to Java, and was at once 
 shot by order of D'Aendels. The Madras force cruised about 
 the Straits for six months, taking a number of small places ; 
 while Napoleon replaced D'Aendels by a less ferocious and 
 more popular officer, General Janssen, and sent out reinforce- 
 ments to Java, raising the garrison to 17,000 troops Euro- 
 pean and native the greater part posted in a strong position 
 about eight miles from Batavia, the chief town. The British 
 Fleet, consisting with transports of no less than eighty-one 
 sail, arrived off the coast of Java 3oth July, and landed on 4th 
 August, 1811 ; the Governor-General being present in person, 
 and the land-forces consisting of 6,000 British and 6,000 
 Indian soldiers under the general command of Sir Samuel 
 Auchmuty. Batavia was occupied on the 7th, and on the loth, 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 possession was taken of Weltevreeden, an unfortified canton- 
 ment. Janssen, meanwhile, was intrenched at Fort Cornelis 
 the place already mentioned strong both by nature and art, 
 and protected on both sides by rivers. The daring Gillespie, 
 the same who had relieved Vellore in 1806, was in command 
 of the front attack, supported on the right by Colonel Macleod, 
 and aided by a diversion in the enemy's rear to be attempted 
 by a small mixed force under Major Yule. Gillespie's advance 
 arrived before dawn on the 26th, and found the bridge still 
 standing ; without awaiting the rest of the column he crossed 
 and stormed ; the rear force soon came up ; Macleod carried 
 the work on the enemy's left, though at the cost of his o\vn 
 life ; the enemy fled and were chased ten miles ; 6,000 
 prisoners were taken, inclusive of the men newly-arrived from 
 France. The British loss was near on 900 killed and wounded. 
 On the 1 6th September Auchmuty came up with Janssen near 
 Samarang and defeated him again; the same evening he 
 signed a treaty of surrender ; the soldiers and officers became 
 prisoners-of-war, and the British reserved full discretion as to 
 the civil administration. Colonel Gillespie remained in com- 
 mand of the troops for some time, during which he continued 
 to distinguish himself by his reckless energy; and the govern- 
 ment of the island was intrusted to Mr. (afterwards Sir Stam- 
 ford) Raffles, who proved a most successful administrator ; 
 and also an incomparable authority upon the island.* It was, 
 however, restored to the Dutch after the fall of Napoleon. 
 
 For these services Minto admitted that he expected rewards. 
 Returning to' Bengal in October, he turned to domestic 
 matters, in some of which he was destined to meet with almost 
 more serious trouble than in his military operations. His 
 
 * " The History of Java." Two vols., 410. London: 1817. For an 
 excellent civilian's account of the expedition, see Minto's Letters. He 
 bears warm testimony to the conduct and character of the unfortunate 
 Janssen.
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 405 
 
 first anxiety was caused by the letters from England which he 
 found awaiting his arrival ; not only did the despatches con- 
 tain no recognition of the services on which he justly prided 
 himself connected with the Madras mutiny and the conquest 
 of Mauritius but his private letters led him to apprehend that 
 he might be called on to adopt a posture of defence. To this 
 feeling was now added a sense that he had acted against 
 orders in regard to Java. In conquering that island, indeed, 
 he had acted in accordance with instructions ; but his humane 
 reluctance to leave the Dutch colonists without protection 
 against the natives had caused him to make provision for the 
 civil and military administration there, which contravened a 
 distinct direction to leave the colony to its own resources. 
 Such things, viewed by unfriendly eyes, might be misrepre- 
 sented. The attention of the people of Great Britain was at 
 that time so much absorbed by great foreign transactions, and 
 by trouble and distress at home, that it might well be in the 
 power of hostile Ministers to make the remote Governor of 
 British India suffer for conduct really deserving of high praise 
 and reward. The Peninsular war was at its crisis ; active 
 hostilities were waging with the United States ; a Prime 
 Minister had been assassinated amid symptoms of popular 
 sympathy; the Regent was attempting, with the aid of his 
 favourite, the Earl of Moira, to put the Liberal party in the 
 wrong, and carry on the Government through the agency of 
 men like Sidmouth, Eldon, and Liverpool. The discussion of 
 the Company's charter was at hand, the enemies of Barlow were 
 stirring, and their cause was espoused by some of the Whigs, 
 and, notably, by the " Edinburgh Review." Minto might well 
 expect to be made the Jonah of the tempest. 
 
 Nor were troubles wanting of a more immediate nature. 
 The evils of the subsidiary system were coming to a head 
 in Audh, where the continual demands of the Nawab for the 
 aid of British bayonets in support of the farmers of the
 
 406 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 land-revenue, were met by the Resident Major Baillie by 
 demands for a more humane and regular assessment. Baillie 
 was earnestly instructed to adopt a tone of respect and 
 moderation towards the incompetent ruler; but moderation 
 and respect only led to equivocation and delay, the usual 
 resource of Asiatics in such conditions. 
 
 On another side the Pindaris were increasing in audacious 
 rapacity. Secure under the non-intervention policy, they had 
 taken up their quarters in Nimar, an almost inaccessible fast- 
 ness of woods and hills between the upper waters of the 
 Tapti and Narbada rivers. Here they were covered by Malwa 
 on one side, where Amir Khan favoured them with all the re- 
 sources of Holkar's territory, added to his own newly-created 
 principality of Sironj and Tonk ; on the other side the Pindaris 
 derived immunity from the independent power of Nagpore, 
 where the Bhonsla still repudiated all attempts to bring his 
 State into the subsidiary system. Thus protected, the free- 
 booters had been encouraged to extend their depredations into 
 the Company's territories ; and, in 1812, they were threatening 
 to plunder the wealthy British city of Mirzapore. The approach 
 of troops averted this calamity; and a measure of temporary 
 salvation was obtained for the western frontier by treaties, in 
 which the chiefs of Tehri and Rewa undertook to close their 
 passes, while a cordon of troops was as a further protection 
 aligned upon the British side, and extended to Midnapore on 
 the sea-coast. 
 
 The Audh trouble also was for the time staved off by ex- 
 postulation and warning. Friendly arrangements were, at the 
 same time, 'made with the Peshwa and the Nizam, by which 
 those rulers might, it was hoped, be enabled to manage their 
 affairs without calling upon the British forces. But Minto 
 must have felt that all these measures were little more than 
 palliatives ; and that the time for more vigorous action could 
 not be very distant. In his present uncertainty as to support
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 407 
 
 from home, and with the burden of labour and increasing 
 years beginning to tell upon him, he may, perhaps, have been 
 content if he found himself able to adjourn the evil day. 
 
 Meanwhile, it was necessary to make provision for the 
 expenses of the late military operations and to maintain at 
 least an equilibrium in the finances. The subject will be 
 treated in another place ; for the present it need only be 
 considered in its bearing on public tranquility. One of the 
 expedients adopted as far back as 1810 for effecting finan- 
 cial reform had been the assessment of a police-rate upon 
 inhabited houses in towns ;* and a great ferment had arisen in 
 Benares in consequence. The people shut up their houses, 
 abandoned all their business, and assembled in multitudes 
 outside the town. An attempt was even made to march on 
 Calcutta, but all means, appliances, and supplies were wanting ; 
 so that, when the crowd had made one march, their number 
 thinned off and the rest accepted the advice of the Raja and 
 went home, trusting their cause to a petition. The translation 
 given in the Appendix to Wilson's ist Vol. gives the grounds 
 of their objections : they may be thought rather curious 
 than interesting, being chiefly the expression of alarm at novelty 
 and a vague idea that Governments ought to be possessed of 
 some inexhaustible reserves of treasure out of which to provide 
 for the discharge of the primary duty of public protection. 
 The end, however, appeared to justify the means. So far as 
 the holy city was affected the tax was repealed (Reg. vin. of 
 1812); and when, in the ensuing year, it was applied to Dacca, 
 Patna, and Murshidabad, care was taken to put both assess- 
 ment and expenditure in the hands of a municipal committee 
 (Reg. viu. of 1813). 
 
 Nor was the close of Minto's administration free from 
 
 * Reg. xv. of 1810 ; notable as the first and not most promising 
 effort in the direction of local finance, subsequently adopted with such good 
 results in India.
 
 4 o8 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 trouble arising out of the religious zeal of his own countrymen. 
 At the Danish settlement of Serampore, just opposite the 
 Governor-General's suburban retreat, the Baptist Missionaries 
 had set up a paper -factory, a printing-press, and a school; by 
 which instrumentality they hoped to be able to propagate a 
 knowledge of the Christain Scriptures. Unhappily they could 
 not find a method of diffusing their own opinions without im- 
 pugning those of their neighbours ; and their press not only 
 produced Bibles, but also pamphlets of a controversial kind in 
 which attacks were made on the beliefs of Hindus and Muslims. 
 Such publications alarmed the Government, already rendered 
 especially sensitive by the recent affair at Vellore. One of 
 these works was even pronounced "scurrilous." On this 
 being brought to his notice, Minto called on the missionaries 
 to use more caution in their proceedings and utterances, 
 inviting them to remove their printing works from Serampore 
 and establish themselves in Calcutta, where they would be 
 more directly under the control of the British Government. 
 The good missionaries replied by pointing out that the pro- 
 posed transfer of their business and plant would cause them 
 great inconvenience and expense, which they represented as 
 unnecessary, promising that no further publications should be 
 issued before being submitted for approval of the Government 
 In this the worthy men may have appeared to display the 
 wisdom of the serpent, inasmuch as their plan had an obvious 
 tendency to make the Government answerable for their future 
 teaching and to give their publications, henceforward, the 
 character (or semblance at least) of State authority. Be this 
 as it may, the compromise was accepted by the Government. 
 Dr. Carey, the head of the mission, whose linguistic acquire- 
 ments were of a very high repute was also made Professor of 
 Sanscrit in the College of Fort William. Towards the end of 
 Lord Minto's administration some missionaries who had gone 
 out to Calcutta without a license from the Court of Directors
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 409 
 
 were ordered to be sent home ; but this was the constant 
 practice, and was done about the same time to a member of 
 Minto's own household. Personally, he always befriended the 
 missionaries. He also spoke warmly of the translation of the 
 Christian Scriptures in addressing the College of Fort William, 
 as visitor. 
 
 That Institution, although curtailed of some of its original 
 splendour, still continued then, and for long after to be a 
 seat of oriental learning, where young civil officers could learn 
 the native tongues, and where learned natives could meet with 
 some encouragement to pursue and make public their useful 
 labours. A number of important and valuable works on legal 
 and linguistic subjects issued from the College-press, in the 
 years 1808-9 and 1810 : followed by works of Eastern poets 
 and prose-writers, reproduced in a more permanent form than 
 their original manuscript. Finally, it should be recorded that 
 for the first time since Warren Hastings a sincere attempt 
 was made for the support and encouragement of purely indi- 
 genous learning. The abstract sciences were found to be 
 decayed, the circle of study contracted, many valuable works 
 disused, in some instances lost. This alarming growth of igno- 
 rance was tending to deprive the people of the means of 
 culture and self-development; it even tended greatly to 
 obstruct the measures taken for their better government. For 
 all these reasons Minto resolved to add to the resources of the 
 College of Benares, and to improve its management, while he 
 recommended the foundation of new Hindu and Muhamadan 
 Colleges in various great centres. 
 
 Minto's enlightened care for letters failed to please the 
 friends of missions, whose view of his proceedings is thus 
 reflected in a local organ of more than thirty years later : 
 
 "Having succeeded to his heart's content in crushing the 
 efforts of Christian evangelists, he next directed his atten- 
 tion to the heathenish institutions which owed their origin and
 
 4 io HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 support to ... some of his predecessors . . . And not only 
 so, but his purpose consentaneously tended to add to their 
 number at the expense of the State."* 
 
 Some time in 1812, Minto had intimated to the Court of 
 Directors a desire to be relieved about the beginning of 1814. 
 Somewhat to his surprise he suddenly learned that he was to be 
 anticipated in this project by the unmerited measure of dismis- 
 sal from office. The Directors hastened to explain that this was 
 due to no displeasure or want of appreciation of " his eminent 
 services": Lord Moira had rendered himself useful to the 
 Prince Regent, and the Prince Regent could think of no better 
 way to reward Lord Moira's usefulness. There was truly much 
 ungraciousness in the way in which this good and distinguished 
 man was treated : but, when all is said, it was more a question 
 of manner than of anything else. The contemplated career of 
 Minto was only curtailed by six months, at the most ; and the 
 Ministry, by recommending him for an earldom, showed as 
 he good-temperedly. noted that his recall had no connection 
 with his conduct. Some of the most eminent members of the 
 Court protested against the measure, alike on public arid on 
 personal grounds : and Minto received the thanks of Parlia- 
 ment : but the influence of the Crown was strong in those 
 days ; and the Court of Directors, with their political existence 
 trembling in the scales of fate, could not afford to act with any 
 extreme show of independence. Minto, on the other hand, 
 had certainly been somewhat autocratic. He had deviated 
 from the Cornwallis policy, which Barlow had so zealously 
 obeyed ; and he had made conquests abroad which, while 
 annihilating the power and influence of France in the East, had 
 ended in causing embarrassment to Great Britain. In the 
 following section we must consider, as fully as our space will 
 
 * " Calcutta Review," Vol. III. " The expense of the State '' was 
 furnished be it remembered by the Hindus and Muhamadans. Tantae 
 ne animis ccelestibus ir
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 4 n 
 
 permit, how far this bold course had been harmonised with 
 the due regard to the welfare of the people, and the prudent 
 management of the national affairs which are so important as 
 elements of that welfare. 
 
 [The authorities to be consulted are those already cited. 
 The case of the missionaries is stated in many pamphlets of 
 the time, preserved at the India Office ; also in the 2nd Vol. 
 of the " History of India," by J. C. Marshman, the son of one 
 the body.] 
 
 SECTION 3. Next to the due protection of the frontiers 
 against foreign aggressions for which Minto had so boldly 
 and skilfully provided the greatest need of the Indian popu- 
 lations was a sound state of the finances, and an efficient 
 administration of justice. It can hardly be affirmed that Minto 
 left his mark equally well on these departments. Finance, in 
 that day even more than now, included the whole rural 
 economy of the greater portion of the men, women and 
 children, from sea to sea, and from the snows of the Alpine 
 border to the peak of Comorin. As for justice, it was a part 
 of the administration which had been so long neglected that 
 its establishment on a national and honest basis was a primary 
 need for the national evolution. 
 
 Taking " finance " in its broadest sense, we may regard it 
 as implying more than the mere administration of the public 
 money, which is a matter of high technical skill chiefly interest- 
 ing to experts; the work also includes the raising of that money ; 
 and the details of this branch touch every person in the country. 
 In Minto's time the land-revenue made over 70 per cent, of 
 the whole resources of the State. Even now when fiscal 
 resources have so greatly developed it forms nearly a half : 
 and millions of the population pay nothing else, except the 
 duty on the salt they consume. If we examine the fiscal 
 condition of the chief nations of the world we shall be struck 
 with a remarkable law ; viz r that the burden of taxation in a
 
 412 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 country is usually in direct ratio to the degree of freedom or 
 self-government, which may, from this point of view, be 
 correctly called the dearest thing in the world. Thus, the 
 money voted in one Parliament of William and Mary was far 
 greater than all that was extorted by Charles I.; and to come to 
 our own times, the rate of incidence per head in the modern 
 world is greatest in the United States, in Great Britain and 
 her self-governed colonies, and in the French Republic; while 
 it is lightest in Russia, Turkey, and British India. The reason 
 is perhaps obvious; but with that question we can have here no 
 concern, so far at least as European countries go : in India 
 especially in the early decades of the iQth century the cause 
 was plain enough : namely, ignorance. The financiers of Cal- 
 cutta at that time neither knew how to tax the subjects so 
 recently brought under the sway of the Company, nor had they 
 much temptation to make the experiment: the case of Benares, 
 lately mentioned, was a severe and stern warning. It was the 
 more essential that they should do their best to acquaint them- 
 selves with the principles and practice of the land-revenue 
 which was not merely the sheet-anchor, but almost the whole 
 motive-power of the ship. They early perceived that the tradi- 
 tionary law of India gave them the right of claiming as much 
 of the produce as they could appropriate without starving the 
 agriculturalists or provoking a general insurrection. But they 
 had great difficulty in discovering who was the person to whom 
 to look for this share. Hence the discussions so keenly urged 
 from the time of Hastings to that of Cornwallis the best part 
 of twenty years as to who was the owner of the land in India? 
 The question may seem to us equally easy and unnecessary ; 
 in a country of anarchy and fist-right, the landholder is he who 
 can hold the land. In Bengal the land had got to be held by a 
 set of agents, originally strong local proprietors on their own 
 account, appointed to collect from their poorer neighbours, by 
 an indolent or imbecile government ; and allowed to intercept
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 413 
 
 a portion, theoretically appraised at 10 per cent, as a remuner- 
 ation for their exertions. It was in this class that Philip 
 Francis and Shore persisted in finding the proprietary right ; 
 and it was to this class that Pitt and Dundas instructed the 
 not reluctant Cornwallis to confide the administration of the 
 several economies of Bengal. They were to be the feudal 
 baronage of India, managing and improving, taking up waste 
 land, and improving what was already under cultivation. 
 
 By Minto's time it was becoming clear that these expect- 
 ations had been too sanguine. Already an able school of 
 reformers was arising in the Madras Presidency which was 
 questioning the ownership of Zemindars and Poligars, and 
 putting forsvard claims on behalf of the Ryot, or actual culti- 
 vator. Here, they said, was the true landlord to be sought : 
 not among the agents or farmers, to whom the rulers of pro- 
 vinces might have found it convenient to intrust the work of 
 collection, not even in the State itself, which had only a 
 vested right limited, if not by law, then by custom and 
 necessity. 
 
 Such were the opposite points from which the ownership of 
 land was viewed in Bengal and Madras. Bombay was still 
 too backward, too small, and too recently acquired, to take 
 a part in the fray ; and it may be assumed that the revenue 
 there was taken in any way that it could be got, without much 
 speculation. There, as elsewhere, if no formal settlement had 
 been made, the idea was to get as much for the State as 
 might be possible after the actual cultivator's necessary 
 expenses had been met, including the price of seed and 
 replacement of exhausted stock. This was, in fact, a percent- 
 age on net produce : the precarious salvage of anarchy. 
 
 But Bengal, Madras, and Bombay by no means made up 
 the whole of British India, even in those days. There were, 
 in the newly-acquired districts, tracts as large as the British 
 islands in which the Muslim had held direct sway almost ever
 
 414 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 since the days when the Normans conquered England. Was 
 the same state of things to be looked for as under the 
 Mahratta Desmukhs, the Tamil Rajas, the Poligars of the 
 Balaghat, or the Zemindars of Bengal ? We know now, that it 
 was not ; but the labours of the historian and the jurist had 
 to be joined to the researches of the statesman and the 
 investigations of the administrator, before a conclusion could 
 be reached. 
 
 The fact which slowly emerged, and on which all the more 
 successful land-revenue officers have consciously or uncon- 
 sciously had to proceed, is that which may be best stated in 
 the language of the late Sir H. S. Maine. Status was nine- 
 tenths of the law, contract only the residue. Wherever as in 
 Bengal and parts of Madras rich barons had made what in 
 feudal times were called " fiefs," the cultivating proprietors 
 passed from their old allodial status to that of "villains "or 
 copyhold, tenants ; still where they were able clinging to a 
 heritable and transferable right and claiming not to be liable 
 to eviction except on certain extreme grounds. Such was the 
 condition of those variously known as sub-proprietors, heredi- 
 tary occupants, and the like. But they could not be dealt 
 with, directly at least, without sweeping measures against the 
 superior holders, who had acquired the right to collect and to 
 deduct their commission from the collections they were making ; 
 and who had thus acquired something of the position of what, 
 in a corresponding social stage of Europe, were called " tenants- 
 in-chief." Nevertheless, the very name they bore ought to 
 have told Minto and his councillor of the mistake made by 
 Shore and Cornwallis : for the title Zemindar (Zamin " land," 
 ddr " holder for management " ) no more implied property 
 absolute in the soil than Tahsildar, or Mamlatdar, other titles 
 of office which still obtain, with no ambiguity or miscon- 
 ception. Hence as already observed permanency, though 
 a fault, was not the only fault of the Bengal settlement ; it
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 415 
 
 also erred by ignoring, and almost obliterating, the older and 
 more genuine status of the cultivating occupant. 
 
 Thus, when Messrs. Cox and Tucker were sent to make 
 preparation for the extension of this settlement in the " Ceded 
 and Conquered " (now the North-West) Provinces, it did not 
 take them a twelvemonth to discover traces, not only of allodial 
 ownership in this class, but they also discovered that the status 
 of the great " proprietors " was more official than proprietary, 
 and that the cultivating occupants had elements of true owner- 
 ship which they commonly exercised as members of a joint- 
 association, or as Europeans might say Commune. The 
 existence of these Communes in many widely distinct regions 
 has long since become a common-place of the subject, and has 
 been often regarded as an archaic institution of the Aryan race. 
 But, inasmuch as it has been found among populations of non- 
 Aryan descent, it may be safer to regard it as a form of 
 agriculture incidental to human society in a certain stage of 
 its evolution. 
 
 However, this may be, there it was, in Hindustan, and 
 indeed in many other parts of India. It may be inferred that 
 it arose from the original clearance of forest-land by a father 
 and his sons ; or in some cases which are known from the 
 conquest of aborigines by an immigrant tribe or family. In 
 both instances especially the latter clients and serfs would 
 be retained to aid in the cultivation, and thus would arise 
 another class of cultivators; more like our "labourers," but 
 paid not in wages, but in allotments of land. 
 
 Thus, then, three well-marked classes emerged on the view 
 of the Commissioners. These were : 
 
 First. The Grantees, or usurping Barons ; of whom Mr. 
 Tucker observed that they were "hereditary administrators of 
 the revenue, with a beneficial interest in the land." 
 
 Second. The cultivating occupants, who were either mem- 
 bers of a commune with many elements of proprietary right;
 
 416 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 or were, at least, holders of a heritable and transferable 
 occupancy under certain definite or definable conditions ; 
 and, 
 
 Third. Non-proprietary labourers, holding allotments as 
 tenants-at-will ; very apt, however, to wander if not well 
 treated. 
 
 This state of things was also traceable in many parts of the 
 Madras Presidency ; and it was the opinion of Lord William 
 Bentinck, when Governor there, that the rights of the first 
 class were too vague to form a claim on their behalf to be 
 recognised as the contracting parties with the Government. 
 He accordingly proposed to settle with the second ; as advised 
 by Colonel Read, and his able follower Munro. This measure 
 was soon after frustrated for the moment by Barlow, Bentinck's 
 successor, who ordered the introduction of the Bengal system. 
 Zemindars were to be formed, or created, and a " permanent 
 settlement " concluded with them. 
 
 For the North-West Provinces a similar policy was ordered 
 by Minto, in contravention of the report of the Commissioners, 
 who urged amongst other objections that the right of con- 
 tracting with the Government demanded judicial inquiry : and 
 that at least twenty-five per cent, of the culturable land was 
 still lying waste and unappropriated. The people were 
 indifferent, where not positively hostile, to the principle of 
 permanence ; the claims of the village-communities were also 
 beginning to attract the notice of the best observers. The 
 Bengal system, too, was beginning to show signs of weakness : 
 in the twenty years since 1793 so many estates had been sold 
 that the old noblesse, whom it had been intended to preserve, 
 were almost gone. Finally the sufferings of the Bengal ryots, 
 under enhancement and illegal exaction, were already such as 
 to call for legislative interference. 
 
 All these considerations combined to move the authorities in 
 London; and in 1813 orders came out from the Court of
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 417 
 
 Directors doubtless inspired by the Board of Control, which 
 led to the adjournment of the introduction of the Bengal 
 into the North-West Province. 
 
 Nor was the ryot system of Read and Munro to be applied to 
 these provinces. After Barlow's recall that system had, through 
 the zeal and intelligence of Munro, been finally adopted in a 
 great part of the territory subordinate to the Government of 
 Madras. But in Hindustan the village-system found an equally 
 strenuous and able advocate in Metcalfe; and, in July, 1813, 
 such strong and reasonable objections to the " ryotwari 
 settlement " were sent home that this system was also post- 
 poned, pending further inquiry. 
 
 The immediate results were not of unmixed advantage to the 
 people. Hasty settlements were made as we learn from the 
 highest authority.* The estimates on which these were based 
 were conjectural ; the accounts of the estates were notoriously 
 incorrect ; by reason of the prevailing ignorance, undue in- 
 fluence fell into the hands of the native officials, who used it 
 for the purpose of misrepresentation and corrupt practice.. Such 
 was the condition of this fundamental matter when Minto 
 resigned his office. In Bengal the future of the people was 
 compromised ; in Madras a benevolent conviction had oblite- 
 rated the village system and reduced the rural aristocracy : 
 in Hindustan the communes narrowly escaped extinction, and 
 were submerged by a crowd of speculators. 
 
 In regard to the administration of justice, again, no very 
 great advance was made. The old system of the Hindus had 
 turned, ultimately, upon the action of the village elders, the 
 headman and four assessors, curiously resembling the old 
 English " Reeve-and-four." The reforms introduced by 
 Warren Hastings and Cornwallis had given rise to a regular 
 chain of courts, one hearing appeals from another; and a 
 great deal of litigation had arisen necessarily favourable to 
 
 * Letter from Holt Mackenzie quoted by Wilson, Book I. chap. vn. 
 

 
 418 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 lawyers and their more wealthy clients. Arrears accumulated : 
 more European officers were appointed at a ruinous cost 
 the use of native agency was universally decried. The bulk of 
 the people was thus virtually excluded from legal remedy while 
 the forces of the State were employed to debar the lower 
 classes from taking the law into their own hands. In Madras 
 and Bombay some attempt was made to improve this state 
 of things by local legislation for which these Presidencies 
 received powers in 1807 but it cannot be said that any pro- 
 found insight into the subject was revealed, either there or in 
 the provinces more directly subject to the Governor-General. 
 The administration of penal law was not much better. The 
 civil judges were also magistrates : the Muhamadan law was 
 followed except in respect of some punishments, such as 
 mutilation which were abolished. Work accumulated to such 
 an extent that in one district alone there are said to have been 
 at one moment 1,500 persons awaiting trial in the lock-up. 
 
 Act in., of 1812 was aimed at this abuse; but it did not 
 provide any increase of the staff, and was therefore a mere 
 palliative and almost a sham. 
 
 Next to warlike undertakings it was in State finance that 
 Minto's chief successes took place. The decline in which this 
 important branch of affairs had been left by Wellesley received 
 but little amelioration in the short and feeble administration 
 of Barlow. But Minto, while conducting the great and suc- 
 cessful military operations mentioned above, did not neglect 
 this department of his duty. By increased receipts from 
 Bengal, by new taxes in Madras, and by reduction of interest 
 on the public debt, Minto converted a deficit into a handsome 
 surplus. Taking the rupee at its then value, the revenue in 
 1807-8 came to a total of ^"15,670,000, and the expenditure 
 inclusive of interest on debt to ^15,979,000. In 1813-14 
 the revenue amounted to ^17,228,000 and the expenditure to 
 no more than ^,15,575,000.
 
 THE EVE OF EMPIRE. 419 
 
 It is to be feared, however, that these exertions of the 
 Government however admirable were not of much benefit 
 to the people of India ; for the whole of the money was sent 
 home to London by positive order of the Court of Directors, 
 at that time more than usually pressed for resources. 
 
 On 4th October, 1813, Lord Moira landed in Calcutta and 
 took charge from Minto. His administration marks a new 
 departure in the affairs of British India : and it was accom- 
 panied by a radical change in the powers and attributes of the 
 Company he was supposed to serve. 
 
 [Consult if possible the celebrated " Fifth Report" of the 
 Select Committee ; also Wilson, as already cited, and Marsh- 
 man, Vol. II. on the period. Wilson's statement is especially 
 able, and shows wide research.] 
 
 t t
 
 420 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 
 
 Section i : Hindustan during first Muslim period (1193-1398) Section 2 : 
 Under Mughal Empire (1586-1748) Section 3 : End of pre-British 
 period. 
 
 SECTION I. There are not wanting in various parts of history 
 instances of the existence of an apparent limit to the duration of 
 a dynasty or political system left to the ordinary laws of nature, 
 and not cut short by war. Thus, in the Roman Empire, the 
 democratic absolutism devised by Augustus, B.C. 30 came to 
 an end by the death of M. Aurelius, A.D. 180. The famous 
 Khalifate of Bagdad founded A.D, 754 ran its bright course 
 till 964, when it proved unable to hold its own against 
 Nicephorus Phocas, and ceased to exist as an Empire : though 
 not entirely extirpated for nearly three more centuries. The 
 contemporaneous empire of the Karlings in Western Europe 
 lasted from its foundation in 752, to the usurpation of 
 Hugh Capet on the virtual exhaustion of the Imperial Line, 
 in 956. In England the foreign monarchy founded by William 
 the Conqueror, came to a natural end with the death of Henry 
 III. and the appearance of elected Deputies in Parliament, 
 1060-1272. In modern France the Bourbon monarchy lasted 
 from the accession of Henry IV. (1589) to the death of Louis 
 XVI in 1793. Turning again to England, if we take the 
 " Petition of Right" as the beginning of the Government by 
 King, Lords, and Commons, we shall find that it was worn-
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 421 
 
 out, and came to an end in 1832, when the influence of the 
 Lords in Parliament was destroyed, and the Crown became 
 little more than an ornament on the summit of the political 
 fabric. From such instances we might feel tempted to infer 
 that be the reason what it may the ordinary vitality of a 
 dynasty or constitution is not good for more than seven gener- 
 ations ; though in many cases that limit may not be reached, 
 or even approximated. 
 
 This duration was at least twice made good in Indian 
 History. The Turkman or purely foreign government, which 
 lasted from the invasion of Muhamad Guri, or Bin Sam, to 
 the flight of the feeble Abdulla in 1378, was often broken by 
 palace revolutions, but never changed in its character, or effect, 
 upon the people, until it had spent all its force, and the Empire 
 of the " Lord of the World " extended, according to the doggrel 
 quoted in CHAPTER iv., p. 93, for about six miles from his 
 house-door. The Mughal Empire, founded by Babar in 1526, 
 was quite worn-out before the death of Muhamad Shah, (1748): 
 "the Seal, "as a native historian says, "of the House of Taimur." 
 
 Of the condition of the people during the earlier, or Turk- 
 man, period in Hindustan, we have little exact information. 
 When the storm first began to gather upon the Northern hill- 
 tops, the Hindus were in a state of considerable culture and 
 prosperity. They still possessed, in the Veda and the writings 
 of its early commentators, a supposed basis of law, the appar- 
 ent finality and shortcoming of which were reconciled to the 
 wants of a growing society by something savouring of legal 
 fiction : that is to say, the religious schools and orders developed 
 the Canon, pro re nata, by help of new precepts which appeared 
 in the guise of supplementary tradition. Thus the law pre- 
 served the austere dignity of regulations for human conduct, 
 arising out of a sort of cosmic necessity. The Gods and the 
 Hindus being what they were, such-and-such principles were 
 of eternal obligation : but their written record was not intended
 
 422 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 to be complete ; and details were to be dealt with, from time 
 to time if they arose by the wisdom and inspiration residing 
 in the bosom of the sages. It was a sort of Common-Law 
 tempered by the Bench. 
 
 Of law, thus conceived and depending for sanction chiefly 
 on the opinion of an acquiescent public, a formal digest 
 appeared probably in the Deccan towards the end of the 
 nth century of the Christian era, when the Muslims of Ghazni 
 had already gained the Punjab and were threatening the whole 
 of Hindustan. This is the Mitakshara itself a birth from the 
 school of Yajnavalkya and Manu, contemplating the ancient 
 social framework. The old Aryan religious thought is still 
 seen playing round normal ideas, or domestic habits, and 
 taking an active part in the rules of the tribe and the family ; 
 the patria potestas as in ancient Rome, with the worship of 
 the Pitris (ancestral manes) which in both systems formed the 
 sacra of the gens forming the basis of right and duty. Status 
 is everything, contract is barely recognised. The performance 
 of funeral rites is necessary to the repose of the dead and to 
 the heir-ship of the surviving son, who required to hold the 
 estate in order to meet what was a primary charge upon it. 
 Out of this proceeded the continuity of families and tribes ; 
 and its guarantee was provided for by the rules of adoption 
 with the curious ceremony of the Srddh, originally a sort of 
 All-Souls' day where the kindred entertained their dead, like 
 Ulysses in the Odyssey. The ancient codes provide for the 
 frame of suits : the archaic tribunal was a committee of the 
 village elders ; and the procedure opened by a distraint of the 
 defendant's cattle, by which device the burden of action and 
 of proof was shifted from him who complained of wrong to 
 him who was presumed to be the wrong-doer. The estimated 
 value of the cattle became the stake, or sum-in-suit, and the 
 losing party either forfeited his cattle or their price, according 
 to the Court's decision,
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 423 
 
 The classification of later and more scientific times did not 
 go the length of furnishing distinct provinces for property 
 according as it was real or personal. The distinction so far 
 as any existed was drawn between property acquired from 
 ancestors and property acquired by a man's own exertions, 
 The rules for the devolution and transfer of these two classes 
 differed from each other, as did from both those relating to 
 the paraphernalia or peculiar chattels of married women. 
 
 The land in each village was held entirely, or for the most 
 part, on common tenure : either the cultivation was by joint 
 labour and expenditure, when the proceeds were brought into 
 a general account for sharing profit and loss ; or there was 
 annual partition of land, so that each might cultivate his share 
 separately. As strangers began to intrude, and ideas of indivi- 
 dual ownership to be realised, a mixed method arose, and 
 partitions became permanent. Indeed, some such system 
 continues to be the typical township-constitution in the Punjab 
 and parts of Hindustan down to the present day. 
 
 These customs and institutions, while giving to Hindu-life a 
 certain tenacious strength, have kept it on a low evolutional 
 level; and, in conjunction with the system of Caste, tended to 
 give invaders the full benefit of the rule : Divide et impera. 
 
 Another result had been to develop the practice of parti- 
 cular arts and crafts, in particular races and situations. Archi- 
 tecture the art which so largely affects and interprets men's 
 thoughts in regard to private and public life ; the comfort of 
 men's lives and the splendour of their religious worship 
 became with the Hindus almost wholly a matter of decoration ; 
 their temples and palaces, starting from wooden structures and 
 caves hewn out of the living rock, ignored the resources of the 
 arch and covered only narrow and obscure spaces; while decora- 
 tion, unconnected with construction and straying beyond the 
 limits of taste, until it was pursued as an end, for its own sake 
 alone, became grotesque ; the sport of a wild polytheism.
 
 424 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 But the Hindu workman remained ; the patient skilful work- 
 man. To him has been given, more than to most other men, 
 to be content with a seat on the lap of mother earth, and the 
 tepid fanning of his native air ; while his chisel plays over wood 
 or stone, tracing the lines laid down for him ; for so he earns 
 his daily bread, with many holidays, and a happy ignorance of 
 art-canons or vast designs ; and when death comes to him he 
 meets it with indifference, letting the unfinished pattern fall 
 from his failing hand into that of his son long since trained for 
 the office. 
 
 So far as our knowledge goes, the Turkman conquerors long 
 viewed these things with stolid indifference. Those of the 
 Hindus who resisted them did it without union and were 
 beaten in detail. If they renewed resistance after conquest 
 they were regarded as rebels, and scourged with fire and sword. 
 If not, they received a contemptuous toleration which admitted 
 of their being employed in services for which the rude invaders 
 were unfit. The sculptures nay, the very forms of the 
 early Saracen architecture of Delhi and Ajmere show the hand 
 of the Hindu artificer ; and the coins of the early kings tell the 
 same tale in the character of their inscriptions, and in the 
 bulls and mounted horses which had been common under the 
 Hindu Rajas, but which no Muslim engraver would ever 
 design. The risings of the "Rais and Ranas," and the 
 frightful slaughter inflicted on them and their followers when 
 they did not submit form but an incidental part of the story 
 of the later kings of Delhi of the " Slave " line ; and it is under 
 Sultan Balban who virtually ended that line that the rude 
 engraving of animals and the use of Hindu letters cease upon 
 the coins. 
 
 It was, however, Ala-ud-din, the second of the Khilji Kings, 
 who accentuated the distinction between the Hindus and 
 Muslims, no longer as conquered and conquerors but as two 
 hostile classes in the same community. The coins now
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 425 
 
 assume a pure Muslim type some being struck at Ueogir in 
 Deccan. The architecture is of a Moorish type, unblended 
 with Hindu designs or material; under this ruler, in fact 
 begins the first decorated Pathan order, his beautiful gateway 
 in the southern wall of the Kutab mosque has pointed arches 
 of a horse-shoe character, and the cupola rests upon rich pen- 
 dentives, all foreign to the ideas of the Hindu labourers, and 
 beyond their mechanical skill. 
 
 Yet we hear of no relations between him and his non-Muslim 
 subjects save what might be supposed to prevail between a 
 huntsman and his hounds. Even when obedient the most 
 they could expect was their food. The Sultan seldom con- 
 sulted lawyers ; but on one occasion he deigned to take an 
 opinion as to the rights of a Muslim ruler over heathen sub- 
 jects ; and the answer was to this effect : 
 
 By the strict theory, the people must either accept Islam or 
 be killed : but the humanity of the school to which the 
 learned man belonged had provided an alternative in \hefazia 
 or capitation. When called on to pay this the Hindus should 
 remember how highly they are favoured, and show becoming 
 submissiveness. Should the collector be pleased to spit in 
 their faces they are to receive it as an attention, and put no 
 difficulties in his way by turning aside. Thus they are to 
 stand ; the object being to show their due obedience and to 
 promote the glory of Islam. For what says Holy Scripture ? 
 "They must either accept Islam, or be killed, or become 
 slaves." Only as followers of Abu Hanifa can we allow them 
 the privilege of the capitation-tax. But the Sultan was far 
 from agreeing in this humane view, or limiting the Hindu pay- 
 ments to a fixed poll-tax : and he issued ordinances by which 
 could they have been enforced no Hindu would have had 
 any property, only earning the flour and milk necessary to keep 
 him alive and in working order. 
 
 Thus, amid much suffering, the Hindus under the Turkman
 
 426 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 and Pathan dynasties, followed their own laws and customs in 
 the Punjab, in Hindustan, and in some of the outlying prov- 
 inces. In the southern regions they were still less molested ; 
 in a great part of those countries they long maintained autono- 
 mous States; and, even in those provinces that were under Mus- 
 lim Governments, Hindus rose to places of trust and power, and 
 the two races were often on good terms. It must, however, be 
 confessed that of these things we have little direct knowledge, 
 unless as to those parts whose semi-legendary history has been 
 collected by the patient if somewhat credulous enthusiasm of 
 the British historian of Rajputana.* Elsewhere, we catch only 
 passing glimpses of the indigenous races. It may be supposed 
 that the bulk of the people lived a quiet, industrious, and frugal 
 life, only interrupted, from time to time, by calls to arms from 
 
 / their native leaders, the " Rais and Ranas," who are sometimes 
 mentioned as being chastised for rebellion. They would regard 
 their foreign conquerers, generally, as a burden laid upon them 
 
 1 by angry gods ; and would pursue their avocations, agriculture 
 and petty trade, under the necessity of living, which even Ala-ud- 
 din was fain to recognise. The origin of the lingua franca, - 
 mentioned in its proper place as dating from the latter part of 
 this period, is an indication of intercourse between them and 
 the Muslims ; while the law-reform that occurred about the 
 same time shows that they must have been left, as the people 
 of Greece were under the Ottoman Empire, in the enjoyment 
 
 / of their own institutions. 
 
 We can form no exact estimate either of the numbers of the 
 population, or the amount of the public revenue under the 
 earlier Muslim Empire of Hindustan. We neither know the 
 normal extent of its dominions, nor the actual purchasing 
 power of its money. The integer of account was, usually, the 
 tanka ; a Turkish silver coin of that name still circulates in 
 
 * Lieutenant-Colonel J. Tod, " Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan," 
 two vols. second edition, Madras. 1873.
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 427 
 
 Central Asia, equivalent in value to four-tenths of a franc. 
 The crazy Juna attempted to introduce a coinage of copper 
 tokens, but he had to call them in after a short trial, and at a 
 prodigious sacrifice. The same monarch also lost many of the 
 outlying provinces. Under his successor, who was only 
 partially successful in recovering those provinces, the annual 
 revenue was sixty-five millions of tankas, but as these coins 
 may have been of copper, of mixed metal, of silver, or even of 
 gold, this statement gives no information. (At a somewhat 
 later date the silver tanka was equivalent to the rupee). At the 
 end of the period under notice the revenue of the Empire 
 acquired by Babar (1526) is estimated by Erskine as equivalent - 
 to ,-4,212,000 of modern sterling. 
 
 The sources of this revenue (under Juna's successor) were : 
 first, the Khirdj, a tithe on agriculture, payable by Muslims and 
 non-Muslims alike ; second, the Jazia, a duplication of the 
 above, payable by non-Muslims only; and third, a fifth of war- 
 prize and of the yield of mines. 
 
 The population may have been somewhere about 5,000,000 
 of Muslims, and 25,000,000 of others ; or say 35,000,000 in 
 all including aborigines. 
 
 SECTION 2. With the conquest of Hindustan by Babar, 
 the foundation of a more civilised system was undoubtedly * 
 begun. It was not, indeed, due directly to any superior ad- 
 ministrative ability of the Mughals, or Chaghtai Turks, of whose 
 levity and indolence notice has been already taken; and it is to a 
 native Muslim usurper that the beginning of good government in 
 ^Hindustan must be attributed. We have had occasion to show 
 in CHAPTER v. how much that great man attempted in the way 
 of uniting the various races of Hindustan under a sound and 
 vigilant administration. After the Mughal restoration the seed 
 that Sher Shah had sown came up. Akbar, Mughal though 
 he was, had been tutored in the school of adversity. Early in 
 his reign he employed officials whom Sher Shah had formed ;
 
 428 HISTORY OF INDIA, 
 
 and this advantage, joined to his own earnest and benevolent 
 character, led to a general and most beneficial extension of 
 Sher Shah's system under Akbar. The year 1580 may be 
 taken as the date from which the Empire began to exist in its 
 consolidated form. The recalcitrant rulers of the remoter pro- 
 vinces north of the Narbada had been reduced to obedience, 
 the supremacy of the sovereign had been acknowledged in a 
 document which may be regarded to some degree at least, as " a 
 written constitution." No conquests had as yet been attempted 
 south of the Narbada of the twelve Provinces which made up 
 the Empire of that date, we may borrow the account given 
 by Abul Fazl, written some years later, premising that the 
 rupee had now been made the monetary integer. It has not 
 been thought necessary to complicate the matter by adding 
 the figures from the detailed rent-rolls ; apparently they were 
 prepared at another time, yet they do not exceed the other 
 estimates very seriously, and perhaps only so because they 
 included omitted items of Customs. 
 
 Each Province was on the scale of an average European 
 kingdom of those days. The EASTERN PROVINCE (or Pro- 
 vinces, for it might be so regarded) consisted of Bihar, Bengal, 
 and Orissa, a tract of the size of France, and assessed under 
 Akbar at about one kror and a half. It was chiefly in the 
 plains of the Lower Ganges, with the Brahmaputra on the East 
 and the Mahanadi on the west, with chains of considerable 
 elevation to north and south, and provided everywhere with 
 abundant streams of water. The chief towns were Patna, 
 Lakhnauti (Gaur) and Satgaon, afterwards Hugli. 
 
 Moving westward one came to ALLAHABAD and AUDH 
 ("Oude"), often united under the same Viceroy, and each 
 resembling Bihar in scenery, situation, and character : the total 
 area of the two together being greater than that of Ireland. 
 The aggregate land-revenue was about a kror and a third. 
 The city of Allababad, called Prayag by the natives, was at the
 
 L Beng-ol : 
 2-Bohxir. 
 "- Orifiao.. 
 4. 0xdJ|-. 
 "5. Delhi.
 
 (Sc tki JBtccaix) 
 
 Tin? Diviaioivs rf ike MvigKol Empire .-
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 429 
 
 junction of the Ganges and Jumna ; and here Akbar built a 
 great castle, still occupied by the British Government, and a 
 place of strategic importance. Faizabad near the ancient 
 Hindu city of Ayodhya from which the Province took its 
 name was the capital of the Trans- Gangetic region. 
 
 AGRA or Biana was a compact division extending from 
 Kalpi on the East to Riwari on the west and from Aligarh, 
 (Koel) to the southern limit of Narwar. The chief city the 
 Agar of the natives was called Akbarabad, in honour of the A 
 Emperor. The fortress founded by him still subsists, and 1 
 harboured the Christian residents and their followers during 
 the troubles of 1857. The land-revenue from this large and 
 fertile province was over two krors. 
 
 MALWA, a province formed out of a conquered kingdom, 
 
 stretched from the borders of DEHLI and Gwalior (southern 
 
 part of AGRA) to the GUJARAT frontier. The climate and 
 
 fertility were famous : an ancient Hindi couplet avers that : 
 
 11 In Malwa land you are always fed, 
 
 One step water, next step bread." 
 
 MALWA was where Holkar now rules, and the chief towns in 
 Akbar's time were Mandu and Ujain. The area was about equal 
 to that of Audh (say, twenty-four thousand square miles), and 
 the revenue about six hundred thousand rupees. 
 
 GUJARAT like MALWA, was an old Muslim kingdom annexed 
 to the Empire in 1578. It was washed by the ocean, and con- 
 tained the large peninsula ofKathiawar besides the province of 
 Ahmadabad on the mainland in which the capital of the 
 same name, was situated. The revenue exceeded a kror of 
 rupees. 
 
 KHANDES, a small, but pleasant tract, lay between the 
 Narbada and Tapti rivers : it -was not wholly subjugated till 
 1601. 
 
 The so-called Subah of AJMERE was almost conterminous 
 with the modern " Rajputana," and was held by various Hindu
 
 430 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 chiefs who may be regarded rather as allies than vassals. The 
 country was hilly and unproductive ; and the aggregate of the 
 Rajas' tribute estimated by Abul Fazl at five hundred and 
 seventy-one thousand rupees was only collected under compul- 
 sion. The Hindu chiefs were virtually independent, excepting 
 that some of them were from time to time obliged to give their 
 daughters in marriage to members of the Imperial house. They 
 were there before the Mughals came, they are there after the 
 Mughals have gone. 
 
 DEHLI was a province of average size, and the revenue from 
 land was one and a half kror. The Khalsa, or demesne round 
 the city, was valuable : in later reigns, indeed, it sometimes 
 supplied almost all the needs of the Crown. 
 
 LAHORE was a province somewhat larger in extent, but 
 yielding a nearly identical revenue : the capital as in other 
 cases gave the province its name. It was a favourite resi- 
 dence with Akbar, and contained one of his fortified palaces. 
 
 MULTAN was a long strip of sandy country lying along the 
 left bank of the Indus : the revenue was about four hundred 
 thousand rupees. The capital of the same name as the pro- 
 vince was a place of great strength, originally designed as a 
 defence against invasion from the north-west. 
 
 THATTA gave the name to the valley of the Lower Indus 
 which is now called Sindh. The revenue was not more than 
 one hundred and sixty thousand rupees. 
 
 KASHMIR, with the adjoining hills of Swat, and Kabul, was 
 the sub-alpine region of Asia's Italy : chiefly valued for climate 
 and sport. The total revenue, in kind and specie, has been 
 estimated at eight hundred thousand rupees. Balkh and Buda- 
 kshan were outlying fragments inhabited by turbulent tribes, 
 and of little account from the fiscal point of view. 
 
 Such was the Empire of Akbar, before he began to conquer 
 in the Deccan : and the following further details may be noted 
 as to the fiscal system,
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 431 
 
 A fixed standard of mensuration having been established, 
 the soil was surveyed and classified, according as it might be 
 waste, fallow, or under crop. The last of these classes formed 
 the basis of assessment : that which produced cereals, vetches, 
 or oil-seeds paying one-third of the estimated produce to the 
 state, in kind ; the rest was left the Zaminddr whom we may 
 regard as a tenant-in-chief, or state-cultivator. But Akbar did 
 all in his power to introduce cash payments into his service, and 
 for this purpose having little command of taxation proper or 
 other revenue he made a different sort of settlement on crops 
 that were grown to be sold in the market ; such as cotton and 
 sugar. These paid in specie, at the same rate, only it was assessed 
 on the estimated money value, instead of on the produce. 
 This was a complete departure from the systems of his pre- 
 decessors and later successors, who followed the law of Islam 
 by virtue of which the non-Muslim subjects paid more than 
 believers about double it is thought. 
 
 ^_Abul Fazl gives rates of pay, in cash, for all sorts of posts. 
 Some of the high vassals, no doubt, were in possession of what 
 may be called "fiefs," estates which they administered, and out 
 of whose revenues they maintained the militia. It is related 
 by Blochmann that when some of these nobles remonstrated 
 with Akbar upon the great confidence that he reposed in Todar 
 Mai, the Emperor good-humouredly replied by asking them, 
 " who managed their estates?" and, on receiving the expected 
 answer, said that he trusted that he also might have leave to 
 confide the management of his estates to a Hindu.* In Akbar's 
 reign, however, the chief military duties devolved on the regular 
 army, who were paid in money, of which the purchasing power 
 must be inferred from the recorded rates. The rupee was 
 valued at forty ddws, and represented the value of three bushels 
 of wheat, or half the price of an average sheep. t In the 
 
 * " Calcutta Review," vol. 52, p. 330. 
 
 t Akbar's rupee weighed 174 '5 grains, and was nearly double the shil- 
 ling of Elizabeth.
 
 432 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 fortieth year of the reign (1596) the revenue "was fixed at the 
 annual rental of 3,62,97,55,246 dams, or Rs. 90,749,881. 2. 5." 
 Adding up the detailed lists that followed we get a total of all 
 but ten krors, and it seems that, excepting the miscellaneous 
 items of customs which represent the difference between these 
 two totals, the whole revenue was derived from land. A con- 
 temporary and fellow-official of Abul Fazl, by name Nizam-ud- 
 din Ahmad, says that it was "640 krors of murddi tankas" and 
 as he must have meant much the same as his colleague, the 
 integer he adopts may be taken as the indigenous copper paisa 
 of the country, of which sixty-four went to the Rupee. Before 
 the end of the reign, Khandes and Berar were annexed, 
 yielding over two-and-a-half krors, and this explains the esti- 
 mate of Coryat, in the following reign, that Jahangir succeeded, 
 to a yearly revenue of "forty millions of crowns at six shillings 
 each," say twelve krors of rupees. 
 
 Abul Fazl was a man of orderly mind, and his admiration 
 for his hero is shown in minute detail of his public and private 
 conduct, and otherwise than in the usual generalities of Oriental 
 flattery. As a matter, of course the information is not all of 
 equal value. It is not important perhaps to know what was the 
 price of ice, or how the household was supplied with drinking 
 water ; the general reader of three centuries later will hardly 
 care whether the cheapest kind of velvet came from Gujarat, 
 or from Europe. But we are more interested when we learn 
 that the Emperor had an album containing portraits of all his 
 chief officers, and that he openly expressed admiration for the 
 art of portraiture, so generally discountenanced in Muslim 
 countries. The manner in which his Majesty laid out his time, 
 too, is fully stated, and bears the stamp of his character. He 
 ate but once in the twenty-four hours, and sometimes abstained 
 from flesh meat for months together. In the matter of sleep, 
 Akbar was no less abstemious ; sleeping a short time in the 
 evening, and again before dawn, but passing the greater part
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 433 
 
 of the night in debate or administrative business. In the last 
 watch of the night there was a concert of music, after which 
 the Emperor would rest till daybreak. He then rose and 
 showed himself in a balcony, in front of which a crowd of 
 people were collected ; after that brief general audience, he 
 would again retire. The forenoon was passed in the hall of 
 state, where he received petitions, and dispensed justice. He 
 had a sort of permanent Cabinet, many of his ministers being 
 Hindus. The writer of another account confirms some of these 
 statements. "Akbar," says the author of the Ddbistan, "paid 
 no regard to hereditary power or pedigree, but favoured those 
 whom he found to excel in knowledge and in conduct." There 
 was a peerage, a life peerage be it understood, of which the 
 members were called Mansabddrs, classified according to the 
 number of horsemen that they were supposed to lead ; thus, 
 princes of the blood were " leaders of five-thousand," and 
 other degrees followed with lower numbers. The flower of the 
 cavalry was a sort of bodyguard, consisting of gentlemen- 
 cadets called " Ahdis," and corresponding to the " Exempts " 
 of the old French monarchy ; these were the sons or nominees 
 of the peers, not entitled to succeed to hereditary dignity, yet 
 having the advantage of beginning life in the Imperial house- 
 hold. Each of these young aspirants would be followed by 
 one or more men-at-arms of inferior rank, they had the rank 
 and pay of privates but were not liable to sentry or fatigue-duty. 
 This is the corps of whose services we hear when the Emperor 
 Jahangir was enlarged while Mahdbat Khan was taking him to 
 Kabul in 1625. 
 
 After describing the Empire as it was in the golden time of 
 Akbar, Abul Fazl goes off into a description of other nations ; 
 and it is important to note that he particularly records a 
 sympathetic account of the Hindus very different from the 
 fastidious criticism of Babar, written about seventy years 
 earlier. "The Hindus," says the friend and Minister of 
 
 F F
 
 434 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Babar's grandson, "are pious, affable, cheerful, given to study, 
 lovers of justice, able in business, grateful, admirers of truth, 
 and of an unbounded fidelity." He admits however, the 
 grounds that had formerly existed for blaming their backward- 
 ness in material culture and comfort, and attributes a part of 
 their advance to the care and wisdom of his master. Be this 
 as it may, there is the indisputable fact that this foreign states- 
 man evidently studied with kindly interest the tastes, thoughts, 
 and habits of races hitherto treated with hatred and con- 
 tempt. In doing so he obviously expected to please his Lord ; 
 and the appearance of the case goes some way to suggest that 
 the manners of subject people are apt to be very much what 
 their rulers make them. 
 
 It is for such reasons that the reign of Akbar, and the in- 
 stitutions that he founded or favoured, must be considered as 
 typical. The reign of his son Jahangir was rather a period of 
 negligence than of tyranny. He had his ideals, they stand on 
 record in his own words, and they are not bad ones ; though 
 they have been severely criticised by Sir H. M. Elliot. He 
 claims to have remitted transit-dues ; but the evidence of 
 European visitors of the period leads us to fear that this was 
 rather of the nature of a " pious opinion " than of an actual 
 measure of administration. The same doubt hangs over the 
 assertion of measures for preventing highway robbery and 
 the embezzlement of dead travellers' effects. The Emperor 
 takes credit for promoting temperance among his subjeccs ; 
 unhappily he failed to practice that virtue in his own person. He 
 says that he put down oppression ; but Englishmen of 
 Elizabethan times were not squeamish and some of them 
 relate with loathing acts of oppression, done under the Em- 
 peror's orders, of which they were witnesses. Officials were 
 forbidden to marry women in the districts under their authority 
 without Government permission ; a well-intentioned rule, 
 though the Emperor broke it in his own case. His idea of
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 435 
 
 public hospitals and disp2nsaries is to his credit : let us hope 
 that it took effect. Of the remaining notions the like opinion 
 holds good, they were useful if carried out, which we cannot be 
 sure of; one of the most pleasing traits recorded of himself by 
 Jahangir is the respect for his illustrious father's memory, of 
 which he gave positive proof by a very fine mausoleum to be 
 seen, near Agra, to the present day. Finch, an English 
 traveller of that time says that the tomb was " much worshipped 
 both by Moors and Gentiles, all holding Akbar for a great 
 saint."* 
 
 Of the state of the country under Shahjahan something was 
 said in our CHAPTER V., where it was shown that the Empire 
 was in equipoise and that many favourable impressions were 
 made upon Europeans competent to judge. The native his- 
 torians are even more eulogistic ; and, if we ought to judge a 
 ruler by his own lights, their opinion is even more valuable, as 
 showing the standard. 
 
 All that is vital and pregnant in the Muslim part of Indian 
 history has now been reviewed : and the modern British 
 administration has succeeded so far as it has taken hold of the 
 ideas then introduced, in the three respects of revenue 
 management, the employment of natives, and complete religi- 
 ous equality. We must now briefly notice the ill effects of a 
 departure from sound views of these matters. 
 
 Shahjahan is said to have inherited a revenue of seventeen^ 
 
 and a half krors ; and the Bddshdhndma gives that of twenty 
 years later as twenty-tivo, adding the details for each 
 Province. 
 
 By the middle of the reign of Alamgir all principles of mod- 
 eration were flung to the winds : the Empire had reached its 
 
 * See article, by the late Prof. Blochmann, in "Calcutta Review" for 
 1869. He says " The memoirs of Jahangir do not contain one grand 
 thought nor a trace that the author realised his exalted position " : but 
 that may be thought an overstatement. 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 tilSTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 extreme limits ; but disaffection was rapidly loosening its 
 cohesion. The map will show how great the nominal additions 
 to the territory had been ; for, excepting the extreme south of the 
 Peninsula all India was under the nominal rule of the Mughal 
 Empire : the Muslim kingdoms had been subverted, but their 
 subversion had removed breakwaters against the rising tide of 
 Mahratta ambition. North of the river Narbada a Hindu 
 revival was being stimulated by persecution ; the famous letter 
 of Rdna Raj Singh, written about 1680, shows to what a pitch 
 things were rising in the country of the chivalrous Rajputs, a 
 people incapable of sympathising with the vulgar marauders 
 of the Deccan, and by no means unwilling to be obedient sub- 
 jects of the Emperors in whose veins ran so much of their 
 blood. But the law of seven generations was at work, the 
 impulse of the Mughals was exhausted. Their armies were 
 cumbrous crowds of men-at-arms loosely disciplined and 
 commanded by amateur officers. The Generals sate on 
 elephants whose howdas were heavily plated with iron ; when- 
 ever one of them was picked off by a hostile marksman his 
 command dispersed, and if the chief leader fell the whole host 
 fled and the fight was over. The artillery, except light cul- 
 verins on camels, consisted of guns of position which were not 
 moved without great delay and difficulty. The infantry con- 
 sisted of archers, matchlockmen, and light companies armed 
 with pikes. These hosts were constantly surrounded by the 
 Mahratta horsemen, and could not move rapidly both by 
 reason of their constitution and for want of supplies. When 
 one or two chiefs had been disabled and the General-in-Chief 
 was no longer visible in his howda, his men were wont to turn 
 into a mob, only thinking of its own safety. "I am per- 
 suaded," said Bernier, at an early period of the reign, " that 
 25,000 veterans of Conde's army, led by a Turenne, would 
 trample under foot all those armies." In point of fact, 
 scarcely eighty years later, a force of 230 Frenchmen, with
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 437 
 
 700 native infantry, but without either cavalry or guns, put to 
 flight a Mughal army of 10,000 strong, horse, foot, and 
 artillery, and took possession of their camp. This action took 
 place near Madras in 1747, and was the foundation of all the 
 later conquest of Europeans in India. 
 
 Alamgir's extended Empire makes a great show in the 
 revenue estimates of the time. "Valuable MS. records" cited 
 _byJE._Thomas, show the twenty-two Tcrors of 1647 to nave 
 risen to twenty-four by 1655, and there are later estimates 
 going as high as thirty-four krors. Manucci's detailed account 
 may be compared with that given above for 1597. It will be 
 observed that the assessments of Bengal and Gujarat had 
 lately increased; and, as these were the provinces where the 
 Portuguese and English had their treaty ports, the increase 
 may be an indication of customs dues or other commercial 
 profits. The total of the old Provinces answers fairly to the 
 accounts given of Shahjahan's revenues. The annexations of 
 Alamgir were recent when Manucci wrote, and are evidently 
 not properly estimated. 
 
 Aurangabad, for example, which he calls Baglana, is shown 
 by other writers to have ultimately borne a far higher assess- 
 ment. 
 
 Rs. 
 
 1. BENGAL . . . . . . . . . . 4,00,90,000 
 
 2. BIHAR 21,50,000 
 
 3. ORISSA 57>7>5 00 
 
 4. AUDH . . . . . . 1,00,50,000 
 
 5. DELHI 1,25,50,000 
 
 6. AGRA 2,22,03,550 
 
 7. ALLAHABAD . . . . . . . 77,38,000 
 
 8. LAHORE 2,32,05,000 
 
 9. KABUL .. 32,07,250 
 
 10. AjMERE .. 19,00,000 
 
 11. MULTAN 5> 2 5> 000
 
 438 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 Rs. 
 
 12. MALWA .. .. .. .. 99,06,250 
 
 13. GUJARAT . . . . . . . . 2,32,95,000 
 
 14. KHANDES .. .. .. .. 1,11,05,000 
 
 15. BERAR .. 1,58,07,500 
 
 1 6. GONDWANA Blank. 
 
 TOTAL .. 21,67,10,550 
 Annexed by Alamgir. 
 
 17. AURANGABAD .. .. .. .. 66,85,000 
 
 1 8. BIJAPUR . . . . . . . . 5,00,00,000 
 
 19. GOLKONDA . . . . . . . . 5,00,00,000 
 
 20. BlDAR . . . . . . . . 72,OO,OOO 
 
 GRAND TOTAL . . 31.79,35,050 
 
 The last flicker of prosperity enjoyed by the House of 
 Taimur was under the short reign of Aurangzeb's son. Then 
 followed the bloodshed and confusion of the Sikh wars and the 
 advance of the Mahrattas, the murder of one do-nothing sove- 
 reign after another, and the domineering of the king-making 
 Sayyads. A number of usurping provincials founded small 
 states at the expense of the Empire, and when Nadir Shah 
 retired with the spoils of Delhi in 1738, the Empire was almost 
 at its last gasp. Ten years later, when Muhamad Shah died, 
 a momentary flush arose from the success of his son over the 
 invading Afghans. But the country had almost ceased to be 
 habitable by civilised men. A Persian traveller named 
 Muhumad Hazin had the fortune to go through the siege of 
 Ispahan, and the Afghan conquest of his country, before taking 
 refuge in India. He evidently thought his own country, under 
 all its sufferings, preferable to Hindustan as a place of abode. 
 "No man," he declared, "of his own choice will ever live in 
 India; without compulsion he will never consent to a long resi- 
 dence there, , . unless he be one who unexpectedly arrives at
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 439 
 
 wealth and distinction, and from lack of moral strength . . . 
 becomes tranquil there, and habituates himself to the life." 
 
 SECTION 3. Things, even then, were scarcely at their 
 worst : the momentum of Government exhausted itself by slow 
 degrees in Hindustan: in the Deccan its decay had taken place 
 a. little later, and the effects did not wear off so soon. Up to 
 1748, when the old Nizam died, the country about his capital 
 of Haidarabad had been well ruled, so far as the constant greed 
 and aggression of the Mahrattas would allow. But elsewhere 
 the breakdown had already begun ; and at the death of the 
 Emperor Muhamad Shah, in the same year, the whole of 
 Hindustan was falling into anarchy. " After his demise," 
 writes an able native historian, "everything went to wreck." 
 Although the whole peninsula still owned the nominal sway of 
 the Mughal Chancery of Delhi, no provinces remained in the 
 actual possession of the Government officials, who only held a 
 few districts on the left bank of the Sutlej, and a portion of the 
 Upper Duab. Gujarat was overrun by the Mahrattas ; Malwa 
 and Rajputana had ceased to pay tribute. The Jats were 
 independent in the country between Agra and the Chambal 
 River. About Gwalior and Ujain, Sindia was founding his 
 power; the Bangash Pathans of Farrukhabad were in possession 
 of the Central Duab ; Audh and Allahabad were ruled with 
 quasi-royal state by Safdar Jang ; the eastern provinces were 
 subject to Ala Virdi and his line ; the Mahrattas were supreme 
 in the western Deccan ; the rest of the South was under the 
 rule or influence of the Nizam, save where the Hindu Rajas 
 maintained a precarious autonomy. 
 
 But this revival of native local power was not the cause of 
 much social welfare. With the example of the Nizam before 
 mentioned the local dynasties did not concern themselves ; and 
 the country was in as wretched a condition as France after the 
 Hundred Years' War. A native cited by Dow speaks of "every 
 species of domestic confusion. Villainy," he adds, "was
 
 440 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 practised in all its forms ; law and religion were trodden under 
 foot, the bonds of private friendship and connection, as well as 
 society and Government were broken, every individual, as if in 
 a forest of wild beasts, could rely upon nothing but the strength 
 of his own arm." 
 
 To a similar purpose is the testimony of another witness 
 cited by Colonel Tod, the historian of Rajaputana: 
 
 " The people of Hindustan at this period thought only of 
 present safety and gratification. Misery was disregarded by 
 those who escaped it, and man, centred only in himself, felt 
 not for his kind. This selfishness, destructive of public and 
 of private virtue, became universal after the invasion of Nadir 
 Shah." 
 
 The social degeneration went on almost to the end of the 
 century. We are informed by Baillie Fraser on the authority 
 of Colonel J. Skinner, C.B., who had trailed a pike in the 
 service of Mahadaji Sindia from about 1790 to 1803, that 
 Hindustan was actually becoming depopulated. "So reduced" 
 he said, " was the actual number of human beings, and so 
 utterly cowed their spirit, that the few villages that did continue 
 to exist, at great intervals, had scarcely any communication 
 with each other, and so great was the increase of beasts of prey 
 that the little communication that remained was often cut off by 
 a single tiger known to haunt the road." 
 
 Nor was the condition of Southern India much better. Of 
 the moral character of the inhabitants of the Deccan we have 
 the following opinion from a man of strong observation, but 
 little given to strong language : 
 
 " They are the most deceitful, mischievous race of people 
 that I have ever seen or read of. I have not yet met with a 
 Hindu who 'had one good quality ; and honest Mussulmans do 
 not exist.'' [Wellington's "Supplementary Despatches," 1797, 
 etc.] 
 
 When we look at the India of to-day, North and South
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 
 
 441 
 
 alike, we find a difficulty in believing that it is peopled by the 
 near descendants of the beings thus described. The popula- 
 tion is dense, almost too much so, but it is free from crime and 
 orderly to an unusual degree. Roads, canals, railways, and 
 busy manufacturing and commercial communities are every- 
 where to be seen. Five universities and nearly one hundred 
 thousand public schools provide all grades of instruction ; a 
 large revenue is raised with a very low rate of incidence. The 
 country has passed, in a few generations, from anarchy to the 
 reign of law. 
 
 How great the work has been must be learned from the next 
 volume. Our present task has been to show how great the 
 need was, and in what difficult conditions it was begun. The 
 first impression on anarchy in Hindustan, was made before 
 Lake's conquest, by officers acting under Mahadaji Sindia.* 
 
 After the blinding of Shah Alam by Ghulam Kadir, and when 
 the new-model army had been thoroughly organised, General 
 de Boigne held land at Aligarh ; the pay of the officers and 
 men being a first charge upon the rents : and this estate was 
 gradually increased until it became a quasi-principality. 
 
 The time of the conquest Perron held as follows : 
 
 Resumed Jagirs, 7 ; with yearly income 
 Taluk as in Duab, 4 ; ,, ,, 
 
 Districts W. of Jumna, 3 ; 
 
 In Saharanpore, 18; 
 
 In Duab (original); 
 
 N. of Jumna (original) 
 
 RUPEES. 
 
 375,248 
 
 84,047 
 
 65,000 
 
 478,089 
 
 2,083,287 
 
 1,031,852 
 
 Total, say, 4,112,523 
 
 * v. " Madhava Rao, Sindhia," Rulers of India series ; Oxford, 1892. 
 The spelling of the name in the text is taken from an authentic seal in pos- 
 session of Mr. L. Bowring, C.S.I.
 
 442 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 The original holding was of the value of some twenty lakhs 
 (say two millions sterling) per annum ; gradually increased to 
 more than double of that income; and with that security for their 
 pay and confidence in the honour and promises of their Savo- 
 yard chief, the troops became patterns of good conduct. In an 
 English newspaper of the time we are told that the men sub- 
 mitted to General de Boigne's " discipline and civilisation, and 
 
 . . . the rapacious licence which had formerly been 
 common . . . came at last to be looked upon as in- 
 famous even by the meanest soldier " (" Bengal Journal," 
 1790.) The "civilisation" introduced among the troops 
 would form a type for the surrounding population ; naturally 
 mild and orderly, and finding themselves no longer robbed or 
 oppressed by their professed guardians, they would turn to 
 their squalid homes and long-neglected fallows with some hope 
 of finding a profit in honest industry. Like the great Pathan 
 ruler, Sher Shah, the General knew that the proper price of a 
 high position is strenuous and increasing labour. He rose at 
 dawn and continued at work nearly all day ; surveying stores 
 and factories, inspecting troops, hearing reports from civil 
 officials and passing orders thereon, receiving visitors, carrying 
 on diplomatic business, and attending to his own private con- 
 cerns. Yet we have undoubted evidence that all this industry 
 was unavailing to the production of any great change in the 
 immediate present of the people. The attention of the foreign 
 administrator in the direction of civil work must have been 
 much absorbed by the collection of the revenue ; for that was 
 the keystone of every duty and interest committed to his 
 charge. Crime might elude punishment, decree-holders might 
 have to wait for the execution of their decrees ; but a village in 
 arrear could not be allowed to set an example the following 
 whereof might mean bankruptcy, mutiny, and total failure. 
 The usual method employed was farming to the highest bidder, 
 who naturally rack-rented the cultivators ; and the same plan 
 must have affected the lands held in recompense of feudal
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 443 
 
 service though these latter were in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of Aligarh, they perhaps benefited from their near- 
 ness to headquarters. But a brigade was always quartered at 
 Sikandrabad, a few miles south of Delhi, for the express purpose 
 of aiding in the collection of revenue; and if any farmer who was 
 in balance refused to pay up he brought on his village the penalty 
 of plunder and destruction ; life being often sacrificed in these 
 violent fiscal measures. The arrangements for judicial work 
 were of the crudest ; there was a native official whose duty it was 
 to collect the reports of the local revenue-officers, and, so far as 
 these might contain penal matters, submit them for the General's 
 final decision : no formal confronting of accused and witnesses 
 being attempted, before he passed his sentence. [The Gover- 
 nor of a British Presidency had at one time a similar jurisdic- 
 tion : sentences of death and of acquittal being confirmed in 
 Council, after deliberation, with closed doors, down to 1793.] 
 Nor did anyone venture on a show of wealth or display of 
 personal comfort : such a possession as a masonry -built house, 
 even m Aligarh itself, being regarded as an index to taxation. 
 Even in De Boigne's time " people lived in a low state, both as 
 regards food and clothes ; their marriages were not costly, and 
 none of their females dared wear jewels. The well-to-do ac- 
 cumulated money and could not enjoy it : they buried it under 
 ground ; and often died without letting their family know the 
 place of its concealment . . . The bazaar street of the 
 city was very narrow in Perron's time : neither he nor De 
 Boigne ever paid any attention to the improvement of the 
 people." ("History of Aligarh, by an old resident." *) 
 
 The "old resident" was writing from tradition, and, perhaps, 
 did scant justice to De Boigne, whose turn was for benevolent 
 sedileship, as he sufficiently showed at Chambe'ri after his return 
 to his native country.! But the general impression remains, 
 
 * " Delhi Gazette," 5th June, 1874. 
 
 f v. " Memoire," etc., by his son, Count C. de Boigne, Chamberi, 
 1829; also Tod's "Rajasthan," vol. I, p. 765.
 
 444 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 with the feeling that, if well-intentioned European officers could 
 do no more for the people, the country must have fared still 
 worse under the Muslim and Hindu chiefs of that bad time. 
 The Talukdars of Hindustan, as a matter of fact, were a set 
 of robber-barons, who levied contributions right and left, so 
 that it was hardly worth while either to raise or to distribute 
 produce. So late as the second quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury the "Meerut Universal Magazine" stated that in Begam 
 Samru's principality of Sardhana armed soldiers had to patrol 
 the fields to enforce cultivation; and it is on record that she 
 levied transit dues on every kind of goods entering or leaving 
 her territory down to her death in 1836. 
 
 From State-papers written so near the close of the anarchic 
 period as 1808 we obtain confirmation of the above-recorded 
 descriptions. A Board having been formed to construct a system 
 of administration for the " ceded and conquered Provinces," re- 
 ports were called for from local officials which show the miser- 
 able condition into which the land had fallen. The Collector 
 of Aligarh recommended cautious measures in regard to the ap- 
 praisement of assets for the purpose of fixing the State's de- 
 mand; stating that the land, owing to long misrule, famine, and 
 war, had lapsed into a quasi-wild condition. He anticipated an 
 increase of cultivation and of revenue should six years of 
 peace follow which he reckoned at 32 per cent. In Etawa, 
 lower down the Duab, matters were no better. " Foreign 
 invasion," wrote the District-officer, " and intestine tumult, had 
 materially checked population, whilst the poverty of the 
 country and the capacity of its governors had almost annihi- 
 lated commerce. Elsewhere it was noted that " the form of 
 Government .which had existed had not operated to relieve the 
 necessities of the subject or to improve the resources of the 
 Empire by the encouragement of husbandry and commerce. 
 The exertions of the yeomanry have been discouraged and 
 means of cultivation denied them. Agriculture, as a conse-
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 445 
 
 quence, has languished and declined." Every Talukdar had 
 his "customs-platform," where goods in transit were syste- 
 matically stopped and taken toll of. " It is a matter of fact," 
 says a good authority, " that in those days the highways were 
 unoccupied, and the travellers walked through bye-ways." 
 Skinner and Gardner, two good officers from the Mahratta ser- 
 vice, patrolled the roads with parties of horse ; but the gangs 
 broke out as soon as their backs were turned under the Jat and 
 Bargoojuar chieftains. 
 
 In the southern part of India matters were, if possible, 
 worse. Writing of the period between 1763 and 1783, the 
 able author of Forbes's " Oriental Memoirs " says that the 
 Mahratta Governor of Poona was inattentive to the misery of 
 the people, whom " his deputy oppressed in a cruel manner. 
 Venality and corruption guide the helm of State and pervade 
 all departments. From the chieftains and nobles to the hum- 
 blest peasant in a village, neither the property nor the life of a 
 subject can be called his own." He confirms the resident of 
 remote Aligarh as to the fear of show ; the man who has 
 saved a little hoard " makes no improvement, lives no better 
 than before, and buries it in the earth without informing his 
 children of the concealment."* On the other side of the 
 country Mountstuart Elphinstone records a curious conversa- 
 tion with a begging friar near the temple of Jagannath so late 
 as 1801. "He spoke to us without any respect . . . called 
 us to him, but would not let us pass his boundary. When we 
 were near he said ' Listen ! When will you take this country ? 
 This country wants you. The Hindus are villains. When will 
 you take the country ? ' We answered ' Never ! ' He said 
 'Yes, you will certainly take it.'" 
 
 "Oriental Memoirs," 2 vols. London, 1813. Further information 
 as to the condition of various parts of Hindustan are to be found in 
 "Aleegurh Statistics," by Hutchinson and Sherer; Roorkee, 1856, and 
 "Selections from Revenue Records," Allahabad, 1873.
 
 446 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 "The country wants you," that was the true saying of an 
 unaccredited but competent representative. It would be un- 
 becoming for British writers to lay stress on the fact. And it 
 must be confessed that the assumption of power in India by 
 Clive and Wellesley was not usually an unbiassed answer to the 
 appeal of the suffering masses. Nevertheless it was a good 
 deed, and bore the promise of salvation to the people of 
 India. 
 
 The glimpses that our narrative has afforded of the condi- 
 tion of the natives in the past have shown us a people afflicted 
 with chronic warfare and misrule. In spite of the experts, we 
 cannot exactly compare the taxation of by-gone times with 
 more recent demands.* But we know that Akbar took off fifty- 
 eight minor items, and cut down the land-revenue his chief 
 remaining resource to a demand of one-third of the gross 
 produce. Yet the result was an annual income of one hun- 
 dred millions of rupees, each rupee being equivalent to over a 
 hundred-weight of corn, or the food of a man for three months. 
 The addition of four more Provinces and the imposition of the 
 Hindu poll-tax brought up the revenue in 1697 to nearly four- 
 fold that amount; so that without customs, opium, stamps, and 
 other modern resources, and with money worth three times its 
 present local value, the Mughals raised, from the compara- 
 tively small population subject to them, considerably more, in 
 actual amount, than the British Government derives from the 
 same source. t 
 
 But instead of drawing comparisons with the administra- 
 
 *v. conflicting statements in "Imperial Gazetteer," vol. vi., 2nd edit., 
 299-300. See also revised statements and notice by Mr. Stanley Lane 
 Poole in " Indian Empire," by Sir W. Hunter ; 3rd edit., 1893. 
 
 tThe land revenue of British India has been nearly stationary for 
 some years, at about two hundred and thirty millions of rupees per annum. 
 The wage of unskilled labour and the pay of a soldier have trebled since. 
 1 590, as has also the price of food.
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 447 
 
 tion of the Mughals, which had ceased before British rule 
 began, let us confine our attention to the conditions of the last 
 century. We may then feel less unwilling to accept the com- 
 plimentary sentiments expressed by a distinguished Russian 
 publicist now, unhappily, departed.* 
 
 " In reality," wrote the late Michael Katkoff in spite of hit 
 being the accredited champion of the narrower Muscovite 
 patriotism " the English have been the saviours of India. 
 During whole centuries the history of India presents one con- 
 tinued spectacle of murder and devastation. The bloody era 
 terminates with the conquest of India by the English, whose 
 rule has been incomparably more mild, human, and just, than 
 all the Governments under which the Hindus have ever lived. '' 
 
 What the Russian publicist rightly considers the beginning 
 of the new era in India was entered upon when Lord Mor- 
 nington destroyed French influence, beat down Tipu, and 
 made all Native States accept the arbitration and political 
 control of his Government. This is distinguishable, no doubt, 
 from a "conquest of India," which has never been either 
 possible or desired. But the foundations were laid for a social 
 and political fabric in which the various populations of the 
 vast peninsula should hereafter meet in unity and order ; and 
 the work was not the less certain because it was in a future, 
 however remote ; nor the less grand and imposing because it 
 was done in the name of a commercial syndicate. 
 
 Nor had these unprecedented results been due solely, or 
 even chiefly, to the vain resistance of the people. The native 
 armies, indeed, had been frequently conquered ; but we have 
 seen what those armies were, tumultuous disorganised throngs 
 of mercenaries, without patriotism, cohesion, or good general- 
 
 *M. Katkoff died 1st August, 1887, having made his paper, "The 
 Moscow Gazette," the most influential journal in Russia. It is from this 
 journal that the above sentences are quoted.
 
 448 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 ship. Two thousand years had passed since Hippocrates 
 pointed out the secret of such successes as those of Themis- 
 tocles: " Oriental armies," he said, "fought only for their master, 
 whereas Europeans fought for themselves." And so it was still ; 
 and it may be fairly doubted whether the bulk of Tipu's forces 
 felt a stronger interest in the prosperity of the " God-sent State " 
 than did the French adventurers who drilled the infantry of 
 that or any other Indian power. 
 
 Neither had there been at least, up to the time of Lord 
 Mornington any deliberate design of becoming paramount 
 on the part of the rulers of England, dive had restored the 
 territories of the Audh Nawab when he had beaten him at 
 Baksar ; and he laid down the rule that British authority in 
 Bengal ought never to pass the Karamnasa : a little stream 
 bounding the old Province of Bihar on the north-west. Warren 
 Hastings made over the district of Guntoor to the Nizam's 
 brother, and was ready to surrender the Northern Sirkars. 
 Cornwallis proposed to make Bombay a treaty-port ; and in 
 1782, the Home-Government was prepared to abandon Fort St. 
 George and the Carnatic to the Nawab. And yet the god 
 Terminus continued to advance ; here, provoked by jealousy of 
 France, there pushed on by the need of resistance to other 
 powers; until, at length, the chief of the Calcutta counting- 
 house had become the arbiter among a crowd of princes, and 
 and supreme disposer of the fortunes of many millions of 
 humble human beings. 
 
 Yet, for all that had been done, there was still no national 
 unity ; India, like medieval Italy, was but " a geographical 
 I expression." To give some notion of the multiplicity of 
 divisions existing when Mornington assumed the government, 
 a list is appended, taken from the work published at the time 
 by the Surveyor-General.* 
 
 * Rennell's "Map of India," (v. inf.)
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOREGOING. 449 
 
 BRITISH POSSESSIONS. Bengal, Bihar, and Benares ; northern 
 
 Sirkars and Guntoor, Baramahal and Dindigal, Jagir of 
 
 Madras, Calicut and Palikat. 
 
 BRITISH ALLIES. Audh, Carnatic, Travancore, Tanjore, 
 MAHRATTA STATES. Poona Mahrattas, Khandes, Gujarat, 
 
 Bijapur, Duab of the Krishna and Tunga-Bhudra rivers. 
 ALLIES AND FEUDATORIES. Sindia's dominions and the 
 
 Delhi territories, Rajputana, Bundelkhand, Bhopal, Minor 
 
 States. 
 
 BERAR STATES. (Nagpur, Orissa, etc.) 
 THE NIZAM. The Deccan, with Cadapa, Gooti, and other 
 
 districts taken from Tipu. 
 TIPU. Mysore and parts of Malabar. 
 
 [Besides the Sikh and Rohilla states in the north and north- 
 west, and the country round Bhurtpore held by the Jats.] 
 
 From which it appears that, in addition to scattered posses- 
 sions of their own (inhabited by races whose speech was not 
 intelligible to each other) the British held two Muslim and two 
 Hindu principalities in subsidiary alliance ; i.e., virtual depen- 
 dence. There were, under Mahratta rule no less than eleven 
 vast and various countries ; while two powerful and well-armed 
 Muhamadan princes ruled the remainder of the southern 
 region. 
 
 If, therefore, up to the point at present reached, there has 
 been but little information as to the social state and progress of 
 the people, and our narrative has seemed to dwell almost 
 exclusively on the wars and intrigues of selfish or contentious 
 public men, let it be considered that we have been necessarily 
 confined to such matters by the very nature of the case. In 
 the next portion of our study though we shall not be entirely' 
 free from such subjects we shall have the satisfaction cf 
 observing the unmistakable advance of the Indian races to a 
 united nationality and a common civilisation. 
 
 G G
 
 450 HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 [Some curious, and often wonderfully correct, information 
 as to the pre-British condition of the peninsula will be found 
 in "Memoir of a Map of Hindustan," &c., by James Rennell, 
 F.R.S., late Major of Engineers, and Surveyor-General of 
 Bengal, 4to, London, 1793. See also Tieffenthaler; "Descrip- 
 tion de 1'Inde," 3 v., 410, Berlin, 1788.] 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
 INDEX TO VOL. I. 
 
 Abdali ; or Ahmad Shah, Daurani, 
 invades Hindustan, 184 ; returns 
 (1757), 200; again enters India, 
 208. 
 
 Abul Fazl ; introduced at Court, 
 130-2 ; sent to Deccan, where he 
 conquers Ahmadnagar, and is 
 murdered on his way back, 141 ; 
 account of Hindus by, 142. 
 
 Adham Khan ; half-brother of 
 Akbar, his crimes and punish- 
 ment, 128-9. 
 
 Ahalia Bai ; good and popular 
 Lady of Indore, 224 ; decline of 
 her faculties and consequent in- 
 crease of Tukaji's power, 30x3. 
 
 Aibak ; v. Kutb-ud-din. 
 
 Ain Akbari ; Institutes of Akbar, 
 141-3 ; (v. Abul Fazl.) 
 
 Akbar; accession, 127; adopts 
 system of Sher Shah, 131 ; reli- 
 gious liberalism, 131-3 ; reasons 
 of failure, 134-5 ; employment of 
 
 ^ Hindu generals, 137 ; decline and 
 death of, 141-2 ; principal events 
 
 . of Akbar's reign (1556-1605), 127- 
 42. 
 
 Akbar Mirza ; son of Aurangzeb, 
 169-70, 172. 
 
 Akbar Shah ; succeeds Shah Alain 
 (1806), as King of Delhi and titu- 
 lar Emperor, 386 ; his futile at- 
 tempts to get increased allow- 
 r ances, 398. 
 
 Alamgir; title of Aurangzeb, 157; 
 revenue at accession (1659)) J 5^ '> 
 character of early administration, 
 159-60; absence of facts regarding, 
 161 ; trouble with Hindus, 163, 
 
 167 ; date of bad fortune, 165 ; 
 ,_ persecutes, 167-9 ; troublous close 
 of reign, 170-3; state of India 
 under, 173-5. 
 
 Ala-ud-din, Khilji ; murders his 
 uncle and becomes Sultan at 
 Delhi (1296), 75 ; his mad pride, 
 
 76 ; success in military business, 
 
 77 ; death (1315). 78. 
 Alexander; invasion of India, 30. 
 Aligarh ; stormed byGeneral Lake, 
 
 361- 
 
 All Gauhar ; Mirza, v. Shah Alam 
 II., 208. 
 
 Ambe"r ; v. Jaipore. 
 
 Amir Khan ; chased by Lake, 
 375 ; associated with Jaswant 
 Rao, Holkar, in plundering Raj- 
 put States, 387 ; warned off from 
 Nagpore by Minto, 397. 
 
 Aryans ; their migrations,22-23. 
 
 Asaf-ud-daula ; Nawab of Audh, 
 succeeds Shuja (1775), 233; his 
 weakness, 238, 299 ; death (1797), 
 
 3". 
 
 Asai ; v. General A. Wellesley. 
 Asoka; his reign and edicts, 34-36. 
 Audh ; principality founded (c. 
 
 1731), 181, under Barlow, 387, 
 
 406 (v. Shore). 
 Aurangzeb; son of Shah Jahan, 
 
 his rebellion, 157 ; v. Alamgir. 
 
 Babar ; Zahir-ud-din, 96 ; invades 
 Punjab (1524), 97; encounters 
 army of Hindustan at I'anipat 
 (1526), 98; victorious, 100 ; his 
 memoirs, id. ; war with Sanga 
 Rana, 101-3 5 takes Chandairi, 
 
 G G 2
 
 452 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 104 ; founds Empire, 105 ; death 
 and burial, 106. 
 
 Bahadur Shah; conquers his 
 brother near Agra (1707) and as- 
 sumes Empire, 176. 
 
 Bahlol Lodi; his reign (1451-88), 
 
 94- 
 
 Bahmani; Muslim Kingdom, 
 breaks up (1527), 114. 
 
 Baillie; defeat of, at Pollilore 
 (1780), 260-1. 
 
 Baji Rao ; becomes Peshwa (1796), 
 310. 
 
 Baksar; battle of, and consequent 
 treaty, 220. 
 
 Balban ; rise, 66-7 ; ministry, 68 ; 
 becomes Sultan, 69 ; reign and 
 conquests, 70-71 ; death, 72. 
 
 Barlow, Sir George ; his accession 
 and character, 383; opposed by 
 Lake, 384 ; Minto's views of him, 
 389 ; Governor of Madras, id. 
 
 Begam Samru, or Sombre ; suc- 
 ceeds to Samru's jagir, 239 ; 
 harsh, but efficient administra- 
 tion, 359, 444. 
 
 Benares ; policy of W. Hastings 
 towards Raja of, 240-1 ; suc- 
 cessful opposition to police-rate 
 (1812), 407. 
 
 Bengal ; (v. Bihar), annexed to 
 Delhi (1324), becomes indepen- 
 dent (1351), 89-113 ; v. table at 
 Il6; foundation of dynasty at 
 Murshidabad, 181 ; invasion by 
 Mahrattas (1742), 183; how 
 ruled from Clive to Warren 
 Hastings, 222 ; severe famine 
 (1770), 223; v. Permanent settle- 
 ment. 
 
 Bhagwan Das, Bihari Mai, Man 
 Sinh, three Rajput chiefs patro- 
 nised by Akbar, 129-30. 
 
 Bihar and Bengal; early dynas- 
 ties, 49. 
 
 Bijainagar ; v. Vijainagar. 
 
 Black Hole ; v. Siraj-ud-daula. 
 
 Boigne, Benoit de, Savoyard 
 general in service of Sindia. 
 
 269-275 ; remodels the army 
 (1789), 294-5; conquers Mughal- 
 Mahratta confederacy at Patan 
 and Merta, 295-8; beats Ilolkar's 
 army at Lakhairi, 301 ; retires, 
 succeeded by Perron, 314. 
 
 Brahmans ; their origin, 20-22. 
 
 Buddhism : its origin, 27-29. 
 
 Bundelkhand ; pacification of. 
 under Minto, 390, f.f. 
 
 Bussy, M. de ; tranquilising in- 
 fluence in Deccan, 192 ; ill- 
 treated by Nizam -Ali, 195 ; re- 
 covers power, 196 ; leaves Dec- 
 can, 205; returns to India (1783). 
 265 ; death of, id. 
 
 Buxar; v, Baksar. 
 
 Calcutta ; early history, 192-3 : 
 could not be a treaty port, 193 : 
 conferred by Imperial patent 
 (1717), 194; attacked by Nawal> 
 (June, 1756), 194-5. 
 
 Camac, Col. ; commands against 
 
 Sindia (1781), 237. 
 i Canals ; Hindustan, 6. 
 
 Carnac ; British commander ; re- 
 lations with Mir Kasim and Shall 
 Alain, 214-5 5 commands after 
 Baksar, 220; failure at \Vad- 
 gaon (1779), 235. 
 
 Carnatic ; disputed succession, 
 190 ; English recover influence 
 (1752-4), 191 ; Nawab media- 
 tised (1801), 333; v. Haidar. 
 Madras, Nizam, Tipu. 
 
 Chandernagore ; captured by 
 Clive (Feb. 1757), 198. 
 
 Chinese Pilgrims ; 41-43. 
 
 Clive ; his first appearance as a 
 soldier, 190; fights French 
 (1751-2), 191 ; sent to relieve 
 Bengal, 196 ; advances on 
 Plassy, 202 ; assumes govern- 
 ment, 204; settles Bengal (1765), 
 220 ; retires (1767), 221. 
 
 Company, E.I. ; 150, change in 
 its policy (1773), 266; Charter 
 (i 79}), 290.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 453 
 
 Coote, Sir Eyre; beats Lally at 
 \Yandewash, 207 ; irritates Mir 
 Kasim (1761), 215 ; acts against 
 Haidar in Carnatic, 262, /. 
 
 Cornwallis ; comes to Calcutta as 
 Governor (1786), 268; support 
 of British Ministry, 272; seeks 
 friendship of Poona, 279 ; moves 
 in strength upon Mysore (1792), 
 28 1 ; revenue reforms, 283, f.f. ; 
 other reforms, 290 ; retirement, 
 291 ; second administration, 377- 
 83- 
 
 Dara ; Sultan, son of Shah Jahan, 
 assumes regency (1657), 156; 
 defeated at Samoghar, 157; de- 
 capitated, 158. 
 
 Dayabhaga ; Hindu code of Ben- 
 gal, 107. 
 
 Deccan ; 8, 1 1, 40 ; state in Middle 
 Age.-, 724; divisions and dynasties 
 in Middle Ages, 73-4, 85, 108, 
 and no; v. also Note at p. in, 
 and table 116, f.f.\ Muslims of; 
 medieval wars and revolutions, 
 loS-ui ; disputed succession to 
 Xizjju. 189. 
 
 Deogiri ; in Deccan, become tri- 
 butary to Delhi (1309), 77 ; be- 
 comes seat of a Muslim govern- 
 ment (1312), 78. 
 
 Diwani; grant of ; v. Baksar. 
 
 Dupleix ; Governor of French In- 
 dia, 189-191. 
 
 Dutch ; rise and fall of power in 
 India, 150. 
 
 Dynasties, of India before Mu- 
 ghal Empire, 116, ff. 
 
 Dynasty or Constitution ; its 
 average duration, 420. 
 
 East India Company; rise, 150-1 ; 
 
 changes in position, 232, 266, 
 
 410. 
 Elphinstone, Mountstuart ; sent 
 
 as Envoy to Shah Shuja, 396. 
 English ; v. East India Company, 
 
 150. 
 
 Erskine ; indirect apology for ad- 
 ministration of W. Hastings, 
 26 7 . 
 
 Fa Hian ; v. Chinese pilgrims. 
 
 Fatehpur-Sikri ; palace of Aklwr, 
 131. U2. 
 
 Firoz Tughlak; accession (1351) 
 87 ; founds city of Firozabad near 
 Delhi, 88 ; limits of his Empire, 
 id. ; love of public works and 
 beneficent reign, 89 ; abdicates 
 (1388)90. 
 
 Forde, Col. ; conquers Northern 
 Sirkars, 205-6. 
 
 French; in India, 152; v. Car- 
 natic, Dupleix, Lally, Madra>, 
 Pondicherry. 
 
 Ghazi-ud-din, the younger ; in 
 power at Delhi (1/5.?) 200 ; mur- 
 ders Emperor Alamgir II. and 
 flies (1759) 208. 
 
 Goa ; described, 149. 
 
 Goddard ; British Commander, his 
 march and victories, 235. 
 
 Gujarat ; Muslim St'ate (founded 
 1376), 114; (1531), 120; settled 
 by Lord Cornwallis, 299 ; con- 
 quered for Akbar (1561), 128. 
 
 Gupta dynasty, 39. 
 
 Gwalior ; campaign of 1780-1, 
 236-7- 
 
 Haidar "Naik" ; or Hyder All, 
 born (1722), 1 86 ; origin and 
 rise, 248-9 ; beats Madras army, 
 251-2-3; Treaty of 1769, 253; 
 conquers Coorg, 254 ; submits 
 to Raguba, 255 ; threatens the 
 Company, 256 ; insults Madras 
 envoy (Gray), 257 ; invades the 
 Carnatic, 258 ; defeats Col. 
 Baillie, 261 ; devastates country, 
 262 ; defeated by Coote, 263 ; 
 dies, 264. 
 
 Hampi; (Bijainagaror Vijainagar), 
 in Middle Ages, 107.
 
 454 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mariana ; under Thomas, 326 ; 
 settled by Minto, 392. 
 
 Harris, Gen. ; Mil. Sec. to Gen. 
 Medows (1762), 280; his loyal 
 efforts to prepare for war against 
 Tipu, 317 ; neglected by Gover- 
 nor-General, 321. 
 
 Hassan Gangu ; founds dynasty 
 in Deccan (1347), 86; death of 
 (1358), 108. 
 
 Hastings, Warren ; Governor of 
 Bengal (1772), 231 ; Governor- 
 General under Regulating Act, 
 232 ; aids Nawab against Rohillas, 
 232-3 ; disputes with Francis, 
 234 ; duel with ditto, 242 ; 
 character of his administration, 
 242-3-6 ; succeeded by Macpher- 
 son, 268. 
 
 Hemu ; a Hindu chandler, com- 
 mands army of Pathans, 126; 
 defeat and death of, 127. 
 
 Hindu drama; picture of manners, 
 42-50. 
 
 Hinduism ; rise and character, 46- 
 48 ; its abuses and need of re- 
 form, 108. 
 
 Hindus ; their chiefs recognised 
 by Delhi Sultans, 8l. 
 
 Hindustan; condition in 1761-4, 
 218-9. 
 
 Hindustani;language, its origin, 82. 
 
 Hippocrates ; view of difference 
 of Oriental and Western armies, 
 448. 
 
 Hiwen Tsiang; v. Chinese pil- 
 grims. 
 
 Holkar (Tukaji) ; his rise, 226- 
 300 ; war with Sindia, 301 ; 
 death, 315. 
 
 JaswantRao; his rise, 315-335; vic- 
 tory over Sindia's army at Poona, 
 340; provokes war (1804), 375; 
 makes treaty with Lake, 385 ; 
 plunders Rajputs, 387-8 ; his 
 drunken habits, 388 ; death, 401. 
 
 Hoysala Ballalas ; obscured by 
 Muslim conquest in Deccan 
 (1347), 113. 
 
 Humaiun, Emperor ; wars, exile, 
 and restoration, 120-6. 
 
 India ; described generally, I , f.f. ; 
 northern region, 5-7 ; southern 
 region, v. Deccan ; ethnology, 
 12-16. 
 
 Intervention, and non-interven- 
 tion, 387-8, 390. 
 
 Ibrahim Lodi ; his reign, 95,100. 
 
 Iltimsh ; Sultan at Delhi, 61-64. 
 
 Jafir Ali ; v. Mir Tafir. 
 
 Jafir Khan, viceroy of Daula- 
 tabad, v. Hassan Gangu. 
 
 Jahandar Shah ; Emperor (May. 
 1711), short reign, 178. 
 
 Jahangir(MirzaSalim); succeeds 
 Akbar, by title of, 143 ; his 
 futile reign, 143-4 5 dies in camp, 
 
 _ r 45- 
 
 Jaipore, or Jaipur, Rajput State, 
 formerly called Amber, 129 : 
 capital removed by Jai Sinh II., 
 181. 
 
 Jai Sinh I. ; ruler of Amber, or 
 Dhundar, commands army for 
 Dara, 157 ; dies, 165. 
 
 Jai Sinh, II. ; founds Jaipore, 177 : 
 death (1743), 184. 
 
 Jalal-ud-din (v. Khiljis), mur- 
 dered (1290-6), 745. 
 
 Jaswant Rao, v. Holkar. 
 
 Jaswant Sinh ; Raja of Marwar or 
 Jodhpore, shares command of 
 army (1664-5), l( >5 , dies at 
 Kabul (1678), 167. 
 
 Jats ; first efforts of, near Agra, 
 171 ; join Hindu confederation 
 (1759), 209; subdued by Mirza 
 Najaf, 233. 
 
 Jaunpore ; Muslim power at (1393- 
 1478), 114. 
 
 Juna, or Muhamad Tughlak ; >uc- 
 ceeds his father, 84; founds Dau- 
 latabad (1328), 85; crazy ad- 
 ministration, id. ; death and 
 burial, 86.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 455 
 
 Kafur; General under Ala-ud-din, 
 his rise, 77 ; and fall (1312), 78. 
 
 KaiKobad; Sultan (1287-90), 72. 
 
 Kambaksh ; younger son of Alam- 
 gir, defeated and killed, 176. 
 
 Kanishka ; great Buddhist coun- 
 cil under, 37. 
 
 Kardla; defeat of Nizam AH at, 
 
 ( 1795) v 309- 
 
 Kasim All Khdn ; Nawab of Ben- 
 gal, v. Mir Kasim. 
 
 Katkoff, M. ; Russian journalist, 
 on British India, 447. 
 
 Khafi Khan ; nature of his narra- 
 tive, 161-2. 
 
 Khiljis; rise of dynasty, 72 ; their 
 system, 8l. 
 
 Khizr Khan; founds Sayyid dy- 
 nasty, 93 ; succeeded by Mu- 
 barak, id. 
 
 Khurram ; Sultan, v. Shah Jahan, 
 144. 
 
 Khusru, Malik ; assumes power 
 at Delhi (1321), 79; overthrown 
 and killed (August, 1321), 81. 
 
 Kutb-ud-din Aibak. 59, 61. 
 
 Lake; his great campaign (1803- 
 4), 361, f"f. ; fails at Bhurtpore, 
 377 ; crippled by Barlow, 384-6. 
 
 Lally, Count ; his character and 
 relations with the civilians of 
 Pondicherry, 205 ; besieges Mad- 
 ras (1758-9), 206; retreats to 
 Wandewash, and is there de- 
 feated by Coote, 207. 
 
 Lodi ; dynasty at Delhi, founded 
 by Sultan Bahlol, 93-4 ; apprecia- 
 tion of specie under, 95 ; over- 
 thrown by Babar (1526), 98-100. 
 
 Macpherson, Sir J. ; succeeds 
 Hastings in India, 268. 
 
 Madhu Rao Narayan; infant 
 Peshwa, scandal as to his 
 paternity, 293 ; visited by Sindia, 
 500-302 ; death, 310. 
 
 Madras; (Fort St. George), foun- 
 dation of factory and fort (1639), 
 
 151 ; taken by La Bourdonnais 
 (1746), 188 ; restored under 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, id. ; 
 besieged by Lally, 206 ; general 
 incapacity and misconduct at 
 (from 1766 to 1789), 250, 262, 
 265, 279, etc. ; relations with the 
 Carnatic, 249, 255 ; mutiny of 
 officers (1809), 398,//. 
 
 Mahabat Khan, or Zamanat Beg ; 
 a General under Jahangir, cap- 
 tures Emperor and Empress, and 
 on their freeing themselves flies 
 to the Deccan, 145. 
 
 Mahmud of Ghazni ; the icono- 
 clast, 54. 
 
 Mahrattas ; , rise (1636), 163 ; . 
 affairs at Alamgir's death, 176 ; 
 constitution during eighteenth 
 century, A.D., 183; invade Ben- 
 gal, 183 ; threaten Hindustan 
 and Punjab^ 201. Confederacy, t 
 how constituted, 293 ; virtually [ 
 dissolved, "3^3. 
 
 Malcolm, John ; employed in dis- 
 banding French force at Haidera- 
 bad, 315 ; Envoy to Persia (1800), 
 333 5 a second mission (1807), 
 397- 
 
 Malwa ; united to Mamelukes (or 
 Slave-dynasty), subverted, 72 ; 
 given to Hindu Viceroy after- 
 wards reduced by Mahrattas - 
 
 ^,(1732), 181 ; Hasam-ud-din 
 founds Mandu, 115; conquered _ 
 by Rana of Chittore, 115. 
 ,Megasthenes; resides at Pali- 
 bothra, 31; his account of India. 
 
 3 2 -34- 
 
 Metcalfe, Charles ; Envoy to Ran-^_ 
 jit Sinh (1808), 393 ; his great 
 success, 395 ; Resident at Court 
 of Delhi, 397. 
 
 Minto, Earl of; takes charge of 
 Government (1807), 389 : his 
 views, and difficulties, 390-3 ; 
 takes Mauritius, 402 ; and Java, 
 403* f.f. ; troubles with mis- 
 sionaries, 408, f.f. ; superseded.
 
 456 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 410 ; ill-success in finance and 
 revenue. 411, f./. 
 
 Mir Jafir; betrays his master 
 (1758), 202; made Nawab of 
 Bengal by Clive, 204 ; deposed 
 by Calcutta Council, 211. 
 
 Mir Kasim ; made Nawab by Cal- 
 cutta Council, 211 ; murders 
 Ellis and defies British, 217 ; 
 flies to Audh, id. ; death (1777), 
 
 233- 
 
 Mitakshara ; digest of Hindu law 
 so-called, in. 
 
 Moira, Earl of; useful to Prince- 
 Regent, 405, 410; takes charge 
 from Minto (1813), 419. 
 
 Monson, Colonel the Hon. W. ; 
 his disaster in Rajputan, 376. 
 
 Mornington, Earl of; arrives to 
 take charge of Government of 
 India (May, 1798), 313; made a 
 Marquess for conquest of Tipu 
 Sultan, 321 ; tenders resignation 
 (1802), 334. 
 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone ; v. 
 Elphinstone. 
 
 Mughals ; their original character, 
 91 ; the new Mughals, 96 ; charac- 
 teristics of new, 1 20 ; defeated 
 by Pathans under Sher Shah 
 (1540), 122, f.f. ; restoration 
 (1555), 126; Empire, establish- 
 ment and equilibrium (1556-60), 
 
 , 127-60; decline, 160, f.f. ; pro- 
 _vinces and revenues, under .Ak- 
 bar, 428 ; under Alamgir I. 
 (Aurangzeb), 437 ; breaking-up, 
 I 439 1 note on revenues under 
 I Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Ja- 
 han, 147 ; relations with Euro- 
 peans, 155. 
 
 Muhamad-bin-Sam ; conquers 
 Punjab, 57 ; murdered by Ghak- 
 kars, 59. 
 
 Muhamad Shdh; Emperor (1719- 
 48), 179-81. 
 
 Munro, Hector; British Com- 
 mander, v. Baksar, v. Baillie. 
 
 Munro, Thomas ; his views on 
 
 land-revenue favoured by Lord 
 W. Bentinck when Governor of 
 Madras, 416 ; adopted in great 
 part of the territory, 417. 
 
 Muslims; early movements, 51; 
 invasions of Upper India, 52-57. 
 
 Mysore; Hindu State in South 
 India, 185-6 ; v. Haidar and 
 Tipu. 
 
 Nadir Shah ; invades Hindustan 
 (1738), plunder of Delhi and con- 
 sequences, 182. 
 
 Najaf Khan; Mir/.a, advise* Km- 
 peror on recommendation of 
 Clive (1760), 223; Governor of 
 Kora (1766), 224; quarrels with 
 the Mahrattas (1773), 227 ; ad- 
 ministration, 229, 239. 
 
 Najib Khan (afterwards Najib-ud- 
 . daula) ; Minister at Delhi, 210; 
 dies (October, 1770), 225. 
 
 Nana Farnavis ; Mahratta states- 
 man, 237, 293 ; tenders resigna- 
 tion (1793), 302 ; hostility to 
 Sindia, 303 ; decline of influence, 
 
 3 10 - 323- 
 
 Nand Kumar ; first . appearance 
 (I757)> 198 ; patronised by Mir 
 Kasim, 221 ; his intrigues and 
 death, 234. 
 
 Nasir-ud-din; his reign, 65-9 
 Nizam ; Chin Killich Khan, Asaf 
 Jah, founds State, under the title 
 at Hnidarabacl, Deccan, 179; 
 departs from Court at Delhi, 
 180; good government, 180-4; 
 dies (1748), 185. 
 
 Nizam Ali ; son of Asaf Jah, suc- 
 ceeds, and attempts to assert 
 authority in Carnatic, 249 ; v. 
 Karelia, also Raymond. 
 
 North- West Provinces; begin- 
 nings of settlement, 415, 417- 
 18. 
 
 Nur Jahan ; wife of Emperor 
 Jahangir, 144. 
 
 Orangal ; capital of Hindu king-
 
 f\DEX. 
 
 457 
 
 dom of Telingana, 73-4 ; taken 
 by Sultan Ala-ud-din (1309), 77 ; 
 taken again (1323), 83 ; re- 
 covered by Hindus, 85, 93 ; des- 
 troyed by Muhamad Kahmani 
 (1422), 113. 
 Orissa ; famine of, 1770,222. 
 
 Panipat; great fight between Mus- 
 lims and Mahrattas (ends January 
 13, 1761), 213-14. 
 
 Pathan Kings of Delhi ; who so 
 called, 80. 
 
 Permanent Settlement ; revenue 
 policy of Cormvallis in Bengal, 
 284, //. 
 
 Perron ; French officer in Sindia s 
 service, succeeds De Boigne, 314 ; 
 his great apparent position, faults, 
 and weakness, 323 ; troubled by 
 insubordination of officers, 324-5; 
 ambitious projects, 327 ; impru- 
 dent conduct. 330 ; plan of 
 campaign against British, 349 ; 
 surrenders, and leaves Hindustan. 
 357 ; his landed estates, 441. 
 
 Pigot, Lord ; Governor of Madras, 
 his troubles and death, 255. 
 
 Pindaris ; harboured in Nimar, 
 make incursions into the Com- 
 pany's territory (1812), 406. 
 
 Pitt; 'his India 'Bill passes (1784), 
 
 243-4- 
 
 Plassy ; v. Siraj-ud-daula. 
 
 Police Rates ; difficulties attend- 
 ing (1812-13), 407. 
 
 Pondicherry; station of French 
 East India Company (1719-44), 
 187 ; paramount under Dupleix, 
 190; taken by Coote (Jan. 15, 
 1761), 214, 
 
 Popham; takes Gwalior (1780), 
 236 ; rescues Hastings. 241. 
 
 Portuguese; dealings with/amorin 
 of Calicut, and founding of Goa, 
 148 ; foundation and loss of 
 Hu-li, 149-53- 
 
 Puranas ; date and contents, 45. 
 
 Ragoba ; v. Rugnath Rao. 
 Rajput States ; abandoned by 
 Barlow, 384 ; exposed to plunder, 
 
 385-7. 
 Ranjit Sinh ; first mention, 306 : 
 
 obtains Lahore from Afghans 
 
 (1798), 314; supports Lake with 
 
 regard to Jaswant Holkar, 385 ; 
 
 Minto negotiates with, 393 ; Me!-. 
 
 calfe obtains treaty from, 395. 
 Raymond, Michel ; French officer 
 
 in service of Nizam, 308-9 ; dies. 
 
 (March, 1798), 313. 
 Raziya ; Sultana at Delhi, 64-5. 
 Rohillas ; make treaty with Nawab 
 
 of Audh (1772), 228; glance at 
 
 their case, 230 ; refuse to pay 
 
 stipulated money, 230 ; defeated 
 
 at Katra (April, '1774), 233. 
 Rughnath Rao; uncle of 1'eshwa. 
 
 becomes Regent at Poona, 224 ; 
 
 aided by British from Bombay. 
 
 229 ; arrangement set aside by 
 
 Calcutta Council, 234. 
 
 Saadat Khan; head of Iran party, 
 sent to Audh, defeats the Mah- 
 rattas (1732), 181. 
 
 Salbai; treaty (1781), 267* 
 
 Salim Shah; son of Sher Shah. 
 125. 
 
 Samru ; Walter Reinhardt, mili- 
 
 . tary adventurer, 216 ; his death 
 and successor (1778), 239; v. 
 Begam Samni. 
 
 Satnami; movement of Hindu 
 sect (c. 1680), 166. 
 
 Sayids ; Ministers and King- 
 makers (1716-19), 179. 
 
 Seringapatam ; taken (1799), 319- 
 
 21. 
 
 Shahab-un-din, or Ghazi-iul-din 
 II.; Minister at Delhi, 200: 
 murders Emperor Alamgir II. 
 (1759)- 
 
 ShahAlam; at tacks Bengal (1760), 
 210; settles at Allahabad, 
 restoration, 227 ; goes towards
 
 458 
 
 JXDEX. 
 
 Ajmir, 276 ; blinded by Ghulam 
 Kadir, 277 ; dies, 386. 
 
 Shah Jahan; rise of, 144; reign, 
 145 ; deposition, 147, 157. 
 
 Sheodasheo Rao, Bhao; cousin 
 of Peshwa, commands expedition 
 in Deccan (1759), 208; takes 
 Delhi (1759), 212 ; fights the 
 Muslim league (1760), 212-13; 
 disappears at Panipat, 214. 
 
 Sher Shah ; rise, progress, and 
 rule, 121-125. 
 
 Shore, Sir John; Governor- 
 General, 308-9 ; vigorous conduct 
 ^ in regard to Audh succession, 
 311 ; returns to Europe (1798), 
 
 3^3- 
 
 Shuja-ud-daula ; Nawb of Audh 
 (1754), 208 ; assists Shah Alain, 
 210 ; joins the Muslim combina- 
 tion (1759), 212; harbours Mir 
 Kasim, and wars with East India 
 Company, 219-20; treaty with 
 Clive, 220; death (Jan., 1775). 
 233 ; v. Rohillas, and Hastings, 
 Warren. 
 
 Sikandar Lodi ; Sultan (d. 1510), 
 
 94-5- 
 
 ,/ Sikhs ; their rise and character of 
 their religion, 177; beaten by 
 Munaim Khan (1710), 177 ; 
 outbreak of (1716), 178; inter- 
 _ fere in Delhi affairs, 233 ; rebel 
 (1778), 238; defeated and ex- 
 pelled (1779), 239; relations 
 with Abdali's son and with George 
 Thomas, 304-5. 
 
 Sindia, Mahadaji ; consenting 
 party to Shah Alain's restoration, 
 22TJ ; receives Carnac's surrender 
 at Wadgaon, 235 ; attacked by 
 W. Hastings (1780), 237 ; makes 
 peace, 237 ; supreme at Delhi, 
 245 ; rebuked for demanding 
 Bengal tribute, 269, 301 ; dies, 
 
 303- 
 
 Sindia, Daulat Rao ; succeeds to 
 the power of his great- uncle 
 (I794)i 304; his misconduct, 
 
 316; complains of treaty of Ba- 
 sain, 343 ; joins Berar, 346, 350 ; 
 power broken by Wellesley, 352, 
 f.f. ; makes peace at Anjangaon, 
 370; supplemental treaty (1806), 
 
 385. 
 
 Siraj - ud - daula ; succeeds Ala 
 Wircli asNawabof Bengal (1756), 
 194 ; takes Calcutta (Black-Hole), 
 194-5 J beaten at Plassy, 203 ; 
 killed, 204. 
 
 Sivaji ; rise and early progress, 
 164, // ; death, 169. 
 
 Subsidiary system ; favoured by 
 Wellesley, its errors shown by 
 Munro, 380; extended incot.- 
 sistently by Barlow, 388. 
 
 Summary, or Review of first part, 
 420, //. 
 
 Taimur (Amir) ; his origin, 91 ; 
 
 invades India (1398)592 ; Daulat 
 
 Khan Lodi professes to rule as 
 
 his vassal, 93. 
 Taj ; mausoleum of Empress, at 
 
 Agra, designed by G. Verroneo, 
 
 J 53- 
 
 Tamerlane ; v. Taimur. 
 
 Tanjore ; coerced by Nawab of 
 Carnatic, 249 ; plundered twice 
 (I773)i 255 ; becomes a British 
 dependency, 307. 
 
 Thomas, George ; an Irish sailor, 
 makes war and governs on his own 
 account in Hindustan. 305, 323 ; 
 opposes Perron, and offers service 
 to Wellesley, 326-7 ; over- 
 thrown by Perron, 328-0. 
 
 Tipu ; succeeds Haidar as Sultan 
 of Mysore, 264 ; excluded from 
 list of British allies by Corn wall is. 
 269 ; makes war against General 
 Medows (1790), and repulses 
 Cornwallis (1791), 279-81 ; is 
 reduced to submission and sur- 
 renders territory (1792), 282 ; his 
 temper, 291 ; sends to France 
 and Afghanistan for help against 
 British, 298 ; character. 307 ;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 459 
 
 struggling (1797), 312 ; sends 
 for help to Mauritius and France, 
 313 ; considered dangerous by 
 Mornington, 316 ; Harris sent 
 against him, 318 ; killed in storm 
 of Seringapatam, 320 ; impor- 
 tance of conquest, 321. 
 
 TodarMal; Akbar's Hindu Minis- 
 ter, 129-35 > hi s military ser- 
 vice, 137 ; refuses title, 138 ; 
 ^-^Revenue-administration, 139. 
 
 Travancore ; British alliance with, 
 and Tipu's threatened attack, 
 
 279 ; valiant defence (1789), 
 
 280 ; troubles in Minto's time, 
 
 398. 
 
 Tughlak; rise of dynasty, 81 ; 
 first Sultan of line, 82 ; mur- 
 dered by his son Juna (1323), 84. 
 
 Tughlak dynasty; decline of, 90; 
 extinguished, 92. 
 
 Udaipore, or Mewar ; a Gahlot- 
 Rajput State, 115 ; religious per- 
 secution by Alamgir, 169 ; plun- 
 dered by Amir Khan, 387. 
 
 Ulagh Beg ; v. Balban. 
 
 Ulagh Khan ; original name of 
 Sultan Juna, or Muhamad Tugh- 
 ak,8 3 ." 
 
 Vallabhi dynasty, 39. 
 Vansittart ; successor to Clive in 
 
 Bengal, 215 ; negotiates with 
 
 Mir Kasim. 216. 
 
 Vedic Aryans ; laws and lan- 
 guage, 16-18, 26 ; religion, 
 19-21. 
 
 Vellore; mutiny at (1806), 389. 
 
 Vijainagar ; Narsingh, State of, 
 founded (1350), 90; wars of 
 (13651527), 113; fall, 129. 
 (v. Hampi.) 
 
 Vikram Aditya ; his era, 37-39. 
 
 Visaji ; Mahratta Quarter-master- 
 general ; invades Hindustan, 224. 
 
 Wadgaon ; convention of ; v. 
 Carnac : Sindia. 
 
 Wellesley, Marquess of; v. M<>r- 
 nington ; defects of his character, 
 322 ; policy towards the Peshwn, 
 336 ; prepares for war with Sindia, 
 337 ; concludes treaty with Basain, 
 341, f.f. ; ultimatum to Sindia 
 and Berar, 347 ; Recalled, and 
 relieved by Cornwallis, 377 ; re- 
 view of his administration, 378, 
 381- 
 
 Wellesley, General A. ; campaign 
 in Deccan, 363-8 ; his Minute 
 on policy of 1803, 343-378. 
 
 Zamindars ; their status misunder- 
 stood, 285, 414-5 ; v. Permanent 
 Settlement. 
 
 Zulfikar ; general under Alamgir, 
 opposes Bahadur Shah, defeated, 
 pardoned, and employed, 176; 
 killed, 178. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 WORKS BY 
 
 MR. H. G.-KEENE, C.I.E., RC.S., &c. 
 
 The Fall of the Moghul Empire. From the D^ath of 
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